South Africa has seen several waves of immigration from China, with early generations of migrants fleeing extreme poverty at home and newer arrivals seeking business opportunities. Kate Bartlett has the story about Chinese South Africans who have established businesses Johannesburg’s old and new Chinatowns.
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Nairobi — South Africans say they are excited and eager to see what a coalition government is going to look like days after elections show no party won an outright majority.

“I’m excited because the ANC is finally going to be in a position where they have to reconsider how they’ve been approaching running the country, governing the country,” 30-year-old architect Simphiwe Malambo tells VOA.

“This is going to be a very challenging era for South Africans’ politics,” especially for the ruling party, 40-year old Pafana Zempe, an artist and educator said to VOA, adding the ANC will now have to think “which coalition they should do because with the DA it’s something else, with EFF it’s something else, with the latest MK, it’s also something else,” he said.

“Depending on the coalitions, if it’s the DA/ANC coalition together, the DA can actually get in and do some good where the ANC has failed,” Mark Fleming, an animator who didn’t share his age, told VOA.

Possible coalitions:

The African National Congress secured 40% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Alliance with about 22%. A coalition between the two could reconcile the country, says Tendai Mbanje, election analyst from the African Center for Governance.

“The DA/ANC coalition promotes non-racialism. The DA/ANC coalition promotes unity in the country among two races. It could also strike a balance between competing differences in terms of addressing issues of poverty…economic issues affecting the country.”

Other coalitions could be with the newly formed party led by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto We Sizwe or MK, which won about 15% or the Economic Freedom Party (EFF), which won about 10% of the final vote tally. Edgar Githua is a professor at Strathmore University in Kenya.

“Unfortunately, Zuma has already… said he will only have a coalition with the ANC on conditions that Cyril Ramaphosa is not going to be the president… it looks like ANC EFF, and they need one of the other tiny ones to help them pretty much get to 50-51% to be able to form a government comfortably.”

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) grabbed about 4% of the vote while the Patriotic Alliance took 2% according to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission.

The ANC says its leader will not resign following election results but is open to working with everyone to form a government that will serve South Africa’s people.

“At this stage in time, Cyril Ramaphosa is the best foot forward for the ANC, simply because of his reputation within and globally,” Mbanje noted.

Effects of coalitions internally and globally

While internally, the economy and governance could improve with a coalition government, South Africa’s stance on global issues could face some opposition.

For example, Mbanje said there could be “contradictions or fights within the coalition government in regards… to South Africa’s positions regarding certain countries for example, Israel Palestine issue, issue of Zimbabwe within the SADC [Southern African Development Community], Ukraine Russia issues among others.”

Views echoed by Githua. “These are some of the things that will now have to be renegotiated within the coalition government because all the political parties have their manifestos, have how they want to project themselves.”

South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in a case they brought to the International Court of Justice. Israel argues that its ground offensive which the Gaza health ministry says has killed about 36 thousand Palestinians is in response to Hamas militants’ attack on Israel last year that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies.
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Chinatowns are recognizable all over the world, either by their big red gates or streets lined with Chinese restaurants and stores. In Nairobi, Kenya, there are several Chinatowns of different sizes scattered around the city. VOA Nairobi bureau chief, Mariama Diallo took a stroll in one of them and has this story. Camera and edit: Amos Wangwa
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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian workers’ unions launched a nationwide strike protesting the failure to implement a new minimum wage to help workers cope with the high cost of living amid economic reforms.

The strike began Monday morning following a notice by the Nigerian Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress — the NLC and TUC respectively — on Friday.

There was widespread compliance as workers across various sectors abstained from duty.

Union representatives said the strike was triggered after weeks of failed negotiations to implement a new minimum wage.

The unions had proposed $370 as the new monthly minimum wage, citing soaring costs of living caused by government policies.

NLC spokesperson Benson Upah said unions have been patient with authorities.

“As far as we know, no government has been this lucky,” Upah said. “And for our uncommon understanding and patience with this administration, we have been called names. Yet this government does not want to wake up.”

Nigeria’s government is proposing about $49 dollars as the new minimum wage up from about $24.

Authorities have condemned the nationwide strike calling it illegal and unnecessary.

On Sunday, a Nigerian senate committee met with the unions in a bid to settle the dispute. But after long negotiations, the NLC and TUC said they failed to reach an agreement.

