Month: July 2022

Al-Shabab militants who crossed into eastern Ethiopia last week are still active inside the country despite claims by local officials that the force has been “destroyed,” say officials and security experts.

Officials on Monday said security forces clashed with al-Shabab fighters in Ethiopia’s Somali state at Lasqurun village, near the border town of Feerfeer. The state’s president, Mustafe Omer, was seen meeting with units of federal military forces who were dispatched to the area.

About 500 al-Shabab fighters, including many who originally came from Ethiopia’s Somali and Oromia regions, entered Ethiopia last Wednesday, multiple security and former al-Shabab operatives told VOA Somali’s “The Investigative Dossier” program. The incursion is the militant group’s biggest-ever operation inside Ethiopia.

Omar Mohamed Abu Ayan, a former al-Shabab official who now lives in Sweden, says the incursion was likely mounted for propaganda reasons.

He said the Islamist militant group, which has been fighting Somali governments and African Union peacekeepers since 2007, wants to show it can operate in Ethiopia as well as Somalia and Kenya.

“If they erect their flag that will be a victory for them,” Abu Ayan said. “They have been dreaming of penetrating Ethiopia for a long time, and to erect their flag. It will mean a huge victory. This will encourage global jihadists to support them.”

What happened?

The operation began last Wednesday when al-Shabab militants shut down telephone networks in Somalia’s Southwest state before carrying out surprise attacks on the Somali towns of Yeed and Aato and Washaaqo village. The towns are all located on the Somali-Ethiopian border and protected in part by Ethiopia’s Liyu police security force.

Somali regional and intelligence officials now believe the militant group’s attacks on those towns were diversionary.

Officials from both sides of the border confirmed that the attacks preoccupied Liyu police forces and distracted them as other heavily armed al-Shabab units crossed the border unopposed.

Mohamed Abdi Tall, the governor of Bakool, the Somali region from where al-Shabab launched the attack, said the militants who entered Ethiopia did not participate in the Yeed, Aato and Washaaqo attacks.

“There were two groups – a group fighting at the border, and a second unit that went through,” he said. “They passed through Aato road while the fighting was taking place; they are headed for Bale region,” between Ethiopia’s Somalia and Oromia states.

Tall said the unit that entered through Aato was confronted and surrounded by Liyu police but made it through despite losing most of their vehicles. He said a second al-Shabab unit that entered Ethiopia from another front, east of El-Barde town, has not yet encountered attacks from Ethiopian security forces.

An intelligence official who did not want to be identified because he is not allowed to speak with the media confirmed the second incursion.

“We were told they crossed the border, but they did not go far,” Tall said. “They are somewhere between us and Gode and Qallafo. We have not heard about them encountering fighting but it’s possible they will.”

Al-Shabab’s objectives in Ethiopia

A former Al-Shabab member who did not want to be named for security reasons said the group’s plan is to erect their black flag inside Ethiopia, and then release a prepared statement declaring that “jihad spread to a new front” in the Horn of Africa. The term jihad means holy war.

Horn of Africa analyst Matt Bryden said the offensive appears to be the start of a major, strategic initiative to establish an active combatant presence in Ethiopia, probably in the southeastern Bale Mountains.

Bryden said although the group suffered some tactical defeats, it has achieved some important objectives, mainly to demonstrate for the first time that al-Shabab is capable of major military operations inside Ethiopia.

“Reports from the field suggest that some AS units have penetrated as far as 100 kilometers inside Ethiopia and may still be active,” he said.

Ethiopia’s domestic unrest and the concentration of troops in the north in the Tigray conflict make this an opportune time for al-Shabab to strike, Bryden said.

Ethiopian forces went to war against rebels of the former ruling group, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, in November 2020. The conflict in northern Ethiopia between federal government forces and Tigray rebels weakened federal forces and contributed to ongoing instability in the country.

Bryden said he believes the situation with al-Shabab is very serious.

“The scale of this offensive is probably too great to be contained by local Ethiopian security forces – namely the Liyu police in the Somali and Oromia regions,” he said.

“Unless Addis Ababa can afford to redeploy capable military units from elsewhere in the country, then al-Shabab may well succeed in establishing a military presence in Ethiopia for the first time.”

