World

Prepare for the Worst, WHO Warns Africa As Top Burkinabe Politician Dies

Published

6 years ago

March 19, 2020

Eric

Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first COVID-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organisation urged the continent to “prepare for the worst”.

“Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that “in other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point”.

Africa has lagged behind the global curve for coronavirus infections and deaths, but in the past few days has seen a significant rise in cases.

Experts have repeatedly warned about the perils for the continent, given its weak health infrastructure, poverty, conflicts, poor sanitation and urban crowding.

Medical authorities in the poor Sahel state of Burkina Faso announced Wednesday that the number of infections there had risen by seven to 27 — and that one of them, a 62-year-old diabetic woman, had died overnight.

The country’s main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), said in a statement that the victim was its lawmaker Rose-Marie Compaore, the first vice president of the parliament.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised economy, reported a more than one-third jump in cases, with 31 new infections bringing its tally to 116.

Nearby Zambia announced its first two confirmed cases — a couple that returned to the capital Lusaka from a 10-day holiday in France.

As of Wednesday, a tally of reported cases compiled by AFP stood at more than 600 for all of Africa.

Of these, 16 cases have been fatal: six in Egypt, six in Algeria, two in Morocco, one in Sudan and one in Burkina Faso.

Those figures are relatively small compared to the rest of world — the global death toll has passed 8,800 with almost 210,000 total infections.

WHO chief Tedros said sub-Saharan Africa had recorded 233 infections, but warned the official numbers likely did not reflect the full picture.

“Probably we have undetected cases or unreported cases,” he said.

– ‘We live day-to-day’ –

Watching from afar as disaster unfolds in Asia and Europe, some African countries have wasted little time in ordering drastic measures.

Air traffic has been particularly hard hit, as many of Africa’s initial cases were detected in people who had returned from affected countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Some countries, such as Somalia, Chad, Guinea-Bissau and, most recently, the island of Madagascar have moved to stop all flights into their countries.

On Wednesday, Cape Verde — a tropical archipelago off Africa’s west coast that is heavily dependent on tourism — and the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, joined others in banning flights from the countries most affected by coronavirus.

Burkina Faso has ordered the closure of all schools and barred all public and private gatherings until the end of April.

There was concern on the unusually quiet streets of the capital Ouagadougou on Wednesday.

“It’s worrying what is happening with this virus, but we cannot barricade ourselves like developed countries. We lack everything here — we live day-to-day,” said bicycle seller Boureima Baguian.

“We cannot, for example, close the big market. If that happens, it’s not the coronavirus that will kill us but misery and hunger.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo announced similar measures as it reported its first local case, banning flights from affected countries and closing schools and universities for four weeks.

South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa’s worst-hit country, has banned cruise ships from its ports. More than 1,700 people are stranded on a liner off Cape Town over fears that some have the virus.

It is just the latest blow to tourism across the continent, with coronavirus fears also cancelling sporting, cultural and religious events.

Christian and Muslim leaders in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal said they would suspend services to protect their faithful.

– ‘Disease hot spot’ –

A 2016 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a US think-tank, found that of the 25 countries in the world that were most vulnerable to infectious outbreaks, 22 were in Africa — the others were Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.

The report identified a “disease hotspot belt” extending across the southern rim of the Sahara through the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, where many countries are struggling with conflicts.

“Were a communicable disease to emerge within this chain of countries, it could easily spread across borders in all directions, abetted by high overall vulnerability and a string of weak national health systems along the way,” the report warned.

Tedros recommended that mass gatherings be avoided, urging Africa to “cut it from the bud, expecting that the worst can happen”.

“The best advice for Africa is to prepare for the worst and prepare today,” he said.

AFP.

Middle East

Iran Confuses Israel As Missile Splits into Multiple Warheads in Tel Aviv

Published

2 days ago

March 9, 2026

Eric

Israeli authorities are investigating a missile strike in central Tel Aviv that may have involved a weapon breaking into several parts before impact.

The Israeli government’s press office described the incident as a direct hit from a ballistic missile.

A police commander in the Tel Aviv area also told a local Israeli television station that the impact involved what he described as a “splitting missile.”

The description has raised the possibility that the weapon may have been a type of cluster munition. These weapons contain smaller explosive “bomblets” that separate from the main missile and spread across a wider area after the initial explosion.

