Africa

Two decades of investments in malaria so far have saved a staggering 7.6 million lives and prevented 1.5 billion malaria cases. But progress plateaued by the end of 2019 with political will and funding declining. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

By Joy Phumaphi and Sarthak Das
Apr 23 2021 (IPS)

The occasion of World Malaria Day amidst a global pandemic warrants an examination of the intersection between our decades long battle against the world’s oldest known fever and the newest known pathogen fueling a global pandemic.

In our estimation, one theme is abundantly clear: effective management of COVID-19 through coherent public health responses protecting their people are underpinned by strong leadership. For months now, we are largely operating with the same set of public health guidance such as physical distancing and masking.

When national leadership decide to prioritize an issue, there is no question that progress will follow; malaria provides an excellent example. After two decades of strong political commitment and effective interventions, 21 countries from every region worldwide eliminated malaria, and many more are on the cusp of elimination. 7.6 million deaths have been averted since 2000

From Singapore to Spain, Mauritania to Manhattan, outcomes, however, have been radically different. Yes, capacities to test, track and treat vary widely; the poor face greater risk exposure. Even with these disparities, it is clear that leadership is key: from accepting the guidance of science to the role of communities in translating policies into action.

When national leadership decide to prioritize an issue, there is no question that progress will follow; malaria provides an excellent example. After two decades of strong political commitment and effective interventions, 21 countries from every region worldwide eliminated malaria, and many more are on the cusp of elimination. 7.6 million deaths have been averted since 2000.

How then, in the midst of a global pandemic, can we accelerate the fight against malaria? Indeed, what are relevant lessons from malaria for public health amidst COVID-19?

Three areas are critical to re-accelerate the momentum and ensure malaria elimination remains a viable goal.

First, we must maintain the political will that drives leadership at multiple levels– families to communities to districts up to the national level.

Second, we need sustained financing for malaria and to communicate effectively to leaders the return on investment in terms of improved health outcomes.

Third, we must clearly articulate the link between malaria and health systems strengthening.

 

1. Leadership & continued renewal of political commitment

Progress to date has shown that political will is fundamental to elimination. Leaders in the two regions have demonstrated this political will.

From the 2000 Abuja Declaration, 2006 Abuja Call, 2012 African Union Roadmap, 2013 Abuja Declaration to the 2014 commitment of East Asia Summit Leaders to eliminate malaria in Asia Pacific by 2030 and the commitment of the Heads of State and Government of Africa to eliminate malaria also by 2030.

We believe that with continued political leadership; reinforced by increased public and private sector funding to expand access to life-saving tools, we can – and must – end malaria. The establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the President’s Malaria Initiative as well as ALMA and APLMA were due to this political commitment and demonstrates shared responsibility and global solidarity.

To effectively translate political will to action and impact, sub-national leadership at the district, provincial and state levels is also critical, particularly as we approach elimination. Strong local leadership can support sub-national tailoring of interventions based on locally available data to maximize impact in both the Asia Pacific and in sub Saharan Africa.

To drive the malaria response, joining the dots coherently between all levels of Governments, from Heads of State right to the hearts of communities, including the most vulnerable and hard to reach, is the only way to ensure sustainable change.

 

2. Sustain Financing for Malaria

Political will translated to financial commitment for malaria must be sustained. We have come so far and have a historic opportunity to end a preventable and curable disease, in a time marked by devastating communicable disease impact.

Two decades of investments in malaria so far have saved a staggering 7.6 million lives and prevented 1.5 billion malaria cases, which in turn has significantly reduced burdens on health systems worldwide, improved maternal and child health, survival and prosperity.

But WHO’s 2020 Global Malaria Report shows progress plateaued by the end of 2019 with political will and funding declining. There is too much at stake if we do not sustain the momentum on the gains we have made to date: Malaria can put immense strain on economies, having a damaging impact on some nations’ GDP by as much as an estimated 5 – 6%.

It has been estimated that the malaria “penalty” to GDP ranges from 0.41% of GDP in Ghana to 8.9% in Chad, all of which could be regained following elimination of malaria. Complete eradication of the disease would increase GDP in Uganda by 50 million USD.

In Asia, despite the progress made, malaria elimination has the potential to save over 400,000 lives and avert 123 million malaria cases, translating to almost $90 billion in economic benefits for Asia Pacific.

Countries in Africa are rolling out and leading multisectoral End Malaria Councils and Funds which are keeping malaria high on the local political, development and local funding agenda. These institutions have resulted in increased action from the private sector and the public, sustaining the countries’ responses.

Surging investments in ending malaria is the pathway to eradication and will strengthen our ability to respond to future threats in this pandemic era. Investments in malaria have supported the scaling up of a community health workforce that serves as the eyes and ears on the ground for millions of fever-suffering children, adolescents and adults that don’t reach health clinics.

 

3. Fighting malaria to build stronger health systems

The basic yet most critical component of the fight against malaria, infectious disease management and public health at large is to test, track and treat. Strengthened surveillance, real-time data, and diagnostics are critical for early detection of malaria and other infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Africa has established the Africa CDC and its Regional Collaborating Centres to support African countries in their efforts to strengthen health systems and improve surveillance, emergency response, prevention and control of diseases. Asia Pacific countries are looking to establish similar mechanisms in the wake of the pandemic.

Countries that invested in frontline malaria capacity and interventions – especially Community Health Workers– are now leveraging them effectively for the COVID-19 response. Last year alone, malaria control efforts prevented ~500 million fevers, and one million Community Health Workers equipped with malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests diagnosed 267 million fevers. Seven of ten symptoms overlap between malaria and COVID-19, led by fever.

This speaks to the importance of integrating the surveillance of malaria within the broader health system. From 40,000 Health Extension Workers and an estimated three million Women’s Development Army Volunteers in Ethiopia, 33,000 trained front line healthcare workers in Uganda, to 1 million Village Health Volunteers in Thailand – all are managing COVID-19 while continuing to provide effective malaria case management during the outbreak.

While there is no single magic bullet for malaria elimination, evidence suggests that investments in the fight against malaria can in turn strengthen health system preparedness and help protect against current and future pandemics.

This World Malaria Day, we must come together as political, social, religious, administrative and economic leaders and recommit the political will and combined action to protect our people, to re-accelerate gains against malaria, and leverage malaria investments to fight COVID-19 and emerging diseases.