After Sunday’s meeting with unions, Senate president Godswill Akpabio told journalists whatever agreement is reached “will be mutually beneficial to all, both the government and the workers.”

In May 2023, President Bola Tinubu introduced economic reforms including the scrapping of fuel subsidy and currency unification with the aim of boosting the economy.

But the policies have been blamed for raising the cost of living, sparking strikes by workers who want policies reversed or a higher minimum wage.

Upah said the government is implementing foreign policies without considering Nigeria’s needs.

“We do not know who the beneficiaries of these policies are, because we the workers are dying. Manufacturers are dying. Other entities are dying,” he said. “No reasonable government leaves their national currency to the stumps of the market. They do something behind the scenes quietly. But we took a dictation from the World Bank, IMF, hook, line and sinker.”
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Johannesburg  — Talks to form South Africa’s first national coalition government are expected to begin this week after the governing ANC party lost its majority for the first time. 

Despite the heavy blow his African National Congress party took at the polls, President Cyril Ramaphosa showed humor at a ceremony announcing the official South African election results Sunday night.  

After an electoral commission official misspoke in welcoming the guests to the ceremony, Ramaphosa retorted that he was “distinguished” and not yet “extinguished,” drawing a laugh from the politicians and media gathered. 

On a more serious note, the president pledged that the ANC — which got 40 percent of the vote — would work with other parties to find “common ground” as coalition talks get underway. 

The ANC has had a majority for 30 years, since the end of apartheid, so governing in a coalition marks unchartered territory. Under the law, parties now have two weeks to form a government — with South Africans on edge about what form that could take. 

There are several main options, Melanie Verwoerd, a former ANC member of parliament and diplomat who’s now a political analyst, told VOA. 

“There are a number of coalition options. … The first one is obviously a coalition with, a formal coalition with, the Democratic Alliance and the IFP,” Verwoerd said. 

The IFP is the Inkatha Freedom Party, a small opposition party popular with the Zulu people. 

The Democratic Alliance is a centrist party and South Africa’s main opposition. It took 21 percent of the vote in the elections.  

Big businesses and Western powers would favor a coalition with the DA, which observers say has a good track record in areas it’s been in charge of locally. 

However, it is led by a white man, John Steenhuisen, which is a huge optics problem for many in South Africa because of the country’s history, noted David Everatt, a professor at Johannesburg’s Wits School of Governance. 

“We have to understand that to go into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, which is the official opposition, is seen by some as a betrayal of the revolution,” Everatt said. 

Former MP Verwoerd said those in the ANC who balk at a coalition with the DA have another option, involving the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) or former President Jacob Zuma’s new uMkhonto weSizwe party, or MK.  

“Then, of course, there is the more troubling one, which is an ANC-EFF coalition or an ANC-MK coalition, neither of which the ANC favors as a first option because it would affect the markets quite negatively and also [ANC is] very concerned about the stability of such a coalition,” Verwoerd said. 

The populist MK party got the third highest number of votes, and was a game-changer in this election, despite Zuma having to resign in disgrace from the presidency in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals. 

Zuma is a sworn enemy of Ramaphosa, and the MK party has said they will not go into a coalition with what they call “the ANC of Ramaphosa.” 

The EFF, led by firebrand politician Julius Malema, came fourth at the polls and wants expropriation without compensation of land, as well as nationalization of the mines and banks. 

Steenhuisen on Sunday called the possibility of an ANC-EFF agreement a “doomsday coalition” and promised the DA would engage in talks to try and prevent it from happening. 

On Tuesday, the ANC’s top brass is set to discuss coalitions. The party has publicly stated that Ramaphosa staying on as president is non-negotiable.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Chad’s female leaders and activists have strongly condemned what they say is their negligible representation in President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s first civilian government after a three-year transition from military rule. The women voiced their concerns during a meeting in Chad’s capital, N’djamena, on Monday.

Several dozen female activists and opposition members say they are upset with what they call Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s decision to exclude them from political issues in his first civilian government.

The women who met in N’djamena on Monday, said Deby should have rejected the government appointed by new Prime Minister Allamaye Halina last week.

Halina was appointed by Deby to replace Succes Masra, who resigned after his defeat in Chad’s May 6 presidential election. Masra was in office for four months.

Amina Tidjani Yaya is the coordinator of Voix De La Femme, or Women’s Voice, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for the respect of women’s rights and political participation.

