ADF

REUTERS Rhino poaching fell 63% year-on-year in Namibia due to intensified intelligence operations and tougher sentences and fines for poachers. Elephant poaching also decreased, with two incidents reported as of August 2020 compared with 13 in 2019, the environment ministry said. Namibia is home to the second-largest white rhino population in the world after South Africa, according to nonprofit Save the Rhino. Namibia also holds one-third of the world’s remaining black rhinos. Rhino poaching has plagued Southern Africa for decades, especially in neighboring South Africa and Botswana, leading to anti-poaching programs such as dehorning and strict policing. Namibia has increased…

AFRICAN UNION The African Union has announced a new initiative that will help the continent better meet the health challenges of the future. The Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme is a new AU effort under the auspices of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). It is named in memory of Kofi Atta Annan, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations (1997-2006), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founding chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation. Annan worked tirelessly to promote improved health in Africa, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS. He died in 2018 at age 80. “In 2014…

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION Togo has received validation from the World Health Organization (WHO) for having eliminated human African trypanosomiasis, or “sleeping sickness,” as a public health problem, becoming the first African country to reach this milestone. Parasites transmitted by tsetse flies cause sleeping sickness, and it is found in about three dozen Sub-Saharan African countries. If left untreated, sleeping sickness is almost always fatal. In 1995, about 25,000 cases were detected, about 300,000 cases were estimated to have gone undetected, and 60 million people were estimated to be at risk of infection. In 2019, fewer than 1,000 cases were found.…

ADF Staff Dr. John Nkengasong, a virologist, has been the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) since 2017 and has helped lead the continent’s response to Ebola, COVID-19, malaria and other health challenges since that time. He spoke to ADF from his office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in December 2020. His remarks have been edited to fit this format. ADF: Countries are now preparing to acquire and distribute COVID-19 vaccines. You recently co-authored a piece for Nature urging the world not to “let history repeat itself” where African nations find themselves at the back…

ADF STAFF When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Malawi in early April 2020, the nation known as the “warm heart of Africa” for the kindness of its citizens faced a potential crisis. The fast-spreading respiratory disease could easily have overwhelmed the low-income country of more than 20 million people. “COVID-19 could have a disastrously high toll in Malawi,” said Maria Jose Torres Macho, United Nations resident coordinator for Malawi. “Even a fairly low number of cases could overwhelm the health system, cause food shortages and reverse the path of progress the country has been on in recent years.” By early…

ADF STAFF As national economies struggle to reopen from pandemic lockdowns, the African Union is looking to homegrown technology to help businesses while tracking the potential for new outbreaks.  One technology is a smartphone app called PanaBIOS. It lets governments monitor people’s movement — particularly those who may have tested positive for COVID-19 — and curb large gatherings that might turn into superspreader events. The widespread use of PanaBIOS is crucial to the AU’s planned opening of a continentwide free-trade area in 2021. That project, which will let people and goods move across open borders, will require a way to…

ADF STAFF For 11 days in June, 7,800 participants from African nations, the United States and NATO countries trained together on land, sea and in the air as part of African Lion. African Lion is U.S. Africa Command’s (AFRICOM’s) largest and oldest joint annual exercise on the continent. This year’s June 7-18 program was hosted jointly by Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. The exercise focused on building mission capabilities and strengthening cooperation among the militaries that took part. The 2020 exercise was canceled because of COVID-19. “This exercise is all about readiness,” said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, AFRICOM commander. “Readiness…

ADF STAFF The leaders of Uganda and Tanzania recently approved a new Chinese-backed pipeline to transport oil from the continent’s interior more than 1,400 kilometers to the Indian Ocean. Environmentalists say the project threatens the livelihoods of thousands of people, cuts through habitat crucial for the survival of elephants and other wildlife, and promises to increase both countries’ carbon footprint at a time when many countries are trying to reduce emissions. “The East African Crude Oil Pipeline [EACOP] threatens one of the most ecologically diverse and wildlife-rich regions of the world,” Landry Ninteretse, regional director of the Kenya-based nonprofit organization…

ADF STAFF Sierra Leone’s plan to build a $55 million industrial fishing harbor on 100 hectares of beach and protected rainforests continues to cause controversy among fishermen and conservationists. The Chinese-backed project at Black Johnson Beach includes a fish processing plant in a tourist area 35 kilometers south of Freetown, the capital. It borders virgin rainforest that is home to chimpanzees and protected bird species, as well as Western Area Peninsula National Park, where endangered species such as duiker antelope and pangolins live. A nearby lagoon is a breeding ground for fish and turtles and opens up into a river…

ADF STAFF In the swamplands of central Tanzania is a place called Mosquito City. It has the world’s largest captive colony of mosquitoes used for researching the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, such as Zika virus and dengue fever. Scientists with the Ifakara Health Institute are working to understand mosquito behavior, such as when they mate. The goal is to learn how to best trap, repel and kill mosquitoes. “Part of our work here is to innovate and create new tools so we can just keep pace,” Fredros Okumu, chief scientist at the institute, said in a video…