We have the tools and technology to test, track, and treat the most prevalent forms of the malaria parasite. Countries like Bhutan or Botswana have shown us what progress is possible; places the ten highest burden countries in Africa as well high burden countries in Asia Pacific such as India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea reveal what work remains.

We know these challenges can be addressed; seizing this moment to double down on accelerating the task of malaria elimination while strengthening health systems is not only possible, but critical for our planet in the age of pandemics. To support this, platforms that allow for the exchange of expertise among leaders across districts and across national borders, that help track policy progress towards the end goal and drive accountability, can help make the difference.

 

Ms Joy Phumaphi is Executive Secretary, African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), former Minister of Health, Botswana

Dr. Sarthak Das is DrPH, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) & Communicable Disease Threats Initiative

 

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UFC head Dana White says that he wants there to be a round of the competition in Africa in 2022.

ECW Director Yasmine Sherif visits the Modale ‘Settlement of Hope’ with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

By External Source
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo , Apr 23 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Director Yasmine Sherif today called on world leaders to urgently support the children and youth in desperate need of education support in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), affected by new emergencies and multiple protracted crisis.

An additional US$45.3 million is required to reach 200,000 children and youth impacted by the large-scale, complex and protracted crisis in the DRC through Education Cannot Wait’s multi-year resilience programme. The programme was launched with US$22.2 million in catalytic seed funding from ECW in December 2020, and is delivered by UNICEF as grantee, through a joint programme with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN agencies and civil society organizations.

Sherif, the Director of ECW – the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies – made the appeal after meeting this week with senior government officials of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, key donors, UN agencies, and international and National NGOs in Kinshasa and visiting refugees from the Central African Republic in a settlement located 30 kms outside of Yakoma, Nord-Ubangi province, DRC.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye to this crisis and away from those left furthest behind. We have a global responsibility, moral imperative and commitments to honour before those suffering the most in this world. We urgently call on donors, the private sector and other partners to mobilize an additional US$45.3 million to reach 200,000 children and youth impacted by this crisis in DRC by 2023,” said Sherif. “The world must respond to this pressing crisis of profound human suffering. Girls face significant risks of child marriage, early pregnancy and sexual gender-based violence. Many children may never return to school, be forced to find work, join armed groups and pushed even further to the margins, of no return,” said Sherif. “Education provides these children and youth with learning, safety and protection, it provides them with hope to arise from the ashes of human misery and create a better future.”

Children and youth face significant protection risks in this escalating humanitarian and long-standing development crisis. According to recent estimates by local authorities, over 90,000 refugees have arrived in the DRC since the December 2020 presidential elections in neighboring Central African Republic, which displaced nearly a third of the country’s population. This has occurred on top of ongoing crises in other parts of the country, such as in the provinces of Ituri, Tanganyika and Kasai Central. Throughout the country, the impact of COVID-19 and epidemics such as Ebola and cholera have been disastrous. School closures have resulted in at least six months of missed learning.

Education Cannot Wait and global partners have responded to the escalating humanitarian crisis in the DRC and neighboring countries with a number of education emergency investments in addition to the triple-nexus multi-year resilience programme delivered by UNICEF and partners.

An additional US$3.8 million has been allocated for ECW’s COVID-19 education in emergency response, and an ongoing multi-year resilience programme in the Central African Republic will reach an estimated 900,000 children in the next three years.

During this week’s visit, Sherif and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, announced an additional US$2 million ECW first emergency response grant to provide educational support for the influx of refugees.

Despite these ongoing support and efforts by all partners in DRC, funding is a major obstacle to ensure the right to a quality education for the children and adolescents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

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The post Education Cannot Wait Calls on World Leaders to Urgently Fund Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with US$45.3 Million appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

4.7 million refugee, displaced and host community children and youth in urgent need of educational support

The post Education Cannot Wait Calls on World Leaders to Urgently Fund Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with US$45.3 Million appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Amnesty International investigations revealed that 18 people were killed and dozens injured, despite military claims that the 2020 coup was bloodless. The organisation has listed several instances of fatal shots being fired by security forces, backed up by witness testimonies and statements from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) (pictured here in this file photo). Courtesy: UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 23 2021 (IPS)

It has been about a year since anti-government demonstrations and a coup in Mali, which saw 18 people, including a 12-year-old boy being killed. But there has been no justice for the families of those injured and killed by defence and security forces during last year’s May to August protests.

Today, Apr. 23, Amnesty International released the findings of a report into injuries and fatalities that occurred titled “Killed, wounded, and forgotten? Accountability for the killings during demonstrations and the coup in Mali”.

Following field and remote interviews with victims’ families, civil society representatives, journalists and members of the judiciary, it chronicled the use of deadly force by armed forces in the towns of Kayes and Sikasso, as well as the capital Bamako.

The military seized power in Mali after forcing President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign. It was Mali’s fourth coup since independence in 1960 and its second in a decade. His resignation followed months of opposition protests in the capital and the soldiers who orchestrated the coup stated that it was done to save the country. The international community strongly denounced the ouster, with the soldiers promising to oversee a transition to new elections and elect an interim, civilian leader.

According to Amnesty International, investigations revealed that 18 people were killed and dozens injured, despite military claims that the coup was bloodless. The organisation says the lack of accountability is troubling.

“Many victims were hit or wounded in the chest, sometimes in the back. Many were bystanders or people at work or at home, indicating that security forces were not firing in self-defence or response to an imminent threat of death or serious injury – in contravention of international standards,” Amnesty International said.

The document lists several instances of fatal shots being fired by security forces, backed up by witness testimonies and statements from the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). This included the May 6 killing of a man in Sikasso, a city in southern Mali.

“Despite this, the authorities have not investigated the use of firearms by law enforcement against demonstrators in Sikasso leaving the families of those killed without justice, truth and reparation,” the report said.

Five days after the Sikasso incident, violent protests against police deaths resulted in more bloodshed. According to the report, an off-duty police officer shot a 17-year-old who was fleeing detention. It adds that while the officer was suspended, the teen’s death sparked widespread protests, with angry mobs attacking police stations and government buildings. It states that police fired live rounds in the crowds, leaving a 30-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy dead.

