Africa

BBC Africa Eye uncovers evidence that torture is being used by the Nigerian police and armed forces.

England secure a 1-1 series draw with South Africa by beating the hosts by two wickets in the third one-day international in Johannesburg.

Paraguay giants Olimpia Asuncion agree a deal 'in principle' to sign Togo legend Emmanuel Adebayor.

The state is obliged to provide toilets along the country's roads, Kenya's High Court rules.

Fifa is keen to investigate a host of financial transactions carried out by the Confederation of African Football following an audit into the continent's ruling body.

The four killed by suspected electrocution include a pregnant female, a conservation group says.

England's rugby world cup finalist, who's parents were born in Nigeria, talks about his identity.

Manchester United's Odion Ighalo will miss the club's training camp in Spain because of fears the coronavirus outbreak could lead to him being refused entry back into the UK.

President Uhuru Kenyatta praises his predecessor as Kenyans queue to view the late leader's body.

Fans of Chukwuemeka Ike, who died last month, say that he should be more widely acclaimed.

Wendy Kemunto wrote a song, Huru, to encourage others to speak out about sexual violence.

By Aasha Mehreen Amin
Feb 7 2020 (IPS-Partners)

One of the interesting perks of being a brown South Asian, travelling anywhere in the world, is the special attention you get from various official quarters. Getting a visa anywhere in the northern hemisphere, for instance, is like winning a lottery and could even count as a status symbol. Prior to such a windfall, if it at all occurs, it will mean filling out pages of a form that can ultimately be published as a booklet of your family’s ancestry and a mini biography of yourself. The unique complexities of being someone from the subcontinent makes the whole process a delightful conundrum—if, for example, your father was born during British rule and lived through the Partition, the independence of India and Pakistan, and then that of Bangladesh, how do you answer “Where is your father from?” Should it be British India, India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, or all of the above?

Your special status becomes even more apparent when you actually travel and have to go through multiple security checks where you know you will receive extra scrutiny compared to people of any other nationality—well, besides being or even looking Middle Eastern, to certain eyes. Then you get royal scrutiny of a totally different level.

On the plane you know you shouldn’t linger too long outside the lavatories, especially not in front of the exit and definitely not with your partner—two brown people hanging around is much worse than one and can set of the alarm bells in many a paranoid passenger.

The conspicuous way in which a brown complexioned South Asian is treated makes you think you are the most important character among all the other passengers of uninteresting (as far as security personnel are concerned) ethnicities. In fact, sometimes you are so conscious of the extra attention that you may even start behaving strangely—like nervously tapping your leg, sporting an exaggerated air of nonchalance that actually makes you look like you’re hiding something, or worse, smiling at the immigration officer in what you think is a friendly way that proves your innocence but ends up as a sinister grimace that can only spell impending trouble.

Personally, I don’t know what I do to make security personnel be so drawn to me and it has been like this since long before 9/11, when the world didn’t think that every Muslim in the planet was potentially a closet militant. For whatever reason, whenever I travelled to the West I would be singled out from the queue and be subject to interrogation.

Decades later, the legacy has endured and thanks to the horrific terror attacks in the name of religion and a successful global campaign of Islamophobia, I find myself getting undivided attention from overzealous security personnel. When travelling especially to and from the US, it is with almost certainty that I will be picked out randomly among all the hundreds of passengers and then have the privilege of having a generous “pat down” (a euphemism for institutionalised groping) by a stern looking female security officer ominously wearing surgical gloves. The last time this happened was when I was just about to board the plane and the officer just stopped me at the gate and asked me if I would mind stepping aside.

Of course I mind, I wanted to say as my fellow passengers walked by with curious glances, but obviously didn’t, even when in a monotone she explained all the objectionable things she was about to do to me.

