In order to achieve the objectives of its Integrated Maritime Strategy, the ECOWAS commission is holding an interdepartmental meeting to review the draft Action Plan of the EIMS from 20 to 22 March 2024 at Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. The EIMS is a legal instrument that provides a comprehensive reference framework for actions to be taken by the various stakeholders at national and regional levels.

The general objective of this meeting, which brings together different ECOWAS departments; representatives of ECOWAS Regional Fisheries Centers, ECOWAS institutions and agencies and West African Fisheries Commissions, is to make sure that the technical departments adopts the SMIC Action Plan in order to ensure integrated and coordinated implementation in line with the mission of the ECOWAS Commission.

The specific objective is to ensure that the priorities and actions set out in the Action Plan are in line with the 4X4 objectives of the Commission’s Management, at the level of sectoral policies (food and nutritional security, marine biodiversity, blue economy, etc.).

Three speeches were delivered at the opening ceremony. by Commodore Richard Maru Shammah, Director of CRESMAO, Mr. Cheikh Toure, Country Director – Côte d’Ivoire UNODC and H.E. Mrs. FANTA CISSE, Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Côte d’Ivoire.

In his speech, Commodore Richard Maru Shammah acknowledged the presence of experts at this meeting and recalled the multilateral aspect of the challenges related to the maritime sector, hence the need for a good adoption of the Action Plan as well as a good implementation on the part of the ECOWAS commission.

Mr. Cheikh Toure noted that some of the ECOWAS initiatives implemented in West Africa with the support of UNODC are in line with the ECOWAS Integrated Maritime Strategy. These include the EU-funded ECOWAS SWAIMS project. He further commended ECOWAS for its efforts to strengthen maritime safety and security and underscored the need for States to address specific challenges to combat maritime pollution and illegal exploitation of West African maritime zones.  Finally, he stressed the need for ECOWAS Member States to work together to ensure peace and stability in the region.

H.E. Mrs. Fanta CISSE welcomed all the participants to Côte d’Ivoire before pointing out that the multidisciplinary nature of the maritime sector was of concern to all the stakeholders present at the meeting. She then further concluded by saying that: “This strategy, which is the Community’s framework document for a response to the proper management and exploitation of the maritime domain, is based on inter-agency cooperation at national and regional levels. Its management must include, inter alia, political decisions, legal issues, regional security and defense, security forces, maritime and port administration”.

This Interdepartmental Meeting on the review of the draft action plan of the ECOWAS Integrated Married Strategy (SMIC) is organized with the support of the ECOWAS-SWAIMS project and ECOWAS partners including the European Union and UNODC.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

On 18 March 2024, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, received a courtesy call from H.E. Mrs. Betty Oyella Bigombe, Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda to Thailand with residence in Kuala Lumpur, during her visit to Thailand between 12 – 24 March 2024.

Both sides discussed ways to advance cooperation between Thailand and Uganda, particularly in expanding economic cooperation, including trade and investment, as well as the possibility of organizing business forum between Thailand and Uganda and also other African countries in the future. Both sides also reaffirmed their commitments to further strengthen development cooperation, including the areas of sustainable development based on sufficiency economy philosophy, rice farming, fresh water fisheries and fish farming. Moreover, both countries also emphasized the need to implement comprehensive measures to combat all forms of human trafficking and to provide humanitarian assistance Ugandan nationals who are lured by traffickers to work in illegal compounds in Thailand’s neighbouring countries.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.

Around a year ago, Mallam Mainasara Mohammad, a resident of Makera,  a locality in Kebbi State, Nigeria, became increasingly worried about his son, nine-year-old Yusuf. The child had been coughing for weeks, had difficulty sleeping and unable to attend school.

“I took him to the health centre after I heard on the radio that the government  conducts  free tests for people coughing for more than two weeks,” says Mohammad. After a chest x-ray and a sputum test using a specialized system called GeneXpert, which provides rapid tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and an antibiotic sensitivity test, Yusuf was diagnosed with drug-resistant TB.

He was immediately treated with combination TB medicines for six months. In addition, Yusuf’s family members were screened for TB and given a course of anti-TB medicines to prevent the development of the disease. The medicine was provided at no cost to the family.

“We would go to the hospital every week to collect the TB treatment. This allowed the health workers to follow up on Yusuf’s progress,” says Mohammed.” I am happy my son is now better and  has resumed school.”

