New fighting in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state this week is putting a strain on the country’s fragile peace agreements.A spokesman for the rebel National Salvation Front (NAS) said a joint force composed of soldiers from the army and the former rebel SPLM-IO attacked NAS positions in Central Equatoria state beginning on Sunday.”They went and attacked our bases in Senema, that is around Ombaci, and also in Mediba around Morobo, and in Kajo-Keji Kala 2. They also attacked our forces, and we responded,” NAS spokesman Samuel Suba told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Two NAS soldiers were killed and three others wounded during the fighting, according to Suba. The casualty figure could not be verified by other sources.SPLM-IO deputy military spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, who is also the press secretary for South Sudan’s defense minister, said the NAS forces were the aggressors who killed one government soldier and injured three others.”We were attacked in Kiju (Kajo-Keji) by the forces of Thomas Cirilo. They killed two SPLM-IO soldiers and injured one. Then, our forces withdrew from Kiju and moved to Kala. On the 26th, they attacked us again in Kala coming from Kiju. By then, our forces were ready, so we were able to repulse them,” Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus.Gabriel denied that a joint operation was carried out against the NAS. He accused the rebel group instead of trying to disrupt the training and unification of forces.”They came and attacked us in our own bases,” he told VOA. “And up to now — I cannot lie to you — they overran our base in Kiju. And up to now, they are still there.”Peace dealsThe government of President Salva Kiir and the SPLM-IO signed a peace deal in 2018 that recently led to the formation of a transitional unity government. The NAS signed a separate peace deal with the government in 2019.The agreements have led to a reduction in fighting and some progress toward merging the various armed forces into a national army.However, Suba said government forces adopted “a scorched-earth policy” by attacking civilians and looting their property in Lainya County’s Mukaya Payam.”They did it by burning houses, beating civilians and looting, and these led to this forced displacement of over 3,000 people,” Samuel said.Witness accountResident Alemin Joseph said the fighting forced him to flee to Yei from his village in Mukaya. He said he saw government forces beating civilians.”Government forces went and failed to get the rebels, so they stormed our village in (the) area of Mukaya interrogating civilians, beating and knifing them, saying we should tell them where Thomas Cirilo’s (rebel leader of NAS) forces are,” Joseph told South Sudan in Focus.Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, spokesman for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, said he has not received any information about clashes in Lainya County from government military commanders on the ground. 
 
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The World Health Organization (WHO) chief warned Wednesday that border closures and trade disruptions due to COVID-19 precautions could cause malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa to double. At his regular briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters a new modeling analysis published last week estimates potential COVID-19 related disruptions to deliveries of malaria services such as vaccines and other treatments in 41 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  In the worst-case scenario, he said, the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could double.Tedros said 21 countries worldwide are reporting shortages of vaccines for other diseases as well, including measles, polio, cholera, yellow fever and meningitis. He said approximately 13 million people have been affected globally by delays in regular immunizations.  Tedros also re-emphasized that the WHO is concerned about trends of increasing infections in Africa, as well as Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries. 
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The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.N. health agency reported that two children were infected by the highly infectious, water-borne disease and that one was paralyzed. The outbreak was sparked by a mutated virus that originated in the vaccine and was not connected to a previous polio epidemic Niger stopped last year, WHO said, in a statement last week.  
“The poliovirus will inevitably continue to circulate and may paralyze more children as no high-quality immunization campaigns can be conducted in a timely manner,” said Pascal Mkanda, WHO’s coordinator of polio eradication in Africa.  
In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can evolve into a form capable of igniting new outbreaks among non-immunized children; stopping the epidemic requires more targeted vaccination.  
Earlier this month, WHO and partners announced they were forced to halt all polio vaccination activities until at least June 1, acknowledging the decision would inevitably result in more children being paralyzed.  
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 33,500 cases and 1,469 deaths as of Tuesday, but experts suspect the real numbers are far higher due to lack of testing and poor surveillance.
Eradicating polio requires more than 90% of children being immunized, typically in mass campaigns involving millions of health workers that would break social distancing guidelines needed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Across Africa, 14 other countries are struggling to contain their polio epidemics, which have also been caused by a rare mutation of the virus in the oral vaccine. Health officials had initially aimed to wipe out polio by 2000, but that deadline has been pushed back and missed repeatedly.
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Somali militant group al-Shabab has executed three of its own members for alleged spying on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, local residents and regional officials said. El Bur district commissioner Colonel Nur Hassan Gutale says the three men were executed by a firing squad late Tuesday in the center of the town as dozens of people watched.   “According to our sources, the men are not from the town. The militants brought them there to execute and they executed them in public late Tuesday,” Gutale told VOA over the phone.   According to local residents speaking on condition of anonymity, an al-Shabab judge at the scene of the execution said the men had admitted to working for Western intelligence agencies and collaborating with the federal government of Somalia.   Al-Shabab has been trying to overthrow Somalia’s government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.   El Bur was once the commercial hub of Central Somalia and now is one of the main strongholds of al-Shabab in the Galgudud region.   They lost the control of the town late 2014 to Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces but retook it in April 2017 when the Ethiopians withdrew from the town, forcing its administrators including Colonel Gutale to flee to nearby towns. Gutale says the militants have been forcibly recruiting children, killed some of its intellectuals and made it a prison for its own residents. Abdiwahid Mo’alim Isaq contributed to this report.
