Mpox outbreak in Central Africa

 https://www.nytimes.com/card/2024/08/29/world/africa/mpox-outbreak-africa-congo

CDC discussion 

since january 1, 2024, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported more than 31,000 suspect mpox cases and nearly 1,000 deaths. 

There have also been confirmed clade I cases in Central African Republic (CAR), which borders DRC to the north. Clade I mpox occurs regularly in ROC and CAR, but the new cases appear to be linked to spread from DRC. 

In late July 2024, the disease spread to countries that are not known to be endemic for the virus that causes mpox: Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, which sit on the eastern border of DRC, and Kenya, which has reported cases of travel-associated mpox only. Although contact tracing is ongoing, some cases have links to DRC. Person-to-person transmission has occurred during this outbreak, including through sexual contact, household contact, and within healthcare settings, when personal protective equipment was not available.

CDC is working with Ministries of Health and in-country partners across the region on disease surveillance, laboratory capacity including testing materials, strengthening workforce capacity, case investigation, case management, infection prevention and control, border health, and risk communication and community engagement.

In some provinces, patients have acquired infection through contact with infected dead or live wild animals, household spread, or patient care (transmitted when appropriate PPE wasn't used or available); a high proportion of cases have been reported in children younger than 15 years of age.

 

In other provinces, the cases are associated with sexual contact among men who have sex with men and female sex workers and their contacts. These are the first reported cases of sexual transmission with clade I mpox.

more here

The Republic of the Congo (ROC), which borders DRC to the west, declared a clade I mpox outbreak in April 2024. There have also been confirmed clade I cases in Central African Republic (CAR), which borders DRC to the north. Clade I mpox occurs regularly in ROC and CAR, but the new cases appear to be linked to spread from DRC. In late July 2024, the disease spread to countries that are not known to be endemic for the virus that causes mpox: Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, which sit on the eastern border of DRC, and Kenya, which has reported cases of travel-associated mpox only. Although contact tracing is ongoing, some cases have links to DRC. Person-to-person transmission has occurred during this outbreak, including through sexual contact, household contact, and within healthcare settings, when personal protective equipment was not available. CDC is working with Ministries of Health and in-country partners across the region on disease surveillance, laboratory capacity including testing materials, strengthening workforce capacity, case investigation, case management, infection prevention and control, border health, and risk communication and community engagement.

a readable Summary of epidemic in Legal Insurrection.

reports that after a year the vaccine doesn't give protection even after two doses.

Not mentioned: Is this in all cases or just in the MSM type who have HIV?

the reason for western countries to get worried about this disease is partly because it could morph into smallpox like epidemics, but also because mpox in the west is a sexually transmitted disease (unlike Africa, where touching lesions will spread it especially to children because of lack of lots of water and basic protective equipment such as gloves)....

the dirty little secret is that sex tourists have been bringing cases into Europe and the USA, and instead of stressing behavior modification or shutting down places in the west where the disease spreads, they will rely on vaccine. 

as for the deaths: remember: 

 

Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in DRC with 27.3 million malaria cases and 24,880 malaria deaths reported in 2022,

Pogos, Scams, spies, and the Chinese mafia

when my granddaughter tried to take a plane from Manila to Thailand for a job teaching, the government stopped her, until paper work and investigation of her and her job offer could be investigated.

They explained that Thailand was a center for human trafficking.

Filipinos, especially attractive young women, are hired to be maids or workers and end up as prostitutes. There is also a lot of drug smuggling, where poor folk are enticed to become mules to deliver drugs to their destinations.

Well, everything cleared, and she flew out last week with her mother to check on the job and housing, and everything was fine.

The background of this is organized crime, and the POGOs, gambling casinos linked to organized crime that were opened 20 years ago despite the warnings by the Catholic bishops, President Arroyo allowed the POGOS as a way to get jobs for locals and money for the government.

According to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), POGOs began operating in 2003 but it was only in 2016, after Duterte came to power, that the government began regulating online gaming hubs.

which brings us to this story I found today on twitter/X: 

 from AlJezeerah.

In a world exclusive, imprisoned tycoon She Zhijiang shares explosive allegations about Chinese spies and an international criminal conspiracy: https://t.co/mSOn5klXaJ pic.twitter.com/9OYtVyCkmk

— 101 East (@AJ101East) September 27, 2024

...............

