Author: Web Desk

President Isaias Afwerki received at Denden Guest House in the morning hours of today, 15 July credentials of 11 Resident and Non-Resident Ambassadors.

The Resident Ambassadors that submitted their credentials are Mr. Cai Ge, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Marco Mancini, Ambassador of the Italian Republic, Ms. Muriel Soret, Ambassador of the French Republic, and Ms. Amakobe Sande, UN Resident Coordinator.

The Non-Resident Ambassadors that submitted their credentials include Mr. Ryoichi Horie of Japan, Mr. Lee Sangjeong of the Republic of Korea, Dr. John Stephen Simbachawene of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr. Christian Winter of Swiss Confederation, Mr. Irma van Dueren of the Kingdom of Netherlands, Dr. Emmanuel B. Runganga of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and Ms. Therese H. Loken Gheziel of the Kingdom of Norway.

On the occasion, the Ambassadors expressed readiness to work for strengthening bilateral relations and mutual cooperation with Eritrea.

Indicating that Eritrea and China have deep historical friendship and cooperation, Mr. Cai Ge of the People’s Republic of China said the discussion he conducted with President Isaias will further strengthen the existing strong relations between the two countries. Ms. Amakobe Sande on her part said that she feels proud to work in Eritrea representing the General Secretary of the United Nations and expressed readiness to work as a true partner of the development vision of Eritrea.

 

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Editor’s Note: This article is an abridged version of an academic article published in the ‘Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology’ (January-March 2021 Issue), DOI: 10.5897/ JPHE2020.1252, titled ‘Traditional Inoculation Practices that led to the Development of Modern Vaccination Techniques: A Review.’

Vaccination is the administration of a biological preparation (a vaccine) in order to stimulate an individual’s immune system so that it can develop acquired immunity to a particular disease. Vaccines teach our immune system how to create antibodies that protect us from diseases. It’s much safer for our immune system to learn this through vaccination than by contracting the diseases and treating them. Edward Jenner, an English physician, and scientist who is often called the father of immunology developed a smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine ever, in 1798, and his work is said to have saved more lives than the work of any other human.

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of eliminating diseases such as polio, measles, diphtheria, and tetanus from much of the world. It currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year. Many diseases that had been causing great havoc to the world population have been reduced by up to 99.9% after their vaccines were introduced.

If people stop having vaccines, it is possible for infectious diseases to quickly spread again. In recent years, a small but vocal minority of individuals in some developed countries have refused to have their children vaccinated because, they argue, many of the previously common illnesses have been defeated, and they fear the potential side effects of the vaccinations more than the disease itself. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently listed vaccine hesitancy – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines – as one of their top ten biggest threats to global health. Vaccine hesitancy threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. Measles, for example, has seen a 30% increase in cases globally, and some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence.

Before the advent of modern vaccination practices, traditional societies in different parts of the world have been applying their own methods of preventing infectious diseases. Generally, traditional inoculation practices are similar to modern techniques of vaccination and are guided by the same principles. In China, the earliest hints of the practice of inoculation for smallpox came during the 10th century. One of the Song Dynasty Chancellors of China lost his eldest son to smallpox and started seeking a means of sparing the rest of his family from the disease. He organized a meeting of physicians, wise men, and magicians from all across the empire in order to share ideas on how to cure smallpox patients. A divine man from among the participants carried out inoculation that spared the lives of the Chancellor’s family and many other people in the area. In this method of inoculation, scabs were taken from an infected person and wrapped carefully in the paper. They were then put in a small bottle container, corked tightly, and stored in a cool, dark place. After about 30 to 40 days, the powder was inoculated by blowing into the nostrils of the subjects.

Inoculation was practiced in America as early as 1721, when Boylston, at the request of a Boston minister, Cotton Mather, successfully inoculated two slaves and his own son. After this initial success, Boylston began performing inoculations throughout Boston, and people started to be convinced slowly when the effectiveness of Boylston’s inoculation was proven to be successful.

