Much has been written about the universally loved Jane Goodall, primatologist and animal rights campaigner, on whom awards and honours far too numerous to list have been showered. She passed away on October 1 aged 91. One recognition, however, she did not but should have received is the Nobel Peace Prize. For all her life, Goodall worked for peace and harmony not just between humans but between Homo sapiens and all life on Earth.

Her own words best describe the start of her seven-decade-long journey to convince humanity to protect our magical planet: ‘If you are interested in animals,’ someone said to me about a month after my arrival in Africa, ‘then you should meet Dr. Leakey.’ I had already started on a somewhat dreary office job, since I had not wanted to overstay my welcome at my friend’s farm. I went to see Louis Leakey at what is now the National Museum of natural history in Nairobi, where at that same time he was Curator. Somehow he must have sensed that my interest in animals was not just a passing phase, but was rooted deep, for on the spot he gave me a job as an assistant secretary.

First encounter

I never got to meet Jane Goodall but she entered my life in 1966, six years after she began her work with the legendary Louis Leaky in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, when the National Geographic magazine placed her on their cover. Down the years, I could not help but compare her to the other Jane… Tarzan’s Jane, about whom she recently said with an impish smile: “Tarzan married the wrong Jane.” Her fascination for Africa and chimpanzees was undoubtedly influenced by her love for Tarzan of the Apes (1912) and Tarzan’s sidekick Cheeta the chimpanzee. Her version was a stuffed toy chimp named Mr. H. “[He] goes everywhere with me. We’ve been to 59 countries together and he’s probably been touched by about nearly 4 million people,” she once said.

In 1978, I bought a large format pictorial book, Savage Africa, authored by Hugo van Lawick, only to discover that Jane Goodall was Lawick’s former wife, and that they had jointly put together a book in 1971, Innocent Killers, with Goodall doing the writing and Hugo the photography. The detailed descriptions of hunts by carnivores such as hyenas, cheetahs and leopards were graphic and gory, but they conveyed an elemental truth: unlike humans, wild animals were not ‘cruel’ as judged by ethical human standards. Animals ate what they killed. Nothing went to waste.

Blazing a trail

Down the decades, Goodall showed the world that it was possible to love animals (she likes dogs more than chimps!). She told us that chimps lived in societies akin to ours and used tools to access food, an ability thus far attributed only to humans. What’s more, they had distinct personalities. Some, like one individual she named David Greybeard, displayed likeable traits, while some were unlikeable, even cannibalistic. None of these field observations came easy. It took years to win the trust of the chimps, never hiding from them until she became a part of the non-threatening backdrop, a harmless pale-coloured ape. No naturalist had ever attempted this before. The most important of all her observations was the ability of apes to insert twigs into termite nests, pull them out repeatedly with ants attached and consume as food. When Louis Leaky saw evidence of this from images shot by a National Geographic photographer, he sent this now-famous telegram to his protégé: “NOW WE MUST REDEFINE TOOL STOP REDEFINE MAN STOP OR ACCEPT CHIMPANZEES AS HUMAN”.

Goodall faced considerable opposition over the years, largely by testosterone-driven males who questioned both her capability and ability to survive in the rough-and-tumble world of Africa’s jungle life. Her mother, nevertheless, travelled all the way to be with her young daughter as the attitude of men spurred her on to achieve more and discover more, and cut a trail not merely in Africa but clean through academia in England.

Misplaced criticism

She was also the target of misplaced criticism from human rights activists who accused her of protecting apes at the cost of local human communities. Working in a male-dominated sector in her early days, she was unfairly criticised for being an amateur with anthropomorphic biases that ended up superimposing human attributes and capabilities onto wild apes.

A decade ago, some academics pointed out that a manuscript of hers, for Seeds of Hope (2013), omitted crediting sources. Emily Brelage of DePauw University wrote, “It’s important to not ignore the flaws that make them [admired heroes] human, while we celebrate what makes them great.” With characteristic grace, Goodall responded that she would delay publication with added credits, saying, “I hope it is obvious that my only objective was to learn as much as I could so that I could provide straightforward factual information.”