Israel has previously accused Iran of using similar munitions earlier in the conflict and during the 12-Day War last June.

Cluster munitions are banned by more than 100 countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, although Iran, Israel and the United States are not signatories to the treaty.

At the scene of the explosion in Tel Aviv, a CNN reporter said investigators are examining debris believed to be part of the missile.

“Debris still falls in central Tel Aviv even after interceptions. One key piece behind me here that investigators are poring over, one official here telling us that it seems to perhaps be one of the warheads we’ve noticed that appear to split in the sky and send off separate fragments down. Now nobody as far as we understand injured in this location but it’s a sign that despite the fact we’ve seen probably less missiles overall fired by Iran over the past days, it only takes one even with the sophisticated air defences here to cause some havoc in a scene like this.”

The reporter, in to a CNN video, added that the strike has drawn attention from investigators trying to determine whether the weapon signals a change in Iran’s missile capabilities.

“But across the region the focus perhaps now turning as it’s clear Iran’s missile capacities have come down on their ability to wreak havoc closer to Iranian shores with drones that are hitting around the but the scene behind me here is still one of intense scrutiny as I think they try and work out if this marks some kind of new development in Iranian missile technology.”

World

140 Missing As US Submarine Sinks Iran’s Warship in Indian Ocean

Published

6 days ago

March 5, 2026

Eric

No fewer than 140 persons are missing after an Iranian navy ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan navy says around 180 people were on board, with 32 rescued.

A spokesperson told the BBC the cause of the sinking was not known. But US Defence Secretary (Secretary of War) said that the US submarine sank Iranian warship with torpedo in Indian Ocean.

Hegseth says that in the Indian Ocean, the US sank “an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters”.

“Instead it was sunk by a torpedo,” he says.

Hegseth did not name the Iranian ship that was attacked.

But earlier, the Sri Lankan navy reported the IRIS Dena went down in the Indian Ocean, with around 140 people on board missing.

Hegseth says “more waves” are coming

This “was never meant to be a fair fight, and it’s not a fair fight”, says Hegseth, adding that the US was punching Iran “while they’re down”.

“More and larger waves are coming, we are just getting started,” he said

Hegseth says Iranian regime are “toast”

Hegseth said the results over the past four days had been “incredible, historic really”.

“They are toast, and they know it,” he said referring to the Iranian regime.

He added that US forces had begun to “hunt, dismantle, demoralise, destroy and defeat” the regime’s capabilities.

He said that Iranian leaders would be looking up and seeing only “US and Israeli air power” until US and Israel decided the war was over.

“America is winning,’” says Hegseth

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “America is winning, decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”

“We are only four days in”, he said, but “as Trump has said” the US “will take all the time we need” to make sure the operation is a success.

BBC

Middle East

Israel Declares Hezbollah Leader Marked Target

Published

1 week ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has declared the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement a “marked target” following overnight rocket fire from Lebanon.

Katz said on X that Hezbollah chief, Naim Qassem, had acted on orders from Iran in launching attacks on Israel and warned that the group would “pay a heavy price.”

Qassem succeeded Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon in September 2024.

The Israeli military said several rockets were fired from Lebanon overnight, with one intercepted and others landing in open areas.

Hezbollah said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran on Saturday.

In response, Israel said it carried out fresh strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including weapons depots and other infrastructure.

The military reported bombardments in Beirut and elsewhere, saying senior militia members were among those hit.

Meanwhile, residents near the office of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reported no signs of a missile strike on Monday, after Iran claimed it had targeted the building.

The residents said that prime minister’s fate was unknown.

Air raid sirens sounded around noon in the Jerusalem area, as well as in several regions across central and southern Israel.

In spite of the alerts, local police and rescue services said there were no reported hits, injuries, damage or interceptions over Jerusalem.

Residents living close to the prime minister’s office said they had not witnessed any missile impact in the vicinity.

Reporters at the scene observed no visible presence of military personnel, police forces or emergency responders outside the compound.

Traffic in surrounding streets continued as normal, with no smoke seen rising from the area.

The building appeared intact and undamaged.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Iranian statement.

Israeli media commentators dismissed the claim.

Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Channel 12 News, described it as “fake news” in a post on Telegram.

Suleiman Maswadeh, chief diplomatic correspondent for the State-owned Kan, also said on Telegram that the claimed lacked corroboration.