One of the weird things I do when embarrassed or, in this case humiliated beyond belief, is to start smiling in a slightly deranged manner which hardly helps matters. So, while being felt up and down in the name of a security check and as another officer went through the entire contents of my humungous bag, all I could do was make embarrassed chortling sounds resembling a duck choking on its own saliva. I am not sure, though, whether I was more mortified by the invasive touching (I almost wanted to tell her to massage my aching lower back while she was at it) or by the fact that the other officer was now going to discover the sachets of instant coffee, creamer, and sugar I had snagged from the airport hotel room along with the balls of tissue carrying discarded gum (I hate littering), chocolate wrappers, a crumpled bag with an extra pair of socks, crumbs from forgotten cookies, not to mention paper napkins with makeup stains, and a half eaten Snickers bar.

Security clearances at airports in present times have definitely managed to strip us of all vestiges of dignity and sense of privacy. Thus, woe betide if you are wearing loose pants that have been kept in place by a tight belt as you will most definitely be asked to take off the belt along with your shoes and jacket—oh your watch, earrings, keys etc. too—anything that may set the monitor off, which in my case could very well be the colour of my skin.

Only a few brave souls are unaffected by the bizarre stripping ritual at security checkpoints. Last year, a young man made news when he walked up to a security checkpoint at an airport in Detroit, removed all his clothes and accessories before approaching the metal detector. When he passed through in nothing but his birthday suit and with flying colours, the first thing he put back on was — his watch. Apparently, the police and the fire department responded but as he posed no threat the police did not arrest him. But then again, he was white and one wouldn’t recommend such flamboyance in the case of a brown South Asian.

Aasha Mehreen Amin is Deputy Editor, Op-Ed and Editorial section, The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post The privilege of being a brown South Asian traveller appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Everton hope injured midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin will be back in eight weeks, says manager Carlo Ancelotti.

Although women and girls account for a far smaller share of total homicides than men, they bear by far the greatest burden of intimate partner/family‐related homicide, and intimate partner homicide. Source: UNODC report

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

“I soiled my pants, I could feel the wetness seeping into my waistband, my eyes started to become blurry. Only the sound of the blaring television assured me that I was still alive. I tried to stop thinking and make my mind go completely blank. Over the years I have adapted and now I can make my mind go numb. But the only nagging question ringing on my mind during the last 45 seconds was: will this stain the carpet? Should I clean myself first or should I clean the carpet first? Which one is safer? Did he notice the stain?

I laid there without a word hoping and praying that he does not notice the wetness. I am pretty sure he will start to bash me noticing the stain. We just bought the carpet two years back and it is messed now for me. I laid down holding my breath.

His grip started to get loose. I saw him examining the wet spot on his jeans and his eyes change to a different color of red. A little later he moved his foot that was firmly digging on my chest. His mother scrunched her nose and tucked a portion of her garment to block the smell. She held my son by his arm and pulled him out of the closet. I saw my son being dragged to the kitchen. Although the blood on my eyes was making it hard to see, still I was relieved that my 6-year-old did not have to see his mother soiling her garments and her face red with blood. I laid there for roughly five minutes until my husband left the room.”

She takes a pause, touching the old cut on her lips and wipes the corner of her eyes marked with various shades of blue and purple. She speaks like this with vivid descriptions every time she comes to the shop. Then as expected, comes the routined realization of guilt, regret, and anger followed by her denial and helplessness. “It is not his fault. It is not. He is a good man, he buys me food, he gave money for laundry but sometimes he loses his patience. He is not a bad man.” She nods her head and forces a faint smile. He holds my hands and gestures me begging to stay calm.

This story is of a girl named Selina, who is a regular at the Asian store down the road.

Selina was only 16 years old when a family came to meet her as she came back home from school one day. All she knew was: the family lives in America and is affluent. She was married that evening. After a year, her husband brought her to the United States. For the last 7 years, she has never been permitted to meet anyone from her family or go back home. She does not have access to a telephone nor is she permitted to go out of the house alone. The only surrounding she knew was the house she lives in, the grocery store and the route to her son’s school. Coming from the same country as me, she speaks to me every chance she gets when her mother in law is not with her. I have seen her many times in the shop, hesitant, perplexed and with bruises. Today she came fully covering her face, limping and looking for a stain remover for her carpet.