She never needed to respond to the accusations of anthropomorphic biases because in 1965, Newnham College in Cambridge University settled the issue by accepting her deeply scientific doctoral thesis titled ‘The Behaviour of Free-living Chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve’. Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was now Dr. Jane Goodall.

To the human rights activists, she responded as saying that protecting the apes’ jungles was in the interests of the African people whose jungles were being brutally colonised by the industrial North.

Even today, the developed world continues to trot out arguments to justify deforestation, a primary cause of our current climate crisis. In my book, that amounts to intergenerational colonisation. In her last days, Goodall travelled the globe, met young and old, villagers, royalty and power brokers, urging them all to rein in carbon, protect the biosphere, and leave our children a climate-safe world.

She was met everywhere with what can only be called veneration. Jane Goodall did her job on Planet Earth by re-emphasising conclusively what Charles Darwin had posited on November 24, 1859, the day his controversial book On the Origin of Species was published. He said we were descended from apes. She revealed that chimps’ brains were capable of using tools, a fact that scientists of the day refused to accept.

Both suffered severe criticism from religious quarters that believed only humans had souls, and were given dominion over all other life by ‘the creator’. What is more, Jane Goodall sprinkled us with the magic of hope with the example of a life well lived.

The writer is editor of Sanctuary Asia and founder of Sanctuary Nature Foundation.

Published – October 09, 2025 06:16 pm IST

Juba, South Sudan:

A plane has crashed in the north of South Sudan killing at least 20 people, leaving only one confirmed survivor, Unity State’s minister for information said Wednesday. The aircraft came down near the oil fields in Unity State at around 10:30 am local time (0830 GMT) shortly after taking off for the capital Juba.

“The plane crashed 500 metres away from the airport,” Gatwech Bipal Both told AFP by phone.

“21 people were on board. As for now, there’s only one survivor.” 

The survivor, a South Sudanese engineer working at the oil field, has been rushed to Bentiu State hospital, the minister said.

He said the Ukrainian Passenger aircraft, chartered by the Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC) and operated by Light Air Services Aviation Company, was on a routine mission to the area.

“The state government is in a deep sorrow by this accident”, he added, saying there would be an investigation.

“Although most people predicted that this might be a mechanical collision,” he added, without giving more details.

All of the passengers are employees of GPOC: 16 South Sudanese, two Chinese nationals and 1 Indian, according to the manifest seen by AFP, confirmed by local authorities.

Pictures shared on social media showed the crumpled aircraft upside down in a field, debris spread across the area.

In some of the images — which AFP has not been able to independently verify — a body could be seen spilling from the wrecked fuselage.

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbour in 2011 and has faced severe economic and political instability ever since.

The young nation lacks a reliable transport infrastructure and air accidents are common, the crashes frequently blamed on overloading or poor weather.

In 2021 five people were killed after a cargo plane carrying fuel for the UN’s World Food Programme crashed near Juba.

Overloading of planes is common in South Sudan, and was believed to have contributed to the 2015 crash of an Antonov plane in Juba that killed 36 people.

In 2017, 37 people had a miraculous escape after their plane hit a fire truck on a runway in Wau before bursting into flames.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An unknown disease with flu-like symptoms has killed at least 79 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the BBC. The unidentified disease has infected 300 people in DR Congo since November 10, causing flu-like symptoms including fever, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties and anaemia, the country’s health ministry said. Most of the dead have been between the ages of 15 and 18, it added. In a statement on X, the ministry said the disease was of “still unknown origin” and had been detected in Kwango province in southwestern Congo.

Response teams have been sent to Kwango Province to manage cases and investigate the nature of the disease, the outlet reported. The government has urged citizens to stay calm and vigilant. They urged people to wash their hands with soap, avoid mass gatherings, and avoid touching the bodies of the deceased without qualified health personnel.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa region official told BBC that they have “dispatched a team to the remote area to collect samples for lab investigations”. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has an office in Congo, said it is aware of the situation and is providing technical assistance to a rapid response team dispatched by a local emergency operations centre, as per NBC News. 

Symphorien Manzanza, a civil society leader, said that the situation is worrying as the number of infected people continues to rise. “Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines,” he said.

Also Read | Namibia Gets Its First Female Leader: Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah

Separately, a local MP said that about 67 people had fallen sick and died between November 10 and 26. “It should be noted that Panzi Hospital is short of medicines to cope with this epidemic. We really need assistance,” the MP said. 

