Ghana’s FDA signs MOU with Cuba for mutual capacity building

 Accra, Nov. 24, GNA - The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cuban Embassy in Ghana, to collaborate with sister institutions for mutual capacity building.

Mrs Delese Mimi Darko, the Chief Executive Officer of the FDA, signed for Ghana, while Mr Pedro Luis Despaigne Gonzalez, the Cuban Ambassador, signed for his country.

Mrs Darko said although Ghana’s collaboration with Cuba dated almost 40 years, with both countries enjoying reciprocal cooperation in areas of training health professionals and technology transfer, it was the first time of collaborating with pharmaceutical and drug manufacturing industries to learn from each other.

She said the present collaboration between the two countries started two years ago with the signing of an MoU with the Ministry of Health, and acknowledged the fact that as an institution under the Ministry, the FDA stood to benefit immensely from Cuba’s advancement in Science.

There would, therefore, be an exchange of knowledge and support between sister institutions in the two countries for their mutual benefit to ensure the right products were made available for both their citizens, she said.

Mrs Darko said in Ghana about 30 per cent of medicines were manufactured locally, while Cuba had about 50 per cent, so the MoU would help each other in improving the capacities of their local industries for better outcomes.

Mr Gonzalez, expressed his excitement about the collaboration, saying the two countries shared the common will to strengthen, expand and deepen bilateral relations.

He said the MOU would help intensify cooperation in health promotion to achieve wider mutual benefits in the socio-economic development of both countries.

Cuba had since 1983 supported the healthcare system in Ghana by bringing in doctors to work, he said.

Mr Gonzalez said the COVID-19 pandemic had more than ever brought to the fore the need for strengthened collaboration among institutions and nations to learn from one another, and to ensure quality healthcare for their populations.

Cuba, he said, was still developing and had its own pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, while conducting various researches into obtaining vaccines including its current candidate COVID-19 vaccines.

Mr Gonzalez said Cuba’s diplomatic relations with Ghana had been very solid and mutually beneficial, which would extend not only to Africa but the rest of the worldwide.

He expressed his country’s continuous commitment towards improving health, education and other sectors of the country.

Elon Musk becomes second richest person in the world

 Elon Musk’s year of dizzying ascents hit a new apex Monday as the Tesla Inc. co-founder passed Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person.

The 49-year-old entrepreneur’s net worth soared $ 7.2 billion to $ 127.9 billion, driven by yet another emerges in Tesla’s share price. Musk has added $ 100.3 billion to his net worth this year, the most of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. In January he ranked 35th.

His advance up the wealth ranks has been driven largely by the electric automaker, whose market value hit $ 500 billion after Tesla shares rallied further on Tuesday.

About three-quarters of his net worth is comprised of Tesla shares, which are valued more than four times as much as his stake in Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.

Musk’s milestone marks only the second time in the index’s eight-year history that Microsoft Corp. co-founder Gates has ranked lower than number two. He held the top spot for years before being bumped by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos in 2017. Gates’s net worth of $ 127.7 billion would be much higher had he not donated so prodigiously to charity over the years. He has given more than $ 27 billion to his namesake foundation since 2006.

With Monday’s move, Musk unseats an occasional verbal sparring partner in Gates, who the Tesla billionaire has ridiculed on Twitter for, among other things, having “no clue” about electric trucks. The two have also traded barbs over Covid-19. Gates, whose charitable foundation is one of the preeminent bodies backing vaccine research, has expressed concern over Musk’s stated suspicion of pandemic data and embrace of certain conspiracy theories.

The year has been a lucrative one for the world’s richest people. Despite the pandemic and widespread layoffs that have disproportionately affected the world’s working class and poor, the members of the Bloomberg index have collectively gained 23% - or $ 1.3 trillion - since the year began.

Those in the electric vehicle industry, though, have been particularly beneficiaries. The combined fortune of Zeng Yuqun and Huang Shilin, Chairman and Vice Chairman of China’s biggest electric-vehicle battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., has soared by $ 18.8 billion year-to-date, according to the index.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

UK government ‘needs to come clean’ on funding for Nigerian police

 Labor has called for the UK government to consider suspending the funding and training of security forces in Nigeria, where protests against a notorious police unit were brutally suppressed last month.

Kate Osamor, the MP for Edmonton, said she had serious concerns about a lack of oversight of the UK’s role, especially in relation to the special anti-robbery squad (Sars), which was disbanded in October after allegations of killings and abuse.

The same month, protests against police abuses were brutally suppressed by the Nigerian police and military, which have been authorized to purchase at least £ 127m-worth of UK registered arms since 2008.