........

wikipedia page:

His company, Yatai International Holdings Group (abbreviated Yatai IHG), is registered in Hong Kong and headquartered in Thailand.[2] He became a fugitive in 2012, after fleeing Chinese authorities.[7] In 2014, a Shandong court convicted him of running an illegal lottery business in the Philippines that targeted Chinese online users, and had netted US$298 million in profits.[8]

so convicted in China 2014, but that didn't slow him down. 

In 2015, he began building a business in Cambodia, involved in the illicit business of helping Chinese gamblers front-load gambling bets made in Cambodian casinos.[2]

From there, he expanded his business interests to the Philippines and acquired ownership of one of Manila's largest spa and entertainment centers.[2]

the US Institute of Peace (a US Govt think tank) in 2020 posted this report on what was going on in Myanmar.

To circumvent Chinese laws against gambling, ethnic Chinese with citizenship in other countries spearhead these projects.

Of concern to Beijing, they have co-opted Chinese government institutions and agencies to present their activities as central to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.  

notice that several of these articles mention the Philippines? that is an ongoing scandal here which I have not been following. 

But recently, instead of watching soap operas, everyone here is following the Senate hearings on Alice Guo, a fake citizen who became mayor of a small town in Pampanga. that has been linked to casinos and crime (and is near a military base but no spying found...yet).

PhilStar reports (9 25):

n what was supposed to be the final hearing on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO), Guo deviated from her usual responses to assert her innocence—and to hint at a bigger boss.

“Your honor, hindi ako mastermind. Masasabi ko po is isa akong victim (Your honor, I am not a mastermind. I can say that I am a victim) ,” Guo said. 

For most of her appearances in the Senate since being detained by Indonesian authorities in September, Guo has typically given one of three responses: she either claims ignorance, invokes her right against self-incrimination or cites a death threat.

Sen. JV Ejercito then asked Guo if she was a pawn of an international criminal syndicate. Guo responded that she was not exactly used, but acknowledged that she has a reputation for being helpful.

This article from the Straits Time Singapore notes connections with organized crime there.

Guo had incorporated the company behind the scam compound, Baofu Land Development, in 2019 with two convicts in Singapore’s $3 billion money laundering case, Chinese nationals Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying.

and ANC notes

......

alas, I am not an expert on the Chinese Triad but WIKIPEDIA page discusses their long history 

and the liberal Brookings Institute has a long analysis of the relationship between organized crime and the Chinese government

Indeed, these criminal networks provide a variety of services to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Chinese legal enterprises. They help build networks of corruption and influence among foreign politicians and businesses.

In interviews with Vanda Felbab-Brown, current and former law enforcement officials from the United States, Asia, Australia, and Africa stated that China-linked criminal groups monitor the Chinese diaspora and act as extralegal enforcers on behalf of Chinese authorities against those who speak and act against the Chinese government and CCP. Thus, Chinese government officials often unofficially extend the umbrella of party protection and government authority to these actors.

 Hey Donald, instead of worrying about Haitians eating Garfield you need to check out some of the Chinese ethnics entering the USA illegally.

sorry: I accidentally posted it here, but you know, with all of those Chinese investments in Africa, and now that Africans are being recruited to work overseas, I wonder if there is a story about the Chinese triads in Africa too.

Chinese overfishing destroying West African ecosystem

 China has overfished and dug up the sea bed in the West Philippine sea, harming our fishing industry. But their fishing trawlers have also been busy stealing maritime resources from South America,

but now they are destroying the fishing grounds off of West Africa:

......

these reports are not recent. 

But Global voices has a report on what is going on recently:

The impact of China's fishing policies on West Africa Large trawlers are destroying the ecosystem in West African ocean

Senegal is one of many countries affected by devastating overfishing due to illegal Chinese fishing vessels. Senegal’s unemployment rate remains high because, according to Greenpeace, an environmental organization working in more than 50 countries in the world, including West and Central Africa, the introduction of mass-scale fishing techniques by Chinese vessels has devastated local fishing industries, leaving many without their livelihoods....

Nope. Ramaswami gets it wrong

 One of those using YOUTUBE to push ideas is Ramaswami.

He has this video discussing Mugabe against white farmers and compares it to the war against the white farmers in Rhodesia.

Well, it ignores how Africans were removed from good farmlands so that it could be sold to white immigrants and the Africans were resettled in other areas, including some of those resettled into lower altitudes where malaria, to which they had no resistance, was common.  

I post this even though I disagree with his idea that this was about ethnicity but post it for your information

Sudan genocide again

Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes visited Dafur to report what is going on there.

