Day: April 21, 2022

Key Updates

• High-level visits to Niger: In February, Niger received visits from the Director General of IOM and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and in a separate mission, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.

Both delegations met with the president and other high-ranking government officials and made site visits, including to Agadez.

• Anti-smuggling operation in Niger: In January, the Nigerien police arrested approximately twenty people in Niamey and Maradi in connection to smuggling of migrants. They were implicated in document fraud and the organization of plane transport to Europe using these false documents

• Senegal FRONTEX proposal: During a visit to Senegal by a delegation from the EU, the Commissioner for Home Affairs proposed an operational deployment of Frontex to Senegal. Should the Senegalese government accept the EU’s offer, it would be the first time Frontex would operate outside of Europe with its own personnel. Senegal’s Interior Minister has agreed to undertake “technical discussions” on the offer.

• Cross borders movements and internal displacement continue unabated in the region: In the first quarter, some 17,677 people entered Niger’s western regions of Tillabéri and Tahoua from Mali. During the month of March, ongoing violence and banditry in northwestern Nigeria drove around 8,629 people into the Maradi region of Niger. In Burkina Faso the first quarter of the year saw the second biggest spike in internal displacement since the beginning of conflict there, with 160,000 people displaced in January alone.

• Canary Islands arrivals: There was an increase in irregular arrivals to Spain in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the corresponding period of 2021. The majority of these were to the Canary Islands, which as of 31 March had documented 5,871 arrivals, a 71% increase over the first quarter of 2021.

• Expulsions into Niger: Based on figures from the NGO Alarme Phone Sahara, some 8,207 people were expelled from Algeria to Niger in the first quarter of the year.1 While exact numbers are not clear, hundreds of people were also expelled from Libya into Niger during this period.

Source: Mixed Migration Centre

More than 1 million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have now received one or more doses of the world's first malaria vaccine, thanks to a pilot programme coordinated by WHO. The malaria vaccine pilots, first launched by the Government of Malawi in April 2019, have shown that the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) vaccine is safe and feasible to deliver, and that it substantially reduces deadly severe malaria.

These findings paved the way for the historic October 2021 WHO recommendation for the expanded use of RTS,S among children living in settings with moderate to high malaria transmission. If widely deployed, WHO estimates that the vaccine could save the lives of an additional 40 000 to 80 000 African children each year.

More than US$ 155 million has been secured from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to support the introduction, procurement and delivery of the malaria vaccine for Gavi-eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa. WHO guidance is available to countries as they consider whether and how to adopt RTS,S as an additional tool to reduce child illness and deaths from malaria.

"As a malaria researcher in my early career, I dreamed of the day we would have an effective vaccine against this devastating disease," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it's life-changing for families across Africa. It demonstrates the power of science and innovation for health. Even so, there is an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world."

Prospects for new interventions

RTS,S is a first-generation vaccine that could be complemented in the future by other vaccines with similar or higher efficacy. WHO welcomes progress in the development of R21/Matrix-M and other malaria vaccine candidates in early clinical development. The successful completion of clinical trials for these vaccines will be important to assess their safety and efficacy profiles. WHO also welcomes the news from BioNTech, manufacturer of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, that it aims to develop a malaria vaccine using mRNA technology.

In the field of vector control, a number of new tools and technologies have been submitted to WHO for evaluation. Should they demonstrate efficacy in controlling the disease, WHO will formulate new recommendations or amend existing ones to support their deployment. These include, for example, new types of insecticide-treated nets, spatial mosquito repellents, gene-drive approaches and sugar baits designed to attract and kill *Anopheles *mosquitoes.

There are also new medicines in the pipeline. WHO welcomes the recent approval by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration of dispersible tablets of single-dose tafenoquine for the prevention of P. vivax malaria among children. Tafenoquine has also been approved for use in adults by the US Federal Drug Administration and by drug regulatory bodies in other countries, including Brazil, Peru and Thailand. As a single dose, tafenoquine is expected to support patient adherence to treatment. The current standard of care requires a 7- or 14-day course of medication.

A number other antimalarial medicines with new modes of action are being developed for the treatment of uncomplicated and severe malaria. Ganaplacide-Lumefantrine, currently in a Phase II clinical trial, is the first non-artemisinin combination therapy and could be an asset in fight against emerging drug-resistant malaria in Africa.

In addition to drug resistance, WHO has reported other pressing threats in the fight against malaria, such as mosquito resistance to insecticides, an invasive malaria vector that thrives in urban and rural areas, and the emergence and spread of mutated P. falciparum parasites that are undermining the effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests. Innovation in tools and strategies will be critical to contain these threats, together with a more strategic use of the tools that are available today.

More investment needed

According to the 2021 World malaria report, global progress in reducing malaria cases and deaths has slowed or stalled in recent years, particularly in countries hardest hit by the disease. The report notes the need for continued innovation in the research and development of new tools if the world is to achieve the 2030 targets of the WHO malaria strategy.

Funding for malaria-related research and development reached just over US$ 619 million in 2020. An average annual R&D investment of US$ 851 million will be needed in the period 2021--2030.

Making better use of the tools we have now

Reaching global malaria targets will also require innovations in the way that currently available tools are deployed. Through the " High burden to high impact" approach, launched by WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in 2018, countries hardest hit by malaria have been collecting and analysing malaria data to better understand the geographical spread of the disease.

Instead of applying the same approach to malaria control everywhere, they are considering the potential impact of tailored packages of interventions informed by local data and the local disease setting. These analyses will enable countries to use available funds in a more effective, efficient and equitable way.

Source: World Health Organization

Key Updates

• Land and sea arrivals to Italy and Spain from North Africa through the Central (CMR) and Western Mediterranean Routes (WMR) increased by 13% compared to the same period in 2021.

• Data from the Spanish Ministry of Interior show an increase of land and sea arrivals in the first two months of 2022 of 73.2% compared to the same period last year. According to the Ministry's figures, more than 98% of these arrivals were registered by sea, with most arrivals registered at the Canary Islands.

• According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in Q1 of 2022 3,094 refugees and migrants were intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) and returned to Libya.

• 410 refugees and migrants were reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean in Q1, of which 373 were along the CMR and 37 along the WMR. This marks a slight increase compared to the same period in 2021.

• In March, media reported on Germany’s announcement that it would no longer participate in the support and training of the LCG in Libya, carried out by the European Union (EU) since 2016, citing cases of mistreatment of intercepted and returned migrants and ‘‘unacceptable behaviour’’ by authorities.

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warn that combined effects of conflict, economic crisis, and poor harvests are significantly affecting people’s access to food and will likely double the number of people facing acute hunger in Sudan to more than 18 million people by September 2022, having the potential to impact on erupting and resource-driven conflicts and forced internal and cross-border displacements.

Source: Mixed Migration Centre