Notably, the latest outbreak comes amid a time when the central African country is also dealing with a severe outbreak of mpox. It also comes just before the fifth anniversary of the first recorded case of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China.

DR Congo has also dealt with bouts of Ebola over the years.

What is Nigeria’s cryptic pregnancy scam?

BBC Africa Eye has investigated a disturbing fertility scam in Anambra State, Nigeria where desperate women are shelling hundreds of dollars for this treatment that gives desperate women false pregnancies.

What constitutes this “cryptic” pregnancy?

Women who come to these clinics are warned not to visit doctors or hospitals as the “baby” will not be detected by any scan or test, since the scammers claim they are growing outside the womb.

What comes under the treatments?

The women who come in for these treatments are given mysterious injections that claim that couples can “select” the sex of their future baby which is medically impossible. They are also handed crushed pills, some to take home, a substance inserted into the vagina and instructions on when to have intercourse.

What happens after the pregnancy reaches full term?

When it is time to deliver the baby, the “pregnant” women are told labour can only be induced with a “rare and expensive drug” requiring payment, post which they are sedated and wake up with a Caesarean-like incision mark. Others are given an injection which makes them hallucinate and believe they are giving birth.

What do these scams charge?

The initial “pre-pregnancy” treatment costs 350,000 naira ($205; £165). The expensive drug that induces labour costs around 1.5 and two million naira ($1,180; £945).

How do the scammers complete the “treatment”?

According to authorities, the scammers look for new-born babies and women who are young, pregnant and vulnerable in a country where abortion is not legal. Some women are tricked and some sell their babies. A woman who was too scared to tell her family about her pregnancy, was offered 800,000 naira ($470; £380) for the baby.
 

It was a moment of great pride for India when the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, conferred Nigeria’s highest civilian award, the ‘Grand Commander of the Order of Niger’, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This honour recognised Modi’s statesmanship and significant contributions to fostering ties between the two countries through his visionary leadership.

Two aspects of this recognition stand out. Firstly, Modi is the first foreign leader to receive this award since 1969. Secondly, this accolade underscores India’s emergence as a global powerhouse, highlighting the trust and recognition Modi has gained for his commitment to the Global South. The only other foreign dignitary to receive this honour was Queen Elizabeth, shortly after Nigeria gained independence.

The G20 Invitation

One of the most cherished moments during India’s hosting of the G20 summit in September last year was Prime Minister Modi’s invitation for the African Union, represented by Chairperson Azali Assoumani, to join the G20 as a permanent member. The African Union, comprising 55 member states, now holds the same status as the European Union—the only other regional bloc with full membership. This move symbolised India’s dedication to fostering inclusive global governance and amplifying Africa’s voice on the world stage.

India’s relationship with African nations has deep roots, but despite decades of diplomatic rhetoric, these ties often remained lukewarm. To Modi’s credit, he has revitalised India-Africa relations, making them a priority and pursuing multi-dimensional partnerships. Many view this as India’s strategic response to China’s growing influence in the region.

Modi has ushered in a new era of multilateralism by bringing the concerns of the Global South into the mainstream international discourse. His approach reflects a commitment to ensuring that developing nations have a say in shaping the global narrative. To an external observer, it appears that Modi has personalised diplomacy while keeping India’s national interests paramount.

An Old Association

Modi’s interest in Africa predates his tenure as Prime Minister. Before 2014, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi initiated efforts to engage with African nations. While the Gujarati community has long-standing ties with Africa, official engagement between Gujarat and African countries had been minimal. In 2009, Modi visited Uganda to invite investors to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit. In 2011, he hosted Rwanda’s Prime Minister, Bernard Makuza, at the summit, fostering investment alliances that laid the groundwork for deeper bilateral relations. These connections have strengthened further during Modi’s time as Prime Minister as his government expanded its foreign policy initiatives.