The practice of inoculation was first introduced to England by Lady Mary Montagu, the wife of Edward Montagu, who was serving as the British Ambassador to the then Ottoman Empire (1716-1718). Lady Montagu lost a brother to smallpox and bore facial scars herself from the disease and was impressed to witness, first-hand, the practices of inoculation by the Turks. England was ruthlessly threatened by the smallpox epidemic in 1721 and Lady Montague called on her physician, Charles Maitland, to inoculate her daughter and invited her friends, including Sir Hans Sloane, (physician of the then King of Great Britain, King George I) to witness the inoculation. This occasion gave rise to great interest among people and the government of the kingdom and, as a result, Maitland was given permission to inoculate six prisoners who were sentenced to be hanged at Newgate Prison, in exchange for their freedom. Maitland performed the inoculation, and all the prisoners survived and were released from prison. Following this successful practice, the daughters of the Prince of Wales received inoculations a year later in 1722. After this historical event, the practice of inoculation slowly spread amongst the royal families of Europe, and people started embracing the practice stage by stage. However, its introduction to France faced considerable opposition and was later banned by a ruling of the parliament. In general, though, the popularity of inoculation grew in Europe through the 18th century and many parents started inoculating their children.

The practice of traditional inoculation in Ethiopia was reported by Nathaniel Pearce, who traveled to Ethiopia in 1831. He noted that inoculation practices were performed by a ‘debtera’ (a learned person in a monastery) in the traditional communities of Amhara and Tigray. The ‘debtera’ collects “a quantity of matter” from a person who has contracted smallpox, “cuts a small cross with a razor in the arm” of his subject, and put “a little of the matter” into the cut and bound it up with a bandage.

In Eritrea, traditional vaccinations started to be practiced earlier than in many other African countries, and this has been confirmed through the various customary laws of the country that were handwritten and kept in churches and monasteries. Although many of the original versions were lost, about nine such laws have been published. One of the nine customary laws in Eritrea, the Law of Logo Chiwa (Ser’At Logo Chiwa), which was formulated in 1484 and revised four times (in 1650, 1892, 1935, and 1938), stipulates how people contracting infectious diseases within a community should be treated.

Article 55 of the law explains the important steps that need to be taken by the community leaders (Chiqa Adi/Mslene) whenever a contagious disease spreads within a community. Infected people are isolated by the order of the community chief to prevent the spread of the disease. A woman from the village is assigned to prepare and supply food, water, and other necessary supplies such as firewood provided by few young people assigned by the village chief. If the situation worsens, the village is put in lockdown and prevented from making any contact with neighboring villages. The infected people receive medical assistance and are released if their conditions improve, and the bodies of those that die are burned wherever they are. On the other hand, if children in a particular community contract measles, the village chief orders the families to keep their children in isolation. When the pustules of these children are fully mature and start bursting, all the people in the community gather, and the bodies of these children are washed with water and the body wash is collected in containers. Then, all the children above a specific age within the community gather and are made to take a sip each from the body washes of the children. Within few days, these children start to slowly develop immunity to the disease and never contract measles again.

The practice of isolating infected people to prevent the spread of a contagious disease within a community is known as ‘wusheba’ in Tigrigna, which is equivalent to the modern ‘quarantining’ practice, which has now become the basic tenet of the WHO whenever an epidemic or a pandemic occurs. The WHO was officially established in 1948 but the traditional quarantine practices (like ‘wusheba’), had been in place before the establishment of the world body.

Traditional inoculation, which started to be practiced in China in the 10th century, expanded throughout the world until modern vaccination techniques were discovered by Edward Jenner in 1798. The basic principles of the traditional inoculation methods and the modern vaccination practices are basically the same. They both introduce the disease-causing microorganisms to their subjects in a weakened form so that the individuals receiving these microorganisms would be able to develop immunity against a particular disease. The traditional practice of isolating infected persons (wusheba) and the modern quarantine practices are also basically similar. Moreover, the isolation of infected persons was a common practice in traditional societies before WHO declared the practice of quarantining. Thus, it is imperative to conclude that modern vaccination techniques have their roots in the traditional inoculation practices, which have significantly contributed to their development.

 

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Our guests today are Amanuel Gebregziabhier and Merhawi Kudus, Eritrean cyclists who are living their dreams. They are set to go to Tokyo to compete at the 2020 Olympics, which had to be put off last year due to COVID-19. (In the next issue of Eritrea Profile we will have a Q&A with Mosana Debessai, the first Eritrean female cyclist to compete at the Olympics.)

• Merhawi and Amanuel, tell us a little bit about yourselves?

My name is Merhawi Kudus. I was introduced to bicycle racing when I was young and used to race with my friends and peers. Besides, I have a cousin who used to race. So this and that made me fall in love with the bicycle and racing. I began to take cycling as a career when I took part in a cycling race organized by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students in 2006. Then I got an opportunity to join the World Cycling Center in Europe. Finally, I became a professional rider in 2014. Now I’m riding with Astana, one of the biggest world tour teams.

