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How to Beat Malaria, Once and for All – NYTimes.com

June 9, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Gambia, Malaria, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

How to Beat Malaria, Once and for All – NYTimes.com.

MAE SOT, Thailand — MALARIA is a seasonal disease; with tropical rains come the fevers. In the news media, malaria is also seasonal. Every spring around World Malaria Day we hear about its devastating effects, including deaths in the hundreds of thousands. This year the reports were encouraging: Infections have been reduced and many lives saved. In May, researchers reported in Science that yet another potential malaria vaccine may be around the corner. Malaria seems to be on the retreat.

But is it really?

Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite, transported by a particular type of mosquito from person to person. Preventing mosquito bites by using insect repellents or nets and clothing treated with insecticides can reduce malaria in some areas. And if people are infected, drugs can be used to kill the parasites in their blood.

But the mosquitoes are constantly adapting and becoming resistant to the chemicals, while at the same time the parasites are adapting and becoming resistant to the drugs. So the fight against malaria is really a race against time in which we try to develop new treatments before they become ineffective, causing millions to die…

Boko Haram Members Are Criminals, Not Muslims — OIC | Sahara Reporters

June 4, 2014

Peter Singhatey African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Boko Haram, Gambia, Nigeria, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

Boko Haram Members Are Criminals, Not Muslims — OIC | Sahara Reporters.

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Monday publicly expressed its support for Nigeria’s fight against terrorism, saying members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect are criminals and outlaws that should not be considered as Muslims. OIC Secretary-General, Eyad Ameen Madani said this on Monday at the Presidential Villa when he led a delegation to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan. According to Madani, the 57-member organization would continue supporting Nigeria’s efforts to address its terrorism challenge. “We are here to express our solidarity with Nigeria in facing up to this terrorist organisation and to condemn the terrorist acts they have been committing, and to show our condolences to the Nigerian people, to the families of those who were affected”, he said. “The OIC has issued statements that are very clear, that these people are outlaws, what they do is criminal act; it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, Islamic teachings, the religion of Islam, the history, the culture, the civilization of Islam and we should identify them for what they are as a terrorist group”. Sahara Reporters..

Gambia may get first pilot school – Daily Observer

June 1, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Aviation, Flying, Gambia, peter singhateh, Pilot Leave a comment

Gambia may get first pilot school – Daily Observer.

If the words of the latest investors from the Trans-continental nation of Turkey are anything to go by, The Gambia may be on the way toward getting its first ever pilot school.

This was disclosed by the chairman of the OmniTek Company, who is leading a team of investors from his company to explore possibilities of extending to The Gambia.

“We are also representing Airport Traffic Management System and we will be setting up training educational centers for airport traffic controllers and pilots. So this will make The Gambia benefit from these services and all the neighboring countries to be trained in The Gambia,” he disclosed.

If successfully put in place, he noted, people from all over Africa and even Europe would be attracted to come to The Gambia to undergo these trainings. ..

400 migrants break through border fence in Spains African enclave Melilla | World news | theguardian.com

May 29, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Gambia, Immigration, Migrants, People & Society, peter singhateh Leave a comment

400 migrants break through border fence in Spains African enclave Melilla | World news | theguardian.com.

More than 1,000 sub-Saharan migrants rushed the six-metre razor-wire fence that marks the border of Spain‘s North African enclave of Melilla early on Wednesday morning, with some 400 managing to make it over the towering fence, yelling with joy as they touched Spanish soil.

“There were waves [of people], they were quite difficult to stop,” Juan José Imbroda, the mayor of Melilla, said in a radio interview. Despite efforts by Moroccan and Spanish police to push back the migrants, he said the pressure was so great that “a chunk of the exterior fence gave way”.

On entering Melilla, the jubilant migrants kissed the ground and congratulated each other on making it to Europe. Many of them had spent years travelling across north and sub-Saharan Africa followed by months of living in rough, makeshift campgrounds on the Moroccan side of the border, waiting for an opportune moment to rush the frontier…

Africa losing $17bn to logging annually – News – www.theeastafrican.co.ke

May 22, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Gambia, Illegal Fishing, Logging Leave a comment

Africa losing $17bn to logging annually – News – www.theeastafrican.co.ke.

