LONDON — The world’s second vaccine against malaria was launched on Monday as Ivory Coast began a routine vaccine program using shots developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India. 

The introduction of the World Health Organization (WHO)-approved R21 vaccine comes six months after the first malaria vaccine, called RTS,S and developed by British drugmaker GSK, began being administered in a routine program in Cameroon. 

Some 15 African countries plan to introduce one of the two malaria vaccines this year with support from the Gavi global vaccine alliance. 

Ivory Coast has received a total of 656,600 doses of the Oxford and Serum shot, which will initially vaccinate 250,000 children aged between 0 and 23 months across the West African country. The vaccine has also been approved by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic. 

The rollout of a second vaccine is the latest milestone in the global fight against malaria and should help address a problem that emerged well before either of the two shots was launched: demand for them is likely to far outstrip supply for several years. 

Experts say having safe and effective malaria vaccines is important to meet demand. The shot is meant to work alongside existing tools — such as bed nets — to combat malaria, which in Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of five each year. 

The Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the vaccine, has produced 25 million doses for the initial rollout of the shot and “is committed to scaling up to 100 million doses annually,” the company said on Monday about the launch in Ivory Coast. 

Serum said it is offering the vaccine for less than $4 per dose, in keeping with its aim to deliver low-cost vaccines at scale. 

Results from a large trial in February showed the vaccine prevented around three-quarters of symptomatic malaria cases in young children the first year after they got the shots. 

Experts told Reuters at that time that comparing the two malaria vaccines head-to-head was difficult because of the many variables involved in the trials, but overall their performance was similar — a conclusion endorsed by WHO.
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Police in Kenya said Monday they have arrested the main suspect after nine dismembered bodies of women were found in a quarry in the capital, Nairobi. 

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mohamed Amin, said Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, had confessed to killing 42 women, including his wife, since 2022. They gave no evidence to support his claim of killing 42. 

He was expected to be arraigned in court Tuesday. 

Police said several smartphones and identity cards were found in his house a short walk from the quarry. 

Police said the bodies were discovered after relatives of one missing woman claimed to have had a dream in which she directed them to search the quarry. The relatives asked a local diver to help, and he discovered the bodies wrapped in sacks. 

Acting police inspector general Douglas Kanja said officers in a nearby police station had been transferred to make way for investigations. Locals had accused police of negligence due to the proximity of the quarry and the unresolved missing persons cases filed there. 

A statement signed by human rights groups over the weekend urged Kenya’s security agencies to “expedite investigations into all reports of enforced disappearances.” There were initial concerns that the bodies could be linked to abductions and arrests of young people during recent anti-government protests. 
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Yaoundé, Cameroon — Officials in Chad say urgent international help is needed to save the lives of more than 2 million people caught in a severe humanitarian crisis caused by conflicts and climate shocks.

Officials say the country is among the poorest nations in the world, and food is particularly scarce now, as hunger peaks in the June-to-August lean season between harvests. 

Abdelmadjid Abderahim, Chad’s minister of public health, said he is pleading with all international partners to help Chad during a severe humanitarian crisis affecting over 2 million civilians in the country of about 18 million people. Abderahim said flooding, an influx of refugees, increasing numbers of displaced persons, and armed conflicts between communities are inflicting suffering on civilians that Chad’s government alone cannot meet. 

Abderahim, speaking Monday on Chad state TV, described the food insecurity and humanitarian crisis as unprecedented. He said the crises are exacerbated by insufficient agricultural production due to climate change, droughts and an influx of destructive migratory birds and crickets. 

Chad hosts over 600,000 refugees displaced from conflict-ridden Sudan, and their numbers and humanitarian needs are growing. 

Chad is also home to tens of thousands of civilians fleeing violence between rebels and government troops in the Central African Republic.  

Several hundred thousand civilians displaced in Chad by Boko Haram terrorism are also in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. 

Added to that are the millions of people affected by floods and drought that hit Chad over the past year. 

Rasit Pertev, representative of the World Bank in Chad, said the World Bank is contributing $60 million to help Chad’s government cope, and will mobilize an additional $100 million to assist a government response plan. 

Last week the World Food Program, the World Bank, the European Commission, Japan, and the United States said they are also contributing to help Chad by distributing food, seeds and sharing cash transfers to families most exposed to hunger. 

They said the program will target the most affected provinces including Ennedi East, Wadi Fira, Ouaddaï, Sila, Logone Oriental, Lac, Kanem, and Bahr El Ghazal on the border with Sudan. Foreign donors did not say how much they will be giving to assist Chad in the emergency response plan. 

The plan also envisages the provision of nutritional supplements for children under 2 years old, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. 

The World Food Program said to reduce the increasingly severe and recurrent crises, substantial investments in agriculture and support to reduce climate shocks should be intensified. Reinforcing the purchasing power of the most vulnerable populations is also a key to improving living conditions, the WFP added. 

The World Bank reported that poverty and vulnerability are pervasive in Chad, with over 42% of the population living below the national poverty line. 
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KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwandans are voting Monday in a presidential election that is expected to extend the long rule of President Paul Kagame, who has held power since 1994.

Some voters in the capital Kigali arrived as early as 5 a.m. and waited for polls to open. There were long lines at some polling stations.

“This is going to be my first time to vote. I am voting for President Kagame because I have never seen a leader like him before,” said passenger motorcyclist Jean Claude Nkurunziza.

Election authorities say 9.5 million Rwandans are registered to vote in the population of 14 million. Provisional results are expected later on Monday.

The outcome will almost certainly be in favor of Kagame, an authoritarian leader who is running virtually unopposed.

His opponents are Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, both of whom struggled to attract supporters during campaigns.

Kagame faced the same opponents in 2017, when he took nearly 99% of the vote.

Habineza told the AP Monday that his party “has improved and we are confident we will perform very well this time.”