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A reformed ex-convict in Morocco looks to make the best of his new life of freedom. Streets he once stalked as a criminal are today the focus of his local beautification efforts. And, as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, he may even offer a path for other ex-cons to follow.
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The high-risk COVID-19 ward at Uganda’s Mulago National Referral Hospital has been filled to capacity over the past month.    But the hospital says recoveries have kept pace with the rate of confirmed coronavirus infections.Uganda has confirmed 79 coronavirus infections, 49 recoveries, and — so far — no deaths. But outside of Uganda’s hospitals, though, health care workers are facing stigma.      Dr. Baterana Byarugaba is the executive director at the Mulago National Referral Hospital.      “We said ‘OK, let’s see how this virus will kill people if we maintain them on their normal drugs.’  If they are hypertensive, we treat hypertension, we treat diabetes, we treat ulcers, we treat all forms of diseases,” Baterana said. “And, I think that was part of our success.”  Dr. Fred Nakwagala, senior consultant physician for Covid-19 case management in Uganda, said past lessons from Ebola and cholera outbreaks helped prepare them.He admits COVID-19 poses new challenges — including for health care workers.    “You remain with that sense of fear, anxiety,” Nakwagala said. ”And also, for you, you may be strong but your family, where you stay, your community, where you live and travel.  And there’s also the issue of stigma.  If you go into a market now, and the people in the market know you, they kind of don’t want to serve you.  They kind of feel they don’t want to associate with you.”   Ugandan Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said the only newly confirmed cases of coronavirus are coming in from other countries.   “Nearly 23 are truck drivers who came either from Kenya or from Tanzania,” Aceng said. “Within the country, we have not been getting positive cases.  And as we draw close to the end of the lockdown, we need to have vital information that will form part of the decisions for lifting the lockdown.”      Uganda’s lockdown restrictions on movement and gatherings are set either to expire or be extended May 5.      To help make that decision, the Ugandan Health Ministry will conduct a nationwide rapid survey on community transmission, including 20,000 tests for COVID-19, to see if additional infections are being missed.       
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A new report finds a record 50.8 million people globally are displaced within their own countries due to conflict, violence and natural disasters.  The report, published by the FILE – In this photo taken on Dec. 10, 2019 a displaced Burkinabe woman and child prepare food, in the Pissila town camp, near Kaya, Burkina Faso.One of the most dramatic examples of this is Burkina Faso.   The report says conflict and violence linked largely to an increase in terrorist activities have triggered a huge increase in internal displacement from 42,000 people in 2018 to more than half-a-million last year. 
Finding durable solutions for internally displaced people is difficult, says Bilek because they are citizens of their countries.  She notes it is the responsibility of governments to protect and assist their nationals.    “Which is why the international response in those contexts is slower and the international community is perhaps more sensitive to state sovereignty in an IDP, internal displacement context than it would be in a refugee context.  It makes it much more politically complicated, I would say, to respond,”   she  said.Although there are more than twice as many internally displaced people in the world than refugees, the problems of IDPs get far less attention from the international media.   FILE – Women walk through al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria, April 1, 2019. There has long been worry about a potential coronavirus outbreak in northeastern Syria, home to several displaced-person and refugee camps.The U.N. refugee agency’s Principal Advisor on Internal Displacement, Sumbul Rizvi. explains that is because the plight of refugees fleeing across borders in search of protection is more visible than that of IDPs.   She tells VOA media attention is absolutely essential to shine a light on the needs of people uprooted within their own countries.   “But also, the root causes on why these situations may have occurred and what can be done to address them, thus paving the path to solutions.  And, solutions cannot just be humanitarian solutions.  They have to be political and development related as well as some of the main causes of internal displacement,” she said.     Authors of the report fear the global coronavirus pandemic will take a particularly heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of internally displaced people.  They note the overcrowded, squalid conditions of the settlements in which IDPs live are perfect breeding grounds for this deadly disease.   
     
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Eastern Libyan forces laying siege on the country’s capital, Tripoli, accused their rivals on Tuesday of staging an attack in which a Turkish drone hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians.
The militia groups loosely allied with a U.N.-supported but weak government in Tripoli denied attacking civilians, saying instead that they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take Tripoli.
The fighting over Tripoli erupted last April, when east-based forces under commander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive to capture the city. In recent weeks, violence has escalated with both sides accusing each other of shelling civilian neighborhoods. The U.N. has said the violence and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Libya could amount to war crimes.
Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Hifter forces, said the drone strike took place late Monday near the district Mizda, 184 kilometers (114 miles) south of Tripoli.
Hifter’s forces control most of eastern and southern Libya while the besieged Tripoli administration rules just a corner of the country’s west. Both sides are supported by a network of fractious militias and foreign powers.
On Monday, Hifter in an attempted show of strength, declared a 2015 U.N.-brokered political deal to unite the oil-rich country “a thing of the past.”
The Tripoli-based government said it wasn’t surprised by Hifter’s announcement, and urged Libyans to join “a comprehensive dialogue and continue in the democratic path to reach a comprehensive and permanent solution based on ballot boxes.”
