Summarizing Sudan's Humanitarian Crisis

 The Council on Foreign Relations published on 16 April 2024 an analysis titled "What Is the Extent of Sudan's Humanitarian Crisis?" by Mariel Ferragamo and Diana Roy.

The conflict in Sudan, which has been raging for one year, is destroying the infrastructure, breaking down the health system, has caused the world's largest internal displacement crisis, created a major refugee problem, and may result in the world's largest hunger crisis.

Health Care System Breaks Down in Ethiopia's Tigray Region

 National Public Radio published on 25 October 2022 an article titled "Conflict in Tigray Has Led to a Collapse of Its Public Health System" by Ari Daniel, Megan Lim, Bridget Kelley, Rebecca Davis and Ailsa Chang.

More than 80 per cent of the hospitals in Tigray Region have reportedly been damaged or destroyed. This is an account with people in Tigray Region who provide health care services or who require the services.

Collapse of Health Care System in Ethiopia's Tigray Region

 Ethiopia Insight published on 26 January 2022 a commentary titled "Data Shows Siege and Destruction of Health System Are Causing Preventable Deaths in Tigray" by Hagos Godefay, head of Tigray health bureau.

According to the head of Tigray's health bureau, the civil war has resulted in the destruction of the health care system in Tigray Region.  As a result, children are dying primarily from malnutrition, neonatal causes, and infectious disease.   

China Daily OpEd Calls for New Approach to Foreign Aid

China Daily published on 28 July 2020 an oped titled "New Landscape for China's Foreign Aid" by Sun Jingying, Institute of World Economics and Politics and the National Institute for Global Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The oped is significant as China Daily is an organ of the Communist Party of China.

The author urges that because of Sino-US friction and the relentless spread of COVID-19, China needs to adopt a more proactive approach to foreign aid.  The author makes three recommendations.

First, China should focus its foreign aid on vaccine development, traditional Chinese medicine, and productive investment, and actively respond to demands for prevention and control assistance, production development, and economic recovery in the post-pandemic era.

Second, following withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, China should participate in the design of a global health governance system.

Third, China should help alleviate countries' debt burden, especially those in Africa, by focusing on debt relief, boosting their economies, and increasing their incomes. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Seeks International Help to Combat COVID-19 in Africa

Project Syndicate published on 1 May 2020 a commentary titled "A Pledge for Africa" by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

To combat COVID-19 in Africa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called for a combination of debt relief, substantially raising the grant and lending ceilings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, and increasing the Special Drawing Rights of the IMF to raise $1.5 trillion.

Al-Shabaab Held Territory in Somalia Primed for COVID-19

World Politics Review published on 1 May 2020 an analysis titled "Al-Shabab's Territory in Somalia Is a COVID-19 Powder Keg" by Abdullahi Abdille Shahow, an independent researcher based in Nairobi, Kenya.

In a fascinating piece, the author reports that al-Shabaab has made little effort to implement containment or social distancing measures in the extensive rural areas that it controls in Somalia. In fact, it has resisted shutting down a network of Islamic schools and mosques that it operates. Al-Shabaab's media campaign portrays the pandemic as a divine punishment from Allah, meted out to the nonbelievers across the world for their "evil deeds" against Muslims and jihadists. One al-Shabaab-aligned cleric who is well known in Somalia preaches that COVID-19 affects only the enemies of Islam, specifically referring to China, which he argued was being punished for its persecution of Uyghur Muslims.

Can Eritrea's Government Survive the Coronavirus?

Aljazeera published on 30 April 2020 a commentary titled "Can Eritrea's Government Survive the Coronavirus?" by Abraham T. Zere, executive director of an Eritrean group in exile.

By rejecting China's offer of ventilators and personal protective equipment to combat coronavirus, Eritrea hindered its ability to deal with the crisis. The author suggests mishandling of the threat may bring down the government. It should be noted, however, that as of 28 April, Eritrea reported only 39 confirmed cases of coronavirus and the country has been in lockdown since 1 April.

Somalia Totally Unprepared for Coronavirus

AlJazeera posted on 19 March 2020 an article titled "Coronavirus Pandemic: Experts Say Somalia Risk Greater than China" by Hamza Mohamed.

Somalia does not have a single coronavirus testing kit and no information on the pandemic is coming from those parts of the country controlled by al-Shabaab.

Comparing African and Chinese Traditional Medicine

The China-Africa Reporting Project at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg reprinted a 12 February 2016 online posting titled "Qi Flows from Beijing to Gaborone" by Baboki Kayawe, a staffer at Mmegi Online. The reprint appears as Part I, Part II, and Part III.

This in-depth journalistic account looks at the history and development of traditional medicine in Africa and China, the relevance of Chinese traditional medicine to Africa, and the need to integrate modern Western medicine.