Food – African Development Magazine

Africa Africa Asia Agrictech Food Health

FMARD partners with LASG to ensure proper haulage of meat across the country

by Adewale Adenrele on January 5, 2023

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has assured of its readiness to partner Lagos State government to improve the distribution of meat across the country.

Speaking during the study tour and stakeholders’ engagement to understudy the air-cool Meatvans from the Abattoirs and Slaughterhouses to the various meat markets in Lagos State recently, the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria and Director Federal Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Dr. Maimuna Abdullahi Habbib said that “the objectives of the tour was to understudy the state air-cool Meatvans, the Abattoirs, and the Slaughterhouses.

She revealed that the Ministry would facilitate the process to ensure that a policy was drafted to ensure smooth operations, enforcement, and implementation of the process across the nation, pointing out that the Ministry had procured 37 vehicles that would be distributed to butchers for free in order to facilitate the process across the country”.

She further stated that the Ministry would strengthen its collaboration with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to make every structure and every movement of meat from the abattoir to the market across the country a success.

The butchers have been supportive to the state government and will continue give its maximum cooperation

In her remarks the Hon. Commissioner Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture Ms. Ruth Abisola Olusanya said that “prior to the launching of Eko Meat van Project in Year 2004, Meat haulage business in Lagos State was rather disorganized, haphazard and unregulated, adding that wooden carts were used to transport Meat and Carcasses from Abattoirs and Slaughter facilities to the deboning and bulk-breaking sections.

She pointed out that four Private investors and Butchers Association Group formed the executing stakeholders to run the fleet of air-cool Meatvans from the Abattoirs and Slaughterhouses to the various meat markets statewide, noting that the project was funded by Polaris bank in agreement with the stakeholders.

She further stated that In 2009, the Ministry launched the Eko Refrigerated Meatvan Project which was an advancement of the air-cool Eko Meatvans into refrigerated form and a total of fourteen private investors’ companies along with the State Butchers Association’s and Lagoon Butchers Ventures were successful –screened and licensed to operate the project under a jointly-registered cooperative umbrella (Agege Meat van Multipurpose Cooperative society).

In his welcome address, the state Director of veterinary services Dr. Macaulay Rasheed Molade said that “the refrigerated meat transportation project runs from 2009 till date and it is involved in the daily haulage of Meat carcasses, cattle officials, head and feet as well as other cow parts from the abattoirs/slaughter facilities to the various meat markets”.

Earlier, in his Goodwill message, the Chairman of Lagos State butchers Association Mr. Alabi Bamidele Kazeem said that “the butchers have been supportive to the state government and will continue to give its maximum cooperation”.

The Essence of the Visit was to understudy the model of meat haulage in the state’s abattoirs, under the umbrella company known as the EKO REFRIGERATED MEAT HAULAGE. Its aims at adopting the best practices in our abattoirs nationwide and learning from the challenges that come from the initiatives in order to improve on them.

In attendance were representatives of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), National Agricultural Insurance Cooperation (NAIC), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), and the CEO A is Farmers Market.

Africa Africa Asia Agrictech Agriculture APO-GROUP Food Health News

AU Member States Pledge to Improve Nutrition and Food Security in Africa

by Adewale Adenrele on December 23, 2022

African Union Member States meeting in Abidjan have called on governments to speed up investment, coordination, and implementation of programs to improve nutrition and food security in Africa.

African leaders gathered for a three-day meeting to draw attention to the 2022 African Union Year of Nutrition. The meeting ended with the signing of an “Abidjan Declaration.”

“This must be the time for Africa and its leadership to rise to the occasion and provide sustainable solutions to the malnutrition and hunger crisis [in the continent,]” His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho told attendees at an event organized by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire in collaboration with African Development Bank’s African Leaders for Nutrition initiative, the African Union Commission, and several other partners.

