Coronavirus: Africa faces the pandemic on Sunday, June 7

The Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) campaign against the spread of Covid-19 in the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya, June 7, 2020. REUTERS / Thomas Mukoya

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Africa crossed the symbolic bar of 5,000 deaths this Sunday. According to Africa CDC, the African Center for Disease Control Prevention, the continent had 184,333 cases of Covid-19, and 5,071 deaths from the disease. South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria are still the two countries most affected by the pandemic.

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• Hissène Habré finds his cell

Hissène Habré returns to prison this Sunday, June 7. The information was made public this Saturday by the Senegalese Keeper of the Seals Malick Sall. On April 6, the former Chadian dictator had been granted a sixty-day exit permit, in the context of the Covid-19. According to the prison administration joined by RFI, Hissène Habré must now return to his cell at the Cap Manuel remand center in Dakar, where he has been imprisoned since his life sentence in May 2016.

Read also  : Senegal: Hissène Habré, “vulnerable” to the coronavirus, temporarily released from prison

Senegal recorded 79 new cases of Covid-19 this Sunday, 76 patients were declared cured. Since the start of the epidemic, 4,328 people have been affected by the disease, 2,588 of them have been cured and 49 have died

• Repatriation of 200 Mauritanians

Two hundred Mauritanian nationals who have been stranded abroad since the border was closed on March 25 due to the Covid-19, returned to their country on Friday evening by plane. Patients, students and officials who were on mission are part of this group arrived from Spain and Morocco, awaiting other flights from the Maghreb as part of a repatriation plan implemented by the government. The returnees tested negative on Covid-19 before flying to Nouakchott.

► Read also: Covid-19: around 200 Mauritanian nationals repatriated from Morocco and Spain

• In the Central African Republic, the State is trying to reassure

CAR has entered a new phase of the epidemic. At least 50 new cases are detected every day and the districts are now affected whereas the country seemed so far relatively spared with only four deaths due to Covid-19. Among the people tested positive the mayor of Bangui (now cured), ministers, staff of the administrations. The death of the political adviser to President Georges Isidor Dibert moved the political class. These cases in these large institutions raise the question of the continuity of services in this fragile country.

“  The government is not hiding anything. Besides, in the coming days, on the instruction of the Prime Minister, all members of the government will be tested. The presidency asked me to organize a systematic test of all members of the presidency,  ”said Pierre Somse, the Minister of Health.

• Production of hydroxychloroquine in the DRC

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the company Pharmakina is already starting to produce hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus despite the controversies raised. Besides this drug, this company also produces injectable quinine to treat malaria. The governor of South Kivu officially inaugurated the production line of these two products on Friday in Bukavu, where the factory is located, in the province of South Kivu.

Read also: DRC: start of fundraising campaign for the fight against Covid-19

• African aviation will have lost more than 8 billion dollars with the pandemic

Since the beginning of the paralysis of air transport in the world because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the Association of African Airlines (AFRAA) has twice made projections on the shortfall that this health crisis will cause in the sector. The latest estimate, made on May 14, suggests a loss of $ 8.1 billion this year, against $ 4.4 billion assessed two months earlier.

 With the assumption that, during the third quarter of 2020, the airlines will be able to resume 40% of their activity and during the last quarter of 2020, 70% of their activity. Once again, this will depend on the decisions that will be taken by the different states regarding the opening of borders. So, we will redo an estimate on June 15, 2020,  "said Abderamane Berthé, secretary general of the Association of African Airlines.

Read also  : Coronavirus: impact of the pandemic on the African air sector

• Reopening of parks in South Africa

South Africa, the country still the most affected by the epidemic with more than 43,000 cases and 900 deaths, on the other hand is living at the rate of deconfinement. Authorities have announced that the national parks will reopen on Monday. The tourism sector, particularly that of safaris, is important for the South African economy hit hard by the crisis. These parks welcome more than 6 million tourists each year.

Also listen: South Africa: the impact of the coronavirus on tourism

• The blues of Moroccan and Tunisian artisans

Without income for almost three months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, artisans are depressed. The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts Nadia Fettah recently evoked avenues for recovery, such as the creation of exhibition spaces in supermarkets, for this sector which employs more than 2 million people - or 20% of the working population - including around 230,000 traditional artisans. The craft industry represents approximately 7% of the GDP, with an export turnover of nearly 1 billion dirhams last year (91 million euros).

Despite their economic weight, artisans work in precarious conditions, without social security coverage, with a distribution network limited to occasional sales and word of mouth, like all small trades in the Maghreb.

In Tunisia, where the crisis of the new coronavirus has plunged small artisans into the same distress, the National Office of Handicrafts (ONAT) is working on an electronic platform to open outlets in Europe at the end of the year and has multiply small exhibitions in hotels.

Our selection on the coronavirus

Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  Remdesivir, antibodies and immunity
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

Our series  :
→ “  The response, country by country  ”
→ “  Nurses  ' words

After Covid-19, towards a new world?

See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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  • Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic
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