Day: September 7, 2022

Water stress and hazards like withering droughts and devastating floods are hitting African communities, economies and ecosystems hard, according to a new report launched on Thursday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The State of the Climate in Africa 2021 reveals that rainfall patterns are disrupted, glaciers are disappearing and key lakes are shrinking.

And rising water demand, combined with limited and unpredictable supplies, threatens to aggravate conflict and displacement.

“The worsening crisis and looming famine in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa shows how climate change can exacerbate water shocks, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and destabiliizing communities, countries and entire regions,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Temperature trends

The report shows how extreme weather and climate change are undermining human health and safety, food and water security, and socio-economic development.

While Africa accounts for only about two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers disproportionately from it.

With a special focus on water, The State of the Climate reveals that high water stress is estimated to affect about 250 million people on the continent and displace up to 700 million individuals by 2030.

Four out of five African countries are unlikely to have sustainably managed water resources by 2030.

“Africa’s climate has warmed more than the global average since pre-industrial time,” warned Mr. Taalas, noting that the sea level rise along African coastlines is faster than the global mean.

He observed that that this is contributing to increases in the frequency and severity of coastal flooding and erosion, and salinity in low-lying cities.

“Changes in continental water bodies have major impacts on the agriculture sector, ecosystems, biodiversity,” said the WMO chief.

Making changes

Currently only 40 per cent of the African population has access to early warning systems against extreme weather and climate change impacts.

At the request of Secretary-General António Guterres, WMO is spearheading a campaign to ensure universal access to early warnings in the next five years.

Meanwhile, climate action is gaining momentum.

More than 40 African States have revised their national climate plans to make them more ambitious and add greater commitments to climate adaptation and mitigation.

The State of the Climate report makes a number of recommendations, including to strengthen early warning systems, increase transboundary cooperation, data exchange and knowledge sharing.

It underscores that the need for more investment in adaptation is crucial, as is a concerted drive towards more integrated water resource management.

The report was launched with an accompanying digital story map at a Ministerial Meeting on Integrated Early Warning and Early Action System initiative in Maputo, Mozambique.

Source: United Nations

Secretary-General António Guterres expressed on Thursday, his deep sadness at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

As the UK’s longest-lived and longest-reigning Head of State, the 96-year-old Queen was widely admired for her “grace, dignity, and dedication around the world,” he said in a statement.

“She was a reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change, including the decolonization of Africa and Asia and the evolution of the Commonwealth”.

‘Good friend’ to Organization

Queen Elizabeth II was “a good friend of the United Nations”, he said, recalling that she had visited New York Headquarters twice, more than fifty years apart.

“She was deeply committed to many charitable and environmental causes and spoke movingly to delegates at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow,” recalled the UN chief.

“I would like to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II for her unwavering, lifelong dedication to serving her people”.

‘Devotion and leadership’

Mr. Guterres extended his sincere condolences to her bereaved family, the Government and people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the wider Commonwealth of Nations.

“The world will long remember her devotion and leadership,” he concluded.

Last days in Scotland

Queen Elizabeth II died on the estate known as Balmoral Castle in Scotland, which had served as a royal summer retreat.

Over the past year, she had delegated some royal duties to her eldest son, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, including presiding over the state opening of Parliament in May. It was the first time since 1963 that the Queen did not attend the ceremony.

The Queen passed during a fragile moment politically after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent resignation. New Prime Minister Liz Truss travelled on Tuesday to the royal castle in Scotland, to be formally asked to form a government.

She became the 15th prime minister to hold office during the queen’s reign – the first was Winston Churchill.

Life of a queen

Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on 6 February1952, at just 25 years of age.

She was crowned in June the following year.

In February, the UK kicked off a series of celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of her service to the British Commonwealth.

Throughout her tenure, the Monarch served as a living link to World War II Britain, presided over a post-colonial era adjustment and saw the country through what some called “a bitter divorce” from the European Union during Brexit.

Saying good-bye

After the announcement of her death, crowds outside Buckingham Palace continued to grow significantly while others braved heavy rainfall at Balmoral.

The official website of the Royal Family was temporarily unavailable immediately following her passing but did post that the Queen had died peacefully.

It added that her son Charles and his wife Camilla, the King and Queen Consort, “will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow”.