My name is Amanuel Gebregziabhier. As a kid, I used to get jealous of my friends who had the chance to compete and that jealousy led me to professional cycling. I joined Asbeco cycling club in 2007 and won the Eritrean championship in road cycling in 2014. I was on the startup list for the 2015 Tour de France, where my compatriots Merhawi Kudus and Daniel Teklehaimanot became the first two black Africans to compete on the tour. Then I joined Team Dimension Data Continental in 2016. After joining the World Tour back in 2018, signing for Trek-Segafredo over the winter was one of the biggest milestones in my career. Now that I’m a professional, I have more dreams to achieve in the future.

• Eritrea is sending three athletes to participate in the Olympics. What makes this special?

Amanuel — I consider this an opportunity to show the results of the hard work of every athlete in Eritrea. Every athlete knows that this chance comes once in four years. There are countries participating with five players but for some reason, that hasn’t even bothered us. In the last Olympics, only one athlete represented Eritrea in cycling. The fact that Eritrea is represented by three athletes this year shows the long way we have come in cycling. I guess being able to participate in such an event is an honor to us and our country.

Merhawi — I believe it’s really a big deal. Every athlete knows that competing at the Olympics is a rare opportunity in our career as it is the highest level in cycling. Three athletes participating from the same country in cycling shows the progress the country has made in that specific type of sport. This makes you proud not only as an Eritrean but also as an African. It is indeed special for Eritrea to be represented by three athletes in the same sport.

• Merhawi, you participated in Tour-de-France in 2015. Since then you have been waiting for the chance to compete at the Olympics. How do you feel now?

Yes, it is true. I have been waiting for this day. Back in 2015, Daniel Teklehaimanot and I participated in Tour-de- France. I had limited experience then compared to the experience I now have. But the tour helped me to recognize my weakness and work harder to qualify for the Olympics. Whatever I was feeling inside, I knew I would eventually experience outside. Now that I finally got the chance to participate in the Olympics, it feels like a dream come true and I want to have good results.

• You finished second in the Eritrean National Championship this year. How did it make you feel to see a junior cyclist take the spot from you? Will it affect you in your upcoming games?

I was delighted to see such young competitive fellows. You can sense that they can be someone big in the near future. What makes the National Championship special is that you get to wear the national flag throughout the year while racing. That gives you motivation and boosts your morale.

Your question was ‘will it affect me?’ Of course, I failed to get the chance to wear the flag throughout the year but it won’t have that much effect on my performance in the upcoming games. However, I’m really glad to see those junior cyclists following in our footsteps.

• What would you like to say to the junior cyclists?

Amanuel — I experienced so many setbacks and outright defeats in the course of my career. But it is the ability to respond positively and constructively to these defeats and to bounce back that ultimately has assured my success. So I want the junior cyclists to have this quality of bouncing back as it will determine their success. I would also like them to realize that the very act of thinking of yourself as potentially excellent at what you do actually changes your mindset and personality. I want them to have that mindset to be the kind of cyclists they want to be tomorrow.

• How about you, Merhawi?

Well, there is something that I can’t deny. These young fellows are way smarter than we are and they are ambitious. Perhaps the most important quality of high achieving men and women is their ambition. They see themselves, think about themselves, and conduct themselves every day as though they were among the elite in their fields. They set high goals and continuously work hard to exceed those goals. They look upon the accomplishments of everyone else as challenges to themselves to be even better. This shows you that they will excel and do much better in cycling than we have done. So for me to tell them to work hard and play well would be a bit more like a cliché. Simply wishing them good luck will be sufficient for such cyclists.

• What should we expect from you?

Of course, you can’t say this and that about the game but there is one thing for sure. We will do our very best and we wish to come back to our homeland with a victory. We have been longing for the opportunity to participate and, hopefully, win and make our families and our people proud

 

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Asfaw Abera fled his homeland in northwestern Ethiopia three decades ago, stealing away on foot into Sudan as soldiers and ethnic Tigrayan rebels exchanged fire nearby.

During his long stretch in exile, Asfaw, an ethnic Amhara, scrubbed toilets in Khartoum office buildings while dreaming night and day of going back.

Last month, he finally got his wish, entering the town of Humera on a government-chartered bus, fighting tears as he passed sesame and sorghum fields he had last glimpsed as a teenager.