While the 2015 agreement has so far failed to bring unity or stability to the divided country, Hifter’s announcement threatens to further complicate U.N. efforts to broker a political settlement to the civil war.
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano on Tuesday criticized Hifter’s announcement from the previous day, saying that “any attempt to push forward unilateral solutions, even more so by force, will never provide a sustainable solution for the country, and such attempts cannot be accepted.”  
Stano said the December 2015 agreement “remains the viable framework for a political solution in Libya, until amendments are a found, or replacements are found” agreed by all parties and called on all international actors in Libya to “increase their pressure” on the warring parties to help end the fighting and bring about a political settlement.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The chaos has worsened in the recent round of fighting as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite their pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier this year.
Turkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more recently, Syrian militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli government. Meanwhile, Russia has deployed hundreds of mercenaries to boost Hifter’s assault. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt also back Hifter.
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Rights groups accuse some authoritarian governments of using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to further limit free expression. But in the North African country of Algeria, the trend is partly going the other way.  As brand names go, FILE – Algerians march in an anti-government demonstration in the Algerian city of Bordjab Bou Arreridj, on Feb. 14, 2020.The broadcasts are happening as rights groups accuse authorities of censoring some independent media, and arresting several high-profile activists and journalists in recent weeks.  Reporters Without Borders’ North Africa director Souhaieb Khayati ticks off a few of them — including RSF correspondent Khaled Drareni.  
Khayati considers Radio Corona the perfect answer to what he calls the absurdity and arbitrariness of the Algerian regime.  Founder Benadouda has had his own brush-ups with authorities. He fled his homeland in 2014, after being harassed for his reporting. He’s now based in Rhode Island. 
He says Radio Corona is about more than COVID-19. It’s also the voice of the Hirak protest movement, although he may keep its moniker.  “Radio Corona won’t stop after the crisis,” he said. “What we are now living with this virus — it’s something we won’t forget. So why not keep the name?”  
Besides, he says, there are other political viruses to tackle once this pandemic is over.    
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The race to become Burundi’s next president is officially underway as authorities proclaim God will protect citizens from the novel coronavirus, which has already infected 15 people in the central African nation and caused the death of one other.  Seven candidates launched campaigns Monday, with large rallies that are off limits in other parts of Africa, where governments are mandating that people practice social distancing to curtail the spread of the virus. Burundi’s presidential, legislative and municipal elections are scheduled for May 20.  Opposition groups accused President Pierre Nkurunziza’s administration of being irresponsible for not delaying the election. Nkurunziza, who is stepping down from power and is apparently shunning measures to slow the spread of the virus, told supporters at a large rally Monday that he is backing General Evariste Ndayishimiye, the CNDD-FDD’s presidential candidate. Nkurunziza’s 15-year tenure has been marred by controversy, including his  2015 decision to seek a third term, which resulted in a deadly civil uprising. 
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Nigeria’s president said the country will begin a gradual easing of lockdown restrictions to curtail the spread of the coronavirus in the capital, Lagos, Abuja and Ogun States May 4.  In a national broadcast late Monday, Muhammadu Buhari said he made the decision after reviewing the more than a four-week lockdown to allow the country’s economy to operate and still keep a steady response in containing the virus.  President Buhari said the new measures also include a mandatory use of face masks and a curfew from 8pm to 6am, with only essential travel allowed during the 10-hour period. Buhari also said he is sending more health workers and equipment to northwest Kano State, where the lockdown will remain in place because of an increase in covid-19 cases.  Buhari also promises to hold security personnel accountable for human rights abuses during the lockdown.  Nigeria reported 1,273 cases of the coronavirus and 40 deaths. 
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Amid a three-week suspension of public and private transport in Uganda due to the coronavirus, some HIV-positive Ugandans have struggled to get hold of needed antiretroviral medications. Noticing a higher risk for HIV patients with compromised immune systems, health worker Simon Bukenya jumped on his bicycle and began making home deliveries, even going long distances to do it.Simon Peter Bukenya has been living with HIV for 30 years and understands the importance of taking antiretroviral drugs. A lockdown due to the coronavirus has stranded Ugandans in need of medical attention, including people who are HIV-positive. Bukenya says on a daily basis, he bicycles more than 80 kilometers to deliver medications to those who need them. He says he started with three patients, and word of his services spread after he posted a notice on Facebook.“There’s even a client that called me and sent me a WhatsApp, when she had gotten herpes zoster, and she’s home,” said Bukenya. “She’s breastfeeding, she has a two-months-old baby and she’s going through a lot. So, that’s what really motivated me; that’s how I started.”Bukenya says so far, he has reached 200 patients.  He says he doesn’t get paid for his services; he simply wanted to fill a gap for HIV patients in need.His service is independent of one run by Uganda’s Ministry of Health which recently set up a program to allow community health workers to collect HIV pills for patients. Dr. Kaggwa Mugaga, the head of HIV for WHO in Uganda, admits the ministry’s service has limits, especially when it comes to supplies of key medicines. “We have people who volunteer to pick up drugs on behalf of others in the same community where they have openly shared their status,” said Mugaga. “This has closed the gap of people missing pills. NMS (National Medical Stores) has been able to deliver what it has, but there are medicines which were at low stock levels, Lopinavir, Ritonavir, for the children.”The pharmaceutical division revealed that the order for pediatric antiretrovirals is expected to arrive in May.UNAIDS says about 6 percent of Ugandans are HIV-positive, one of the highest rates in East Africa.Among these is William Matovu, who was born with HIV and will be 26 in July. He previously did not make his status publicly known, fearing discrimination and the stigma associated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. For him, Bukenya comes in handy. “I was running out of my medication. I had to call him and he assists me. Due to the ban of public transport in this COVID-19 era, I could not move to my facility,” said Matovu. “It’s like 15 kilometers away from my home. When I contacted him, he asked me my details, So, when I gave him my details, he went to my facility and picked up the medication for me and brought it to my doorstep.”Uganda has so far recorded 74 COVID-19 cases, but no deaths.The government’s travel restrictions are currently due to expire on May 3.