I took another look at her face and at the fresh bandage covering her forehead and after 3 years of trying to gather some courage, I finally picked up my phone and dialed. (1)

Domestic abuse and violence are the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically; however, the one constant component of domestic violence is one partner’s consistent efforts to maintain power and control over the other. (2) Sometimes in the early stages of a relationship, it cannot be determined if one person will become abusive and to what extent that might lead to. Domestic violence intensified overtime. Outwardly an abuser seems like a wonderful person, liked by his colleagues and friends but gradually may become aggressive and controlling. Also, an abuser may have episodes of being violent and being loving or caring moments later. The abused might stay in a constant state of denial hoping for the episode to pass and then get back to normality.

The question comes in relation as to why the abuser does not voice her concerns or reach out for help. Also why they do not break the cycle of abuse? In the majority of countries with available data, less than 40 percent of the women who experience violence actually speak up and seek help of any sort. Among women who do, most look to family and friends and very few look to formal institutions and mechanisms, such as police and health services. Less than 10 percent of those women seeking help for the experience of violence sought help by appealing to the police or other organizations. (3) Between 960,000 and 3,000,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported each year, while many other incidents go unreported. (4) It is estimated that more than ten million people experience domestic violence in the U.S. each year. (5) In many cases, it has been seen that there is a massive gap between the number of abused women reaching out for help than the actual number of women facing abuse.

The victim’s reasons for staying with their abusers are extremely complex and, in most cases, are based on the reality that their abuser will follow through with the threats they have used to keep them trapped: the abuser will hurt or kill them, they will hurt or kill the children, they will win custody of the children, they will harm or kill pets or others and will ruin their victim financially. The victim in violent relationships knows their abuser best and fully knows the extent to which they will go to make sure they have and can maintain control over the victim. (6)

There is a growing body of research data demonstrating that immigrant women are a particularly vulnerable group of victims of domestic violence., where a widely utilized technique to dominate the abused is isolation. It is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their gender status in the United States. Drawn from unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman’s relationship with her spouse; the second is related to the frequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions. (5). This group of women tends to have fewer resources, stay longer in the relationship, and sustain more severe physical and emotional abuse. It has been seen many times that abusers of immigrant domestic violence victims actively use their power to control their wife’s and children’s immigration status and threats of deportation as tools that play upon victim’s fears so as to keep their abused spouses and children from seeking help or from calling the police to report the abuse.

Due to the language barrier, the immigrant women who have limited speaking ability of the language spoken in the foreign country get sidelined by default. During their doctor’s visits, children’s school visits and other social interactions they remain highly dependent on their spouses or upon family for getting their point across. So, if they want to voice out their concerns they are barred and monitored. It is a well-known common practice of many first generations and second-generation families to keep the families’ personal identification documents like passports, birth certificates, health insurance cards, social security cards and financial documents under the control of the male of the house. The women are always under constant surveillance and monitoring. Another interesting factor adding to the muted voice of abused women is financial dependency. Following traditions and cultural norms, regardless of educational background or social standing, a major portion of the immigrant women are required to put their earnings or savings into a joint account that she and her partner share. And in most cases, she holds no access or decision-making ability of her own money even if she is earning.

An update to Selina’s story:

One phone call made by her neighbor 2 years back, changed her life for the better. It took her 2 months to heal physically in a hospital, took 23 sessions of physical therapy to walk properly and hours of counseling to get back her mental health and stability. She now works in a bakery and can speak basic English after a year of training offered by her local shelter. She is living in a one-bedroom apartment with her son and she recently sent $50 to her ailing mother back home from her paycheck. Every time her cell phone rings, she smiles and pauses before answering. She loves the fact that she can breathe without taking permission from anyone and can speak with anyone she wishes to.

