"In South Sudan there are still 19,000 children in armed forces, with boys trained to fight and girls taken as 'wives'."
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EYL, February 26 -- Hawa Mohamed Saeed recites a prayer in a barely audible voice as she waits for the phone to ring with news of her imprisoned son. This has been her daily routine for the past five years. Dressed in red flowing garment from top-to-toe, Hawa, 80, paces gingerly back and forth in front of a white-washed stone house with a corrugated tin roof perched on top of a mountain in the picturesque town of Eyl, in Somalia's northeast. Colourful prayer beads play in one hand, an old battered mobile phone in the other. The elderly woman is awaiting news of her son who is jailed in Yemen. Farhan Mohamed Jaama - a convicted Somali pirate serving life behind bars - hasn't called in months. Once in a while when the waiting gets unbearable, Hawa finds the courage to call him on the smuggled phone he hides, taking a chance the no-nonsense Yemeni prison guards won't find him answering her call. "He was a seaman just like most people in this town, he used to go out to sea and sell the catch," Hawa says. "Our life was good. He did not only provide for us, but also for his relatives who live in towns and villages far from here. He used to pay for their rent and school fees." Farhan is one of more than 200 men from this town who have been hauled off to prisons far from this Horn of Africa country. More than 1,300 young Somali men have been jailed in prisons abroad for piracy since 2005. Most have been sentenced to life in jail. Pirate capital Eyl - an ancient town sandwiched between the blue warm waters of the Indian Ocean on one side, and the rolling Nugaal mountains on the other - was until recently known as Somalia's piracy capital. This once well-to-do town has fallen on hard times. Eyl has paid the heaviest price, and continues to do so. With the seas empty of fish because of toxic waste dumping and illegal fishing by foreign trawlers - and the soil too rocky and barren to support farming - residents have run out of ideas on how to support themselves. They have exhausted all options. Prayers at the local mosque are all that is left in their armour. The abandoned crumbling homes are a clear sign that many have given up and left. "Life has turned for the worst, first our central government collapsed, then the sea got polluted by foreigners using it as dump site that killed most of the fish," Hawa says. "Life became tough not only for us but most of the people in this town. Then the little fish that was left was swept clean by the trawlers - illegal trawlers." OTTAWA, November 1 -- Visa applications from worst-affected nations suspended in move slammed as ineffective and disheartening by critics. Canada has suspended visa applications for residents and nationals of countries with "widespread transmission" of the Ebola virus, becoming the second nation after Australia to introduce such a measure. The countries most severely hit by the worst Ebola outbreak ever are Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Canada has not yet had a case of the disease. The similar move by Australia was slammed on Wednesday by Dr Margaret Chan, the World Health Organisation's director general, who said closing borders won't stop spread of the Ebola virus. Canadians, including healthcare workers, in West Africa will be permitted to travel back to Canada, the government said. Kevin Menard, a spokesman for Canada's immigration ministry, said the government has "instituted a pause" in issuing visas for foreigners from risky countries, but noted "there was room for discretion if we can be assured that someone is not infected with the virus," according to the Associated Press news agency. Nancy Caron, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said that "a number of African countries have imposed stricter travel bans as have several other countries around the world. Other countries such as the United States have started to place restrictions on travelers from countries with Ebola outbreaks". The government also noted that all travelers, including Canadian citizens, will continue to be screened at ports of entry in Canada and will be subject to appropriate health screening. Menard said the move is similar to, but a bit less restrictive than, the Australian measure. Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said the body welcomed Canada's support in fighting the Ebola outbreak but advocated "against isolating the three most impacted countries and stigmatising its citizens". NEW YORK, October 22 -- NBC News cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, has been declared free of the virus and can leave the Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha, where he has been treated for the past two weeks, the centre reported on Tuesday. Earlier reports said the experimental drug Brincidofovir developed by U.S. Chimerix company was used to treat the Ebola patient. Mukpo contracted the virus while on an assignment in Liberia. After he began showing symptoms, he was immediately isolated and soon brought to the United States for medical treatment. His colleagues returned from Liberia a bit later and were examined by medics who found no Ebola symptoms. Also on Tuesday, the U.S. National Institutes of Health upgraded from “fair” to “good” the condition of another Ebola patient, Texas nurse Nina Pham. She was also diagnosed with Ebola earlier in October after taking care of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed on U.S. soil. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week that the Ebola epidemic was spreading geographically and the death toll exceeds 4,500, while the number of probable and suspected cases nears 9,000. GENEVA, October 20 -- Nigeria has been declared officially free of Ebola after a 42 day period with no new cases elapsed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. The WHO can declare an Ebola outbreak over if two incubation periods of 21 days pass with no new cases detected. Senegal was the first West African country declared free of the deadly virus on Friday. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa and infected more than twice as many this year, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the WHO. Ebola virus The death toll of the Ebola outbreak reached 4,447 last Tuesday. and the number of probable and suspected cases stood at more than 8,900. The World Health Organization describes Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) as a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%. Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. T The infection is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people. People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease. The only treatment offered is “supportive intensive care.” During an outbreak, those at higher risk of infection are health workers, family members and others in close contact with sick people and deceased patients.