The Amnesty report says that a lack of accountability for police deaths triggered uprisings in other areas in Mali, adding that in the capital, protests in July which turned violent were ‘heavily repressed by the authorities,’ adding that armed forces fired into throngs of demonstrators, leaving 4 people dead and dozens injured.

“Although some demonstrators threw stones at security forces, occupied public buildings and at times, refused to comply with orders given by law enforcement officials, it is clear from the cases documented by Amnesty International that most of the killings and serious injuries resulted from the excessive use of force by security forces,” the report said.

Demonstrators took to the streets with numerous grievances. There was anger over the results of the parliamentary elections, stringent measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including restrictions to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly, high unemployment, security and social grievances.

However, among bystanders also became casualties, including Ibrahim Traore’, a 16-year-old boy, whom the report states was shot twice by police. His brother told Amnesty International that he was denied a copy of Traore’s autopsy report.

The rights group says it worked hard to ensure that it could put a name and face to the victims, so that they are not forgotten. It adds despite progress, accountability is lacking. They say that they have been told that investigations into lethal use of force by security forces were opened, but at the time, February 2021, those probes were in the preliminary stages.

Amnesty International says it is time for accuracy and accountability. It is calling on the transitional authorities to ensure impartial and prompt investigations into cases of excessive and lethal use of force by law enforcement officers, protect freedoms of expression and assembly according to international human rights standards and ensure law enforcement authorities respect the United Nations basic principles on the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials.

“The Malian authorities must show their determination to fight impunity by first acknowledging these killings. Victims of illegal use of force and firearms and their families must be provided with justice, truth and full reparations,” Amnesty International said.

 

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Distribution of mosquito nets in Kadiolo, region of Sikasso, Mali June 2020. Credit: PSI, A US based NGO. The UN commemorates World Malaria Day on Sunday April 25.

By Hervé Verhoosel
GENEVA, Apr 23 2021 (IPS)

Despite its 229 million cases and 409,000 deaths in 2019, malaria is an overlooked epidemic. The emergence of COVID-19 has thrown health systems into disarray and forced countries to shift their focus from malaria to the pandemic response, threatening to reverse 20 years of malaria gains.

Now, as we enter the second year of the pandemic, the global response to COVID-19 must not come at the expense of progress against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease. Not only is eliminating malaria possible, but it is also crucial to fighting current and future diseases.

It is vital that the international community remembers that eliminating malaria remains an achievable goal for all countries. Indeed, more countries than ever are either achieving or approaching elimination.

In 2017, as part of the “E-2020 initiative”, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified 21 countries that could defeat malaria by 2020. Spread across five regions of the world, these countries share the ambitious goal of achieving zero indigenous cases of malaria by 2020.

And last year, Algeria, Belize, Cabo Verde, China, El Salvador, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Malaysia all reported zero indigenous malaria cases, achieving their goal, while others made impressive strides forward.

Ridding the world of malaria is a central component of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), linking closely to targets on poverty, inequality, and health and well-being. But as long as it persists, malaria will continue to have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable communities.

Innovation plays a vital role in the elimination of this disease. New tools, such as those being developed by Unitaid and partners, are needed in the face of emerging insecticide and drug resistance. These can only be developed with sustained and significant investment in malaria research.

Hervé Verhoosel. during aa press briefing at the UN in Geneva

Global investments to end malaria have an enormous return on investment. In 2018, they saved 600,000 lives and prevented close to 100 million malaria cases compared to 2000 levels.

In the Asia-Pacific region, weighing against the epidemiological and economic costs of inaction, Wellcome Trust researchers estimated that eliminating malaria by 2030 could save over 400,000 lives, prevent 123 million malaria cases, and lead to a 6:1 return on investment.

These investments also strengthen health systems that are vital to responding to threats such as COVID-19, and help address other vector-borne diseases.

Together with partners, global health agency Unitaid has been supporting the evaluation of the performance of new bed nets under real conditions in malaria-endemic countries to guide policy on their use.

This aims to open a market for these new nets and bring about competition among manufacturers, leading to lower prices and a sustainable tool for countries.

Unitaid also invests to accelerate access to next-generation insecticides to reestablish indoor spraying as a malaria-control measure, and to vary new spray formulas to prevent mosquito populations from growing resistant to them.

Unitaid’s work has also resulted in the delivery of seasonal malaria chemoprevention to over six million children across seven countries in the Sahel, fulfilling more than 25% of the region’s need, while monitoring the safety, efficacy, cost, and public health impact of such programmes at scale.

This World Malaria Day, the global health community must reaffirm its commitment to combat malaria by increasing global investments to prevent, control, and ultimately eliminate this disease. COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses in health systems around the world. Now is the moment to step up efforts against this preventable disease.

About Unitaid
*Unitaid is a global health agency engaged in finding innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases more quickly, cheaply, and effectively, in low- and middle-income countries. Our work includes funding initiatives to address major diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as HIV co-infections and co-morbidities such as cervical cancer and hepatitis C, and cross-cutting areas, such as fever management.

Unitaid is now applying its expertise to address challenges in advancing new therapies and diagnostics for the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a key member of the Access to COVID Tools Accelerator. Unitaid is hosted by the World Health Organization.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Spokesperson and Head of Communications at Unitaid*, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO)

 
The WHO says Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable. WHO recommends protection for all people at risk of malaria with effective malaria vector control. Two forms of vector control – insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying – are effective in a wide range of circumstances.

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A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent.

The WHO appeal comes after Malawi and South Sudan said they planned to destroy some 70,000 doses.

Mohammed Aisha had been living on a ship marooned off Egypt's Red Sea coast for four years.

United Nations, Geneva. Credit: Mathias P.R.Reding

By Andreas Bummel, Caroline Vernaillen and Mandeep Tiwana*
BERLIN/COLOGNE/NEW YORK, Apr 22 2021 (IPS)

One of the most recently established international UN days is the day of multilateralism and diplomacy for peace. First observed on 24 April 2019 to promote UN values and to reaffirm the faith of people in the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the relevance and the irony of this day is obvious.

On the one hand, COVID-19 vaccine nationalism is causing huge inequities in the supply of lifesaving immunization from reaching disadvantaged people, especially those in the Global South who need them the most amid a global pandemic of epic proportions. On the other hand, aggressive militarism and proliferation of weapons of war by the permanent members of the UN Security Council threatens international peace and security, diverting vital resources that could be used to address inequality and exclusion around the globe.

