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Ethiopia’s month-long war in its northern Tigray region has severely hampered efforts to fight one of Africa’s worst coronavirus outbreaks,... View Article
The post Ethiopia’s conflict stokes humanitarian and virus crisis: 'I think the war is worse' appeared first on TheGrio.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
Congolese Health Minister Eteni Longondo on Thursday officially proclaimed the end of the Ebola epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the second most serious since the discovery of the virus in 1976.
Declared on 1 August 2018, this tenth epidemic of haemorrhagic fever on Congolese soil has killed 2,277 people, said the Minister of Health, who spoke of the epidemic “the longest, most complex, and deadliest” in the country’s history.
But Thursday’s milestone announced in the east of the country was overshadowed by the enormous health challenges still facing the vast African nation: the world’s largest measles epidemic, the rising threat of Covid-19 and another new Ebola outbreak in the north.
The health ministry intends to capitalise on the lessons learned and the success factors from this long epidemic to assure the most effective response possible in Mbandaka.
“The health ministry intends to capitalise on the lessons learned and the success factors from this long epidemic to assure the most effective response possible in Mbandaka,” Health Minister Eteni Longondo told reporters.
[Reporter] The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said humanitarian routes in Tigray have been opened for aid providers following an agreement reached between the government and the United Nations.
Online retailer Amazon was caught once again hawking a product with a glaringly racist description that somehow went undetected. This... View Article
The post Amazon removes doll with racist description of braided hair appeared first on TheGrio.
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- Unions representing health workers in Kenya have vowed to press on with the planned strike on Monday accusing the government of failing to address their plight.
The Caribbean’s COVID-19-ravaged telecommunications industry is in need of “urgent” government bailout, amounting to millions of dollars, to prevent poor-quality service and higher prices for consumers, a powerful regional lobby group for firms like Digicel and FLOW has warned.
The Sunday Gleaner has obtained leaked documents CANTO submitted to CARICOM begging the regional institution to lobby Jamaica and other governments for assistance, pointing out that some operators have lost more than 60 per cent of revenues during the last three months as a result of the global pandemic.
CANTO, which represents 48 operators in 28 countries, has proposed a cut in licence fees by 50 per cent for three years retroactive to 2019; and that firms be allowed to reclaim debts governments owe from taxes and other fees.
While the new figures are not known, the Government had anticipated $1.16 billion in revenues from telecoms licence fees, which means that if Jamaica buys into CANTO’s proposal, the Government stands to lose over $600 million.
Asked whether the ministry is open to considering adjusting telecoms fees, Williams disclosed that during the “heights of the COVID-19 pandemic”, consideration was given to waiving spectrum licence and regulatory fees for the temporary assignment of additional spectrum to assist telecommunication providers.
Many thought Africa would become the next high-risk area, but when COVID-19 eventually arrived on the continent, most of the dire predictions were way off.
Some point to Africa's relative youth: While nearly 95% of COVID-19 deaths in Europe were people over 60, Africa's median age is only 19, and 60% of the continent is under 25.
We also know that Africa CDC created its COVID-19 task force on February 5 , before the continent had a single case.
We know that Rwanda became the first African nation to lock down on March 21st and that many other African countries soon followed: South Africa implemented its comprehensive lockdown when it had only 400 cases and two fatalities.
It's widely agreed that South Africa's strict lockdown bought critical time to prepare health systems and flattened the COVID-19 curve.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Dec 5, CMC – Grenada says it will place a temporary ban on the importation of poultry products from the United Kingdom as of Monday.\tThe Ministry of Agriculture, Lands & Forestry said that the ban is due to an...
My Day By Dr. J. Ester Davis Picture: Dr. Phil Huang, Director, Dallas County Health&Human Services What is the most important topic to date from the Dallas County Health Department? Is it contact tracing or the illusive vaccine? What groups will be receiving the proposed vaccine first? With African Americans still labeled and suffering disproportionately […]
[DW] Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the government will launch more military attacks on the Tigray region. His announcement comes amid international calls for an end to hostilities.
WHEN President Emmerson Mnangagwa came into office through a military-assisted transition, he immediately called his government a Second Republic or New Dispensation. It is critical to have an appreciation of what a dispensation or republic is. With that in mind, I have two or three key interventions that I would like to make as we try to unpack what all this means to the ordinary citizen. A dispensation is something new, a distinctive arrangement of governance. This means new faces have been brought at the forefront. It could also imply a new approach to doing government business. Where there was corruption, poor performance, there is now a robust mechanism to protect the public good. In the Zimbabwe case, Mnangagwa's government is made up of the bulk of ministers who served government since independence with a few coming along the way. The approaches and the system remains as it was — insensitive and unresponsive to the citizens' needs and rights. The pace of reform is not as fast as anticipated. The new system of governance prevailing now is not yet instilling confidence in the citizenry that it is caring, responsive and passionate about serving the citizens' interests. What makes the system to be weaker is that ministers say a lot of things, but when it comes to implementation, there is a snail's pace. Things are bad, but the government could lessen the burden by being more sincere, realistic and stop pretending to be nice. It is better to be lied to by a known liar than to be lied to by a person over-emphasising that they are honest and good for the people. As said above, it is futile to say Zimbabwe is under a new dispensation. It is still the same old story.
Take a look at these holiday cocktails that are full of spice and everything nice.
But rather than whine and cry as many do today, Americans did what Americans do, or at least used to do.
Caribbean countries were on Friday reporting increased cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) while reiterating the need for their nationals to follow the various measures and protocols aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
Video footage taken from the ground shows aggressive boos from the stands as the players took the knee, prompting criticism from ex-players including Lineker, Trevor Sinclair and Greg Halford
Maputo — The Mozambican Association of Cashew Industries (AICAJU) has warned that less than 35,000 tonnes of cashew nuts will be processed in Mozambican factories this year, which is more than 33 per cent less than the 52,000 tonnes processed last year.
