Covid-19: Luanda remains under sanitary cordon

 Despite the easing of some measures, in force until Wednesday, the country's capital (Luanda) will remain under sanitary cordon until the 7th November, as part of the extension of the current period of Public Calamity, which the country has been experiencing since 26th May of this year.

The fact was put forward Wednesday by the Minister of State and Head of the Civil House of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, noting that as of Friday (9) citizens could leave Luanda or enter without any authorisation, with the proof of the negative covid-19 test.

Angola hosts first edition of Innovation Summit

The first Angola Innovation Summit, the biggest innovation event in the country and in the African Portuguese-speaking Countries (PALOP), in a 100 percent digital format, will take place on 16 and 17 October this year.

According to a press release that ANGOP had access to, the event in a 100 percent digital format aims to actively contribute to boosting innovation ecosystems in the PALOPs in general and in Angola in particular, in the search for and promotion of good practices and awareness of Innovation as a global challenge and opportunity in the competitiveness process.

The space will be dedicated to innovation and competitiveness that will provide participants with specialists, policy makers, managers, entrepreneurs, journalists, opinion makers, and the general public, access to specialised knowledge, sharing experiences, visibility and networking, through four areas of action, namely conferences, virtual fair, masterclass and product launch.

The event will be attended by speakers from different corners of the world such as Angola, Portugal, Cape Verde, Israel, Canada, USA, England and Brazil.

Chinese doctors arrive to help fight Covid-19 in Angola

A group of Chinese doctors, nurses and university professors, who worked on the first line of combat against Covid-19 in Wuhan, the epicentre of the disease in the world, since December 2019, is in Angola to exchange experience with the local professionals.

The contingent, which arrived in the country Wednesday for 15 days of intense activity, is made up of specialists in otolaryngology, intensive medicine, internal medicine, epidemiology, infectiology, traditional medicine and laboratory and hospital infection management technicians.

The professionals are in Angola as part of the existing solidarity and cooperation between the two governments to help fight the pandemic. In this context, the Angolan government has already benefited from China, among others, with biosafety materials and laboratories, with the right to assembly them.

During their stay in the African country, the specialists from the Asian giant will provide training on clinical approaches to patients with Covid-19, aimed at Angolan professionals who are stationed in Covid-19's treatment reference hospitals.

"We have reached a stage of the disease curve. We have patients in more advanced stages. Therefore, nothing better than exchanging experience in laboratories and hospitals for a better approach to patients," said the State Secretary for Public Health, Francos Mufinda, while welcoming the Chinese experts at the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport.

A three-part plan to eliminate COVID-19. The only way to eliminate the threat of COVID-19 somewhere is to eliminate it everywhere

 The only way to eliminate the threat of COVID-19 somewhere is to eliminate it everywhere. By making sure poor countries are equipped to stop this disease, wealthy countries will help themselves and bring this crisis to an end sooner.

A three-part plan to eliminate COVID-19

The world is on the brink of a scientific achievement: A safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine will likely be ready by early next year. In fact, there will probably be more than one vaccine available. This is the development that will finally give the world the chance to eliminate the threat of the pandemic—and return to normal.

Because we can immunize against the disease, governments will be able to lift social distancing measures. People will stop having to wear masks. The world’s economy will start running again at full speed.

But elimination will not happen by itself. To achieve this goal, the world first needs three things: the capacity to produce billions of vaccine doses, the funding to pay for them, and systems to deliver them.

The capacity to make vaccines
Right now, most of the world's supply of COVID-19 vaccines is slated to go to rich countries. These nations have been making deals with pharmaceutical companies, securing the right to buy billions of doses as soon as they’re produced.

But what about low- and lower-middle income nations of the world, everywhere from South Sudan to Nicaragua to Myanmar? These nations are home to nearly half of all human beings, and they don’t have the purchasing power to make big deals with pharmaceutical companies. As things stand now, these countries will be able to cover, at most, 14 percent of their people.

Source: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/TheOptimist/Articles/coronavirus-vaccine-strategy-bill-gates/?utm_source=BG&utm_medium=LI

Al Shabaab frees two Cuban doctors who were kidnapped in Kenya

 Two Cuban doctors who were kidnapped in Kenya and held for over a year in Somalia have been released after months of negotiations.

The adducted Cuban doctors Herera Correa (left) and Landy Rodriguez.

AU appoints another Zimbabwean as Ambassador to United States

 ZIMBABWE’s ambassador to Malawi, Hilda Suka-Mafudze, has been appointed the African Union (AU) envoy to Washington, replacing Arikana Chihombori-Quao who was fired last November for speaking out against France’s atrocities in Africa.

The appointment of Suka-Mafudze, who hails from the same town as Chihombori-Quao, is largely seen by observers as politically motivated to pacify Zimbabwean president Emerson Mnangagwa and potentially dissuade him from pushing Chihombori-Quao’s candidacy for the top AU Commission post.

Suka-Mafudze, who was appointed Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Malawi last year by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is expected to fly to Washington next week and is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the AU headquarters.

“I am humbled and appreciative to be able to represent my continent in the US,” said Suka-Mafudze, who served as an MDC legislator for Mhondoro constituency from 2000 to 2005. “I am certainly going to use this as an African to contribute better to the Africa we want.