According to news media, there will be a 10-day mourning period before her funeral will take place.

Source: United Nations

With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying meningitis vaccination campaigns for more than 50 million children in Africa, the region is at a heightened risk of outbreaks of meningitis type A, the UN health agency said on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have launched a roadmap to stop by 2030, bacterial meningitis outbreaks on the continent.

In a race against time, African countries are being urged to rapidly implement the plan before the start of the meningitis season in January, which runs until June.

“More than 400 million Africans are still at risk of seasonal meningitis outbreaks, but the disease has remained off the radar for too long,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa

Meningitis is caused by inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Acute bacterial meningitis can cause death within 24 hours and leaves one in five survivors with lifelong disability.

African success story

Historically, type A was the highest meningitis outbreak in Africa.

However, in 2010 the effective MenAfriVac vaccine was developed and deployed throughout the continent.

With WHO and partners’ support, more than 350 million people in 24 high-risk African countries have to date, received the MenAfriVac vaccine.

While meningitis type A accounted for 90 per cent of cases and deaths before 2010, no new cases have been reported since 2017.

Controlling that lethal form of meningitis has led to fewer meningitis type A deaths and while half of meningitis-affected people died in 2004, in 2021, 95 per cent of cases survived.

“The defeat of meningitis type A is of one of Africa’s biggest success stories in health, but the fallout from COVID-19 hampers our drive to eliminate this bacterial infection as a public health threat once and for all, and could lead to catastrophic resurgences,” said Dr. Moeti.

Trending backwards

The pandemic severely disrupted meningitis prevention and control services, with disease surveillance, laboratory confirmation of cases and outbreak investigations all steeply declining.

Based on country reports, WHO found that meningitis control activities were reduced by 50 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019, with a slight improvement in last year.

While no meningitis type A case has been reported in Africa over the past five years, outbreaks still occur and are caused by other types of meningococcal bacteria.

In 2019, 140,552 Africans died from all types of meningitis, with major outbreaks of meningitis type C recorded in seven so-called “meningitis belt countries” since 2013.

And last year, a four-month outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo claimed 205 lives.

Moreover, Africa is the only region to still experience outbreaks and accounts for the highest number of new meningitis cases globally – reporting 100 cases per 100,000 people.

“Aside from the toll on human life, outbreaks negatively impact health systems, our fragile economies, and impoverish entire populations forced to contend with multiple health and socio-economic challenges,” lamented Dr Moeti.

Fighting back

In an ambitious bid to defeat bacterial meningitis in Africa by 2030, the new regional strategy sets out a roadmap for countries to shore up diagnosis, surveillance, care, advocacy and vaccination to eliminate outbreaks, curb deaths by 70 per cent and halve infections.

WHO estimates that $1.5 billion will be required between now and 2030 to implement the plan, which if fully adopted will save more than 140,000 lives every year in the region and significantly reduce disability.

“In prioritizing the response to COVID-19, we must not lose our focus on other health problems,” underscored the senior WHO official, urging countries to “ramp up implementation of the new WHO regional roadmap now”.

Source: United Nations

PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: (Via interpreter) Dear State Secretary, colleagues, first and foremost, I would like to extend words of gratitude for your visit and the visit of your team. It sends a very important signal that confirms the leadership support and the leadership positions of the United States, in terms of their support to Ukraine in this war, for our freedom, for democracy, for our nation, for our people, for our territory in this war against the aggressor, the Russian Federation.

And we are grateful for this signal, for the enormous support you are providing on the day-to-day basis, and we’d like to extend words of gratitude to you personally and to the administration of the President Biden, him personally. I would like also to extend words of gratitude to the Congress of the United States for these very constructive steps of support in many directions – the financial support, which is allocated to ensure the stability of Ukrainian economy, as well as further reinforces the capabilities of our armed forces, which are defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine on the battlefield.

These are very important signals saying that United States are with us. And for us it’s a guarantee of the possibility of returning our territories, our lands. And I highly appreciate your arrival, and I’m sure that we can cover many topics today in a more detailed manner.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mr. President, thank you so very much. It’s wonderful to see you again, to see my friend, Dmytro. We speak on the phone frequently, but it’s even better to see him and you in person. This is my fifth trip to Ukraine in this job, the third since Russia’s invasion, if you count as one trip the occasion when Dmytro and I met on the border very early and we stepped into Ukrainian territory.

