South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse scientifically “unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Dozens of nations from Europe to Asia have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25.

The flight bans have angered several African leaders.

“We call upon all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our southern African sister countries to immediately and urgently reverse their decisions,” Ramaphosa said in his first address to the nation following last week’s detection of the new variant.

The World Health Organization has labelled Omicron a variant of concern, while scientists are still assessing its virulence.

A “deeply disappointed” Ramaphosa argued that the ban was “not informed by science”.

The countries that have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa include key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

‘Afrophobia’

Earlier Sunday, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera accused Western countries of “Afrophobia” for shutting their borders.

And in Botswana, the other southern African country to detect the strain — among a group of foreign diplomatic visitors in the first instance — two ministers cautioned against “geo-politicising this virus”.

“We are concerned that there seem to have been attempts to stigmatise the country where it was detected,” Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti, said on Sunday.

The head of the WHO in Africa was equally worried.

“With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” said WHO regional director general Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.

Ramaphosa warned that the travel ban would “further damage the economies (and) undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic”.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised country, is struggling with slow economic growth and a more than 34 percent unemployment rate.

The travel curbs are another major blow to its key tourism industry, which had set high hopes on the upcoming southern hemisphere summer.

‘Unjustified restrictions’

Ramaphosa blasted the G20 countries for abandoning commitments made at a meeting in Rome last month to support the recovery of the tourism sector in developing countries.

On Sunday, he added: “Instead of prohibiting travel, the rich countries of the world need to support the efforts of developing economies to access and to manufacture enough vaccine doses for their people without delay.

“These restrictions are unjustified.”

Ramaphosa called on rich countries to stop fuelling vaccine inequality, describing jabs as the “most powerful tool” to limit Omicron’s transmission.

He once again appealed to South Africans to get their shots, and said the government was considering making vaccines mandatory for certain activities and locations in a bid to increase uptake.

“Vaccines do work,” he said. “Vaccines are saving lives.”

The country is Africa’s worst hit by Covid, with around 2.9 million cases and 89,797 deaths reported to date.

Omicron is believed to be fuelling a rise in infections, with 1,600 new cases recorded on average in the past seven days compared to 500 the previous week.

Source: AFP

At least two people have been killed and 18 others wounded after French forces fired shots to disperse angry protesters blocking a French military convoy in western Niger.

The armored vehicles and logistics trucks had crossed the border on Friday after being blocked in Burkina Faso for a week by demonstrations there against French forces’ failure to stop mounting violence by Takfiri militants.

Anger has been rising against the French military presence in Niger, Burkina Faso and other countries in West Africa’s Sahel region. 

Last weekend, hundreds of people in the Burkinabe city of Kaya blocked the French convoy, which is on its way from Ivory Coast to Mali.

It was able to leave Burkina Faso on Friday but ran into new protests on Saturday morning less than 30 km across the border in the western Niger town of Tera, where it was confronted by protesters.

Video shared by a local official showed the protesters chanting “Down with France,” as black smoke rose from a burning barricade.

“In its attempt to extricate itself, it (the French forces) used force. Sadly, we deplore the death of two people and 18 injuries, 11 of them serious,” Niger’s interior ministry said in a statement.

French military spokesperson Pascal Ianni admitted that soldiers had “fired warning shots” and tear gas at protesters, but dismissed as “false information” reports on social media that French forces had killed civilians in Tera.

Ianni said the convoy eventually crossed the town and continued toward the capital, Niamey.

France intervened in Mali in 2013 to purportedly beat back militants who had seized the desert north, before deploying soldiers across the Sahel. While it has deployed more troops, violence has continued to intensify and spread in the region.

In the demonstrations in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, protesters have cited widespread belief that France is secretly supporting the militants to justify its continued military presence in its former colonies.

Rise of anti-colonial sentiments

France has been one of the world’s colonizing countries that after many years of slavery still controls countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens.

The Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe and nearby Martinique have recently been wracked by rioting and strikes that reflect long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland.

France’s minister for overseas affairs, Sebastien Lecornu, on Friday said Paris was ready to discuss some autonomy for Guadeloupe, but the overnight offer drew sharp criticism Saturday from conservative and far right candidates for France’s April presidential election.

Guadeloupe uses the euro currency and has close political ties with the mainland. But high unemployment in Guadeloupe and Martinique, high costs of living and lingering anger over historical abuses have prompted some local officials to demand change.

A third of the Guadeloupe population lives below the poverty line, and unemployment rate is 17%. The cost of living, meanwhile, is high because the island relies heavily on imports from the mainland. Water supplies have been a major problem in recent years because of obsolete pipes.

Some residents denounce a relationship with Paris reminiscent of colonial times, and note an ongoing scandal over the use of a dangerous pesticide on islands in the Antilles for years after it was banned on the mainland.

Many people were systematically exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

The product was banned in the US in 1976 and in France in 1990, but special provisions were made for its continued use in the Caribbean territories until 1993.

There have been numerous attempts at autonomy since the Second World War, though none have been successful. The anger of people living in Guadeloupe is because a country 7,000 kilometers away is governing them, constantly treating them as second-class citizens.

Guadeloupe receives 972 million euros from the EU each year, but its youth-unemployment rate has hovered around 50 percent for decades.

Source: Presstv