The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there has been 30 per cent increase in the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the African Region in the past week. WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, disclosed this in COVID-19 Situation Report posted on its official Twitter account @WHOAFRO on Thursday. In external situation report number 19 issued on July 8, it stated that COVID-19 outbreak continued to grow in the WHO African...
The African media has closely followed the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, almost always in solidarity with the protesters. Especially among African human rights groups, the American focus on police brutality resonates strongly. While generalization is risky about a continent with more than fifty states and one billion people, it can be said that for most Africans, the policeman is not your friend. The popular perception is that police brutality is the...
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says COVID-19 infections in Africa have surpassed 500, 000 and there is concern as a growing number of countries are experiencing a sharp rise in cases. WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo disclosed this in a statement posted on its website. It said, so far, in less than five months, the virus had claimed 11, 959 lives, overtaking the 11, 308 lives lost in the world’s worst Ebola...
Conventional wisdom is that Africa’s rising middle class is the engine for economic and social development, that its trajectory has been positive, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously compromised the success of the middle class. However, on a continent of 1.3 billion people resident in more than fifty countries, this trope, much of it based on feel-good anecdotes, may obscure more than it illuminates. What is Africa’s middle class, how large was it before COVID-19, and was...
Egypt witnessed a record 623 daily recoveries from COVID-19 on Sunday, raising the total number of the recovered cases in the country to 20,726, said the health ministry. Meanwhile, the country reported 1,218 new COVID-19 infections, the lowest since June 19, raising the total cases registered since mid-February to 75,253, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement. Egypt also saw 63 fatalities from coronavirus on Sunday, the least since June 14, increasing the...
South Africa will further reopen its schools in line with its phased-in reopening strategy amid an upsurge in confirmed COVID-19 cases, the government announced on Sunday. Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga, who made this known in a statement, said that from July 6, schools would reopen for Grades R, 6 and 11 learners. Motshekga added that provinces that were not ready to receive Grade R on July 6 must provide strategic and realisable plans...
Uganda, on Wednesday, temporarily opened its borders to receive thousands of people fleeing deadly ethnic clashes in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency said. Hilary Onek, Uganda’s Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, launched a three-day exercise to receive and provide asylum to an estimated 10,000 refugees in the northwest border district of Zombo. Duniya Aslam Khan, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)...
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says there are over 400,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Africa. The UN health agency gave the update on its regional official Twitter account — @WHOAFRO on Wednesday. It noted that “there are over 400,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent- with more than 190,000 recoveries and 10,000 deaths.” The regional office stated that South Africa has 151,209 cases and 2,657...
Tens of thousands demonstrated on Tuesday in Sudanese cities despite a coronavirus lockdown to demand greater civilian rule in the transition towards democracy after the ouster of veteran strongman Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Waving Sudanese flags, protesters gathered in Khartoum and its twin cities Khartoum North and Omdurman after the government closed roads and bridges leading to the centre of the capital. Similar protests also took place in Kassala in eastern Sudan and in the...
Malawi — The opposition has won Malawi’s historic rerun of the presidential election, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has led to the defeat of an incumbent leader. Lazarus Chakwera’s victory late Saturday was a result of months of determined street protests in the southern African nation, and of a unanimous decision by the Constitutional Court that widespread irregularities in the May 2019 election — including the use of correction fluid on ballots...