Consider the following milestones that have bolstered India’s relations with Africa under Modi’s leadership:

• In 2015, India hosted the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, which saw participation from African nations increase more than fourfold, signalling a shift towards deeper and more comprehensive engagement.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s unwavering support reinforced its “first responder” philosophy, supplying vaccines and essential medical supplies to at least 25 African nations.
• In 2022, former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga expressed his gratitude to Modi, sharing how Ayurveda restored his daughter’s eyesight. Odinga even encouraged Modi to bring Ayurveda to Africa, suggesting it could harness indigenous plants for therapeutic use and benefit countless people.
• Over the past decade, India has significantly boosted its development partnership with Africa, investing over $12.37 billion in 206 infrastructure projects across 43 African countries.
• Nearly 40,000 Africans have received training in India through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program over the last 10 years.
• India launched the second phase of its tele-education and telemedicine project, and since 2019, more than 15,000 youth from 22 African countries have received scholarships for various technical degree and diploma courses.

For many Indians, their understanding of Africa is rooted in its connection with Mahatma Gandhi. While Gandhi laid the philosophical foundation for India-Africa solidarity, some argue that Modi has transformed that vision into actionable, impactful policies, making it a cornerstone of India’s global strategy.

(The author is Consulting Editor, NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Human-caused climate change worsened floods that have killed hundreds of people and displaced millions in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan this year, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The intense rainy season has unleashed a humanitarian crisis across large areas of the Sahel region bordering the Sahara desert.

A new analysis by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network of scientists found warming driven by the use of fossil fuels had exacerbated the flooding in Sudan.

The researchers also said climate change would have made this year’s torrential rains around five to 20 percent more intense across the Niger and Lake Chad basins, citing a previous WWA study of similar floods in 2022.

“This is only going to keep getting worse if we keep burning fossil fuels,” said Clair Barnes from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London.

Speaking at a briefing ahead of the study’s publication, she said such downpours “could happen every year” if global temperatures increase to two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

“It’s pretty serious,” she said.

Downpours and storms

Global warming is not just about rising temperatures — the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere and seas has knock-on effects and can result in more intense downpours and storms.

The researchers said there was a clear link between the extreme rainfall and a warming planet.

In the study, they focused on war-torn Sudan, where millions of displaced people have been uprooted by conflict and driven into flood-prone areas.

The scientists used modelling to compare weather patterns in our world and one without human-induced warming, and found that month-long spells of intense rainfall in parts of Sudan had become heavier and more likely due to climate change.

At the current 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming, they said similar periods of rainfall are expected to occur on average about once every three years, and have become about 10 percent heavier due to climate change.

‘Incredibly concerning’

“These results are incredibly concerning,” said Izidine Pinto, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

He warned that “with every fraction of a degree of warming, the risk of extreme floods will keep increasing”, and called for the UN’s COP29 climate summit to “accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels” when it meets in Azerbaijan next month.

Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy, said the floods underscored the need for a loss and damage fund for nations devastated by climate change.

A key meeting ahead of COP29 earlier this month ended with countries making little progress over how to finance a deal for poorer nations.

“Africa has contributed a tiny amount of carbon emissions globally, but is being hit the hardest by extreme weather,” Kimutai said.

The role of climate change in the floods was compounded by other human-made problems, the researchers said, and they called for better maintenance of dams and investment in early warning systems.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Touba, Ivory Coast:

When he was a witch doctor, Moussa Diallo would regularly smear himself in a lotion made from a clitoris cut from a girl subjected to female genital mutilation.

“I wanted to be a big chief, I wanted to dominate,” said the small but charismatic fiftysomething from northwest Ivory Coast. 

“I put it on my face and body” every three months or so “for about three years”, said Diallo, who asked AFP not to use his real name. 

Genitalia cut from girls in illegal “circumcision” ceremonies is used in several regions of the West African country to “make love potions” or magic ointments that some believe will help them “make money or reach high political office”, said Labe Gneble, head of the National Organisation for Women, Children and the Family (ONEF).

A ground-down clitoris can sell for up to around $170 (152 euros), the equivalent of what many in Ivory Coast earn in a month.

Diallo stopped using the functions a decade ago, but regional police chief Lieutenant N’Guessan Yosso confirmed to AFP that dried clitorises are still “very sought after for mystical practices”.

And it is clear from extensive interviews AFP conducted with former faith healers, circumcisers, social workers, researchers and NGOs, that there is a thriving traffic in female genitalia for the powers they supposedly impart.