The need for inclusive and democratic global governance to support the three founding pillars of the UN – peace and security, human rights, and development – remains pressing. Yet, major reforms have been elusive despite a wealth of reports and innovative ideas drawn up by experts and activists.

Over the years, geo-political intransigence of powerful actors and entrenched state interests have remained a major stumbling block. However, a potential breakthrough was achieved in 2020 through a UN General Assembly resolution to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the UN.

The resolution includes a commitment to upgrade the world body and tasks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to compile a report in 2021 on furthering ‘Our Common Agenda’ with a focus on reinvigorating inclusive, networked and effective multilateralism.

The report is supposed to be submitted to the UN General Assembly by September this year. It’s likely that the report will take into account findings from a year-long global listening exercise undertaken by the UN in 2020.

Over 1.5 million people from 195 countries participated in surveys and dialogues on people’s priorities and expectations from international cooperation. Notably, while the overwhelming majority (97%) saw the work of the UN as indispensable, four out of ten also reported that the UN felt remote from their lives.

People across the world support the UN’s mission but want the institution itself to be more transparent, accountable and participatory. In this spirit, over 80 international, regional and national civil society organisations and networks have come together under an initiative titled “We the Peoples,” drawing inspiration from the opening words of the UN Charter.

United Nations Headquarters, New York. Credit: Tomas Eidsvold

Three practical ideas aimed at enhancing the agency of people, elected representatives and organised civil society in global governance lie at the heart of a joint statement on inclusive global governance published by the initiative on 23 April 2021:

First, a citizens’ initiative could be established to mandate key UN bodies including the General Assembly and Security Council to act on matters of global importance following a joint petition signed by a certain number of citizens around the world. Such a mechanism would enable people to have their voices heard and also provide an avenue to shape the agenda of the UN.

Second, people across the world could be given an opportunity for direct representation and voice at the UN through a parliamentary assembly. Deficits in representative democracy that exist in far too many parts of the world are further accentuated at the UN through a state-centric bureaucracy driven model. A parliamentary assembly could help make the UN more accessible to people.

Third, an office of a civil society envoy could be created to identify barriers in participation, spur inclusive convenings and drive the UN’s outreach to the public and civil society organisations. Such a champion could lead the implementation of a broader strategy for opening up the UN to people’s participation and civil society voices while addressing asymmetries in engagement across UN agencies, departments and forums.

Taken together these ideas have game-changing, transformative potential to overcome blockages in the UN system. More than that, they are also supported around the world: both a World Citizens’ Initiative and a UN Parliamentary Assembly were frequently mentioned by people who took part in last year’s UN evaluation exercise, as the UN’s own report testifies.

If implemented in earnest, these three changes will enable the UN to respond more effectively and with greater inclusivity to global challenges such as discrimination, inequality, conflict and climate change. However, their adoption will require visionary leadership and cooperation by political executives and the UN’s top management. The present system is stymied by bureaucratic approaches and a lack of imagination.

There’s clearly an opportunity to strengthen and revitalize multilateralism by enabling input and participation beyond member states. The UN needs to be fit for purpose for our times. However, a new more participatory era will require a leap of faith and courage of conviction.

Andreas Bummel is Executive Director of Democracy Without Borders based in Berlin; Caroline Vernaillen is the Global Manager for PR and Community Building at Democracy International based in Cologne; and Mandeep Tiwana is Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS based at their New York office.

 

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Said Djabelkhir is out on bail and says he will appeal against his three-year prison sentence.

Reporters Without Borders said press freedom was restricted either partly or completely in two thirds of the globe. It warned that authoritarian regimes had used the pandemic to “perfect their methods of totalitarian control of information”, and as a pretext for imposing “especially repressive legislation with provisions combining propaganda with suppression of dissent”. (file photo) Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Apr 22 2021 (IPS)

Independent journalism is facing a growing crackdown one year into the COVID-19 pandemic as governments around the world restrict access to information and muzzle critical reporting, media and rights watchdogs have warned.

Authoritarian regimes have used existing and new legislation to attack, intimidate, and jail reporters under the guise of acting to protect public health, they say, and fear the situation is unlikely to improve in many states if and when the pandemic ends.

“Dictators and authoritarian leaders exploited the cover of COVID to crackdown on independent reporting and criticism. Some, instead of battling the virus, turned their attention to fighting the media.

“Countries from Cambodia to Russia, Egypt and Brazil all sought to divert attention from their failures to deal with the health crisis by intimidating or jailing journalists,” Rob Mahoney, Deputy Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told IPS.

Recent months have seen a slew of reports highlighting how media freedom in many places has been curbed during the pandemic.

In February, Human Rights Watch released a report COVID-19 Triggers Wave of Free Speech Abuse showing how more than 80 governments had used the COVID-19 pandemic to justify violations of rights to free speech and peaceful assembly with journalists among those affected as authorities attacked, detained, prosecuted, and in some cases killed critics, and closed media outlets, while enacting vague laws criminalising speech that they claim threatens public health.

In April, global press freedom campaigners the International Press Institute (IPI), released a report painting a similarly grim picture and detailing the physical and verbal abuse of journalists reporting on COVID-19 across the world.

And just this week, Reporters Without Borders said journalism was restricted either partly or completely in two thirds of the globe.

It warned that authoritarian regimes had used the pandemic to “perfect their methods of totalitarian control of information”, and as a pretext for imposing “especially repressive legislation with provisions combining propaganda with suppression of dissent”.

It also highlighted how some had developed legislation to criminalise publishing of ‘fake news’ relating to coronavirus reporting, and used COVID-19 as a pretence to deepen existing internet censorship and surveillance.

In some states authorities had banned publication of non-government pandemic numbers and arrested people for disseminating other figures. In others, such as Tanzania, they even went as far as imposing a complete information blackout on the pandemic, the group said.

The problems are not confined to any single area of the world, according to the groups’ reports. However, some of the most severe restrictions have been seen in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa.

Journalists on the ground in these regions have said they have seen a deterioration in press freedom over the last year.

IPS’ own correspondent and an award-winning journalist in Uganda, Michael Wambi, said that the government had used pandemic restrictions introduced for the entire population to deliberately restrict journalists’ reporting.