She says female leaders and activists do not understand why Chad’s new prime minister, Allamaye Halina, decided to reduce the number of female ministers from 12 during Chad’s three-year transitional period to eight in the first civilian government he appointed May 27. Yaya says Chadian officials have not respected the resolution of the central African nations’ 2022 Inclusive and Sovereign National Dialogue, which states that more women should be appointed to government positions.

Chad’s new government has 35 ministers. Twenty-three served in the previous administration before Deby was declared the winner of Chad’s May 6 presidential election, ending three years of military transition, returning to constitutional order.

During his inauguration, Deby promised to involve opposition parties, youths and women in executing his immediate task, which he said is to reconcile differences among all Chadians and make the central African state a better place in which to live.

The female leaders and activists say increasing women’s political participation would have been synonymous with improving respect for human rights, justice, the rule of law, governance and democracy. They say women constitute the majority of Chad’s population and can have more influence than men in peacekeeping processes.

Female leaders say there have been tensions and conflicts involving armed groups who accused the new president of using the military to prolong his family’s rule. Deby’s family has had a firm grip on power since his father, Idriss Deby Ino, took over in a 1990 coup and died in April 2021 before the younger Deby took power.

The women say Deby should have involved more women in the current government because Chad is a signatory to the Maputo Protocol, a commitment by African nations through the African Union to ensure gender equality in political decision making.

Chad’s government has not responded to the women’s request for more representation in politics. But the central African state’s prime minister, after officially taking office on May 24, pleaded with all Chadians to resolve their differences and collaborate with the new government which he maintained will work for the well-being of all citizens.

Senoussi Hassana Abdoulaye, a jurist and lecturer at Chad’s university of Ndjamena, told state TV on Monday that Deby and his new civilian government cannot be officially held responsible for reducing the number of female ministers because no law in Chad imposes gender equity in political appointments.

He says all women in Chad should register and massively take part as candidates and voters in local council and parliamentary elections that President Mahamat Idriss Deby says will take place before December of this year. He says if women succeed in having a majority of seats in parliament, they can enact laws that compel government officials to respect political equality between men and women.

In February, female leaders and activists from Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Mali and Niger met in N’djamena and said they want to be involved in the highest decision-making circles of the African military governments involved with political transitions.

The meeting, which took place under the theme African Women in Transitional Governments, reiterated that women constitute a majority of civilians in the six states, bear the brunt of violence from military takeovers and are highly underrepresented in decision-making circles.

The women promised to make their participation in transitional governance a subject of discussion during important events like their countries’ national days and international events organized by the United Nations and African Union.
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JOHANNESBURG — President Cyril Ramaphosa called Sunday for South Africa’s political parties to overcome their differences and find “common ground” to form the first national coalition government in its young democracy.

His comments came in a speech straight after final election results were announced confirming that no party won a majority in last week’s vote. Unprecedented coalition talks were set to start to find a way forward for Africa’s most industrialized economy.

Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party had already lost its 30-year majority after more than 99% of votes were counted by Saturday and showed it couldn’t surpass 50%. 

The ANC received 40% of the votes in last week’s election in the final count, the largest share. 

Without a majority it will need to agree on a coalition with another party or parties for the first time to co-govern and re-elect Ramaphosa for a second term. South Africa’s national elections decide how many seats each party gets in Parliament and lawmakers elect the president later.

“Our people have spoken,” Ramaphosa said. “Whether we like it or not, they have spoken. We have heard the voices of our people, and we must respect their choices and their wishes. … The people of South Africa expect their leaders to work together to meet their needs. This is a time for all of us to put South Africa first.”

The ANC was the party of Nelson Mandela and freed South Africa from the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. It had governed with a comfortable majority since then, but this election saw an unprecedented slump in its support as voters deserted the party due to its failure to solve widespread poverty, extremely high unemployment levels and problems with delivering basic government services to many in a nation of 62 million.

The ANC had said earlier Sunday that it was starting its negotiations with all major parties. More than 50 parties took part in the election, and at least eight had significant shares of the vote. At least 26 of them, including the MK Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, have lodged objections and complaints with the electoral body alleging voting irregularities, which it has promised to address. 

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said it was open to all negotiations, even with the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which has led the chorus of criticism of the ANC for years but is viewed by many analysts as the most stable coalition option for South Africa.

