Africa doesn’t care about its women
▻https://africasacountry.com/2019/03/africa-doesnt-care-about-its-women
I remember it well. One afternoon, in an immigration office in Freetown, I applied for my
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No food, no water: African migrants recount terrifying Atlantic crossing
Men rescued off Brazil after 35 days at sea tell of harrowing 3,000km journey on which some drank urine to survive.
In the days after the food and water had run out, as the catamaran drifted helplessly in the Atlantic with a snapped mast and broken motor, there was nothing left to do but pray, said Muctarr Mansaray, 27.
“I pray every day. I pray a lot at that particular moment. I don’t sleep at night,” he said.
Mansaray and 24 other African migrants had set out from the African nation of Cape Verde in April, on what they were told by the two Brazilian crewmen would be a relatively quick and easy voyage to a new country where they hoped to find work.
This weekend, they were rescued by fishermen 80 miles off the coast of Brazil, after an incredible 3,000km (1,864-mile) journey across the Atlantic.
The men, from Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau had been at sea for 35 days – the last few days without food and water.
Details have now begun to emerge of the men’s terrifying and chaotic voyage in a 12-metre catamaran barely big enough for them to squeeze on. When food and water ran out, some even drank sea water and urine.
“After 35 days of journey in these conditions it is really lucky that nobody died,” said Luis Almeida, head of the federal police’s immigration department in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão state.
“There was not a cabin for all of them, so they were exposed to a lot of sun and solar radiation during these 35 days,” he said. The rescued men were disorientated, dehydrated and some had problems seeing after so long exposed to the glare of sun reflected on the waves.
Almeida said the case was unprecedented: African stowaways have been found on cargo ships in Maranhão ports before, but this was the first time a boatload of migrants had arrived in the state. The two Brazilians also on the boat were arrested for promoting illegal immigrations.
The journey began in the island nation of Cape Verde, 400 miles west of Senegal.
Mansaray, a Muslim from Freetown in Sierra Leone, had moved there five years ago to study science and technology with hopes of becoming a teacher. He studied for two years but was struggling to pay his university fees and working as a cellphone repairman.
“They called me the cellphone doctor,” he told the Guardian by phone from São Luís.
A friend who is a student in São Paulo told him he could study for free in Brazil’s biggest city and would be able to send money home to his elderly parents and sister in Freetown. “I said, cool, that’s why I got that boat,” he said.
He said he had been introduced to a Brazilian on the street and then paid $700 (£521) for what he was told would be a 22-day passage.
He became scared when he saw the size of the vessel he was about to cross the Atlantic on.
“I am the last to arrive, when I enter on the boat, a lot of guys, oh my God, is this going to be safe all of us?” he said. “How can I do this journey? Because I am already in, I cannot discourage other people, so I find courage and go.”
‘The motor broke, and the sail broke’Others had paid more on the promise that they would be given food, but within 10 days the food had run out, so the men survived on two biscuits or a few spoonfuls of food each day. One day, one man caught a fish with a rope.
“We boiled a fish, and everybody eat,” Mansaray said.
But the mast snapped when one of the boat’s crew was trying to tie it to the other side of the boat, he said, and the motor would not work because the crew had mixed kerosene and diesel. A storm came as a relief because at least there was rainwater to drink.
Elhadji Mountakha Beye, 36, was hit on the head when the mast broke and has been left with a scar. The mechanic from Dakar in Senegal had previously lived in Cape Verde, and paid €1,000 (£877) for his passage in the hope of finding work in Brazil where he hoped to meet up with a Senegalese friend in São Paulo. “There is better work there than in Senegal,” he said.
He described a hellish journey.
“It was tiring, there was no food, the food ran out, the water ran out,” he said. “Just on that sea. The motor broke, and the sail broke. Now just wait for someone to help us.”
Just as the situation was becoming dire, the men aboard the drifting vessel spotted a fishing boat and signalled that they were in distress. The fishermen, from nearby Ceará state, towed the catamaran to the nearby port of São José de Ribamar.
