August 22, 2022

Chinese Ophthalmologists Provide Assistance To African Peers

– Academic and cultural exchange through the Belt and Road Initiative training course for African ophthalmologists

SHENYANG, China, Aug. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and co-organized by Shenyang Normal University and He Eye Hospital Group, the one-month training course for ophthalmologists from Belt and Road countries was officially launched in August.

Ophthalmologists, optometrists, and nurses from six countries, including Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa, Malawi, and Botswana, attended the training.

During the training period, the organizers have been conducting online lectures, seminars, and remote observation of surgeries for the participants on topics encompassing global blindness, trends and prospects in ophthalmology, blindness prevention and treatment models with Chinese characteristics, new progress in blindness prevention, theories in subspecialties of ophthalmology, and cataract surgery operation.

This training also offers a unique cultural exchange program – “China on the Cloud – A Virtual Tour.” Participants can experience the charm of virtual reality technology and visual art through six virtual tours, which take them through the different cultures, history, and natural landscapes of five cities in China, namely Shenyang, Dalian, Beijing, Chongqing, and Shanghai in turn.

In the first cloud tour class, He Wei, Chairman of He Eye Hospital Group and doctoral supervisor, and Liesse Gateka, an international student from Burundi, led the participants on a virtual tour of the Shenyang Imperial Palace to enjoy the visual charm of ancient architecture.

The first stop of "China on the Cloud – A Virtual Tour." He Wei (left), Chairman of He Eye Hospital Group and doctoral supervisor, and Liesse Gateka, a Burundian student, led the participants on a virtual tour of Shenyang Imperial Palace

The Belt and Road Ophthalmologist Training Program is a foreign aid training program sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, which aims to provide young ophthalmologists from participating countries in the Belt and Road Initiative with advanced training in ophthalmic diagnostic reasoning, treatment concepts, and surgical techniques to improve their professional skills and to fill the shortage in local demand for ophthalmologists. Implementing this project is of positive significance to improve the eye health of the people in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative and to strengthen the in-depth exchange and cooperation between China and these countries in the field of eye health.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1881383/image.jpg

August 22, 2022

Cameroon Seals Mining Sites to Prevent Deaths

Authorities in Cameroon have sealed at least 30 gold mines, including some owned by Chinese, after at least 33 young miners died in landslides this month and scores more were declared missing. Officials said Monday that they are also concerned about working conditions that have caused deaths within the seasonal gold mine community.

A heavy downpour on Monday kept businesses closed in Kambele, a village in Batouri district on Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic. But 70-year-old gold miner Vidal Dula says he braved the rains to meet with officials of local mining company Invest Batouri. He was asking for help in burying his 27-year-old son Vincent Dula, who died at a mining site on Saturday.

Vidal Dula says Vincent was trapped in a hole where he and 20 miners searched for gold. He says friends dug at the collapsed portion of the gold mine and recovered Vincent’s body. Vidal says the death was a huge loss for his family as Vincent was his only son.

The company has not responded.

Cameroon says Kambele is home to several thousand Cameroonians, Chadian and Central African Republic civilians either working or looking for jobs in gold mines.

On Monday, Djadai Yakouba, the highest-ranking government official in Batouri, said he deployed several hundred government troops to seal at least 30 gold mines in Kambele. Yakouba said the facilities defied a July 2022 government ban on mining activities. He said the troops and humanitarian workers searched for missing miners and recovered corpses buried at collapsed sites.

The central African state’s government officials say at least 33 miners, a majority of them school children on holiday, have died in Kambele within the past month. The government says about 10 children ages nine to 13 were among the dead.

The government did not say if the dead or missing miners were Cameroonians or included displaced persons fleeing conflict in neighboring C.A.R.

Lambert Essono is an environmentalist with Save Cameroon, a non-governmental organization on Cameroon’s eastern border with the C.A.R.

Essono says this year’s heavy rains have increased the number of miners trapped in sites on Cameroon’s eastern border with C.A.R. He says many more deaths may be recorded if miners continue to defy the ban. Therefore, he says, the government of Cameroon should make sure that all mining companies build trenches and retaining walls to protect miners from landslides. Essono says the government should punish mining firms that recruit and keep poor children out of school.

Under Cameroonian law, children under the age of 14 aren’t allowed to work. Essono said poverty pushes parents to send their children to work in mining sites where they are paid $3 after 24 hours of work.

Richard Lambo, spokesperson for Kambele’s mining firms, says the ban on mining activities should be lifted or else the companies, many of them owned by the Chinese, may leave.

Lambo says Korean mining firms left in 2014 when the Cameroon government temporarily sealed mining sites with claims that miners used child labor. He says people who died within the past one month were searching for remains of gold in places mining companies had left. He says it is the duty of the government to stop illegal mining.

The government has not said when the ban will be lifted.

Mining firms say that if they leave, roads that they are building, or renovating, will be abandoned. Miners say the construction of schools, markets and parks, which is part of the companies’ social responsibility, has been halted.

Cameroon says it will make sure the needs of the population are taken care of and that their children have education and health facilities. Cameroon says more 400 mining sites are operating on its eastern border, but that a majority of them are illegal.