Kagame, 66, has been in charge of the small eastern African country since he seized power as the leader of rebels who took control of Rwanda’s government and ended the genocide in 1994.

He was Rwanda’s vice president and de facto leader from 1994 to 2000, when he first became president. He is condemned by many as a violent authoritarian while praised by others for presiding over impressive growth in the three decades since the genocide.

Kagame is among some African leaders who have prolonged their rule by pursuing changes to term limits. In 2015, Rwandans in a referendum voted to lift a two-term limit. Now Kagame could stay in power until 2034.

Kagame told reporters Saturday that his mandate comes from the people.

“The ruling party and Rwandans have been asking me to stand for another mandate,” he said. ”At a personal level, I can comfortably go home and rest.”

Rwanda’s election takes place amid heightened fears of insecurity in Africa’s Great Lakes region. A violent group of rebels known as M23 is fighting Congolese forces in a remote area of eastern Congo.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan forces are fighting alongside M23, U.N. experts said in a report circulated last week. The U.S. government has described the group as being backed by Rwanda. Rwanda accuses Congo’s military of recruiting fighters who were among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

Rights groups continue to raise alarm over harsh restrictions on human rights, including freedom of association, in Rwanda.

Amnesty International expressed concerns in a recent statement over “threats, arbitrary detention, prosecution on trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances” targeting the political opposition in Rwanda.

That statement said the suppression of dissenting voices, including among civic groups and the press, “has a chilling effect and limits the space for debate for people of Rwanda.”
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MOMBASA, Kenya — Dressed in protective clothing and armed with a smoker, Peter Nyongesa walked through the mangroves to monitor his beehives along the Indian Ocean coastline.

The 69-year-old Nyongesa recalled how he would plead unsuccessfully with loggers to spare the mangroves or cut only the mature ones while leaving the younger ones intact.

“But they would retort that the trees do not belong to anyone but God,” he said.

So he has turned to deterring the loggers with bees, hidden in the mangroves and ready to sting.

Their hives now dot a section of coastline in Kenya’s main port city of Mombasa in an effort to deter people who chop mangroves for firewood or home construction. It’s part of a local conservation initiative.

“When people realize that something is beneficial to them, they do not consider the harm that comes with it,” Nyongesa said of the loggers.

Mangroves, which thrive in salty water, help in preventing erosion and absorbing the impact of severe weather events such as cyclones.

But more than half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse, according to the first global mangrove assessment for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Ecosystems released in May.

Mangroves are threatened by illegal logging, climate change and rising seas, pollution and urban development. According to a Kenya environment ministry report in 2018, about 40% of mangroves along the Indian Ocean coast are degraded.

In Mombasa county, it’s estimated that almost 50% of the total mangrove area there — 1,850 hectares (4,570 acres) — is degraded.

Such overall degradation has slowed in Kenya, which in 2017 developed a 10-year plan to have community conservation efforts manage mangroves. But the efforts have been incomplete because of inadequate resources.

Communities are doing what they can. James Kairo, a research scientist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, said initiatives such as beekeeping are helping. Their honey also brings in community income.

“Mangrove honey is also classified as top quality and medicinal,” he added. “This could be due to the environment that mangroves thrives in” and what they absorb from their surroundings.

Nyongesa now has 11 beehives and harvests about 8 liters (2 gallons) of honey per hive every three months. Each liter earns him $6, a valuable source of income.

When Nyongesa started beekeeping 25 years ago, he didn’t know anything about the threat to mangroves or how his bees could help.

He became involved in 2019, when he joined a local conservation group called Tulinde Mikoko, Swahili for Let’s Protect Mangroves. The group adopted his beekeeping as a community initiative along with mangrove planting. Members also serve as custodians of the mangroves and try to stop loggers.

The group has concealed beehives in the top branches of mangroves as silent guardians. The bees are meant to attack unsuspecting loggers.

“We positioned them at the peak where they can’t be spotted with ease,” said Bibiana Nanjilula, the Tulinde Mikoko founder. “As such, when the loggers start cutting down whichever tree, the bees will attack due to the noise.”

The group hopes the tactic is working but has found it hard to measure its effects in the relatively difficult to access areas.

The bees also play a crucial role as pollinators. As they forage among the mangrove flowers, they transfer pollen from one flower to another, facilitating plants’ reproduction.

“The healthier the mangroves are, probably the more productive the honey production will be,” said Jared Bosire, project manager for the UNEP-Nairobi Convention, who said they encourage the integration of livelihoods with conservation. The office is a project of the United Nations Environment Program, based in Nairobi.

Kenya has 54,430 hectares of mangroves remaining, and they contribute $85 million per year to the national economy, according to a report by the Global Mangrove Alliance in 2022.
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The Kenyan government is using a new mobile application to educate girls about menstrual health. Through the Oky Kenya app, users can access information on hygiene and other topics. The goal is to dispel myths and misconceptions about menstruation and protect girls against teenage pregnancies. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.
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Kigali — Rwandan President Paul Kagame wrapped up his reelection campaign Saturday, two days before voting takes place on Monday. The incumbent faces two opponents who say he has overstayed. Kagame tells reporters that his supporters want him to run for another term.

At a news conference following his last campaign rally, Rwandan President Paul Kagame told reporters that his priorities for the country he’s been leading since 2000 will not change.

“Priority No. 1 after we’ve gone through all of this is to continue to make as much progress as we can in the area of security and stability for our country, socio-economic development progress … we are building our country, growing it toward prosperity,” he said.

This will be his fourth term if he wins reelection next week. Kagame faces two other candidates including the Democratic Green Party’s Frank Habineza, who ran against him in 2017 and says the president has stayed around for way too long. Habineza told VOA he’s successfully campaigned in most of the 30 districts across the country recently, and voters have been more enthusiastic this time around.

