Coronavirus: Africa and the pandemic on Friday June 12

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Africa counted this Friday, June 12, 218,229 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The Covid-19 has already claimed the lives of 5,791 people on the continent, according to the African Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The countries most affected by the pandemic are South Africa (58,600 cases), Egypt (39,700), Nigeria (14,600), Ghana (10,900), Algeria (10,600), Cameroon (8,900) and Morocco (8,600).

Publicity

• Prolonged state of emergency in Guinea-Bissau

Bissau-Guinean President Umaro Sissoko Embalo extended the state of emergency linked to the Covid-19 pandemic for 15 days in a row. The president justifies this decision by the vertiginous rise of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in his country. A high commission, made up of three members and headed by Magda Robalo, former Minister of Health, has been set up to manage the situation.

The country has 1,389 cases detected for 12 deaths from Covid-19 and 153 cures. In addition, a team of WHO advisers has arrived in Bissau to help the country fight the new coronavirus.

International consultants recruited by @WHO have arrived in Guinea-Bissau🇬🇼 to support the Ministry of Health's # COVID19 pandemic response. This team of experts included doctors & nurses specialized in emergency response, epidemiology & other crucial areas. pic.twitter.com/xxPk4V1Mpi

• Somali shebabs open anti-covid center in their stronghold

The Islamist group announces that it has set up an isolation and treatment center for patients suffering from the disease caused by the new coronavirus in the town of Jilib, in southern Somalia . The building once housed UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children. Shebabs refuse aid to manage health or environmental crises (drought, locusts) that hit areas under their control in central and southern Somalia. Authorities in Mogadishu have been alerting for several weeks to the risk of the virus spreading there. The country has 2,513 cases detected for 85 Covid-19 deaths and 532 cures.

• African migrants globally informed of the risks of Covid-19

It is a study by the Mixed Migration Center, an organization that produces figures on refugees and migrants. It publishes an update every two weeks. According to this survey carried out in several zones of the planet and in particular in East Africa (Kenya, Somaliland), North (Libya, Tunisia) and West (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger), a large majority of migrants and refugees say they are aware of the symptoms and dangers of the virus. Most report taking steps to avoid being affected or transmitting SARS-Cov2.

However, 18% take no action, a significant part of which since they consider it unnecessary. Furthermore, only a small proportion of respondents to the questionnaire is aware that one can be affected by the disease without necessarily having symptoms. Finally, in terms of access to care, only 28% of the North Africans questioned think they can benefit from it if the need arises, compared to 33% of the East African refugee respondents and 48% of those of the 'Where is.

• African free trade zone to start on January 1, 2021

This would correspond to a postponement of six months vis-à-vis the date initially planned . The secretary general of the Continental Free Trade Area (ZLEC), Wamkele Mene made the announcement at a seminar organized on the internet with business leaders from the continent (Africa CEO forum). "  We have made a recommendation so that trade within the free trade area can start in the next six months depending on the evolution of the pandemic,  " said the South African.

Most African countries are in total, partial containment or have closed their borders. "  It is not credible to say that we will trade on July 1 when we know that there are queues of trucks from 40 to 50 kilometers at the borders,  " notes Wamkele Mene. The secretary general, elected at the last African Union summit in Addis Ababa in February, hopes that the minimum six months will allow countries to agree on the thorny question of customs tariffs.

• West African cashew in the hard

Cashew exports could drop 30% this year due to the consequences of Covid-19, according to the Alliance for African Cashew. Production is also likely to decline and some farmers will allow their harvest to rot. "  Nobody buys, it's not worth it to tire of harvesting,  " says an Ivorian farmer from the Marahoué region in the center of the country. Olivier Gore-Bi evokes a "  catastrophe  ".

It is both a supply chain problem, logistics being severely slowed by the pandemic, but also global demand. India and Vietnam are the main recipients of dried African cashews. Their factories usually transform them into products sold worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of West African households (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau) are thus endangered by this cessation of the cashew trade. The government of Guinea-Bissau has disbursed funds to the banks to support the cashew producers.

In general, the cash crops of the continent are undermined by the economic crisis linked to the new coronavirus which constitutes a shock for African agricultural exports, estimate two studies. The losses could amount, according to the McKinsey cabinet, to two billion dollars for the African cocoa exporting countries, like Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana , to 600 million dollars for the flower exporting countries, like Kenya or Ethiopia. Fruit and vegetable and nut exporters could lose $ 500 million. As for the losses linked to coffee exports, they are estimated at 100 to 200 million dollars. In all this would make 5 billion losses ...

Only tea from East Africa seems to have benefited from Covid-19. The confinement in India caused the Asian giant's production to fall by 7%, which encouraged tea exports from Kenya, which were particularly dynamic last March. Another positive point, although in the longer term, the pandemic could constitute an opportunity for food crops in Africa, judges Patrick Dugué, agronomist at CIRAD , if they manage to impose themselves more vis-à-vis imported products. The Morocco exporter no longer as onions or oranges to SSA, local fruits and vegetables could benefit. In West, East and South Africa, crops of corn, cassava, plantain, yam, sorghum have been abundant.

• Recession and tight budget in South Africa

The rating agency Fitch sees the gross domestic product (GDP) of the African country most affected by the pandemic contract by 5.5% this year. The continent's most industrialized economy was already in bad shape and the new coronavirus is only making matters worse. The debt level should therefore continue to grow, reaching 80.9% of GDP by the end of the current fiscal year according to Fitch.

The South African Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, therefore affirms that action must be taken to adapt "  to the new situation, which [from] one point of view requires seriously considering a zero-based budget  ". Concretely, this would mean reassessing the expenditure for each South African rand without automatically renewing the budget for the previous year. And the main evaluation criterion would be the expected impact of an expenditure on economic growth.

• IMF at the bedside of Rwanda

The international financial institution will spend US $ 111.06 million to help the Great Lakes country overcome the budgetary impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Total IMF assistance to Kigali thus amounts to $ 220.46 million.

• Tanzania negotiates debt moratorium

The Minister of Finance, Philip Mpango, announces that his country has started negotiations with the creditor countries to benefit from the moratorium provided for by the Paris Club , which brings together all the Western countries which hold most of the debts of the countries on the way of development.

• Blood shortage in Kenya

The East African country has launched a blood donation campaign. Before the health crisis linked to the new coronavirus, around 500 liters were collected each day. This figure is now halved. The country counts this Friday 90 new cases of Covid-19 for 3 305 in total. Four new people died, bringing the death toll from the disease to 96. 1,164 people recovered.

Prior to the COVID-19 situation, the @KNBTSOfficial used to collect about 500 pints of blood every day. With the onset of COVID-19 in the country, the figures have dropped to 250 pints of blood, which has caused a major strain on our blood bank. # KomeshaCorona https://t.co/7VLbyQspxu pic.twitter.com/uKJXwH3QAz

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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