Al-Shabab’s interest in Ethiopia

Founded in Somalia about 15 years ago, al-Shabab has long been interested in exporting its brand of Islamist extremism to neighboring countries. It launched one deadly attack in Uganda in 2010 and has an extensive presence in Kenya. Both countries contribute troops to the African Union forces that have helped Somali governments battle al-Shabab inside Somalia since 2009.

Al-Shabab tried to establish a presence in Ethiopia before, without success. The first armed incursion took place in early 2007 when military commander Aden Ayrow led a unit into Ethiopia in response to Ethiopian troops entering Mogadishu to support the then-transitional federal government of Somalia. The incursion was immediately repelled.

The group’s late leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, then started training a special unit, named Jabhat, or Ethiopian Front, tasked to carry out attacks in Ethiopia. The unit failed to accomplish much due to robust Ethiopian intelligence, according to Abu Ayan.

Bryden said Godane later tasked al-Shabab’s intelligence wing, the Amniyaat, to carry out attacks in Ethiopia.

“These included a failed bomb plot against a football stadium in Addis Ababa in 2013 and suicide bomb attack against a major shopping mall in Addis in 2014 that was disrupted before it could take place,” Bryden said.

With this new incursion, Ethiopia’s Somali region is mobilizing forces and public support. The region said the operation against Al-Shabab fighters who entered the country on July 20 resulted in the killing of more than 100 militants, and destruction of 13 vehicles. The region’s security council said the militants were encircled in the Hulul village area.

The region’s president thanked the population for supporting the security forces.

“I am very grateful to the people of the Somali region who have shown unprecedented unity and stand by their veterans,” he told the region’s state media. “I am confident that the security of the region cannot be disturbed by the terrorism of al-Shabab.”

Source: Voice of America

President Cyril Ramaphosa has, in his capacity as AU COVID-19 Champion, welcomed the Serum Institute of India (SII) ground-breaking initiative to provide an initial USD 2,500,000 that will support the AU COVID-19 Commission as it implements the mandate to establish an AU Health Workforce Task Team, which will undertake the programmatic work, public engagement and consensus building towards a fit-for-purpose health workforce that can sustain Universal Health Coverage in Africa.

The AU COVID-19 Commission supports President Ramaphosa in its role as COVID-19 Champion.

It partners with Africa CDC (which forms the technical arm of the Secretariat), Serum Institute of India and Seed Global Health to execute this mandate.

This comes as the partner organisations take stock of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and the need for sustained financing for health workforce development. The initial funds provided by the Serum Institute will galvanise investment into an African and global health workforce.

The SII announcement follows a meeting held on Tuesday 12 July to commemorate the first anniversary of the AU COVID-19 Commission, ahead of President Ramaphosa formally submitting a progress report to the 4th Mid- Year Coordinating Meeting between the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Mechanism on 17 July 2022.

President Ramaphosa established the COVID-19 Commission in 2021 to strengthen the continental institutions established as part of the AU’s continental response to COVID-19. This includes the Africa Joint Continental Strategy on Africa’s COVID-19 Response, the African Medical Supplies Platform, the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) and others established during South Africa’s tenure as AU Chair in 2020.

President Ramaphosa seeks to align political, health and economic leaders with a long-term transformational plan to train and retain a complete health workforce in Africa through a compact amongst member states. He has secured a mandate to prioritise the health workforce agenda and maintain political attention on the issue.

The African Union Health Workforce Task Team (AU-HWTT) is an ambitious new initiative which aims to develop a comprehensive framework to build a full African healthcare workforce – in pursuit of economic recovery and global health security.

Health workforce development is a critical pillar of the AU’s New Public Health Order towards universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness and health security.

Data has shown that the social and financial returns on investing in the health workforce are estimated to be 9 to 1, and in some health areas such as midwifery, there is a 16-fold return for every dollar spent on training a new midwife. For countries or continents where the youth population make up over 50 per cent, the health workforce represents a pathway for job creation, economic recovery and social inclusion.

The AU COVID-19 Commission will oversee Africa CDC’s implementation of the initiative in partnership with Seed Global Health. It is anticipated that SII’s initial donation will act as a catalyst and “global rallying cry” for other investors, charities and governments to step forward and help build the systems needed to recover from COVID-19.

