Category: General

Brazzaville/Conakry – Guinea today declared the end of the Marburg virus disease outbreak having recorded no new cases over the past 42 days—two incubation periods, or the time between infection and the onset of symptoms. The virus was confirmed on 9 August, marking the first time the disease emerged in the country and in West Africa.

Only one case—the index patient who was diagnosed with the virus posthumously—was recorded and more than 170 high-risk contacts monitored for 21 days. The disease, a highly infectious virus that causes haemorrhagic fever, was detected in southern Guinea, the same region where the initial cases of the February—June Ebola 2021 outbreak as well as the 2014—2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak were detected.

Guinea’s health authorities, with support from World Health Organization (WHO), promptly mounted emergency response, deploying expert teams to carry out further investigations, step up disease surveillance, assess the risks and bolster community mobilization, testing, clinical care as well as infection prevention and control measures.

“Without immediate and decisive action, highly infectious diseases like Marburg can easily get out of hand. Today we can point to the growing expertise in outbreak response in Guinea and the region that has saved lives, contained and averted a spill-over of the Marburg virus,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

While the outbreak has been declared over, flare-ups can occur. WHO continues to support Guinea in its efforts to remain vigilant, maintain surveillance and build capacity to respond quickly to a possible resurgence of the virus.

Guinea’s health authorities, WHO experts and scientists are deepening investigations into the source of the Marburg outbreak, including analysis on bats as well as undertaking serological surveys to not only help understand how the virus emerged, but also help prevent potential future outbreaks.

Marburg, which is in the same family as Ebola, is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.

Although there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival. A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies, are being evaluated.

In Africa, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Amid increasing global pressure, India says it is closely examining the resumption of COVID-19 vaccine exports to the world, particularly Africa, which is badly in need.

India is the largest manufacturer of vaccines, but it stopped exporting them in April to fight a major surge of the virus that it now largely has under control.

A source with knowledge of the decision, who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak with the media about it, told Reuters that with at least 61% of India’s population of 944 million people having received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, the country now has a surplus.

The apparent decision to restart exports comes as Indian President Narendra Modi prepares to visit Washington next week for a summit of the leaders of the so-called Quad countries — the United States, India, Japan and Australia.

“The export decision is a done deal,” the source said. “India wants to help out Africa with both vaccines and its COVID operational model.”

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it is in ongoing discussions with Indian officials to resume those supplies with the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

“We have been assured that supply will restart this year,” senior WHO official Bruce Aylward said.

Meanwhile, the African Union lashed out at vaccine makers, saying they are not giving them a decent chance to buy vaccines. It implored manufacturing countries — especially India — to remove the export controls. Of the 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines injected globally, just 2% have been in Africa.

The European Union is pledging to donate 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries by mid-2022.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the pledge Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, during her annual State of the European Union speech before the European Parliament. Von der Leyen said the 200 million doses the EU plans to contribute will be in addition to an earlier promise of 250 million doses, which she described as “an investment in solidarity, and it is an investment in global health.”

Von der Leyen said “the scale of injustice and the level of urgency is obvious,” with less than 1% of all global doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in low- and middle-income countries.

“Let’s do everything possible so that it does not turn into a pandemic of the non-vaccinated,” she told EU lawmakers.

Source: Voice of America

Ondjiva – Officials from the Ministry of Interior (MININT) in Cunene province are taking part as of Tuesday in Ondjiva in a training session on humanitarian border management to strengthen security and fight illegal immigration.

The two-day training session is aimed at specialists of the Migration and Foreigners Services (SME) and Border Guard Police, promoted by the Ministry of Interior in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The event is addressing issues related to the concept of humanitarian border management, the difference between interview and interrogation, identifying possible cases of human trafficking, smuggling and types of migrants.

