(AFP (eng) 11/21/16)
The number of HIV-infected people taking anti-retroviral medicine has doubled in just five years, the UN said Monday, while highlighting high infection rates among young African women. A new report by UNAIDS said it was on course to hit a target of 30 million people on ARV treatment by 2020. "By June 2016, around 18.2 million people had access to the life-saving medicines, including 910,000 children, double the number five years earlier," UNAIDS said in a statement. But the report showed the huge risks that some young women face. Last year more than 7,500 teenagers and young women became infected with HIV every week worldwide, with the bulk of them in southern Africa. "Young women...
(APA 11/17/16)
Botswana Attorney General Dr. Athaliah Molokomme said Thursday that Botswana strongly believes that even in the face of challenges, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the only hope for the countless victims crying out for justice. Molokomme was speaking Thursday at the 15th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC being held at The Hague, the Netherlands. “Justice is indivisible. We must tirelessly work to ensure that all victims of the most serious crimes have access to justice,” she said. Molokomme added that “With its increased judicial workload and currently exercising jurisdiction over 10 situations and 10 ongoing preliminary investigations
(APA 11/17/16)
The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will next week undertake a three-day roadshow in Botswana's capital Gaborone to raise public awareness about its operations and benefits. The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will next week undertake a three-day roadshow in Botswana's capital Gaborone to raise public awareness about its operations and benefits. SACU executive secretary Paulina Elago said in a statement on Thursday that the roadshow would be held from 21-23 November. The key objective of this campaign is to...
(APA 11/17/16)
Botswana President Ian Khama has pledged his government's commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2030. Our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) comprises measures in such areas as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and transport, Khama said in a statement delivered on Wednesday at the ongoing climate change conference in Morocco. He added: Our adaptation efforts focus largely on such vulnerable sectors as agriculture, water and health. In addressing climate change, Khama said we continue to incur considerable...
(AFP (eng) 11/16/16)
"Don't go!" That was the heartfelt appeal to African nations as the International Criminal Court opened its annual meeting Wednesday under the cloud of a wave of unprecedented defections. Gambia on Monday formally notified the United Nations that it was withdrawing from the court, following in the wake of South Africa and Burundi. "Don't go," pleaded Senegalese politician Sidiki Kaba, the president of the ICC's Assembly of State Parties meeting in The Hague. "In a world criss-crossed by violent extremism.....
(APA 11/14/16)
Botswana should guard against complacency in the battle against HIV and AIDS despite successes recorded so far, Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi said on Monday. According to the state-run Radio Botswana, Masisi told a meeting organised by the National AIDS Council (NAC) in Gaborone on Monday that he was worried by new infections that continue to rise. Any form of complacency or drift from the war path would be more suicidal, he said. He said it was imperative to fast track both biomedical and behavioural interventions, noting that failure to do so would leave Batswana on the brink of extermination by the epidemic.
(The Toronto Star 11/11/16)
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Canada has committed to a three-year deployment in Africa that will be reassessed each year to ensure it has an “enduring” impact. Canadian troops headed to Africa will operate in dangerous territory where peacekeepers have been killed, says Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. In an exclusive interview with the Star from Vancouver Sajjan said Canada has committed to a three-year deployment that will be reassessed each year to ensure it has an “enduring” impact. It will...
(Reuters (Eng) 11/08/16)
Germany on Monday pledged a 61-million-euro ($67.44 million) hike in funding for U.N. relief operations in Africa so that fewer of its people undertake perilous odysseys to Europe, which has struggled to absorb an influx of migrants since last year. The extra funding lifts Germany's total contribution to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR to 298 million euros for 2016, Foreign Ministry officials said. Its total humanitarian budget for 2016 was 1.28 billion euros, up from just 105 million euros in...
(APA 11/07/16)
The Public Health Specialist for Non-Communicable Diseases in Botswana’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Neo Tapela said Monday that the leading cause of death in Botswana is not HIV/AIDS, as it is wildly believed, but non-communicable diseases. Making a presentation to members of the House of Chiefs, Dr. Tapela said people who could live beyond 75 years die earlier because of non-communicable diseases. Dr. Tapela said that the main non-communicable diseases that account for 82 percent of deaths include cardiovascular diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and asthma. He further urged members of the House of Chiefs to help the Ministry of Health in the fight against
(APA 11/07/16)
Botswana’s Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Edwin Batshu, he has begun a serious fight against illegal immigrants, state-run DailyNews reported here Monday. Speaking in Oodi village in southern Botswana, Batshu said the laws were clear on procedures of entering the country through gazetted areas and being allowed to live in the country. The minister further said any person who contravened subsection 1 of the Immigration Act committed an offense and was liable to a fine not exceeding 400...