Many are convinced the trade is hampering the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM), which has been banned in the religiously diverse nation for more than a quarter of a century. 

Despite that, one in five Ivorian women are still being cut, according to the OECD, with one in two being mutilated in parts of the north.

Cut and mixed with plants 

Before he had a crisis of conscience and decided to campaign against FGM, Diallo said he was often asked by the women who performed excisions around the small town of Touba to use his powers to protect them from evil spells.

Female circumcision has been practised by different religions in West Africa for centuries, with most girls cut between childhood and adolescence. Many families consider it a rite of passage or a way to control and repress female sexuality, according to the UN Children’s agency UNICEF, which condemns cutting as a dangerous violation of girls’ fundamental rights.

Beyond the physical and psychological pain, cutting can be fatal, and lead to sterility, birth complications, chronic infections and bleeding, not to mention the loss of sexual pleasure.

Diallo would often accompany the women who do the cutting out into the forest or to a home where dozens of girls would be circumcised, often surrounded by fetishes and sacred objects. So it was relatively easy for the former faith healer to obtain the precious powder.

“When they would cut the clitorises they would dry them for a month or two then pound them with stones,” he said.

The result was a “black powder” which was then sometimes mixed with “leaves, roots and bark” or shea butter that is often used in cosmetics.

They could then sell it for around “100,000 CFA Francs (152 euros) if the girl was a virgin” or “65,000 (99 euros) if she already had a child” or barter it for goods and services, Diallo added.

The ex-witch doctor said he was able to get some of the powder recently — a mix of human flesh and plants, he believes — from a cutter in his village.

AFP was shown the powder but was unable to analyse it without buying it.

‘Organ trafficking’ 

Former circumcisers interviewed by AFP insisted that clitorises cut from girls are either buried, thrown into a river or given to the parents, depending on local custom.

But one in the west of the country admitted some end up being used for magic. 

“Some people pretend they are the girls’ parents and go off with the clitoris,” she said.

Witch doctors use them for “incantations” and sell them afterwards, she claimed. 

Another circumciser said some of her colleagues were complicit in the trade, “giving (genitalia) to people who are up to no good” for occult purposes.  

Mutilated when she was still a child, one victim told AFP that her mother warned her to bring home the flesh that had been cut.

The trade is regarded as “organ trafficking” in Ivorian law and is punishable — like FGM — with fines and several years in prison, said lawyer Marie Laurence Didier Zeze.

But police in Odienne, who are in charge of five regions in the country’s northwest, said no one has ever been indicted for trafficking.

“People won’t say anything about sacred practices,” lamented Lieutenant N’Guessan Yosso.

The cutters themselves are both feared and respected, locals told AFP, often seen as prisoners of evil spirits.

‘Just nuts’ 

“A clitoris cannot give you magical powers, it’s just nuts,” said gynaecologist Jacqueline Chanine based in the country’s commercial capital Abidjan.

Even so, the practice is still stubbornly widespread in some parts of the country, according to researchers.

Dieudonne Kouadio, an anthropologist specialising in health, was presented with a box of the powder in the town of Odienne, 150 kilometres north of Touba.

“It contained a dried cut organ in the form of a blackish powder,” he said. 

His discovery was included in a 2021 report for the Djigui Foundation, whose conclusions were accepted by the Ministry for Women. 

Farmers in Denguele district, of which Odienne is a part, “buy clitorises and mix the powder with their seeds to increase the fertility of their fields”, said Nouho Konate, a Djigui foundation member who has been fighting FGM in the area for 16 years.

He said parents of young girls were “gutted” when he told them of the trafficking.

Further south and in the centre west of the country, women use clitoris powder as an aphrodisiac, hoping to prevent their husbands from straying, said criminologist Safie Roseline N’da, author of a 2023 study on FGM which also pointed to the trade.

She and her two co-authors discovered that blood from cut women was also being used to honour traditional gods. 

They are far from the only Ivorian folk remedies that use body parts, according to lawyer Didier Zeze.

Mystic beliefs keep it going 

“The mystic has a central place in daily life” in the Ivory Coast — where Islam, Christianity and traditional animist beliefs co-exist — said the Canadian anthropologist Boris Koenig, a specialist in occult practices there. “It touches every sphere of people’s social, professional, family and love lives,” he said, and there is generally nothing illegal about it.