Reports from Lagos, said details of the deal have yet to emerge. "Both sides have agreed there will be no more attacks, no more bombs and no more attacks on Boko Haram.The government will not attack any Boko Haram strongholds for the moment." Mutasa said. "We do know Boko Haram wanted certain conditions met, for example they wanted their senior commanders released from government captivity." Mutasa added. Abducted schoolgirls Sources told Al Jazeera that substantial progress had been reached in negotiations about the abducted girls but that no definite deal had been agreed. A senior adviser to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan told that the deal reached on Friday included the release of the girls, but that no date had been set and that the release was part of an "ongoing process". Doyin Okupe said the government had agreed to "some concessions" but did not give any details. Boko Haram has been demanding the release of detained fighters in exchange for the girls. The group attracted international condemnation with the April abduction of nearly 300 girls from a boarding school in northeast Chibok town. Dozens escaped but 219 remain missing. Nigeria's president has been criticised at home and abroad for his slow response to the abducted and for his inability to quell the violence by the group, seen as the biggest security threat to Africa's biggest economy. Jonathan is expected to announce he will run for a second term in office on Saturday. Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is sinful", has killed thousands of people in a five-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in the country's northeast. WASHINGTON, October 16 -- US President Barack Obama has vowed "much more aggressive" response to Ebola cases in the United States and warned that in an age of frequent travel the disease could spread globally if the world does not respond to the "raging epidemic in West Africa".' Obama sought on Wednesday to ease growing anxiety in the US, as a second nurse was diagnosed with Ebola after treating a patient in a Dallas hospital. That patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died of Ebola on October 8. In an interview with a local US television station, that nurse said she informed authorities several times that she had a slight fever before boarding a commercial flight, and was told that it was okay to fly. She has now been transferred to a hospital in the city of Atlanta for treatment. The president said he had directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to step up its response to new cases. "We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step though what needs to be done," he said. Obama spoke after cancelling a political campaign trip to convene a session of top Cabinet officials involved in the Ebola response both in the US and in the West African region, where the disease has been spreading at alarming rates. The meeting included the top military commander General Martin Dempsey and defence chief Chuck Hagel. Obama has been pressing the international community to step up its assistance in combating the disease. Hours before Obama canceled his trip, officials confirmed the infection of the second nurse who helped treat Duncan. The Texas developments added a new domestic element to what has developed into an Ebola crisis in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 'Controlled environment' US government officials on Wednesday said the nurse should never have got on the plane. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said no one else involved in Duncan's care will be allowed to travel "other than in a controlled environment''. "We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed,'' he said Tuesday. Infected Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms. Frieden said it was unlikely that other passengers or airline crew members were at risk because the nurse did not have any vomiting or bleeding. However, the CDC has alerted the 132 passengers aboard Monday's Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas' Fort Worth on Monday "because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning''. The woman is being treated in Texas and will be flown to a specialist hospital in Atlanta where some previous Ebola patients have recovered. NEW YORK, October 15 -- Infection said to be killing seven out of 10 patients in W Africa as German hospital reports death of UN medical worker. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa kills seven out of 10 victims and new cases could hit 10,000 a week within two months if it is not brought under control, the World Health Organisation has said. Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general, said on Tuesday that the death rate was higher than the official 50 percent rate and that "a lot more people will die" if the West Africa outbreak was not stopped. "What we're finding is 70 percent mortality," Aylward said, adding that he had a "working forecast" of 5,000 to 10,000 new cases a week by December to guide the international response. "It's been running at about a thousand cases a week now for about three to four weeks. The labs sometimes can't keep up with the amount of specimens they're getting." The announcement comes as the Texas Department of Health Services announced a second health worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for Ebola. WHO figures released on Tuesday show 8,914 confirmed cases and a total of 4,447 people dead. However, WHO has said several times that the tallies are unreliable due to difficult recording conditions and workload. Hardest hit countries Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been hardest hit. "There are