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In Pemba, the port city of Cabo Delgado, the wait is coming to an end for some, as they are reunited with their relatives. But the situation is far from calm in the town of Palma, and other areas, where locals are fleeing.
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
Unrest in central Mali, plagued by jihadist attacks and inter-community violence, has killed 580 civilians so far this year, the United Nations said Friday.
GOVERNMENT’S efforts to offer online and radio lessons to schoolchildren stranded at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown, which forced schools to remain closed, has been challenged by non-governmental organisations. BY BLESSED MHLANGA The lobby groups say the online and radio project was too elitist and discriminated against others who come from poor backgrounds or areas with no internet connectivity. Every Child in School-ECIS campaign led by Tag a Life International (TaLI) and supported by Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC), Education Coalition of Zimbabwe (Ecozi), Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) have since petitioned Parliament to ensure that the intervention by the Primary and Secondary Education ministry does not discriminate other children from poor backgrounds and remote areas. “There is now an attempt by the Ministry of Education to ensure that children’s learning is undisrupted and continues, this move is commendable, but as Every Child in School-ECIS campaign, led by Tag a Life International (TaLI) and supported by ZNCWC, Ecozi, WCoZ and children and civil society groups in Zimbabwe, we have noted some gaps which need urgent attention,” TaLI said in a statement soon after delivering a petition to Parliament.. TaLI said provision of lessons through radio and TV would exclude communities in Zimbabwe where there is no radio signal, those who cannot afford to purchase radio and TV sets, thereby falling far short of the constitutional provisions on non-discrimination. “Lessons for children, through radio while noble, leave out more than 80%,” TaLI said. “Of the population of learners, some cannot afford the radio sets, some do not even have the radio signal and others are struggling owing to power shortages. “Areas like Gwanda, Beitbridge, Kwekwe and parts of Manicaland do not receive ZBC radio signal, which means close to 40% of our communities who have no access to radio signal will be left out. “The radio classrooms also leave out another population, namely those in our society who cannot hear and those who need special attention, the disability groups.” This came at a time government had insisted that examination schedules would proceed uninterrupted, while the plan to reopen schools remains a puzzle not only for parents, but teachers and school heads as well. TaLI called on Parliament to excise its oversight role. “Education must be available to all, not one child must be left behind, it is with this in mind that we have approached, the Parliament of Zimbabwe with a petition to ensure government is forced to provide solutions that provide education to everyone,” TaLI said.
The post Online, radio lessons challenged appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.
There are now more than over 220,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
According to the latest data by the John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when.
As of May 13, every African country had recorded an infection, the last being Lesotho.
We shall keep updating this list largely sourced from the John Hopkins University tallies, Africa CDC and from official government data.
SUGGESTED READING: Africa’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 mark
Major African stats: June 13 at 8:30 GMT:
\t
\t\tConfirmed cases = 225,126
\t\tNumber of deaths = 6,051
\t\tRecoveries = 102,912
\t\tActive cases = 116,163
Countries in alphabetical order
\t\tAlgeria – 10,698
\t\tAngola – 130
\t\tBenin – 388
\t\tBotswana – 48
\t\tBurkina Faso – 892
\t\tBurundi – 85
\t\tCameroon – 8,681
\t\tCape Verde – 697
\t\tCentral African Republic – 2,044
\t\tChad – 848
\t\tComoros – 163
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 728
\t\tDR Congo – 4,637
\t\tDjibouti – 4,441
\t\tEgypt – 41,303
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 1,306
\t\tEritrea – 41
\t\tEswatini – 472
\t\tEthiopia – 2,915
\t\tGabon – 3,463
\t\t(The) Gambia – 28
\t\tGhana – 11,118
\t\tGuinea – 4,426
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,460
\t\tIvory Coast – 4,684
\t\tKenya – 3,305
\t\tLesotho – 4
\t\tLiberia – 421
\t\tLibya – 409
\t\tMadagascar – 1,240
\t\tMalawi – 481
\t\tMali – 1,752
\t\tMauritania – 1,572
\t\tMauritius – 337
\t\tMorocco – 8,610
\t\tMozambique – 509
\t\tNamibia – 31
\t\tNiger – 978
\t\tNigeria- 15,181
\t\tRwanda – 510
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 650
\t\tSenegal – 4,851
\t\tSeychelles – 11
\t\tSierra Leone – 1,103
\t\tSomalia – 2,513
\t\tSouth Africa – 61,927
\t\tSouth Sudan – 1,670
\t\tSudan – 6,879
\t\tTanzania – 509
\t\tTogo – 525
\t\tTunisia – 1,093
\t\tUganda – 686
\t\tZambia – 1,321
\t\tZimbabwe – 343
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa II
Maputo — Mozambique's National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marlene, announced in Maputo on Thursday that, with the diagnosis of a further six cases of the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease Covid-19, the number of confirmed cases in Mozambique has risen from 156 to 162.
