20, April 2022
Nkodo Sitony Death: Legendary Bikutsi singer to be laid to rest in his native Kaa village 0
Legendary Bikutsi artist Nkodo Sitony who passed away on December 21, 2021 at the Central Hospital in Yaoundé will be laid to rest in his native village of Kaa in the Centre Region on Saturday.
The 62 year old had a place in the minds of not only French speaking Cameroonians but all the people of Southern Cameroons and beyond following a more than 40 years of musical career that marked the Cameroonian music stage with successful songs including “Métil wa” and “Mba Mvoe”.
Singer, songwriter, performer, Nkodo Sitony was an accomplished artist. He was a lover of the guitar, the tam-tams and the balafons with which he exploited for more than 40 years.
Nkodo Sitony was one of the most celebrated Bikutsi singers in the 90s. He was also popular for his work in Beti, Fang and Ewondo languages.
He migrated to France and lived in Paris for over 15 years and finally returned home in 2019.
The renowned musician died after a long battle with cancer. He was reportedly weakened by ill health and was less visible on the scene until his death. He left a huge work of 25 albums and received a number of awards with the most prestigious ones being the politicized Cameroon artist of the year award.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
21, April 2022
More than one million African children protected by first malaria vaccine 0
More than a million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have now received at least one dose of the first anti-malaria vaccine, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
The “breakthrough” RTS,S vaccine was pioneered in Malawi in April 2019 and found to be safe and to substantially reduce severe cases of the disease, the WHO said in a statement ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25.
The WHO recommended the widespread deployment of the vaccine for children living in sub-Saharan Africa and areas at risk in October 2021, and said its pilot scheme could save the lives of between 40,000 and 80,000 children in Africa each year.
“This vaccine is not just a scientific breakthrough, it’s life-changing for families across Africa,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.
“It demonstrates the power of science and innovation for health. Even so, there is an urgent need to develop more and better tools to save lives and drive progress towards a malaria-free world.”
More than $155 million (143 million euros) have been secured by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the delivery of the vaccines, the statement added.
RTS,S, manufactured by British pharmaceutical giant GSK, acts against plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly mosquito-borne parasite around the world and the most prevalent in Africa.
It is a first-generation vaccine and could be complemented by others with similar or higher efficacy in the future, the WHO said.
The organisation welcomed progress in the development of other treatments, too, but said more funding was needed in the fight against malaria — an average of $851 million (785 million euros) per year over the period 2021-2030.
Malaria is an old disease and has been reported since antiquity. It results in fever, headaches and muscle pain before cycles of chills, fever and sweating. It can be fatal if it is not treated in time.
Around 90 percent of the world’s malaria cases are recorded in Africa, where 260,000 children die from the disease each year.
Source: AFP