In journalism 101 we were taught never to give the oxygen of publicity to quack remedies for dreaded diseases.

That’s why you don’t read, hear or see about cures for cancer in anything approaching responsible media.

Believe me, these emerge daily from the crazies and the con-artists seeking attention or a fast buck.

So it was to be expected that miracle antidotes to COVID 19 would be flung at editors very early on in the pandemic.

They could safely ignore almost all them –  until heads of state got involved.

Madagascar’s deejay turned President Andry Rajoelina seeks international endorsement of a remedy for COVID 19 made from the leaves of the artemisia which has provided relief to some malaria sufferers.

He could have saved his blushes had he sat in on my journalism cadet course all those years ago.

And the bench next to him could usefully have been occupied by the United States television game show star turned President  Donald Trump who advocated another outdated malaria remedy, the outdated chloroquine,  for curing COVID 19.

That was before he  threw the medical reins between the horses last month and urged COVID 19 patients to inject disinfectant and shine ultra violet light into their bodies.

Time magazine reports the American Association of Poison Control Centres finding a 121% increase in poisoning from bleach and other disinfectants in April 2020 over the same month the previous year. 

Rajoelina cannot match Trump’s lethal milestone. However his angry assertion that the African Union has rejected the herbal remedy known as COVID ORGANICS only because it was not developed by a European company shows he has a sense of the ridiculous every bit as well-developed as his Washington counterpart.

And he evidently shares the Donald’s penchant. for disregarding the media that does not reflect his  views.

How else could he have overlooked the storm last month when two French doctors suggested that the COVID 19 vaccine be tested on poor Africans because they have not taken protected measures?

Doctors Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira have had the good sense to apologize for hurt and offense they caused.

The Africa’s continental body was furiously adamant that it citizens would not be used as guinea pigs.

So has the World Health Organisation,  Like the AU the WHO give the thumbs down to COVID ORGANICS  which has reportedly been tested on 20 people for two weeks. Hardly decisive.

Rajoelina can draw some comfort from the favorable attention his peers have given the Malgash remedy.

Tanzania’s President John Magafuli,  who evidently believes that his chemistry qualification  entitles him to be a COVID 19 maverick, sent a plane to collect a load of the remedy  in Antananarivo.

Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Niger  have also bought consignments.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is quoted as saying South Africa will help test and analyse COVID ORGANICS.

I fully support African solutions to African problems. But this is surely a classical case for caution. 

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South Africa opposes the move saying it can aggravate the political process implementing a peace agreement struck last September.

ends intro

South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, China and Russia abstained in the United  Nations Security Council vote.

Non governmental bodies like the International Crisis Group urged the UN powerhouse to extend the sanctions.

They concur with the position of Britain and the United States that the proliferation of arms in South Sudan is adding to the misery of its people, six-and-a-half million of whom are food insecure.

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They’re checking on conditions ahead of elections in that country scheduled for December 23.

Ambassadors from the UN Security Council will spend their time in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.

They’re due to see President Joseph Kabila and members of the electoral commission.

They’ll also speak to role-players in the election which will be two-years late.

Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom says they’re looking for a free, fair and transparent poll.

He’ll be joined by his counterparts from Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, the United States and France.

Kabila, who is standing down, has called on the UN to withdraw its peacekeepers from his country. 

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Mengistu Haile Mariam, who presided over the deaths of thousands in Ethiopia’s Red Terror,  is but one of many ousted African leaders sheltering in exile.

Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh is the latest Africa ejected by his country.

He’s been taken in by Equatorial Guinea.

Blaize Campaore is in Ivory Coast after Burkina Faso had enough of his 27-year rule.

Charles Taylor of Liberia and Hissen Habre of Chad are both serving lengthy prison sentences.

Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda’s Idi Amin both died in exile after being deposed.

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A summit in Chad’s capital N’jamena ratified a 17-year-old agreement binding a market of 30-million consumers.

Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are two small, oil-rich states that have had reservations about allowing visa-free access to citizens of larger and more troubled Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The N’jamena summit brought them aboard the Central African Economic Monetary Community or CEMAC.

They’ve approved the regional development bank spending two-and-a-half million Euros as seed money for the implementation of the draft agreement signed in 2013

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Mahamt beat off four other candidates, three of them. like himself were foreign ministers of their countries.

ends intro

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma breathes a sigh of relief that she’s able to come to tend to domestic political priorities.

She’s the ANC Women’s League candidate to succeed her former husband Jacob Zuma as president of the ruling party – a position that is virtually guaranteed to make her South Africa’s next president.

African leaders have not indicated why they favoured Moussa Faki Mahamat over Senegal’s Bathily Abdoulaye and the foreign ministers of Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and Kenya.

He has his work cut out leading the day to day activities of the continental organization where the presidents have the final say.

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They’re meeting under the auspices of the Economic Community of Central African States. Four other countries have sent delegates.

Of the central African countries at the meeting, only Chad and Cameroon have actually experienced attacks by the extremists…

…who’ve killed more than 13 000 people these past six years – mostly in Nigeria.

The Yaounde meeting’s bent on finding an agreed solution to counter the terror group.

The presidents of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are joined by ministers from Angola, Burundi, Sao Tome and Principe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the previous meeting in the Cameroon capital , leaders agreed to deploy a regional force of 8700 troops against Boko Haram.

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Campaore, who was president for 27 years, was toppled by hundreds of thousands of people incensed at his plan to prolong his tenure at elections scheduled for next year.

Social media in Africa came alive at images of jubilant Burkinabe celebrating the departure of Blaise Campaore.

People are saying his fate should he a lesson to dictators and leaders who exceed their constitutional term in power.

At least nine of the continent’s leaders have been in power for more than 20 years.

Presidents in Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Sudan and Zimbabwe have all come under fire.

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