July 27, 2021 – Page 3 – Djibouti News Gazette

July 27, 2021

Malawians Line Up for COVID Shots After Expired Doses Were Burned

BLANTYRE, MALAWI – Malawians have again begun to line up to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Malawi ran out of doses in June amid a rise in COVID-19 infections and just weeks after the government burned 20,000 unused doses that expired because of vaccine hesitancy.

Malawi’s government resumed its vaccination program Monday after the arrival of 192,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Since then, vaccination centers have seen long lines of people, unlike the past, when some centers would only vaccinate two people per day.

Liznet Chilungo was among thousands who lined up for vaccinations Tuesday at the Youth Centre in Blantyre.

She said she “decided to get vaccinated this time because the COVID-19 infection is now becoming very scary and many [more] people are dying than before.”

She said she originally was hesitant because she doubted the efficacy and safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to myths and misinformation.

George Jobe, executive director for the Malawi Healthy Equity Network, said the huge turnout confirms the fear and panic people have about rising COVID-19 cases and other factors.

“The first factor could be that those who received the first jab and second jab are still in good health including the state president and the vice president contrary to myths and misinformation that were there. That should have affected the mindset of people over the COVID-19 vaccine,” Jobe said.

Also, preliminary results of a survey by the Ministry of Health show that over 80% of COVID-19 patients who are admitted to public hospitals had not been vaccinated.

However, Malawi is far from inoculating the 11 million people needed to reach herd immunity.

Records from the Public Health Institute of Malawi show that just 43,165 people have received two doses of a vaccine. Another 385,000 have received just the first shot.

Charles Mwansambo, secretary for the Ministry of Health, said people most vulnerable to the coronavirus should get vaccinated first.

“Because we will be getting enough vaccine for everybody, so I would recommend that let’s give a chance to health workers, let’s give a chance to those over age of 60. Let’s also give a chance to those with conditions like high blood pressure, sugar (diabetes). And the rest of us we can wait,” Mwansambo said.

The Ministry of Health announced last week that in addition to 192,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which arrived Saturday, Malawi expects to receive 119,000 more doses of the same vaccine before the end of the month.

The country is also expected to receive donations of 300,000 Pfizer vaccine doses and 300,000 Johnson & Johnson doses in early August.

Source: Voice of America

July 27, 2021

Boko Haram Attack Kills Five Soldiers, Civilian, Cameroon Reports

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON – Boko Haram Islamists killed five Cameroonian soldiers and a civilian in an attack in the far north of the country, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

The attack took place on Monday night near the border with Nigeria, where operations by the Islamist group have been on the rise.

Three soldiers and one civilian were also wounded in the attack, the statement read on state radio said.

A group “of heavily armed terrorists of the Boko Haram sect, aboard several light tactical vehicles, attacked the command post … near Zigue,” a few kilometers from the border with Nigeria, the statement said.

Some militants were also killed, the statement added, without elaborating.

“Troops remain on high alert throughout the far north and across the border to prevent further attacks,” it said. The group appears to have “regained strength following internal restructuring,” it added.

Members of Boko Haram and a splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), have been mounting increasingly deadly attacks against security forces and civilians in the far north of Cameroon, as well as in neighboring Nigeria, Niger and Chad.

They frequently abduct civilians, especially women and children.

Boko Haram fighters killed eight Cameroonian soldiers on Saturday in Sagme, a few dozen kilometers from the border with Nigeria.

Their insurgency began in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria before spreading through the region.

Since then, more than 36,000 people — mainly in Nigeria — have been killed, and three million forced to flee their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

In 2016, the group split into two branches: the faction led by its long-time leader, Abubakar Shekau, and ISWAP, affiliated with the Islamic State group.

Boko Haram confirmed in mid-June that Shekau had been killed in fighting with ISWAP.

Source: Voice of America

July 27, 2021

Cameroon Receives US Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Amid Covid Hesitancy

YAOUNDÉ – Cameroonian authorities are urging the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19, following a U.S. donation Monday of 300,000 Johnson & Johnson doses. Cameroonians can now choose between the Chinese Sinopharm, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs but vaccine hesitancy remains high.

Just 10 civilians have visited the Biyem Assi hospital in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde today to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Among them is Olivia Forbi, a 38-year-old vegetable seller.

Forbi said she wants the Johnson & Johnson vaccine she heard about from Cameroon state radio.

“I have learnt that Johnson & Johnson is more than 75 percent effective in stopping the spread of the coronavirus and secondly, you take it in one dose. Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, you take in two doses. You spend more time going for the second dose,” said Forbi.

On July 21, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was shipping 1.3 million vaccine doses to Africa. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gambia, Lesotho, Niger, Senegal and Zambia are the seven beneficiaries.

Mary Daschbach is in charge of mission at the U.S. embassy in Yaounde. She says she handed over 303,050 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to the government of Cameroon on Monday.

“We don’t want to see people dying in Cameroon from the variant that is raging round the rest of the world. We have seen what it has done in Indonesia, we have seen what it has done in Tunisia and we see what it is doing in the United States to people who have chosen not to get vaccinated. It is very important, the vaccine is effective at preventing people from dying,” she said.

Dashbach said she was hopeful the 303,050 dozes donated by the United States of America will save 303,050 lives in Cameroon.

