Africa News

Pupils allowed back to school after Malawi cholera outbreak

US offers $10m to help track alleged al-Shabab mastermind

Malawi authorities say students who were prevented from returning to school at the end of the Christmas holidays due to fears of an escalating cholera outbreak can now return.

Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda announced in Lilongwe that most schools are now prepared to manage the cholera situation.

Malawi is facing a devastating outbreak pf the water-borne disease which has so far killed more than 750 people.

The Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Cholera had ordered that schools in the capital, Lilongwe, and the

The US government has offered a $10m (£8m) cash reward for information about Mohammud Abdi Aden, the alleged mastermind of the 2019 attack on a hotel and office complex in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in 2019.

Mr Aden was allegedly part of the cell that planned the DusitD2 hotel attack, which resulted in the deaths of 22 people.

The Somalia-based militant group alShabab said it carried out the assault.

The US says Aden is wanted alongside other suspected militants.

The reward is offered with the full support of Kenyan authorities.

Several people accused of playing various roles in the run-up to the attack have been arrested and arraigned in court. But no-one has been convicted on charges linked to the attack.

Earlier this week, the US offered a $10m bounty for any leads on Maalim Ayman, the leader of al-Shabab’s military wing in Kenya.

He is wanted for his alleged role in the attack of an army base hosting Kenyan and US forces near the border with Somalia.

The US has been a key ally of Kenya on the war against terror.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Kenya saying they were in retaliation for sending troops into Somalia in 2011 as part of the African Union mission to fight the militants. southern commercial city of Blantyre should not open in order to protect learners and students from contracting cholera.

The decision drew criticism from education rights activists because it only targeted schools in two cities while those in other areas, including some that had also recorded high number of cholera cases, were allowed to open.

Mr Chiponda has now said that over the past two weeks the task force has been monitoring the situation and is satisfied there is availability of water, handwashing facilities and clean toilets in all schools, hence the decision to order their reopening.

Cholera causes vomiting and a runny stomach

People had to be evacuated after bombs were detonated during the attack

Ebola survivor: ‘Neighbours treated us like pariahs’

Asurvivor of Ebola in Uganda has told the BBC’s Newsday programme that he and his family were treated like pariahs as they battled the illness.

“Many of our neighbours had rejected us,” he said. “No-one could sit close to you, you could not go to the shops.”

He did not even have the support of his neighbours when members of his family died, he said.

“Imagine losing someone and none of your neighbours could come to check on you, no one even comes to say sorry for your loss.”

The experience was so traumatic, he said, that he felt hopeless: “It got to the point where I was so tired and hated this world.”

On Wednesday, Ugandan officials officially declared the end of their recent Ebola outbreak, after a 42-day period without any new confirmed cases.

More than 50 people died from the illness in the recent outbreak. Health officials were able to quash the disease by imposing lockdowns in high-incidence areas.

Ebola spreads through bodily fluid and is a deadly illness with a high fatality rate.

Africa’s first rocketlaunch site deal hailed

Djibouti’s plans to build Africa’s first rocket-launch facility is a “very important” step because presently there is no functioning one on the continent, Temidayo Oniosun, the managing Director of the consultancy firm Space in Africa, has told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

His comments come after the country signed a preliminary agreement with a Chinese space firm to build a $1bn (£800m) rocket-launch site.

Under the deal, the satellitemanufacturing company Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group will manage the site for the first 30 years and then it will pass to Djiboutian hands.

The Djiboutians’ goal was to have an “international launch site” where any company from anywhere in the world could launch satellites, Mr Oniosun said.

Djibouti had a natural edge as it was relatively close to the equator, which means rocket launch companies could “save some fuel” and money by launching their satellites from there, Mr Oniosun continued.

However, as the Chinese would be managing the site, it might be “politically difficult” to attract companies based in countries that had a strained relationship with Beijing, like the US, Mr Oniosun warned.

He added that over the next decade we could see more space facilities built in Africa, with countries like Egypt and Nigeria having plans in the pipeline to build them.

Backlash against Nigeria singer over ‘racist’ tweets grows

Nigerian singer Brymo, whose real name is Olawale Ashimi, is facing a growing backlash because of comments he made about the Igbo ethnic group in the country.

More than 28,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org to stop the singer from winning the All Africa Music Award (Afrima) for songwriter of the year.

He retweeted a Twitter post which referred to the Igbos, who hail from the south-east of the country, and are one of its largest ethnic groups, as “cowards”.

He also wrote one post where he referred to the Igbo people using an offensive expletive and caused some anger when he said a president coming from the Igbo ethnic group is a “pipe dream”.

In February’s presidential election an Igbo candidate, Peter Obi, is gaining passionate support from many of Nigeria’s youth and on social media.

People online are furious and calling Brymo’s comments “xenophobic” and “racist”.

Brymo, who is from the Yoruba ethnic group, told Nigerian paper, The Punch , that he is supporting Bola Ahmed Tinubu in next month’s poll, which he said had nothing to do with the fact that Mr Tinubu is also Yoruba, but out of “choice”.

Nigeria as a country still faces some tensions between its various different ethnic and religious groups, which can feed into elections.

Brymo also clarified to The Punch that his comments were not meant to be antiIgbo: “I did not mean an Igbo person is unfit for the presidency. That sounds ‘tribalistic’.”

Namibian leader ‘regrets’ Mozambique bodyburning video

Namibian President Hage Geingob has condemned a “disturbing video” appearing to show soldiers who are part of the regional forces in Mozambique setting ablaze corpses.

The widely shared clip shows soldiers throwing a corpse on to the side of a bonfire of burning rubbish; one of them then throws liquid over the body and the flames spread.

Mr Geingob, who heads the security organ of the southern African regional group Sadc, in a statement said “we have noted the incident with regret”.

He said the leadership of the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (Samim) had launched investigations into the matter and would share the results once completed.

“I further wish to categorically underscore that [the regional bloc] Sadc does not condone acts reflected in the video and, once the investigations are completed, [it] will take appropriate measures,” he said.

In the video, two men in army fatigues holding mobile phones appear to be filming the fire, and one of them has the South African flag on his uniform.

On Tuesday, the South African National Defence Force – whose troops are members of part of the regional force in Mozambique – condemned the incidents in the video and said it had already commenced investigations.

Source: BBC