King Letsie III, who is the African Union and African Leaders for Nutrition’s Nutrition Champion, spoke about African Union’s Executive Decision in July 2022 that called for a multisectoral policy framework for addressing malnutrition, as well as financing targeted and high-level political commitment to end malnutrition in all its forms.

King Letsie commended the Ivorian government for its leadership on the nutrition agenda, including sponsoring the Africa Union Year of Nutrition.

“It is not normal that Africans are underfed and malnourished – We need to develop our internal capacity to produce for indigenous needs,” said African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki.

Despite progress, most African countries still face the triple burden of malnutrition, where stunting and wasting co-exist with obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases like stroke and diabetes. It is estimated that 61.4 million African children under five years are stunted, more than 12 million are wasted, and some 10 million are overweight.

The Abidjan event focused on strengthening resilience in nutrition and food security in Africa. The Declaration calls for implementing and extending the African Union roadmap beyond 2022. The year’s theme encourages member states to examine challenges posed by hunger and malnutrition and identify actions and strategies to address them.

In his remarks, Vice President of Cote d’Ivoire, Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, called African leaders to action. “The urgency for our continent is to save lives and offer better returns to our youngest, who represent the hope and the future of our community and nation.”

This must be the time for Africa and its leadership to rise to the occasion and provide sustainable solutions to the malnutrition and hunger crisis

Vice President t Koné said his government is committed to working with the African Union, regional member countries, the Bank, and the African Leaders for Nutrition initiative and partners to improve nutrition targets.

“In the case of this year of African nutrition – women, men and children will be the actors and the beneficiaries placed at the heart of development and progress,” Koné added.

Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the African Development Bank, said the African Leaders for Nutrition would be working with the African Union Commission toward greater impact out of the African Year of Nutrition.

She stated that the African Leaders for Nutrition, hosted by the Bank, aims to increase financing resources for nutrition by mobilizing African governments to adopt stronger policies and increase financing for nutrition.

Dunford stressed: “If we accelerate investments and improve coordination of efforts, Africa will advance nutrition and improve food security outcomes. The African Development Bank and the African Leaders for Nutrition remain committed to working with all of you, particularly the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, to see that this event’s deliberations are transformed into impactful commitments.”

The ceremony drew many senior African leaders, including Zambian Vice President Mutale Nalumango; Deputy Prime Minister of Congo-Brazaville Anatole Collinet Makosso; Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Gerardine Mukeshimana; and Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi.

There were also several ministers representing nutrition-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water sanitation and hygiene; health; education and social protection.

Click here (https://bit.ly/3hNynfz) to read the Abidjan Declaration,

To learn more about African Leaders for Nutrition, click here (https://bit.ly/3jq09iK).

Africa Africa Asia Agrictech Agriculture Food

Amid Food and Climate Crises, Investing in Sustainable Food Cold Chains Crucial- UNEP Report

by Adewale Adenrele on November 13, 2022

More than 3 billion people can’t afford a healthy diet; Lack of adequate refrigeration directly results in the loss of 526 million tons of food production or 12 per cent of the global total; Developing countries could save 144 million tonnes of food annually if they reached the same level of food cold chain infrastructure as developed countries

As food insecurity and global warming rise, governments, international development partners and industry should invest in sustainable food cold chains to decrease hunger, provide livelihoods to communities, and adapt to climate change, the UN said today.

Launched today at the 27^th Climate Change Conference, the Sustainable Food Cold Chains report, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), finds that food cold chains are critical to meeting the challenge of feeding an additional two billion people by 2050 and harnessing rural communities’ resilience while avoiding increased greenhouse gas emissions.

The report was developed in the framework of the UNEP-led Cool Coalition in partnership with FAO, the Ozone Secretariat, the UNEP OzonAction Programme, and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

“At a time when the international community must act to address the climate and food crises, sustainable food cold chains can make a massive difference,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “They allow us to reduce food loss, improve food security, slow greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, reduce poverty and build resilience – all in one fell swoop.”