The government says it will punish mining companies operating illegally or recruiting children.

Cameroon is a signatory to the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention adopted by the International Labor Organization on June 17, 1999. A 2011 Cameroonian law states that people involved in child labor could face 15 to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $20,000.

Source: Voice of America

August 22, 2022

Press release

The Event Committee of the Central Council of Eritreans in Germany e.V., under the auspices of the Consulate of Eritrea in Frankfurt, is the organiser of the concert event on 20.08.2022 in the Giessen Exhibition Halls. There is a rental agreement for this event with Messe Gießen GmbH, An der Hessenhalle 11, 35398 Gießen.

A clarification in advance: In recent days, this concert event has often been communicated in the German press as the “Eritrea Festival”, which has been held at the same venue for many years. However, this classification is wrong. The traditional Eritrea Festival already took place this year on 9 and 10 July at the same location without any incidents. Unlike in previous years, there was no organised or registered counter-event this time.

The organiser of the concert was asked to hire security forces on 20.08.2022, which was fulfilled.

On Friday, 18.08.2022, the 8th chamber of the Gießen Administrative Court rejected an application for a ban by 7 different associations in the run-up to the concert in proceedings for interim legal protection.

A demonstration against the concert planned for the evening was then registered for 20.08.2022. This event was also approved by the authorities.

While numerous helpers of the concert event were still busy with the preparations for the concert, the situation of the counter-event escalated massively. A motley group of violent hooligans overcame the security barriers in front of the Hessenhallen and attacked the helpers on the exhibition grounds with stones, iron bars, sticks and also knives.

Another contingent of the hooligans mingled with the innocent concert-goers and attacked them as well. This action was obviously coordinated with the first batch of disrupters.

At that time, however, only a few police officers were on the scene, which enabled the perpetrators of violence to have their way and perpetrate their violent agenda.

The police then informed the organisers that the planned concert was prohibited, especially as there were not enough police officers on site to guarantee the safety of the participants. According to reports, additional police from Wiesbaden, Frankfurt am Main, Kassel, Fulda and Darmstadt as well as officers of the Hessian riot police had already been called in to quickly restore security and order. We are deeply disappointed by this decision. Ensuring the safety of the participants would have been better served by allowing these hundreds of participants to enter the hall and continue with the concert event, instead of forcing them to spend the night on the street with little or no protection. The decision of the police violated the decision of the above-mentioned court and angered the participants who had travelled from all over Germany to attend the event. On the contrary, they not only violated the dignity of the German-Eritrean citizens with this, but also did not provide enough protection for them.

Numerous people were injured, some of them seriously, as well as concert-goers and a policewoman. This is evidenced by numerous photos and video recordings on social networks, which are currently being collected and evaluated. On the other hand, there was no violence on the part of concert-goers or organisers. They were all defenceless against the attacks. We condemn this cowardly act in the strongest possible terms.

The organiser disapproves of any use of violence and defamation. It calls on injured parties and witnesses to file criminal charges and to support the police in their investigations.

The Event Committee and its partners will take urgent and appropriate legal measures and lodge criminal and civil lawsuits against the perpetrators of violence and those behind them.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

August 22, 2022

UK to Use Lower Dose of Monkeypox Vaccine to Stretch Supply

British health authorities will begin offering eligible people just a fraction of the normal monkeypox vaccine dose to stretch supplies by about five times, in line with similar decisions to extend available doses in Europe and the U.S.

In a statement Monday, Britain’s Health Security Agency said patients at clinics in Manchester and London would soon get just one fifth the regular monkeypox vaccine dose as part of ongoing research, citing earlier work suggesting the smaller dose provided as effective an immune response as a full dose.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency authorized the move for its 27 members across the continent, echoing the decision made by U.S. regulators earlier this month.

“Adopting this tried and tested technique will help to maximize the reach of our remaining stock,” said Dr. Mary Ramsay, head of immunization at Britain’s Health Security Agency. She said the lowered doses would enable health workers to vaccinate “many more thousands of people.”

Last week, British officials said there were early signs the monkeypox outbreak is slowing and that case numbers are declining. Nearly 3,200 cases have been reported in the U.K. since May, with 99% of infections among men who are gay, bisexual or have sex with other men. About 70% of cases are in London.

As of last week, U.K. authorities said more than 35,000 vaccines had been administered primarily to men who have sex with men, their close contacts, and health workers.

Globally, the supply of monkeypox vaccines is extremely limited. There is only one supplier — Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic —and most doses have already been bought by the U.S., Canada, Europe and other rich countries.

Bavarian Nordic estimated its production capacity for this year was about 30 million doses. No monkeypox vaccines have so far been allotted to Africa, which has reported more than 70 suspected deaths, the highest number anywhere.

To date, more than 41,000 cases of monkeypox have appeared worldwide in 94 countries. The World Health Organization and other health agencies do not recommend mass vaccination, but have advised countries to improve their monkeypox surveillance, testing and encouraged other measures to slow the disease’s spread.

WHO has recommended that men at high risk of the disease temporarily consider reducing their number of sex partners or refrain from group or anonymous sex.

Source: Voice of America