UNICEF - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

US holds UNICEF monopoly for 74 years – in a world body where money talks

THALIF DEEN With Henrietta Fore’s decision last week to step down as UNICEF Executive Director, her successor is most likely to be another American since that post has been held– uninterruptedly — by US nationals for almost 74 years, an unprecedented all-time record for a high-ranking job in the UN system. The seven U.S. nationals who have headed the UN children’s agency since its inception in 1947 include Maurice Pate, Henry Labouisse, James Grant, Carol Bellamy, Ann Veneman, Anthony Lake and Henrietta Fore. Pate held the job for 18 years, from 1947 to 1965, and Labouisse for 14 years, from…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Kidnaps could create lost generation of students

NEWS

LIBBY GEORGE and ABRAHAM ACHIRGA Yusuf Lado had not yet learned to read or write when his school closed for fear of attacks by armed gangs, which have been snatching students across northwest Nigeria in hopes of lucrative ransom payouts. The 7-year-old has now set aside his dream of becoming a doctor and is training to be a welder, despite his slight build. "I hope to perfect this work I'm learning and be as good as my boss," he told Reuters late last month at his new workplace on the outskirts of the Kaduna state capital. Humanitarian agencies warn that…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Child soldiers carried out Burkina Faso massacre’

NEWS

A massacre in northeast Burkina Faso in which more than 130 people were killed this month was carried out mostly by children between the ages of 12 and 14, the United Nations and the government have revealed. Armed assailants raided the village of Solhan on the evening of June 4, opened fire on residents and burned homes. It was the worst attack in years in an area plagued by jihadists linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda. Government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura said the majority of the attackers were children, prompting condemnation from the U.N. "We strongly condemn the recruitment of…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Little food and water for Congolese fleeing volcano

NEWS

DJAFFAR AL KATANTY FAMILIES fleeing a volcano eruption in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo said on Friday they were struggling to find enough food and water as the United Nations called for aid and warned about the risk of cholera. At least 31 people died when Mount Nyiragongo sent a wall of lava spreading towards Goma on Saturday last week, destroying 3,000 homes along the way and cutting a major road used to bring aid to the strife-torn region. The lava stopped just short of the city limits, but thousands more people fled early on Thursday when the government warned…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

It’s time to stop ignoring paid childcare in urban Africa

EDUCATION

EARLYMOMENTSMATTER is the hashtag that UNICEF and many others use when advocating for the importance of early childhood development. And it makes sense. The early years – when brain development is at its most rapid – set the course for a lot of what follows. This includes learning, earning and happiness. ROBERT HUGHES, Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine PATRICIA KITSAO-WEKULO, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center There are, however, two ways to look at this “critical period”. Firstly, a risky period of vulnerability. The rapidly developing infant brain…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

‘$1 bln more needed for vaccine rollout’

COVID-19

THE United Nations' children's fund yesterday urged countries to contribute more money to help poor countries access coronavirus vaccines, saying around $1 billion was needed. UNICEF, the world's single largest vaccine buyer, is part of the World Health Organization-backed COVAX programme to supply COVID-19 shots to emerging economies. "We have been asking the world for more funding ... for UNICEF and our distribution to countries we still need about $1 billion," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said at Dubai's World Government Summit, held virtually this year. That funding could be used strengthen health systems in poorer nations and support the…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

UNICEF says to ship 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to poor nations in 2021

COVID-19

LIN TAYLOR NEARLY 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be shipped and flown to developing countries next year in a "mammoth operation", the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday, as world leaders vowed to ensure the fair distribution of vaccines. UNICEF said it was working with over 350 airlines and freight companies to deliver vaccines and 1 billion syringes to poor countries such as Burundi, Afghanistan and Yemen as part of COVAX, a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan with the World Health Organization (WHO). "This invaluable collaboration will go a long way to ensure that enough transport capacity is…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Congo ‘jobs-for-sex’ expose prompts calls for greater scrutiny of aid workers

NEWS

NELLIE PEYTON VETTING aid workers more closely and giving women more power is critical to tackle sex abuse in humanitarian crises as exposed in a joint investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian, aid experts said on Wednesday. In the expose, 51 women recounted multiple incidents of abuse by mainly foreign aid workers during the 2018-2020 Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many saying men demanded sex to get a job or ended contracts if they refused. At least 30 women said workers from the World Health Organization (WHO) were involved and women also reported…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Millions of African children rely on TV education during pandemic

EDUCATION

NAZANINE MOSHIRI FIVE-YEAR-OLD Kenyan student Miguel Munene sits between his parents, holding their hands as he watches cartoon characters teaching him to pronounce “fish”. The television has replaced Munene’s teachers and classmates after the government shut schools indefinitely in March to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. They are closed until at least January. Many children don’t have the option to learn online - the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF says at least half of sub-Saharan Africa’s schoolchildren do not have internet access. So some, like Munene, watch a cartoon made by Tanzanian non-profit organisation Ubongo, which offers television…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

WHO says children aged 12 and over should wear masks like adults

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach. Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated August 21. Whether children between six and 11 should wear masks depends on a number of…