The relocation of Asfaw and other Amharas is part of a daring project to reshape the balance of power at the western edge of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region.

It comes at a pivotal moment in the eight-month-old conflict that has already left thousands of people dead and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.

Tigrayan rebels are ascendant again, having stunned the world last month by retaking the regional capital Mekele from forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Now they have set their sights on Amhara “invaders” like Asfaw and have launched a fresh offensive with the goal of seizing “every square inch” of Tigray.

Amharas and Tigrayans have long dueled over who owns the famously fertile lowland territory of western Tigray, with firebrands in both camps saying they are ready to die defending it.

‘We’ll stay no matter what’

That includes Asfaw, who is among the first wave of 15,000 Amhara families who local authorities plan to eventually bring over from Sudan.

Sitting this week in the courtyard of the spacious Humera home where he now lives with his wife and seven children, Asfaw scoffed at rebel leaders’ threats to drive him out a second time.

“They say they are prepared to destroy us, but we will stay no matter what,” Asfaw told AFP.

“With the will of God, our time has come now.”

 

Asfaw’s joyous return last month clashed dramatically with his furtive exit in the early 1990s, when the insurgent Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was on the cusp of taking power.

After toppling longtime autocrat Mengistu Hailemariam in 1991, the TPLF went on to dominate Ethiopian politics for 27 years.

Its early reforms included dividing the country into nine regions and placing northwestern towns including Humera into the newly constituted region of Tigray.

Amharas saw that move as a brazen land grab but were too cowed to do much about it.

Today many Amharas in western Tigray recall the era of TPLF rule with bitterness, saying they were afraid of even speaking the Amharic language in public, opting for Tigrinya instead.

Amhara officials who agitated for change, and especially those who asked for western Tigray to be administered by the neighboring Amhara region, were often jailed.

“I have suffered a lot, and I can’t even start to comprehend what they did to me,” said Siltal Admassie, a local Amhara official who landed behind bars multiple times.

‘A new life’ 

In 2018, however, Abiy came to power on the strength of persistent anti-government protests, and top TPLF officials were soon sidelined.

Deep rancor between the new and old regimes spilt over into conflict in early November, with fierce early fighting taking place in and around Humera.

After Tigrayan forces withdrew, the Amhara regional government raced into western Tigray to assert control.

Amhara security forces dismantled TPLF monuments and occupied TPLF-era military camps.

Amhara officials established local government offices to collect taxes and run schools where students could learn in Amharic.

They also allocated land and homes to thousands of Amharas arriving from elsewhere in Ethiopia and — in the case of men like Asfaw — even farther afield.

Farmer Seyoum Berihun is among the new arrivals who marvels at Amharas’ sudden change of fortune.

“For me, personally, I have just started living now,” he said.

“Even if I am 58, I consider my former life to be a waste. Now I have started a new life, and I’m not even exaggerating.”

‘Survival struggle’

As Amharas have poured in, Tigrayan civilians have fled by the tens of thousands — either west into Sudan or east, deeper into Tigray.

The exodus has been so dramatic that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress in March that “acts of ethnic cleansing” had occurred.

Senior Amhara officials fervently deny this, yet they also stress they no longer consider western Tigray to be part of Tigray at all, claiming it will be governed by Amhara going forward.

During a recent visit by AFP journalists, local officials trotted out several remaining Tigrayan civilians to bolster their claim that no one was forced to leave.

Tesfaye Weldegebriel, 67, told AFP he feared for his life when fighting broke out last November.

Yet he said Amhara officials assured him he could stay and speculated that those who left did so because they had close ties to the TPLF.

“When one government leaves and another comes, you should welcome it joyfully,” he said.

But this version of events is difficult to square with myriad descriptions of violent, often deadly expulsions from western Tigray, and Tigrayan leaders have made clear they don’t buy it.

In a recent statement, Debretsion Gebremichael, head of Tigray’s pre-war government, indicated his forces would continue fighting until the region’s old borders were reaffirmed.

“Those who looted properties of the Tigray government, private citizens and businesspeople have to return the looted properties quickly,” he said.

“If not, we will make them.”

Meanwhile, Amhara leaders, emboldened by a fresh influx of federal soldiers in western Tigray, also appear to be preparing for a showdown.

On Twitter this week, Amhara regional president Agegnehu Teshager posted bank account details for supporters wanting to help fund coming hostilities against the TPLF.

The battle, he said, would be nothing less than a “survival struggle.”