“I am giving them hope that after 30 years, we really need to see a different way of living, different political programs, different thinking, and a different vision. We are not going to destroy the good things that have been done before, but we want to give them better hope and a better future,” he said.

Kagame joked at the news conference that he never wanted to be president, saying that it was his party that insisted he get into the race in 2000. Decades later, his supporters tell him they want him to run for another term.

“Every day I am being asked when are you leaving, when are you going? These people who made me president are telling me they still want me to be president. Somebody else somewhere says no you are here too long. I really get confused. I think this is not fair,” he said.

The 66-year-old leader is expected to cruise to an easy victory. One reason, according to critics, is that he has stifled dissent. But another, analysts say, is the way he’s been able to guide the East African country toward internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

Eric Ndushabandi is a political science and international relations professor at the University of Rwanda, and an associate researcher at the Louvain University in Brussels. He said Kagame’s support has been there because of his efforts to address Rwandans’ need for stability after the genocide.

“The language, practice and success around stabilization and security, mainly in internal politics, is joining the expectations and aspirations of many Rwandans after this tragic and historical background,” he said.

Ndushabandi also said there is a big gap between the presidential candidates in terms of popularity, ideology, means, and capacity.

Other candidates were barred from the race by the National Electoral Commission for various reasons. One was a fierce Kagame critic, Diane Rwigara, who the commission said did not provide a criminal record statement and did not collect the minimum number of supporters’ signatures.
…

Kigali — A small landlocked African nation playing in the big league: with military might, image branding and political influence, Rwanda under President Paul Kagame has become a major strategic player with tentacles spread far and wide.   

De facto leader since the 1994 genocide and running for a fourth term as president in elections Monday, the iron-fisted Kagame has established a sphere of influence far outweighing Rwanda’s size to develop the country and entrench his own power base.   

Unlike many other African nations, “Rwanda is pursuing a real foreign policy strategy”, says Paul-Simon Handy, East Africa director at the Institute for Security Studies.  

This strategy is similar to “smart power”, says Handy, combining hard power — the use of military and economic means for influence — and soft power.  

Murky role 

The Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) is one of the pillars of this policy, though its role is contradictory.  

The Democratic Republic of Congo has for years accused its neighbor of fomenting instability in the east and supporting armed groups, including the Tutsi-led M23, deploying troops and allegedly seeking to plunder its mineral wealth.     

A recent U.N. experts report said 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting alongside M23 rebels and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations.   

Questioned repeatedly on the issue, Kagame has not explicitly denied the presence of Rwandan forces in DRC, instead pointing to the “persecution” of the Tutsi minority and the risk of instability on Rwanda’s border.   

“By nature, Rwanda’s security posture has always been defensive, not offensive. We only act when trouble is brought on us,” he said this month.  

Its murky role in the DRC has however cost Kigali some financial support from the West, which since 2012-2013 has cut development aid and investment.   

‘Africa’s policeman’ 

At the same time, Kagame has established his army as the “policeman of Africa.”   

Since 2024, the RDF has taken part in numerous UN peacekeeping missions. With 5,894 men deployed as of March 31, Rwanda is the fourth largest contributor, with forces in South Sudan and the Central African Republic.  

“By participating in and leading peacekeeping and unilateral military missions, Rwanda has significantly enhanced its global image and strategic relevance beyond its historical association with the 1994 genocide,” said Federico Donelli, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Trieste.   

It also reaps a financial windfall. The UN pays contributors $1,428 per soldier per month, meaning Kigali receives more than $100 million a year.   

The RDF has also been deployed under bilateral deals with, for example, CAR and Mozambique.  

These military commitments are often accompanied by economic agreements, offering development opportunities for Rwanda, which does not have its own natural resources or industrial base, and is reliant on international funding.   

In CAR, Rwandans enjoy privileged investment access to sectors such as mining, agriculture and construction, often led by Crystal Ventures, an investment firm owned by Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).   

Diplomatic lever  

These deals also represent a valuable diplomatic lever to ward off sanction threats over the DRC or its dismal human rights record.   

“Rwanda has never hidden its threat to withdraw from peacekeeping operations if it were to be sanctioned,” said Handy.   

“It has proven its effectiveness: DRC efforts to have Rwanda sanctioned for its support for the M23 were unsuccessful.”  

Donelli said Kagame has an ability to read global dynamics.   

“He knows that Western actors are increasingly reluctant to get involved in African crises,” he added.  

“In an increasingly chaotic regional context, he is using Rwanda’s role as a reliable partner in crises to reduce Western criticism and divert attention from domestic issues such as the lack of democratic development, centralization of power and human rights concerns.”  

‘Smart power’ 

Kagame is accused of authoritarian rule, muzzling the media and political opposition, while according to the World Bank almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.  

But he has sought to burnish Rwanda’s image abroad — selling itself as an African flagship for new technology, a hub for conferences and major sporting events, and a leading ecotourism destination.  

Sponsorship deals have seen “Visit Rwanda” emblazoned on the shirts of European football teams Arsenal, PSG and Bayern Munich.  

Rwanda has also boosted its presence in global organizations.   

In 2009, it became a member of the Commonwealth and hosted its 2022 summit, while a former minister is head the International Organisation of La Francophonie (French-speaking union), another serves as deputy chair of the African Union Commission.    

Handy says Rwanda’s “smart power” was illustrated by the controversial deal to take in asylum seekers deported from Britain.  

“The interest was essentially financial but it was also the projection of an image of a peaceful country where it would be good for refugees to live.”  

Widely condemned by rights groups and blocked by UK courts, the scheme has now been scrapped by Britain’s new government — but Rwanda insists it is not obliged to return the 240 million pound ($311 million) payment already sent by London. 
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PARIS — At least 25 cases of a dangerous new strain of mpox spreading through the Democratic Republic of Congo have been detected in the eastern city of Goma, mostly in camps housing people fleeing a surrounding conflict, health authorities said Wednesday.

