Category: Medical

Rebel forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region denied reports Wednesday that they had killed dozens of civilians over a two-day period in the Amhara area.

The Reuters news agency reported Wednesday that regional authorities said 120 civilians were killed between September 1 and 2.

Local officials told Reuters that they had recovered bodies which appeared to be those of farmers in a village roughly 10 kilometers from the town of Dabat.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front released a statement later Wednesday rejecting what they termed “a fabricated allegation.”

“We reiterate our call for an independent investigation into all atrocities, and our willingness to facilitate media access to areas under our control for independent verification of any allegations,” said Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the TPLF.

Reuters noted that if confirmed, the incident would mark the first mass killings by Tigray forces since they claimed control over territory in the Amhara region.

On June 28, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate and unilateral humanitarian cease-fire after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. But hostilities have continued, and the prime minister recently urged all Ethiopians to join the fight.

Tigray forces reclaimed control of the regional capital, Mekelle, after government forces withdrew. In the weeks since the cease-fire was announced, they have expanded their presence into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, where fighting has escalated, displacing tens of thousands of civilians.

The TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for three decades, now controls Tigray. The TPLF-led authority administering the region says it is the Tigray Regional Government; Ethiopian federal authorities say that government was dissolved and that a provisional administration has the mandate in Tigray.

Source: Voice of America

Two Ugandan opposition members of parliament were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly orchestrating a wave of machete killings that left dozens dead in the south of the country, a move described as “political persecution” by their lawyer.

For two months, the region of Masaka, located about 150 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kampala, has been living in terror of gangs that have killed around 30 people, mainly the elderly, in their homes at night, according to police.

After two days of questioning by the police, MPs Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Sewanyana were indicted by a court in Masaka on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, their lawyer, Elias Lukwago, told AFP.

“They have denied all charges. … This is political persecution by the military regime of (Uganda President Yoweri) Museveni,” Lukwago said.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the use of a biased judicial process to meet the political objectives of a ruling party,” he added, indicating that they would be held in pretrial detention until September 15 in the high-security prison of Kitalya, near Kampala.

Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga explained that Ssegirinya and Sewanyana were arrested after statements by several suspects accusing them of organizing the attacks “to sow fear among the population and make people hate the government.”

Both MPs are members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) of opposition leader Bobi Wine, rival of President Museveni in the disputed January election.

Wine, whose real name Robert Kyagulanyi, said the accusations were mounted by the government of Museveni to discredit the opposition.

“When the president recently said that the opposition was behind the killings, we thought it was a bad joke. But when the police summoned our MPs, we realized that the regime’s plan to involve the leaders of the NUP in the murders was at work,” he said.

In a speech last month, Museveni called the perpetrators “pigs” and vowed their doom.

In power since 1986, Museveni, 76, was reelected in January for a sixth term, ahead of Wine, who denounced an electoral “masquerade.”

“No matter what the Museveni regime does, one day Uganda will be free, and those accused of crimes because they belong to the opposition will be released,” Wine said.

In Masaka, residents called on the government to take strong action to stop the killers.

“We mourn our loved ones who were killed, we live in fear of being killed by gangs armed with machetes,” Sarah Kasujja, a 45-year-old trader, told Agence France-Presse. She said her 81-year-old grandfather is one of the gangs’ victims.

“Some elderly people who lived alone (…) fled their homes to find safety in the cities,” she said. “The government should be held responsible for not defending us against the killers. The army and the police were deployed, but they arrived too late.”

Ugandan National Council for the Elderly President Charles Isabirye called the wave of killings a “shock to the nation.”

“That someone is killing elderly people who live quietly in their homes is inconceivable,” he told AFP. “We call on the government to ensure the protection of the elderly in the countryside, and the people behind (the murders) must be identified and punished.”

Source: Voice of America

Militants armed with machetes, sticks and clubs killed at least 30 villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials and a witness said.

The fighters – suspected members of the Islamist-inspired Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – raided Makutano, north of the city of Oicha in North Kivu province, early on Saturday, the officials told Reuters.

Villager Malielo Omeonga said his son woke him when the militants struck.

“I took some time to leave my bed, and in his haste my son ran and fell into the ambush of the ADF. So my son is dead and I am here by the grace of God,” Omeonga said by telephone.

“It’s total devastation. People are fleeing everywhere,” Christophe Munyanderu from the Congolese campaign group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the raid. The ADF, which was formed in neighboring Uganda and says it is allied to Islamic State, seldom makes public statements.

An army spokesman said forces were clearing the area “while we wait for other measures to be taken.”

Congolese authorities and rights groups have accused the ADF of killing hundreds of civilians in apparent retaliation for army offensives against them since late 2019.

The United Nations has said the militant attacks may constitute war crimes.

In May, the government imposed martial law in two eastern provinces in an attempt to end the insecurity that has plagued the mineral-rich area since the end of the second civil war in 2003. But the bloodshed has continued.

Last month the United States sent a dozen special forces troops to the area to assess the “anti-terrorism” capabilities of the army.

Source: Voice of America

South Africa’s jailed former president Jacob Zuma has been placed on medical parole because of his ill health, the government’s correctional services department said on Sunday.