Dozens of protesters were killed, including at least 12 people gunned down by soldiers in Lagos, according to Amnesty International. Despite widespread outrage, the army and Nigerian authorities have denied responsibility, dismissing reports of fatalities and claiming footage showing soldiers at the scene was manipulated. Authorities have also set about clamping down on prominent protesters, critics and media which broadcasted abuses.

Labor is also calling for “independent investigations into the allegations against Sars units, as well as military, security and policing forces responsible for attacks on protesters, that could lead to targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against responsible individuals,” Osamor tweeted on Tuesday.

At a debate in parliament on Monday night, MPs pressed the government to adopt “individualized sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes” against individuals accused of abuses.

After initially stating that Sars officers had not received UK support, the UK minister for Africa, James Duddridge, said the unit had received “strategic assistance” and training alongside personnel from the wider Nigerian police force as part of a program that ran from 2016 to March this year.

Osamor, who heads the Commons all-party parliamentary group on Nigeria, said: “The government now needs to come clean and explain how and why that funding took place in the first place. They owe it to the many who have been killed by Sars units to explain who made the decision to fund those units and why. ”

There were “serious concerns about the level of oversight attached to government funding in this area”, she added. “Amnesty International and several other international human rights organizations have been very clear that Sars have been directly involved in extrajudicial killings, torture and corruption. The UK government either knew that and decided it would fund Sars anyway or didn’t know where UK funding was going. ”

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “It is important that the police in Nigeria respect human rights. We have been working with Nigeria to support reforms to ensure this happens ”.

The spokesperson did not confirm whether the government had knowingly provided training to Sars officers and whether assistance or funding to the army or police had ever been reviewed on account of human rights abuses.

A judicial panel has been set up to in Lagos to investigate action by security forces during the October protests, but it has been met with cynicism in Nigeria, where there is a history of government inquiries leading to no prosecutions. Statements by Nigerian ministers defending security personnel accused of abuses and discrediting media reports of recent killings have appeared to undermine ongoing inquiries.

Chi Onwurah, who heads the APPG for Africa, said the UK should press authorities to fully investigate recent abuses. “We need clear, honest, verifiable messages from the Nigerian authorities and a credible investigation to build public trust.

“The enduring influence and consequences of the colonial period on Nigerian institutions, including the police, does give the UK a responsibility to do all we can to support the Nigerian people in reforming those institutions,” she said.

A freedom of information request by the Campaign Against Arms Trade has revealed that the College of Policing, a professional body for police in England and Wales, trained Nigerian security forces last year.

Black lives matter everywhere. That’s why the world should support the #EndSARS movement

Chibundu Onuzo.

Since 2015, £ 43m of weapons have been licensed to Nigeria. UK arms export licensing criteria requires the government to review a license “if there is a clear risk that the items might be used for internal repression”.

“The government claims that it has a rigorous and robust arms export policy, but, in reality, it routinely arms human rights abusing regimes and police forces across the world,” Andrew Smith from CAAT said. “The UK has a long history of looking for the other way whole abuses are being inflicted.”

Thousands of mostly young people took the streets of Nigeria last month in the largest protest movement in years, sparked by footage of killings by Sars officers. The government dissolved the unit on 11 October but the protests continued.

Efforts had been made to reform the Nigerian police force, which was founded by UK governing authorities during colonial rule. Yet according to Isa Sanusi, a spokesperson for Amnesty International Nigeria, its violent origins are still evident in its “emphasis on protecting those in authority and use of force in all aspects of law enforcement”.

At least 600 killed in Mai Kadra massacre: Ethiopian rights body

 At least 600 civilians were killed in an ethnically-driven massacre earlier this month in the town of Mai Kadra in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the country’s human rights body has said following an investigation.

Tigray has witnessed heavy fighting since November 4, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an assault against the regional government after alleged attacks by Tigrayan security forces against the central government’s military posts in the northern region.

Since then, information has been hard to obtain and verify, with communications cut and access to Tigray tightly controlled. Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians, with thousands of people believed to have been killed so far and tens of thousands displaced.

The killings in Mai Kadra on November 9 were first reported by rights watchdog Amnesty International three days later, sparking fears of war crimes being committed as fighting intensified. On November 14, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) dispatched a team of experts to the region for an investigation that ran until November 19.

On Tuesday, the government-appointed but independent body said it had found that the killings were carried out by a local youth group called Samri, with the support of other Tigrayan civilians, police and militia.