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Jilib SomaliaSeven incidents of potential civilian casualties are still under review, including one posed to the command by VOA about a strike in Jilib, Somalia, on Feb. 24, 2020. An official with Somali telecommunication company Hormuud Telecom told VOA Somali that one of the company’s employees was killed in that strike and claimed the employee was not involved with al-Shabab. Amnesty International called the report a “welcome glimmer of transparency in more than a decade of deadly military operations.” The rights group urged AFRICOM to offer reparations to the families of the civilian victims and asked the command to look at strikes earlier than the report’s start date of Feb. 1, 2019. AFRICOM made its first acknowledgment of civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes in Somalia on April 5, 2019. New information revealed that a woman and child were killed, along with four al-Shabab militants, in a U.S. airstrike near the town of El Burr in central Somalia on April 1, 2018. Harun Maruf contributed to this report.    
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More than 200 doctors from Cuba have arrived in South Africa to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The doctors, including community health and infectious disease specialists, arrived early Monday morning and were welcomed by military and health authorities.
South Africa requested assistance from the Cuban government, which is sending more than 1,000 doctors to 22 countries, including Togo, Cap Verde and Angola in Africa.
South Africa has reported the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Africa, with at least 4,546 cases and 87 deaths.
Some of the Cuban doctors have been “in the frontline of fighting other outbreaks in the world such as cholera in Haiti in 2010, and Ebola in West Africa in 2013,” said South African health minister Zweli Mkhize.
Cuba’s government supported the African National Congress in its fight against South Africa’s apartheid system of racist minority rule. Now the ANC is South Africa’s ruling party and has good relations with Cuba.
South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela was known to be close to former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The two countries cooperate in the health sector, with hundreds of South African medical students studying through scholarships in Cuba.
The Cuban medical personnel will stay in a two-week quarantine before starting work. They have arrived as South Africa is increasing community testing, especially in poor, crowded neighborhoods.
In the economic hub of Gauteng province, which includes South Africa’s largest city Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, mass screening and testing is scheduled to take place throughout the week.
The screening and testing will also concentrate on the Western Cape province, which includes the city of Cape Town and which has largest number of COVID-19 cases. 
South Africa has conducted nearly 170,000 tests. The country has 28,000 experienced community health workers who track contacts of people who test positive to help contain the spread of the disease.
 
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Thousands of Cameroonian prisoners have effectively regained their freedom, as ordered by the central African state’s President Paul Biya, after his government reported that the coronavirus pandemic was spreading and inmates were among the groups with the highest level of exposure. The government has, however, not provided the number of infected inmates but says more than 1,500 people have been tested COVID-19 positive in Cameroon  in less than two months, with over 50 deaths. Speaking via a messaging application from Cameroon’s English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda Henry Asaah Ngu, superintendent of the Bamenda Central prison says the 138 inmates who have regained their freedom were all tested COVID-19-free. He says their departure makes it possible for prison staff to ensure that compliance with principles of hygiene is effective to check the spread of the coronavirus. “With this release, we will be able to apply very strictly that aspect of social distancing even within the prison,” he said.The Bamenda Central Prison has 403 officially declared inmates. Cameroon has 78 overcrowded prisons, with 30,000 prisoners in detention facilities constructed for a maximum of 9.000 inmates.  Among the 1,400 who have regained their freedom from the Bamenda, Bafoussam, Bertoua and Buea central prisons is Emmanuel Ngomba. He says he was arrested two years ago, at 16, and held at the Buea Central Prison.”I left the house one evening to go and see a friend. He said he wanted us to go and take some things from his uncle’s shop. We went there, took some gas bottles and engine oil. They [the police] caught me. Prison is not a good place,” he said.Ngumba, who spoke via a messaging application, said his rights were abused because he was accused of theft and detained in prison for two years without trial. Fifty-two-year-old Pierre Tchamba also regained his freedom after more than two dozen years in the Bertoua prison, where he was given a life sentence for voluntary manslaughter and aggravated theft. Tchamba says after 24 years and four months of detention in inhumane conditions, he has finally regained his freedom thanks to COVID-19, which has been spreading in Cameroon and infecting inmates.  FILE – Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute speaks during a meeting on the country’s reconstruction, in Yaounde, Dec. 5, 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)A crisis meeting chaired by Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute last week announced that COVID-19 was a threat in Cameroon prisons but did not say how many inmates had been contaminated or have died from the pandemic. On April 15, President Biya ordered the release of thousands of prisoners over concerns about congested facilities spreading the coronavirus. Under the presidential decision, life sentences were reduced to 25 years and those for whom life sentences had been reduced to 25 years had five years taken off their sentences. Ten-year sentences were cut by three years, five-year sentences reduced by two years and three-year sentences cut by one year.  However, separatists fighting for an independent English-speaking state in the central African nation and officials jailed for corruption were excluded.    