Notes

1. Selina’s story: The actual name and location of the victim and reporter have been kept confidential.

2. https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2497/domestic_violence2.pdf

3.United Nations Economic and Social Affairs (2015).
The World’s Women 2015, Trends and Statistics,p. 159.
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen.html

4. The Gateway Center For Domestic Violence Services. City of Portland, Oregon. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
5. NCADV. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
6. https://ncadv.org/why-do-victims-stay
7.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1009460002177

The post Do I Need Permission to Breathe? – A Migrant Woman’s Story appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ding Ding is Deputy Division Chief, Caribbean 1 Division, Western Hemisphere Department (WHD) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), & Inci Otker currently works at the Western Hemisphere Department, IMF and is mission chief for St. Kitts and Nevis & Trinidad and Tobago and Division Chief of Caribbean III.

By Ding Ding and Inci Otker
WASHINGTON DC, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

The Caribbean economies have long recognized the value of working together. Improving regional integration—for instance, through more intraregional trade and policy coordination—can help the region’s small-size economies build greater resilience and scale, as well as enhance bargaining power on the global stage.

According to the latest IMF research, further liberalizing trade and labor mobility in the region can generate significant economic benefits—potentially over 7 percent of the region’s GDP in 2018.

While policymakers of the Caribbean Community* (CARICOM) remain committed to further integration and progress has been made, the implementation of integration initiatives and policies toward the goal of a regional economic union has been slow and needs to be accelerated.

Work in progress

Compared to other well-integrated regions, like the ECCU and EU, the Caribbean lags. The integration indices, which measure the degree of intraregional economic and institutional integration, suggest that Caribbean community’s integration has proceeded in several waves, with periods of integration followed by slowdowns in progress, including in removing remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and constraints on intraregional labor movement.

Financial integration has proceeded faster with tightly-interconnected financial systems across the region, but capital markets remain underdeveloped and fragmented. Harmonizing economic and structural policies to support a single economic space is still work in progress, with lacking harmonization and coordination of investment codes, tax incentives, and macroeconomic policies.

Pain points

Why has progress in regional integration been slow for the Caribbean? A combination of institutional, political economy, and structural factors underlie the slower implementation of integration policies.

The lack of a regional body with powers and accountability that can help transform community decisions to binding laws in individual jurisdictions is a key impediment. A decision-making process based on unanimity principle, where each member retains its sovereign authority, also hinders progress.

In the absence of a facilitating regional architecture, cooperation must rely on well-aligned national interests and shared goals, but national incentives do not seem to be well-aligned for integration, with its potential benefits perceived by some as uncertain, potentially uneven, and only materializing over a long horizon.

Differing export/production structures and income and development levels make it challenging to harmonize economic and structural policies around well-integrated policy frameworks.

Some regional authorities attribute the slow pace of implementation to a “crisis of will,” as much as to wasteful duplication and slow progress in harmonizing legal and institutional frameworks and to binding resource/capacity gaps.

A worthwhile goal

The Caribbean authorities broadly agree that integration should remain a top priority and greater collaboration is critical to tackle common challenges. It is important to capitalize on this momentum.

Recent IMF research finds that further liberalization of trade and greater labor mobility within the region can generate significant benefits.

A 25-percent reduction in non-tariff barriers and trade costs within CARICOM and vis-à-vis non-CARICOM trade partners can boost trade and improve welfare gain for all members—at about $6 billion, or 7.6 percent of the region’s GDP in 2018.

It can also help restructure economies from contracting to expanding sectors, resulting in a net employment gain across the region.

Way forward

Greater cooperation is the key to furthering regional integration in the Caribbean. While these economies’ small size and supply constraints may potentially limit benefits from economic integration, acting as a group can enhance the scale, bringing widespread benefits and helping the region further tap into global value chains.

That is, regional integration should not be an end-goal, but a means to an end of deepening Caribbean integration into the global economy.

At a time when momentum for economic integration seems to have stalled, close cooperation in high priority areas for the region can help demonstrate benefits of coordinated action and serve as a building block to the ultimate goal of full integration.

Key areas could include:

• Addressing impediments to institutional integration by harmonizing and rationalizing institutions and processes across the region and resolving resource/capacity constraints;
• Facilitating an equitable distribution of benefits through well-structured, adequately-resourced mechanisms to help realign national and regional interests;
• Enhancing functional policy coordination in the areas of common challenges, including building climate resilience, containing violent crime, and coordinating tax policies and systems to limit harmful competition; and
• ensuring financial stability in an increasingly more interconnected financial system.