Congo has seen 20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from mpox, mainly among children, since the start of 2023. Over 11,000 cases, including 443 deaths, have been reported so far this year.

Authorities recently approved the use of vaccines to tackle the upsurge, but none are currently available outside of clinical trials in the country.

The head of the national response team against the mpox epidemic, Cris Kacita, said in an interview that most of the new reported cases were in displaced people camps.

He said cases were infected with a new strain of the virus that is spreading in South Kivu province. Goma is the capital and largest city of the neighboring North Kivu province.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists raised the alarm last month about the mpox situation in Congo, including the spread of a new strain of mpox spreading in South Kivu.

Mpox has been endemic in Congo for decades but a new variant of the clade I of the virus emerged last year. It is a viral infection that spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild, but it can kill.

A different, less severe form of mpox – clade IIb – spread globally in 2022, largely through sexual contact among men who have sex with men. This prompted the WHO to declare a public health emergency that has now ended, although there are still cases and the agency has said mpox remains a public health threat.

“The national biomedical research institute in Goma has sequenced the virus and this proves that the virus has been circulating for a long time in the city of Goma,” Kacita said.

“The risk here is the promiscuity in the camps and the speed with which the epidemic is spreading,” he warned.

Hundreds of thousands of people who fled conflict in Congo’s insurgent-hit east are staying in overcrowded camps in and around Goma.

The number of displaced has increased since a rebel group known as the M23 launched a major offensive in 2022, prompting national and regional military responses that have struggled to stem the militia’s advance. 
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Jos, Nigeria — After her early morning class ended, 16-year-old Nigerian student Chidera Denis was waiting to join classmates for end-of-term exams.

Moments later, she was trapped under rubble as her school building suddenly collapsed, with pupils barely protected by the desks where they were sitting. 

Denis was one of the lucky ones. The collapse of the Saint Academy school in Jos North district in Plateau State killed 22 students Friday, with dozens more hospitalized for treatment, including Denis’ friend.  

“She said she was going to die … that if they rescued me, I should tell her mother,” Denis told AFP a day after the disaster.  

“I said she should stop saying that, that we’ll be alive, that God is our strength.”  

Her brother also attended the school. 

“I am yet to see her brother,” she told AFP. “I am still searching. I am in pain.”  

Rescue efforts end

A spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, Yohanna Audu, told AFP on Saturday that rescue efforts had ended after the disaster, the latest fatal building collapse in Nigeria.  

Audu said there were 22 fatalities, “all of whom are students.”   

The Red Cross posted on X, formerly Twitter, Saturday that a teacher and a student were still missing. 

“I was beside someone who died,” 14-year-old Chidinma Emmanuel told AFP. “He fell down on my arm and it broke. The falling debris landed on his head and killed him.” 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described the incident as a “huge loss to the nation.” 

The day after, 58 people were still hospitalized while 74 were discharged, the state commissioner for information Musa Ibrahim Ashoms said in a statement Saturday. 

Collapses common

Building collapses are common in Africa’s most populous country.  

The accident Friday was the deadliest since November 2021, when a high-rise building under construction in the country’s commercial hub of Lagos collapsed and killed at least 45 people, most of them construction workers. 

Poor quality of work, lack of oversight, and official corruption to bypass safety checks are often blamed for the incidents.   

Ashoms said it was not immediately clear what caused the collapse in Plateau, but residents said it came after three days of heavy rain. 

Although formal investigations have yet to commence, state authorities have said there was a need to reinforce building standard codes. 

Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang “emphasizes the need for all developers and property owners to submit their building plans to the Jos Metropolitan Development Board for verification and revalidation,” Ashoms said.  

The school building disaster was the latest tragedy to hit Plateau State, which has seen a series of deadly intercommunal clashes.  

Gunmen killed 40 people in Zurak, a mining village 260 kilometers (160 miles) east of Jos, in May. And nearly 200 people were killed in the state last December in raids on mostly Christian villages. 
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Tripoli, Libya — The United Nations mission in Libya called Saturday for the “immediate” release of a prominent journalist arrested this week, warning against a “crackdown” on media freedoms in the war-torn country.  

Ahmed Sanussi, chief editor of Libyan financial news website Sada, who has long covered corruption in the hydrocarbon-rich country, was arrested in his Tripoli home after returning from Tunisia, his family said.  

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said, it was “deeply concerned about the arbitrary arrest and detention of journalist Ahmed Sanussi on July 11 in Tripoli.”  

In a message on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, UNSMIL called for his “immediate release.”  

“The crackdown on journalism fosters a climate of fear and undermines the necessary environment for democratic transition in Libya,” it said.

Division and unrest 

Libya has been wracked by division and unrest since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and remains divided between two rival administrations. 

The U.N. mission highlighted the need for a “thriving civic space where Libyans can engage in open and safe debate and dialogue by exercising their right to freedom of expression.”   

“All Libyan authorities must protect journalists and media professionals.” 

Sanussi’s latest reporting on corruption implicated Economy Ministry Mohamad Ali Houej.   

Authorities in Libya did not comment on the arrest, which was also condemned by Western governments. 

Journalism group pushes for release

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deemed it “unacceptable that authorities have not disclosed where he is being held or the reason for his arrest.”  

The Netherlands’ ambassador in Libya, Joost Klarenbeek, said on X, formerly Twitter, he was “deeply concerned,” adding that “any acts of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance or ill-treatment must be thoroughly investigated.”  

CPJ’s MENA program coordinator, Yeganeh Rezaian, said Libyan “authorities must release Sanussi immediately and unconditionally and ensure his safe return home.” 
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GENEVA — The World Health Organization warns that millions of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are facing a health and humanitarian crisis because of escalating conflict and violence, mainly in the eastern part of the country in recent months.