In a Monday press release, AICAJU notes that Mozambique has less than ten processing plants operating and some of these will stop processing in the middle of this year, probably in August, for lack of raw materials.
\"The Asian processors can now buy in Mozambique raw material at inflated and unfair prices, distorting the market with a negative impact on Mozambican industry and, ultimately on the Mozambican state coffers\", the release protested.
In other words, Mozambican industries find it difficult to sell cashew kernels to the Indian market, while the Indian industries snap up thousands of tonnes of raw nuts from Mozambican farmers, at prices the Mozambican processing factories cannot compete with.
Nonetheless, AICAJU declared its confidence in the measures the Mozambican government is taking and believes that \"through discussions between the state, the private industry and the cashew producers, it will be possible to implement measures in good time to defend the sector, which will allow a cashew campaign in 2020 that is fair for all the stakeholders\".
Florida has reached a grim milestone in COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, the governor is focusing on vaccines and says he’s opposed to mandates like requiring masks. BY TOM URBAN AND JIM SAUNDERS NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA On April 1, just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, 7,773 people in Florida had tested positive for the insidious disease. […]
The post 1 MILLION AND COUNTING appeared first on Florida Courier.
… , Special to the Star Tribune
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle …
Clarence Wesley 'Cap' Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Wigington served as lead architect in over ninety St. Paul city projects. His legacy in brick and stone has lasted well into the twenty-first century. He designed both the enduring (schools, fire stations, park buildings) and the ephemeral (five Winter Carnival […]
The second-largest Ebola outbreak on record is over after nearly two years and more than 2 200 deaths, Democratic Republic of Congo says, even as a separate flare-up of the virus continued elsewhere in the country.
By MICHAEL BALSAMO WASHINGTON (AP) — Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by […]
MDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe has ordered that there will be no gap filling to the party’s 2014 structures ahead of the party extraordinary congress to block his secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora from accommodating his backers. BY RICHARD MUPONDE Khupe and Mwonzora will battle for the party’s presidency next weekend alongside interim chairman Morgen Komichi and his deputy, Elias Mudzuri. Mwonzora and Khupe seem to be the most popular and are set for a bruising fight as the congress dates draw near, but party insiders accused the secretary general of trying to manipulate the 2014 structures and rope in his loyalists to form the Electoral College and increase his votes. The plot, which was thickening until Wednesday when it was put to a halt by a caucus meeting, had caused tensions within the party. Mwonzora had reportedly ordered a gap filling to the 2014 structures in Chitungwiza, Harare, Mashonaland East Mashonaland Central and Manicaland where most of the chairman and organisers had openly showed him support. “Mashonaland West was ordered last weekend by Mwonzora to conduct gap filling,” a party insider said. “Some chairman and organisers loyal to Mwonzora who include Piniel Denga (Mashonaland East chairman), Rhino Mashaya (Organiser for Harare) among others, had remained adamant and wanted to do the gap filling.” But sensing danger, Khupe reportedly ordered that there will be no gap filling and threatened to suspend provinces that conduct the exercise. But Khupe has managed to block Mwonzora. “This memo serves to advise all provinces that the national secretary for elections is now in the process of compiling the first Electoral College which is going to be validated by the relevant party structures and organs,” read part of a notice by Tapiwa Mashakada, the acting party spokesperson. The memo was released after the caucus meeting. “Linked to the process, please be advised that No GAP filling or replacements should be done. For the avoidance of doubt, those delegates who have left, died, resigned or joined other political parties shall not be replaced. Please be guided accordingly.” Khupe was not picking calls yesterday, but Mwonzora denied he was plotting to ambush his opponents. He accused his opponents of being jittery after sensing defeat. He said he had a successful launch of his presidential campaign which was oversubscribed with delegates from Harare and Chitungwiza showing who their choice was, adding “this was frightening to my opponents who have reported to spreading falsehoods and creating an explanation of their impending loss.” “This is the work of people who are developing butterflies about this election,” Mwonzora said. “They are afraid of losing because the members of the MDC-T have already shown their voting patterns. The Electoral College to be used by congress is going to be tabled before the national standing committee on Tuesday. “It is at that point that the leaders will be able to analyse it. Further, after we have finalised the Electoral College on Tuesday, we will send it back to t
Ethiopia has said that forces loyal to the ruling party in the Tigray region had fired into neighbouring Amhara region.
By MARION RENAULT Associated Press Scientists are seeing promising early results from the first studies testing gene editing for painful, inherited blood disorders that plague millions worldwide. Doctors hope the one-time treatment, which involves permanently altering DNA in blood cells with a tool called CRISPR, may treat and possibly cure sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Partial results were presented Saturday at an American Society of Hematology conference and some were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors described 10 patients who are at least several months removed from their treatment. All no longer need regular blood transfusions […]
The post Gene-editing treatment shows promise for sickle cell disease appeared first on Black News Channel.
MANCHESTER, England, CMC – Captain Jason Holder said West Indies were committed to the global fight for racial justice, and will stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the upcoming series against England.
The Caribbean side arrived here last Tuesday for their three-Test series tour which will be played against the backdrop of fervent protests across the world, in the wake of the killing of an unarmed black man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, United States.
“I must highlight that we Cricket West Indies is firmly behind the movement of Black Lives Matter,” Holder told Good Morning Britain hosted by Piers Morgan and Suzanna Reid here Monday.
“There’s obviously a lot going around the world now with the protests and the whole movement as such and definitely the West Indies team will show their solidarity [with] the movement.
Global sporting icons such as Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua have already thrown their weight behind the Black Lives Matter movement, during the current protests.