(AFP (eng) 11/05/16)
"The dream becomes reality", "Our son, our hope": the headlines in the Kenyan press in 2008 captured pride and excitement after the election of Barack Obama. Eight years later, enthusiasm for the outgoing president has faded on a continent that he is accused of forsaking. The election of the first black president of the United States on November 4, 2008 sparked scenes of jubilation in Kenya, the homeland of Obama's father. A public holiday was declared in honour of his...
(AFP (eng) 11/02/16)
Stopping the killing of elephants for their tusks could add some $25 million (23 million euros) to Africa's annual tourism income, more than offsetting the anti-poaching spend, a study said Tuesday. While the figure pales in comparison to the estimated value of the black market ivory trade in China, it represents about a fifth of tourist income for game parks in 14 countries, where half of Africa's elephants are located, the study said. "We find that the lost economic benefits...
(Reuters (Eng) 10/31/16)
About 220 African migrants forced their way through a barbed wire fence into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta on Monday, clashing with Spanish police who tried to prevent them from crossing the border with Morocco. Thirty-two migrants were treated in hospital for minor injuries after pushing their way through two gates just before 2 a.m. ET, while three Spanish policemen also needed medical attention, the government said. Several migrants collapsed from exhaustion after crossing into Spanish territory, Reuters photographs...
(AFP (eng) 10/28/16)
The impact of the most severe drought to hit southern Africa in 35 years is expected to worsen in the coming months, a UN climate envoy warned Friday. "The crisis has yet to peak," Macharia Kamau, special envoy on El Nino and climate, said at the end of a four-day trip to Mozambique. The devastation, which has affected some 18 million people across the southern African region, will be at its worst around January next year, he said. Mozambique, with 1.5 million people reeling from the drought, is one of the worst-hit countries, along with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and southern Madagascar.
(AFP (eng) 10/27/16)
Complex diverse political agendas are driving African nations to quit the International Criminal Court, with leaders seeking to cloak the move by reigniting age-old anger at the West, analysts say. Gambia's announcement that it would be the third country to withdraw from the court is all the more frustrating as it comes at a time when the tribunal is beginning to probe some of the world's most intractable conflicts, in places such as the Palestinian territories and Afghanistan, experts say...
(Reuters (Eng) 10/26/16)
African states unhappy with the International Criminal Court(ICC) should work to reform it from within rather than pulling out, Botswanan foreign minister Pelomoni Venson-Moitoi, a candidate to become the next African Union (AU) chief, said. With the AU increasingly divided over the ICC, South Africa announced last week that it planned to quit, but Venson-Moitoi said she believed an African war crimes court could be beefed up to work alongside its Hague-based counterpart. Although South Africa argued that the ICC's...
(AFP (eng) 10/25/16)
The International Criminal Court on Monday urged member states to seek a consensus with critical African nations, while stressing that South Africa and Burundi's announced departures would not take place for at least year. "Today more than ever, there is a huge need for universal justice," said Sidiki Kaba, president of the assembly of state parties to the ICC founding treaty, evoking "the tragedies which are happening in front of our eyes". Kaba, also Senegal's justice minister, said it was...
(Reuters (Eng) 10/20/16)
Encouraged by their success in halting a mass influx of refugees by closing Greek borders and cutting a controversial deal with Turkey, EU leaders are getting tough on African migrants too. A Brussels summit on Thursday will endorse pilot projects to pressure African governments via aid budgets to slow an exodus of people north across the Sahara and Mediterranean. It also wants swift results from an EU campaign to deport large numbers who reach Italy. "By the end of the...
(Voice of America 10/17/16)
Telecom workers in Burkina Faso were on strike again this month, leading to phone and internet interruptions. The country has only one internet service provider, Onatel, but the days of the telecom monopoly in Africa may ending. The Burkina Faso telecommunications authority fined Onatel 5 billion CFA francs ($8.5 million U.S.) in response to the strike, which cut internet access across the country for more than a week. Arouna Ouédraogo, an information technology specialist, said people without access to the...
(APA 10/14/16)
United States ambassador Earl Miller on Friday decried the escalating number of tuberculosis-related deaths in Botswana. Speaking at an event to commemorate the fight against the growing number of TB-related deaths, Miller said over 8,000 people develop TB every year in Botswana. It is responsible for over 40 percent of deaths in people living with HIV, he said. He added that it may be tempting for the US to shift our focus from tuberculosis as we throw our efforts toward...