“I am a true pan-Africanist and I know what we really need as Africa and where we want to be as Africans, all this is in my heart and on my fingertips.”

She added: “What we want as Africa is to be on the global stage as an equal with others. We have what it takes and no one must, therefore, look down upon us. As Africa, we are at a stage where we know what we want and we obviously cannot, for example, continue to let our resources be taken as raw materials by people who by so doing are taking employment away from us.

“There are challenges on the continent, but we have to look at how to deal with those challenges and this opportunity is one way of finding solutions and I am humbled to be part of that.”

Asked on her vision for the continent, the country’s former envoy to Sudan said: “I will contribute towards the AU vision on the intra-Africa trade and I will be alert to the need to entrench relations with the US. Let us not overlook the need for relations if we are to be competitive on the global space but that does not mean our inability to effectively manage what we have.”

She said as she represents the chairman of the African Union in Washington, Africa must speak with one voice going forward in defining her destiny and harnessing opportunities through relations with the world, the US included.

“I represent the African Union, my chairman (Moussa Faki Mahamat) but I must also say I am humbled by the support I got from my country, Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and his entire team,” Suka-Mafudze said.

“I am representing the whole continent and we want to engage the US and agree on issues where we can co-operate. As Africa, we need investment in infrastructure to have investors coming in and when they do come in, it should be on win-win basis.”

She said she would also push for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063 that “represents a critical step in the journey of Africa”.

One AU observer who spoke to DNT said “you have to give it to Faki; he appears to have some smarts about crookedness.” “While I am happy for Suka-Mafudze, I hope she is not being used by Faki to achieve a sinister political objective,” he said.

The observer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his relations with the AU Commission went on to say “what Faki doesn’t know is that in the unlikely event that he is re-elected, he would find an AU Commission staff more hostile to him than ever before.”

From the Zimbabwe Mail with reporting by DNT Correspondents.

Attackers Kill 25 Displaced Civilians In Burkina Faso, UN Says

 A convoy carrying dozens of displaced civilians hoping to return to their homes in central-northern Burkina Faso was ambushed by armed assailants, who then separated the men from the group and killed 25 of them, the United Nations has said.

The attack late on Sunday took place some 9km (five miles) from the town of Pissila in Sanmatenga province, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.

The women and children were let go, the UNHCR said in a statement based on survivors’ testimony. One man who was left for dead also survived.

“The attack on the (internally displaced people) occurred as they were returning to their homes from Pissila, hoping for an improved security situation there,” the UN said.

Ioli Kimyaci, UNHCR’s representative in Burkina Faso, denounced the “brutal and callous” attack. “Innocent civilians are seeking safety but instead are paying with their lives with alarming frequency,” he said.

An impoverished country of some 20 million people, Burkina Faso is one of several West African states in recent years to have been gripped by escalating violence that has spread across the western portion of the Sahel region.

Last year, clashes between government forces, bandits and armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda led to more than 2,000 deaths in Burkina Faso. More than one million Burkinabe people have been displaced by the conflict.

For many years, Burkina Faso’s various ethnic groups have been well-integrated but more recently armed groups have been trying to force division between them in an attempt to stoke violence, according to analysts.

We’ve got you’

Three of the women who survived the attack told the Associated Press news agency that the assailants identified themselves as “jihadists” who said their attack was in retaliation for having volunteer defence fighters in their village.

“They said people from our town had recruited volunteers to fight them and ‘today, we’ve got you’,” one of the women said by phone from Pissila.

An official speaking on the condition on anonymity told the AFP news agency an investigation into the incident was opened.

“The attack occurred on Sunday evening, but it was on Monday morning that about 25 bodies were found, near the site of the attack,” said the official.

The fatalities were from the villages of Wintokuilga and Tang-kienga, close to Pissila, he said.

The Burkinabe government has not yet confirmed the killings but several regional officials told AP they were aware of the situation and were looking into the matter.

A humanitarian worker in the town of Kaya said the casualties were “internally displaced people who were returning home” when they were ambushed.

“We still don’t know the exact number of victims, because there are still people listed missing,” the aid worker said.

Government reaffirms special attention to education

 

The Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, Wednesday in Luanda reaffirmed that the Government continues to pay special attention to education, as part of the children teaching and learning process.

CAROLINA CERQUEIRA, STATE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Covid-19: Angola reports 138 new cases, 17 recoveries

 The national health authorities have registered 138 new infections, five deaths and 17 recovered patients in the last 24 hours.

According to Health Minister, Silvia Lutucuta, who was speaking on Wednesday at the Covid-19 updating press conference, there were 23 cases diagnosed in Benguela, 18 in Huíla, two in Zaire, the same number in Cunene and 93 in Luanda.

The new patients, 78 male and 60 female, are aged between one and 73 years.

In relation to the five deaths, he said they involved Angolan citizens, four Angolan patients, living in Luanda and one in Benguela.

He noted that 17 people had recovered in the last 24 hours, 11 in Luanda and six in Benguela.

Angola has 5,863 positive cases, with 206 deaths, 2,615 recovered and 3,042 active.

Among the active people, 10 are in critical condition with invasive mechanical ventilation, 17 severe, 68 moderate and 350 have mild symptoms.

The country's treatment centres have admitted 553 cases.