Tanzania

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) said on Thursday that eight new cases of the deadly Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, bringing the total of confirmed and probable cases to 20 since the mysterious outbreak began in February. Tanzania surprisingly reported five deaths this week in that country’s first known Marburg infections.

The government of Uganda on Thursday terminated a Chinese company’s contract to build a major railroad to Kenya and is now considering a replacement deal with a Turkish firm.

Three people have died in Tanzania’s Lindi region in recent days after contracting an unidentified illness characterized by symptoms including “nosebleeds, fever, headaches and fatigue,” Africanews reported on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Yi spent much of Sunday discussing potential Chinese investments with his counterparts from Algeria, Tanzania, and Zambia, claiming that the war between Ukraine and Russia demands even more Chinese attention on the continent of Africa.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Wednesday became the first national in Tanzania to receive a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, heralding a shift in public health policy for the previously coronavirus-skeptic country.

At least 45 people were killed in a stampede that broke out last week in Dar es Salaam during a public viewing of Tanzania’s late president, John Magufuli, local police confirmed on Monday.

Tens of thousands of Tanzanians packed a stadium in Dar es Salaam to honor late Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Saturday.

Tanzanian Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan seemed to imply that Tanzanian President John Magufuli was sick on Monday amid unproven rumors that he may have contracted the Chinese coronavirus since he disappeared from the public eye last month.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli is allegedly in India receiving medical treatment for the Chinese coronavirus, Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu told Reuters on Thursday.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli expressed doubt over foreign-made Chinese coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday, encouraging his countrymen to pray to God while inhaling steam as a natural way to bolster their immune systems against the virus.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) revealed on Thursday that faulty coronavirus test kits imported to Tanzania – which produced positive samples for a goat and a pawpaw, a papaya-like fruit – came from China, Reuters reported. Prior to the revelation, the origin of the imported test kits was unknown.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli denounced imported coronavirus test kits as faulty after he said they returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw [papaya], Reuters reported on Sunday.

Police arrested a prominent lawyer in Tanzania on Wednesday for saying the Chinese coronavirus was “serious” and “a real threat,” Tanzanian newspaper The Citizen reported.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Wednesday called for international lenders, particularly the World Bank, to forgive existing African loans instead of offering new loans to help rebuild the continent’s economies after the Wuhan virus pandemic.

Kenyans have long complained that the massive Standard Gauge Railroad (SGR) project financed by loans from China’s Belt and Road (BRI) infrastructure project was an expensive indulgence that created few good jobs for local people because Chinese managers and engineers were brought in to handle the work. Documents made public this week from the Chinese contractor that handled the project revealed that the number of workers imported from China was much higher than previously admitted, and the cost of their high salaries and very comfortable accommodations was borne by Kenyan taxpayers.

Tanzania mourned at least 20 people killed in a stampede at a Pentecostal church on Saturday, plus another 20 killed by floods caused by torrential rains.

More than 260,000 foreign nationals have been legally admitted to the United States from all 13 travel ban countries between 2016 and 2018.

The government of Mozambique launched a new conference and training session initiative in partnership with an albino rights NGO Wednesday urging citizens to cease killing, raping, and using the body parts of people with albinism in witchcraft ceremonies.

ROME (AP) — Police in Italy say they have arrested 19 people, most from Tanzania, as part of dismantling a heroin ring involving more than 150 suspects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Kenya identified a potential Ebola patient on Monday and Tanzania announced heightened security measures this weekend amid a growing Ebola outbreak that spilled over into Uganda from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week, the second-worst outbreak of the virus on record.

The government of Zambia held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for a memorial to the dozens of Chinese workers who died building the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) in the 1970s.

A Tanzanian archbishop has called upon his countrymen to reject homosexuality and abortion as new forms of Western “colonialism.”

A minority party politician in Malawi reignited the debate regarding the use of the death penalty in the African country, Malawi’s Nyasa Times reported Tuesday, calling for the execution of killers targeting albino people to sell their body parts on the black market.

India’s army is expected to participate in military training exercises in March with a few African countries including Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania, various news outlets reported Wednesday, as regional rival China expands its military footprint across the continent.

The governor of the biggest city in Tanzania urged residents this week to help him round up people in the region whom they believe to be gay. He announced the creation of “surveillance squads” to hunt down same-sex couples, who will then be arrested.

The family of a 43-year-old African billionaire offered $330,000 in return for information on his whereabouts on Monday after gunmen kidnapped him from a luxury hotel in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.

The Speaker of Tanzanian Parliament Job Ndugai announced on Monday that female MP’s with false eyelashes and false fingernails may no longer enter the legislative house.

Tanzania’s new suite of Internet regulations includes a $930 annual fee for anyone who runs a blog, coupled with extensive registration paperwork that includes a bizarre amount of financial information about the applicant, comparable to the business plan that would be submitted to secure a commercial loan from a bank.

A judge in South Africa sentenced a man to four life sentences in prison on Tuesday for the murder of his nieces and nephews – whose ears, the court found, he planned to sell at a high price to a witch doctor for use in potions.

China’s Communist Party has spent years promoting the value its “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure project could have for Africa. As the Trump administration ramps up its campaign to turn Africa away from China, some columnists throughout the continent appear to be listening.

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The UK will spend £180 million of taxpayers’ money over five years in Africa in an effort to convince migrants to stay where they are, reintegrate, or “return home”.

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Contents: Severe drought in Kenya increases violence among herders, farmers and police; Tensions rise between Kenya and Tanzania over chicks and cattle

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