 

 

Source: Voice of America

When South Sudanese refugee Paulo Amotun Lokoro fled conflict from the country’s Western Equatoria state in 2006, little did he know he eventually would participate in international sports. He simply loved football, a game he usually played with fellow refugees at the massive Kakuma camp in northwestern Kenya.

But his entrée to the highest echelon of sports – the Olympic Games – came after he was encouraged to participate in a 2015 peace-building marathon at Kakuma. It was organized by the U.N. refugee agency and Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe, an Olympian who was the first African woman to win a major marathon, starting with New York City in 1994.

“I didn’t know I would go far. … I was just running,” Lokoro said of the Kakuma marathon. “We went to the field and jogged. I didn’t have the psychology of being in front or behind. My aim was to just follow the people going in front of me. I found some guys were tired and then I led them.”

Now Lokoro is among an elite group of 29 athletes – including 10 originally from Africa – named to the International Olympic Committee’s Refugee Olympic Team. He will compete in the Summer Games in Tokyo from July 23 to Aug. 8.

Lokoro, a runner competing in the 1500 meters, participated in the Rio Olympics in August 2016. Other returning Olympians on the refugee team include runners Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, James Nyang Chiengjiek and Rose Nathike Likonyen, all originally from South Sudan; swimmer Yusra Mardini, from Syria; and judoka Popole Misenga, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another South Sudanese runner, Matthew Lam Joar, will return to the Refugee Olympic Team – this time as general assistant to the coaching staff. Though he did not wind up going to Rio, he is eager to share his experiences with other refugees.

“I will be cheering for my team – a team that I was part of and still [am] part of,” he said. “We believe they are the best guys because they have the courage to start running. They are world class, running with the best in the world.”

The Tokyo refugee team was selected based on athletic performance, refugee status as confirmed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and diversity in terms of sports, gender and regions.

In announcing the team in June, IOC President Thomas Bach said it was important to have refugees join with other athletes from all over the globe to “send a powerful message of solidarity, resilience and hope to the world.”

Robin Toskin, a sports editor at Kenya’s Standard Group, elaborated on that thought.

“If you look at what the Olympics is all about, it’s about being in a peaceful and better world where there is mutual understanding, spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play,” Toskin told VOA. “For the refugees to participate at the Olympics is a great step toward integrating refugees who are living outside their countries that it was not out of their making but because of other forces beyond their reach.”

Lokoro said that though he’s glad to be settled in Kenya, he hopes for peace one day in South Sudan so he can compete in its name in international contests such as the Olympics.

“One day, one time, if my country settles down, maybe I will go back and represent my country,” he said.

The 29 refugees competing in the Summer Games are from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Eritrea. Others are from Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan and Sudan. They will compete in a variety of sports, such as swimming, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, judo, karate, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling.

The refugees, their country of origin and their sports are:

• Abdullah Sediqi, Afghanistan, taekwondo;
• Ahmad Alikaj, Syria, judo;
• Ahmad Badreddin Wais, Syria, cycling;
• Aker Al Obaidi, Iraq, wrestling;
• Alaa Maso, Syria, swimming;
• Anjelina Nadai Lohalith, South Sudan, track;
• Aram Mahmoud, Syria, badminton;
• Cyrille Fagat Tchatchet II, Cameroon, weightlifting;
• Dina Pouryounes Langeroudi, Iran, taekwondo;
• Dorian Keletela, Democratic Republic of Congo, track;
• Eldric Samuel Sella Rodriguez, Venezuela, boxing;
• Hamoon Derafshipour, Iran, karate;
• Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed, Sudan, track;
• James Nyang Chiengjiek, South Sudan, track;
• Javad Mahjoub, Iran, judo;
• Kimia Alizadeh Zenozi, Iran, taekwondo;
• Luna Solomon, Eritrea, shooting;
• Masomah Ali Zada, Afghanistan, cycling;
• Muna Dahouk, Syria, judo;
• Nigara Shaheen, Afghanistan, judo;
• Paulo Amotun Lokoro, South Sudan, track;
• Popole Misenga, Democratic Republic of Congo, judo;
• Rose Nathike Likonyen, South Sudan, track;
• Saeid Fazloula, Iran, canoe;
• Sanda Aldass, Syria, judo;
• Tachlowini Gabriyesos, Eritrea, track;
• Wael Shueb, Syria, karate;
• Wessam Salamana, Syria, boxing;
• Yusra Mardini, Syria, swimming

 

 

Source: Voice of America