“The next day someone would have died,” Moisés dos Santos, one of the fishermen, told reporters when the men landed. “They said they ate two biscuits a day. They even drank urine, that’s what they say, they told us. We felt very honoured to save the lives of a lot of people.”
The men were met by a medical team from the Maranhão state government’s secretariat of human rights, taken to a health post for checks and then housed in a local gymnasium.
“All of them said life was precarious in their origin countries and they all have relatives or people they know living in Brazil. They were looking for a better life and to work in Brazil,” said Jonata Galvão, the state’s adjunct secretary for human rights.
Federal police said they were now evaluating a “migratory solution” for the men to stay in Brazil.
“We are not criminals. We are hard-working guys. So I believe that the government will help us to do that,” Mantsaray said. “It is my dream, and I believe my dream will come true with the help of God, and I can support my family back home.”
This story was amended on 23 May 2018 to correct the length of the journey across the Atlantic. It is 3,000km, not 3,000 miles.
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/african-migrant-brazil-boat-rescue-atlantic-crossing#parcours_migratoires #océan_atlantique #atlantique #Afrique #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Brésil
via @isskein -
For lessons on disaster preparedness, Sierra Leone could look to Cuba
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/09/cuba-disaster-sierra-leoneOn August 14th, Mudslides in Freetown, Sierra Leone killed 1,000 people, mostly inhabitants of the urban slums in the hills above the capital. Despite its portrayal as a natural disaster caused by days of heavy rain, “the tragedy was entirely man-made,” as writer Lansana Gberie states bluntly. The result of environmental degradation, lack of disaster preparedness…
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Where Cuba leads, Sierra Leone should follow
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/09/where-cuba-leads-sierra-leone-should-followMudslides in Freetown, Sierra Leone on August 14 killed 1,000 people, mostly inhabitants of the urban slums in the hills above the capital. Despite its portrayal as a natural disaster caused by days of heavy rain, “the tragedy was entirely man-made,” as writer Lansana Gberie states bluntly. The result of environmental degradation, lack of disaster…
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‘Temple Run’ or stay?
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/04/temple-run-or-stay“Back then, when the boats came, people used to run. Now we’d get on gladly, at least it would mean work.” Junior’s bleak jokes are not making anyone laugh. He takes another sip of his Sprite and kicks up the dust on the street where we are sitting in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “That’s why everyone…
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Sierra Leone News: One million hectares of our land in foreign hands-Green Scenery CEO « Awoko Newspaper
▻http://awoko.org/2015/12/11/sierra-leone-news-one-million-hectares-of-our-land-in-foreign-hands-green-sceAbout 1 million hectares of lands in Sierra Leone are presently in the hands of multi-lateral companies,’ Green Scenery Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Rahall made this known to journalists at a one day training for journalists at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown.
The training was for journalists to get au fait with the “Voluntary
Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests” in the context of National Food Security.
He explained that most times the lands are bought at a minimal 15 United States Dollar per hectare. This, he declared, “is a mockery from both the government and investors and to the land owners” too. The companies, he opined, have “sexy names but most of them are not doing well.” The country lands, he said, should be given to companies for a maximum of 25 years and not more than that. The largest amount of land to be given out to companies, he stressed, should be around 1000 to 2000 hectares. Land, he assured, “is a human right to every people and land is a human security too.”
The training, he confirmed, is “for journalists to know how to report on land issues.” He said the Guidelines are there to encourage transparency and participatory application of the VGGT. -
Les conséquences de l’épidémie d’#Ebola sur la #santé_maternelle
FREETOWN/DAKAR, 14 août 2015 (IRIN) - Au cours des 13 dernières années, le taux de mortalité maternelle de la Sierra Leone a enregistré une baisse importante attribuable à l’introduction de soins de santé gratuits pour les femmes enceintes. L’une des conséquences les plus dévastatrices de l’épidémie d’Ebola est sans doute la menace qu’elle fait peser sur les progrès réalisés jusqu’à maintenant, même si on en parle très peu.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=101864
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#Sierra_Leone : où est passé l’argent destiné à lutter contre #Ebola ?