Presidential elections were held in the country in January and, Wambi told IPS, there were “targeted attacks on journalists in an effort to curtail them from giving coverage to leading opposition candidates” in the run up to them.

Journalists were violently attacked by police at the events, and police later accused reporters of violating COVID-19 restrictions by attending them.

Wambi said Uganda’s Police Chief, Martin Okoth Ochola, made a joke of the situation.

“He joked to journalists that ‘security forces would continue beating them to keep them out of any danger [to their own health]’,” said Wambi.

Stella Paul, IPS’ award-winning journalist in India — which RSF describes as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists — told IPS: “In India, COVID restrictions were basically used as an excuse to intimidate journalists.”

Press freedom groups say the Indian government has taken advantage of the coronavirus crisis to increase its control of news coverage, using legal action against journalists who have reported information about the pandemic which differs from the official position.

Early in the pandemic, the government launched a number of legal cases against journalists for reports about the effects of the government-enforced lockdown on migrant workers while an editor of a local news portal was arrested and charged with sedition for writing about a possible change of state leadership following a rise in coronavirus cases.

“The last year has seen a lot of journalists detained while trying to report the truth about the pandemic, to get to accurate information and find things out,” said Paul.

Paul, who also writes for IPS, co-operates with a number of other journalists across Asia and says the situation for independent media in most other parts of the region is equally perilous.

“It is the same thing in many other countries. What we have seen during COVID is a lot of journalists, not just in India, asking themselves what will happen if I report on something? Will I end up in jail? They are scared of getting arrested,” she said.

One country where media freedom is seen as particularly restricted is Bangladesh. It came in at 152 out of 182 in RSF’s 2021 Press Freedom Index. The group said there had been “an alarming increase in police and civilian violence against reporters” during the pandemic with many journalists arrested and prosecuted for their reporting on it.

This has been made easier by the Digital Security Act (DSA) passed in 2018 under which “negative propaganda” can lead to a 14-year jail sentence, local journalists say.

The DSA was at the centre of the controversial death in police custody of a Bangladeshi writer and commentator earlier this year.

Mushtaq Ahmed, who was detained under the DSA in May last year for allegedly posting criticism of the government’s response to the COVID-19 on Facebook, died in police custody in February. An official investigation found he died of natural causes but others in prison with him at the time claimed he was tortured and some suspect he died of injuries sustained during his incarceration. 

Few local journalists were willing to talk about their experiences of working in the country, but one, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ahmed’s arrest and death had had a profound effect on the media.

“After what happened to Mushtaq Ahmed, many journalists were immediately less willing to challenge anything the government said about the coronavirus pandemic,” the journalist told IPS.

“The DSA is being used to harass journalists – many have been arrested under the act after publishing news critical of the authorities.

“Doing reporting under the DSA is the main challenge for journalists in Bangladesh right now. News outlets use self-censorship to avoid harassment under the DSA. If anyone sees a single item of news that is negative about them, they can use the DSA to bring legal action against the reporter and the editor,” the journalist added.

But while the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly allowed governments to crack down on critical media, there is no guarantee the situation will improve once the pandemic ends, press freedom watchdogs say.

Scott Griffen, Deputy Director at IPI, told IPS: “Who will decide when the pandemic is over? Governments for whom the pandemic is a useful tool to suppress civil liberties may be tempted to maintain a state of emergency in some form, even after the immediate health threat is ended.”

He added that there were also fears that measures introduced during the pandemic may not be rescinded at all.

“The aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the US brought with it new anti-terrorism measures including unprecedented civil liberties rollbacks. Countries around the world have used anti-terror laws to crack down on critical speech. Similarly, we fear that emergency laws introduced during the coronavirus pandemic may become part of the permanent legal framework in some states, not to mention a culture of tracking and surveillance of citizens that is very unlikely to be rolled back. This has profound implications for journalists’ privacy and their ability to protect their sources,” he said.

However, despite the bleak outlook for press freedom in many states as the pandemic drags on, there is hope that independent media will continue no matter how severely they might be restricted.

“Journalists will still produce independent reporting even in the most hostile of circumstances. That’s their mission. You can have independent journalism without democracy. But you can’t have democracy without independent journalism,” said Mahoney.

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Excerpt:

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. This feature is part of a series highlighting the current state of media freedom globally

The post Press Freedom under Lockdown Across Two-Thirds of the Globe appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Apr 22 2021 (IPS-Partners)

SPC hosted the first triennial conference of Pacific women more than 40 years ago with the purpose to create a space where Pacific women could meet, share their experiences and identify measures for the advancement of women.

The Triennial Conference of Pacific Women plays a key role in linking to other intergovernmental fora due to its convening of National Women’s Machineries and women’s rights organizations. In the past, the Triennial has provided space for some preparations for the Commission on the Status of Women, as well as reflecting on progress towards gender equality commitments including the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration (PLGED) as well as the Beijing Declaration.

Watch the video below for more information about the Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the journey in progressing gender equality in the region.

The 14th Triennial this year will focus on three key priority areas received from the Pacific Island Countries and Territories including: gender responsive climate justice, women’s economic empowerment and gender-based violence. The conference will take place from 27 – 29 April (Fiji-Time). A few pre-triennial side-events are scheduled to take place from 22-23 April in the lead up to the main conference next week. #PacificWomenTriennial #PacificPeoples

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

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Actor Brahim Bouhlel and influencer Zbarbooking are seen swearing at children in a viral clip.

Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Apr 22 2021 (IPS)

Sylvain Kakule Kadjibwami lost the use of his legs during one of those ambushes that bloodlessly bleed North Kivu. “When I was shot, I thought it was the end of my life, but when I shared it with other disabled people, I discovered that life is still possible,” he said. Now it is Covid-19 that risks destroying the dreams of Sylvain, a small trader from Goma, a city whose roads are volcanic rock-ridden screes where pick-ups trudge. Those who walk face the risk of falling at every step. However, for those who cannot, the same roads can become traps where it is not only war that kills but also a stigma fostering misery and disease.

Confined to their homes by poverty, even before the pandemic, people living with disability in the capital of North Kivu, in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, must overcome obstacles higher than those erected by the lava of the Nyiragongo. They are obstacles made even more challenging by the coronavirus containment measures that are severely affecting the fragile local economy, made up of informal activities and community solidarity.