Africa is losing billions of dollars through illegal fishing and logging, a report released by the Africa Progress Panel chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said last week.

The report estimates that Africa loses $17 billion every year to loggers and at least $1.3 billion through illegal and unreported fishing in West Africa alone, suggesting that the figures on the eastern and southern coasts of the continent may be higher.

Africa has some of the most prized marine resources in the world, especially on its western and eastern seaboards, making it a magnet for foreign fishing vessels.

The report blames the threat to marine resources on the growing demand for fish in emerging markets and conservation policies in the US and Europe.

Rich nations in the EU, East Asia and Russia allegedly finance the plunder of Africa’s oceans by giving their fishing industries $27 billion in subsidies.

“Part of these subsidies goes to fleets that are implicated in illegal fishing activities in Africa,” the report said.

Many of the illegal logging activities are being played out in the forests of the Congo Basin and beyond…

8 Facts about Chinas Investments in Africa | Brookings Institution

May 21, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, China, Development, Gambia, peter singhateh Leave a comment

8 Facts about Chinas Investments in Africa | Brookings Institution.

“Considering the low priority of Africa in China’s overall foreign strategic mapping, a disproportionate level of international attention, publicity and scrutiny is paid to China’s Africa engagement,” writes Yun Sun, in a recent John L. Thornton China Center/Africa Growth Initiative paper, “Africa in China’s Foreign Policy.”

Below are selected data from her paper. Download it to read her thorough analysis of China’s interests in Africa and how China’s internal bureaucracy makes political, economic and security decisions regarding Africa policy.

By the end of 2009, 45.7 percent of China’s cumulative foreign aid of ¥256.29 billion had been given to countries in Africa.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner, surpassing the United States in 2009..

Terrorism and transnational organised crime in West Africa

May 14, 2014

Peter Singhatey African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, Conflict, Gambia, peter singhateh, Transnational Crime Leave a comment

Terrorism and transnational organised crime in West Africa.

West Africa is a highly complex region caught between affluence and affliction. The region is made up of 16 states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Apart from Mauritania, the remaining states are members of the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) formed in 1975. The region’s states vary in territorial size, colonial history, economic strength, internal cohesion, and external linkages. They also differ in terms of population size, levels of development, stages of state building, and nature of resource endowments. They are confronted with different levels of security, governance and development challenges that have made them poor despite being greatly endowed with natural resources.

Although West African states gained political independence before any other region in colonial Africa, they have failed to achieve a high degree of political stability due to corruption, weak or failed governance institutions, conflicts and porous borders among others. Overall, they all share a common feature of multiple layers of insecurity, associated with conflicts and crime at community and national levels, often across borders and with regional ramifications. Threats like terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal oil bunkering, piracy, and arms trafficking have acquired worrisome transnational dimension in recent times. Consequently, terrorism and TOC have emerged as formidable threats to human security and is now taking on a singular importance in terms of national, regional and international engagements…

The Rise of Antibiotic Resistance – NYTimes.com

May 11, 2014

Peter Singhatey Health Africa, Antiboitics, Gambia, Health Care, peter singhateh Leave a comment

The Rise of Antibiotic Resistance – NYTimes.com.

“The World Health Organization has surveyed the growth of antibiotic-resistant germs around the world — the first such survey it has ever conducted — and come up with disturbing findings. In a report issued late last month, the organization found that antimicrobial resistance in bacteria (the main focus of the report), fungi, viruses and parasites is an increasingly serious threat in every part of the world. “A problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine,” the organization said. “A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century.”

The growth of antibiotic-resistant pathogens means that in ever more cases, standard treatments no longer work, infections are harder or impossible to control, the risk of spreading infections to others is increased, and illnesses and hospital stays are prolonged.

All of these drive up the costs of illnesses and the risk of death. The survey sought to determine the scope of the problem by asking countries to submit their most recent surveillance data (114 did so). Unfortunately, the data was glaringly incomplete because few countries track and monitor antibiotic resistance comprehensively, and there is no standard methodology for doing so.

Still, it is clear that major resistance problems have already developed, both for antibiotics that are used routinely and for those deemed “last resort” treatments to cure people when all else has failed…”