FREETOWN, 31 mars 2015 (IRIN) - Selon un rapport d’audit, les justificatifs de dépense de plus de la moitié des 18 millions de dons du Trésor et de la population qui étaient censés avoir servi à lutter contre Ebola en Sierra Leone, où la maladie a fait 3 764 morts, sont incomplets et un tiers sont officiellement introuvables.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/report/101305/sierra-leone-o%C3%B9-est-pass%C3%A9-l-argent-destin%C3%A9-%C3%A0-lutter-co
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#Ebola in Sierra Leone: “If we had lost Freetown...”
▻http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2015/03/ebola-in-sierra-leone-if-we-had-lost-freetown.htmlThe experts believed it was impossible to stop the virus, which has proven fatal in more than half of cases, from taking hold in the city’s densely populated shanty towns.
He said: “They showed us some very, very simple #graphs, which showed the #exponential curve still rising.”
(...)
The #model may have been wrong, but it doubtless put the British in a suitable frame of mind. No doubt we will hear more now-it-can-be-told stories when Ebola is (for now) stamped out. But the real scare stories will stay with the NGOs, health agencies, and senior bureaucrats, to be shared late at night after enough drinks, and very rarely shared at all with spouses. -
#Ebola : les #enfants sont-ils en sécurité à l’#école ?
Monrovia/Freetown, 23 février 2015 (IRIN) - Plus de deux millions d’élèves reprennent lentement le chemin de l’école au #Liberia et en #Sierra_Leone après six mois de fermeture, en raison de l’épidémie d’Ebola. Les autorités ont pris des mesures pour prévenir de nouvelles transmissions du virus, mais l’inquiétude demeure dans les deux pays.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=101151
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Gestion du virus Ebola l’incompétence de l’ex-ministre de la santé en #Sierra_Leone
▻http://grigrinews.com/gestion-du-virus-ebola-incompetence-de-lex-ministre-de-la-sante-en-sierra-leone/2601« 29/01/2015, Freetown, Sierra Leone : Un député de l’opposition en Sierra Leone a invité l’ancienne ministre de la Santé mise en cause et limogée à cause de sa gestion de l’épidémie d’Ebola à présenter des excuses au peuple sierra-léonais pour l’avoir trompé. »
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"Nouvelle #expulsion vers un pays #Ebola ce mercredi - le collectif manifeste devant #Brussels_Airlines
Après l’expulsion le 13 janvier dernier d’Aboubacar DIA vers la Guinée, les autorités belges persistent et signent en procédant ce jour à une nouvelle expulsion vers un pays touché de plein fouet par la maladie à virus Ebola.
Il s’agit cette fois d’une expulsion sans escales avec Brussels Airlines, destination Freetown en Sierra Leone. C’est la première tentative d’expulsion sans escales organisée par les autorités belges depuis le début de l’épidémie et le refus de la police fédérale d’escorter vers ces pays.
Cette expulsion va à l’encontre des moratoires décrétés dans d’autres pays européens et ignore les recommandations émises par le Haut Commissariat aux Réfugiés des Nations Unies. Elle ne tient en aucune façon compte des ravages causés par l’épidémie dans ces pays. Le Sierra Leone connait à ce jour le plus haut taux de transmissions et compte plus de 3.100 morts recensés.
