The African continent is the only region to have recorded a consistent drop in new HIV infections since 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Speaking to Al Jazeera on World AIDS Day on Tuesday, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said the continent continued to make remarkable strides in ending the AIDS pandemic – with the latest statistics showing that new infections reduced by 41 percent between 2000 and 2014. “Over the past 15 years, there has been substantial progress, both curbing deaths from HIV/AIDS and reducing new infections across the WHO Africa Region – which includes…
Author: AMA
In a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the eve of World AIDS Day on December 1, the global health body claimed the world was poised to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. According to the stats released by WHO, the number of HIV deaths had reduced by 42 percent – from a peak of more than 2 million in 2004 to an estimated 1.2 million in 2014. But with overburdened health systems, poor infrastructure and life-long treated needed, is the world really headed towards an AIDS-free generation by 2030? Al Jazeera talks to Dr Matshidiso Rebecca…
Nduta Camp, Tanzania – A bright purple bus roars into the dusty compound carrying scores of Burundians who have left their country to seek refuge in neighbouring Tanzania. Tit-for-tat attacks between the government and opposition have escalated over the recent post-election months, prompting thousands of people to flee. Among the new arrivals escaping the daily violence and arriving at Nduta Camp in remote western Tanzania are 18-year-old Fulpence Ndikumwenayo and his cousin, 16-year-old Eliose Kabule. Afraid of being recruited into the Imbonerakure, the violence-prone youth wing of the ruling party, they decided to leave their home and to follow their…
A security drill at a Nairobi university has caused mass panic among staff and students after security forces used what many thought was live ammunition to stage a pretend attack on the school. Social media went into overdrive on Monday afternoon as security forces simulated an attack against Strathmore University’s Madaraka campus in the Kenyan capital – with many believing the incident was real. A number of students from Strathmore were injured on Monday when they attempted to flee from the school – with the Kenyan Red Cross confirming that at least two patients were hospitalised. Their condition is unknown,…
Kenya has started construction on a 700km-long wall along its porous border with Somalia, in an attempt to shield itself from the armed group al-Shabab. The ambitious project, which consists of brick walls, fences and observation posts, will stretch from the town of Mandera in the north to Kiunga in the south. The goal is to lock out al-Qaeda-aligned fighters who have repeatedly crossed into Kenya to wage attacks. Kenya, an al-Shabab target due to its military involvement in Somalia, has seen an upsurge in large scale attacks recently. Earlier this year, 148 people, including 142 students, were killed after…
Thousands of enthusiastic Ugandans have greeted Pope Francis as he held a mass youth rally and honoured martyred Christians during the second leg of his historic three-nation trip to Africa. The 78-year-old pope preached a message of love and peace on Saturday as he ditched his prepared remarks to address the rally for young people in the capital Kampala. “Overcome difficulties, transform the negative into positive, and pray,” preached the pontiff, who was visibly moved after hearing the stories of Winnie Nansumba, a young Ugandan born with HIV, and Emmanuel Odokonyero, who was kidnapped and forced to be a child…
Kenya has arrested two men it says are connected to an Iranian intelligence network that was planning an attack inside the country. A Twitter account run by the Kenyan interior ministry said the men were planning a “terror attack” in the capital Nairobi and had travelled to Iran last month. The men were identified as 69-year-old Abubakr Sadiq Louw and 25-year-old Yassin Sambair Juma, who it said were both from Nairobi. A statement by the ministry described Louw as a “senior figure” in the city’s Shia Muslim community, adding the pair were working on behalf of Iranian state intelligence. Go-between…
Burkina Faso voters are heading to polls on Sunday, in a closely watched election that could mark the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s political history. The vote comes a year after a popular uprising toppled longstanding President Blaise Compaore, following his attempts to extend his 27-year rule. The elections were initially scheduled by an interim government for October, but a failed coup in September led by Compaore loyalists delayed the vote. As Burkinabe prepare for the presidential and legislative vote, described by many as the most open the West African country has ever experienced, here’s what you…
Unidentified gunmen have attacked a base for UN peacekeepers in the northern Mali town of Kidal, a peacekeeper at the base said. Residents of Kidal heard mortar fire as the attack occurred on Saturday morning, a witness told Reuters news agency. There was no immediate comment from the UN force (MINUSMA). French troops and the UN force are struggling to stabilise the former French colony where rebels attacked a hotel in the capital on November 20 and killed 20 people. [Al Jazeera]
Tanzania has banned government officials from sending Christmas and New Year cards paid for by public funds as part of cost-cutting measures introduced by the newly elected president. President John Magufuli is nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his no-nonsense, results-driven way of doing politics. He was elected in October as the East African country’s new leader. The president’s chief secretary, Ombeni Yohana Sefue, issued a statement on Thursday that “prohibited the printing of Christmas and New Year cards at the government’s expense”. “Anyone who wants to create or publish those cards, do so at his or her own expense,” Sefue’s statement…