Food insecurity on the rise

The number of people affected by hunger in the world rose to 828 million in 2021, a year-on-year rise of 46 million.

Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, as the economic impacts of the Covid pandemic drove up inflation. This year, meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine has raised the prices of basic grains threatening food security.

All of this comes while an estimated 14 per cent of all food produced for human consumption is lost before it reaches the consumer. The lack of an effective cold chain to maintain the quality, nutritional value and safety of food is one of the major contributors to food loss.

According to the report, developing countries could save 144 million tonnes of food annually if they reached the same level of food cold chain infrastructure as developed countries.

Post-harvest food loss reduces the income of 470 million small-scale farmers by 15 per cent, mainly in developing countries. Investing in sustainable food cold chains would help lift these farm families out of poverty.

Sustainable food cold chains can make an important difference in our collective efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

“Sustainable food cold chains can make an important difference in our collective efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. All stakeholders can help implement the findings of this report, to transform agri-food systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable – for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind” said QU Dongyu, Director-General of FAO.

Climate impact

The food cold chain has serious implications for climate change and the environment. Emissions from food loss and waste due to lack of refrigeration totalled an estimated 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent in 2017 – about 2 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular, it contributes to emissions of methane, a potent but short-lived climate pollutant. Taking action now would contribute to reducing atmospheric concentrations of methane this decade.

Overall, the food cold chain is responsible for around four percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions – when emissions from cold chain technologies and food loss caused by lack of refrigeration are included.

Lost food also damages the natural world by driving the unnecessary conversion of land for agricultural purposes and using resources such as water, fossil fuels and energy.

Reducing food loss and waste could make a positive impact on climate change, but only if the new cooling-related infrastructure is designed to use gases with low global warming potential, be energy efficient and run on renewable energy.

The adoption of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and the Rome Declaration on “the contribution of the Montreal Protocol to sustainable cold chain development for food waste reduction” provides a unique opportunity to accelerate the deployment of sustainable food cold chains.

Progress being made

Projects around the world show that sustainable food cold chains are already making a difference. In India, a food cold chain pilot project reduced losses of kiwi fruit by 76 per cent while reducing emissions through the expansion of the use of refrigerated transport.

In Nigeria, a project to install 54 operational ColdHubs prevented the spoilage of 42,024 tonnes of food and increased the household income of 5,240 small-scale farmers, retailers and wholesalers by 50 per cent.

But these projects, which are illustrated among many other case studies in the new report, are still the exception rather than the norm.

Recommendations for decision-makers

To expand sustainable food cold chains globally, the report issues a series of recommendations for governments and stakeholders, including:

Take a holistic systems approach to food cold chain provision, recognizing that the provision of cooling technologies alone is not enough.
Quantify and benchmark the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing food cold chains and identify opportunities for reductions.
Collaborate and undertake food cold chain needs assessments and develop costed and sequenced National Cooling Action Plans, backed with specific actions and financing.
Implement and enforce ambitious minimum efficiency standards, and monitoring and enforcement to prevent illegal imports of inefficient food cold chain equipment and refrigerants.
Run large-scale system demonstrations to show the positive impacts of sustainable cold chains, and how interventions can create sustainable and resilient solutions for scaling.
Institute multidisciplinary centres for food cold chain development at the national or regional level.

Africa Agrictech Agriculture Economy Food Tech Technology

Agricultural Automation Can Boost Global Food Production- UN Report

by Adewale Adenrele on November 3, 2022

A new U.N. report finds agricultural automation can boost global food production and be a boon for small-scale farmers in developing countries.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, has just released The State of Food and Agriculture 2022 report. The report’s authors said automation is rapidly changing the face of agriculture. New technologies, they say, are quickly leaving behind some of the old larger-type tractors and large machinery in ways that could benefit small holders in developing countries.