The DA won the second most votes with 21.8%, and the two parties would hold a majority together and be able to govern. DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party was also initiating talks with parties. The ANC won 159 seats in the 400-seat Parliament, down from the 230 it won in the last election. The DA increased slightly to 87 seats. 

There is some time pressure for coalition talks to progress and for the uncertainty to be minimized, given that the new Parliament needs to sit for the first time and elect a president within 14 days of the election results being declared. 

Ramaphosa is seeking a second and final term and Mbalula said his position as leader of the ANC was not in question despite the election result. Mbalula said the ANC would not consider the demands by Zuma’s MK Party that Ramaphosa step down as a condition for talks.

“No political party will dictate terms to us, the ANC. They will not … You come to us with that demand, forget (it),” Mbalula said.

He said the ANC would not be arrogant, though. “The elections have humbled us, they have brought us where we are,” he said.

South Africa is a leading voice for its continent and for the developing world on the global stage and is due to take over the presidency of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations late this year. It’s the only African nation in that group.

“Everyone is looking to see if South Africa can weather the storm and come out the other side,” political analyst Oscar van Heerden said on the eNCA news network. 

Amid many coalition options, the ANC could also join with MK and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, although they have been cast as partners that would make investors uneasy. Both have pledged to nationalize parts of South Africa’s economy, including its gold and platinum mines, among the world’s biggest producers.

The DA has long said it will not work with the EFF and MK, calling them a “doomsday coalition” for South Africa. Steenhuisen, the party’s leader, repeated that stance Sunday in a speech on national television but said his party was starting talks with others and would approach them “with cool heads and open minds.”

Political analyst van Heerden said an ANC-DA coalition would “possibly give stability” but there were some within the ANC who would oppose it. Other smaller parties could be involved to dilute it and make it more palatable for the ANC, some commentators said.

“The DA has approached the ANC as the enemy over many, many years,” van Heerden said. “The next few days is going to be a very difficult period. People will have to be mature behind closed doors.”
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Minibus taxis are everywhere in South Africa, and all of them run on gasoline. But engineers at one university are hoping to change that as they are getting better-than-expected results from their all-electric minibus taxi. Vicky Stark has the story from Cape Town, South Africa.
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ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.

The recent arrests come as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations of critical minerals, curb illegal activity and better benefit from its mineral resources. The clean energy transition, a shift away from coal, oil and gas and toward renewable energy and batteries has spiked global demand for lithium, tin and other minerals. Illegal mines are rife in the country’s fledging industry as corruption among regulatory officials is common and the mineral deposits are located in remote areas with minimal government presence. Officials say profits from illicit mining practices has helped arm militia groups in the north of the county.

In the most recent arrests in mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a remote market in Kishi, in the country’s southwestern Oyo State. Locals said the market, once known for selling farm produce, has become a center for illicit trade in lithium mined in hard-to-reach areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals, including two Chinese nationals, local workers and mineral traders, according to the state government and locals. Loads of lithium were also seized.

Jimoh Bioku, a Kishi community leader, said there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites tucked away in the bush in the past years by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and turned the market into a transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that was why we reported to the state government,” he said.

China is the dominant player in the global EV supply chain, including in Nigeria where China-owned companies employ mostly vulnerable people leaving Nigeria’s far north — ravaged by conflicts and rapid desertification — to work in mining operations throughout the country. China’s nationals and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in two months.

President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflicts in the country’s north and asked the international community for help to stop the problem, which provides armed groups with the proceeds needed to sustain and arm themselves.

The Chinese Embassy in Abuja did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. But in a statement last year following a report by The Times of London alleging Chinese miners were bribing militants for access, the embassy said it “always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria.”

Nigeria is emerging as a new source of lithium in Africa as the world’s largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to fulfill the growing demand worldwide. But illegal activities thrive in Nigeria’s extractive sector, denying the government due revenues, said Emeka Okoro, whose Lagos-based SBM Intelligence firm has researched illicit mining and terrorism financing in northern Nigeria.

And the combination of conflict and climate change effects, such as once fertile land rapidly turning into useless arid sand in northern Nigeria, has produced a cheap workforce for mining sites.

The arrests of “both Chinese nationals and young Hausa boys from conflict-affected regions underscore a troubling pattern,” Okoro told the AP. “The socioeconomic strain stemming from conflict and the repercussions of climate change has given rise to a vulnerable demographic desperate for survival.”

