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By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The death toll from tribal violence between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan's West Darfur province climbed to at least 83, including women and children, a doctor's union and aid worker said, as sporadic violence continued Sunday. The ruling sovereign council met Sunday and said security forces would be deployed to the area. The deadly clashes grew out of a fistfight Friday between two people in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. An Arab man was stabbed to death and his family, from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, attacked the […]
The post Death toll from violence in Sudan's West Darfur rises to 83 appeared first on Black News Channel.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
[The New Humanitarian] Nairobi -- ''When we lose our fear, they lose their power!'
Nigerian traders are accusing local authorities in Ghana of discrimination after many had their shops closed in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic that sees a year-long trade war being waged between Ghanaian natives and foreign business owners over the control of the local retail trade in the capital city, Accra.
Chizoba Okechukwu, the owner of a shop closed by Ghanaian authorities, expressed his frustrations, \"We have family here, we pay our taxes here, we pay house rent, we take care of our family. Ok, now the shops are closed, how do you expect us to take care of our responsibilities? I don't know what is the problem, what have we done to them? The problem we have is that we are Nigerians, other foreigners are here doing their business success.\"
Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) laws prohibit foreigners from getting involved in the retail sector unless they invest at least 1 million USD — and the Ghana Union of Traders Association has been lobbying its implementation since 2019. Meanwhile, several hundred Nigerian-owned retail shops have already been shut down.
Chukwuemeka Nnaji, President of the Nigeria Union of Traders Association in Ghana, shared a few words, \"It's a shame to Africa, fighting among ourselves, it's quite a shame. How can people from other regions take us seriously when we have rules we cannot obey, when we have protocols we can't follow. How can we relate with people outside this block? They will not take us seriously.\"
The imposed 1 million USD investment requirement mandated by the GIPC law in Ghana does not apply to non-citizens who are nationals of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Louis Afful, a business analyst, gives some expert insight into the situation, \"So even between a regional block, you have countries having trade disputes or treaty misunderstandings, barriers and issues. Then, of course, there is, as I said earlier, you need to work on every minor issue because the free trade is about volumes of exports and so if at the end of the day, Nigeria is not a member state yet, it has to ratify it (the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement). They have to take into consideration every one of these small issues before they ratify it (the agreement).\"
This ongoing trade war, that some may view as an insignificant issue, could affect the future of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), which Nigeria has yet to ratify.
South Africa has hit another grim milestone, with its COVID-19 death toll now at over 4 000.
By TAMARA LUSH and EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press
Arizona’s Republican governor shut down bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks Monday and leaders in several states ordered residents to wear masks in public in a dramatic course reversal amid an alarming resurgence of coronavirus cases nationwide.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that he’s postponing the restarting of indoor dining because people have not been wearing face masks or complying with recommendations for social distancing.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she will issue an executive order mandating the use of masks in stores and shops, restaurants, and in any situation where social distancing of 6 feet (2 meters) cannot be maintained, including outside.
In Texas, a group of bar owners sued on Monday to try to overturn Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order closing their businesses.
One of Cuomo’s Republican counterparts, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, on a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House coronavirus task force, also asked Pence and Trump to issue a national call to wear masks.
Like many others, I was startled to learn that President Donald Trump was resuming his campaign barnstorming in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa may not be the single worst place in the US to have a mask-free and liability-free rally, though the just identified Whirlpool plant outbreak there may place it in the running.
Indeed, cases are going up sharply in Tulsa County (from 7-day rolling average of 13.6 cases to 53.37 cases for most recent two weeks) signaling substantial community transmission.
Furthermore, Tulsa is near the border of several states; Trump’s rally is likely to draw from these areas as well.
Over in Arkansas, four counties at the Oklahoma border — Benton, Washington (home of Fayetteville), Crawford, and Sebastian (home of Fort Smith) — have experienced sharply increasing case rates in the last two weeks.
Ecuador, one of the hardest-hit countries in the region, is starting to reopen after a 40-day country-wide lockdown and transition to social distancing.
As such, Ecuadorian health authorities had “little time to respond” to the first-reported COVID-19 case, said to Magdalena Alcocer, national community health coordinator of the Ecuadorian Red Cross.
Though the country experienced a high number of reported cases, Ecuador transitioned to social distancing, though health experts and Ecuadorians fear a scenario like Guayaquil happening again.