this many cases that we're aware of, this many deaths that have been reported to us, but that doesn't mean you divide one by the other and get how many this disease kills," Aylward said. "To get that number, you need to take a bunch of people, follow them right through the course of their disease, and understand how many survive. "That subset of people, who we know were sick, and we know their final outcome, what we're finding is 70 percent mortality. "It's almost the exact same number across the three countries," he said. Aylward said WHO needs to isolate 70 percent of cases within two months to contain the outbreak. "Every time you isolate another patient, every time you have a safe burial, you're taking some of the heat out if this outbreak," he said. "But this is Ebola. This is a horrible, unforgiving disease. You've got to get to zero." Death in Germany Aylward's comments came on a day a UN medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia died in Germany. The St Georg hospital in Leipzig said on Tuesday that the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. The man tested positive for Ebola on October 6, prompting Liberia's UN peacekeeping mission to place 41 other staff members under "close medical observation". Also on Tuesday, a UN official gave warning that the world was failing to gain the upper hand against the deadly outbreak. "Ebola got a head start on us," Anthony Banbury, the British head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, said. Addressing the UN Security Council in New York by remote link from UNMEER headquarters in Accra, Banbury said: "It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us, and it is winning the race. "If Ebola wins, we the peoples of the United Nations lose so very much. "We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan." ROTTERDAM, October 14 -- Ebola is threatening much of the world’s chocolate supply. Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cacao, the raw ingredient in M&M’s, Butterfingers and Snickers Bars, has shut down its borders with Liberia and Guinea, putting a major crimp on the workforce needed to pick the beans that end up in chocolate bars and other treats just as the harvest season begins. The West African nation of about 20 million — also known as Côte D’Ivoire — has yet to experience a single case of Ebola, but the outbreak already could raise prices. The world’s chocolate makers have taken notice. The World Cocoa Foundation is working now to collect large donations from Nestlé, Mars and many of its 113 other members for its Coca Industry Response to Ebola Initiative. The initiative hasn’t been publicly unveiled, but the WCF plans to announce details Wednesday, during its annual meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on how the money will fuel Red Cross and Caritas Internationalis work to help the infected and staunch Ebola’s spread. Morristown, N.J.-based Transmar Group, an international cocoa supplier, already has pledged $100,000, and Mars has indicated its support, too. “As a member of the WCF and a supporter of the CocoaAction strategy, Mars is pleased to see the industry coming together to help organizations on the ground in the prevention and eradication of the Ebola virus,” the company said in a statement provided to POLITICO. “We look forward to the WCF partnership meeting in Copenhagen next week where we will learn more about the industry effort.” Ivory Coast, which produces about 1.6 million metric tons of cacao beans per year — roughly 33 percent of the world’s total, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization — closed its borders in August to Guinea and Liberia. More than 8,000 have been diagnosed with Ebola, and nearly 4,000 have died in those two countries and Sierra Leone. Next to Ivory Coast is Ghana, the world’s third-largest producer of cacao beans — 879,348 metric tons per year — or 15 percent of the world’s total. Tim McCoy, a senior adviser for the WCF, said signs that Ivory Coast residents already are concerned were immediately obvious during his last trip to the country in September. “Going into meetings where … you always shake hands and often times, with men and women, you do the cheek kiss thing … They weren’t doing that,” McCoy said. The market is worried, too. Prices on cocoa futures jumped from their normal trading range of $2,000 to $2,700 per ton, to as high as $3,400 in September over concerns about the spread of Ebola to Côte D’Ivoire, noted Jack Scoville, an analyst and vice president at the Chicago-based Price Futures Group. Since then, prices have yo-yoed down to $3,030 and then back to $3,155 in the past couple of weeks. DOUALA, October 11 -- Cameroon's government announced that 27 hostages presumed to have been kidnapped by Boko Haram, including 10 Chinese construction workers and the wife of a vice prime minister, have been freed. The hostages were returned early on Saturday morning and "are safe and sound,'' according to a statement from President Paul Biya's office read on state radio, the Associated Press news agency reported. The Chinese road construction workers were kidnapped in May from their base in Waza, in Cameroon's Far North region. Francoise Agnes Moukouri, wife of vice prime minister Amadou Ali, was among a group of 17 people kidnapped in a July attack targeting their residence in the border town of Kolofata. Officials said at the time that 200 fighters stormed the residence, though Ali himself was away. As the fighters retreated with their hostages, they set fire to the residence, stole safes and vehicles and killed at least five people, a military spokesman said at the time. A local religious leader was also abducted in the July attack and released Saturday, according to the Cameroon government statement. Boko Haram never claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but both incidents raised concerns that the Nigeria-based rebels were expanding their operations in Cameroon as the government became increasingly involved in regional efforts to contain them. Cameroon says it does not pay ransoms in kidnapping cases, and Saturday's brief statement provided no details on the conditions of the hostages' release. Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said he could provide no details. On Friday he claimed to have no knowledge of ongoing negotiations. On Wednesday, however, witnesses said Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the secretary-general of Cameroon's presidency, arrived in Maroua, the capital of the Far North region, fueling speculation that negotiations were reaching a conclusion. Ngoh Ngoh was credited with sealing the release of other high-profile hostages, including a French priest kidnapped last November and freed the following month. Source: AP Africa has been politically backward and naïve throughout the last century with so many atrocities, anomalies and injustices. Its children thought that, one day, things will be better, but since the era of independence dawned the situation has remained the same or even got worse. Ills, evils and self-destructions of all kinds continue to plague the African continent. Africa has lost its natural, human and material resources to wars and massacres. Coups and counter-coups have continued to play havoc with African society. Should confidence have been reposed in the statements of the likes of Kwameh Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba, to the effect that Africa's problems will turn to brightness? Is there any optimism for Africa? Will African children live to see this happen? One may ask why Africa has remained the poorest continent the world has ever produced. The answer is simple. Firstly, the self-centredness and mass corruption of African leaders plays a pivotal role in the continent's Waterloo. Most African heads only came into power to enrich themselves. The poor and the underprivileged are always the victims of these despots. Statistics have revealed that millions of African farmers go without a piece of farmland when their leaders have uncountable hectares of farmland in and out of the continent; millions are dying of sicknesses and diseases everyday when potential medical facilities would be more than enough; millions are suffering from starvation and malnutrition when there is sufficient food; and millions more are living in absolute poverty when individual leaders are saving millions of dollars in foreign banks for their own interests. Secondly, the intolerance and lack of respect for one another among Africans, combined to invite trouble in Africa. Africans are killing each other and destroying the continent's resources all because of these leaders' power hunger. It is enough to mention the gun rule and slaughtering of people in Algeria, massacres in Burundi, Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and killing of innocent civilians in Cassamance (southern Senegal) among others. These indicate that African leaders are themselves responsible for Africa's underdevelopment and political mayhem. With this era of political ignorance and naivety occupying Africa, there is more than ever need for a continent, indeed a world, without leaders or political borders. As we entered the dawn of the new millennium, intellectual sycophants have started howling and trumpeting that it will be a millennium of African peace and development. One renowned intellectual was quoted as saying that "in the next millennium, Europeans will come to Africa as refugees." Is it not during this prelude stage of the millennium that floods occurred in Mozambique, killing hundreds of people? That hunger and starvation entered Ethiopia? That thousands died in Nigeria as a result of the religious wars? That mass religious suicide occurred in Uganda? That the senseless land dispute heated up in Zimbabwe? And the wars in Rwanda, Cassamance and Burundi intensified? With these madnesses in our midst, only the insane would predict a bright future for Africa. Until socialist politics is introduced in Africa, the gloom of this "Heart of Darkness" shall continue. LONDON, October 10 -- Health authorities in many European countries have been preparing for the possible arrival of suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola, following guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation. The British government announced on Thursday it was stepping up its Ebola screening at airports, responding to growing public fears about the spread of the virus to Europe, and following reports of the death of a British citizen in Macedonia. The government announced that screening will start at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and at the Eurostar train terminal. British authorities said travellers from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea will be asked about recent travel, who they have been in contact with and their onward travel plans. Medical assessment could be given by trained staff on site. The Russian Emergencies Ministry displayed on Thursday a Russian plane designed to transfer any infected Ebola patients. The ministry has also offered help to European states to work with those who are infected with Ebola. The news of the unidentified Briton's death in Skopje on Thursday comes as the head of the World Bank and West African leaders warned that the virus threatens the entire African continent. Health officials in the Macedonian capital, however, cautioned