africa
Canal service provider says container ship in Suez set free
Salvage teams on Monday set free a colossal container ship that has halted global trade through the Suez Canal, a canal services firm said, bringing an end to a crisis that for nearly a week clogged one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries.
Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.
After hauling the fully laden 220,000-ton vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.
Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the center of the artery.
Video released by the Suez Canal Authority showed the Ever Given being escorted by the tugboats that helped free it, each sounding off their horns in jubilation after nearly a week of chaos.
Also read: What we know about a ship blocking the Suez Canal
The obstruction has created a massive traffic jam in the vital passage, holding up $9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
It remained unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, have piled up on either end of the canal, waiting to pass.
Data firm Refinitiv estimated it could take more than 10 days to clear the backlog of ships. Meanwhile, dozens of vessels have opted for the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip — a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) detour that adds some two weeks to journeys and costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.
The freeing of the vessel came after dredgers vacuumed up sand and mud from the vessel’s bow and 10 tugboats pushed and pulled the vessel for five days, managing to partially refloat it at dawn.
It wasn’t clear whether the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship hauling goods from Asia to Europe, would continue to its original destination of Rotterdam or if it would need to enter another port for repairs.
Also read: Ship ‘partially refloated,’ but still stuck in Suez Canal
Ship operators did not offer a timeline for the reopening of the crucial canal, which carries over 10% of global trade, including 7% of the world’s oil. Over 19,000 ships passed through last year, according to canal authorities.
Millions of barrels of oil and liquified natural gas flow through the artery from the Persian Gulf to Europe and North America. Goods made in China — furniture, clothes, supermarket basics — bound for Europe also must go through the canal, or else take the detour around Africa.
The unprecedented shutdown had threatened to disrupt oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East and raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers.
The salvage operation successfully relied on tugs and dredgers alone, allowing authorities to avoid the far more complex and lengthy task of lightening the vessel by offloading its 20,000 containers.
African expert warns of 'vaccine war' over access to jabs
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against a “vaccine war” among nations amid renewed fears vaccine shipments to the continent face delays.
John Nkengasong said in a briefing Thursday that he “truly feels helpless that this situation is going to significantly impact our ability to fight this virus," referring to reports that the Serum Institute of India is suspending major exports of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in order to meet rising demand at home.
“Without ramping (up) access to vaccines we will be challenged, continue to be challenged. Lives will be lost,” Dr. Nkengasong said, noting that he remains hopeful "the power of humanity will prevail.”
Also read: Virus variants, vaccine inequity responsible for rising Covid caseload: WHO
He added: “There is absolutely no need, absolutely no need for us as humanity to go into a vaccine war to fight this pandemic. We will all be losers.”
The Serum Institute of India produces the AstraZeneca shots being shipped to Africa through the international COVAX initiative to ensure vaccine access for low- and middle-income countries. At least 28 of Africa's 54 countries have received over 16 million doses via COVAX as of Thursday.
Vaccine shipments through COVAX continue to arrive across Africa. South Sudan, for example, on Thursday received its first batch of 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in what WHO called “a giant step” toward equitable destruction of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.
But COVAX has been facing delays related to the limited global supply of vaccine doses as well as logistical issues. That’s why some countries such as South Africa, the hardest-hit African nation, are also pursuing COVID-19 vaccines via bilateral deals and through the African Union’s bulk-purchasing program.
Also read: Leaders of "Quad" agree to aid vaccine delivery to developing nation
At least 10 African countries are yet to receive vaccines, according to the World Health Organization's regional office for Africa. Those countries include Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea, Cameroon, and Chad.
The continent has "has received limited doses and much later than the rest of the world,” Dr. Richard Mihigo, a program coordinator in charge of immunization and vaccine development with WHO's Africa office, said in a briefing Thursday.
“We are concerned that while COVAX vaccinations have enabled many African countries to roll out vaccinations, the slow pace of vaccine supply we are now seeing risks widening the gap between the world's vaccinated and the unvaccinated populations,” he said, charging that it's unfair that some wealthy nations “are looking to vaccinate their entire populations” while Africa continues to lag behind.
There are ongoing discussions between WHO, the global vaccine alliance GAVI and Indian authorities aimed at ensuring COVAX shipments continue to be prioritized, the official said.
Africa hopes to vaccinate 60% of its 1.3 billion people by mid-2022 in order to achieve herd immunity, when enough people are protected through infection or vaccination to make it difficult for a virus to continue to spread. That amounts to about 1.5 billion vaccine doses.
That target almost certainly will not be met without widespread use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which many experts see as key to the global strategy to stamp out the coronavirus pandemic. The vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker is cheaper and easier to store than many others. It will make up nearly all of the doses shipped in the first half of the year via COVAX.
Experts have warned that until vaccination rates are high the world over, the virus remains a threat everywhere.
“We are all in this together. This is a global pandemic, and we need to solve it through global vaccination, global public health methods," said Anthony Costello, a professor of global health and sustainable development at University College London.
Also read: AstraZeneca confirms strong vaccine protection after US rift
Costello told the WHO briefing that while Africa, with its much younger population, is seeing lower death rates than other regions, "we must put pressure on wealthy countries to ensure that they offer the finance and the assistance to Africa to get the required number of vaccines.”
Africa has confirmed more than 4 million cases of COVID-19, including 110,000 deaths, according to the Africa CDC.
Bhutanese PM, delegation members start 21-day quarantine
Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering returned to his country on Thursday and started a 21-day mandatory quarantine.
Other delegation members are also undergoing 21-day mandatory quarantine starting on Thursday.
The Bhutanese Prime Minister drove himself from the airport to the quarantine facility in the car that was parked at the airport, according to his office.
Also Read: President hosts Bhutan PM at Bangabhaban
The delegation was given escort to the respective facilities in the quarantine pool vehicles.
Samia Suluhu Hassan becomes Tanzania's first woman president
Samia Suluhu Hassan made history Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president after the death of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.
Gunmen abduct 30 students from school in northwest Nigeria
Gunmen have attacked a school in northwestern Nigeria and kidnapped at least 30 students just weeks after a similar attack in the region, authorities said Friday.
Death toll from explosions in Equatorial Guinea rises to 98
The death toll from a series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea rose by dozens to at least 98 killed after more bodies were recovered, the government said Tuesday.
Zimbabwe's women battle gender discrimination amid pandemic
There are very few female truck drivers in Zimbabwe, but Molly Manatse doesn't like to be singled out for her gender.
Death toll in bombing in Somalia's capital rises to 20
The death toll has risen to at least 20 after a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a popular restaurant in Somalia’s capital on Friday night, with 30 wounded, the government news agency reported Saturday.
10 killed in South Sudan plane crash
Ten people were killed in a commercial plane crash in South Sudan's Jonglei state on Tuesday evening, a senior government official said Wednesday.
Nigerian governor says 279 kidnapped schoolgirls are freed
Hundreds of Nigerian girls abducted last week from a boarding school in the country's northwest have been released, a state governor said Tuesday, ending the latest in a spate of such kidnappings in the West African nation.