Nigeria has the highest TB burden in Africa. The disease kills 268 people in the country every day. Yet TB cases are under-reported, increasing the high risk of transmission. It is estimated that one missed case can transmit TB to 15 people in a year.

The gap in case detection is mostly among children, due to some health workers at facility and community level not sufficiently skilled to detect childhood TB, as well as a lack of awareness among families and communities. TB services are also not fully integrated into routine children’s health services, such as nutrition and immunization programmes.

To  intensify TB case-finding in the country, Nigeria’s National Tuberculosis, Buruli Ulcer and Leprosy Control Programme, and its partners including World Health Organization (WHO), have been implementing various innovative strategies, including a TB drive across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory. A special childhood TB case-finding testing week was conducted in May 2023.

According to provisional data, over 361 000 TB cases were reported in Nigeria in 2023, 9% of these in children. Overall, this marked a 26% increase in the number of cases compared with 2022.

“The drive showed the importance of TB case-finding in the community, especially among children, and marks the beginning of continuing active surveillance for TB in line with WHO standards,” says Kebbi State TB programme manager, Dr Sheu Gele. “Intensive mobilization and TB awareness creation among community and health practitioners, including community-health workers and paediatricians, has paid off,” he adds.

Community sensitization is carried out in communities with a high burden of TB, guided by the data and a hotspot mapping tool. Community health workers collaborate with local community organizations to engage community gatekeepers, conduct community entrance meetings and engage community mobilizers to assist with active case-finding.

WHO has supported the national TB programme to adopt evidence-based strategies for case-finding, including training health workers. During 2023 and the first three months of 2024, with funding from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, WHO has trained 242 health workers to improve TB case detection, reporting and treatment of patients across five states. In addition, in January 2024, at the request of Borno State’s governor, WHO conducted a 10-day training of 60 TB supervisors from 27 local government areas in the state.

Furthermore, WHO has facilitated the roll out of the six-month treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB, and is currently piloting the use of a “treatment decision” algorithm. This aims to standardize clinical assessment and decision-making to enhance TB case detection among children.

“WHO is committed to work with the Government of Nigeria and all partners who are committed to ending TB. While it is highly contagious, TB is preventable and treatable. We must rally together to quickly detect and treat TB cases to kick this disease out of Nigeria,” says Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Representative in Nigeria.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Africa-focused independent oil and gas company Perenco has announced the death of five of its workers following fire broking at its Becuna platform in the Simba oil and gas field offshore Gabon. One Perenco worker is still missing and the firm has deployed an emergency team conducting an ongoing search and rescue mission. Meanwhile, the fire has been extinguished, Perenco is mourning its staff loss and standing with their families during this tragic moment.

The African Energy Chamber (AEC), as the voice of the African energy sector, wishes to express its deepest condolences and profound sorrow for the tragic incident that occurred at the Perenco oil project. Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who lost their lives in this unfortunate event.

The AEC will embark on a working visit to Gabon to stand in solidarity with the families who have tragically lost their loved ones, Perenco, which mourns the loss of its valued workers and colleagues, and with Gabon, which has lost dedicated comrades striving to alleviate energy poverty and propel economic growth through the exploitation of oil and gas resources until the very end.

Perenco and the oil and gas industry continue to produce countless opportunities for wealth generation for Gabonese families. We at the AEC recognize the incredible economic, community and faith-based impacts demonstrated across the Gabon by Perenco and oil and natural gas companies.

As the voice of the African energy sector and a stronger partner and supporter of Perenco and Gabon, the AEC understands the gravity of this situation and acknowledge the responsibility we share, as an industry advocate, in promoting and advocating for the highest safety standards across all energy projects. It is imperative that every effort is made to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.

The Chamber will continue to work with the independent oil and gas company to advance worker safety and the maximization of Africa’s vast hydrocarbon resources to drive the growth of the Gabonese and African economies.

“The Chamber mourns the loss of this tragic accident. Perenco is known for its high operations, operational excellence, HSE prioritization and as one of the best in the oil industry. Perenco and the oil industry in Gabon have relatively low injury rates. We will continue to work with Perenco and Gabon to improve the working standards to ensure this does not happen again,” stated NJ Ayuk, the Executive Chairman of the AEC.

The Simba field is a shallow water conventional oil project crucial for the stability of Gabon and Africa’s oil market and economic expansion. The field accounts for 4% of the west African country’s oil production alone.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.