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A song urging Cameroonians not to relent in the fight against malaria blasted through speakers Saturday — World Malaria Day — at road junctions and popular neighborhoods, as well as from publicity vans driving through Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.Dr. Daniel Etoundi of Cameroon’s public health ministry said health teams were being taken to every neighborhood to try to discourage patients from buying roadside drugs or resorting to African traditional healers for malaria treatment, because those can lead to severe health complications.”If the product is toxic, the liver will be spoiled [destroyed]. Same with the kidney,” he said. “Most of the products that we consume are eliminated through the kidney by urine. Now, if the drug is toxic, it will spoil the kidney function.”The Cameroon Ministry of Public Health reported that since March 5, when the first case of the coronavirus was reported in the central African state, many people with suspected cases of malaria or other diseases have refused to go to hospitals for fear they will catch COVID-19. As of Saturday, more than 1,500 cases had been confirmed in the country,  according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.But medical doctors say 90 percent of Cameroon’s 25 million people are at risk of malaria, while 41 percent have an episode each year.Dr. Dorothy Achu, coordinator of Cameroon’s National Malaria Control Program, said people should understand that although there is much government emphasis on the dangers of COVID-19, malaria remains the nation’s major killer, especially of children.”We are trying to sensitize health workers to protect themselves well but to continue to provide services,” as well as reassure the population “that it is not in all hospitals that we take care of COVID patients. So we just require them to protect themselves when they go to hospitals,” she said.Education effortsInnocent Kuisseu, sensitization team member for the prevention of malaria, said members also were educating Cameroonians about how to protect themselves from malaria by systematically using insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets and visiting hospitals when they suspect they might have malaria. He said people should not think that anyone who has malaria also has COVID-19.”Efforts are being put in to make sure that the population is more and more aware of what should be the right treatment, to make sure that in suspicion of malaria there should be a rapid diagnostic test, to make sure that they sleep under insecticide-treated nets,” he said.The International group Severe Malaria Observatory reports that malaria causes 22% of deaths occurring in health care facilities in Cameroon, and that 10% of deaths in children under 5 years old are linked to malaria.Health officials in Cameroon blame the surge of malaria and COVID-19 cases on the fact that many people do not respect basic hygiene standards and don’t visit health facilities when they have early signs of either disease. They also say there are too many people who refuse to use treated mosquito bed nets.
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The Ethiopian community in the Washington, D.C., area is mourning the loss of a woman who died from coronavirus shortly after giving birth, without seeing her newborn.Wogene Debele of Takoma Park, Maryland, was eight months pregnant when she began experiencing symptoms including fever, shortness of breath and loss of sense of smell. On March 25 she was hospitalized, and her son was born one month early via emergency cesarean section. On April 21 she died due to complications from the virus. Her son is healthy and does not have the disease.On Friday at the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex in Virginia, mourners wore masks and stood at a safe distance from one another.  Her husband, Yilma Asfaw, collapsed on the casket, crying out in Amharic. “You didn’t see the boy you were looking for. You left your four children, and what would I do for them?” Despite his distress, his friends and family were unable to comfort him due to the distancing restrictions.Her 17-year-old daughter, Mihret Yilma, said the loss is impossible to process. “I didn’t just lose one person. I lost three. I lost my mother, my sister and my friend. We were very close. She left without saying goodbye,” she told VOA, speaking a mix of Amharic and English.  “She taught me the meaning of strength and faith. We are safe because of her prayer night and day.”The daughter has been thrust into the role of mother, mixing milk formula to feed the baby and taking care of the newborn for three weeks. She said she takes solace in her new responsibility.“The newborn baby reminds me of my mother,” she said. “I feel like I am finding my mother through my siblings. From now on, they are all I’ve got. Mom used to say when I have my own children that I wouldn’t need a babysitter and that she would raise my children.”Wogene Debele of Takoma Park, Maryland, was eight months pregnant when she fell ill. She died from coronavirus shortly after giving birth. Here, her family mourns at her graveside.Yilma, 50, and Wegene, 43, won the Diversity Visa Lottery to come to the United States 10 years ago, bringing their daughter Mihret and son Naol Yilma, now 10. They had their third child, another son, Asher Yilma, after arriving in the U.S. The father is a school bus driver for Montgomery County, Maryland.The Washington, D.C., area is home to the largest population of people of Ethiopian descent in the U.S., with an estimated 100,000 living in the region.“This family is going to need us in the future. They’re going to need our support and our assistance, like so many families in our community,” Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart told local television station WUSA9.Etsegenet Bekele is a neighbor and had known Wegene since she came to the U.S. She lived on the third floor and Wegene on the eighth. “This is so painful for a new mother. I have no words. It is so painful,” she said. “She was a good person for everyone, but she would die for her children more than anything. She is a soldier for children.”She said to mourn in such circumstances is painful, as people are keeping distance and can’t console each other. “You can’t get over it even after crying and everything is done from a distance. In our culture to be buried like this is deeply painful.”Yilma said he still can’t accept the loss of the woman he has loved since they were both children.“We have been together for 25 years,” he said. “She was my childhood friend; she was my childhood partner. She was my adviser, my lead, I don’t even know what to say. She loved her children. She was the kind of person who welcomed people with open arms. My sorrow is deep and bitter,” he told VOA.This story originated in the Africa Division with reporting contributions from VOA Amharic Service’s Tsion Girma. 