that the diagnosis could not be confirmed until a German laboratory had completed its analysis. Britain's Foreign Office in London said it was investigating the case. The Briton was taken to Skopje's hospital for Infectious Diseases after the hotel where he was staying called the emergency services, Macedonia's health ministry spokeswoman Jovanka Kostovska said. He complained of stomach pain and "refused to eat or to see a doctor," she said. The patient was admitted to the hospital and passed away shortly after. Officials said the man's symptoms, and the speed at which they developed, led them to suspect Ebola. Under quarantine The Skopje hotel where he was staying was sealed off and those thought to have had contact with him were put under quarantine. Health officials did not name the victim, saying only that he was born in 1956. The man arrived in Macedonia from London on October 2 and was not thought to have travelled to any countries affected by the Ebola virus, his friends were reported to have said. The world's largest outbreak of the disease has killed 3,865 people out of 8,033 infected so far this year, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the World Health Organisation's latest count. Source: Agencies BANGUI, October 3 -- French peacekeepers killed up to seven people as they tried to control clashes between armed groups in the Central African town of Bambari that have left at least 25 dead, officials said on Thursday. Bambari has become a stronghold for the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels that seized control of the country last year and were forced out of power in January. But factions of the Seleka have clashed with each other as well as the mostly Christian anti-balaka militia and armed Fula tribesmen in recent months. A police source in Bambari said “violent clashes broke out on Wednesday and carried on into Thursday in Bambari.” “The provisional toll is 25 dead and several injured. It could well increase given the violence of the attacks.” French soldiers killed “five to seven” armed individuals as they tried to bring the violence under control, a spokesman at the army headquarters in Paris added. Col. Gilles Jaron said French and African peacekeepers came under attack from an armed group using rocket-propelled grenade launchers. “We retaliated. We think we killed five to seven individuals,” he said. He said the armed group retreated but pillaged the offices of several NGOs, including the Red Cross. He added that calm had been restored by Thursday. The region remains highly restive due to splits within the Seleka “between a branch that is more and more radicalized and another which is more open to dialogue to exit the crisis,” said Jaron. The presence of other armed groups have further complicated the situation. Fierce clashes took place in Bambari in June and July, leaving more than 100 dead and at least 200 injured, mostly civilians. Tens of thousands fled. At the end of August, 11 people died when anti-balaka fighters attacked a Fula camp in nearby Ngakobo, which also saw its mayor assassinated last week. Source: Agencies MASERU, September 2 -- Gunfire and power cuts rekindled tensions in Lesotho's capital Maseru overnight, as the expected return to the mountain nation of the exiled prime minister appeared uncertain following an apparent coup. An aide to Tom Thabane told AFP on Tuesday that the 75-year-old was unlikely to return to the country on Tuesday as planned, after regional mediators brokered a road map to ease the country's political crisis. "We are still in Johannesburg. There is a possibility that we may not arrive in Lesotho today," Samonyane Ntsekele said in a phone interview, without giving details on the delay. The prime minister fled across the border to South Africa before dawn on Saturday, as troops attacked key police installations and surrounded his official residence. The military and a rival political party - the Lesotho Congress for Democracy - have been accused of trying to oust the 75-year-old, a charge they vehemently deny. Political tensions have been running high in the landlocked country since June when Thabane suspended the country's parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote amid feuding in the two-year-old coalition government. Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing had vowed to form a new coalition that would oust Thabane. South African President Jacob Zuma and representatives of the regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC), had brought together leaders from Lesotho's three ruling coalition parties to resolve their differences. It was reported earlier that the SADC will send an observer team to the mountainous African kingdom to monitor political, defence and security developments. The country's police force is in disarray after being forcibly disarmed by troops, and the military is seemingly beyond political control, leaving ordinary people fearing for the future. Source: Agencies
It come a day after al-Shabab fighters carried out a car bomb and gun attack against an intelligence headquarters in central Mogadishu, leaving at least seven fighters and five others dead.
Al-Shabab fighters have targeted key areas of the Somali government or the security forces in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities - who are backed by the African Union's 22,000-strong AMISOM force - that they are winning the war against the armed group. Al-Shabab is fighting to topple Somalia's internationally-backed government, and regularly launch attacks against state targets, as well as in neighbouring countries that contribute to the AU force. |
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