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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP) — The San Cristobal volcano, the highest in Nicaragua and one of its most active, spewed a cloud of ash Tuesday that blanketed the city of Chinandega and surrounding communities, a local journalist told AFP. The surprise eruption ejected a column of smoke and ash that was dumped as far as 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from the volcano’s foot, Nicaragua journalist Carol Altamirano said. The INETER territorial studies institute has not issued […]
by Samuel Obiang MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — The death toll from four explosions that rocked a military camp in Equatorial Guinea and surrounding areas rose to 105 with the discovery of seven more corpses, state television said Tuesday. A total of 615 people were injured in Sunday’s accidental blasts at the Nkoa Ntoma camp in the country’s economic hub Bata, which devastated buildings at the compound and houses in surrounding districts. President Teodoro Obiang […]
by Samuel Obiang MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — The death toll from accidental explosions that rocked a military camp in Equatorial Guinea and the surrounding area rose sharply Monday to 98 with hundreds wounded, the vice president said, as the scale of the disaster became clearer. The blasts on Sunday, involving ammunition stocks and explosives at the camp in the country’s economic hub Bata, devastated buildings at the compound and houses in surrounding residential areas. […]
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — At least 15 people have been killed and 500 injured after a series of powerful explosions hit a military camp in Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said. The explosions were caused by “an accident due to the negligence of the unit in charge of storing explosives, dynamite and ammunition”, the president said in a statement read on state television. © Agence France-Presse
JOHANNESBURG, Madagascar (AFP) — Over 4,000 children have been hospitalized for malnutrition in southern Madagascar this year due to severe drought, Action Against Hunger said Thursday, as food insecurity spirals in the most vulnerable parts of the country. The Indian Ocean island nation is grappling with the effects of three consequence years of below-average rainfall compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the impact is felt in the impoverished Grand Sud region, where the majority […]
by Louise DEWAST with AFP Africa bureaus ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) — Millions of coronavirus shots from the global Covax scheme has arrived in Nigeria, Angola and Kenya, as African countries ramp up their vaccine rollouts. Richer countries have surged ahead with vaccinations but many poorer countries are still awaiting deliveries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the crisis cannot end unless everyone can inoculate their populations. The Covax facility, run by the […]
ACCRA, Ghana (AFP) — Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the world’s first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine from Covax, a global scheme to procure and distribute inoculations for free for poorer countries. Richer countries have surged ahead with inoculating their population, but many poorer countries are still awaiting their first vaccine doses. “It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it, so […]
by Carol Valade CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — Guinea launched an Ebola vaccination campaign on Tuesday after a fresh outbreak of the deadly disease struck the country this month, with officials hoping to eradicate the virus in six weeks. The country reported new Ebola cases on February 13 — the first in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that left more than 11,300 dead in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The latest outbreak emerged near the […]
by Marthe BOSUANDOLE and Bienvenu-Marie BAKUMANYA GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy was ambushed in the country’s troubled east, violence the DRC’s president called a “terrorist attack” and that was blamed on a Rwandan Hutu rebel group. Luca Attanasio died of his wounds after a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy came under gunfire near Goma while he […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Around half of South Africa’s population may have already been infected by coronavirus, a figure far higher than the documented tally, a study and analysis of death figures suggest. Samples taken from almost 5,000 blood donors across four South African provinces in January showed that between 32 and 63 percent had antibodies to the coronavirus. The figure compares with clinically confirmed case rates of just two to three percent, […]
by Fran BLANDY MERU, Kenya (AFP) — As dawn breaks in central Kenya, a helicopter lifts off in a race to find roosting locusts before the sun warms their bodies and sends them on a ravenous flight through farmland. Pilot Kieran Allen begins his painstaking survey from zebra-filled plains and lush maize farms, to dramatic forested valleys and the vast arid expanses further north, his eyes scouring the landscape for signs of the massed insects. […]
by Carol VALADE, with Philippe SIUBERSKI in Dakar CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — Five people have died of Ebola virus in Guinea, the health agency said on Monday, as the government and aid groups began to roll out their response to the outbreak. Guinea announced the outbreak on Saturday — the first in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that left more than 11,300 dead in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to an epidemiological report […]