The agency said the surge in violence by armed groups, principally Rwandan-backed M23 Tutsi-led rebels, an accusation denied by the Rwandan government, is leading to “mass displacement, widespread disease, gender-based violence and severe mental trauma.”

Dr. Adelheid Marschang, a WHO senior emergency officer, told journalists in Geneva Friday, “The DRC now has the highest number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the entire world, with 25.4 million affected.”

She said the DRC “remains one of the most underfunded crises,” which hampers the ability of people to receive the relief supplies and care needed to protect them from infectious diseases, hunger, and sexual and gender-based violence.

The United Nations’ $2.6 billion Humanitarian Response Plan, which aims to assist 8.7 million people in the DRC in 2024, is only 16% funded. Marschang said the WHO has received just $6.3 million of the $30 million it requires, at a minimum, until the end of the year “as the situation is expected to get worse.”

“Mass movements of people overwhelm water and sanitation systems and bring an additional burden on the population’s scarce resources,” she said. “As a result, people are facing outbreaks of cholera, measles, meningitis, mpox and plague, all exacerbated by severe flooding and landslides affecting some parts of the country.”

In the first half of this year, the WHO has reported more than 20,000 cases of cholera, including 274 deaths, most in North Kivu province, and 65,415 cases of measles, including 1,523 deaths.

“The actual numbers are likely to be higher due to limited disease surveillance and data reporting,” Marschang said.

She said armed conflict and mass displacement, compounded by widespread floods, were driving hunger and malnutrition to new heights, “by forcing families to leave their farms, leave their crops, leave everything they have to move wherever it is safe.”

The latest IPC Chronic Food Insecurity report finds that about 40% of the DRC’s population — 40.8 million people — “face serious food shortages, with 15.7 million facing severe food insecurity and higher risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases.”

Marschang said 1 million children out of 6.9 million are malnourished and at risk of becoming severely acutely malnourished if they do not receive specialized therapeutic treatment.

She explained that children with this condition have a weakened immune system, which makes them susceptible to deadly infectious diseases. Severe acute malnutrition also has serious cognitive consequences for children “harming their prospects in life.”

During a media briefing earlier this week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, warned of the global health threat posed by mpox, with 26 countries reporting nearly 98,000 cases to the WHO.

Noting that the DRC was in the crosshairs of a growing epidemic, he said, “The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo shows no sign of slowing, with more than 11,000 cases reported this year, and 445 deaths, with children the most affected.”

Mpox, a viral disease, spreads through close contact with an infected person through contaminated materials, or with infected animals. Last month, scientists warned of a dangerous new strain of mpox in South Kivu, which could spread widely in overcrowded camps in and around Goma.

“It is a reason for concern,” Marschang said, adding that two camps in North Kivu province are infected with the virus.

“If we consider that we have military activities around those camps and some camps were actually targeted this year, I think it illustrates the increasing risk for this disease to spread and also the difficulties of containing it if security is not addressed,” she said.

The U.N. peacekeeping force MONUSCO began winding down its operations in South Kivu in January. Marschang warned that “could create a security vacuum.”

“This could throw us further into a situation of increasing numbers of displaced, of victims, of violence,” she said, “with the whole vicious cycle just continuing.”
…

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Blantyre, Malawi  — A political party led by Vice President Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash last month, is withdrawing from the governing Tonse Alliance led by President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party. Leaders of the United Transformation Movement made the announcement Friday at a news conference at the party’s headquarters in the capital, Lilongwe.

United Transformation Movement spokesperson Felix Njawala said the party believes leaving Malawi’s governing Tonse Alliance is what the party’s president, the late Vice President Saulos Chilima, would have done if he were alive. 

Njawala said although Chilima partnered with the Malawi Congress Party, he faced a lot of problems with the alliance, including being arrested, rebuked and sometimes ignored. 

Njawala said they have agreed today that they should pull out from the alliance.   

Njawala said the party would now shift its focus to the 2025 elections.

He asked everyone who is wishing for the good of the country, including young people, to help the party fulfill the agenda of Chilima, who he said was making Malawi a better and prosperous nation.  

“Our friends in Kenya are calling themselves Gen Z,” said Njawala. “These are people who were born from 1995 and you also should not fear and get tired, but you should take part to support the UTM party, which has carried the vision of Saulos Chilima.” 

Chilima and President Lazarus Chakwera signed the Tonse Alliance in 2020 to unseat then-President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party after the Malawi court nullified the 2019 elections that Mutharika had won.  

The UTM party has become the third partner to pull out from the governing alliance, which at one time included nine political parties. 

Political analyst George Phiri is a former lecturer of political science at the University of Livingstonia in northern Malawi.  

“Looking at how this alliance has been managed or governed, one would likely think that the move that UTM has made now has been made late,” said Phiri. “They would have moved out from the alliance already while the late Dr. Saulos Chilima was still the vice president of his country.”  

Phiri said members of the alliance have long cried foul over the failure of the leadership to call meetings involving partners. 

“Because they were expecting to be meeting regularly in order to monitor how the alliance government was moving,” said Phiri. “But seemingly it shows that the Malawi Congress Party stole the show for the alliance and didn’t want these other parties to participate in decision making for the alliance government.” 

Phiri said the withdrawal of UTM technically means the end of the Tonse Alliance because the agreement for the alliance was signed by leaders of two parties; UTM and MCP. 

VOA sought a comment from the MCP but has yet to receive a response.  

UTM’s Secretary General Patricia Kaliati said the members of the party’s executive committee are expected to endorse the decision at a meeting on July 19. 
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KIGALI, RWANDA — Three candidates are vying for the presidency in Rwanda, where incumbent President Paul Kagame has won every election since 2000 and is widely expected to win again Monday.

At a recent campaign rally, Kagame told supporters much has been done but more is possible if he is reelected.

“There are roads, electricity and many other infrastructures that we have achieved,” Kagame said in Kinyarwanda, “but we still want to achieve more. We will do that with your help, starting with the elections we have on July 15.”

