Covid-19

Back in March, it was the lull before the storm, with predictions of three million deaths from Covid-19 in Africa. Thankfully, the storm never came. Today, it is...

As Africa cautiously welcomes the positive news that it looks like it will escape the worst ravages of Covid-19 infections, it is also having to deal with the...

The shadow-boxing over Covid-19 in Africa appears to be over. While retaining measures to protect public health wherever possible, the priority is now shifting to opening up economies...

As Winnie Byanyima celebrates her first anniversary as Executive Director of UNAIDS, storm clouds circle her campaigning style. For her supporters, she has brought a breath of fresh...

With Covid-19 positive cases doubling in the last two weeks, Africa is expected to notch up its millionth patient in the coming days. 'We are at a pivotal...

As the World Health Organization warns of rapidly rising Covid-19 caseloads in Africa, its top official for the continent says that poor and crowded urban areas in South...

The message from African finance ministers is that while the overall picture facing the continent is bleak in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many economies are resilient...

Across Africa, lockdowns are loosening even as Covid-19 continues its inexorable journey across the continent. As Johannesburg, Cairo and Lagos feel the heat, other cities and countries that...

Covid-19 is serious enough, but in Africa the unintended consequences of diverting health service resources may be even worse. 'The knock-on effects of Covid-19 on the fight against...

When Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the nation on 4 June, he outlined a dilemma facing many governments. The scientists were telling him to maintain the lockdown while...

African diplomats are pushing back against an attempt by United States officials to undermine Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's leadership of the World Health Organisation (WHO) ahead of its general...

Industrialised countries are defending funding research to find a vaccine for Covid-19 out of Official Development Assistance funds against a possible challenge from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation...

No doubt without intending to, United States President Donald Trump succeeded in dissolving many differences between the World Health Organisation and the pre-eminent US public health institution, the...

Criticisms are mounting about the lack of a coherent national strategy to manage the coronavirus pandemic. The missing piece is effective leadership from the national task force, under...

With South Africa in the third week of a lockdown that may only be lifted at the end of April, and possibly not even then, President Cyril Ramaphosa...

Serial financial crises and political meddling have weakened the operations of the World Health Organisation for decades but the rivalries between the United States and China over the...

Backed by forecasts from the World Bank and UN agencies of a deep recession, African finance ministers are to push next week for a coordinated response on public...

Top African and UN officials are desperately lobbying a divided international system for a US$100 billion emergency fund to combat what they fear will be a third wave...

As cases of Covid-19 grow exponentially across the world, so do the public health and economic threats to African states as governments take action. With over 20 countries...

The South African government has vowed to respond to the double shock of the coronavirus pandemic and a credit ratings downgrade by making overdue structural reforms to prevent...

The Covid-19 pandemic took until the middle of March, when the first domestic cases were reported, to rouse the government. Then, on 18 March, President Félix Tshisekedi announced...

After speculation about his health and whether he was even in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari gave a belated televised address on 29 March announcing a lockdown of...

The first reaction of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front high-ups to the pandemic was to blame the West, or at least to gloat at its misfortune. Defence Minister...

President Mokgweetsi Masisi's leadership on the coronavirus crisis got off to a bad start. On 21 March, days after telling the nation about isolating, not travelling, and all...

Even without the coronavirus pandemic it was always doubtful that 2020 would be the year Angola would return to growth, as President João Lourenço had promised. After a...

Although the coronavirus pandemic has yet to affect Namibia seriously – as April began there were only 10 confirmed cases and no deaths – President Hage Geingob's government...

Egypt has been one of countries most severely affected in Africa, with cases approaching 1,000 and deaths nearing 50 as March came to an end. The first cases...

One person who may have welcomed the coronavirus was Prime Minster Thomas Thabane, who was in a terminal political crisis when it struck. He had promised to resign...

The coronavirus pandemic will not only leave Kenyans much poorer, but also change the political landscape profoundly, according to the latest thinking. One likely casualty will be the...

At the end of March, the government restricted movement between Greater Abidjan and the rest of the country. The streets of the commercial capital are almost deserted. Borders...

Tanzania stands apart from its neighbours in its response to Covid-19. President John Magufuli has resisted imposing blanket restrictions on movement, curfews and other forms of lockdown, insisting...

Officially, South Sudan remained one of the few African countries at the beginning of April to be free of the coronavirus, although draconian measures are in place to...

Algerians became accustomed to staying at home during the 1990s conflict between the state and radical Islam. The extent to which they are prepared to observe the lockdown...

The fifth most infected country in Africa, Tunisia is also the only relative success story of the 2011 Arab Spring, but there are fears that the coronavirus could...

Baton blows to over-sociable Dakarois and raids on wedding parties were not the gentlest way for police to secure the public's cooperation with quarantine and social distancing rules...

Madagascar is on few international airline routes, so Covid-19 came late to the island. The authorities were able to impose quarantine on arriving travellers early, even before the...

Malians voted with their feet, choosing to protect themselves from the Covid-19 virus rather than cast ballots in parliamentary elections on 29 March. The turnout fell to 5%...

A third attempt to get the UN Security Council to declare the coronavirus pandemic a 'threat to humanity and international peace and security' and coordinate the necessary emergency...

Unlike its neighbours, Libya reported no coronavirus cases before 24 March, a beneficial effect of the civil war restricting the movement of people and businesses in and out...

In the first week of Morocco's lockdown, King Mohammed VI ordered a show of force his late father King Hassan II would have approved, calling troops and tanks...

Despite the lower numbers of people infected by the coronavirus in the region, Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, warns of the need for...

The collapse of the global financial markets, the tanking oil price, and the threat of a major global economic recession have radically altered the backdrop to South Africa's...