Parallels can be drawn with the introduction of cell phones. The World Bank, among other observers, notes that African and other developing countries can harness digital technologies to boost their economies by advancing from landlines to smartphones.

FAO said automation can play an important role in making food production more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

Chief FAO economist Maximo Torero said many emerging technologies would have been unimaginable years ago. He cited as examples fruit-picking robots that use artificial intelligence and sensors that monitor plants and animals.

“Automation allows agriculture to be more productive, efficient, resilient, and sustainable and can improve working conditions,” Torero said. “However, as with any technological change, automation also implies disruption to the agricultural systems. The risk is that the automation could exacerbate inequalities if we are not careful on how it is being done and developed and deployed.”

FILE - A weeding robot is pictured during a demonstration of new technologies at the Arvalis farm, an applied agricultural research organization, on June 15, 2016, in Saint-Hilaire-en-Woevre, eastern France. — FILE – A weeding robot is pictured during a demonstration of new technologies at the Arvalis farm, an applied agricultural research organization, on June 15, 2016, in Saint-Hilaire-en-Woevre, eastern France.

Torero said the report investigates the drivers of these technologies and identifies barriers preventing their adoption, particularly by small-scale producers. The report, he said, also looks at one of the most common concerns about automation — that it creates unemployment.

“While it concludes that such fears are overblown, it acknowledges that agricultural automation can lead to unemployment in places where rural labor is abundant, and wages are low,” he said. “It is important to understand that in a continent like sub-Saharan Africa, where there is an enormous amount of youth population, we can build the skill sets of these people to be able to have access to these technologies.”

In areas where cheap labor is abundant, the FAO urges policymakers to avoid subsidizing automation while creating an enabling environment for its adoption. At the same time, the report said governments should provide social protection to the least skilled workers who are likely to lose their jobs during the transition.

Africa Africa Asia Food Health

Uganda: Two districts locks down over spread of Ebola

by Adewale Adenrele on October 17, 2022

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered an immediate lockdown and imposition of a dusk-till-dawn curfew for three weeks in two districts in a bid to stop the spread of Ebola.

Places of worship, markets, bars, and entertainment will be closed and restrictions have been placed on movement in and out of the two central districts of Mubende and Kassanda for 21 days.

“I now direct as follows: movements now into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts are now prohibited,” said Museveni in a televised address on Saturday.

“If you are in Mubende and Kassanda districts, stay there for 21 days,” Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, said.

Red Cross workers carry a body bag containing the body of a 3-year-old boy suspected of dying from Ebola, October 13, 2022 in Mubende [Luke Dray/Getty Images]

Authorities said the outbreak is concentrated in the two affected districts and has not reached Kampala, the capital of 1.5 million, despite a husband and wife testing positive there.

Cargo trucks to be allowed

The Ugandan president, however, said cargo trucks will be allowed to enter and leave the two areas, but all other transport has been suspended.

“These are temporary measures to control the spread of Ebola. We should all cooperate with authorities so we bring this outbreak to an end in the shortest possible time,” he added.

Museveni had already ordered traditional healers to stop treating sick people and ordered police to arrest anyone suspected of having contracted the virus who refused to go into isolation.

Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, with common symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhoea.

Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.

Uganda’s last recorded death from a previous Ebola outbreak was in 2019.

The particular strain now circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudan Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine.

The World Health Organization says clinical trials could start within weeks on drugs to combat that strain.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Africa Africa Asia Economy Food Health International

Global inflation threatens food insecurity in Africa -IMF

by Adewale Adenrele on October 14, 2022

Africa’s central banks are walking a tightrope trying to curb inflation that is mostly out of their control and causing “horrifying” food insecurity, the International Monetary Fund’s Africa head warned.

The IMF’s twice-yearly Regional Economic Outlook released on Friday warned that 123 million people, or 12% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population, face acute food insecurity – where the lack of access to adequate food puts someone’s life or livelihood in immediate danger – by the end of the year.

