Author: Editorial Staff

CHARITIES in Africa criticised rich nations on Thursday for blocking efforts to waive patents for Covid-19 vaccines, saying this would prolong the pandemic for years in poorer nations and push millions across the continent deeper into poverty. More than 40 charities, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid, said Wednesday’s move by Western nations to prevent generic or other manufacturers making more vaccines in poorer nations was an ‘affront’ to  people’s right to health care. Peter Kamalingin, Oxfam International’s Africa director, said sub-Saharan Africa with 14 percent of the global population received only 0.2 percent of 300-million vaccine doses administered worldwide.…

AFRICA’S recovery from the coronavirus crisis could stretch into 2022 and beyond, its largest lender by assets Standard Bank, said on Thursday, but it also said this would not hold back its expansion on the continent over the coming years. The lender, which forecast a multi-year, non-linear recovery in its home market, South Africa, said possible problems with vaccine rollout and the threat of future waves of infection could also delay a continent-wide recovery. But the bank, which reported a 43 percent decline in full-year profit on Thursday, said it had kept its annual dividend 76 percent lower than 2019…

MOZAMBIQUE’S claims against shipbuilder Privinvest, at the centre of a $2bn debt scandal, fall under an ongoing arbitration process, Britain’s appeals court found on Thursday, in a blow to Mozambique’s efforts to remove its liability for part of the money. Mozambique is suing Privinvest, its billionaire CEO Iskandar Safa, and Credit Suisse in London’s high court over $2bn in government-guaranteed loans raised in 2013 and 2014, a hefty chunk of which went missing according to authorities. Privinvest, the sole contractor to a series of projects the money was ostensibly raised for, has separately launched arbitration proceedings against three state-owned companies…

AS Africa lags in its efforts to vaccinate 60 percent of its 1.3 billion people as quickly as possible, the continent must develop its capacity to produce Covid-19 vaccines, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. At least five African countries appear to have the capacity to produce vaccines, said Dr. John Nkengasong in a press briefing, citing South Africa, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt. Nkengasong had previously set the goal of vaccinating 60 percent of Africa’s population by the end of this year, but the target is now a year later: by the…

WOMEN’S rights could be rolled back 200 years in Egypt under a proposed law that would stop them signing their own marriage certificates, registering their child’s birth or travelling abroad without a man’s consent, rights activists say. The personal status bill, which was approved by the cabinet in January, would also give fathers priority in child custody – reversing the current law which favours mothers – and allow fathers to prevent mothers travelling with their children. ‘We completely reject this shocking draft law. It takes us back 200 years,’ said Nehad Abu El Komsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for…

UGANDA’S shutdown of social-media sites in January, right before a disputed election handed President Yoweri Museveni a sixth term, dealt a devastating blow to rice trader Elizabeth Nagunda: her sales slowed to a near-halt. ‘Before I would advertise, market my products on Facebook, WhatsApp, and even get customer orders’ via those platforms, she said in an interview in Kampala, the capital. ‘I can’t run any more adverts online. Even if I do, there are no people to view them.’ Facebook and Google are spending billions trying to get more people online in Africa, but the internet giants are now facing…

A SENIOR Ethiopian diplomat quit his post in Washington Wednesday over concerns about reported atrocities in Tigray, where fighting persists as federal forces and their allies hunt down the fugitive leaders of the regional administration. Berhane Kidanemariam, the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington, in a strong statement issued on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as a reckless leader who is dividing his country. Kidanemariam is believed to be the first Ethiopian diplomat to resign over concerns relating to the conflict in Tigray. ‘With the emergence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, I, like many other…

ETHIOPIA’S government on Thursday faced mounting pressure to withdraw troops from the northern region of Tigray amid growing reports of war crimes in an embattled area that now faces a humanitarian crisis. Criticism of the conduct of government troops and their allies from neighbouring Eritrea grew after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted Wednesday that ‘ethnic cleansing’ has happened in parts of Tigray. ‘The challenge in Ethiopia is very significant, and it’s one that we are very focused on, particularly the situation in Tigray, where we are seeing very credible reports of human rights abuses and atrocities that are…

COTE d’Ivoire’s Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko, who was seen as a possible successor to President Alassane Ouattara, has died in Freiburg in south-west Germany, two days after his 56th birthday, the government said on Wednesday. A former media executive who turned to politics, Bakayoko acted as a negotiator and intermediary between warring factions as a prolonged civil conflict racked Cote d’Ivoire from the early 2000s. A close ally of Ouattara, he was appointed as prime minister in July 2020 following the sudden death of his predecessor Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who had been handpicked by Ouattara to succeed him. He was…

THE International Tourism and Investment Summit (ITIC) has announced a strategic partnership with World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa) to leverage each companies’ strengths and commitment to propel growth in travel and tourism through innovation in products, destination marketing and investment in sustainable development and infrastructure. ITIC and WTM Africa will host the virtual Africa Tourism Investment Summit, which forms part of Africa Travel Week from the 7–9 April 2021, and a further virtual event on 24 June 2021 to assist African countries, as well as worldwide delegates and clients, in their ambition to achieve their objectives and future growth…