What is CARICOM?

*The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is comprised of twenty countries (fifteen Member States and five Associate Members), mostly island states in the Caribbean stretching from the Bahamas in the north to Suriname and Guyana in South America. It was established by the English-speaking parts of the Caribbean in 1973 with the primary objectives to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and coordinate foreign policy. CARICOM is the oldest existing integration movement in the developing world.

The post Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ding Ding is Deputy Division Chief, Caribbean 1 Division, Western Hemisphere Department (WHD) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), & Inci Otker currently works at the Western Hemisphere Department, IMF and is mission chief for St. Kitts and Nevis & Trinidad and Tobago and Division Chief of Caribbean III.

The post Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The $683 million will be used for efforts towards women’s reproductive and sexual health rights across 57 countries, of which about $300 million will be directed towards UNFPA’s projects in Arab state regions, including countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Somalia. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is appealing for $683million in their mission to address sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls in conflict areas in the world. 

At the Humanitarian Action Overview 2020, launched on Thursday, the sexual and reproductive health agency highlighted the urgency with which the issue should be treated. 

With more than 168 million people currently requiring humanitarian assistance in the world, UNFPA projects 45 million women, girls and young people will be affected by some kind of conflict this year. 

For women and girls, sexual and health reproductive health rights have often come as secondary priority in crisis situations, but experts say it’s time to make them a primary concern. 

“[These] types of service have long time been forgotten,” Arthur Erken, Director of UNFPA Division of Communications and Strategic Partnerships (DCS), told IPS. “It should not be an afterthought, it should be part and parcel of [the whole concern].”  

“We’re focusing on women and what they’re going through because they’re on the front lines,”  Ann Erb Leoncavallo of UNFPA told IPS. “They’re trying to take care of their children, they’re getting pregnant, they’re having babies, they’re getting bombed, they’re suffering from floods, high waters, you name it.”

Leoncavallo added that many of the women in areas of conflict might head single-parent households or have their own trauma. “They get depression, they get traumatised because they faced increased of gender-based violence,” she said.  

The $683 million will be used for efforts towards women’s reproductive and sexual health rights across 57 countries, of which about $300 million will be directed towards  UNFPA’s projects in Arab state regions, including countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Somalia. 

In order to help women reach out for help, unlearn their shame and stigma, UNFPA is currently working with a “safe space” for many women to take a break from their everyday activities. 

The “women and girl safe spaces” is dedicated space in the refugee camps where women can come and meet with other women, share notes, relax, and have a safe environment to discuss concerns and ask for help, Erken explained.

“It’s safe, men are not allowed,” Erken said, adding that the purpose of the space is to put a lot of attention to calming women, giving them breathing space, and often counselling services.

He says there doesn’t seem to be any stigma about women coming into these spaces, pointing out refugee camps in Jordan that have the facility. He learned from some of the service providers the women do visit, when their kids are in school and their husband occupied. 

Dr. Afrah Thabet Al-Ademi, a UNFPA medical doctor in Yemen who works with women who have escaped conflict, says education has a role to play in destigmatising these services for refugee population.

A staggering $100.5 million is being requested specifically for the crisis in Yemen, the highest on the list provided by UNFPA.

“A lot of women who are not educated, who feel targeted, and feel stigma to talk about their needs or family planning,” Al-Ademi told IPS. 

She recalls one time when she was meeting with a woman who had just given birth and who had covered her baby with a headscarf. 

“When she exposed the baby, I found that she covered the baby with a newsletter, she didn’t have clothes,” Al-Ademi told IPS. 

As a result, UNFPA in Yemen is now developing a kit specifically for mothers of new borns, to be put in “health facility for any woman who comes in for deliver”.

“The clothes is like a dignity for her,” said Al-Ademi.

The “Mama Kit” has clothes for the baby, pads for the mother, blankets, and diapers, among other things for the newborn. 

