United News of Bangladesh

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan confirmed on Monday that a sample from northern Tanzania tested positive for Marburg disease, a highly contagious virus with a fatality rate of up to 88% if untreated. President Hassan made the announcement in the capital, Dodoma, during a joint briefing with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The WHO had earlier reported a suspected Marburg outbreak in Tanzania’s Kagera region on January 14, linking it to eight deaths. However, Tanzanian health authorities had initially dismissed the claim, stating that tests conducted on samples yielded negative results. Hassan clarified that while one sample tested positive for the virus, 25 other samples returned negative. Bird flu found in a Georgia commercial flock for the 1st time amid the nationwide outbreak Marburg, which is closely related to Ebola, is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and spreads through contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces like soiled bedsheets. Common symptoms of the virus include fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and, in severe cases, death due to significant blood loss. There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. This marks the second Marburg outbreak in Kagera since 2023. The latest case comes just a month after neighboring Rwanda declared the end of its own Marburg outbreak. Rwanda reported 66 infections and 15 deaths in its outbreak, which was first detected on September 27. Many of the affected were healthcare workers who attended to the initial cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on January 15 that a suspected outbreak of Marburg disease has resulted in eight fatalities in a remote area of northern Tanzania. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that there have been nine cases so far, with eight deaths. He stated, "We anticipate more cases in the coming days as disease surveillance efforts intensify." Who is Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the New Orleans truck attack suspect? Marburg, like Ebola, is caused by a virus that originates in fruit bats and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces, such as bedding. The disease has a fatality rate of up to 88% without treatment, with symptoms including fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and in severe cases, death due to significant blood loss. There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for Marburg. The WHO assessed the outbreak's risk as high at the national and regional levels, but low on a global scale. Tanzanian health authorities have not yet issued a response. A Marburg outbreak in Rwanda, first reported on September 27, was declared over on December 20, after claiming 15 lives and infecting 66 individuals, primarily healthcare workers who treated the initial cases. Additionally, a 2023 Marburg outbreak in Kagera, near the Rwanda border, resulted in at least five deaths.      

Tanzania's Blue Economy and Fisheries Minister Suleiman Masoud Makame has said his country is interested in establish cooperation with Bangladesh in the blue economy by signing an agreement after Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen suggested that both countries sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the area. Tanzania is particularly interested in aquaculture and deep-sea fisheries, he added. Momen met Suleiman on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) conference in Dhaka Wednesday. Suleiman was accompanied by the principal secretary of his ministry. Momen was accompanied by the secretary (east) and other officials of the foreign ministry. Thanking Suleiman for joining the Council of Ministers (COM) meeting, Momen said Bangladesh has attained remarkable achievements in agriculture, including fisheries, health and other socio-economic areas. Read more: IORA ministers meet Thursday, Momen for making the best use of sea He proposed that Bangladesh and Tanzania work together to achieve food security. Suleiman said Tanzania would offer contract farming opportunities to Bangladesh entrepreneurs. The Tanzanian minister also proposed that Bangladesh can share the ecotourism experience of Tanzania. Momen invited Tanzanian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh's economic zones. He suggested that there may also be cooperation in the IT sector. The foreign minister sought the support of the Tanzanian government on the Rohingya issue as well as in different elections where Bangladesh would have candidature. Read more: Bangladesh, Tanzania keen to work on blue economy, agriculture

 A small passenger plane crashed Sunday morning into Lake Victoria on approach to an airport in Tanzania, and the country’s prime minister says 19 people on board were killed. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa gave the new death toll, up from three. Earlier, local authorities said 26 of those on the Precision Air flight from the coastal city of Dar es Salaam were rescued and taken to a hospital. It was not clear if any of those who were rescued died at the hospital. Photos showed the plane, which was headed to Bukoba Airport, mostly submerged in the lake. Precision Air is a Tanzanian airline company. Read more: 2 pilots die as Russian warplane falls on building in Siberia “We have managed to save quite a number of people,” Kagera province police commander William Mwampaghale told journalists.