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An attack on civilians at Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 18 people, including 12 rangers.The rangers were killed “while coming to help a civilian vehicle which had come under fire by the assailants,” the park management said in a statement. “Others were injured, including some who are fighting for their lives.”Virunga is a UNESCO World Heritage site with an area about 7,800 square kilometers over the borders of DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.It is Africa’s oldest and most biologically diverse protected habitat.The park with a large population of famous mountain gorillas has been a scene of rising instability and violence for at least two decades.At least 176 of its rangers have been killed in the last 20 years in attacks by rebel groups, militias and poachers.There has been no claim of responsibility by any person or group for Friday’s attack.
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Intense shelling of Libya’s capital by the country’s rival, east-based forces killed three civilians Friday, the city’s health authorities said, the latest victims in a yearlong siege of Tripoli.  The offensive on Tripoli by forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar has only escalated over the past weeks, despite a chorus of calls for a cease-fire so the war-torn country’s weak health system can respond to the coronavirus pandemic. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has renewed his pleas for a cease-fire as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began Friday. The Tripoli-based health ministry also said that along with the three fatalities, three African migrant workers were wounded in Friday’s attack on the neighborhood of Ain Zara and were being treated in the city’s field hospital.  The U.N.’s acting special envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, raised the alarm at a press conference on Thursday about the “horrible, intense shelling” of Tripoli’s densely populated neighborhoods. While attacks escalate, a round-the-clock curfew to slow the spread of coronavirus has trapped many inside their homes.  FILE – Libyans queue outside a supermarket in Tripoli on April 19, 2020.The violence has been described as some of the worst since the country slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.  Militias in western Libya, allied with the Tripoli government, said they launched airstrikes Friday on al-Waitya, a southwestern airbase they are pushing to seize from Haftar’s forces. The base is a gateway to western Libya and has been at the center of fighting in recent weeks. Backed by armed Turkish drones, the western forces recently closed in on the town of Tarhuna, a bastion of support for Haftar. The ongoing siege of the town has displaced at least 3,000 civilians, according to U.N. estimates.  The pandemic may have grounded flights and closed borders around the world, but that has not stopped foreign backers on both sides of Libya’s conflict from sending weapons and mercenaries into the country via cargo flights and vessels, said the U.N. official.  “Libya has become an experimental field for all kinds of new weapon systems,” Williams said.  Haftar receives fighter jets and drones from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Russia has also deployed trained mercenaries in Libya through a private security contractor, the Wagner Group, to boost Haftar’s assault.
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Police in Malawi clashed with prison guards who are demanding personal protective equipment against the coronavirus as well as hazard pay. The guards went on strike Thursday, saying working without PPE in the crowded prisons puts them at risk.Police used tear gas Friday to disperse protesting guards in various jails across the country. The guards resisted by throwing stones and pointing guns at police armory vehicles, forcing them to withdraw.The clashes began Thursday after the guards at Chichiri Prison in Blantyre allegedly assaulted three police officers who wanted to stop the strike.National Prison spokesperson Chimwemwe Shawa told VOA he couldn’t comment on police actions in Friday’s events.  “Currently I am trying to touch base because I have seen them in the social media, but for now I don’t have any comment on the involvement of police. But all in all, management is trying to make sure that the tension is eased,” Shawa said.FILE – Protesters pelt police vehicles with stones in Lilongwe in this undated photo. Angry prison guards in Malawi attacked armory vehicles when police tried to stop their strike, April 24, 2020. (Lameck Masina/VOA)The striking guards say they believe riot police stormed prisons in retaliation for the assault on the officers.However, National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera denied this, saying police were treating the assault on its officers as a separate incident.Kadadzera told VOA that police were trying to talk sense into the prison guards, saying it is unlawful for a government’s security organ to strike.The guards say many of them have worked for more than 20 years without promotion and that working without PPE puts them at risk of contracting the coronavirus, especially from new inmates.Authorities have recorded 33 cases of COVID-19 in Malawi, along with three deaths.A prison guard at the Zomba maximum security prison, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, told VOA in a telephone interview that guards were resolved to shut down the prison’s kitchen on Saturday.   “We are very angry now,” the guard said. “And if they are not doing anything, I am telling you, the prisoners will die of hunger.”National Prison spokesperson Shawa said the guards’ demands were justifiable, but that the protesters refused to discuss the matter with prison management. “The junior officers still believe that only the sit-in can bring answers to their concerns. So, basically, management will be meeting as we monitor the situation, [and] as we are trying to come up with measures to manage the tension,” he said.Nurses in Malawi’s public hospitals are also holding sit-ins, demanding PPE and an increase in hazard pay.