Citing sources, including witnesses, first respondents and survivors, the EHRC said it estimated at least 600 civilians were killed in Mai Kadra but added that the death toll was likely to be higher.

According to the EHRC’s report, which could not be independently verified, a number of people from different ethnic groups were killed in Mai Kadra but the attackers specifically targeted ethnic Amharas and Wolkaits based, among other things, on their identification cards.

“The local militia and police security apparatus joined forces with members of the Samri group to carry out door-to-door raids and kill hundreds of people they identified as ethnic 'Amharas and Wolkait origin', by beating them with sticks, stabbing them with knives, machetes and hatchets and strangling them with ropes, ”the EHRC's report said.

Tigray’s rulers, from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), have previously rejected any responsibility for the Mai Kadra massacre.

In its report on November 12, Amnesty said it had not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings but the witnesses it had spoken to blamed forces loyal to the TPLF.

Meanwhile, some of the 40,000 people who have fled to neighboring Sudan have alleged mass killings perpetrated by government forces, including with machetes and axes.

“The government wants to get rid of the Tigray people, so we fled. The people are living in conflict there, ”Gowru Awara, an Ethiopian refugee in Sudan’s Gadarif state, told Al Jazeera last week.

“People have been slaughtered with knives. Pregnant women have had their bellies opened. The government is bombing civilians and killing us all. ”

Human Rights Watch earlier this month expressed concern that the government’s actions “may increase the discrimination, hostility, or violence toward ordinary Tigrayans, including those with perceived connections to the TPLF”, read one of its reports.

The government denies targeting civilians in its campaign against the TPLF and rejects allegations of discrimination against ethnic Tigrayans “a total lie”.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

MUSICIAN TETA LÁGRIMAS DIES

 Angolan musician Teta Lágrimas died this Tuesday in Luanda, victim of illness.

The information was provided by the Angolan Public Television (TPA). Abel Lágrimas da Conceição Santos Teta, was born in Zaire province.

Teta Lágrimas began singing in 1974. At the time he was imitating songs by his older brother, Teta Lando. His first disc was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

EU FUNDS US $38 MILLION FOR AGRICULTURE PROMOTION

 Thirty thousand peasant families from the provinces of Huíla and Cuanza Sul will benefit from a financing of US $ 38 million, made available by the European Union during the agricultural season 2020/21.

The money was made available for the implementation of the Family Agriculture Project and Marketing (SAMAP. In the province of Huíla it will cover 25 thousand families and five thousand in Cuanza Sul.

This amount, delivered through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is being applied in the purchase of corn, beans, sorghum seeds, as well as fertilizers, work tools and small equipment.

Speaking to ANGOP last Monday, the National Director of the Agrarian Development Institute (IDA), David Tunga, stated that in the province of Huíla 100 tonnes of maize seeds have already been purchased, 700 of NPK fertilizers 12-24-12, 180 of sulfate and ammonium and an equal number of urea.

He admitted that the distributed quantity is still insufficient to meet the agricultural development needs, adding that there is also dependence on the global economic and financial situation, now aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, but believes it may be essential.

He added that IDA is working on empowering communities through field schools, a space where producers learn about cultivation techniques.

The official recalled that the government recently approved the family farming and fishing acceleration program, which includes resources assessed in about 154 billion kwanzas (US $ 235.7 million equivalent), aimed at helping peasant families in the country.

He said that the respective value was used to purchase 60,000 plows, so that producers can produce on a large scale.

The SAMAP project, which is in the third year of its implementation, is being applied in ten of the country's 18 provinces.

He assured that the philosophy outlined by the institution is that agricultural means reach communities based on a subsidy policy and the process of acquiring resources from these peasants.

Huila Province has prepared more than 600,304 hectares which involves 314, 604 peasant families, integrated in 825 peasant associations.

In this agricultural campaign, it plans to harvest another 508,157 tonnes of different products.

ANGOLAN AIRLINE PRIVATIZATION SET FOR 2022

 The privatization process of the Angolan Airline company (TAAG) is scheduled for 2022, said on Monday the Minister of Transport, Ricardo D´Abreu.

The Transport minister was speaking at a meeting with journalists, held on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the creation of the Ministry of Transport marked, last November 23rd.

On the occasion, he stressed that the privatization of the Angolan flag carrier is part of the State Asset Privatization Program (PROPRIV).

Meanwhile, in 2018 President João Lourenço approved the transformation of TAAG into a commercial company (limited liability company), to enable investors to enter.

Making a foray into the sector's structuring projects, Ricardo D´Abreu said that the works for the new Luanda international airport will resume in early 2021 and will be completed within two years.