Speaking at the Health Ministry's daily press conference on the Covid-19 crisis, Marlene said that, to date, 7,063 suspect cases have been tested, 294 of them in the previous 24 hours.
90 of the samples tested came from Maputo City, 73 from Maputo province, 34 from Cabo Delgado, 31 from Gaza, 27 from Sofala, 25 from Niassa, 11 from Tete, and three from Inhambane.
The distribution of the 162 confirmed cases, by province, is as follows: Cabo Delgado, 88; Maputo City, 40; Maputo province, 20; Sofala, eight; Tete, two; Inhambane, two; Manica, one; Gaza, one.
Of the positive cases, 126 are men and 36 are women.
The president disclosed this on Thursday at a meeting of the National Security Council at the council chambers of the State House, Abuja.
The council, which is chaired by the president, is the highest security organ in the country and holds its meetings once every quarter.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting on Thursday, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, said the meeting focused on possible areas where the nation needs urgent attention and possible solutions.
He disclosed that as the national security adviser, he presented some memos to the council on issues around the insurgency in the northeast, armed banditry and emergence of different kinds of groups terrorising Nigeria in recent times.
Speaking on the response of Mr Buhari to all issues raised, the NSA said the president renewed his commitment to do whatever is necessary to reduce the spate of violence and insecurity in the country.
Colombia ranks among the top five nations with the greatest diversity of plant and animal species in the world; more different kinds of birds and amphibians make their home here than in any other place on the planet.
In the early 1990s, together with other movement leaders, she led a campaign that secured more than 5.9 million acres in territorial rights for Colombia’s black rural communities.
Multinational corporations moved in to exploit its natural riches such as gold and oil and to introduce foreign mono-crops like the African palm.
They also secured increased government restrictions to mitigate environmental and cultural damage along the coast.
She has spoken out against U.S. and European aid and investment in Colombian operations linked to violence and human rights violations in meetings with U.S. Congress people and advocacy groups, at talks at colleges through the U.S. and Canada, and in meetings held by global trade institutions such as the World Trade Organization.
The U.N. refugee agency is appealing for $186 million to protect and assist hundreds of thousands of civilians who have been forced to flee from escalating, increasingly brutal attacks from multiple armed groups in the volatile central Sahel region.
The agency reports attacks by Islamist extremists and criminal gangs in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have crippled life in the border towns and areas, and forced people to flee their homes multiple times.
Baloch said money from the appeal is a critical lifeline for all these people on the run and for the communities hosting them.
“If we do not get enough support, the consequences on the ground for these people in terms of basic needs — food, water, shelter would be disastrous,” Baloch said.
Baloch said 3.1 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania are in desperate need of humanitarian support.
Luanda — The 9th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) takes place on the 3rd and the 4th of June, in videoconference, with the participation of the Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António.
The session will address, among other items on the agenda, the pre-selection of the members of the ECCAS Commission, as well as analyze the political and security situation in the Central African Republic, based on the Report of the Secretary General of ECCAS, prepared by the Central African Rapid Alert System.
