A lack of mpox vaccine doses has prevented the Democratic Republic of the Congo from starting a campaign in the capital, Kinshasa, the response commander has confirmed. However, the number of cases nationwide is still rising, particularly among youngsters.

In mid-August, a new strain of pox started to spread from the Congo to neighbouring countries, prompting the WHO to declare a global health emergency. However, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, donors have been hesitant to turn their pledges into cash and vaccines.

The head of operations for Congo’s mpox control program, Cris Kacita, stated on Tuesday that the country needed more than 162,000 doses of vaccine to start a vaccination campaign in the capital, but that 53,921 doses were still available for use in prisons, where inmates are at greater risk because of unsanitary conditions.

The capital, which is home to about 20 million people, has so far been less impacted than other parts of the nation. In six other provinces, vaccination campaigns are now underway.

Along with additional shipments from Germany and the African Union, France has committed to providing 100,000 doses.

He added the arrival of vaccines was also delayed by the administrative process, which includes sending an official request, manufacturing, creating documentation and gaining import authorisations.

“As long as we don’t have the necessary quantity, it’s going to be complicated to launch (vaccination) in the 14 health zones,” Kacita told Reuters, referring to areas of Kinshasa.

According to a health ministry study, from October 28 to November 2, 1,017 new suspected cases were registered nationwide in Congo, including 45 confirmed cases and 16 fatalities.

Since children are almost four times more likely than adults to die from the new strain of mpox, the charity Save the Children warned on Wednesday that targeted vaccines were necessary to halt the virus from spreading quickly among children.

“Children are especially vulnerable to mpox – they explore by touch and taste, don’t always understand health guidance, and have weaker immune systems than adults,” Katia Vieira de Moraes LaCasse from Save the Children said.

According to Africa CDC data, there have been over 42,000 suspected cases of Mpox in the continent, with 1,100 deaths reported so far this year.

The Mpox virus can spread from person to person via intimate contact and also from place to person through objects and surfaces that a person infected with Mpox has touched.

YFormer Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the country under incumbent President Bola Tinubu as a “failing state” which is characterized by pervasive corruption, leadership failure, hardship and hunger.

Obasanjo, who made the assertion while delivering a keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, USA, said Nigeria was speedily becoming a bad case under the leadership of President Tinubu whom he referred to as “Emilokan” and “Baba-go-slow”.

The former Head of State, fondly called OBJ, who spoke on the theme ‘Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria”, added that the country was suffering from state capture as a result of the lackluster leadership of the Tinubu-led administration.

He noted that chaos, insecurity6y, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment had become permanent occurrences in this dispensation, leading the country into a failed path.

”As we can see and understand, Nigeria’s situation is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment,” OBJ said.

“That’s the situation mostly in Nigeria in the reign of Baba-go-slow and Emilokan. The failing state status of Nigeria is confirmed and glaringly indicated and manifested for every honest person to see through the consequences of the level of our pervasive corruption, mediocrity, immorality, misconduct, mismanagement, perversion, injustice, incompetence and all other forms of iniquity. But yes, there is hope.”

The former President also described state capture as “one of the most pervasive forms of corruption, a situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups within or outside a country use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, legal environment, and economy, to benefit their private interests.”

“State capture is not always overt and obvious. It can also arise from the more subtle close alignment of interests between specific business and political elites through family ties, friendships, and the intertwined ownership of economic assets.

“What is happening in Nigeria right before our eyes is state capture. The purchase of national assets by political elites and their family members at bargain prices, the allocation of national resources, minerals, land, and even human resources, to local, regional, and international actors. It must be prohibited and prevented through local and international laws.

“Public institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and regulatory agencies both at the federal and local levels are subject to capture. As such, state capture can broadly be understood as the disproportionate and unregulated influence of interest groups or decision-making processes, where special interest groups manage to bend state laws, policies, and regulations,” OBJ added.

The former president stressed that Nigeria’s dire situation is evident to “every honest person.”

He further warned that the country is sinking deeper into insecurity, division, and underdevelopment due to widespread corruption, mediocrity, and a lack of accountability.