“Since the outbreak of Covid, here, in North Kivu, more than a dozen disabled people have died not because they had Covid: They have died of hunger because they had nothing to eat,” Herman Cirimwami, coordinator of the Paph, a Congolese organization that assists and protects people with disabilities, including promoting their rights and social inclusion, told Degrees of Latitude.

They die because they survive thanks solely to the solidarity of their communities, friends, and families. However, confinement has reduced everyone’s incomes along with the economic capacity of those who took care of people unable to provide for themselves. The disabled live off charity because employment has always been almost inaccessible to them.

“Most of them also beg in the street, because they can’t access employment or get a good job,” said Therese Mabulay, athlete, president of the North Kivu Paralympic Committee, and founder of Asam – Stand up disabled, a small vocational training center for women and young people with disabilities. The reason lies in a rooted prejudice. The disabled are perceived as “useless” or even seen as the “devil,” as Cirimwami said still occurs to those suffering from albinism.

Between Goma and Rwanda, the crisis of small traders

A man who trades food in Goma. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

The few people disabled who have managed to build a business are struggling to not slip into complete destitution, as is happening to the small traders who transport agricultural products across the border with Rwanda: flourishing commerce in the restless heart of the African Great Lakes region, which, for decades, has been tax-free for people with disabilities.

Corn, flour, bananas, plantains, cabbage, potatoes, beans: They use tricycles or rickshaws adapted for those who cannot walk. Propelled by the strength of arms or by men paid to push, they defy rough terrain, loaded almost to instability. These are small ventures that play a key role in the food market of North Kivu’s capital, providing goods at competitive prices compared to those who use trucks. They are exhausted by the eight-month closure of the border during last year’s lockdown, as well as by the costs of Covid tests and passes introduced after the pandemic began.

Jacques Bisimwa Mitima is president of the Association of People with Physical Disability Tuungane, which means “let’s unite” in Kiswahili. It is composed of two hundred and ten members who trade food across the “petite barrière” between the twin cities of Goma, in the DRC, and Gisenyi, in Rwanda. When we met him, he was coordinating a meeting that was a forest of hand-bikes, raised arms, and determination. Members—who tax themselves to help those in need pay for medical expenses or for funerals for those who cannot afford them—were electing new leadership and discussing financial solutions to the crisis. Their life has been harder after the Covid-19 outbreak.

“We have many difficulties. Some of our members have been evicted because they did not have the money to pay the rent. We spent the little money we had during the period of the border closure,” Mitima said. On his tricycle, the painted word “President” and the flag of the DRC are the graphic representations of the charisma of this man who started to trade almost twenty years ago. He has five children and other young members of the family to feed: thirteen people who live on his income. Before Covid, he told us, you could earn as much as fifteen dollars a day. Today, that amount is perhaps fifty cents: “We are looking for some money just to eat and we eat with difficulty,” he added.

Jacques Bisimwa Mitima, president of TUUNGANE. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

To cross the border, traders need the CEPGL, an administrative document from the Great Lakes Community that must be renewed every two weeks, as well as a Covid test, to be repeated every two or three weeks as well. Maman Soki, a mother of five, is also in the business: “We pay five dollars for the test and thirteen for the CEPGL … and the rickshaw must have the same documents too. So, you have to invest thirty-six dollars every two weeks. The small gain we might get is spent on customs,” she explained. “We live a really difficult life, but at least they have reopened the border.”

It can happen, however, that the documents necessary to travel must be renewed even before goods are sold. This pushes traders into the grip of debt, as Sylvain Kakule Kadjibwami told us. He was a driver before being wounded. “On April 28, 2009, our vehicle was attacked on our way back from Bunia. Armed bandits shot the car I was driving on the Kiwanja road in Rutshuru territory. Two people died in the cabin and I was injured. Behind us, there were nine other injured but I only know of one person who survived and who is now disabled like me. The bullets hit my legs and I still have metal in [my bones]. These fragments should have been removed for a long time, but I cannot afford to pay for a new operation.”

North Kivu’s war has made Goma a city where disability is a frequent condition. Grief inflicted by a war that has not ceased for decades can be read in the amputated limbs and tortured bodies of its population. “Since 2008, people have started fleeing to the city and have settled in refugee camps. It was difficult then to return to the villages and they remained [here] … I don’t have the exact figures, but I can estimate that fifteen percent of the population of Goma has a disability,” Cirimwami said. Not only is war a cause of injuries and physical and mental traumas but it also makes disabled people more vulnerable. According to Cirimwami, many are left alone when conflicts break out. They manage to escape only with difficulty and when they reach safer places, they often do not have the means to survive.

Kadjibwami thanks God. He is alive. He has a tricycle that can cost almost $400—the investment of a lifetime. If one of those expensive vehicles were to break, for many it would mean no longer being able to work because there is no money for repairs. Now the challenge for Kadjibwami is to imagine the future despite the pandemic. Business was good before the outbreak; he could send his children to school, feed them, and save for future projects. Now, there’s only uncertainty. “I can only dream according to my income and with this one, I cannot plan anything.”

The talent of fighting against prejudice

People with disability at the “petite barrière” want to return to living off their work. They do not ask the government for help, but wish to reduce the costs that weigh too much on their fragile income. “We don’t want to beg for our dignity,” Mitima said. It is a dignity that Congolese society still struggles to recognize at all, beyond the fragility of bodies and mind.

“Towards people with problems of mobility, or people with visual impairments, there is a stigmatization … the social environment thinks those people are useless,” Mabulay explained.

Getting married is still hard for women with disabilities, and they can easily be abandoned by their husbands if they give birth to disabled children. Thus, children are not always accepted at schools and even education is not a guarantee of landing a good job. Isolation is greater for those suffering from deafness or blindness: Without knowledge of sign language or Braille, information technologies remain inaccessible.

Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

“When we try to practice sport, when we get them involved in sports, it is to show the community that people with disability have many talents, that they are persons like them, that they can do more if the society gives them a space which can allow them to be useful. For those who have [psychological] problems because they are neglected, our activity in sport is to show that they can have self-esteem, they can do more in society, they can’t be hidden in the houses but they have to show what they can do, their talents,” she added. “Our athletes feel integrated because they accept their disability, they can travel. The community is astonished when they play—wheelchair basketball, sitting volley—or when they sing. Some are singers too. They are proud.”