At the opening session, the SME Cunene provincial director, migration sub-commissioner Silvestre Cassinda, said that the subjects being taught are indispensable for the definition of operationalization strategy and sustaining of migration planning processes.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, Tuesday in Ndatalando, stressed the importance of his first visit to the province of Cuanza Norte, and asked for the understanding of the authorities and local population for the fact that the visit did not take place on the previously scheduled dates.

The visit of the President of the Republic to this province was announced more than once, but for various reasons it could not be carried out earlier.

“Therefore, from now on, we ask for the understanding of the authorities and the population of Cuanza Norte for this fact,” noted the Holder of the Executive Power, who resorted to one of the passages of the Bible according to which “the last will be the first”.

“Then you will be the first,” said President João Lourenço, who immediately gave the floor to the local governor, Agostinho André Mendes de Carvalho, who presented the memorandum on the socio-economic situation of the province.

President João Lourenço arrived in Ndalatando, Cuanza Norte, on Tuesday morning for a two-day working visit.

In the capital of Cuanza Norte, the Head of State is scheduled to have separate audiences this afternoon with representatives of religious entities, traditional authorities, businesspeople and youth leaders.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Ndalatando – The Ministry for Public Works and Territorial Planning has 100 billion kwanzas available to restart work on stalled roads, in order to improve road mobility, the sector’s minister, Manuel Tavares de Almeida said Tuesday in Ndalatando, capital of Cuanza Norte province.

Speaking to the press, Manuel Tavares de Almeida said that with this boost to the budget the Ministry for Public Works and Territorial Planning would re-launch the road salvation plan, as well as continuing with work that had been halted due to a lack of financial resources.

Without setting a deadline, Manuel Tavares de Almeida said that the sector urgently needed to rehabilitate the Catete/Maria/Ndalatando sections of around 160 kilometres.

The Cabinet minister also pointed to the restart of the work between the municipalities of Samba Caju, Banga, Quiculungo and Bolongongo, on a route of 90.5 kilometres, which had been at a halt for about two years due to delays in payment.

Started in July 2017, the project, with a 15-month execution period, is budgeted at Akz 11.6 billion.

The section is made up of a package of three lots: Samba Caju/Uiangombe/Banga, over a distance of 46 kilometres, Banga/Quiculungo, over 35.5 kilometres, and Quiculungo/Bolongongo, of nine and a half kilometres.

The platform includes a five centimetre wearing course in bituminous concrete, another base layer in extra granulometry crushed aggregate and a sub-base of granulometrically stabilised soil without mixture, both of 20 centimetes.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Tanzania’s president on Monday appointed the country’s first-ever woman defense minister, a move local analysts said could boost the region’s counter-terrorism efforts. Stergomena Tax is now the minister of defense and national service, succeeding Elias Kwandikwa, who died last month.

Tax recently retired as an executive secretary at the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a position she has held since 2013.

“I think she is well placed to fight regional terrorism. She can use her eyes and ears effectively to see enemies from within and outside,” said Silvio Mnyifuna, a local political commentator.

Tanzania is a military superpower in the region that can be used to fight terrorism, he said.

“Tax is very good in participatory leadership. I think she can team up with other regional leaders to ensure that peace and security prevail,” he said.

Tax’s appointment comes barely a month after Tanzania offered to host a counter-terrorism center to complement efforts by the SADC regional bloc to combat an escalating insurgency that threatens stability in the region.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who came to power in March, is working to restore investors’ confidence in multi-million dollar natural gas installations on the southern border with Mozambique.

According to a SADC communique from a summit in Malawi last month, the anti-terrorism center to be hosted by Tanzania is expected to offer “dedicated and strategic advisory services” to the region on terrorism threats and cybercrime.

Despite its track record for peace and stability in a region dogged by conflicts and civil strife, the East African country has experienced a rising number of terrorism threats on its southern border with Mozambique.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Cuito – State Secretary for Energy, António Belsa da Costa is working today in Bié province to check the progress of several projects related to the sector, namely in Cuito, Chitembo, Andulo and Nharêa municipalities.