NYTimes link

Wayback machine link

The atrocities underway near here are an echo of the Darfur genocide of two decades ago, with the additional complication of famine. But there’s a crucial difference: At that time, world leaders, celebrities and university students vigorously protested the slaughter and joined forces to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Today, in contrast, the world is distracted and silent.

and it's not just the war: It is the danger of a massive famine that could kill millions.

This is the BBC resport:

sigh.

Mali: Islamic terrorists vs Govt and Russian peacekeeprs

 

At least 77 people have been killed in an attack on Mali’s capital, Bamako, on Tuesday, according to AFP, in the first major attack on the Malian capital since 2015.

Here's what you need to know https://t.co/MS1g6ne2bO pic.twitter.com/rJVAhFWmBG

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 20, 2024

article here.

JNIM members appeared to have killed scores of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters from the Wagner mercenary group during the nine hours the attack is believed to have lasted for. The Wagner Group, now called Africa Corps, is deployed in the country to assist the government in repelling armed groups.

backstory 

When anti-French sentiment began to rise in the region around 2015, partly due to continued attacks by armed groups, Goita ordered French forces and MINUSMA to leave. The troops started withdrawing in 2022 and completed their exit by December last year. Goita’s government has instead turned to Russia’s Wagner forces for support. There are now about 2,000 Wagner fighters in the country.

 ========================

StrategyPage has a long discussion about the war in that country

it's not just islamicist vs the present Government, it has roots in tribal difference: the Tuareg (desert tribes) vs the Arab influenced culture of the north and the black tribes of the south. The Tuareg used to run the place and is now getting payback: and now the Islamic crazies have gotten involved.

CSP was formed in 2021 and mainly consists of Tuaregs, a North African Berber group that dominated the region for over two thousand years until European colonial forces showed up in the early 19 th century.,,,

 

The French colonial governments used the Tuaregs as their enforcers and this backfired on them when the French left and the newly independent governments of Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso sought to suppress Tuareg power in the region.....

 

In 2023 and 2024 the economic and political situation in Mali has gotten worse, with more Islamic terrorist violence and growing areas of northern and central Mali coming under the control of Islamic terrorist groups.

-------------------------

update: SP has more on the Russian merc losses. 

the World tour promotes the beauties of Zimbabwe

 the guys in the World tour (aka Top Gear 2) do their last show in Zimbabwe, showing the beauties of the land.

this is a big boost for tourism.

alas, not their best show, and it could have shown more of the country, but it is a welcome change from most of the reporting by western outlets, showing the good part of the country in their trip from Mutare to Botswana.

when society breaks down, barbarity commences

 Instapundit, which usually covers politics and science, took time to do a post about the atrocities in the DRC civil wars.

No, it's not the culture: The culture was destroyed by Arab slave traders (east Africa slave trade was documented by Livingstone, but sort of ignored by the western historians) and later the Europeans who wanted cheap labor, and of course, the desire of everyone to get gold (and now other rare earth metals).

here is the entire post.

The Calamitous Rape Crisis Unfolding in Congo’s War: Around 80% of women in camps for the displaced have been raped in brutal attacks, as international attention wanes. ‘If the war ends, I won’t have to be raped anymore.’

Over a decade ago, political leaders and celebrities from around the globe made a high-publicity pledge to put an end the use of rape as a weapon of war. Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, met survivors in eastern Congo, which amid years of back-to-back and parallel conflicts, had become known as the “rape capital of the world.” The U.K.’s then-foreign secretary, William Hague, who visited Goma, the biggest city on Congo’s border with Rwanda, with actress Angelina Jolie, likened sexual violence in conflict zones, and the world’s quest to end it, to “the slave trade of our generation.”

But it gets worse: Congo’s Forgotten Curse: Epidemic of Female-on-Female Rape. “Rape in conflict zones has long been the subject of news reports and academic study and large amounts of donor funding is channeled to organizations that respond to it. But rape specifically perpetrated by women has received less attention. Recent studies suggest the problem is more widespread than many experts previously believed. In 2010, Harvard academic Lynn Lawry and a team of researchers conducted a survey of human-rights abuses in over 1,000 households in conflict-ridden eastern Congo. It was the same year that Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, dubbed Congo ‘the rape capital of the world.’ Lawry’s study asked victims of sexual violence to specify their assailant’s gender. It found that 40% of the women — and 10% of the men — who said they were subjected to sexual violence were assaulted by a woman.”

Also rape by U.N. “peacekeepers.”

And of course, there’s lots of rape of men in Congo too. “During his escape from the civil war in neighbouring Congo, he had been separated from his wife and taken by rebels. His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years. And he wasn’t the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him.”

blood cobalt