Making sport an integration tool, however, is a challenge that can be even harder than those faced by the athletes who brought the colors of the DRC to the Olympics in London and Rio, such as Rosette Luyina Kiese, who competes in shotput. Her right leg was amputated after she stepped on a landmine in the territory of Rushuru. In Goma, there is only an equipped space, built by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and athletes often have no money to buy equipment, or even wheelchairs to leave their houses and reach the Paralympic area. It is more difficult to reach the villages in rural North Kivu, where about one hundred and fifty armed groups are fighting. Yet the members of the Paralympic Committee continue to go to Sake, Rutshuru, Masisi, Lubero, and Beni and Butembo to advocate for practicing sport. “The greatest risk of working in conflict areas is the accessibility, kidnapping, and logistical resources to respond to the people in need,” said Mabulay, whose organization also implements vocation training.

Denied rights and Covid-19 prevention

Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

There are about two hundred and fifty athletes from the Paralympic Committee; about fifty are victims of war, but each awareness campaign reaches at least one thousand disabled people. This is a huge number for a single organization, but perhaps still small for a city that is estimated to have close to one million inhabitants and where the lives of most people with disabilities are consumed by poverty, between walls made of wooden boards and lava, in houses facing roads without asphalt and without light, where the water does not reach the kitchens but digs craters that only a 4 by 4 can wade through. The poor population struggles to eat and take care of themselves, vulnerable to disease and, today, more exposed than others to the risk of contracting Covid-19.

Despite the work of organizations such as those of Mabulay and Cirimwami, which provide sanitation and prevention, the situation is very serious: “In the families of these people there are no handwashers, there are no disinfectants … and thus, they are exposed to contamination from Covid. Similarly, people who go to Rwanda, pushed by others on the tricycle, cannot respect the distances of one meter; equally, the blinds, ”Cirimwami explained.

However, the health risks faced by people with disabilities are the result of longstanding limited access to basic social services and of an expensive health care system with few specialized facilities which leaves families with no other options than to “abandon the disabled at home,” Cirimwami said.

“Covid-19 came with more difficulties. Even to get information about Covid is not easy. [They] didn’t reach all kinds of disabled. People who can’t hear, who can’t move from their home, they have more difficulty being updated on the situation of Covid,” Mabualy explained. “Most of them can’t afford the kits, the safety kits to wash hands, to protect themselves.”

No access to health, education, employment, sport: That’s a question of denied rights.

Although the DRC has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the instrument has been neither properly implemented by the institutions nor disseminated to the population. “People do not know the rights of the disabled and so the marginalization continues both in the community and at the political and administrative level,” he explained. But people with disability want to have a voice in that decision-making process where “there is no one to take the disabled out of marginalization,” he added.

Mitima said it clearly when we met him in Goma: “The life of a disabled person is very difficult … We have no help from the government, sometimes we receive a few small sums from people of goodwill … But if we have to say that there is a person or institution that supports us, no, there isn’t. We can only count on ourselves.”

Mama Soki. Credit: Elena L. Pasquini

Elena Pasquini is an Italian journalist who visited DRC recently. She is founder and editor in chief of Degrees of Latitude

 

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Refugees fleeing conflict and climate change conditions in Africa’s Lake Chad basin, north of Diffa, Niger. Credit: Amali Tower

By Amali Tower*
NEW YORK, Apr 22 2021 (IPS)

Today marks Earth Day and all around the globe, advocates and activists, concerned citizens and the like will gather to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

World leaders will be among them, notably U.S. President Joe Biden speaking as his administration kicks off its Leaders Summit on Climate, while a growing number of migrants and asylum-seekers at the U.S. southern border, a vast majority from Central America fleeing compounding crises, continue to have their rights and protection needs unmet.

Today, my organization Climate Refugees will also gather in an Earth Day event, Frontlines: Climate Risks & Migration with US Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas, and longstanding activists and advocates in immigrant and migrant rights, climate policy, and environmental justice working with frontline communities.

We will look for a reflective conversation on Central American migration to discuss solutions, and what can be done by the Biden administration and the international community to protect the world’s most vulnerable, ahead of climate negotiations at COP26 in Glasgow.

For most of the world, climate change is by no means only an environmental concern. For communities dependent on the land and natural resources for livelihood, even survival, climate change is a socio-economic and political concern as well.

As we shared in a recent report, in response to President Biden’s executive order to better understand the impacts of climate change on migration, a deeper review of Central American migration will reflect the interconnections between climate change impacts, the killing of environmental leaders, historic oppression of Indigenous Peoples, the ways in which people are losing access and being moved off their lands, specific industries, and direct or indirect drivers of conflict and violence by gangs.

Climate change effects in Central America’s Dry Corridor are contributing to pre-existing poverty, underdevelopment, marginalization and historic oppression of populations living in the region’s agricultural backbone.

This is no different to the all-too familiar situations observed in traditional refugee contexts where conflict generally exacerbates underlying poverty, exclusion and marginalization of certain populations that force individuals to flee.

Eastern and southern African nations have faced an increase in floods, droughts and other climate-related events over recent years. The UN says a new bond with nature is the goal of UN’s annual Earth Day celebrations on April 22. Credit: UNDP/Arjen van de Merwe

The Dry Corridor covers nearly 30 percent of the entirety of Central America, home also to the greatest population density where a number of Indigenous groups reside, and where rural poverty rates are higher than the national averages, and food insecurity has soared.

This region is home to another type of convergence as well: extreme climatic events like the recent hurricanes Eta and Iota, tropical storms and drought, which render social, economic, environmental and political vulnerability on the region, its people, and ultimately, its national economies.

The expansion of mega development projects, extractive industries on mostly Indigenous lands and smallholder farmers’ land rights, hand-in-hand with gang violence, can’t be overlooked as contributory forces driving displacement either.

Several migrants we’ve spoken to have included sustained climate changes amongst the reasons for their displacement, and the resulting challenges when crop failures equal sustained losses and adaptation is hindered by ever smaller plots of land.

As much as we know about ‘climate migration’, we still know very little. What we know is that every situation will look different, largely because there is no single driver for movement that can be singularly attributed to ‘climate change.’ Instead, climate change is exacerbating underlying tensions and contributing to social disruptions.

