The world of athletics loses one of its own to gender-based violence. Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei has died days after being set on fire by a former boyfriend, shocking the world of sport and beyond. The Ugandan distance runner lived and trained in Kenya, where activists say women face an epidemic of femicide.
Also in the programme, the first batch of mpox vaccines has finally arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the viral illness has broken out. The delivery of 100,000 doses is however far from the millions that are needed. And the 9th China-Africa Forum continues in Beijing. Almost every African country has sent a high-level delegation to the event that focuses on trade and development across the continent.
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Also in the programme, the first batch of mpox vaccines has finally arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the viral illness has broken out. The delivery of 100,000 doses is however far from the millions that are needed. And the 9th China-Africa Forum continues in Beijing. Almost every African country has sent a high-level delegation to the event that focuses on trade and development across the continent.
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http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome. You're watching Eye on Africa and I'm Clarisse Fortuné. These are the headlines.
00:05The world of athletics loses one of its own to domestic violence.
00:10Olympic athlete Rebecca Sheptege died days after being set on fire by a former boyfriend,
00:16shocking the world of sport and beyond. The UN strongly condemns her violent murder.
00:23The first batch of mpox vaccines have finally arrived in a DRC.
00:27The country has been the epicentre of the outbreak with other 19,000 cases reported.
00:33China pledges to give 50 billion dollars in financing for Africa.
00:38For more than 50 African leaders also secured many deals in agriculture, mining, trade and energy.
00:48She was 33 years old. She had just returned from Paris for the Olympics.
00:53Now Olympic athlete Rebecca Sheptege is dead. She died from complications after being set on fire
01:00by a former boyfriend. The murder has sparked widespread emotion,
01:04particularly in her home country Uganda. Bastien Renaud reports.
01:10The first reactions to Rebecca Sheptege's killing came from Uganda. The minister for
01:14education and sports sent his condolences to the family and to Ugandans at large.
01:20Then the Uganda athletics federation said how deeply saddened it is by the death of its athlete
01:27and called for justice. And then later in the day the family spoke to the media in Eldorado,
01:32the town where she died. Of course they shared their pain. They said how painful it is to lose
01:38a sister, a daughter. And then they blamed the Kenyan police. They said that she had
01:43been threatened by the man who killed her for a while. Listen to her mother.
01:50I have no strength. I just blame the police in her home of Ndebes. They were responsible for
01:57providing security for my child's home but failed. I have nothing else to say.
02:05There is now an investigation ongoing. According to the police, 80 percent of her body was burnt
02:11after she was allegedly attacked by a former boyfriend. The police said that neighbours
02:15witnessed the attack. They said that they saw the man pouring a liquid on Tsheptege's body
02:21before burning her. This man is now in hospital. He was injured as well. 30 percent of his body
02:26was burnt. He will be arrested as soon as he is discharged from hospital, according to the police.
02:33Many erections from all over the place. From Janet Museveni, Uganda's first lady,
02:37to Kenyan sports minister Kishungba Mokomen who said it was a stark reminder that more must be
02:44done to combat gender-based violence. The Paris Olympics organisers also voiced their
02:49profound indignation and sadness. Outrage and sorrow as well from fellow athletes.
02:56At least we are more vulnerable because we are being used. We have these men who come around and
03:05just use us as properties. They see a young girl, manipulate them.
03:11And it was the latest horrific act of gender-based violence in the East African country where
03:16activists have warned of a rising femicide epidemic and are calling for long overdue action.
03:23Jairi Migwe is the founder of Osikimie, an organisation that fights gender-based violence.
03:30This is the fourth murder in a series of murders from 2021 for female athletes. But this is also
03:38another, I will not call it murder, I will call it femicide because femicide is the intentional
03:42murdering of women due to their gender and also intimate femicide which is what happened in this
03:48case. If you look at the intentionality of the murders between all these athletes who have been
03:54murdered by their husbands, boyfriends or partners, if you look at it there is a thread of financial
04:00finances. The fact that these women have been able to be on the prime of their life,
04:05been able to amass wealth and this wealth unfortunately has led to their death.
04:10Femicide has been rampant in this country. I remember in the beginning of this year on 27th
04:14of January, us Kenyans and us Kenyan women, and thank God for the Kenyan public as well,
04:19we did a femicide march on 27th of January where we were demanding for the government to speak
04:25about and also act upon incidents of femicide. By that time we had 32 cases of dead women
04:31in one month. As we are looking at, reported cases are 112 as of this month,
04:37that is a lot of women who have died. You see, if we don't act upon something,
04:41what are the repercussions when these women are killed? When Agnes Tirope was killed,
04:46the case is still in court. When Damaris was killed, the man disappeared.
