A cholera outbreak in overcrowded refugee camps in Uganda has killed 40 people and infected more than 2,000 as health workers rush to stem the spread, aid agencies said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said 70,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo had fled to Uganda this year due to a surge in ethnic violence. The IFRC said many had been infected with cholera as its emergency operations coordinator, Andreas Sandin said the waterborne disease had spread rapidly since mid-February due to poor sanitation and lack of clean water in the. “The risk is…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The IITA-CWMP in collaboration with the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Seed System for Cassava (BASICS) and Catholic Relief Services have trained 35 extension service providers on weed management in cassava farming systems in Makurdi, Benue state. The one-day training, which provided the service providers with new information on integrated weed management in cassava farming systems also gave them confidence to adopt modern systems. “After a day’s training on weed management in cassava farming systems, extension service providers have resolved to adopt and disseminate best bet weed management practices including appropriate spacing, tillage, use of improved varieties, and the use of…
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Wednesday launched campaign against Cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM). The NEMA Director-General, Mustapha Maihaja represented by the Head of NEMA, Abuja Operations, Mr Bitrus Samuel said at the launch in Abuja that the agency had the mandate to respond to strategic disasters in Nigeria. Observing that CSM epidemics was common in sub-Saharan Africa, he added that the epidemic was more intense during the dry season, pointing out that 2017 recorded the highest suspected cases with 8,057 as at April 2017. According to him, the objective of the conference is…
The Programme Director of Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), Dr Stefan Kachelriess-Matthess said that its second phase was aimed at enhancing rice production and farmers’ income in West and East Africa. Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, he said that CARI had been operation in Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania since 2013, adding that its first phase would wind up in June this year. Kachelriess-Matthess added that the first phase was adjudged as successful in all the five criteria of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which included relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency, and sustainability. “On the basis of the very good…
Scientists in developing nations plan to step up research into dimming-sunshine to curb climate-change, hoping a man-made chemical-sunshade will be less risky than a harmful rise in global-temperatures. Research into “solar geo-engineering”, which will mimic big volcanic eruptions that can cool the Earth by-masking-the-sun with a veil of ash, is now dominated by rich nations and universities such as Harvard and Oxford. Twelve scholars, from countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica and Thailand, wrote in the journal `Nature’ on Wednesday that the poor were most vulnerable to global-warming and should be more involved. “Developing countries must lead on…
Sokoto state government said it has increased access to immunization by more than a thousand fold from a meager 2.5% in 2014 to 25% in 2018. A statement issued by government’s spokesman, Malam Imam Imam in Sokoto Monday, said Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal disclosed this during a review meeting on the progress of routine immunization in Sokoto. “The recent Lot Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS) by the National Bureau of Statistics and partners have clearly outlined the progress we have made in that direction. More still needs to be done and we will not relent on our efforts. Within this period under review,…
An expert in charge of Apiculture at Audu Bako College of Agriculture in Kano State, Dauda Abbas has said that Nigeria has the potential of producing 20 million litres of honey annually. Speaking at a three-day training on poultry, fisheries and bee-keeping organised for members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Monday in Katsina, he disclosed that Nigeria presently produce two million litres of honey. ‘‘The current production of honey liquid in Nigeria is two million but the expected production is 20 million. We have the potential to produce that because majority of bee species in Africa reside in…
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has emphasised that its investment in promoting local farming was yielding results as production of made-in-Nigeria fertiliser had reached 2.22 million metric tonnes. The Managing Director of the Authority, Mr Uche Orji in an interview on Monday in Abuja said among NSIA’s investment priority was to make fertiliser affordable to farmers, all year round. “Prior to December 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended Fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag are available locally. Knowing this, President Muhammadu Buhari…
A cheap, safe and effective method of dealing with harmful algal blooms is on the verge of being introduced following successful field and lab tests. Moves to adopt use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an effective treatment against toxic algae are already underway following the results of new research by a team from the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia (UEA.) Successful trials last summer showed that H2O2 was effective against the golden algae, Prymnesium parvum. This is responsible for millions of fish kills worldwide each year and a threat to the £550m economy of the Broads National Park where trials…
An environmental group, “Let’s Do It Nigeria” said it had developed a mobile app to help track trash points and illegal dumpsite across the country. Disclosing this in an interview on Sunday in Lagos, the Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the group, Gafar Olorunleke said the mobile app was developed as part of efforts to help in the effective management of waste as well as realize the group’s dream of a waste-free environment. “Let’s Do It Nigeria is not about cleaning up alone, we also unite organisations and stakeholders over various sectors of the economy to achieve a common goal…