Day: November 4, 2021

Health workers in Cameroon are fighting a cholera outbreak that claimed 13 lives this week in two major cities of the central African state. The outbreak, which has affected several hundred people, comes as Cameroon prepares to host the African Football Cup of Nations, or AFCON, in about two months.

Cameroon’s health minister Manaouda Malachie in a release this week said thousands of civilians in the capital city Yaounde and Ekondo-Titi, an English-speaking western town, are threatened by cholera.

Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies and food. It causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and can kill within hours if left untreated.

Amos Kome Njikang, the medical doctor in charge of the Ekondo-Titi hospital, dispatched health workers to the community to search for and transport cholera patients to the hospital.

"Four more cases came in between yesterday and early this morning," he said. "We have made plans for the transportation of new cases from the community to the health facility at Bamousso. We have also tried to increase personal hygiene, hand washing, washing of whatever we consume. We are trying to tell them how to purify water before they drink."

The health ministry said several hundred patients were rushed to hospitals in Yaounde and Ekondo-Titi. The government said it recorded at least 13 cholera-related deaths in the two towns since Monday.

It's feared the outbreak may have claimed more lives in villages which lack health infrastructure.

This week, the ministry of health said it dispatched several dozen health workers to warn civilians that eating uncooked food and unwashed fruits, or drink water that’s not boiled, increases the risk getting cholera.

The cholera outbreak comes as Cameroon prepares to host the African Football Cup of Nations, AFCON, starting on January 9.

Yaounde, which will host teams from eight African nations in the continental soccer event, has reported at least 100 cholera cases.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Yaounde mayor Luc Messi Atangana said he's cleaning up the city and improving the drinkable water supply to stop cholera from spreading.

He said the outbreak is provoked by increased refuse dumped by civilians on street corners, and he's hired 30 trash trucks to add to 200 others that clear Yaounde of municipal solid waste. He expects Yaounde to be clean and free from cholera within the next two weeks.

The health ministry said the cholera outbreak may be difficult to contain. Less than 30 percent of the population visits hospitals either because of ignorance or because some civilians prefer traditional African medicine. Health workers are urging civilians to refer suspected cholera cases to the nearest hospitals.

Source: Voice of America

Facebook says it has removed a post by Ethiopia’s prime minister that urged citizens to rise up and “bury” the rival Tigray forces who now threaten the capital as the country’s war reaches the one-year mark.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s post on Sunday violated the platform’s policies against inciting and supporting violence, spokeswoman Emily Cain for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told The Associated Press. It was taken down on Tuesday morning, she said.

“The obligation to die for Ethiopia belongs to all of us,” Abiy said in the now-deleted post that called on citizens to mobilize “by holding any weapon or capacity.”

Abiy is still regularly posting on the platform, where he has 3.5 million followers. The United States and others have warned Ethiopia about “dehumanizing rhetoric” after the prime minister in comments in July described the Tigray forces as “cancer” and “weeds.”

Facebook has removed posts from world leaders before, although in rare circumstances. Earlier this year, the company deleted a video from U.S. President Donald Trump in which he peddled false claims about election fraud following a deadly skirmish at the U.S. Capitol. Facebook said at the time the video contributed to “the risk of ongoing violence.” Just last week, the tech platform yanked a live broadcast from Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro because he made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Spokeswoman Cain did not say how Facebook was made aware of the Ethiopia post, which the Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister made as Tigray forces took control of key cities over the weekend that put them in position to move down a major highway toward the capital, Addis Ababa.

Alarmed, Abiy’s government this week declared a national state of emergency with sweeping powers of detention and military conscription. The prime minister repeated his call to “bury” the Tigray forces in public comments on Wednesday as he and other officials marked one year of war.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s highly polarized social media this week saw a number of high-profile posts targeting ethnic Tigrayans and even suggesting they be placed in concentration camps.

Thousands of people have been killed in the war between Ethiopian and allied forces and the Tigray ones who long dominated the national government before Abiy took office. The United Nations human rights chief said Wednesday they had received reports of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans being rounded up for detention in recent months.

Former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen last month singled out Ethiopia as an example of what she called the platform’s “destructive impact” on society. “My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning,” she told the Senate consumer protection subcommittee. “What we saw in Myanmar and are seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying, no one wants to read the end of it.”

Meta spokeswoman Cain declined to say how many staffers they have on the ground in Ethiopia or dedicated to detecting violent speech in Ethiopia on its platform, but she said the company has the capability to review posts in Somali, Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya. She also said it has a team that includes people from Ethiopia or who have spent time in the country.

But Berhan Taye, a researcher in digital rights based in neighboring Kenya who tracks social media on Ethiopia and regularly escalates questionable posts to the Facebook platform, told the AP last week the platform wasn’t moderating in the Tigrinya language, the language of Tigrayans, as recently as April.

Overall in Ethiopia, “if you report (posts) on the platform, it’s very highly likely to get no reply at all,” she said. “From the amount we escalate, and the number of replies we get, that tells you their internal system is really limited.”

Source: Voice of America

The Ethiopian government marked the one-year anniversary of fighting between its forces and rebels in the northern Tigray region by suggesting its military is nearing victory.

