Category: Health

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Nigeria faces growing cholera outbreak, Covid cases

ABUJA— Nigeria is seeing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years, with more than 2,300 people dying from suspected cases as the West African nation struggles to deal with its impact alongside the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 69,925 suspected cholera infections had been recorded as of Sept 5 in 25 out of the country’s 36 states and the capital Abuja, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

At least 2,323 people have died linked to the disease so far in 2021, the centre said, and there are concerns total figures may also be an undercount given that many affected communities are in hard to reach areas.

Children between the ages of 5 and 14 are also the most affected age group in this current health crisis, which has a case fatality ratio of 3.3%, more than double that of the coronavirus’ 1.3% in Nigeria.

Nigeria is still facing a third wave of the pandemic mainly driven by the delta variant, and authorities are intensifying efforts to vaccinate a population among whom less than 1% have received both doses of a COVID-19 shot.

States in Nigeria’s north where flooding and poor sanitation increase the risk of transmission are the hardest hit by the resurgence in cholera infections.

All the 19 states in the northern region account for 98% of the total suspected cases.

Cholera is endemic and seasonal in Africa’s most populous country, where only 14% of the 200 million population have access to safely managed drinking water supply services.

According to government data from 2020, open defecation is still practised by at least 30% of residents in 14 states.

The country continues to detect cases of yellow fever, lassa fever, measles and other infectious diseases, which have become annual outbreaks.

And officials say the experience from those health crises has helped Nigeria to prepare for the worst.

Engineer Michael Oludare, an Oyo-based water scientist, said it is “very important” for authorities to look into the causes of cholera and provide basic water and sanitation facilities.

According to Oludare, the poor, women, children and internally displaced persons are among “those that will have problems when it comes to cholera.”

The government data from a study supported by UNICEF found that 157 million Nigerians are of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) sanitation target as of December 2019, with access to safely managed sanitation services nationwide at only 21%.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Somalia: Several civilians and soldiers killed in Mogadishu suicide attack

MOGADISHU— At least nine people have died in a suspected suicide bombing in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, police, and witnesses said.

The attack on Tuesday has killed and wounded civilians and members of the security forces.

Dadir Hassan, another police officer in Mogadishu, said the death toll stood at 11. He told Anadolu Agency over the phone that the suicide bomber targeted a busy tea shop near a main military base in Mogadishu.

“The preliminary investigations confirmed that the attack was a result of a lone suicide bomber who blew himself at a teashop where security forces and civilians frequented and we can confirm that at least 11 people, including soldiers, were killed and several others wounded,” Hassan said.

The bombing was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab armed group, which has been fighting to overthrow Somalia’s federal government.

“I have passed by the area a few minutes after the blast, the whole area was in a mess with abandoned shoes belonging to the victims,” witness Kudow Yusuf said.

Another witness, Adan Hussein, said he had seen several bodies, some of them in uniform, carried into ambulances.

Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble condemned the “indiscriminate” attack.

“This barbaric act shows how al-Shabaab terrorists are thirsty for the indiscriminate bloodshed of the Somali people, forcing us to cooperate in fighting terrorism,” Roble said.

Al-Shabaab controlled the capital until 2011 when it was pushed out by African Union troops, but it still holds territory in the countryside and launches frequent attacks against government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Cameroon Military Denies Reprisal Attacks Kill Civilians

Witnesses in the northwest Cameroon town of Kumbo have accused the military of killing several civilians during retaliatory raids Monday on separatists. Cameroon’s military denies any civilians were killed. The clashes followed the deaths of seven troops when their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Cameroon’s Presbyterian Church is calling for an independent investigation into reports of civilian deaths.

Cameroon’s military said Monday that seven of its troops perished when their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the western village of Kikaikelahki.

The troops were part of a military convoy dispatched to fight separatists around the town of Kumbo.

The military says other troops have been deployed to find and kill the separatists who planted the explosive device.

Deben Tchoffo is governor of Cameroon’s northwest region where Kumbo is found. He says the troops also were ordered to search and seize weapons used illegally by separatists.