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the deployment of 73,000 soldiers to enforce a lockdown in the country’s fight against the coronavirus. The move is unprecedented in the modern history of the country and includes active duty soldiers, reservists and auxiliary troops. “Your mission is to save lives,” Ramaphosa told soldiers in a speech in late March when the country’s lockdown began. “We are not the only country waging war against an invisible enemy — coronavirus. In you, our people have a defense mechanism.” Across Africa, security forces are being called upon to seal borders, enforce quarantines and maintain order. The measures are viewed with mixed emotions on a continent where, throughout history, military and police forces have been used to control the civilian population instead of protecting them. Soldier patrol the streets of Soweto, South Africa, April 23, 2020, as the country remains in lockdown for a fourth week in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus.There have already been instances of violence. On April 12, soldiers from the South African National Defense Force were accused of beating a man to death in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg. The man was reportedly violating the country’s lockdown by drinking outdoors.  He was the ninth person killed in April by South African security forces, according to the South African soldiers are seen at a checkpoint managed by the South Africa Police Services on the N1 highway in Johannesburg, April 24, 2020.Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, a physician and director of the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health organization with operations in Africa, agrees. He said the military has certain capabilities that can be useful, when deployed in coordination with public health and medical systems.  “Most militaries, when they get involved in disasters, they’re not so well trained on, say infectious disease events,” he said. “It’s important that that training is in place, if the military is going to get involved to protect the military, too — that they understand the risks of them getting involved in an infectious disease event. And that’s all based on science.” Siko said that foreign training often focuses on the military, but assistance is also needed to help the gendarmes and police forces most often called upon to interact with civilians.  “So, I think the next few weeks are going to be quite critical,” Siko said. “Unfortunately, I do think it’s a bit too late for, you know, Western or donor responses to have much impact here. But it has to be strategic longer term. This is something that I think Washington, the [Trump] administration and others need to really be considering moving forward.” The White House press office says President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Ramaphosa Thursday. The press office did not mention South Africa’s troop deployment, saying only that Trump offered additional assistance to South Africa to support its efforts to battle the pandemic.    
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One of the hard lessons the World Health Organization learned during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was this: Other diseases can be forgotten and take a deadlier toll.
The WHO is now warning that the battle against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, where it already kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, could be set back by 20 years as countries focus energy and resources on containing the coronavirus.  
The WHO said new projections indicate that in a worst-case scenario, 769,000 people could die of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa this year as campaigns to combat it are interrupted. That’s more than double the deaths in the last detailed count two years ago, when more than 360,000 people died, and would be the worst figures for the region since 2000.  
“We must not turn back the clock,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said Thursday.
While health experts express fears that the coronavirus pandemic could erode the global fight against many diseases,  sub-Saharan Africa is by far the worst affected by malaria. It had 93% of the world’s cases and 94% of deaths in 2018, the WHO said. The deaths were mainly children under the age of 5.
There have already been “severe disruptions” to anti-malaria campaigns and access to anti-malaria medication in Africa, WHO said.
The warning came ahead of World Malaria Day on Saturday. Malaria remains one of the leading killers in low-income countries.  
“I urge all countries to not lose focus on their gains made in health as they adapt to tackle this new threat,” Moeti said. “We saw with the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa that we lost more people to malaria, for instance, than we lost to the Ebola outbreak. Let us not repeat that with COVID-19.”
Africa has reported more than 27,000 cases of COVID-19 and nearly 1,300 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The continent is at a point in the outbreak that more than one health expert has referred to as the calm before the storm.
“This means that countries across the region have a critical window of opportunity to minimize disruptions in malaria prevention and treatment and save lives,” WHO said in a statement aimed at highlighting the threat malaria still poses.
Malaria isn’t the only concern.
Immunization campaigns to protect children against measles, polio and yellow fever are also affected, and not just in Africa.  
Earlier this month, the Measles and Rubella Initiative said more than 24 countries including South Sudan, Mexico and Bangladesh had suspended immunizations, and that figure could rise to 37. More than 117 million children may miss out on receiving possibly life-saving vaccines for measles, which has seen a resurgence in recent years.
Perhaps the most alarming suspension of an immunization program has occurred in Congo, where more than 6,000 people have died in the world’s largest current measles outbreak. The outbreak has lasted over a year, an immensely frustrating development for health officials given that a vaccine was developed more than 50 years ago.