To fight resource theft that causes losses of $9 billion to the government annually, according to the country’s extractive industry transparency watchdog, the West African nation has set up a 2,200-strong “corps of mining marshals” earlier in the year.

While existing law enforcement agencies are still combating the problem, the new corps is geared at curbing “the nefarious activities of illegal miners,” said Segun Tomori, spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry.

Before the Kishi raid, the mining corps arrested two trucks laden with lithium on the outskirts of the capital Abuja in April. Later that month, the corps raided a location in Karu, Nasarawa State, near Abuja, leading to the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Tomori said the cases are now in court.

On April 22, a federal court in Ilorin, in the north-central region, convicted two Chinese nationals for illegal mining and sentenced them to a one-year jail term, although with an option of a fine.

Nigeria has long neglected the solid minerals sector, which allows some communities like the northern-central town of Jos — which is tin-abundant — to depend on subsistence mining for their livelihood.

For those communities where livelihood is tied to mining, Tomori said the government is encouraging artisanal miners there to form cooperatives and operate legally.
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TAN TAN, Morocco — High-ranking military officials from the U.S. and its top African allies watched intently as dust and flames shot up from pieces of the Sahara Desert hit by tank and artillery fire. They looked up as pilots flew F-16s into formation. And they listened intently as Moroccan and American personnel explained how they would set up beachheads to defend the Atlantic coastline in the event of a potential invasion. 

The practice scenario was among those discussed during Africa Lion, the United States’ largest annual joint military exercise on the continent, which concluded Friday in Morocco. 

Over the past two weeks, roughly 8,100 military forces from nearly three dozen countries maneuvered throughout Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco as part of the war games held this year as militaries confront new challenges in increasingly volatile regions. 

Generals from the United States and Morocco, which hosted the finale of the two-week event, celebrated Africa Lion’s 20-year anniversary and how partnerships between the U.S. and African militaries have expanded since it began. 

“This exercise has grown over the years since 2004, not only have the number of multinational service members that we train with, but also the scope of the training as well, which has expanded to more than just security,” said General Michael Langley, the head of the United States’ Africa Command. 

But despite the spectacle of live-fire demonstrations and laudatory remarks about partnerships by Langley and Colonel Major Fouad Gourani of Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces, parts of Africa are getting much more dangerous. 

The United Nations earlier this year called Africa a “global epicenter for terrorism.” Fatalities linked to extremist groups have risen dramatically in the Sahel, the region that stretches from Mauritania to Chad. 

Since 2020, military officers disillusioned with their governments’ records of stemming violence have overthrown democratically elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and began distancing themselves from Western powers. 

From 2021 to 2024, militants killed more than 17,000 people across the three countries, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. 

The United States is holding steadfast to its strategy of coupling weapons assistance and intelligence sharing with initiatives designed to boost civilian populations and strengthen institutions. 

But it faces new competition. Decades after the end of colonialism, Africa has once again become absorbed in fighting among Great Powers, with Western influence waning and countries accepting more economic and military support from Chinese firms and Russian contractors. 

At Africa Lion, the U.S. military showcased part of what it offers countries facing instability inside and just beyond their borders. Besides tanks and bombers, the joint exercises included operations and practice in field hospitals, medical evacuations and humanitarian assistance. 

The exercise emphasized a “whole of government” approach to addressing the root causes of instability, ranging from climate change to displacement, rather than solely focusing on military might. 

“It’s important that we not only be associated with kicking down doors,” said Colonel Kelly Togiola, a command surgeon who helped set up a field hospital alongside Moroccan doctors as part of the exercise. “In times of crises, those relationships that matter.” 

That strategy differs from what’s being offered by Africa Corps, the descendent of the Russian state-funded private military company Wagner, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died last year. Yet it’s come under scrutiny since military officers with a history of participating in training exercises have risen to positions of power after the ousters of democratically elected leaders in countries such as Guinea and Niger. 

Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said regardless of how much the U.S. military broadens its efforts, its continued focus on counterterrorism will keep empowering military leaders throughout West Africa. 

“The nature of security assistance is that it’s much more visible, impactful and manipulated by the recipient for ill,” Hudson said. “When we come in with training and toys, we reinforce within societies these power dynamics that in the long run are not helpful to the consolidation of civilian democratic rule.” 