“The circulation of those arms were banned by the government, and we instructed administrative authorities and security forces to recuperate all those guns and ammunition that are circulating in the region. Many guns have been taken and are now kept at the level of administrative and security services. The process is ongoing.”

Cameroon military says in a reprisal after the seven troops were killed, government troops killed 13 fighters.

Philip Ndongwe is a teacher in Kumbo. He says one of the people killed is a popular motorcycle taxi driver. He says men who attacked the house they ran to for safety were dressed in Cameroon military uniforms.

“They actually jumped into the campus, shot in the air, and you could see panic and there was nothing I could do other than struggling to also save myself. I first hid myself under the table. It was so traumatizing.”

The Catholic Church in Kumbo on Monday condemned what it calls the killing of civilians and blamed both fighters and government troops for the violence.

Fonki Samuel Forba, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, says independent investigations should be carried out to find out if those killing civilians are fighters or government troops.

“There should be a cease-fire in this country. The barrel of the gun will not solve this problem. Until we sit down as a family and talk out our problems, we will not solve these problems. We are all waiting. We can only get a true story when a credible organization has done investigations of the situation. The culprits will be brought to book.”

The military has denied any involvement in the killing of civilians and insists that all those killed are fighters. The military says its troops are professional.

Violence erupted in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions in 2016, when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

The government responded with a crackdown that sparked an armed movement for an independent, English-speaking state.

Source: Voice of America

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Al-Shabab Attack Kills 11 in Mogadishu

An explosion from suicide bombing has killed at least 11 people Tuesday in the Somali capital, witnesses and officials said.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber walked into a teashop made of corrugated tin and detonated an explosive vest.

The attack occurred near a checkpoint manned by Somali government security forces in Wadajir district, which is next to both Mogadishu’s airport and the headquarters of the Africa Union forces known as AMISOM.

Soldiers as well as civilians are among the dead according to a Somali government official who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media.

The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The prime minister of Somalia, Mohamed Hussein Roble, condemned the “barbaric act” by al-Shabab.

“I condemn today’s bombing by al-Shabab terrorists at a teashop in Wadajir district, which resulted in the death and injury of innocent people,” he said in a Twitter post. “May God have mercy on the dead and heal the wounded.”

Roble said the attack shows that al-Shabab are “thirsty for the indiscriminate bloodshed of the Somali people.”

Thousands of Somali civilians have been killed in the fighting involving al-Shabab since 2006. The group is fighting to overthrow the international supported government of Somalia.

Source: Voice of America

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Somali President Appoints Commission to Investigate Death of Female Spy

Somalia’s president is forming a committee to investigate the case of a missing spy, declared dead by the country’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), though the time and circumstances of her demise remain unknown.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s security agency said earlier this month that intelligence agent Ikran Tahlil Farah, who went missing in June, was abducted and killed by al-Shabab militants.

However, al-Shabab has denied responsibility for Farah’s fate, while Farah’s mother blames NISA for her daughter’s reported death.

The mother, Qali Mohamud Guhad, rejected the president’s committee, which will include a representative from the intelligence agency.

“It’s nonsense, it’s obsolete,” Guhad told VOA Somali on Tuesday. “This is something he has not said a word about for the three months, I have been weeping. … It’s not something I accept.”

Guhad said she put her confidence in a military court investigating Farah’s disappearance.

Political analyst Abdimalik Abdullahi said only the military can handle such a case, arguing that other Somali courts cannot be neutral and will not deliver justice.

“It is only the military court that can handle mysterious and high-profile cases such as the one of Tahlil, who herself was a senior government official,” he told VOA.

The president, however, is pressing ahead with his committee. The head of state directed the five-member team to present a report after the investigation to ensure what he called the delivery of justice.

The press director for the president’s office, Abdirashid Hashi, said the commission of inquiry will be chaired by the attorney general, deputized by the chief military courts prosecutor, and will include representatives from the army, NISA and the police.

Source: Voice of America

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Covid-19: South Africa loosens curbs as third wave eases

PRETORIA, South Africa will ease COVID-19 restrictions and shorten its nationwide curfew from Monday after a decline in infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address.

Authorities will also extend the hours of alcohol sales, the president said, further relaxing restrictions introduced in June to combat a third wave of cases caused by the Delta variant.

“While the third wave is not yet over, we have seen a sustained decline in infections across the country over the last few weeks,” Ramaphosa said.

Authorities reported 3,961 new cases on Sunday, compared with a peak of about 26,500 per day in early July.

The announcement will bring the country down one level in its five-tier system of restrictions, where five is the highest, to an ‘adjusted level 2’.

The curfew will start one hour later at 11pm but still last until 4 in the morning. Shops will be able to sell alcohol from Monday to Friday. All alcohol sales were banned in June, then allowed in shops from Monday to Thursday in July.

Bars and restaurants have been allowed to serve it during opening hours since July.

Ramaphosa appealed for more people to get vaccinated, saying there were enough doses for everyone, but only about 7 million people out of a population of more than 60 million were fully protected.

South Africa has been one of the worst-hit on the continent in terms of reported cases and deaths.

Health insurers have cited vaccine hesitancy as a key factor affecting the pace of the vaccination campaign.

Ramaphosa said the country was working hard to increase the number of people getting the shot, focusing on older or otherwise vulnerable individuals. He added that the country was also looking at vaccine passports and would provide more information on this later.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Armed Groups Killing, Recruiting More Children in Niger, Report Says

Increasing numbers of children are being killed or targeted for recruitment by armed groups in conflicts raging at Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, Amnesty International said in a report published Monday.

“In Niger’s Tillaberi region, an entire generation is growing up surrounded by death and destruction,” said Matt Wells, Amnesty’s deputy director for crisis response.

“Armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and reserves, and are targeting children for recruitment,” he added in a statement.

Amnesty blamed the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), for causing the “devastating impact on children” in the region.

The rights group released a 57-page report documenting the impact on children of the conflict in Niger’s western Tillaberi, an area of 100,000 square kilometers (38,000 square miles) on the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso that is home to different ethnic groups such as Djerma, Fulani, Tuareg and Hausa.

According to conflict tracking organization ACLED, cited by Amnesty, violence against civilians has led to 544 conflict-related deaths from January to July 23 this year, already exceeding the 397 people killed in the whole of 2020.

“Armed groups have killed more than 60 children in Niger’s tri-border area in 2021,” the report said, adding that the ISGS, which operates primarily on the border with Mali, appears responsible for most of the large-scale killing.

During the research for the report, Amnesty spoke to 16 boys who had narrowly survived ISGS attacks on their villages.

“We all are used to hearing gunshots and to seeing [dead] people layered on top of [dead] people,” one boy, age 13 or 14, said.

Another boy, who witnessed the killing of his 12-year-old friend Wahab in March, told the researchers: “I think of Wahab and how he was killed.

“Sometimes I have nightmares of being chased by people on motorbikes or seeing Wahab pleading with the [attackers] again,” he said.

According to Amnesty, both “ISGS and JNIM have committed war crimes and other abuses in the conflict, including the murder of civilians and targeting of schools.

“Many children are experiencing trauma after witnessing deadly attacks on their villages. In some areas, women and girls have been barred from activities outside the home, and risk abduction or forced marriage to fighters,” the report said.

Witnesses said JNIM has picked out males ages 15 to 17, and possibly younger, as recruits, offering bribes of food, money and clothes.

“The Nigerien government and its international partners must urgently take action to monitor and prevent further abuses and protect the basic rights of all those affected by this deadly conflict — especially children,” Wells said.

Amnesty International said it had interviewed 119 people, including 22 children, three young adults between 18 and 20, and 36 parents for the study.

Others interviewed included staff from NGOs and humanitarian agencies, United Nations officials and government officials.

Source: Voice of America