The 66-year-old Rwanda Patriotic Front leader is expected to cruise to an easy victory.

One reason, according to critics, is that he has ruled with a firm hand and stifled dissent.

But another, say analysts, is the way he’s been able to guide the East African country toward internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

Eric Ndushabandi, a political science and international relations professor at the University of Rwanda and an associate researcher at the Louvain University in Brussels, said Kagame’s support has been buoyed by his efforts to address Rwandans’ need for security and stability after the genocide.

“The language, practice and success around stabilization and security, mainly in internal politics, it is joining the expectations and aspirations of many Rwandans after this tragic and historical background,” Ndushabandi said.

He also said there is a big gap between the presidential candidates in terms of popularity, ideology, means and capacity.

The challengers

Democratic Green Party candidate Frank Habineza said he is in the race again this year because the incumbent president has been in office too long. Habineza last ran against Kagame in 2017.

He told VOA that he’s campaigned in 24 of the country’s 30 districts so far and that voters have been more enthusiastic this time around.

“I am giving them hope that after 30 years, we really need to see a different way of living, different political programs, different thinking and a different vision,” he said. “We are not going to destroy the good things that have been done before, but we want to give them better hope and a better future.”

Independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, a journalist turned politician, also said he respects how far the country has come but wants to be seen as someone who can move it forward even more.

This is also his second bid for the top job. He says the innovative ideas and initiatives in his campaign manifesto have received coverage in 50 articles.

Other candidates were barred from the race by the National Electoral Commission for various reasons. One was a fierce Kagame critic, Diane Rwigara, who the commission said did not provide a criminal record statement and did not collect the minimum number of supporters’ signatures.

Rwigara expressed her disappointment on the X social media platform, where she told Kagame, “This is the second time you cheat me out of my right to campaign, why won’t you let me run.”

Critics and rights groups have long accused Kagame of silencing opposition voices and creating a climate of fear that discourages dissent in general.

Issues, economy

While support for Kagame remains generally strong on the streets of Kigali, some Rwandans say they’d like to see issues such as joblessness addressed.

“You see the progress this country has achieved by the leader who’s in charge. We wish that whoever is elected should not destroy what has been achieved but to continue it,” Theoneste Gatari, a Kigali resident, told VOA in Kinyarwanda.

Azabe Belton, another Kigali resident, said, “The youth make up most Rwandans. We want the person who’ll be elected to set up projects that help the youth get jobs because most of them are completely unemployed.”

According to the World Bank, the unemployment rate in Rwanda was 14.9% in 2023. While the bank lauded the resiliency of the country’s economy, which boasted a 7.6% growth rate in the first three quarters of 2023, it also said that public debt had increased significantly in recent years.

Teddy Kaberuka, an economic analyst, said Rwanda is a growing economy trying to attract industries and factories that can produce and provide jobs.

But the challenge, he said, is that “we are still having huge portions of the population [that] may be educated but not qualified [for manufacturing jobs]. Those are long-term investments that any government needs to address because it’s not in one year that you can create a pool of skilled people.”

Kaberuka said Rwanda is a country under construction that has gone through three economic phases since the genocide. The first 10 years, he said, were about laying a foundation for development by building security and institutions, providing basic needs for the population and allowing people to heal.

The second phase was about investing in development. The third phase was about weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, which wreaked havoc around the globe.

All that took place under the leadership of Kagame. Now, Kaberuka said, Rwanda is entering a new phase, one in which voters will decide who they trust to move the country forward.
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NIAMEY, niger — Niger’s interior ministry said it had ordered search units to be on alert after inmates escaped Thursday from the high-security Koutoukale prison, whose inmates include Islamist militants. 

The ministry statement did not say how many prisoners had escaped Koutoukale, which lies 50 kilometers northwest of the capital, Niamey, or how they had done so. In 2016 and 2019, attempted jail breaks at the facility were repelled. 

The prison’s inmates include detainees from the West African country’s conflict with armed groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State and suspected Boko Haram insurgents. 

Local authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the urban commune of Tillaberi, which is in the same region as the prison, but did not give further details.  

Niger and its neighbors in the central Sahel region are on the front lines of the battle to contain a jihadist threat that has steadily grown since 2012, when al-Qaida-linked fighters first seized parts of Mali. 

Thousands have been killed in the insurgencies and more than 3 million displaced, fueling a deep humanitarian crisis in some of the world’s poorest countries.
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maputo, mozambique — Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has promised to continue supporting Mozambique in its fight against violent extremism in the oil-and-gas rich province of Cabo Delgado, even after the imminent departure of southern African troops from the troubled region.    

Addressing a media conference upon his arrival in the Mozambican capital Maputo late Wednesday, Masisi said the withdrawal of troops from Cabo Delgado does not mark the end of his country’s support in combating violent extremism.  

Masisi said Botswana remains ready to assist Mozambique. 

“In the military and security space, we are going to share our know-how and expertise because we are to you what you are to us,” said Masisi. “And just to make it clear, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Mozambique in the quest for peace, so any instability such as we witnessed, we will be ready to intervene.” 

Botswana is the second country, following Tanzania to pledge continued support for Mozambique after the departure of troops from SADC, the Southern African Development Community. 

The SADC troops are due to leave Mozambique on July 15 due to financial issues.   

After holding official talks with Masisi at his seaside palace in Maputo late Wednesday, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi thanked his visitor for Botswana’s role in the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado. 

“Together, we work to combat these attacks and this help does not end,”  said Nyusi. “There are many ways Masisi is supporting Mozambique and that will continue. We are training our officers, our military personnel in Botswana. And the flow will continue because these are the ones who must ensure the continuation of the fight.”

The SADC mission consisted of troops from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, working in collaboration with the Mozambican defense forces and Rwandan troops to combat acts of terrorism and violent extremism. 

