Musings From Abroad

Africa needs investment, not development aid— President Ruto

Published

1 year ago

June 23, 2023

Kenyan President, William Ruto Thursday at the ongoing Paris climate summit joined his voice to calls for reforms around financial aid and credit structure for African countries.

President Ruto said he attended the summit “not to ask for help” from the rich countries but to contribute his bit to ensuring reform of the global financial architecture that would enable developing countries to “take part in the solution.”

“The current financial architecture is unfair, punitive, and inequitable”, said William Ruto.

“The countries of the South pay up to eight times more interest than developed countries because they are considered risky”, said Ruto.

Ruto’s stand is for Africa to attract private investment rather than development aid.

“We are tired of this narrative” that portrays Africans as “victims of climate change”, “looking for favors” and “lamenting”, explains Mr. Ruto: “We are not asking for help, we want to be part of the solution”.

In Kenya, “we pay around 10 billion dollars every year to honor our debt,” he says. If we were to use it instead for the country’s development, it would be an immediate redirection of immense resources, and it would have an enormous impact” on the energy transition, health, electrification, etc. To achieve this, all we need to do is to “get the international community to take action”.

To achieve this, all we need to do is “convert the money we were supposed to pay to the World Bank, the IMF, and all the other lenders into a 50-year loan facility with a 20-year grace period,” he explains.

The effects of the numerous economic, energy, health, and climatic crises, particularly in the most vulnerable nations, are one of the issues at stake during the summit. The success of the event will also depend heavily on the funding required to address these crises.

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Musings From Abroad

Military advisors from Russia arrive Equatorial Guinea

Published

9 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Russian military advisors are in Equatorial Guinea training indigenous soldiers.

Anonymous sources cited by Reuters during the week claim that between 100 and 200 Russian instructors are training with elite guards in charge of guarding the President and the first family.

The males had been seen in Malabo, the country’s capital, and Bata, its second city. Reports of Russian forces stationed in the nation initially appeared in August.

Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has maintained close relations with Moscow.

Nguema travelled to Moscow in September to attend the Russian Energy Week International Forum.

Russia has strengthened military connections with African countries, sending advisors and combat soldiers to the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

Faced with an Islamist terrorist insurrection, three Sahel countries have turned to Moscow for support, expelling French and American troops.

Musings From Abroad

Russia claims African, ex-Soviet nations want its mpox vaccine

Published

10 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Several African and former Soviet nations have shown interest in purchasing Russia’s smallpox and Mpox virus vaccine, testing equipment, and antiviral medications, according to Russia’s consumer and health watchdog.

The Orthopoxvac vaccine was created by the Siberian Vektor laboratory and approved by Russia’s health ministry in 2022 after clinical testing revealed the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, according to Vektor.

“The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the African countries most affected by the mpox outbreak, have expressed interest in acquiring Russian treatments,” the watchdog told Reuters.

The countries that showed interest were not mentioned. Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions when it spreads through close contact. The illness can be lethal, although the majority of cases are minor.

An mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that had spread to neighbouring countries and abroad prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a worldwide public health emergency in August.

Requests for comment about the Russian vaccine were not answered by the governments of Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A top public health official in Nigeria and representatives for the health ministries in Burundi and Uganda denied any knowledge of attempts to purchase Russian mpox vaccinations.

According to a top Uzbek public health official, since there had been no mpox cases in the nation, the authorities did not require the vaccination. Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan’s governments did not immediately reply.

To fight the epidemic, several nations, notably the US and France, have committed to donating doses of the two primary vaccines against the virus produced by KM Biologics and Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO), which opens new tab.

Vektor researchers’ scientific publications reveal that the lab has been developing the vaccine since at least 2015. It has not yet released trial findings, though, and regulators outside of Russia have not authorised the injection.

Over 42,000 probable instances of Mpox have been recorded throughout the continent, and 1,100 fatalities have been reported so far this year, according to statistics from the Africa CDC.

The monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus, is the cause of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. Clade I, which includes subclades Ia and Ib, and Clade II, which includes subclades IIa and IIb, are the two separate clades of the virus.