Bangladesh and Tanzania have agreed to work with Bangladesh in agriculture, blue economy and other economic sectors through establishing official contacts. Tanzania has expressed interest to know about the aquaculture, fisheries sectors, shipbuilding industry and horticultural sector of Bangladesh. They also highlighted the importance of exchange of business delegations to develop their trade and economy. Tanzanian Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Mashimba Mashauri Ndaki and Minister of Blue Economy and Fisheries Abdullah Hussein Kombo met Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at the State Guest House Padma on Monday evening and discussed the ways of broader cooperation. Read: France to donate 2mn doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh: FM Both the ministers are visiting Dhaka for participating in the 21st Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers and related meetings.  

After nearly a week of vicious fighting, Mozambique's rebels controlled about half of the strategic town of Palma on Tuesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the country's north and jeopardizing the multi-billion-dollar investment in offshore gas fields. About 200 rebels armed with automatic rifles, machine guns, and mortars now control the part of Palma where government offices and banks are located, according to local media reports. Thousands of residents already have fled to nearby Tanzania and south to the provincial capital of Pemba, according to international aid agencies. More than 900,000 people in Mozambique now require food aid because of the crisis in the northern part of the country, according to the U.N. World Food Program. "It is a fast-evolving conflict situation and large numbers of people are fleeing through the bush, with nothing, nothing by the clothes on their backs," Lola Castro, the regional director for WFP told The Associated Press. "This humanitarian crisis is not going away, it's increasing." Palma's streets are deserted except for sporadic gunfire from the rebels, said Lionel Dyck, director of the Dyck Advisory Group, whose helicopter gunships are helping the Mozambican police battle the insurgents. "It's actually quite dire on the ground. It's chaos because there's still no real control and there won't be control for some time," Dyck, a retired colonel in the Zimbabwean army, told the AP on Tuesday. "We are fighting the people on the ground and we are at the same time looking for stragglers," he said. "As we are flying over areas, we look for people that are hiding in the bush ... We can use our squirrel helicopters and go out and pick up the civilians and move them to a friendly base." The insurgents, who are allied to the Islamic State group, also attacked a site on the Indian Ocean coast near Macomia last week, showing their reach across Cabo Delgado province, according to local media reports. The three-year insurgency of the rebels, who are primarily disaffected young Muslim men, has taken more than 2,600 lives and displaced an estimated 670,000 people, according to the U.N. A video posted by the Islamic State group purports to show fighters in or near Palma, but cannot be independently verified by The Associated Press. About 50 armed fighters in a mix of camouflage uniforms, black shirts, and red headscarves are gathered for what appears to be a roll call. "Permission to kill where we are going," and "Permission to cut and kill where we are going," is shouted by some men, speaking a local dialect of Swahili and Arabic. The rebels are known locally as al-Shabab (the youth in Arabic) but have no known affiliation with the jihadist rebels of the same name in Somalia. The United States last week declared Mozambique's rebels to be a terrorist organization and announced that 12 military trainers had been deployed to help the southern African country's marines. Portugal, Mozambique's former colonial power, announced Tuesday that is stepping up its military cooperation by sending 60 soldiers to help train Mozambican special forces. The European Union is also preparing "to increase security cooperation (with Mozambique), possibly via support with equipment or training," Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said in a statement. The France-based oil and gas company has pulled out of its operations on the outskirts of Palma, a multi-billion-dollar investment to pump liquified natural gas from offshore oilfields in the Indian Ocean. Earlier this year the company had said it requires an area covering a 25-kilometer (15-mile) radius to be secure from rebel violence. Palma is within that area, making it uncertain when the oil giant will resume its investment.

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.

The Trump administration announced Friday that it was restricting immigrants from six additional countries that officials said failed to meet minimum security standards, as part of an election-year push to further clamp down immigration.

Tanzanian conservation authorities said on Saturday the world's oldest free-ranging female black rhino has died in the Ngorongoro crater aged 57.

Tanzania's ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), on Friday unanimously resolved to summon one retired government minister and two retired leaders of the party to respond to ethical allegations facing them.