Quito, Ecuador’s largest city, allowed some businesses to reopen May 20 AS PART OF A PARTIAL REOPENING
As long as protocols are tailored to the capacity of each municipality, Risk and Emergency Management specialist Dario Rivadeneira believes social distancing is a viable solution, though he doubts if the country is prepared for a potential second wave of cases.
Andrea Almeida, who is quarantining in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, understands that social distancing is inevitable.
The police have confirmed reports that British actress and former Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland, 25, is scheduled to appear in a local court on Wednesday on charges of breaching COVID-19 regulations.
LOCAL authorities in the country have attributed their poor service delivery record to rising inflation. Mayors Blessing Tandi (Mutare), Lovemore Maiko (Chitungwiza) and Angeline Kasiipo (Kwekwe) made the remarks during a virtual meeting on Wednesday organised by Shoko Festival. BY KENNETH NYANGANI Residents, the mayors said, should not expect miracles from them as they were being affected by the country’s poor economic performance.Tandi said his council was struggling to provide good service delivery due to the country’s tanking economy. “We don’t operate in a vacuum. If the national economy is not performing, why should you expect us to perform miracles when we have high inflation? We need a lot of money to buy water treatment chemicals,” Tandi said. “Our roads are in a poor state because we are not getting enough funds from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration. As council, we should be allowed to collect money from vehicle licences.” Maiko weighed in saying councils do not exist in isolation. He said they were also facing water challenges. “As councils, we don’t live in isolation, with the current economy you should not expect miracles from us, like what Mutare mayor Blessing Tandi has already said, we are struggling to provide service delivery because of the poor state of the economy,” he said. “Look at the rate at which inflation is going up, we also need to pay our workers competitively.” “Chitungwiza was established as a dormitory town of Harare and now has the largest urban population but we don’t have any source of water. We rely on Harare for water distribution and it’s giving us a drop in the ocean,” he said. Kasiipo also said they were failing to perform because of the moribund economy.She, however, urged residents to pay their dues. “We are urging our residents to pay rates, our collection rate is very low, so our residents need to play their part so that we provide good service delivery,” he said.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (AP) — An estimated 2.1 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, bringing the running total since the coronavirus shutdowns took hold in mid-March to about 41 million, the government said Thursday.
The figures underscored the continuing damage to businesses and livelihoods from the outbreak that has now killed at least 100,000 people in the U.S., more than the number of Americans lost in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined, and more than 33 times the death toll on 9/11.
In this May 7, 2020 file photo, a pedestrian walks by The Framing Gallery, closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Grosse Pointe, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Elsewhere around the world, India saw another record daily jump in coronavirus cases, while Russia reported a steady increase in its caseload, even as the city of Moscow and provinces across the vast country moved to ease restrictions in sync with the Kremlin’s political agenda.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this week that the country’s postponed Victory Day military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II will be held June 24, declaring the nation has passed the peak of the outbreak.
READ MORE: All 50 states partially reopen despite at least 17 seeing rise of coronavirus cases
French unemployment claims jumped 22% in April, as 843,000 more people sought work and the virus lockdown prevented companies from hiring.
The World Health Organization says lessons learned from previous outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and effective therapeutics will allow it to more quickly contain a new outbreak of the deadly disease in Equateur Province.
U.N. health officials report there is no link between the Ebola outbreak declared June 1 in Mbandaka, Equateur Province, and the epidemic, which broke out nearly two years ago in DR Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
They say the experience gained, however, and lessons learned from tackling this deadly disease in eastern DRC will help them to more quickly stop the spread of the virus in Equateur Province in the western part of the country.
The latest reports from western DRC, where the outbreak has just started, put the number of confirmed and probable cases at 12, including nine deaths.
Yao says the vaccines, which since have proven to be safe and effective, will help to speedily contain the virus.
The return of staff to schools in KwaZulu-Natal has been delayed until later in the week as the education department works to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) to all schools.
The announcement was made by Premier Sihle Zikalala, who, together with MEC for Education Kwazi Mshengu, briefed the media on the reopening of schools in KZN as well as the latest Covid-19 numbers.
RELATED | Do not return to schools, Sadtu urges teachers in the Northern Cape
The change of plan comes as the biggest teacher union, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), early on Sunday instructed its members, who make up the large majority of teachers and support staff, to refrain from returning to school.
Zikalala also released the latest KZN Covid-19 numbers, with the province's Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu confirming there had been nine positive cases at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) provincial secretary Ayanda Zulu and DA MPL Rishigen Viranna this past week told News24 they had confirmed the cases through senior officials at the hospital.