President Ramaphosa has welcomed this seed funding from Serum Institute of India, saying:

“I am pleased to see that Serum, as the producer of medical countermeasures, understands that it is the health workforce that delivers these lifesaving tools to the people. We welcome this contribution to kick start the continental health workforce initiative and call on businesses, donors and other investors to follow Serum’s example.”

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India said:

“We have a long history of providing healthcare support in Africa, including billions of affordable routine vaccines against diseases such as measles and polio, and the development of new vaccines to protect against meningitis and malaria.

“But the pandemic has taught us the need not only for life saving medicines but for the life-saving health workers to administer them.

“The AU Health Workforce Task Team, will mark the first step in the building of the African healthcare workforce of the future.

“We call on governments, charities and companies alike to step forward and contribute to this historic process and empower the experts at the African Union and Seed Global Health to make this lasting systemic change. This will not only help to ensure more people in Africa get vaccinated to finally end the acute phase of Covid-19 and prepare the continent for the health threats of tomorrow.”

Dr Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director of Africa CDC has also welcomed this investment, adding:

“Africa CDC welcomes the support from the Serum Institute of India to support a key pillar of Africa’s New Public Health Order. This is also in line with our vision of respectful and action-oriented partnerships.”

Dr. Vanessa Kerry, CEO and founder of Seed Global Health, said:

“We are grateful to Serum Institute of India for their inspiring commitment which helps champion the necessary investments in the health workforce. Having worked alongside partners to help train over 36,000 health workers to meet patients’ needs, Seed has seen first-hand the damaging impact of not having enough health workers. COVID has exponentially exacerbated the crisis. Governments have committed to vaccine donations but rarely to the essential human resource infrastructure needed to deliver them. The compact is ambitious–we should be too. It will require historic up-front investment as well as investments in Universal Health Coverage grounded in the principles of access, quality, and financial protection.”

Along the SII announcement, President Ramaphosa also announced the introduction to Africa of the oral therapeutic Paxlovid that can now be purchased by AU member states at cost price. Paxlovid is cheaper than other oral therapeutics, reduces death and hospitalisation by 89 per cent, is easy to administer, has few side effects and works against the Omicron variant.

This, coupled with increased vaccination, will significantly reduce the burden on Africa’s health systems that are being rebuilt to recover routine services and for future pandemic preparedness.

ENDS/

NOTES TO EDITORS

THE AU COVID-19 COMMISSION

The AU COVID-19 Commission was established by H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa upon his appointment as AU COVID-19 Champion in 2021. The Commission is mandated to support the President in his role by guiding the core response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the continent and to propose ways towards strong socioeconomic recovery for the continent.

The Secretariat of the Commission comprises the Office of the Presidency in South Africa and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Since its inaugural meeting in June 2021, the COVID-19 Commission has secured a number of key mandates to maintain the momentum of the core COVID-19 response and to build future health resilience. These include committing to two hundred million tests on the continent, of which nearly 111 million tests have been completed through community testing, sentinel and wastewater surveillance.

Other key mandates secured by the COVID-19 Champion in the AU are:

– The establishment of the African Pandemic Preparedness and Response Authority, which will prepare and respond to future regional outbreaks.

– The conversion of the COVID-19 Relief Fund to the Africa Epidemic Fund and the replenishment of that fund for future pandemic preparedness.

– The Establishment of the Alliance on Health Systems Strengthening, which will pursue the determinations of the Abuja Declaration

SEED GLOBAL HEALTH

Seed Global Health, led by Dr. Vanessa Kerry, works in partnership with governments and academic institutions to train health workers across countries on the African continent – to date, which includes over 36,000 healthcare professionals who serve catchments of more than seventy million people. As a social enterprise, we are united in the belief that quality, dignified healthcare can and should be accessible for all. We have seen first-hand how dedication, discipline, and long-term investments in the health workforce can improve health outcomes in any setting.

SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA

Driven by the philanthropic philosophy of affordable vaccines, Serum Institute of India Pvt, Ltd. is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses), supplying the world’s least expensive and WHO-accredited vaccines to as many as 170 countries.