Even in situations of disasters, we can move people out of harm’s way in order to save lives, but it’s their protection needs to the increased frequencies of disasters, as well as before, during and after a disaster that requires cohesive global action.

The Biden administration must realize these changed dynamics in policies both at home and abroad. To do so is to understand that many migrants fleeing Central America’s Dry Corridor are likely both asylum-seekers as defined by international refugee law, as well as individuals displaced by climate change, a category not protected in that area of law.

Climate Justice Meets Social Justice Meets Racial Justice

Central America’s poorest, marginalized and Indigenous are emblematic of a global phenomenon that climate change presents: the intersection of climate change and race.

The climate crisis disproportionately impacts marginalized populations, many of whom may be displaced or forced to migrate because of years of unequal access to opportunities and gaps in human rights, a topic my organization delved into with human rights and environmental justice experts in this event.

Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights’ report on Climate Change and Poverty, revealed developing countries will bear 75 to 80 percent of the financial costs and losses associated with the climate crisis, despite contributing only 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, creating a situation in which those in extreme poverty now also live in extreme weather.

He warned of increasing divisions as well, the risk of a ‘climate apartheid’, where the wealthy escape the negative impacts of climate change, leaving impacts to be borne by disproportionate groups ostracized by divisions, including race.

In the U.S., people of color are far more likely to live near pollutants, Black communities face higher risks from air pollution, and Black mothers are most affected by pregnancy risks associated with climate change, linking race, even more than poverty, to environmental pollutants, something long stated by environmental justice and Indigenous rights activists who articulated the systemic nature of environmental racism.

Those same activists were instrumental in bringing to light the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental factors to the international stage at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which helped to form the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This November, as world leaders gather at yet another UNFCCC Conference of the Parties – COP 26 – in Glasgow, Scotland, world leaders will likely gather to tell us “climate change affects us all”, and risk forgetting, “but not equally.”

They may speak of solutions that provide “dignity” for the world’s impacted, as if dignity were something they never had. They might project images of war-ravaged refugees, as if this is an accurate depiction of the intersection of climate and displacement, failing completely to understand the impacts of climate on entire societies.

They may speak of climate risk populations as poor and destitute, when in fact poor is relative and those with options are exhausted, rapidly running out of fight and solutions.

The poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized are actually the one’s systematically left behind, the oppressed and the disenfranchised.

As the emissions continue to go unchecked, the planet warms and impacts disproportionately punish these groups of people, they know and we know we can no longer be expected to wait for the world’s leaders to get this right.

*Amali Tower previously worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and various NGOs in the humanitarian sector, including the US Refugee Admissions Program administered by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

 

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The post This Earth Day, a People’s Perspective is What is Most Needed appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The writer is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees, a human rights NGO that calls for the protection and rights of those displaced by climate change.

The post This Earth Day, a People’s Perspective is What is Most Needed appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Thousands of black and Asian British Empire troops were not remembered properly, a report says.

Sudan seems to have sided with Egypt in its row with Ethiopia over a dam on the River Nile.

For three days from Sunday morning until late on Tuesday night, Cape Town’s firefighters were dispatched to Table Mountain and surrounding areas to battle a blaze that destroyed 600 hectares of land, displaced 4,000 students from the University of Cape Town and left heritage buildings damaged. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

By Yazeed Kamaldien
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 21 2021 (IPS)

Cape Town-based photojournalist Yazeed Kamaldien reported on a massive mountain fire that broke out on Sunday on Table Mountain and near residential areas on its foothills. By this morning, Wednesday 21 April, officials said the fire had been extinguished after three grueling days for firefighters. Firefighters are still monitoring on the ground for any flare-ups.

South African National Parks, which manages the Table Mountain area, estimates that the fire destroyed 600 hectares of land. A total 135 firefighters were dispatched along with 125 mountain rangers and an additional 170 fire and rescue workers.

While there were no deaths in the blaze, at least 4,000 students from the University of Cape Town were evacuated from their university residences. Locals have been assisting students with meals and other necessities.

Residents living on the Table Mountain slopes also had to evacuate their homes as the fire reached closer to their doors. Firefighting teams were deployed to extinguish the flames.
Heritage sites and university buildings were damaged and destroyed. Of the 11 affected buildings, seven are in the University of Cape Town campus.

Among these was the J.W. Jagger Library, which housed special collections that are well over a hundred years old. Other destroyed landmarks are the Mostert Mill and the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant.

Local police have arrested and charge with arson a vagrant while two other suspects are still being sought.

For three days from Sunday morning until late on Tuesday night, Cape Town’s firefighters were dispatched to Table Mountain and surrounding areas to battle a blaze that destroyed 600 hectares of land, displaced 4,000 students from the University of Cape Town and left heritage buildings damaged. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

By Wednesday morning, the fire had been contained and firefighters were still out monitoring areas around Table Mountain and areas nearby. The fire had started on Sunday at 9am around the historical Rhodes Memorial site. The fire destroyed the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant, which overlooks the city. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

Homeless people living on the slopes of Table Mountain lost their shacks and few possessions. They escaped with their lives to find shelter in safer spaces. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

A lone homeless man sits amidst the burnt out grass around him on the slopes of Table Mountain, where Cape Town’s firefighters fought back flames across 600 hectares of land. Local police arrested a vagrant for allegedly starting the fire and charged him with arson. Two more suspects are being sought. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

A lone homeless man sits amidst the burnt out grass around him on the slopes of Table Mountain, where Cape Town’s firefighters fought back flames across 600 hectares of land. Local police arrested a vagrant for allegedly starting the fire and charged him with arson. Two more suspects are being sought. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

A homeless man pulls his few possessions in a suitcase, leaving an area where firefighters were still battling flames on Tuesday afternoon. Homeless people living on the slopes of Table Mountain, where the fire spread for a few kilometers, fled their shacks for safer spaces. By Wednesday morning, officials had extinguished most of the fire that has left a trail of destruction. Credit: Yazeed Kamaldien

 

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Mahamat, 37, is the same age as the late Idriss Déby when he seized power in 1990.

Mahamat Déby is one of the sons of the late president Idriss Déby and will lead Chad during a military transition.