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Cameroonian police used force to disperse Muslims praying at mosques at the start of the holy month of Ramadan Friday for violating government orders not to gather because of the coronavirus.  Cameroon has confirmed at least 1,300 COVID-19 infections and 43 deaths, the hardest-hit country in central Africa. A police statement said force to disperse Muslims from at least 13 Mosques in the country’s West, Center and Far North regions where they insisted on saying prayers during the Ramadan fasting period that began Friday in spite of a government ban because of COVID-19.Awah Fonka, governor of the Western region of Cameroon says he asked the police to force Muslims who did not respect the order and were praying in mosques in the towns of Foumban, Foumbot and Bafoussam out. He spoke to VOA from Bafoussam via a messaging app.Fonka says he will not spare anyone who refuses to respect measures taken by the government of Cameroon to protect its citizens from the deadly coronavirus and that he cannot imagine how people can be joking about  a virus that is claiming lives all over the world and sparing no one who refuses to protect him- or herself.   The police also said that some Muslims in Cameroon were sending away outsiders from towns hit hardest by the outbreak, and that they had received 175 complaints from Cameroonians who were either stigmatized or chased from villages because they had come from towns where COVID-19 infections had been reported.  Thirty-four-year old fruit and vegetable seller Gaston Asabe is one of them. He says when he arrived in his northern village of Koza Thursday night to buy onions and supplies to take back to Yaounde, villagers and relatives chased him, saying he was a coronavirus carrier, since he was coming from Yaounde, which has Cameroon’s highest COVID-19 infection rate. He spoke via a messaging app from the northern town of Maroua, where he took refuge for safety reasons.He says Koza villagers went to their chief and imam and told them he had come from Yaounde with the coronavirus and they were afraid he would contaminate them.  The villagers wanted the chief and imam to allow young men to throw him out of Koza. He says he struggled in vain to explain that he was not infected, but no one would listen to him.  Imam Dairou Abdoulahi of the Fifth Mosque in Koza says Asabe was attacked after the government repeated that mosques should remain closed during Ramadan. Abdoulahi says Muslims in the village argued that they have not had any cases of COVID-19 and will remain safe attending Ramadan prayers in their mosque if they stop visitors from towns where the virus has been confirmed from coming to their village. Abdoulahi said by phone from Koza that he asked the Muslims to stay home and be safe. He says Islam and their prophet Mohammed teaches through the Quran that lives should be protected through good health and hygiene and, as such, all Muslims should stay at home as a sign of obedience to the Quran’s teachings. He says no one should blame the government for asking for mosques’ closure because that will save lives.  Manaouda Malachie, Cameroon minister of health, speaking to VOA through a messaging app, called on the population to respect government measures to stop COVID-19 no matter their religious or traditional beliefs.  He says he is insisting that people should be responsible because COVID-19 is a matter of life or death. He says believers should know that by staying safe and praying at home, they are not only protecting themselves, but other faithful from being contaminated by the coronavirus. Manaouda says there will be time to celebrate when the virus is conquered.  Cameroon’s first case of COVID-19 was confirmed March 5. The government, among other measures, asked Christians and Muslims to pray at home to avoid its spread. The health ministry says that the cases will continue to rise if Cameroonians fail to take COVID-19 seriously.      
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Police in Cameroon used force on Friday to disperse Muslims praying at mosques at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, saying they were violating government orders not to gather because of the coronavirus.Cameroon has confirmed at least 1,300 COVID-19 infections and 43 deaths, making it the West African country hardest hit by the pandemic.In a statement, police said they used force to disperse Muslims from at least 13 mosques in the country’s West, Center and Far North regions, where people had gathered for prayers during the Ramadan fasting period that began Friday. The government had banned such gatherings in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.Awah Fonka, governor of the western region of Cameroon, said he asked police to force out Muslims who didn’t heed the order and were praying in mosques in the towns of Foumban, Foumbot and Bafoussam. He spoke via a messaging app from Bafoussam.He said he will not spare anyone who refuses to respect measures taken by the government of Cameroon to protect its citizens from the deadly coronavirus that is killing people around the world.Police said that some Muslims were targeting people from Cameroonian towns hardest hit by the coronavirus and that they had received 175 complaints from Cameroonians who were either stigmatized or chased from their villages.Gaston Asabe, a 34-year old fruit and vegetable seller, was one of them. He said when he arrived in his northern village of Koza on Thursday night, villagers and his relatives chased him, saying that he was a carrier of the coronavirus since he was coming from Yaounde, which has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in Cameroon. He spoke via a messaging app from the northern town of Maroua, where he’d fled for safety.He said he struggled to explain that he was not contaminated, but no one listened to him.Imam Dairou Abdoulahi of the 5th Mosque in Koza said Asabe was attacked after the government reiterated that mosques should remain closed during Ramadan. Abdoulahi said Muslims in the village argued that they have not had any cases of COVID-19 and will remain safe attending prayers in their mosques if they keep visitors from towns where the virus has been confirmed from coming to their villages. Abdoulahi, in a phone interview from Koza, said he asked the Muslims to stay home and be safe.He added that no one should blame the government for asking for the closure of mosques, because it is a decision that will save lives.Manaouda Malachie, Cameroon minister of health, speaking through a messaging app, called on the population to respect measures taken by the government to stop COVID-19 no matter their religious or traditional beliefs.He said that believers should know that by staying safe and praying at home, they are not only protecting themselves, but other other faithful from being sickened by the coronavirus. Manaouda said they will be time to celebrate when the virus is conquered.Cameroon’s first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 5. The government, among other measures, asked Christians and Muslims to pray at home to avoid its spread. The health ministry said that the cases will continue to rise if Cameroonians fail to take COVID-19 seriously.    
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