Currently, said the official, the conditions are being created for Chinese builders to return to the country in January, in order to continue with the contract.

Rail transport

Regarding the railroad sub-sector, the launching in December of this year or January 2021 of the tender for the concession of rail infrastructure and services for the Benguela Railways (CFB), in a first phase and afterwards in Luanda (CFL), is also in the pipeline.

Within the scope of a plan called “Corredor do Norte Project”, it is intended to ensure that the three rail lines, from Luanda, Benguela and Namibe, have connection with neighboring countries, through public private partnerships (PPP).

Aiming at a better performance of the sector, the Secretary of State for Transport, Jorge Bengue, revealed today that the Government has acquired 10 modern automotive units to replace the current ones in circulation in the urban network.

Of the total, the province of Luanda will have four locomotives and Benguela and Huíla three each.

ANGOP ECONOMIC DESK EDITOR DIES

 Angola Press Agency (ANGOP) Economic Desk editor, Agostinho Pascoal Quilemba, died of disease on Tuesday in Luanda.

Born in Luanda on 1 July 1979, Quilemba was the son of Pascoal Domingos José and Domingas José Quilemba. He joined ANGOP in 2001.

The 41-year old Agostinho Quilemba, a graduate in economics, was one of the agency’s new generation professionals, having been appointed Economic Desk sub-editor in 2007.

In 2018, he became the Economic Desk editor, the position he held until he died on Tuesday of disease at Luanda’s Sagrada Esperança clinic.

Agostinho Quilemba was an exemplary, competent and innovating editor who led a team of promising young journalists in boosting and diversifying the ANGOP’s economics contents.

MINISTER REGRETS DEATH OF ANGOP JOURNALIST

 The Minister for Telecommunications, Information Technology and Mass Media, Manuel Homem, said Tuesday in Luanda that ANGOP had lost one of its most promising professionals with the death of journalist Agostinho Quilemba.

In a message of condolence, the minister said that the premature death of the journalist and editor of the economic newsroom, at the age of 41, left ANGOP without one of its new professionals who gave his best for the quality of its journalistic content.

The journalist died on Tuesday of an illness at the Sagrada Esperança Clinic in Luanda.

Agostinho Quilemba, with a degree in economics, was one of the professionals of the new wave of the Agency and started work in 2001.

As part of the company's new dynamic, aimed at improving the quality of news content, he was appointed in 2007 as Sub-Editor of the Economic Desk.

In 2018, following the same editorial strategy, he was appointed editor of the Economic Desk, a position he held until the time of his death.

Agostinho Quilemba was an exemplary editor, competent and full of innovative ideas, who commanded a group of promising young journalists, with whom he had been promoting the publication of Angop's economic content.

THE ANGOLAN PRESIDENT WRITES TO SÃO TOMEAN COUNTERPART

 A message from President João Lourenço to his São Tomean counterpart, Evaristo Carvalho, was handed over on Tuesday by Vice-President Bornito de Sousa, as part of the efforts to get cooperation between both countries reinforced.

The message was delivered on the fringes of the burial of the former speaker of the São Tomean National Assembly, Alcino Pinto, who died a sudden death on Wednesday, at the age of 64 years.

According to Bornito de Sousa, the purpose of the meeting with the São Tomean Head of State was to deliver a message from President João Lourenço, to express solidarity between both peoples and governments.

The Vice-president would not disclose details of President João Lourenço’s letter to his São Tome colleague.

He described the late Alcino Pinto as a prestigious figure in São Tomé as a person of consensus among the political forces, especially among the youths.

Bornito de Sousa’s São Tome agenda included meetings with the local Prime Minister, Jorge Bom Jesus, and with the National Assembly’s speaker.

He also paid a courtesy visit to former Head of State of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, Pinto da Costa.

COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 108 NEW INFECTIONS, 93 RECOVERIES

 Angola has detected 108 new positive cases of Covid-19, one death and 93 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 update briefing, the secretary of State for Public Health said the new cases have been detected in Luanda (79), Cuanza Norte (15), Huambo (12) and Huíla (02).

Franco Mufinda said the ages of the new patients range from one to 66 years, 55 males and 53 females.

The dead is a 47-year old Angolan national from southeastern Namibe province, the official said, adding that in the period in respect, Luanda reported 42 recoveries, Lunda Sul (38) and Huambo (13), with ages from one to 58 years .

Angola’s Covid-19 figures show 14,742 positive cases, 338 deaths, 7,444 recoveries and 6,960 active patients.