The analysis of the information note prepared by the ECCAS 's Secretariat about the modalities of organizing the next session of the ECCAS Conference of Heads of State and Government will also be reviewed on the first day of works.
The session basically aims to discuss the reform process of the regional organization, whose revised Treaty was initialed by the Heads of State and Government during the IX Extraordinary Summit held in Libreville, Republic of Gabon, in December 2019, which, among other decisions, called on member states to present candidates to fill the organic framework of the regional body.
ECCAS was created in Libreville, Gabon, in October 1983 and groups together Angola, Cameroon, Burundi, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Rwanda and São Tomé and Prince.
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Nairobi -- From climate to human rights, how Joe Biden's appointment as the United States president will impact on Africa's 1.3 billion population
The UN Security Council called Thursday for \"sustained efforts\" in preventing the illegal trade of natural resources from the DR Congo, as gold in particular fuels conflict between armed groups in the region.
Colombia has the second largest African descendant population in Latin America. According to the census of 2005, the government estimates that Afro-descendants make up 10.6% of the total population. This is 16% down from the government's previous estimations in 2002, which put the total Afro-descendant population at 26% and which is the figure still currently used by the United Nations. Census figures also continue to be disputed by Afro-descendant leaders such as Luis Giraldo Murillo Urritia, ex governor of the department of Choco, who claims that the Afro-Colombian population is as high as 36-40%
The Detroit race riot of 1943 took place in Detroit, Michigan, of the United States, from the evening of June 20 through the early morning of June 22. The race riot was ultimately suppressed by the use of 6,000 federal troops. It occurred in a period of dramatic population increase and social tensions associated with the military buildup of World War II, as Detroits auto industry was converted to the war effort. Existing social tensions and housing shortages were exacerbated by the arrival of nearly 400,000 migrants, both African American and White Southerners, from the Southeastern United States between 1941 and 1943. The new migrants competed for space and jobs, as well as against white European immigrants and their descendants.
The Detroit riot was one of three that summer; it followed one in Beaumont, Texas, earlier that month, in which white shipyard workers attacked blacks after a rumor that a white woman had been raped; and preceded a riot in Harlem, New York, where blacks attacked white-owned property in their neighborhood after rumors that a black soldier had been killed by a white policeman. In this wartime period, there were also racial riots in Los Angeles, California, and Mobile, Alabama.
The rioting in Detroit began among youths at Belle Isle Park on June 20, 1943; the unrest moved into the city and was exacerbated by false rumors of racial attacks in both the black and white communities. It continued until June 22. It was suppressed after 6,000 federal troops were ordered into the city to restore peace. A total of 34 people were killed, 25 of them black and most at the hands of white police or National Guardsmen; 433 were wounded, 75 percent of them black; and property valued at $2 million ($27.5 million in 2015 US dollars) was destroyed, most of it in the black area of Paradise Valley, the poorest neighborhood of the city.[1]
At the time, white commissions attributed the cause of the riot to black hoodlums and youths. The NAACP identified deeper causes: a shortage of affordable housing,
Mozambique on Saturday allowed the repatriation of 100 Indians who were stranded in the country over Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Mozambican authorities have not released 16 African refugees and asylum seekers who have been in prison for the past 18 months, a lobby group said Saturday as the world marked the World Refugee Day.
Amnesty International said the 16 have not committed any crime.
The refugees and asylum seekers include 15 Congolese and one Ethiopian who have been in detention in Pemba, Cabo Delgado province, since their arrest in January 2019, Amnesty said.
“The biggest tragedy about the continued arbitrary detention of these refugees is that 18 months after their detention, they remain in the dark as to why they have been arrested in the first place,” Amnesty International deputy director for southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda, said in a statement.