It was founded in 1966 with the aim of manufacturing lifesaving immunobiological drugs including vaccines worldwide. With a strong commitment towards global health, the institute’s objective has been proliferated by bringing down the prices of newer vaccines such as such as Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccines.

SII is credited with bringing world-class technology to India, through its state-of-the-art equipped multifunctional production facility in Manjari, Pune and government agencies to transform emergency medicine and critical care along with spearheading the race of vaccine development against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Serum Life Sciences Ltd is a subsidiary company of Serum Institute of India, with a global sales office in London to market COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Serum Institute of India

Source: The Presidency Republic of South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa proudly congratulates Professor Tshilidzi Marwala on his new appointment as the Rector of the United Nations University.

In an announcement made by the United Nations yesterday, Prof Marwala’s appointment is with effect from March 2023 in Tokyo.

Prof Marwala is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Deputy Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

The President describes this appointment as well deserved, referring to Prof Marwala as an accomplished intellectual, having obtained numerous academic qualifications from various universities nationally and internationally and having held various key roles in the global academic landscape for development.

The President expresses appreciation to Prof Marwala for his noble contribution to the country’s knowledge base and wishes him great success in his new role, where he is confident that Prof Marwala will fly the South African Flag higher and further.

Source: The Presidency Republic of South Africa

At least 24 people died after a bus plunged into a river along a highway in Kenya, local media reported, citing the rescue team and the Kenya Red Cross Society.

The bus, en route from the central county of Meru to Nairobi, fell off a bridge into the Nithi River about 40 meters below, local media outlet Nation reported.

More than 20 passengers were hospitalized with serious injuries, and there were others missing, local radio station Capital News said, citing police and rescuers.

Preliminary investigations showed the late Sunday evening accident may be caused by a brake failure, it said.

The bridge has been marked as a “black spot” as a large number of accidents have occurred there, Capital News said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

DAR ES SALAAM— Plans to revive national shipping lines in East African ports are facing usual delays over lack of capacity to compete internationally.

Kenya and Tanzania recently formed shipping lines, but are struggling to establish themselves without their own vessels. Tanzania’s bid to sell its disused vessels has been a struggle, with few people coming forth to buy, and leaving it with an unwanted burden of storage.

As a result of increased operating costs, Zanzibar Shipping Corporation, Tanzania’s shipping line is auctioning three of its vessels, leaving it with none of its own. Zanzibar Shipping Corporation, in May this year, floated a tender to dispose of three public vessels MV Maendeleo, MT Ukombozi, and MV Mapinduzi 1. Those vessels are still unsold.

According to documents, the assets are being disposed of through the international competitive bidding procedures specified in the public procurement and disposal of public assets.

Interested bidders were required to inspect the MV Maendeleo in Mombasa, Kenya at African Marine Dockyard while MV Mapinduzi 2 and MT Ukombozi are at Zanzibar port.

This is the second time ZSC is disposing of the three vessels without anyone willing to purchase them due to their neglected state. In 2017, the national shipping corporation floated the same tender in its bid to overhaul the Shipping Company. It found no buyer.

MV Maendeleo which has a capacity to carry 600 passengers and about 600 metric tonnes of cargo has been at Mombasa African Marine since 2017 after it was said to be written off due to lack of maintenance and its old state.

Despite the tender closing in June, ZSC is yet to get buyers of the three vessels again. Last year in September, Zanzibar President, Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi announced his government’s decision to overhaul the state-owned shipping company by first and foremost auctioning all its loss-making vessels in what he termed as “time to start afresh”.

Julius Nguhulla, a maritime consultant in Dar es Salaam told The East African he agrees with the decision by the Zanzibar government to sell the ships because they were unfit. The MV Maendeleo and Ukombozi were built in 1980. Zanzibar Line ran a series of loss-making voyages due to high fuel costs.

In Kenya, the government’s effort to revive the Kenya National Shipping Line isn’t bearing many fruits forcing it to partner with Mediterranean Shipping Corporation to handle key government cargo and operate the second container terminal at the Port of Mombasa.

Two years ago, the Kenyan government unveiled plans to revive KNSL, with hopes that it would have the ability to contribute $3 billion annually to the economy and create 6,000 jobs. However, the process has gone cold over concerns that this may not take off.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK