Month: March 2020

Ugandan authorities have charged six Chinese nationals and two Ugandans with conducting acts likely to spread disease after they allegedly violated a coronavirus quarantine order.  The eight men were arrested at a border crossing Sunday as the Chinese nationals allegedly tried to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo.  They  face a prison sentence of up to seven years if found guilty of the charges.   Authorities say the six Chinese left a Kampala hotel on March 19, five days before completing a mandatory quarantine period meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  They were arrested Sunday, in the Zombo district, trying to cross into the Democratic Republic of Congo. The men have been identified as Huang Haiguiang, Li Chaochyan, Lin Xiaofang, Qin Shening, Liang Xinging, and Huang Wei.   Two Ugandans, Matovu Abdu and Nansuna Swabu, were charged with aiding the Chinese escape from self-quarantine. Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu, state minister for primary health care, said the prosecutions will serve as an example to the 1,800 others currently under quarantine in Uganda.    Kampala Uganda“They violated the principles of self-isolation and they were intercepted at the border, crossing into Congo. That is along Zombo, in Goli border,” she said. “And they have been brought back under the directives of his excellency, the president. And the president gave a directive that these people should be produced in the courts of law.” On Saturday, the Ugandan government ordered a 30-day closure of all border entry and exit points after doctors confirmed the country’s first case of COVID-19.   President Yoweri Museveni said the shutdown is designed to protect what he called the base, meaning Uganda and its 42 million people.   Anyone who entered the country before Saturday and came from a nation with high numbers of COVID-19, cases such as China, is required to be placed under mandatory quarantine or self-isolation for 14 days.   FILE – Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda since 1986, speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa meeting at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Sept. 4, 2019.President Museveni also ordered police and army units to help monitor the borders, saying that regular border guards and medical personnel were overwhelmed.  “They cannot contain people by themselves,” he said. “They will have to work with army and the police. And we also said we shall not allow people to come in through the gazetted centers and even the hidden ones. We are going to deploy the forces on all those.”   Uganda has experience keeping epidemics at arm’s length, having dealt with multiple deadly outbreaks of Ebola in Congo over the last few years.  
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A soccer player formerly on Nigeria’s national team was killed in a car crash and another was kidnapped by gunmen while driving in a separate incident on the same day, their clubs said Monday. Ifeanyi George, who played two games for Nigeria in 2017, was killed along with club teammate Emmanuel Ogbu when their car collided with a parked truck in Edo state in southern Nigeria on Sunday. Their deaths were announced in a statement from their club, Enugu Rangers. George was 26. Ogbu was a member of the club’s youth team. A third man who was in the car and who was not a soccer player was also killed. The Nigerian soccer league was suspended last week because of the coronavirus pandemic and George and the other men were reportedly returning home to Lagos. Also Sunday, Nigeria striker Dayo Ojo of two-time African club champion Enyimba and a player from a different team were kidnapped by gunmen while traveling by car to the city of Akure in southwestern Nigeria. Enyimba said another of its players escaped from the gunmen. Ojo played for Nigeria at the 2018 African Nations Championship, when the team made the final. Kidnappings for ransom are relatively common in Nigeria and soccer players and coaches and their families are often targets. Former Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel and former national team coach Samson Siasia have both had relatives kidnapped. Siasia’s mother was kidnapped and later released last year. Mikel’s father has been kidnapped twice, the latest time while his son was playing for Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup.   
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The arrival of coronavirus in Kenya has changed the way religious services are conducted in the capital’s diverse houses of worship.  Nairobi’s Catholics refrain from using holy water, Muslims have stopped ritual cleansing, and Hindu temples have turned to live streaming their services.  Rashid Ronald reports from Nairobi. 
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As the coronavirus infects more people around the world, conservationists are warning of the risk to another vulnerable species: Africa’s endangered mountain gorilla.  Congo’s Virunga National Park, home to about a third of the world’s mountain gorillas, is barring visitors until June 1, citing “advice from scientific experts indicating that primates, including mountain gorillas, are likely susceptible to complications arising from the COVID-19 virus.”  Neighboring Rwanda also is temporarily shutting down tourism and research activities in three national parks that are home to primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees.  Mountain gorillas are prone to some respiratory illnesses that afflict humans. A common cold can kill a gorilla, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, one reason why tourists tracking gorillas are not normally permitted to get too close.  Around 1,000 mountain gorillas live in protected areas in Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, for whom tourism is an important source of revenue. But COVID-19 has led to restrictive measures.  Virunga National Park’s decision has been welcomed by conservationists in the region.  Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of the Kenya-based conservation group WildlifeDirect, told The Associated Press that “every possible effort must be made” to protect mountain gorillas because so few are left in the wild.  “We know that gorillas are very sensitive to human diseases,” she said. “If anyone has a cold or a flu they are not allowed to go and see the gorillas. With coronavirus having such a long time of no symptoms in some cases, it means that we could actually put those gorillas at risk.”  Even existing measures may not be enough to protect them.  According to Ugandan conservationist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka with Conservation Through Public Health, a study published this year by her group and Ohio University showed that measures in place to protect gorillas from humans are not effective in practice.  The rule on keeping a safe distance from the gorillas was broken almost every time a group of tourists visited, she said.  “What the research found is that the 7-meter rule was broken almost all the time … like 98% of the time,” she said. “But what was interesting is that 60% of the time it was tourists that broke it and 40% of the time it was the gorillas who broke it.”If close interaction cannot be prevented, she said, one measure that could potentially improve safety is requiring tourists to wear masks at all times.  Uganda has not announced a shutdown of gorilla tourism, although tourist traffic from Europe and elsewhere has dwindled.  A spokesman for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Bashir Hangi, said the decision on whether to shut down gorilla tourism is now academic as there is almost no business amid the outbreak.  Still, he said, the few tourists who come are screened for fever and other symptoms and must obey rules such as not standing within 7 meters (21 feet) of a gorilla family. Visitors from virus-affected countries who have gone through quarantine in Uganda need to produce what he called a certificate of isolation before they are permitted to track the gorillas.  Amos Wekesa, whose Great Lakes Safaris organizes gorilla tours in Rwanda and Uganda, spoke mournfully of “hardly any business” as tourists postpone visits or seek refunds.  The region’s mountain gorilla population dropped sharply in the past century because of poaching, illness and human encroachment. Mountain gorillas have been listed as critically endangered or endangered since 1996, although their numbers are now said to be growing as a result of conservation efforts.  But there have been painful losses. Some gorillas die of natural causes, falling from trees or being killed in fights between males for territory or dominance. A lightning strike killed four mountain gorillas in February.In Rwanda, where tourism is the top foreign exchange earner, the government has prioritized the protection of gorillas, even launching a naming ceremony for baby primates.  Tourism revenue is key in protecting mountain gorillas as authorities can use some of the money to help local communities or invest in anti-poaching activities. A gorilla tracking permit costs up to $600 in Uganda, and thousands of tourists pay each year. A similar permit costs upward of $1,000 in Rwanda.  Some worry the loss of tourist revenue during the coronavirus pandemic could further expose the primates to poachers. Virunga, established in 1925 as Africa’s first national park and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has long been vulnerable in a volatile part of eastern Congo.  “I think this is going to have a huge impact on their sustainability,” Kahumbu, the Kenyan conservationist, said of Virunga. “I call on all donors and governments that support these national parks in Africa to make it easy for the parks that need to shut down to do so and survive.”Poachers could do even more damage to gorillas if they think the anti-poaching efforts have been reduced, she said.
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