Last month prison authorities said Zuma, serving a 15-month sentence in Estcourt prison for contempt of court, underwent unspecified surgery at an outside hospital where he had been sent for observation. He remained in hospital with more operations planned.

The 79-year old’s eligibility for medical parole follows a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services, it said in a statement.

“Medical parole placement for Mr. Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the department added.

Its spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said that Zuma, who was imprisoned in early July, was still in hospital but could go home to continue receiving medical care. He gave no details on Zuma’s illness, his parole conditions nor whether his health had deteriorated since surgery.

Mzwanele Manyi, a spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, said it welcomed the decision of the parole board and a more detailed statement would be issued after consultation with Zuma’s legal team.

Zuma was jailed for defying a Constitutional Court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.

When Zuma handed himself in on July 7, protests by his supporters escalated into riots involving looting and arson that President Cyril Ramaphosa described as an “insurrection.”

Source: Voice of America

A special forces commander in Mali was freed on Friday after angry police officers marched to the prison where he was detained for allegedly using brute force to quash deadly protests last year.

The head of the police counterterrorism unit, Oumar Samake, had been held in the Sahel state over lethal skirmishes between security forces and opponents of ex-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Anti-Keita protests rocked Mali last year and eventually culminated in the president’s ouster in a military coup.

One such protest on July 10, 2020, sparked several days of deadly clashes with security forces.

Mali’s political opposition said at the time that 23 people were killed during the unrest. The United Nations reported that 14 protesters were killed, including two children.

An investigation was opened into the killings in December 2020.

Police special-forces commander Samake was detained Friday for his alleged role in the violence, a senior legal official told AFP.

But the move infuriated police officers, some of whom marched on the prison in the capital, Bamako, where he was held.

Prison guard Yacouba Toure told AFP that large numbers of well-armed policemen turned up at the jail.

“We did not resist,” he said, adding that police left with Samake “without incident.”

A justice ministry official, who requested anonymity, said the government decided to free Samake “for the sake of peace.”

“This is not a court decision,” the official said, adding that the investigation into Samake would continue.

The dramatic events underscored the sensitivity of such investigations in chronically unstable Mali.

The country’s military deposed Keita in August 2020 after weeks of protests fueled by grievances over alleged corruption and the president’s inability to stop the long-running jihadist conflict.

Army officers then installed a civilian-led interim government to steer Mali back toward democratic rule. But military strongman Colonel Assimi Goita deposed these civilian leaders in May in a second coup.

Goita has pledged to restore civilian rule and stage elections in February next year.

However, there are doubts about whether the government will be able to hold elections within such a short time frame.

Mali has been struggling to quell a brutal jihadist insurgency, which emerged in 2012 and left swaths of the vast nation outside government control.

Source: Voice of America

ADDIS ABABA, The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 7,844,232 as of Friday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic across the continent stands at 197,986.

Some 7,015,476 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease so far, it was noted.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the agency.

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, it was noted.

Source: NAM News Network

Music and jingles fill the air in a camp for displaced people in the capital, Abuja. The songs are addressing one problem — misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine.

Helen Nwoko and her team at Aish Initiative said they’re on a mission in the camp to address many who have been misled by a viral social media video that portrayed vaccines as a microchip with magnetic qualities.

She said various myths and misinformation about the coronavirus vaccines are negatively affecting uptake.

“From the records we get on the people who have been vaccinated in Nigeria, the percent is too low, compared to what we’re supposed to get,” Nwoko said. “Then we said, ‘Let’s start from [these] vulnerable groups. These are people who are in an enclosed place.'”

Nwoko is the executive director of the nonprofit, an NGO promoting and encouraging vaccine uptake and humanitarian education in Nigeria.

The Abuja camp vaccine sensitization program is a joint effort between the nonprofit, Nigeria’s Ministry of Health, and the National Orientation Agency, and it is reaching vulnerable groups in rural areas, where authorities said it is most needed.

Agnes Bartholomew was at the Abuja camp’s sensitization program and now said she is ready to take the jab.

“If they bring it [vaccine], I’ll take it,” Bartholomew said. “But they said they’ve not brought it. That’s what we’re waiting for.”

Fewer than 1% of Nigerians have received complete jabs against the coronavirus, though authorities were aiming for 40% this year.

Officials at the Nigerian CDC said even though the country has not yet acquired sufficient vaccines, vaccine hesitancy is a serious issue.

Abiodun Egwuenu is a program coordinator at an infodemic unit created at Nigeria’s CDC to dispel disease misinformation.

“We’ve been noticing that there are challenges around immunity,” Egwuenu said. “There are rumors around the fact that natural immunity is better than the vaccination immunity. And then there also [are] challenges around what the vaccine does when it gets to the body.”

Nigeria is seeing a new surge in coronavirus cases and fatalities caused by the deadly Delta variant.

The official number of cases stands at 193,000 — low compared to many other countries — but the number is rising fast.

Authorities say vaccination is the only way to ensure safety, and that the country needs to vaccinate 70% of its 200 million people to achieve herd immunity.

Source: Voice of America