Central African Republic News Gazette
News Around the African Continent
The ship Brave Commander has left the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the first cargo of humanitarian food aid bound for Africa from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday.
Earlier, a joint co-ordination centre, set up by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, said it had approved the ship’s departure.
Source: National News Agency
(Djibouti-Ville, Djibouti): The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Executive Secretory, H.E Workneh Gebeyehu (PhD), and Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UNHCR Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, today, signed the IGAD-UNHCR PR-SR grant agreement of US$ 1,738,528 to strengthen TB and COVID-19 response in the refugee camps/settlements in Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, in the presence of Madam Fathia Alwan, the Director for IGAD and Social Development Division and other IGAD Staff.
Furthermore, the two parties discussed to continue to work together and enhance the partnership in strengthening the refugee health in the IGAD region.
The support aims to improve the availability and utilisation of TB and COVIOD-19 response in the refugee camps through strengthening the diagnostic capacity of TB, MDR-TB, TB/HIV and COVID-19.
IGAD together with the member states and partners developed TB-HIV proposals and submitted to Global Fund at different times. Overall in the last five years IGAD mobilised US$ 23.9 million to support TB, HIV and COVID-19 response program in the refugee camps and cross border and Out of this US$ 6,582,102 was given/allocated to UNHCR. Based on this IGAD received three grants from Global Fund.
The first one was US$ 10 million for the period of October 2016 to 31 March 2019, the second one was US$ 7.5 Million for the period of April 2019 to 31 March 2022, the Third one is US$ 5 million for the period of April 2022 to 31 March 2025 and the fourth is US$ 1.43 M for COPVID 19 responses mechanism for 2022 to 2023.
The first two grants were completed successfully the key achievements were increased TB, MDR-TB and HIV diagnostic capacity and services in the refugee camps, contribution to the notification and treatment of f over 19,000 TB cases in the last five years and generated evidences on HIV prevalence, and on trends of TB case notification and treatment outcome through conducting surveys. For instance, Of the 24 Gene Xpert machines in the refugee camps, 15 (62.5%) were procured by this IGAD-GF grant. Overall, it played a catalytic role, enhanced partnership and fostered the linkage with National TB and HIV program.
IGAD received the third grant of US$ 5 million for TB interventions among refugees in Eastern Africa and has started the implementation since April 2022. Out of this, IGAD allocated US$ 1,578,249 to UNHCR for the components in Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. The duration of the grant is three years with a starting date of April 2022. In addition to this, The COVID – 19 Response Mechanism Grant of GF-IGAD supports to improve the diagnosis of COVID -19 at the point. To this effect SARS-COV-2 Antigen based rapid test kits value of over 760, 000 is in the procurement through the pooled Procurement of Global Fund and this will be delivered to UNHCR country offices. It will be distributed to all the 70 refugee camps/settlements in the IGAD region.
Source: Intergovernmental Authority on Development
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused Washington of seeking to prolong the conflict in Ukraine and of fuelling conflicts elsewhere in the world, including with the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
“The situation in Ukraine shows that the U.S. is trying to prolong this conflict. And they act in exactly the same way, fuelling the potential for conflict in Asia, Africa and Latin America,” Putin said in televised remarks, addressing the opening ceremony of a security conference in Moscow via videolink.
“The American adventure in relation to Taiwan is not just a trip of an individual irresponsible politician, but part of a purposeful, conscious U.S. strategy to destabilize and make chaotic the situation in the region and the world,” he added.
He said the visit was a “brazen demonstration of disrespect for the sovereignty of other countries and for its (Washington’s) international obligations”.
“We see this as a carefully planned provocation,” Putin said.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have been in tatters since Russia in late February launched a military intervention in pro-Western Ukraine.
Pummeled by a barrage of unprecedented Western sanctions, Putin has sought to bolster ties with countries in Africa and Asia, especially with China.
Moscow was in full solidarity with key ally Beijing during Pelosi’s August visit to self-ruled, democratic Taiwan, which China considers its territory.
Source: National News Agency
The first vessel transporting Ukrainian wheat grain to support humanitarian operations run by the World Food Programme (WFP) has left the port of Yuzhny, also known as Pivdennyi, the UN agency reported on Tuesday.
The MV Brave Commander departed with 23,000 metric tonnes of wheat grain for WFP’s response in the Horn of Africa, where the threat of famine is looming due to severe drought.
This is the first shipment of humanitarian food assistance under the Black Sea Grain Initiative signed by Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the UN in July.
Feeding the world’s hungry
It marks another important milestone in efforts to get much-needed Ukrainian grain out of the war-torn country and back into global markets, to reach people worst affected by the global food crisis.
“Getting the Black Sea Ports open is the single most important thing we can do right now to help the world’s hungry,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
“It will take more than grain ships out of Ukraine to stop world hunger, but with Ukrainian grain back on global markets we have a chance to stop this global food crisis from spiraling even further.”
WFP will use the wheat grain shipment to scale-up its efforts in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, supporting more than 1.5 million people affected by drought.
Globally, a record 345 million people in more than 80 countries are currently facing acute food insecurity, while up to 50 million people in 45 countries are at risk of being pushed into famine without humanitarian support.
The current hunger crisis is being driven by several factors including conflict, climate impacts, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The war in Ukraine is another catalyst as the country is a major grain exporter. Ukraine was exporting up to six million tonnes of grain a month prior to the start of the conflict in February, but volumes now are at an average of one million tonnes per month.
More action needed
WFP said that with commercial and humanitarian maritime traffic now resuming in and out of Ukraine’s Black Sea Port, some global supply disruptions will ease, which will bring relief to countries facing the worst of the global food crisis.
Crucially, Ukraine will also be able to empty its grain storage silos ahead of the summer season harvest, the agency added.
However, despite these developments, the unprecedented food crisis continues.
WFP stressed the need for immediate action that brings together the humanitarian community, governments, and the private sector to save lives and invest in long term solutions, warning that “failure will see people around the world slip into devastating famines with destabilizing impacts felt by us all.”
Source: World Food Programme