Category: #zapost

Ethiopia has raised its health budget by 46% this year after the coronavirus crisis exposed the need for more equipment, facilities and personnel, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Monday.

The populous Horn of Africa nation has typically been spending twice its annual health budget servicing its external debt, he said, but it was now shifting priorities.

“In many African countries, healthcare is a neglected sector. This pandemic has exposed our dark underbelly,” Abiy told the FT Africa conference, which was held virtually.

The extra spending has made the health sector the fourth biggest in terms of budgetary allocations, he said.

The government’s budget showed the sector has been allocated 18.7 billion Ethiopian birr ($505 million) during the 2020/21 financial year, up from 12.64 billion birr in 2019/20.

Sub-Saharan Africa appears to have so far escaped the worst of the pandemic, accounting for only 3.4% of global infections and 2.5% of deaths, but Abiy said the region’s economies have taken a heavy toll.

He urged governments in the region to emulate Ethiopia’s focus on climate change mitigation, through planting of trees and investing in renewable energy sources, as they try to revive growth.

“A green recovery can also be a jobs-rich recovery,” he said.

Ahmed, who took the helm in 2018, said his government was committed to opening up key sectors of the economy to foreign capital.

Officials have been cutting regulations for businesses and trying to improve the investment climate through initiatives such as a new arbitration law for dispute resolution.

The liberalisation of the telecoms sector, one of the most keenly watched, has elicited interest from some of the most recognisable global operators, Abiy said, without giving details.

“We intend to deliver a transparent licensing process… before the end of the calendar year,” he said.

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Their young lives already disrupted by war, Libyan schoolchildren face even bigger obstacles to their education during the global pandemic than young people elsewhere.

With the number of cases surging unhindered across the North African country schools have tried different tactics from opening outside to seeking donations for extra disinfectants and facemasks to allow teaching indoors.

However, even those who have had no teaching for six months, or much prospect of it during the rest of this year, will have to pass an exam in order to progress to the next grade, the authorities have said.

“Students did not study anything. We did not teach anything for the students to learn. This is not a solution,” said teacher Amal Qleiwan, who is also the mother of a 10-year old.

“The decisions by the ministry of education are random and are not studied well.”

University professor, Ahmed Falaq, is home schooling his two children, aged 10 and 8, and his two nephews, aged 12 and 10.

“What will students do if there is a new wave of coronavirus? They will miss two years of their education. This is a big problem for parents and the students. We will have a generation of students with weak education,” he explained.

Libya now has more than 41 000 cases of the coronavirus, though with war-related chaos across much of the country officials admit there are probably many more going undetected. The United Nations has said it is “spiralling out of control”.

Meanwhile, according to UN estimates, the fighting in Libya had already displaced more than 150 000 people, 90 000 of whom are children and closed 200 schools, depriving more than 200 000 children of their schooling.

As the pandemic started to rage through Libya since August, medics working in the war-ravaged country’s few functioning hospitals faced their nightmare scenario – a surge in cases and dwindling resources.

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Kenyan schools re-opened for face-to-face learning “>on Monday, with grades four, standard eight and form fours returning to class for the first time in six months.

Kenya announced the closure of all learning institutions in March to contain the spread of COVID-19. Majority of parents welcomed the re-opening, even as they lamented tough economic times.

Also welcoming Kenya’s decision is to re-open schools is the UN agency for Children, UNICEF, which says more than 17 million Kenyan students have missed six months, leading to other social problems including teenage pregnancies and early marriages.

On arrival, it was clear for learners that school as they knew it will never be the same again.

“I think the most difficult thing is maintaining the social distance and having the mask all through,” said one learner.

“I am very impressed the guidelines and the protocols that have been followed to the letter,” some parents say.

The country’s education ministry had declared the academic year dead and announced that schools would only re-open in January. Last week’s announcement was an ambush of sorts for parents, especially those who may have lost their sources of income.

“I know it’s very tough for all the parents because first people have lost jobs so getting money is quite a problem,” says a parent.

According to the new guidelines those in transitional classes that is Grade 4, Standard eight and form four will be the first to report to school ahead of their national examinations which have now been pushed from November this year to March next year.

“Now that we have wasted a lot of time I will be able to recover it.”

“Student there is anxiety but I think the regulations put in place will work for the best,” some students say.

In the region, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda are yet to reopen as countries continue to grapple with how to re-open schools safely.

COVID-19 Lockdown | Kenya schools reopen: Sarah Kimani reports:

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South African police are now working with their Sudanese counterparts in an investigation that implicates South Africa’s deputy ambassador to Sudan in a double murder.

Two women were killed in Zabantu Ngcobo’s apartment in Khartoum allegedly by the embassy’s driver and another local man.

The arrested pair told Sudanese police that they were ordered to kill an intelligence official that is apparently sending bad reviews of Ngcobo back to Pretoria.

International Relations spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele says they are aware of the situation which law enforcement is now handling in both countries.

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