But Mr. President, we know this is a pivotal moment. More than six months into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counter-offensive is now underway and proving effective, that is of course mostly the function of the incredible bravery, resilience of Ukrainians. We see that on the battlefield every day. We are so pleased that we’ve been able to support your efforts and we’ll continue to do so. But fundamentally what this comes down to, the reason for this success, is that this is your homeland, not Russia’s. And it’s as basic as that.

Mr. President, I am pleased to be able to announce, as we did earlier today, additional support for Ukraine, another $675 million in assistance and supplies that your military is already using to such great effect – rockets, artillery, armed vehicles, anti-tank systems, and more. This is the 20th drawdown, as we call it, and that brings our total commitment in security assistance to Ukraine since February to $13.5 billion.

We also notified our Congress of our intent to provide Ukraine with an additional $1 billion in what we call foreign military financing. This is for longer-term acquisitions of systems. We are also providing $1 billion, additional dollars, of financing for our European allies and partners, who’ve been doing so much to support Ukraine. This will allow the purchase of systems that you need, and others will need, over the longer term to deter and defend against any future aggressions from Russia. It will be the kind of assistance that is durable and enduring, as the prime minister and I discussed. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to hear about the counteroffensive, which is part and parcel of putting you, putting Ukraine, in the strongest possible position both on the battlefield and in the event there is a future opportunity for diplomacy.

Another key aspect of this is the massive cost and the massive consequences that Moscow is being subjected to as a result of its aggression. And I think it’s important to continue to emphasize that because what we see is costs on Russia that are already extraordinary and they’re going to get heavier and heavier. We see its GDP in freefall, anywhere between 9 and 15 percent this year; an exodus of more than 1,000 international companies from Russia, a brain drain of the most talented people from Russia; a huge decline in their imports so that they are unable to replace the weapons that they are using. They are unable to produce the products for their own people that they’ve expected in the past. They’re unable to make the things that they used to export to other countries, and their markets will dry out as a result. And they’re unable to borrow money against their sovereign debt.

So it’s gotten to a point where Moscow is now seeking military assistance from North Korea and Iran as we have systematically choked off their access to inputs elsewhere, and we will continue to exert that pressure until the aggression ceases and Ukraine is fully sovereign and independent.

Across all of these measures, our support – the pressure on Russia, the humanitarian and economic assistance – I think together we’ve proven very effective, and we will keep (inaudible). You have our word and our track record. I should also add this: The rest of the world, of course, has felt the consequences of Russia’s aggression. And one of the consequences has been an increase in food insecurity that was already severe because of climate change and because of COVID. Russia’s aggression added to that problem.

The agreement that was reached that lifted the blockade by Russia on Odesa has already resulted in 100 ships bringing grain and food products to the world, and most of that has gone to what we call the Global South – countries in Africa and elsewhere who are the most in need. President Putin’s threat to discontinue that agreement I think will deeply anger and upset the countries that are benefiting now from Ukraine’s right to export its own food.

Very quickly, Mr. President, in April I pledged that we would reopen our mission at the first possible opportunity. Today, joined by Ambassador Brink, I spent some time with our team at the embassy. It was very meaningful to me to see the American flag flying over the United States embassy. We are committed to it, and I’m glad we did it.

Secretary of Defense Austin and I also promised that we will continue to provide security assistance at the president’s request, and as I mentioned, we’ve since provided billions of dollars. Today, the Secretary of Defense Austin is in Ramstein, Germany where he has been working and coordinating with countries around the world in providing assistance to Ukraine.

I said we’d continue to step up with economic assistance. Since April, we’ve provided about $7.5 billion in economic support that goes directly to your (inaudible), including support for 600,000 teachers, and the school year has now started. And so for your future, for our future together, this is so important. We’ll continue to be there for you.

Finally, Mr. President, I visited a children’s hospital today, and that made very real the costs (inaudible) that you’re suffering, but also what’s at stake – quite literally the future of the country, as represented by those children who are victims of Russian aggression. Their bravery, their courage is incredibly inspiring. It’s clear, Mr. President, that Ukrainians both young and old have extraordinary resolve. So does the United States.

Thank you.

Source: US State Department