Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika on Tuesday announced that the landlocked country will implement a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has claimed two lives. In a televised national address, Mutharika said the lockdown will be effective from midnight on Saturday and will end on May 9. “This lockdown may be extended beyond 9th May as circumstances warrant, he cautioned. “I would like to urge you to fully comply with the measures because they are for the good of our country.” So far, 16 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Malawi mainly in the main cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, the special cabinet committee announced on Monday. Mutharika warned that up to 50,000 lives could be lost if measures were not put in place to spread the of the virus in the southeastern African country. … When the first case was declared on April 2, Malawi announced the closure of all schools countrywide and restricted public gatherings to no less than 50 people.
Man believed to be Brazil’s biggest cocaine supplier arrested in Mozambique
One of Brazil’s most wanted people, an alleged drug baron accused of running international cocaine operations for the country’s biggest gang, has been arrested in Mozambique. Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos, believed to be the leader of the First Capital Command (PCC), was arrested in an international sting that included agents from Brazil, Mozambique and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Mozambican police confirmed the arrest on Tuesday. He is accused of shipping tonnes of cocaine around the world, the Brazilian federal police said “The accused was considered the largest cocaine supplier” for the PCC, and had been on the run for more than 20 years, it said. Dos Santos was arrested at the Montebelo Indy, a luxury hotel in Maputo, along with two Nigerian nationals. He had arrived in the southern African country in mid-March, a Mozambique police spokesman, Leonardo Simbine, said. … Simbine said: “He does not operate alone, he is part of a gang. We are still investigating whether there are other gang members in Mozambique.”
Somalia sees spike in COVID-19 cases
Somalia has registered a spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases after 35 People tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. The Federal Minister for Health, Dr Fawzia Abikar Nur, said the country now has 60 confirmed cases from 25. “We hereby confirm 35 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 60,” the Minister told the media in the capital Mogadishu. Three of the new cases were in the breakaway region of Somaliland. … In the daily Covid-19 update, Minister Nur explained on Monday that 52 of the confirmed cases were recovering in their houses, being self-isolated. One more patient is recuperating at an isolation centre in the Halane camp, the base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). … Meanwhile, on Sunday, the government announced a night curfew in Mogadishu effective April 15th. General Abdi Hassan Hijar, the commander of Somali Police Force, said the move is meant to contain the spread of coronavirus in the capital.
Virus choking off supply of what Africa needs most: Food
In a pre-dawn raid in food-starved Zimbabwe, police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown confiscated and destroyed 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables by setting fire to it. Wielding batons, they scattered a group of rural farmers who had traveled overnight, breaking restrictions on movement to bring the precious produce to one of the country’s busiest markets. The food burned as the farmers went home empty-handed, a stupefying moment for a country and a continent where food is in critically short supply. It was an extreme example of how lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus may be choking Africa’s already-vulnerable food supply. Lockdowns in at least 33 of Africa’s 54 countries have blocked farmers from getting food to markets and threatened deliveries of food assistance to rural populations. Many informal markets where millions buy their food are shut. About one in every five people in Africa, nearly 250 million, already didn’t have enough food before the virus outbreak, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. A quarter of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished.