Manaouda Malachie is Cameroon’s health minister. He said civilians should consider Johnson & Johnson as another life-saving vaccine.

He said he is very grateful to the American government and its people for making it possible for Cameroon to have a variety of COVID-19 vaccines. He said he is pleading with people from 18 years and above who are still reluctant to be vaccinated to rush for either the Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm or AstraZeneca vaccines and save their lives.

Cameroon has received more than a million doses since April, but less than 25 percent of the vaccines have been dispensed.

Alirou Bachirou is a 24-year-old cattle seller who has refused vaccination.

Bachirou said he prefers local remedies Cameroon government has officially introduced to stop the spread of COVID 19. He said people should trust African healers’ remedies and stop believing that all solutions to their health problems must come from America or Europe.

This month, Cameroon approved the sale of a herbal remedy from Samuel Kleda, a Roman Catholic bishop in the Central African.

The government said the recipe is supplementary aid to fighting coronavirus infections and was not a cure for COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America

July 27, 2021

Activists Condemn Terror Charge Against Tanzania Opposition Leader

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA – Tanzania’s main opposition party and rights activists are condemning the arrest of CHADEMA party leader Freeman Mbowe, who faces terrorism charges.

Police on Wednesday arrested Mbowe and 10 other party members as they were about to attend a conference to discuss changes to Tanzania’s constitution.

Mbowe was brought before a court in Dar es Salaam Monday to face charges of economic sabotage. He is accused of funding terrorist activities aimed at assassinating government leaders. There has been no comment from the government.

The charges were read out in court, but Mbowe was not allowed to respond.

Opposition supporters and human rights activists condemned what they see as a flagrant violation of Mbowe’s rights.

Rights activist Merciana Mhagama says the entire incident goes against Tanzanian law.

Mhagama says since Mbowe was arrested and taken to court, we have seen a huge abuse of law and principles, but also the incident has gone against freedom of opinion and expression. In a democratic country, we know our constitution allows people to give out their opinion, she says.Another activist, Antele Benjamin, says he is disappointed in seeing Mbowe arrested.

Benjamin says CHADEMA decided to use their constitutional right to demand a new constitution but in return to an unusual situation, we have seen its leader is charged with terrorism-related crimes, something which is a sad thing, and in a civilized society it is something that we didn’t expect to happen.

Police on Tuesday dismissed the accusations that Mbowe’s arrest was linked to politics. David Misime is a police spokesperson.

He says Freeman Mbowe knew that he had accusations against him, and he will be held by police for further legal action until the investigation against him is accomplished. He says Mbowe saw it is better to run to Mwanza for the umbrella of constitutional meeting so if arrested, people would believe he was arrested for that, which is not true.

However, political analyst Aika Peter sees Mbowe’s arrest as a threat to democracy in the country.

Democratically with incidents like these, whether it is a message they are trying to send or the message that is there from somewhere that we are no longer safe, said Peter. They are telling us that whatever promises we were told, it was just to please people so as to see we have direction but so far we are back to square one and we have returned to a very bad situation.

Late President John Magufuli, who died in March, was known for running Tanzania an iron-fisted manner. Many activists hoped for a change after President Samia Hassan took over.

Hassan has made a sharp turn on COVID-19 policy, rejecting Magufuli’s belief that the infection did not exist in Tanzania and paving the way for the country to get its first shipment of vaccines.

But she has not embraced political reforms the way some activists were hoping.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said, “Instead of arresting political opponents who are calling for constitutional reform, President Hassan’s government should … protect everyone’s rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in line with international human rights norms.”

Source: Voice of America

July 27, 2021

Dozens of Shipwrecked Migrants Drown off Libya’s Coast

GENEVA – The International Organization for Migration says at least 57 migrants, most from West Africa, drowned Monday, when their boat capsized off the Libyan Coast.

About 70 people were on board the doomed vessel when it left the Libyan port of Khums late Sunday evening. Reports say the boat, which had embarked for Europe, ran into trouble soon after, took on water and sank.

U.N. migration agency spokesman Paul Dillion says no additional bodies have been found. He told VOA at least 20 women and two toddlers were among the missing and are presumed dead. He said survivors have been taken to the offices of the Libyan investigation’s unit in Khums, where they are being assisted.

“Libyan fishermen and the Libyan coast guard rescued 18 people and brought them to shore.… Our staff, who are providing regional assistance, medical, food and water to the survivors, described them as shocked, deeply traumatized, and exhausted from their ordeal,” he said.

Dillon said the survivors are natives of Nigeria, Ghana, and Gambia. He said he does not know what will happen to the migrants once they’ve recovered from their ordeal.

However, he said the IOM believes Libya is not a safe port of return and migrants who are picked up at sea should not be returned to Libya because of the instability in the country.

“Of particular concern are the conditions, well documented, in detention centers in the country where migrants are warehoused and routinely subject to a wide variety of well documented human rights abuses, be they extortions, sexual violence and other things,” Dillon said.

Every year, thousands of people, fleeing conflict and poverty, embark on dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe in pursuit of a better life. Every year many hundreds lose their lives.

The IOM says this latest tragedy off the Libyan coast pushes the 2021 death toll on the central Mediterranean route to 970 men, women, and children. As the weather improves, the agency warns the death toll will rise as an increasing number of flimsy smuggler boats depart from Libya and Tunisia for Europe.

Source: Voice of America