coronavirus pandemic - The African Mirror

Nov

2020

As millions face famine, women at risk as they eat last and least

SONIA ELKS WITH millions on the brink of famine in four nations, women and girls will be hardest hit due to cultural beliefs and COVID-19's economic impacts, according to the charity CARE. The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of acutely food insecure people to more than 270 million by the end of 2020, the United Nations said this week, with famine looming in parts of Yemen, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. "There is a huge risk that millions of women and girls around the world are already going hungry," Sarah Fuhrman, a humanitarian policy specialist with CARE,…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Teenage pregnancies rise in parts of Kenya as lockdown shuts schools

EDUCATION

AYENAT MERSIE JACKLINE Bosibori wept when she found out she was pregnant. The 17-year-old's mother, who is raising six kids alone, collapsed in their one-room home. They had been repeatedly threatened with eviction and couldn't afford another mouth to feed. "If I was in school, this could have not happened," said Bosibori, who wants to become a lawyer. Bosibori stands with her mother Ann Kemunto outside their home in Lindi village.4 NOV 2020. NAIROBI, KENYA. REUTERS/MONICAH MWANGI With schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and her mother out selling vegetables on the roadside, Bosibori got involved with a man…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Tunisia prime minister says coronavirus deaths may reach 7,000

COVID-19

Hichem Mechichi TUNISIAN Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi says the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the country may reach 6,000-7,000, describing the health situation as "very dangerous". Coronavirus cases have been rising quickly in Tunisia, which had managed to contain the virus earlier this year, and have now reached 70,000 cases and 1,900 deaths in a country of 11.5 million. Medical sources told Reuters intensive care units in most state hospitals had reached maximum capacity. The government imposed a night curfew this month and banned travel between cities to slow a second wave of the pandemic. - Thomson Reuters…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia hunts for children forced to work, marry during pandemic

NEWS

EMELINE WUILBERCQ ETHIOPIA has set up a network of committees to identify children forced into work or marriage during the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure schools are safe to re-open this week although campaigners fear it will be hard to reverse the damage done. Yohannes Wogasso, school improvement program director at the Ministry of Education, said authorities realised the closure of schools in March to stop the spread of COVID-19 had led to a rise in child marriage, child labour, and gender-based violence. But he said reopening schools from October 19 should go some way to reversing the negative impacts,…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus may push 150 mln people into extreme poverty – World Bank

COVID-19

THE World Bank says that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021, wiping out more than three years of progress in poverty reduction. Releasing its flagship biennial report on poverty and shared prosperity, the multilateral development lender said that an additional 88 million to 115 million people will fall into extreme poverty - defined as living on less than $1.90 a day -in 2020. The report said this could grow to 111 million to 150 million by the end of 2021. That would mean that 9.1-9.4% of the…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Africa can rise from the ashes of the Covid-19 pandemic

BUSINESS

ADAM MOLAI WHILE Covid-19 has dealt a blow to the world economy, the portents for Africa are, according to those seemingly in the know, much more ominous. The African Development Bank estimates that Africa has lost a “decade of economic growth” due to the Coronavirus pandemic and predicts Africa’s recovery will be long and difficult while the UN Development Programme’s “The socio-economic impact assessment of Covid-19 in South Africa” study projects that South Africa – the continent’s second-biggest and most industrialised economy – will take five years to recover. From virtually all quarters it is accepted that Africa is back…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

INTERVIEW-Women must be kept safe online to meet global gender goals, activist says

WORLD

GOVERNMENTS must do more to keep women safe online in order to meet global goals on gender inequality, a British Nigerian activist has warned, as the coronavirus pandemic causes a surge in racism and gender-based abuse on the internet. Women's rights campaigners worldwide have warned of an increase in online abuse such as revenge porn as COVID-19 continues to keep many people at home in front of a screen, but Seyi Akiwowo said information on how to stay safe was lacking. "I'm still not confident that global leaders are understanding the impact lockdown has on the online space and putting…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Swimming in tomatoes and bananas, Kenyan farmers count cost of COVID

COVID-19

CAROLINE WAMBUI IN a change from the droughts and floods that often plague his tomato plantation in central Kenya, David Kariuki's latest harvest has been more bountiful than he could have hoped - and yet, he is not sure he can afford his children's school fees. A stretch of favourable weather has led to a bumper crop for Kariuki, 34, and other farmers in Kirinyaga County, whose numbers have swelled as workers made jobless by the coronavirus pandemic turned to farming to make ends meet. With the market flush with fresh produce, buyers are offering only a fraction of the…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Melania Trump offers sympathy on coronavirus, racial suffering in convention speech

WORLD

JOHN WHITESIDES and JEFF MASON FIRST lady Melania Trump offered sympathy for victims of the coronavirus pandemic and a plea for racial understanding in a Republican convention speech on Tuesday aimed directly at the women voters who have abandoned U.S. President Donald Trump. On the convention's second day, the speech's warm tone was out of step with a Republican gathering that featured harsh rhetoric about Democratic challenger Joe Biden and sometimes apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of Democratic governance. Trump's wife acknowledged the pain of the pandemic in sharp contrast to most other speakers at the party's national convention, notably…