Pope Francis has urged global action against the illegal trafficking of blood diamonds, ivory and other natural resources, in the second day of his landmark three-nation Africa trip. In a speech in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday, the pope said the illegal trade in precious stones and ivory fulled political instability and organised crime. “We cannot be silent about forms of illegal trafficking which arise in situations of poverty,” he said, just two weeks before Nairobi hosts a key ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation. Figures published earlier this year by Amnesty International showed conflict diamonds, which account…
Two people suspected of having links to a siege at a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako earlier this month have been arrested, the country’s security ministry has said. Amadou Sangho, a spokesman for the ministry, confirmed the arrests on Thursday, but did not reveal the identities and the alleged roles of the suspects in the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel. A source close to the investigation told the Reuters news agency that the suspects had been brought in for interrogation, based on information found on one of the attacker’s mobile phones. One of them had been regularly in…
Natural disasters in developing countries over the past 10 years have caused at least $80bn worth of agricultural damage, according to a UN report. The 53-page study, released on Thursday in the run-up to UN climate talks in Paris next week, looked at the impact of disasters on agriculture and food security from 2003-2013. “These production losses correspond to 333m tonnes of cereals, pulses, meat, milk and other commodities,” shrinking the available calorie intake for people in developing countries by an average of seven percent after each disaster, the report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.…
Freetown, Sierra Leone – Mariam Momoh was already unconscious when the taxi pulled up in front of her house. She was pregnant and had been vomiting all morning, unable to keep anything down. Her husband, Moinina, had tried calling for an ambulance, but gave up after several hours of being told that there wasn’t one available. “It took us 40 minutes to get here. We only live four miles [6km] away,” he said, standing outside the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in the capital, Freetown. Mariam’s condition had been stabilised, but nurses said that had she arrived any later, neither she…
Gambia has become the latest in a string of African nations to ban female genital mutilation (FGM), an ancient tradition of removing external parts of a girl’s vagina that has been widely condemned. The country’s information ministry on Tuesday confirmed the move in a statement that cited President Yahya Jammeh as saying that FGM has no place in Islam – the country’s predominant belief system – or in a modern society. Berhane Raswork, a leading anti-FGM activist and the founder of The Inter-African Committee which now operates in 28 African countries to bring an end to FGM, called the move…
Pope Francis has called for ethnic and religious reconciliation after arriving in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at the start of his landmark three-nation Africa tour. In what is his first official trip to the continent, the pope called all Kenyans on Wednesday to work for peace and forgiveness and warned of the need to address poverty as a key driver of conflict. “Experience shows that violence, conflict and terrorism feed on fear, mistrust, and the despair born of poverty and frustration,” Francis said in Nairobi. RELATED: Pope set for Africa visit amid high expectations “To the extent that our societies…
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have been urged by activisits and the civil society to broadcast a documentary depicting the Marikana massacre of 2012 on public television. At least 44 people were killed during strikes at the Lonmin Plantinum mines in the Northwest province in South Africa. Thirty-four were murdered on a single day when police opened fire on striking miners in the most brutal police operation in the country since the end of apartheid. The film continues to draw plaudits from the across the globe. Since being released in 2014, ‘Miners Shot Down’ has won 21 awards, including five…
Kasulu, Tanzania – At the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp on Tanzania’s western border, a young man stands apart from the crowd of people pushing against the bent gate, clamouring for their monthly ration of two bars of soap and a mosquito net. Abdul Karim is one of more than 110,000 Burundian refugees who have fled to the neighbouring country since April. Unfazed by the commotion at the distribution centre, the 26-year-old casually jokes that he can do without soap. He can cope with the conditions at the camp, he explains, because he has survived worse. For two weeks, Karim walked through…
A teenager has died in Liberia in the first such death since the country was officially declared free of the virus in September, according to an official. Francis Karteh, head of Liberia’s national Ebola crisis unit, told AFP news agency on Tuesday that the teenager’s parents had also tested positive for the virus and were under observation in the capital Monrovia. More than 150 people are under surveillance. “The 15-year-old has finally died. He died yesterday,” Karteh said. It was confirmed last week that the boy and two of his relatives had contracted Ebola, which has left more than 11,300…
Algeria’s former head of counter-terrorism will appear in a military court in the country’s first trial of a high-ranking officer in the secret services, according to his lawyer. Abdelkader Ait-Ouarabi – better known as General Hassan – is accused of “destroying documents and disobeying military instructions”, Mokrane Ait-Larbi, the lawyer, told AFP news agency on Monday. The military court in the city of Oran could not be reached for comment or confirmation. General Hassan had for two decades embodied the army’s fight against armed groups in the country. He was forcibly retired on the orders of a military judge at…