▻https://www.facebook.com/crer.regularisation/posts/330954343771282
#renvoi #migration #asile #réfugiés-
Mais entre temps, la compagnie aérienne se vante de transporter des vaccins anti-ebola :
Today we are proud to fly the first candidate Ebola vaccine to Monrovia for a trial involving up to 30.000 people
▻https://twitter.com/FlyingBrussels/status/558636778492809216 -
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Fin des mesure de quarantaine concernant le virus Ebola en #Sierra_Leone
▻http://grigrinews.com/fin-des-mesure-de-quarantaine-concernant-le-virus-ebola-en-sierra-leone/2542« 23/01/2015, Freetown, Sierra Leone : bizarrement qui est très trouvé par le virus Ebola, même si celui-ci est en net recul le président le président sierra-léonais Ernest Bai Koroma a annoncé publiquement à la télévision la fin des mesures de quarantaine... »
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Lancement de la campagne « zéro cas d’Ebola » en #Sierra_Leone
▻http://grigrinews.com/lancement-de-la-campagne-zero-cas-ebola-en-sierra-leone/2488« 20/01/2015, Freetown, Sierra Leone - La seconde phase de la campagne intensive dans la région ouest de la Sierra Leone a débuté lundi avec pour objectif de réduire à zéro le nombre de cas du virus Ebola dans la région de Freetown, capitale du pays, et dans les environs. »
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Les survivants d’#Ebola participent à l’amélioration de la lutte contre la maladie
FREETOWN/KAILAHUN/MONROVIA/DAKAR, 14 novembre 2014 (IRIN) - L’épidémie d’Ebola a fait près de 5 000 morts en Guinée, au Liberia et en Sierra Leone, mais de nombreux malades ont survécu et jouent un rôle clé dans la lutte contre la maladie.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=100845
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Améliorer les capacités de #diagnostic d’#Ebola
FREETOWN/DAKAR, 13 novembre 2014 (IRIN) - Selon les organisations d’aide humanitaire et les travailleurs de la santé, des lacunes importantes dans les infrastructures « de second plan » augmentent le temps de réponse et entravent les efforts pour endiguer la maladie en Guinée, au Liberia et en Sierra Leone.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=100836
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EBOLA • La Sierra Leone à bout de forces et de moyens
A Freetown, dans toute la ville, il n’y a pas un bâtiment, un véhicule ou une personne qui ne soit impliqué dans la lutte contre #Ebola. La capitale de la Sierra Leone vit sous le joug du virus. Le pays enregistre plus de 5 200 cas sur les 13 700 cas mondiaux recensés par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS).
▻http://www.courrierinternational.com/une/2014/10/31/la-sierra-leone-a-bout-de-forces-et-de-moyens -
Paul Farmer · Diary: Ebola
►http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n20/paul-farmer/diaryAnyone whose metrics or proof are judged wanting is likely to receive a cool reception, even though the #Ebola crisis should serve as an object lesson and rebuke to those who tolerate anaemic state funding of, or even cutbacks in, public health and healthcare delivery. Without staff, stuff, space and systems, nothing can be done.
If such things were thin on the ground in Monrovia and Freetown, they were all but absent in rural regions. (...)
Ebola is more a symptom of a weak healthcare system than anything else. But until this diagnosis is agreed on, there’s plenty of room for other, more exotic explanations.
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Freetown est-il en train de livrer un combat perdu d’avance contre #Ebola ?
Le témoignage suivant est celui de la journaliste d’IRIN Anna Jefferys qui s’est rendue en Sierra Leone dernièrement en compagnie du réalisateur Ricci Shyrock. Il s’agit du troisième volet d’une série en trois parties. Vous pouvez lire ici le premier volet et ici le deuxième volet.
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/reportfrench.aspx?ReportID=100740
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Living with Ebola in West Africa - The Big Picture - The Boston Globe
▻http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture/2014/10/08/living-with-ebola-west-africa/vTCGB1bQTSbQitjUkSsTWI/story.html?p1=BP_MainPhotoGalerie de 25 photos
The shoes of a suspected Ebola patient are seen after being cordoned off with stones by local residents in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 24. U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up. (Michael Duff/Associated Press)
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Ebola : la Sierra Leone confine sa population pendant 3 jours
▻http://www.brujitafr.fr/article-ebola-la-sierra-leone-confine-sa-population-pendant-3-jours-124613Préparez vos masques ! Le virus de l’ebola est transmissible par voie aérienne Ebola : 10 000 cas prévus avant 3 semaines, plus de 100 000 d’ici décembre La fda interdit la promotion de remèdes contre l’ebola sur internet Le premier vaccin chinois contre la fièvre ebola Les rues de la capitale de Sierra Leone, Freetown, étaient vides vendredi, au premier des trois jours de confinement de la population du pays pour une campagne de porte-à-porte géante visant à juguler l’épidémie d’Ebola, décrétée « menace pour la paix et la sécurité internationales » par l’ONU. Le but de cette opération controversée était l’information des populations, un enjeu vital tragiquement illustré en Guinée voisine par le sort de (...)