The trade, however, is “one of the reasons that FGM survives” in the Ivory Coast, NGOs argue, where the rate of cutting is generally falling and is below the West African average of 28 per cent, according to the OECD.

Back near Touba, the former witch doctor Diallo recalled how up to 30 women would be cut in a day in the places his magic protected.

The dry season between January to March was the favoured period for circumcisions when the hot Harmattan wind from the Sahara helps scars heal, he said. 

Staff at the region’s only social work centre say the cutting is still going on but is hard to quantify because it never happens in the open. 

Instead, it goes on in secret, hidden behind traditional festivals which have nothing to do with the practice, kept going they say by circumcisers from neighbouring Guinea — only a few kilometres away — where FGM rates are over 90 per cent.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

More than four years since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO (World Health Organization) in March 2020, fear of another mass outbreak looms large. The WHO, on August 14, declared the current upsurge of Mpox or Monkeypox in Central Africa as a global emergency requiring urgent action. The global concern for the virus grew as it spread to other African countries, and, within no time, the deadly strain of Mpox – Clade 1b – crossed the African continent to reach Sweden, Pakistan, and other countries.

The virus has killed more than 500 people so far, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the disease has been spreading since last year. The country saw more than 96% of the world’s roughly 17,000 recorded cases of Mpox this year.

Though India has not reported any cases yet, the Central government is keeping a close eye on the situation. Our healthcare infrastructure faced severe challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in thousands of deaths. One wouldn’t wish to be caught unawares this time.

Is Mpox As Dangerous As Covid-19 Or Swine Flu?

Mpox is a zoonotic infection that causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. Fatal in some cases, the WHO first declared it a global emergency in 2022. 

Mpox virus can be categorised into two clades: Clade 1 and Clade 2. The first, which is found mainly in Central African countries, is more severe and has a high mortality rate. Clade 2 has milder symptoms and is found in western Africa. The latter caused a public health emergency in 2022, wherein some 300 cases — though mild — were reported from Sweden. This time, it’s the newer and more serious Clade 1b, identified in September last year, that has been driving the current outbreak.

Though experts worry that Mpox may be as dangerous as Covid-19 or the swine flu, there is a difference in the nature of transmission. Both Covid-19 and swine flu were highly infectious because they were airborne. In contrast, Mpox is transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact, talking or breathing close to an infected person, or using their soiled clothes or bedsheets. “Mpox is unlikely to become a pandemic like Covid-19 primarily due to its mode of spread. It requires very close and physical contact, unlike the airborne SARS-CoV-2. Also, symptoms like blisters on the skin are more visible indicators and therefore, it’s easier to identify the disease and isolate a person to contain the spread,” says Rakesh K. Mishra, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

India’s first Mpox case was recorded in Kerala in 2022, from a traveller from the UAE. Soon, the virus spread within the country, with cases emerging in Delhi even from individuals who had no recent international travel. India reported 27 confirmed cases and one death that year, according to WHO. The last case in the country was in March this year, in Kerala, and since then, no new cases have been recorded.

How To Stay Safe

In response to the WHO’s warning, both Central and state governments have sprung into action. There are monkeypox advisories in place and public health measures are being taken. Both the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are closely monitoring the situation and reviewing international trends.

In Tamil Nadu, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) has already issued alerts. Reports say that passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African countries are being tracked by airport health officers and port health personnel. Both Hyderabad and New Delhi — cities popular among African students pursuing higher education — have also been placed on high alert.

The Need For Vaccines

The first Mpox strain was isolated by ICMR researchers in 2022. Pharmaceutical companies and drug manufacturers are being called upon to develop vaccines and testing kits for the virus. Existing vaccines for smallpox and chickenpox might also offer protection in India. 

About other prevention strategies, Mishra says, “It is important to closely monitor the spread of the disease in different countries and be ready for screening by already available methods of DNA-based diagnostics. There is an effective vaccine already available but supply of that may not be easy to ensure.”  

“Simple practices like avoiding close physical contact with suspected/potentially infected person, maintaining distance from people with symptoms, and wearing a mask, should be effective in containing the spread of the infection,” Mishra adds. 