António Belsa da Costa met with the provincial governor, Pereira Alfredo, visited several social infrastructures in Chitembo and the works of Cuito municipal hospital in Cunje commune.

Antonio Costa’s schedule for today includes a visit to the Camacupa dam, as well as the sector’s infrastructures in Andulo and Nharêa districts, 130 and 175 kilometres north of the capital, respectively.

Speaking to the press, after the audience with governor Pereira Alfredo, the secretary of State acknowledged that the sector is facing a lack of financial resources to materialise projects in several regions of the country.

He appealed to the clients of the National Electricity Company (ENDE), to pay for their consumption, in order to obtain resources that will be used in favour of the population.

However, he regrets the acts of vandalism that the sector has suffered by people of bad faith, calling for denunciation in order to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The 835 projects approved by commercial banks under the Programme to Support Production, Export Diversification and Import Substitution (PRODESI), since 2019, amount to an approximate value of Kz 729.4 billion, the Secretary of State for the Economy, Dalva Allen, said today in Luanda.

Speaking in her debut at the usual Briefing of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), Dalva Allen noted that the projects approved provided for over 67,000 jobs.

She also said that 45 projects were under negotiation with the commercial banks, which ended the week without any new approval.

She noted that the 45 projects were linked to financial instruments notice 10/20 of the National Bank of Angola (BNA) 34 and PAC 11.

She said that the sectoral distribution of approved projects included agriculture with 388, commerce and distribution 203, manufacturing 118, livestock 45, aquaculture 43, sea fishing 32 and continental fishing 6.

Dalva Allen said that in the area of access to the internal market, the registration of producers on the National Production Disclosure Portal (PPN) continues. In accumulated terms, since it became operational, the Portal has 20,666 national producers, 1387 more than last week.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – A memorandum of understanding for training Angolan technicians in the transport sector and exchanging experience was initialled Tuesday in Lisbon, between the National Institute of Road Transport (INTR) and the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT).

The document initialled by the Acting Director-General of the INTR, Énio Renato de Magalhães Costa, and by the Chairwoman of the Board of the Mobility and Transport Authority, Ana Paula Vitorino, includes the exchange of information and cooperation in terms of regulation, operation and supervision of road transport, particularly in terms of exchanging technological, technical and capacity-building experience.

With the memorandum, it is intended to strengthen and promote, on an equal basis, mutually beneficial cooperation in different areas in the field of road transport system, including road infrastructure, as well as the service of dangerous goods transport, freight and passenger transport, especially with regard to economic regulation of the various modes.

The areas of cooperation between the Parties under this Memorandum will relate to the regulation, operation and supervision of infrastructure and services, in the road mode, concerning passenger and freight transport, infrastructure technology and services, in the road mode, concerning passenger and freight transport.

The cooperation between the Parties provided for in this Memorandum may take forms such as exchange of information and documentation, by means of research reports, publications, consultancy, studies or other instruments.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Ndalatando – The governor of Cuanza Norte province, Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, reaffirmed today in Ndalatando, the government’s continued commitment to re-launch the agro-livestock activity in the region.

For Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, the re-launch of this activity will allow the province to regain the golden era when coffee, cotton, sisal, palm oil, among other products, were decisive for the development of the region’s economy.

Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, who was speaking at a meeting with the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, also argued the need to turn the province into an important logistics centre for the country, capable of supplying the central, southern, eastern and northern regions.

He said that this was due to the province’s strategic location, which gave it the status of a hub.

He said the transformation of the region into the country’s logistics centre would boost the province’s ongoing development activities.

Cuanza Norte is located in northwest Angola, bordered to the north by the province of Uige, to the west by Bengo and Luanda, to the east by Malanje and to the south by Cuanza Sul.

The province is linked by many national roads which connect it with the Angolan capital, Luanda.

Source: Angola Press News Agency