The mission, known as SAMIM, has been in Mozambique since July of 2021 and was able to destroy the terrorist bases, reduce the number of attacks, and restore normal functioning to public and private institutions.

However, Webster Zambara, a senior project leader of peace-building initiatives at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa, predicted a long road ahead before terrorism is vanquished in northern Mozambique.  

Zambara spoke with VOA Thursday from his base in Cape Town over WhatsApp. 

“If you look at Boko Haram in West Africa, it has been there for 15 years now. If you look at al-Shabab in East Africa, it has been there for more than 10 years,” said Zambara. “So, anyone who thought that rising extremism in northern Mozambique is going to be a short war would not have looked at how terrorists have operated, not only in Africa, but even globally.  ” 

The insurgency in northern Mozambique began in 2017 and already has caused close to 6,000 deaths, leading to the displacement of more than 1 million people. Multinational oil and gas firms operating in the region, such as Exxon Mobil and Total, were forced to suspend operations over security concerns. 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto dismissed most of his cabinet Thursday, firing everyone except his foreign affairs ministers. The dismissal follows weeks of protests that were triggered by proposed tax hikes, and transformed into calls for Ruto to remove allegedly corrupt and non-performing ministers. 

Speaking at the State House on Thursday, Ruto said the country’s recent political and economic situation led him to fire his ministers. 

“Upon reflection and listening keenly to what the people of Kenya have said and after a holistic appraisal of the performance of my cabinet and its achievements and challenges, I have today in line with the powers given to me … decided to dismiss with immediate effect all the cabinet secretaries and the attorney general from the cabinet of the Republic of Kenya except the prime cabinet secretary and cabinet secretary for foreign and diaspora affairs,” he said.   

Ruto said he will consult across different sectors and establish a broad-based government that will assist him in running the country’s affairs. 

At the president’s urging, parliament last month passed a finance bill that included several tax increases, but Ruto declined to sign the bill after protesters stormed parliament. Clashes between police and protesters in Nairobi and elsewhere left at least 41 people dead.  

Kenyan political activist Boniface Mwangi, one of the protest organizers, told VOA Ruto needs to change the way he operates. 

“We are very happy because it is the beginning of the end for him as well. We cannot have an incompetent government in power, we cannot have a government that kills its young people in power,” Mwangi said. “He has been holding the parliament hostage because nothing happens in this country without his approval. So he needs to understand that you cannot run a country by yourself.” 

The government says the absence of additional tax revenue will negatively impact government programs and foreign loan payments. 

However, many Kenyans argue the government collects sufficient revenue, but loses it through corruption that goes unpunished. 

Political commentator Martin Andati said time is not on Ruto’s side, adding that the president cannot expect to make parliament and other institutions do his bidding without pushback from the people.  

“He thought he would buy time, he would tell Kenyans he would do a task force and all this kind of nonsense, but Kenyans have seen through it all. So, politically, he is living in 1994. The Kenyan youth are in 2034, miles and miles ahead of him, so if you try all these shenanigans, they are able to see it,” Andati said. “But the cure to all this is strictly following the constitution. … There are checks and balances on institutions. So he must give institutions its power and let institutions work.” 

Kenyan protesters, who call themselves tribeless and leaderless, have planned a new series of demonstrations next week to protest the longstanding problem of police killings, disappearances and abductions.  
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South Africa’s newly-appointed minister of sports – a self-described former gangster – wants to promote a sport that has associations with South African gangster culture. The sport of “spinning” involves fast-moving cars and dangerous stunts, and as Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg, the way it’s conducted is not always legal.
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Abuja, Nigeria — The Nigerian parliament on Tuesday called for an investigation of the Samoa Agreement, a pact federal authorities signed with the European Union, after a media report that some of the deal’s clauses could promote same-sex relationships.

Nigerian authorities have denied the claims and promised to act against news organizations reporting them.

Lawmakers said authorities did not consult them before signing the bill. A majority voted to investigate the agreement, which is named after the Pacific Island nation of Samoa, where it was first reached in November.

Critics such as House of Representatives member Aliyu Madaki said the Samoa Agreement needs to be clearer on clauses that promote gender rights.

“The phrase ‘gender equality’ is a Trojan horse for deceptively bringing in all sorts of immorality to our country, as gender no longer means sexes male and female as traditionally understood. It now includes homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism and animalism,” Madaki said.

Nigerian authorities signed the Samoa Agreement among the EU and 79 other countries, including African, Caribbean and Pacific nations, on June 28.

Authorities say the agreement aims to strengthen partnerships for democratic norms and human rights as well as promote economic growth and development. It’s also designed to help member nations tackle common challenges such as climate change, migration and security.

Authorities said Nigeria signed the agreement after extensive reviews and consultations.

The pact became a topic of national discussion following a report by a Nigerian newspaper, Daily Trust, that said the deal’s clause on gender rights could be misinterpreted to promote same-sex relationships.

This week, Nigerian authorities held a media briefing in Abuja to debunk such claims and promised to sue the newspaper. Authorities also refuted claims that Nigeria will pocket $150 billion from signing the deal.

Information Minister Mohammed Idris Malagi told reporters, “We are alarmed by the level of reckless reporting and statements by some media organizations and individuals that border on national security and stability. We find that despicable and wicked, because the allegation is nowhere in the document signed on behalf of the federal government.

“It is, however, disheartening that some elements are abusing this free [media] environment guaranteed by the government,” he said.

Nigeria outlawed same-sex relations in 2014 and imposed a 14-year jail term for offenders.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian Bar Association backed the government’s position after reviewing the agreement.

But the chairperson of the Human Rights Committee at the African Bar Association, Sonnie Ekwokusi, told Lagos-based Channels Television that Madaki is making a valid point.