Developed nations, mostly those in Europe, already have vaccines available for those at greater risk of monkeypox. And given the high quality of healthcare there, containing the disease will be less challenging. It’s underdeveloped African countries, which have neither vaccines nor the resources to buy them, that remain at most risk and which need the most help. 

(Bharti Mishra Nath is Contributing Editor, NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Authorities in the Kenyan city of Eldoret have removed the statues of three athletes after they were widely ridiculed and described as shoddy. According to The Guardian, the statues were unveiled earlier this week to showcase the town’s agricultural and sports heritage. The sculptures included statues of athletes and one of a maize cob next to a wheat stalk. However, the pictures of the statues attracted uproar on social media. Local residents and Kenyans poked fun at the statues online and criticised the town’s administration and sculptors. 

One particular statue that faced ridicule depicted a woman athlete running while holding a miniature Kenyan flag in her left hand. Sharing the picture of the statue on X (formerly Twitter), one user said that the works represented “our collective mediocrity as a country”. “Eldoret City launch. Who is this? This is a violation,” wrote another user. “This is shoddy and lousy to say the least. We can do better than this,” commented a third. 

These statue of Faith Kipyegon and Eliud Kipchoge in Eldoret represent our collective mediocrity as a country. pic.twitter.com/R9BLlbisAm

— Gwalla (@its_Edwin0) August 15, 2024

Another statue that caught the attention of social media users was of marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge. One user shared a picture of the sculpture and described it as a “joke”. “Whoever did this will not see heaven,” the user wrote. 

#MainaAndKingangi@ItsMainaKageni@Classic105Kenya
Kenya is a Joke
Whoever did this to our Athletes will not see Heaven
Alaaaa
Kipchoge Statue in US VS KENYA pic.twitter.com/GVKa2Cnken

— KIPLETING MANUELA SON OF ELDORET (@ItsKipleting) August 15, 2024

After criticism, authorities in the Kenyan city removed the sculptures at night. The BBC reported that the county official removed three statues – two representing female athletes and one of a male. All the sculptures have been taken to an unknown location, officials said. 

Kenyans online welcomed the removal of the status. It is not clear whether the sculptures would be replaced, or when. 

Meanwhile, Eldoret was conferred city status earlier this week. At the same time, Kenyan President William Ruto honoured Kenyan medalists from the Paris Olympics at an event at Eldoret state lodge. The athletes later had an open-car parade, attracting cheers from thousands of residents who lined the city’s streets to celebrate them.

Kenya was the highest-ranked African country at the Paris Olympics, coming 17th on the medal table with four golds, two silver and five bronze medals. 

 

National Payments Corporation of India logo.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on May 2 said its overseas arm has signed a pact with the Bank of Namibia (BoN) for developing a Unified Payments Interface(UPI)-like instant payment system for Namibia.

Also read: Explained | India’s UPI push 

By leveraging technology and experiences from India’s UPI, the partnership seeks to help Namibia modernise its financial ecosystem. This includes improving accessibility, affordability and connectivity with both domestic and international payment networks, and interoperability.

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NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has signed an agreement with the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to support them in developing an instant payment system like Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for Namibia, a statement said.

This strategic partnership aims to enhance digital financial services and bolster real-time Person-to-Person (P2P) and Merchant payment transactions (P2M) in the African nation.

Through this collaboration, BoN will gain access to best-in-class technology and insights from NIPL, enabling the creation of a similar platform in Namibia for the digital welfare of its citizens, the statement added.

NPCI International CEO Ritesh Shukla said, “By enabling this technology, the country will gain sovereignty in the digital payments landscape and stand to benefit from enhanced payment interoperability and improved financial access for underserved populations.”

Bank of Namibia Governor Johannes Gawaxab said “Our objective is to enhance accessibility and affordability for underserved populations, achieve full interoperability of payment instruments by 2025, modernize the financial sector, and ensure a secure and efficient National Payment System.”

Once live, the platform will facilitate digital transactions in Namibia, driving financial inclusion and reducing cash dependency by catering to underserved populations. This collaborative effort seeks to offer essential and affordable financial services to all, with a particular focus on rural and informal sectors.