Category: Medical

part of efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

A mandatory health pass and negative PCR test will be required for international travellers, as well as, a double-check by thermal cameras, and antigen tests will be conducted upon arrival in Morocco, said an official statement, published by the Moroccan official news agency.

The statement added that, any passenger who tested positive on arrival must return immediately to the country of origin, at the expense of the airline or shipping company.

This decision aimed to preserve Morocco’s achievements in the fight against COVID-19, and took into account the increase in cases of infection in Morocco’s European neighbours, it said.

Morocco’s COVID-19 tally rose to 948,157 yesterday as 132 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

The death toll stood at 14,740, with three new fatalities, and total recoveries hit 929,909, after 134 new ones were added.

A total of 24,359,996 people have received the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines, and 22,388,630 have received the second dose. Meanwhile, 1,570,471 people have taken the third dose.

The North African country launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on Jan 28, after the arrival of the first shipment of China’s Sinopharm vaccines.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Malawi has begun a mass distribution of mosquito nets, aiming to reach almost half the country’s population of 18 million people. Health authorities say the campaign is aimed at reducing the spread of malaria, which in Malawi currently accounts for 36% of all hospital outpatients and 15% of hospital admissions.

The Global Fund-supported campaign was announced during the commemoration of Southern Africa Development Community Malaria Day November 6 and is expected to be rolled out nationally November 15.

Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda, Malawi’s minister of health, says the intervention is a response to the health threat malaria is posing in Malawi.

“So, one of the interventions is the distribution of the nets as vector control. As a country, we are going to distribute 9 million nets. Out target is that at least two Malawians should share a net. Our population we are targeting we are about 18 million, that why we reached the figure of 9 million,” Kandodo-Chiponda said.

She said during the campaign all expectant mothers will be given anti-malaria drugs to prevent them from suffering from malaria while pregnant.

Statistics show that malaria is the No. 1 deadly disease in Malawi. Last year alone, malaria killed 2,500 people in Malawi, more than any other disease, including COVID-19.

However, Kandodo-Chiponda said the campaign is strewn with challenges.

“And one of the challenges is that when you distribute the nets, you will find that, especially along the lake, these nets are used for fishing and sorts of things,” she said.

To reduce the changes of such misuse of the nets, the campaign also involves teaching the recipients about the importance of sleeping under the net.

The mosquito net distribution is part of the Zero Malaria Starts With Me campaign, launched by Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera in June as part of global campaign to end malaria by 2030.

Elias Mpedi Magosi, executive secretary of the Southern Africa Development Community, commended Malawi’s efforts to eradicate malaria and said the bloc is working to adopt a regional malaria strategy.

“Primarily because if one country, one member state removes or clears malaria, these mosquitos known no boundaries, they just relocate to another country. So, it requires a pooled regional effort, resources, attributes and behaviors so that it is eliminated,” Magosi said.

Janet Kayita, the World Health Organization country representative in Malawi, said the campaign is among major steps Malawi has successfully taken against malaria.

“Malawi has been exceptional in taking forward WHO recommendations on what to do, how to prevent malaria, how to treat malaria. But the most historic groundbreaking event in the last month actually, that Malawi is at the front of, is the information that is coming out about the new malaria vaccine for infants and children,” Kayita said.

Last month, the WHO endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine for children across Africa following a successful three-year trial in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

Although it is only 30% effective, scientists say the vaccine, known as Mosquirix, will have major impact against malaria in Africa, which records 200 million cases and 400,000 deaths per year.

Source: Voice of America

FREETOWN – At least 108 people were killed and 92 others injured, in a fuel tanker explosion here late Friday, Sierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), confirmed yesterday.

According to a statement by NDMA, a loaded fuel tanker and a truck carrying granite collided on a highway, while the fuel tanker was about to enter a nearby filling station.

Footages and eyewitnesses revealed that, while the collision took place, both drivers came out of their vehicles and warned residents to stay off the scene, while trying to address a leakage emanating from the collision, said the statement.

In the interim, some community members rushed to the scene and took advantage of the leakage to scoop fuel and store it in nearby makeshift structures. In the cause of scooping the fuel, a major explosion happened and resulted in a fire disaster, it added.

The statement said, the injured were admitted into different hospitals across the city, suffering varying degrees of burn. Meanwhile, medical supply has been provided to the victims.

Sierra Leonean President, Julius Maada Bio, yesterday expressed his condolences over the fuel tanker explosion, saying, the government will “do everything to support affected families.”

In the meantime, the president cancelled his trip to the Extraordinary Session of the Economic Community of West African States Authority of Heads of State and Government, which is set to be held in Ghana today.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Eleven soldiers were killed and nine reported missing on Friday following a jihadi attack on an army position in Dagne in western Niger, days after 69 civilians died in an ambush, the government said.

The attack by “a column of heavily armed terrorists in several vehicles and dozens of motorcycles” killed 11 soldiers, and left one injured, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense read on public television.

“After fierce fighting, the enemy column was forced to retreat with its dead and wounded,” added the statement, which said “air and ground reinforcements dispatched to the area continue to sweep” the locality.

The soldiers targeted had been deployed to ensure the safety of the thousands of villagers who had returned to their communities after the earlier killings.

