Day: March 20, 2024

The Namibian Police Force (NamPol) in Oshikoto Region Region have opened a case of rape against an unknown cattle herder who allegedly raped a seven-year-old girl on Tuesday. According to NamPol's Crime Investigations Coordinator for the region, Deputy Commissioner Titus Ekandjo on Wednesday, the incident happened at an unknown time at Uuntyaye village in the Omuntele Constituency. The victim is a Grade 1 learner at Amen Combined School and resides with her grandmother at Uuntyaye village. 'It is alleged that the suspect came to the victim's house, where he found the minor victim with her cousin, an eight-year-old boy,' said Ekandjo. He added that the minors were alone at home since their grandmother had gone to Onandjokwe State Hospital. 'It is alleged that the suspect started calling the victim by her name and then held her by the hand, before going with her in the nearby bushes, where he undressed her and started touching the victims' private parts before having sexual intercourse with the minor under coercive circumstances,' he added. He further reported that the suspect is unknown to the victim and her cousin, but according to the victim's cousin, it was not the first time that the unknown man came to the house and picked up the victim while the grandmother was away. Ekandjo reported that after the incident on Tuesday, the victim rushed to Oniihandhila location and informed a woman about what had transpired, after which the police were informed and a case opened. No arrest has been made as the suspect is unknown. Police investigations continue. Source: The Namibia Press Agency

Tunis: Cooperation between Tunisia and the Kingdom of Denmark in the field of migration was the focus of a working session held on Thursday between the Director General of the National Observatory for Migration and a delegation from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Director General of the Observatory recalled the many opportunities for cooperation between Tunisia and the Kingdom of Denmark and expressed his desire to develop and strengthen them and exchange expertise in the field of migration, the Observatory said in a statement. He also praised Denmark's contribution to the financing of the Joint Training Centre for Integrated Border Management in Nata, which provides exemplary training courses for members of the three security services (National Security, National Guard and Customs) in the field of integrated border management and combating cross-border crime and smuggling networks. He also commended the role played by the Danish Refugee Council in Tunisia since 2012 in supporting Tunisia's ef forts to protect, assist and care for refugees and asylum seekers. The Director General of the Observatory reiterated Tunisia's commitment and readiness to contribute to all efforts aimed at strengthening joint action to achieve the goals of the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration and economic integration, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda. For their part, the members of the Danish delegation expressed their country's readiness to support Tunisia in several areas related to migration and its management. They praised Tunisia's experience in the field of statistics and in addressing the root causes of migration. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

AstraZeneca has introduced its Healthy Heart Africa (HHA) initiative aimed to prevent and control hypertension and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). The initiative seeks to strengthen local healthcare centres, build resilience and prevention to reduce the higher rate of Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD). Mr Deepak Arora, Country President, African Cluster, AstraZeneca, speaking in Accra said the initiative was targeted at integrating screening, diagnosing of NCDs at the primary level and secondary level for a resilient health system. He said a many Ghanaians were silently suffering from hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and NCDs, therefore, strengthening local healthcare centres and building their resilience on prevention and control would contribute to the reduction of CKD patients reaching the dialysis stage. He said HHA has over the years screened 9.1 million patients, and this year's chapter was adding CKD as part of the NCD prevention and easy access to treatment. Mr Arora said the initiative was to educate and strengthen patients to improve upon their lives to achieve a resilient health system. He said HHA would have 25 centres across Ghana both public and private to look into, especially the local healthcare centres to prevent patients from progressing to the complicated stage of CKDs. 'The centres will have healthcare providers trained to educate and advocate patients to seek early treatments,'he added. He said early screening, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, diabetes and CKDs were important, calling on the Ministry of Health and professional societies of Ghana to collaborate fight against these diseases. Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, told the Ghana News Agency that the HHA initiative was important and timely because CKD awareness in Ghana was very low, therefore, educating and investing in kidney health promotion would help prevent kidney diseases. He said it was important to educate citizens to go for check-ups to know their CKD stage for immediate recovery ac tions. He said when there was early detection it reduced the number of patients suffering from CKD and released the burden on the country as well. He urged other stakeholders, private partners and Non-governmental organisations to also partake in such initiatives to help eradicate NCDs and CKDs across the world. He expressed the hope that the HHA 2.0 initiative would contribute to the prevention and early detection to ensure improved patient outcomes and quality of life for persons living with CKD in Ghana. He commended AstraZeneca for partnering Ghana Health Service and professional societies in the development of a protocol to manage and prevent CKDs. Source: Ghana News Agency