UNFPA is also allocating funds for Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Sudan, Bangladesh, and Venezuela to assist with sexual and reproductive health for the women in those countries.

Related Articles

• India and Japan’s MPs Act Quickly to Implement Sexual and Reproductive Health Plans after ICPD25
• When is Universal Health Coverage Good for Attaining Universal Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights?

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Many specialist doctors and nurses in Africa are migrating to greener pastures, leaving cancer patients with few options. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By External Source
LONDON, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

Low- and middle-income countries could see an 80 per cent rise in cancer over the next 20 years if treatment and prevention services are not stepped up, according to the latest World Cancer Report.

The report, compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), warns that cancer prevention is taking a back seat in poor countries, as their health systems tackle such immediate problems as infectious diseases, child health and nutrition.

The report found that less than 15 per cent of low-income countries offer comprehensive cancer treatment—including diagnostics, treatment and prevention—compared to 90 per cent of rich countries.

Modelling employed in the report showed that, by 2040, the global burden of cancer is set to double to around 29-37 million new cases a year. Cancer is responsible for a third of premature deaths, as well as a cause of financial hardship and prolonged disability in poor countries, the report said.

Types of cancer affect people in poor and rich countries differently. The report found that Kaposi Sarcoma, a skin cancer that causes lesions and is related to HIV, poses the greatest risk for those in the poorest countries, followed by cervical cancer.

“At least 7 million lives could be saved over the next decade, by identifying the most appropriate science for each country situation [and] by basing strong cancer responses on universal health coverage.”

Tobacco use remains responsible for 25 per cent of all cancer deaths, the report said, but while smoking is becoming less popular in wealthy countries, it is increasingly common in the lowest-income ones—raising their cancer burden.

The report’s authors said that such differences must be considered when developing responses to cancer.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “At least 7 million lives could be saved over the next decade, by identifying the most appropriate science for each country situation [and] by basing strong cancer responses on universal health coverage.”

The report zoomed in on cervical cancer, for which infection with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is one of the preconditions. A vaccine against the virus exists but is hard to come by in poorer nations. The report showed that 34 per cent of young women in high-income countries received vaccination against HPV, but only 3 per cent of young women low-income countries had been vaccinated.

The data marries with the findings of a report published on 30 January in medical journal The Lancet. The report, based on two scientific studies, found that 91 per cent of global cervical cancer deaths in 2018 occurred outside high-income countries.

Bernard Stewart, a professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia said that, along with low healthcare budgets, doctors in developing countries have to deal with stigma and cultural beliefs, which make a one-size-fits-all approach to tackling cervical cancer difficult.

Recognition of possible stigmatisation is essential when implementing screening programmes aimed at girls and young women, Stewart said, adding: “Action depends critically on the values and perspectives of particular communities, rather than being amenable to generalisations.”

The cost of healthcare interventions around cancer also plays a role in preventing a wider roll-out of screening and treatment in developing countries, the report warned. A model developed by the WHO showed that providing cancer services to 90 per cent of the global population would cost around US$140 billion over the next decade—and save around 7.3 million lives.

Most of this money would go towards training doctors in cancer detection and prevention, the report said, as a lack of knowledge of the disease is one of the main causes of late diagnoses and treatment.

“If people have access to primary care and referral systems then cancer can be detected early, treated effectively and cured,” said Ren Minghui, the WHO’s assistant director-general for universal health coverage.

But Stewart says this may be difficult to achieve, as health systems in the lowest-income countries face a multitude of problems, including inadequate transport, infrastructure and staff. “Actions in remote locations, for example, are almost always more expensive than reaching comparable populations in cities,” he said. “Cost is always a consideration, especially in the context of priorities, other health-related policies or other budgetary constraints.”

 

This story was originally published by SciDev.Net

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Seven "packages" of 10 elephants each are on offer after a ban on hunting was lifted last year.

Raja Casablanca's Ben Malango is not worried about facing his former club TP Mazembe despite controversy over his transfer.

Africa is one of only two continents with no confirmed cases of coronavirus.