That compares to around 82 million people affected before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the hammer blow of the virus, spillovers from the war in Ukraine as well as worsening unrest and drought in parts of the continent have seen the numbers spiral.

“What worries us really is the fact that this is coming on top of all of the dislocation caused by the pandemic,” the IMF’s Abebe Selassie told Reuters this week

“I was in Chad (in May) and really the conditions that you saw there in terms of food security really are very, very horrifying.”

Ethiopia, Somalia and parts of Kenya are also on track for a fifth failed rainy season, with famine looming in Somalia.

Annual food price inflation in sub-Saharan Africa has stood at over 10% since the second half of 2021 and the IMF’s new economic forecasts this week revised up its regional inflation projection by 2 percentage points to 8.7% for this year.

It also cut the GDP growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points to 3.6%, a significant drop from the 4.7% expansion in 2021, and has said Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe may all need to raise interest rates faster or more decisively.

“It’s a delicate balancing act that central banks face,” Selassie said. “Inflation is this insidious, insidious tax on the poorest.”

Rapidly rising global interest rates mean that sub-Saharan Africa’s most heavily-indebted countries have effectively lost access to the international capital markets.

That has pushed countries including Ghana to request IMF bailouts and Selassie said work was still ongoing to determine if the West African country now needs debt relief.

Ethiopia, Zambia, and Chad, meanwhile, had long been seeking to restructure their debts under the G20 Common Framework initiative established in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Progress has been painfully slow. Ethiopia’s restructuring has been delayed by ongoing civil war, although IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has said this week she hoped both Zambia and Chad’s processes would now be finished by the end of the year.

Chad’s bilateral creditors said late Thursday that the country now did not need debt relief, given the surge in the price of crude oil, one of the country’s major revenue earners. Oil trading and mining firm Glencore (GLEN.L), Chad’s largest commercial creditor, declined to comment.

“The delay from Chad’s creditors in approving much-needed debt relief has been really very problematic,” Selassie said in a press conference on Friday.

“We want to make sure that the resources we provide will go to support Chad rather than address an unsustainable debt situation,” he said, referring to a three-year, $570 million programme approved in December. “The benefits of these higher oil prices should accrue as much to Chadian people as much as its creditors.”

“Is everything working as timely, as speedily as we hoped? No,” Selassie said of the Common Framework, in an interview before the statement from Chad’s creditors. “But I also want to stress that there’s been quite a lot of cooperation from members of the G20, China, and others.”

He said Zambia and Chad’s restructurings now rely on the private firms and funds that provided the country with loans.

“Anything that exceeds what is a reasonable ask of the Zambians would be unfair to the people of Zambia,” Selassie added.

He warned that more African countries might need to restructure their debt.

“If global conditions persist,” he said, “There will be some countries that will require debt reprofiling.”

Meanwhile, an assessment of Ghana’s debt sustainability is ongoing, Selassie said in the press conference, after the West African country requested help from the fund amid soaring inflation and a tumbling currency.

The IMF is waiting for the government to set out how it will address its debt, while a fund programme will also depend on how quickly Ghana implements planned economic reforms, Selassie said.

Reuter*

Africa Africa Asia Food Health News

Jubilations as Malawi Announces Rollout of Africa’s First Children’s Malaria Vaccine

by Adewale Adenrele on October 10, 2022

Malawi’s health ministry says it will soon roll out Africa’s first malaria vaccine for children under age five.

The RTS,S vaccine, which was tested in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, took more than 30 years to develop. While the vaccine has a relatively low level of effectiveness, it has raised hopes of saving some of the more than 400,000 people who die annually from the mosquito-borne disease, most of them African children.

The vaccine roll out, scheduled for next month, follows the completion of the pilot phase. Since 2019, the World Health Organization has vaccinated 360,000 children per year in Malawi, Ghana, and Kenya, one-third of them in Malawi.

Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Malawi’s minister of health, said children are especially at risk of malaria during the rainy season, in the months of November and December.

