Central Africa: Locals fighting disease, war, and locusts

You think you have it bad?

StrategyPage has a long essay about the troubles in the Congo and other central African areas that are busy fighting disease, war, and locusts.

the bad news is that anarchy and corruption are also big problems, and these make the other problems harder to fight. But there are good people helping, and much of the work is being done by locals, which is why it is ignored by the western MSM.

Disease: unlike Liberia, the WHO has fought the Ebola epidemic with local health care workers, and is now using vaccines.(experimental vaccines and now one has been approved and is being used. LINK for backstory.)

the churches are doing a lot of the developmental work, but  are not mentioned in most of the lay press reports, but when I was in Africa, most of the rural hospitals and clinics were either church sponsored or run by medical personnel trained in church hospitals.

 I suspect it is the same in Central Africa, but of course the secular "doctors without borders" get most of the publicity in the news reports, probably because they are European/American (i.e. white).

the church out reach and the local African Union work here is ignored: very hard to google stories in English, alas: most of the "ebola" stories are about West Africa, from a few years ago where the US sent a lot of (very publicized) help.

 but here is a video explaining the AU outreach from last year.



and of course, the DRC and nearby countries use French as the Lingua Franca, so the English language news tends to be limited.

the bad news: Corona virus is expected to hit (maybe via China, since China has a lot of their people doing work on various projects in Africa). But since there is now a medical infrastructure in place (to fight ebola), it means maybe they will be able to handle this better than more African countries.

SP latest news is that cases are down:

The number of new Ebola “cases per day” has dropped. From February 18 to 23, there was only one new confirmed case in North Kivu Province. As of February 23, there have been 3,444 total cases,

but ebola is not the only killer here. From SP:

February 14, 2020: The UN issued a report examining malaria in Burundi during 2019. From January through December 2019 Burundi had 8,892,300 malaria cases. The disease killed 3,294 people or 37 per 100,000 infected.

and measles has killed at least 6000 in the area:

Under the leadership of the DRC Ministry of Health, WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and other partner aid agencies vaccinated more than 18 million children under five across the country in 2019. '

However, in some areas, routine vaccination coverage remains low and 25% of the reported measles cases are in children over the age of five. ....

Since the start of 2019, around 310 000 suspected measles cases have been reported. The epidemic has been aggravated by low vaccination coverage among vulnerable communities, malnutrition, weak public health systems, outbreaks of other epidemic-prone diseases, difficult access by vulnerable populations to health care and insecurity that has hampered response in some areas.

see that comment about "insecurity?

This is from gangs/ irregular tribal insurgencies and wars.

when I was in Africa, our main danger was not from government soldiers, or even the regular insurgents, but from deserters or rogue groups from both sides who had guns and who used them to rob/rape/kill.

Again the SP article includes reports of various groups who killed people.

Sigh. Been there, done that.

and now a new plague: Locusts

But note that these are being fought. China got into the news saying they will export 100 thousand ducks to eat the locusts, but I wonder if that will work: I suspect most will die during transport, and those that survive the trip might not adjust to the climate. More likely the locals and the dogs will eat the ducks.

but China has a lot of developmental projects in Africa, in building infrastructure, working to grow food more efficiently, and of course, taking over the mining of rare minerals. Much of this I support, but there is a lot of pros and cons about China in Africa and I am not an expert on it.

Chinese involvement here rarely get in the news, except for the US Neocons saying the US needs to get more involved, but I figure that the Europeans, who exploited locals and their resources for over a century, broke the continent so should be the ones to fix it, not the US. Hey, they are rich, so why not? (the French are working against Isis in the Sahara region, and Turkey is involved in Libya, but again not my area of expertise).

but as to the locusts infestation:
Don't tell the greenies, but the dirty little secret is that pesticides are being used somewhat successfully. Again from SP:

On February 11 the Ugandan government deployed around 2,000 Ugandan Army soldiers to fight the locusts. Here’s how an army counter-locust operation works. When locals detect a swarm they report it. Uganda is also employing drone aircraft to monitor locust swarms and their movements.

When a swarm is identified, several dozen soldiers armed with manual and motorized pesticide spray pumps move to the infested area. Ugandan military officers report that locust swarms don’t move at night, which means the pre-dawn hours are the optimal time to spray pesticide on an infested field to insure killing adult locusts. 

Speaking of "greenies":
 SP notes:

February 6, 2020: European media are citing a draft report that alleges “ecoguards” in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) are physically assaulting and intimidating Baka pygmy tribesmen who live near a national park the guards patrol. Ecoguard is shorthand for “ecological guard.” The ecoguard program is partially funded by international conservation groups. 

Sigh.

Finally, the problem is not just war and disease but corruption:
How does the son of a president get rich in the Congo?

Global Witness has uncovered evidence linking the president's son, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, to the embezzlement of millions of dollars. The Republic of Congo is no stranger to high profile corruption accusations.

the article says 50 million dollars were involved: stolen/embezzled and money laundering going on. And just the tip of the iceburg.

But hey, having politician and their families get rich  is not just seen in Africa. LINK

Hunter Biden call your office: Daddy wants to talk to you. 

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update: A case of pneumonic bubonic plague from the DRC was diagnosed and stopped in Uganda thanks to local medical personnel identifying the disease and treating contacts.

On March 5, UVRI and district representatives rapidly mobilized and executed contact tracing and prophylaxis administration. In total, 129 persons were identified as contacts of patient A or B, including eight (6%) clinic staff members; 127 were placed on a 5-day prophylactic course of doxycycline, co-trimoxazole, or ciprofloxacin. 

Question: How many cases are dying in the DRC?