AFRICA

Tunis, Tunisia | AFP |  The feared impact of coronavirus on Tunisia’s fragile public health system has provoked a flurry of innovation from robotics to digitalisation efforts to bolster the North African country’s pandemic response. The government has even turned to students for help, asking the engineering school in Sousse, south …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Across Africa, obscure or forgotten health and government officials have been propelled into the public eye because of their role in fighting coronavirus. Some are unsung veterans of previous efforts to stop epidemics, such as Ebola or AIDS. Others are from a younger generation, making a …

Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Unarmed Madagascar soldiers went door-to-door in the capital Antananarivo, doling out sachets of a local herbal tea touted by President Andry Rajoelina as a powerful remedy against the novel coronavirus. Baptised Covid-Organics, the tonic is derived from artemisia — a plant with proven efficacy in treating …

Washington, United States | AFP | The coronavirus outbreak and government policies to limit the disease could disrupt food supply chains, potentially threatening food availability, even as prices remain stable in 2020, the World Bank cautioned Thursday. Prices of agricultural commodities are likely to hold up better than oil, metals and …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Uganda and Rwanda have taken delivery of two mobile diagnostic labs to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, the first in a network of German-funded units for East Africa, public investment bank KfW said Thursday. While the project to procure the labs and train staff has been underway since …

Aswan, Egypt | AFP |  Fatma Addar grew up in a Nubian family, connected to her ethnic minority’s rich history through its tales of a bygone life on the Nile, though regaled less and less in their original language. She lives in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan and was schooled …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  Dozens of Algerians linked to the country’s anti-government protest movement remain “forgotten” in pre-trial detention during the coronavirus crisis, with little or no legal support. Zinedine Hanane, 32, was arrested on March 1, 2019, in Algiers while returning from a demonstration, after two people from his …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | So you’ve tested positive for coronavirus and are desperate for a cure. No problem: just drink your own urine. This quack remedy from Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the myriad therapies being touted today in Africa as poor people hunt for a virus …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday accused Kenyan police of killing at least six people and beating and extorting others while enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Kenya imposed the 7pm-5am lockdown from March 27. The rights watchdog said police …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | In early March, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told an aviation conference in Addis Ababa the coronavirus pandemic was “a temporary problem” — comparable to a natural disaster or a spike in oil prices. Several weeks later Africa’s largest carrier is locked in what Tewolde …