Chiponda said the decision on the vaccine was reached following discussions between Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera and representatives of PATH, a global health nonprofit organization when Chakwera attended this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

The WHO endorsed the vaccine years ago, saying it was a breakthrough in the fight against malaria.

*A person sleeps under a mosquito net in Balaka district, Malawi, Sept. 28, 2022, as people in the country are encouraged to do to help prevent malaria. (Lameck Masina/VOA)*

However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, backers of the vaccine, have raised concerns about whether the vaccine is worth the cost.

In July, The Associated Press quoted Philip Welkhoff, director of malaria programs for the Gates Foundation, as saying the foundation will no longer offer direct financial support for the shot, although it will fund an alliance backing the vaccine.

He said the malaria vaccine has much lower efficacy than the foundation would like and that the shot is relatively expensive and logistically challenging to deliver.

However, Maziko Matemba, health activist and community health ambassador in Malawi, is not discouraged.

“Now that finally the malaria vaccines will be launched in Malawi is welcome news, and we hope that the under-five [age group] will be protected because according to statistics, Malaria is so endemic in the under-five [age group] and we are adding a package in the prevention of malaria,” Matemba said.

Matemba said the 30% efficacy is nothing to worry about, as not all vaccines are 100% effective.

“When we had [the] COVID vaccine it was not 100%. It was at 70% or so. So it’s the same case with this,” Matemba said.

Statistics show that malaria is the number one deadly disease in Malawi. The disease accounts for 36% of all hospital outpatients and 15% of hospital admissions.

Despite its relatively low effectiveness rate, some scientists say the vaccine will have a major impact against malaria in Africa, which records 200 million cases and 400,000 deaths per year.

*VOA

Africa Africa Asia Food Health

GAMBIA: Deaths of dozen children linked to India-made cough syrups

by Adewale Adenrele on October 6, 2022

The deaths of dozens of young children in the Gambia from acute kidney injuries may be linked to contaminated cough and cold syrups made by an Indian drug manufacturer, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

The findings, announced by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, followed tests on several medicinal syrups that were suspected of causing 66 child deaths in the small West African country.

Tedros told reporters that the U.N. agency was conducting an investigation with Indian regulators and the company that made the syrups, New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Maiden Pharma declined to comment, while calls and messages to the Drugs Controller General of India went unanswered. India’s health ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The WHO issued a medical product alert on Wednesday asking regulators to remove Maiden Pharma goods from the market.

The products may have been distributed elsewhere through informal markets, but had so far been identified only in the Gambia, the WHO said in its alert.

The alert covers four products: Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup.

Lab analysis confirmed “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic and lead to acute kidney injury, the WHO said.

Medical officers in Gambia raised the alarm in July, after dozens of children began falling ill with kidney problems. The deaths confounded medics before a pattern emerged: dozens of patients younger than 5 were falling ill three to five days after taking a locally sold paracetamol syrup.

Gambia’s Director of Health Services Mustapha Bittaye said similar problems have been detected in other syrups but that the ministry is awaiting confirmation of the results.

He said the number of deaths has tapered off in recent weeks and that the sale of products made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals was banned. However, until recently, some of the syrups were still being sold in private clinics and in hospitals, he said.

Gambia’s Medicines Control Agency sent a letter on Tuesday to health professionals ordering them to stop selling any of the products listed by WHO.

Maiden Pharmaceuticals manufactures medicines at its facilities in India, which it then sells domestically as well as exporting them to countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, according to its website.

Africa Food Health

WHO: Cholera surging globally as climate change intensifies

by Adewale Adenrele on September 30, 2022

Cholera is surging around the globe, the World Health Organization warns.

Flareups of the deadly disease have been reported in 26 countries in the first nine months of this year. In comparison, fewer than 20 countries reported cholera outbreaks per year between 2017 and 2021. In addition to greater frequency, the WHO reports the outbreaks themselves are larger and more deadly.

While poverty and conflict are major triggers of cholera, climate change is a growing threat.

Philippe Barboza, WHO team lead for Cholera and Epidemic Diarrheal Diseases, said climate change presents an additional layer of complexity and creates the conditions for cholera outbreaks to explode.

“This is what we have seen in southern Africa with the succession of cyclones that affected the eastern part of the African Coast,” Barboza said. “The drought in East Africa is driving population movements, reducing access to water, which is already needed. So, of course, it is a key factor, which is fueling the outbreak. And the same in Sahel and other places.”

Fifteen of the 26 cholera-infected countries are in Africa, according to the WHO.

FILE - A girl carrying water on her head walks past sewage around houses in Abuja, Nigeria, Sept. 3, 2021. — *A girl carrying water on her head walks past sewage around houses in Abuja, Nigeria, Sept. 3, 2021*

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by contaminated food or water. It can kill within hours if left untreated. Cholera outbreaks can be prevented by ensuring access to clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene, as well as stepping up surveillance and access to health care, Barboza said.

“This is what we need countries to do, but that is easier said than done. Although many of the cholera-affected countries are actively engaged in these efforts, they are facing multiple crises, including conflict and poverty, and this is why international action is so important,” he said.

Cholera is a preventable and treatable disease, Barboza said, so with the right foresight and action, the current global crisis can be reversed.

*VOA

Africa Food Health

Nigeria: MSF seeks humanitarian aid for troubled northwest child malnutrition

by Adewale Adenrele on September 28, 2022

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders has called on the United Nations to add northwest Nigeria to its humanitarian response plan, due to the high numbers of children suffering from malnutrition. The group, known by its French abbreviation MSF, said it has treated nearly 100,000 children in the region for malnutrition this year.

In a communique Tuesday, MSF warned that malnutrition among children in northwest Nigeria is at catastrophic levels and called for an immediate response from the global humanitarian community.

MSF even proposed that northwest Nigeria be included in the U.N.’s annual humanitarian response plan.

It’s the second time in three months that the medical aid group has raised serious concerns about the malnutrition crisis in Nigeria, following an alarm about northeast Nigeria in July.

Northwest Nigeria has been hard-hit by militant attacks and raids by kidnap-for-ransom gangs since late 2020.

MSF also said climate change and soaring food prices have made matters worse.

“We have scaled our response. We’re almost at a limit basically because we cannot handle this alone,” said Froukje Pelsma, MSF’s head of mission in Nigeria. “This is why we’re asking for more people to come.”

Pelsma said there are more than 30 organizations working in the northeastern part of the country but only three or four agencies in the northwest working on malnutrition.

“We want people, most especially the U.N. and other agencies, to look beyond the northeast,” she said.

MSF said it has admitted 17,000 children into 10 feeding centers across five states in the region.

Zamfara State has been the most impacted, with a 64 percent increase in the number of severely malnourished children this year compared to 2021.

“We’re working now in Kebbi, Sokoto Zamfara, Katsina, and in Kano, but we’re still also very much afraid and pretty sure that we only see the top of the iceberg,” Pelsma said. “We can see numbers, but that doesn’t mean that that covers the whole issue, because we cannot be in every location.”

For years, humanitarian responses have been centered around northeastern states, especially Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, where the militant group Boko Haram has been active since 2009.

This week, top officials of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) met in the capital to highlight problems of food security, with the goal of strengthening responses, using agriculture.

“There’s a lot to be done. This is a country where we have quite a big segment geographically that is affected by different forms of conflict,” said Fred Kafeero, FAO representative in Nigeria. “But how do we intervene in terms of strengthening and responding to that humanitarian emergency and moving towards resilience building? Much of our work is also looking at the root causes and trying to strengthen and build sustainability in the process.”

On Wednesday, MSF is taking part in a high-level humanitarian coordination team meeting with top officials of the United Nations.