Amid urgent global appeals for a cease-fire to the escalating violence, the government said in a statement on Facebook that the Tigray People's Liberation Front “and its puppets are being encircled by our forces” and that “a rat that strays far from its hole is nearer to death.”

“This is not a country that crumbles under foreign propaganda!” the statement added. “We are fighting an existential war!”

Tigrayan forces, however, say they are advancing on the capital, Addis Ababa, and that it could fall within months or even weeks.

In recent weeks, Oromo regional forces have joined the Tigrayan forces in their fight against the central government, leading to what the two groups claim are significant advances.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed that his government would prevail.

Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, did not respond when asked if Abiy would meet with U.S. Horn of Africa special envoy Jeffrey Feltman, who arrived in Ethiopia Thursday for a two-day visit amid growing concern over the violence.

“Ethiopia will not collapse. Ethiopia will prosper,” Abiy said, speaking in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. “Ethiopia will forever exist with her honor by defeating all who test her through the blood and bones of her children.”

The Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency Wednesday and called on residents to defend their neighborhoods if rebels arrive in the capital.

“Our country is facing a grave danger to its existence, sovereignty and unity. And we can’t dispel this danger through the usual law enforcement systems and procedures,” Justice Minister Gedion Timothewos said during a state media briefing.

Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray region, blamed the Ethiopian government and its allies for causing the suffering in the past year.

“The warmongers decided to continue with the war, and we entered into this war because the only option we had is to destroy our enemies by force.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday urged “all parties to end hostilities immediately — that includes the TPLF, that includes the Ethiopian government,” he said.

"We remain gravely concerned by the expanding conflict, by the violence, the expansion of the fighting throughout the country and the growing risk that it poses to the unity, to the integrity, of the Ethiopian state," he said, calling on all sides to “enter negotiations with preconditions towards a sustainable cease-fire.

After arriving in Addas Ababa Thursday, Feltman met with the government’s defense minister, finance minister, deputy prime minister and African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat. He is to hold talks with more Ethiopian officials on Friday, the State Department said.

Feltman "had a productive set of discussions” with the Ethiopian officials, Price said Thursday, and “appreciated the opportunity to do so. He'll have an opportunity to continue discussions tomorrow.”

On Wednesday, the State Department updated its travel advisory for Ethiopia to Level 4.

“What that means is we are advising U.S. citizens: Do not to travel to Ethiopia,” Price said. “We are recommending that U.S. citizens in Ethiopia consider departing now using commercial options that remain available.”

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the yearlong conflict was marked by “extreme brutality.”

“We have reasonable grounds to believe that during this period, all parties to the Tigray conflict have committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law,” the U.N. human rights chief said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “Some of this may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Civilians in Tigray have been subjected to brutal violence and suffering.”

A joint report by the U.N. human rights office and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission found that sexual violence has been rampant in the conflict, detailing reports of gang rapes by various parties against women and girls, but also against men and boys.

Price, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, said Thursday the U.S. is “carefully reviewing” the report.

The yearlong conflict has plunged about 400,000 people in the Tigray region into famine, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 2.5 million people in the north to flee their homes, according to the U.N.

Source: Voice of America

Belinda Kaziwisi of Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, about 200 kilometers north of Harare, is among the Zimbabwean mothers seeing the benefits that have grown from money provided by UNICEF.

“What I see has changed for the better is that from when I got pregnant until up to the delivery of my child, I didn’t pay anything," Kaziwisi said, her healthy baby in her arms. "When I delivered, I was given soap, cotton and other things for free. It was all nice compared with what used to happen before.”

With funding from UNICEF, the Zimbabwe government has hired health workers who encourage pregnant mothers in rural villages to seek assistance from the country’s health institutions to avoid complications.

“We encourage pregnant mothers to come to clinics," said Letty Chindundu, one of the health workers. "We tell them: When you get to the third month of your pregnancy, please go to the clinic. Health workers there will tell you what to do. The journey to delivery of your baby becomes easy. Even your baby will be taken care of while in the tummy, since there are now so many diseases. If they do not come to clinic, the baby may be delivered with ailments. That’s how we encourage them to come to clinic — when they [become] pregnant.”

Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe, said that having health workers in rural villages and funding the country’s health sector are paying off.

“[According to] the latest results of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Zimbabwe has successfully halved the maternal mortality ratio in the last 10 years, and this is a combination of different efforts [by] everyone," Oyewale said. "The challenges are real because the world is evolving. We did not [know] COVID was going to come. What is great about what I have seen is innovation. The problem comes, our people innovate.”

Dr. Aboubacar Kampo, UNICEF’s director of health programs, was a junior official in Zimbabwe for the U.N. agency when it launched the Health Transition Fund, a multidonor pooled fund to support the country’s barely functioning health sector, about a decade ago.

This week, Kampo has been in Zimbabwe to assess whether the fund has changed Zimbabwe’s maternal, newborn and child health systems. He said the fund was bearing fruit.

“I am very pleased with the progress which Zimbabwe has made in terms of providing health care to the entire population," Kampo said. "It is not perfect. But I think Zimbabwe can be proud of the achievement made. I think you have fully functional health systems, in particular primary health care. What I have seen is an integrated system.”

Kampo, a Mali national, said Zimbabwe now has a fully functional health system in primary health care, a sharp contrast to what the nation had nearly a decade ago.

Source: Voice of America