The African Development Bank announced the addition of two new countries – Mauritius and Morocco – to its Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI), marking steady progress in the Bank’s efforts to deepen the continent’s local currency bond market.
The African Development Bank administers the ABABI, a family of African bond indices launched in February 2015 and calculated by the independent, global index provider Bloomberg.
At the launch, the indices included Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Botswana and Namibia joined in October 2015, and Ghana and Zambia in April 2017. Effective 1 January 2021, Mauritius and Morocco have become members of the ABABI, the Bank said.
Mauritius and Morocco join African Development Bank Bloomberg bond index
Humanitarian response in Tigray Region underway
Since the law enforcement operation in the Northern part of Ethiopia is completed, humanitarian assistance containing food & non-food items and medical supplies have been delivered for more than 1.8 million beneficiaries and is expanding to address 2.5 million beneficiaries across the region.
Under the leadership of the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) Ministerial Committee, an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) comprising of technical teams from Ministries, Regional Bureaus, UN Agencies and International NGOs has been established in Mekelle City to address immediate needs.
A four-layered Emergency coordination system (Regional, Zonal, Woreda and food distribution point) have been put in place to capture additional needs. The Government of Ethiopia is collaborating with development and humanitarian partners for a rapid delivery of supplies to increase the coverage of assistance to identified beneficiaries. The Ethiopian National Defence Force is supporting the coordination of the humanitarian assistance by facilitating secured movement of people and supplies. Distribution is facilitated by the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC), Consortium of International and local NGOs under the coordination of UNOCHA and the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). Distribution is carried out from Axum, Adigrat, Alamata, Mekelle Zuria, Shire and Mekelle City.
AMSP opens COVID-19 vaccines pre-orders for 55 African Union Member States
Following the announcement by the African Union Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa on the 14th of January 2021 that the African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), commences the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States. Afreximbank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the Member States.
While AVATT has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccines doses from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, AMSP – the single-source platform enabling faster, more transparent and cost-effective access to COVID-19 supplies – has opened today pre-orders, offering an equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines doses for 55 African Union member states.
“These are historical times. For the first time in history, Africa has secured access to millions of vaccine doses in the middle of a pandemic as most of Western countries,” said African Union Special Envoy Strive Masiyiwa. “There is still a huge shortage of vaccine doses and that is why this continental collaboration has designed a fair allocation coupled with timely and equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.”
The security situation of civilians and internally displaced persons from Tigray region risks becoming a humanitarian crisis: EHRC
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) stated that the security situation of civilians in the war affected areas in the Tigray Region as well as surrounding areas and persons displaced as a result could turn into a humanitarian crisis. The Commission has published a Brief Monitoring Report of its investigative mission in Gondar and Dansha from December 15 to December 20, 2020 and in Bissober and Ullaga Kebeles/Villages of Chercher Woreda in Raya Azebo from December 31,2020 to January 5, 2021. The report presents the findings from EHRC visits to affected areas, hospitals and temporary shelters for displaced persons as well as testimonies from government and non-government sources, victims and other relevant bodies.
EHRC further stated that the findings of the Commission’s on-going investigation missions in Mekelle other parts of Tigray region since January 10, 2021, will also inform upcoming reports as it continues to monitor developments in the region and the situation of civilians and internally displaced persons.
In Dansha, Humera, Bissober and Ullaga, where the investigation mission principally focused for this report, the war has led to civilian casualties including death, bodily harm, exposed civilian residences and commercial properties to looting and various damages, and caused the destruction of infrastructure in the areas. The continued disruption of public services such as electricity and water risks further exacerbating the humanitarian situation for residents and displaced persons. In Bissober and Ullaga, 31 civilians have died, 104 residential houses were partially or completely destroyed by fire and the local school and health centres sustained heavy damage.