There are now more than over 90,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
SUGGESTED READING: Africa’s COVID-19 deaths pass 1,000 mark
Major African stats: May 21 at 7:00 GMT:
\t\tConfirmed cases = 95,482
\t\tNumber of deaths = 3,000
\t\tRecoveries = 38,120
\t\tActive cases = 54,362
\t\tAlgeria – 7,542
\t\tAngola – 52
\t\tBenin – 130
\t\tBotswana – 29
\t\tBurkina Faso – 809
\t\tBurundi – 42
\t\tCameroon – 3,733
\t\tCape Verde – 349
\t\tCentral African Republic – 418
\t\tChad – 565
\t\tComoros – 34
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 420
\t\tDR Congo – 1,731
\t\tDjibouti – 1,828
\t\tEgypt – 14,229
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 890
\t\tEritrea – 39
\t\tEswatini – 217
\t\tEthiopia – 389
\t\tGabon – 1,567
\t\t(The) Gambia – 24
\t\tGhana – 6,269
\t\tGuinea – 2,863
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,089
\t\tIvory Coast – 2,231
\t\tKenya – 1,029
\t\tLesotho – 1
\t\tLiberia – 238
\t\tLibya – 69
\t\tMadagascar – 371
\t\tMalawi – 71
\t\tMali – 931
\t\tMauritania – 141
\t\tMauritius – 332
\t\tMorocco – 7,133
\t\tMozambique – 156
\t\tNamibia – 16
\t\tNiger – 920
\t\tNigeria- 6,677
\t\tRwanda – 314
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 251
\t\tSenegal – 2,714
\t\tSierra Leone – 570
\t\tSomalia – 1,573
\t\tSouth Africa – 18,003
\t\tSouth Sudan – 290
\t\tSudan – 3,138
\t\tTogo – 340
\t\tTunisia – 1,045
\t\tUganda – 264
\t\tZambia – 832
\t\tZimbabwe – 48
There are now more than over 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.
Major African stats: May 29 at 7:00 GMT:
\t\tConfirmed cases = 129.452
\t\tNumber of deaths = 3,792
\t\tRecoveries = 53,400
\t\tActive cases = 72,260
\t\tAlgeria – 8,997
\t\tAngola – 74
\t\tBenin – 210
\t\tBotswana – 35
\t\tBurkina Faso – 847
\t\tCameroon – 5,436
\t\tCape Verde – 390
\t\tCentral African Republic – 755
\t\tChad – 726
\t\tComoros – 87
\t\tCongo-Brazzaville – 571
\t\tDR Congo – 2,660
\t\tDjibouti – 2,914
\t\tEgypt – 20,793
\t\tEquatorial Guinea – 1,043
\t\tEswatini – 279
\t\tEthiopia – 831
\t\tGabon – 2,431
\t\t(The) Gambia – 25
\t\tGhana – 7,303
\t\tGuinea – 3,553
\t\tGuinea-Bissau – 1,195
\t\tIvory Coast – 2,641
\t\tKenya – 1,618
\t\tLesotho – 2
\t\tLiberia – 269
\t\tLibya – 105
\t\tMadagascar – 656
\t\tMalawi – 203
\t\tMali – 1,194
\t\tMauritania – 346
\t\tMauritius – 334
\t\tMorocco – 7,643
\t\tMozambique – 233
\t\tNamibia – 22
\t\tNiger – 955
\t\tNigeria – 8,915
\t\tRwanda – 349
\t\tSao Tome and Principe – 458
\t\tSenegal – 3,348
\t\tSierra Leone – 812
\t\tSomalia – 1,828
\t\tSouth Africa – 27,403
\t\tSouth Sudan – 994
\t\tSudan – 4,346
\t\tTogo – 422
\t\tTunisia – 1,068
\t\tUganda – 317
\t\tZambia – 1,057
\t\tZimbabwe – 149
James Swan, Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Somalia (UNSOM), told the Security Council that 2.6 million internally displaced persons are particularly at risk from the novel coronavirus.
Looking beyond the immediate health crisis, Mr. Swan - speaking from Mogadishu via video-teleconference - said the coming weeks will be decisive in determining how Somalia will proceed with its first direct elections since March 1969.
The pathway to a vote for all
\"These Somali institutions will determine the pathway to elections,\" said Mr. Swan, urging Somalia's partners to be ready to mobilize the technical support and financial resources needed to make the landmark polls a success.