Despite training exercises like Africa Lion, U.S. military leaders face difficulties prolonging their partnerships in places they’ve long characterized as strategically critical. Countries such as Niger and Chad — which participated in Africa Lion — have embraced Russian trainers and paramilitaries and pushed for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. 

The U.S. military officials note their assessment of the threat of “malign” Russian and Chinese influence but say they can work in countries that accept assistance from geopolitical rivals. 

Curbing Russian influence while opposing the overthrow of democratically elected leaders hasn’t worked everywhere, especially as the U.S. military often attaches strings to how countries can implement training and weapons provided. 

U.S. law makes governments deposed in military coups ineligible for large portions of assistance, despite the military’s talk of equal partnership and noninterference. 
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KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda has rolled out a nationwide yellow fever vaccination campaign to help safeguard its population against the mosquito-borne disease that has long posed a threat.

By the end of April, Ugandan authorities had vaccinated 12.2 million of the 14 million people targeted, said Dr. Michael Baganizi, an official in charge of immunization at the health ministry.

Uganda will now require everyone traveling to and from the country to have a yellow fever vaccination card as an international health regulation, Baganizi said.

Ugandan authorities hope the requirement will compel more people to get the yellow fever shot amid a general atmosphere of vaccine hesitancy that worries health care providers in the East African nation.

The single-dose vaccine has been offered free of charge to Ugandans between the ages of 1 and 60. Vaccination centers in the capital, Kampala, and elsewhere included schools, universities, hospitals and local government units.

Before this, Ugandans usually paid to get the yellow fever shot at private clinics, for the equivalent of $27.

Uganda, with 45 million people, is one of 27 countries on the African continent classified as at high risk for yellow fever outbreaks. According to the World Health Organization, there are about 200,000 cases and 30,000 deaths globally each year from the disease.

Uganda’s most recent outbreak was reported earlier this year in the central districts of Buikwe and Buvuma.

Yellow fever is caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes. The majority of infections are asymptomatic. Symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of appetite and nausea or vomiting, according to the WHO.

Uganda’s vaccination initiative is part of a global strategy launched in 2017 by the WHO and partners such as the U.N. children’s agency to eliminate yellow fever by 2026. The goal is to protect almost 1  billion people in Africa and the Americas.

A midterm evaluation of that strategy, whose results were published last year, found that 185 million people in high-risk African countries had been vaccinated by August 2022.

In Uganda, most people get the yellow fever shot when they are traveling to countries such as South Africa that demand proof of vaccination on arrival.

James Odite, a nurse working at a private hospital which has been designated as a vaccination center in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, told the AP that hundreds of doses remained unused after the yellow fever vaccination campaign closed. They will be used in a future mass campaign.

Among the issues raised by vaccine-hesitant people was the question of whether “the government wants to give them expired vaccines,” Odite said.

Baganizi, the immunization official, said Uganda’s government has invested in community “sensitization” sessions during which officials tell people that vaccines save lives.
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ABUJA — Armed men killed at least six civilians and five soldiers in an attack in Nigeria’s southeastern Abia state, the military said Friday, prompting the state government to offer a $16,850 reward for information on the gunmen. 

The attack on Thursday was the latest in a string of raids in a region rife with separatist violence. 

The assailants killed five soldiers deployed as peacekeepers in the area, and the six civilians who died were caught in the crossfire, defense spokesperson Major-General Edward Buba said. 

No group claimed responsibility, but the army blamed the outlawed separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which wants the surrounding region to secede from Nigeria. 

The attack was at a military checkpoint at Obikabia junction in Obingwa local government area, Buba said in a statement.  

“The military will be fierce in its response. We will bring overwhelming military pressure on the group to ensure their total defeat,” he said. 

Abia information commissioner Prince Okey Kanu urged the military to show restraint in their response. 

The military has previously been accused by rights groups of using excessive force and targeting innocent civilians when responding to similar attacks, charges it denies.  

The unrest in the southeast has put pressure on a government and military already struggling to contain attacks and kidnappings in the northwest, a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast, and sectarian and herder-farmer clashes in central regions. 

IPOB campaigns for the secession of southeastern Nigeria, where the majority belong to the Igbo group. 

The movement’s leader — Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen arrested in Kenya in 2021 — is now on trial in Nigeria on terrorism charges. 

More than a million people died, mostly from starvation, during a three-year civil war in the late 1960s when the region attempted to secede under the name of the Republic of Biafra.
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