At least 69 people, including a local mayor, died earlier this week in an attack in the country’s volatile tri-border zone with Burkina Faso and Mali.

The assault took place on Tuesday at Adab-Dab, a village about 55 kilometers (32 miles) from Banibangou in the western region of Tillaberi, but was only confirmed by the government on Thursday.

The government declared two days of national morning starting Friday.

Local sources said a motorcycle-borne defense force was attacked by “heavily armed members of the ISGS (Islamic State in the Greater Sahara),” who were also on motorbikes.

Another source said the target of the attack on Tuesday was a local anti-jihadi defense force called the Vigilance Committees, which was headed by the mayor of Banibangou district.

The defense force had recently been set up by local people following a string of attacks on farm workers in remote fields by highly mobile jihadists, a former mayor said.

The world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the U.N.’s Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing jihadist insurgencies on its western border with Mali and Burkina Faso and on its southeastern frontier with Nigeria.

The western insurgency began with incursions in 2015. The bloodshed escalated in 2017, with massacres carried out by groups affiliated to al-Qaida and Islamic State.

Human Rights Watch estimated in August that more than 420 civilians had been killed since the start of the year in western Niger.

Source: Voice of America

A jihadi attack in Niger’s volatile tri-border zone with Burkina Faso and Mali has killed dozens of members of a self-defense militia, local sources told AFP on Thursday.

The assault took place on Tuesday at Adab-Dab, a village about 55 kilometers (32 miles) from Banibangou in the western region of Tillaberi, a source said.

A motorcycle-borne defense force was attacked by “heavily-armed members of the ISGS (Islamic State in the Greater Sahara),” who were also on motorbikes, the source said.

“In all there are about 60 dead, nine missing and 15 escaped. The mayor of Banibangou is among those who were killed and his body has been recovered,” an MP in the western Tillaberi area said.

A security source said the attack occurred Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. local time (0830 GMT).

Another local source confirmed the death toll and said the target of the attack was a local anti-jihadi defense force called the Vigilance Committees, which was headed by the mayor of Banibangou district.

The assailants headed back to Mali “taking the bodies of their fighters with them,” the source said.

The defense force had recently been set up by local people following a string of attacks on farm workers in remote fields by highly mobile jihadis, a former mayor said.

The militia had set off for Adab-Dab on Tuesday to hunt for armed men who had been attacking villages and stealing cattle.

The world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the U.N.’s Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing jihadi insurgencies on its western border with Mali and Burkina Faso and on its southeastern frontier with Nigeria.

The western insurgency began with incursions in 2015. The bloodshed escalated in 2017, with massacres carried out by groups affiliated to al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State.

Human Rights Watch estimated in August that more than 420 civilians had been killed since the start of the year in western Niger. In one incident alone, 100 people were killed in attacks on villages on January 2.

In September, President Mohamed Bazoum, making his first visit to the region since being elected in February, said the attacks on “unarmed innocent people” were a sign the jihadis were losing ground against the army.

But on October 20, 11 members of the National Guard and a gendarme were killed in an ambush on a regional prefect’s motorcade in the Bankilare district.

The United Nations has meanwhile warned that the Tillaberi region is facing a “major food crisis,” with almost 600,000 people exposed to food insecurity.

“Insecurity and recurrent attacks by suspected elements of non-state armed groups targeting farmers and civilians will have serious repercussions this year on the already precarious food situation,” the U.N. Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs office warned in a report sent to AFP last month.

Source: Voice of America

In Lagos, Nigeria, the death toll from the collapse of a building Monday has risen to 22 as rescuers continue digging through the rubble in a search for survivors. Experts say the collapse was likely the result of poor construction and weak oversight, and are worried that such catastrophes could happen again.

The search for survivors continued Wednesday at the site of the building collapse in Ikoyi, an upper-class area of Lagos state.

So far, nine survivors have been pulled out of the rubble and taken to hospitals. Scores more are reported missing.

Search teams have found 22 bodies.

On Tuesday, Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwolu visited the site and later suspended the state’s building control head. Lagos state also launched an independent investigation into the collapse.

But Festus Adebayo, founder of the Housing Development Advocacy Network, who visited the site, said authorities have been careless.

“We are careless, we’re just careless. We have recommended, the building code is there and we have said 21 years jail term, but nobody has been jailed it has all been media hype, noise, noise, noise,” said Adebayo.

Lagos authorities halted the construction of the building in June for not meeting standard structural requirements.

The local president of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, David Majekodunmi, said the institute doesn’t know if the problem was fixed before the workers were asked to return to the site.

“You seal up a site, definitely there are processes that you need to do before the site can be opened. We can’t tell now whether the process went through,” he said.

Lagos authorities say they are assessing the possible impact of the collapse on nearby structures.

Building collapses, unfortunately, are not uncommon in Lagos state, which has a population of 21 million people and thousands of high-rise structures.

Adebayo said these catastrophes are not good for investment or business.

“How do you think the whole world will see us? What’s the impression they’ll be having about our professionals? You’ll discover that a lot of people will not be going for high rise buildings,” said Adebayo.

On Tuesday, rescuers received several phone calls from people trapped under the debris. No new calls came on Wednesday, and experts say that as the days go by, the chances of survival for trapped victims are getting slimmer.

Source: Voice of America