Turning to the security situation, he said that Somalia has made progress in recovering areas occupied by al-Shabaab, including the strategic town of Janaale, liberated by the Somali National Army and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on 16 March.
Mr. Swan's briefing to the Council followed the release of the Secretary-General's latest report on the situation in Somalia.
An armed group in Burkina Faso attacked a cattle market and a humanitarian convoy, killing at least 35 people, the government said on Sunday.
Twenty-five people were killed and more wounded in the attack on the market in the eastern village of Kompienga, while five civilians and five military police were killed near the northern village of Foube, the government said in a statement.Armed groups \"targeted a humanitarian convoy returning from Foube after delivering supplies\", it said.
The bloodshed follows the death of at least 15 people on Friday in an attack on a convoy transporting traders in northern Burkina Faso.
In the past five years, more than 900 people have been killed by armed groups, while some 860,000 people have fled their homes.
Unrest in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger killed approximately 4 000 people last year, according to UN figures.
Maputo — The Mozambican authorities in Dondo district in the central province of Sofala have seized 50 containers full of logs, which were apparently about to be exported illegally from the country.
According to the independent television station STV, a routine inspection, involving staff of the Sofala provincial environment directorate , and of the forestry and wildlife services, discovered the containers in the yard of a Chinese-owned company, Afanti Trading.
The containers held logs of sandalwood and black chacate trees.
The authorities believe the company intended to export the wood to China, in violation of Mozambican legislation which prohibits the export of unprocessed logs, in order to force logging companies to process at least some of their timber in Mozambique, thus promoting local industrialisation and employment.
The amount of logs in the containers is estimated at 700 cubic metres.
The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 1,000 people have fled a site in western Niger following an attack by unidentified armed men on Sunday.
The group — a mix of Malian refugees, displaced and local Niger nationals — has arrived in the town of Telemces, some 27 kilometers away.
The attack, which occurred about 70 kilometers from the Malian border, left two Malian refugee leaders and a local host community leader dead.
The agency said there has been a sharp increase in attacks in the past few months in the Liptako Gourma region where the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger intersect.
UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told VOA armed groups operating in the area are deliberately targeting local communities to drive people further inland in Niger.
The Anglophone crisis and the coronavirus pandemic have two things in common: lockdowns, hospitalizations and an ever-increasing number of deaths.
Before the coronavirus, Cameroon's three-year Anglophone crisis had already made life difficult for people.
Battling the coronavirus while trying to stay alive in a conflict zone may result in the people of northwest Cameroon becoming simply too desperate to care about health and safety measures.
Editor's note: In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States.
JHU updates figures in real time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.
Despite Chad's economic woes and its citizens' frustration with elite impunity, its civil society organisations have struggled to mobilise into a coherent protest movement.
Chad's civil society groups will face challenges relating both to the pandemic and to the country's longer-term stability, including a possible succession crisis.
Some organisations have already set up a new umbrella group - l'Action Citoyenne Contre le Covid-19 - to raise public awareness as well as pressure the government to respond effectively to the crisis and to minimise security force abuses linked to enforcing anti-coronavirus measures.
Unlike in neighbouring Sudan, where civilians have played a significant role in the country's transition, Chadian civil society groups are fragmented and rarely weigh collectively on national politics.
How Chad manages the COVID-19 risk will be an important factor in shaping how far civil society subsequently mobilises against the government.
New York — On February 26 this year, 15 South Sudanese children were released from armed groups and handed over to civilian child protection actors, including UNICEF and UNMISS, UN's peacekeeping operation in South Sudan, who were able to facilitate the children's safe return to their families.
For more than 20 years, the Security Council has been mandating UN peacekeeping operations with a specialized child protection mandate to be jointly implemented by UN civilian, military and police peacekeepers.
Advocates and supportive countries already fear the impact that a severe restriction of movement due to COVID-19 may have on the UN's ability to monitor and report on violations, as well as on the Child Protection staff's capacity to carry on their outreach to armed groups.