04:54And all this I'm looking at athlete cases. I'm also looking at cases that have happened yet and
04:59still we have not seen the pursuance of justice. We have not seen the stance of the nation against
05:05femicide. If the head of the nation, the president, does not say anything about femicide,
05:10how are we going to treat it? Now in other news, the first lot of
05:13mpox vaccines has finally arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country
05:19has been the epicenter of the outbreak. More than 19,000 cases have been registered
05:24and nearly 630 deaths reported. Emmett Livingstone in Kinshasa has more.
05:31Nearly 100,000 mpox vaccines arrived by plane in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa on Thursday,
05:37the first batch to reach the country, which is the epicenter of the global mpox outbreak.
05:42The vaccines produced by Bavarian Nordic were procured and delivered by the European Union.
05:47100,000 more vaccines are expected to arrive in Congo on Saturday, but experts are warning that
05:52the rollout could be complicated in Congo, which has dire infrastructure and is plagued
05:57by conflict. What's more, the temperature at which the vaccine has to be kept poses a problem.
06:08Now they have to be delivered to difficult areas such as South Kivu and the equator region,
06:13where the vaccine has to be kept in a cold storage at minus 20 degrees.
06:18These are logistical challenges and we are in the process of working with our partners,
06:23in particular UNICEF, the Ministry of Health and various NGOs.
06:32European countries and the EU are due to donate a total of 566,000 vaccines to Congo. However,
06:38this number is unlikely to end the epidemic. Congo's health ministry says it needs 3.5
06:43million vaccine doses to tackle mpox. The country has recorded about 18,000 mpox infections and over
06:49600 deaths. This represents over 90% of the global cases, according to the WHO.
06:56Let's head now to Beijing, where the 9th China-Africa Forum, FOCAC,
07:00is underway. Almost every African country has sent a high-level delegation to the event
07:06that focuses on trade and development goals across the continent. And this Thursday,
07:10Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged over 50 billion dollars in credits, aid and investment.
07:17Covering the summit for us is our Beijing correspondent Ye Nalli.
07:23The China-Africa relationship is now at its best in history. That's what President Xi Jinping said
07:28during his keynote speech at this year's FOCAC. He described China's ties to the continent as
07:34mutually beneficial, whilst adding that, I quote,
07:37the Western approach has inflicted immense suffering. The Chinese leader also announced
07:43over 50 billion U.S. dollars in credit, aid and investment, including 1 billion in military
07:48assistance. It's interesting to note that FOCAC was first launched in 2000, and this is the ninth
07:54edition compared to the U.S., for example, that has held just two U.S.-Africa leaders' summits,
08:00once in 2014 and again in 2022. After President Xi's opening address, African leaders
08:08representing different parts of the continent also took to the stage. South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa
08:13thanked the hosts at least five times, mostly for their approach towards the continent,
08:19saluting China's interest and their collaborative approach. President Ramaphosa ended his short
08:26speech with a preview of the upcoming final declaration of this year's forum, saying that
08:31the signatories support a one-China policy and view that the People's Republic of China is the,
08:38I quote again, true and only representative of the people of China. Nothing new per se,
08:45but certainly a strong message of support to the room full of high-ranking Chinese officials and,
08:49of course, African delegates sitting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
08:54And meanwhile, the United States announced this week an additional $40 million to combat
09:00food insecurity on the continent at a time when malnutrition and famine are on the rise. Thousands
09:06of experts are also looking at solutions to this crisis in Rwanda at the biggest
09:11African forum on agriculture. Clément Diorama has more.
09:16African agriculture specialists gathered in Kigali to learn from recent crises
09:21and find solutions. Almost 10 years ago, African Union member states signed the Malabo declaration
09:27aimed at reducing poverty and improving access to food by 2025. Around 50 countries committed
09:32to various objectives, including dedicating 10% of their budget to agriculture. However,
09:38this goal remains far from being achieved. According to the UN, this year at least
09:4255 million people in West and Central Africa struggled to feed themselves.
09:47What we're seeing overall is that malnutrition rates are increasing exponentially. There's been
09:54some progress in the area of improving breastfeeding, but all the other nutrition
10:00indicators were behind. So we need a seismic shift, some new creativity, some innovation.
10:07The causes of malnutrition and famine include conflicts like in Sudan, as well as climate
10:12change and rising food and fertilizer prices. In 2023, the DR Congo and Nigeria, Sudan and
10:18Ethiopia were ranked by the UN as among the countries most affected by food crisis.
10:23The Kigali forum is exploring new ideas such as crop diversification, grain processing,
10:29better management of agricultural budgets and improving trade between African states.
10:36And that's the end of our edition. Thank you for watching ION Africa.