The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversy Four more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven. In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country’s second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi’s nation ..read more

Another 19 African countries have plans to join the programme – bringing ‘more than just hope’ to a continent that suffers the vast majority of malaria deaths The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”. The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to children in the west African country, the first to be vaccinated after successful trials of the drug in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi between 2019 and 2021 ..read more

Resurgence classified as grade 3 emergency by WHO, with southern Africa and Haiti among those hardest hit Cholera cases soared last year, according to preliminary data from the World Health Organization, which recorded 4,000 cholera deaths and 667,000 cases globally. The numbers surpassed that of 2022, and the WHO has classified the global resurgence of cholera as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level ..read more

In devastating land and livelihoods, Cyclone Freddy pushed more women and girls into prostitution to feed their families It has been nine months since Cyclone Freddy, the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, struck Malawi twice in six days. The cyclone triggered floods and landslides across the country, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing nearly 700,000. For Grace*, a 29-year-old subsistence farmer from Najawa in the ravaged southern Machinga district, the damage was life-changing. “The water destroyed our home and our crops. I had one acre of maize and two plots of rice ..read more

Predicted 116m tonnes of waste annually by 2060 is six times higher than in 2019, driven by demand in sub-Saharan Africa Plastic waste is “spiralling out of control” across Africa, where it is growing faster than any other region, new analysis has shown. At current levels, enough plastic waste to cover a football pitch is openly dumped or burned in sub-Saharan Africa every minute, according to the charity Tearfund ..read more

Hospitals register thousands of people with infectious skin disease, months after wave of cholera swept African country Malawi has seen a resurgence of the infectious skin disease scabies in an outbreak that is being linked to the climate crisis. Just months after a cholera outbreak killed more than 1,800 people and affected a total of 58,982 people in August, the country has seen the return of the disease in the northern city of Mzuzu and the southern Nsanje district, with 4,152 cases registered in the past week. Scabies is a highly contagious disease caused by tiny mites that burrow into the ..read more

Climate crisis blamed for extreme heat in African country, which has recorded temperatures of 43C Malawians endured the country’s hottest weekend on record, with temperatures reaching nearly 20C above the seasonal average. The heatwave began last Thursday with the government warning people to stay out of the sun, to keep hydrated, and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Some school buildings in the south of the country were evacuated, and children were taught in the shade of playground trees ..read more

Christina Chilimba on how extreme weather events such as Cyclone Freddy in Malawi can affect the health and rights of women and girls I was pleased to read your piece shining a light on the intersection of the climate crisis and its impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights (Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women, 10 October). In my homeland, Malawi, I have witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of climate change on women and girls. The aftermath of Cyclone Freddy, which struck in March this year, is a true testament to this. Thousa ..read more

Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. “The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people ..read more

In a country where many live far from clinics, including other chronic diseases in a successful HIV home-visit scheme has been a breakthrough in treating NCDs such as diabetes In the afternoons, as people take a rest after doing their chores and working in the fields, Lydia Kabokondo starts knocking on doors. Her rounds take in people who have diseases that can easily go undiagnosed and untreated. In rural Malawi, where a hospital or clinic is usually far away, illnesses – even serious non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as cancer and diabetes or sickle cell anaemia – are often just something ..read more