While often being the only entry point with armed groups and the communities themselves, these civilian child protection staff on- and off- UN compounds must be equipped with basic materials and technology, including internet connectivity, SIM cards and cell phones, to ensure the implementation of the mandate bestowed upon them by the Security Council.
Next month, Secretary-General António Guterres will present his 2020 report on children and armed conflict to the UN Security Council, noting violations across 20 country situations for calendar year 2019.
[HRW] Beirut -- Transparent Inquiry Needed into Latest Politically Motivated Killing
Paul Rusesabagina, whose actions during the 1994 Rwandan genocide inspired the film \"Hotel Rwanda\", was denied bail by a Kigali court on Thursday.
Rusesabagina, a critic of the Rwandan government, has been living in exile for years. He holds both Belgian citizenship and a US Green Card.
He has been charged with terrorism after being arrested in shady circumstances. According to his family, he was kidnapped abroad.
The court ordered his detention for at least 30 days pending his trial. He has said he will appeal.
The 66-year-old had asked to be released to receive medical care. He is a cancer survivor and suffers from a heart condition and hypertension,
Rusesabagina, a Hutu, became famous as a hotel manager who sheltered hundreds of Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide.
After the genocide, Rusesabagina became increasingly critical of President Paul Kagame's Tutsi-dominated government, accusing his ruling party of authoritarianism and anti-Hutu sentiment.
He has also been charged of financing militant groups, murder, arson and conspiracy to involve children in armed groups.
Rwanda National Police (RNP) has issued fresh caution to individuals, groups and the business community, whose actions contravenes the government safety guidelines meant to contain the pandemic of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
RNP spokesperson, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera said that although the security situation remains generally good and the compliance largely high, there are still \"unnecessary isolated incidents of selfish business owners who are being willingly negligent,\" warning of \"punitive measures without exception.\"
He singled out the recent cases; 20 people found in a Sauna and massage parlour at Lebanon Hotel in Remera, Gasabo District and 55 others at a music concert at +250 Bar in Niboye, Kicukiro District.
On May 23, at about 9:30pm, Police caught 55 people drinking at +250 Bar, where a local music group called TUFF GANG had held a virtual concert.
If online concerts attract people to gather in a bar, hotel or home, this is a violation of anti-COVID-19 directives and measures will be taken.
Maputo — Mozambican Health Minister Armindo Tiago announced in the northern city of Nampula on Thursday that drastic and strategic measures are being taken to hold back the spread of the Covid-19 respiratory disease in Nampula province.
Nampula is currently the second worst hit province in the country (behind Cabo Delgado), with 87 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
He said measures must be taken because the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the city is due to the failure by many Nampula citizens to observe the restrictive measures imposed by the government under the state of emergency, such as social distancing, the obligatory use of face masks, and the avoidance of all unnecessary travel.
He promised to step up Covid-19 testing in Nampula, to follow up the contacts of people already diagnosed as positive, and to improve \"active surveillance\" in the health units.
Tiago announced the immediate opening of a local isolation centre in Nampula city \"where today (Thursday) two patients will be hospitalised, to guarantee that the cases found through active surveillance are isolated and under control\".
Maputo — The Mozambican police on Tuesday found a large amount of stolen rails and other railway material in a Chinese-owned foundry in the Ceramica neighbourhood of the central city of Beira, according to a report in the independent daily \"O Pais\".
The rail director of the central division of the publicly owned port and railway company (CFM-Centro), Boaventura Mahave, said the material had been stolen from the lines linking the port of Beira to Zimbabwe, and to the Moatize coal basin in Tete province.
It has long been believed that metallic parts stolen from CFM, like metallic parts of electricity pylons, are sold to foundries which have sprung up recently in Beira and the neighbouring town of Dondo.
According to \"O Pais\", the lawyer for the Chinese company, Jose Capassura, has claimed it is too early to conclude that the metal rods produced by the foundry are made out of stolen materials.
The police have promised to investigate the case further, taking into account that the foundry acquired the raw material for making rods at night.