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#Ebola : les médecins africains sont-ils sacrifiés ? | Slate.fr
▻http://www.slate.fr/story/92153/ebola-medecins-africains-sacrifiesUn médecin sierra-léonais, le Dr Olivet Buck, qui dirigeait l’hôpital public Lumley à Freetown, est mort, dimanche 14 septembre, d’une infection Ebola dans son pays. C’est le quatrième médecin qui meurt d’Ebola en Sierra Leone. La victime était âgée d’une soixantaine d’années et avait été diagnostiquée positive le 9 septembre.
« C’est une nouvelle triste perte pour la profession », a déclaré le Dr Brima Kargbo, responsable des services médicaux sierra-léonais, qui a précisé que le ministère de la Santé « déplorait la disparition d’un autre combattant dans la lutte contre Ebola ».
On avait appris peu de temps avant la mort d’Olivet Buck que l’OMS avait indiqué « ne pas pouvoir répondre favorablement » à une demande de la Sierra Leone de transporter ce médecin à l’étranger, où elle aurait pu y être pris en charge de manière mieux adaptée. Les trois autres médecins sierra-léonais morts d’Ebola ces dernières semaines avaient aussi été pris en charge localement. Les médias anglo-saxons précisent qu’un document émanant du bureau du Président Ernest Bai Koroma avait approuvé l’évacuation du Dr Buck dans un hôpital de Hambourg, en Allemagne, qui « était prêt à la recevoir ».
Ce document (vu par l’Associated Press) avait été adressé au représentant de l’OMS en Sierra Leone. Le 13 septembre, un porte-parole de l’OMS faisait savoir que l’institution onusienne ne pouvait répondre à cette demande. « L’OMS n’est pas en mesure d’organiser l’évacuation des ce médecin [vers Allemagne] mais explore toutes les options sur la façon d’assurer les meilleurs soins », a déclaré le porte-parole de l’organisation, Tarik Jasarevic. L’OMS facilitera les meilleurs soins possibles dans le pays pour le Dr Buck, y compris l’accès à des médicaments expérimentaux. »
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La hausse des cas d’#Ebola pèse lourdement sur les travailleurs sanitaires
KENEMA/KAILAHUN/FREETOWN/MONROVIA, 4 août 2014 (IRIN) - Au Liberia, en Sierra Leone et en Guinée, la pénurie de travailleurs sanitaires, capables de traiter les malades du virus Ebola et d’empêcher la propagation de cette maladie mortelle, freine les efforts d’intervention. C’est ce que révèlent le ministère de la Santé et les membres des ONG, qui affirment que leurs efforts ont atteint un « point de rupture ».
▻http://www.irinnews.org/fr/report/100440/la-hausse-des-cas-d-ebola-p%C3%A8se-lourdement-sur-les-travailleurs-sanita
cc @fil -
Sierra Leone hunts #Ebola patient kidnapped in Freetown
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28485041A hunt has been launched in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, for a woman with Ebola who was forcibly removed from hospital by her relatives.
Radio stations around the country are appealing for help to find the 32-year-old who is being described as a “risk to all”.
(...)Meanwhile, Nigeria’s health minister has confirmed that a Liberian man has died of Ebola in Lagos.
(...) Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa - the world’s deadliest outbreak to date.
et aussi
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-25/sierra-leone-police-use-tear-gas-to-curb-ebola-related-riot.html
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Le #Liberia vient de fermer ses frontières et d’interdire tout rassemblement.
▻http://allafrica.com/stories/201407270112.htmlQuelques chiffres :
▻http://virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/ebola-west-africa-numbers-in-context.html
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#Shado’man: A Documentary about #Freetown’s Handicapped ‘Street Boys’
▻http://africasacountry.com/shadoman-a-documentary-about-freetowns-handicapped-street-boysOut of the shadows a massive procession of handicapped young street dwellers appears. We are in downtown Freetown, #Sierra_Leone, and they move slowly like zombies of the night whilst parts of metal on crutches and wheelchairs glow in the darkness and metallic sounds echo in the otherwise empty street. It’s the opening scene of […]
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