“This Samoa agreement is littered with the phrases of the EU and United Nations,” Ekwokusi said. “I know the language of the EU. I know what they’re talking about.”

Daily Trust has said that its reporting was in the interest of the public and that it will apologize only when it is proven that the “gender rights” cited in the agreement means traditional male-female relationships and nothing more.
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YAOUNDE — Mixed reactions are swirling in Cameroon since Brenda Biya, the daughter of President Paul Biya, declared she is a lesbian. While LGBTQ activists see her declaration as an opportunity to push for greater rights in a country where same-sex relations are outlawed, anti-gay groups say they want Brenda Biya prosecuted.

Brenda Biya, the 26-year-old daughter of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, said she has received what she calls tons of insults as well as congratulatory messages in the past seven days.

The president’s daughter set off a firestorm of reaction in Cameroon last week when she shared pictures on social media of herself kissing her girlfriend and expressing her wish for them to live in harmony as a couple. She said LGBTQ people in Cameroon should be spared violence and brutality.

In a video released Tuesday night, Brenda Biya She said LGBTQ people have been calling to tell her that as President Biya’s daughter, she stands a chance of moving Cameroon toward abolishing laws that criminalize same-sex relations.

Brenda said she wants to give hope and love to the many people in Cameroon who suffer simply because of who they are.

Reverend Father Humphrey Tatah Mbui is director of communications at the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon’s Roman Catholic Bishops. He said he was curious to watch the videos shared by Brenda because President Biya’s family members are practicing Roman Catholics.

Mbui said homosexuality, lesbianism or same-sex relationships are condemned by the church because it is sin against God’s teaching.

“The Church. however, is sympathetic towards people who find themselves in homosexuality, lesbianism or same-sex relationships. Just like Jesus Christ we condemn what is wrong, but we do not condemn the sinner because the sinner can always repent,” he said.

Mbui said the Church believes that if Brenda stops loving and having intimate relations with her female partner, God will reconsider her as his daughter.

Bandy Kiki is an LGBT activist. She said churches should allow LGBTI people to enjoy their lives without religious obstacles.

“There are some laws in the Bible which should absolutely not be accepted today — for example capital punishment, slavery etc., and I think the Catholic Church is realizing that because in recent times we have seen some changes. We recently heard the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, allowing priests to bless same-sex relationships.”

President Biya has not publicly commented on his daughter’s declaration. Brenda said she did not inform her family before sharing the videos on social media.

On Wednesday, the Cameroon Association for the Criminalization of Same Sex Marriages said it had filed a complaint against Brenda for promoting an illegal activity in the central African country.

Officials of Cameroon’s Ministry of Justice say they have received and will examine the complaint.

Cameroonian law prohibits sexual relations with a person of the same sex and imposes a penalty of between six months to five years imprisonment on people found guilty.

Rights groups say that Cameroon’s police target public gatherings of LGBTQ people, and thugs regularly beat people suspected to be same-sex couples. 

Rights groups say about 16 people are currently in prison for alleged consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity. VOA could not independently verify that number. 
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Moki Edwin Kindzeka — Lawmakers with the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement passed a law on Tuesday extending their term of office for one year.

The lawmakers were elected in 2020 to serve a five-year term expiring on March 10, 2025. But this week, President Paul Biya asked his government to pass a bill extending terms for all 180 members of Parliament by 12 months — well into 2026.

Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement — also known as CPDM — holds 156 of parliament’s 180 seats.

Government officials say Cameroon’s constitution gives Biya the power to consult the Constitutional Council and ask parliament to vote on extensions and postpone elections whenever circumstances warrant.

Joshua Osih, a lawmaker and president of the opposition Social Democratic Front, disagrees.

Osih said the Social Democratic Front Party he leads strongly condemns as undemocratic the law extending the mandate of parliamentarians, postponing parliamentary elections in Cameroon from February 2025 to February 2026. He said the Cameroon government had five years to prepare for fresh polls in 2025 and should not give the impression that it was taken by surprise.

Opposition and civil society groups say Biya ordered CPDM lawmakers to vote on the bill because it makes it difficult for some main opposition leaders, including Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party (CRM), to be a candidate in presidential elections expected in October 2025.

Opposition says win was stolen

Kamto claims he won Cameroon’s October 7 presidential polls and that his victory was stolen by Biya. In 2020, his party did not take part in local council and parliamentary elections claiming that Biya had planned to rig the polls in favor of CPDM.

Cameroonian laws state that a political leader who aspires to be president must be in a political party that has at least a municipal councilor or is represented by a lawmaker in parliament. Kamtos’ CRM party has neither. The CRM said it expected to take part in February’s local and parliamentary elections to be able to endorse Kamto.

Kamto said the law extending the term of parliamentarians, along with a presidential decision postponing local elections, is another ploy by 91-year-old Biya to remain leader for life.

Kamto said he wants to reiterate to the government of Cameroon that his party and followers will not tolerate plans by Biya to stay in power. He said Biya and his government should not continue to take civilians for granted by abusing democratic rights and ruling the country with an iron fist.

Kamto said he will disrupt the elections if his rights are abused but did not say how. The government said joint local council and parliamentary elections will take place in 2026 after presidential elections in 2025.

Kamto said although Cameroon laws make it possible for presidential aspirants who are not endorsed by political parties to run, submitting 300 signatures from influential politicians, including former ministers, traditional rulers and religious leaders, as the law states, is very difficult. He said the leaders are either scared of Biya or are his political partners.

Biya has not said if he will be a candidate. But last March, CPDM supporters marched in the streets urging the world’s oldest leader to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule.

They said Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to Cameroon, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades.

Biya rules with an iron fist and is not ready to relinquish power until he dies, opposition and civil society say. But Biya’s supporters say he is a democrat and has won all elections since Cameroon’s 1990 return of multi-party politics.

If reelected, Biya will rule up to 2032. By then, he will be 98 years old.
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