africa
Africa to finally receive first batch of vaccines for deadly mpox virus
The continent will belatedly get 10,000 shots amid criticism of delays to the process caused by WHO red tape.
Africa’s first batch of mpox vaccines will this week finally reach the continent, weeks after they have been made available in other parts of the world.
The 10,000 shots, donated by the US, will be used to tackle a dangerous new variant of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, after a 2022 outbreak triggered global alarm.
Vaccines have already been made available in more than 70 countries outside Africa, and the failure to provide the continent with anti-mpox shots until now displays worrying problems in the way international agencies deal with global health emergencies, medical officials and scientists warned last week
They say that it took the World Health Organization (WHO) until this month to officially start the process needed to give African countries easy access to large quantities of vaccines via international agencies – despite the fact that the disease has afflicted people there for decades. That process could have begun years ago, they told Reuters.
Mpox is a potentially deadly infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and spreads through close physical contact. It was declared a global health emergency by the WHO on 14 August after the new variant, known as clade Ib, began to spread from the Democratic Republic of the Congo into neighbouring African countries.
The long wait for WHO approval for international agencies to buy and distribute the vaccines has forced individual African governments and the continent’s public health agency – the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) – to instead request donations of shots from rich countries.
That cumbersome process can collapse – as it has before – if donor nations feel they should keep the vaccines to protect their own populations.
Helen Rees, a member of the Africa CDC’s mpox emergency committee, and executive director of the Wits RHI Research Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, said to Reuters it was “really outrageous” that, after Africa struggled to access vaccines in the Covid pandemic, the continent had once again been left behind.
(source: theguardian.com)
The Wagner group falters in Africa
The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the onetime leader of the Wagner mercenary group, has rattled its once-cozy relations with the Central African Republic. The nation is now weighing offers from Russia and Western countries, including France and the U.S., to replace Wagner as its primary security guarantor.
The outcome of this struggle could be a bellwether for the group’s future on the continent, where the C.A.R. is perhaps the most deeply enmeshed among the handful of African nations partnering with Wagner.
It remains unclear whether Western countries can offer the same level of security as the mercenary group and whether hard-pressed Central African officials will dare face rebel groups and other security threats without Wagner’s familiar embrace or the promise of troops.
(source: nytimes.com)
Clôture du 10ème exercice militaire Africa Endeavour à Madagascar
L »ambassadeur des Etats-Unis, Robert Yamate, a lancé un appel à l’union et à la mobilisation générale des 40 pays et organisations internationales participants à cet exercice militaire, qui s’est déroulé à Madagascar, et qui s’est focalisé sur la transmission et la communication au sein de l’Armée.
« Les ennemis et les défis que nous surmontons aujourd’hui sont souvent de nature transnationale et asymétrique, telle qu’il existe dans le cyber espace, les famines, les inondations, les insurrections, les attaques terroristes et les missions de maintien de la paix post-conflit. Les Etats-Unis ne peuvent pas faire face seuls à ces défis ; Madagascar ne peut pas faire face seule, à ces défis ; et aucun des pays réunis ici ne le peut » , a-t-il souligné en démontrant les précieux avantages reçus au cours des 5 jours de symposium accompagnant ces exercices, dont le partage d’expériences, la standardisation des procédures opératoires en matière de transmission pour relever les immenses défis du continent, lors de son discours de clôture du 10è exercice militaire Africa Endeavor dans le camp du 1er Régiment des Transmissions et de Service (RTS) à Fiadanana.
TANIKO Madagascar 