The Directorate of Veterinary Services inthe Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform has warned farmers and the general public about a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak that was confirmed on 13 October 2022 in the Kabbe South Constituency of the Zambezi Region.
Chief Veterinary Officer Albertina Musilika-Shilongo in a media statement on Sunday said a farmer notified the Katima Mulilo State Veterinary office about a few heads of cattle with indicative clinical signs of FMD on 09 October.
‘Following outbreak investigation by veterinary officials a total of 14 clinical cases out of 230 head of cattle were found with healing lesions consistent with FMD,’ she said.
In line with the Animal Health Act of 2011, the Kabbe South and Kabbe North constituencies have been declared FMD-infected areas and the entire Zambezi Region declared a disease management area.
Musilika-Shilongo said for the next 14 days intensified FMD surveillance aimed at establishing the extent of the outbreak is underway.
After 14 days the control measures will be reviewed and the public will be notified accordingly.
(NAMPA)
SH/AS
2 (NAIROBI, 16 OCT, AFP) – The African Union on Sunday called on the warring parties in Ethiopia’s conflict to ‘recommit’ to peace talks, as violence intensifies in the embattled Tigray region.
The city of Shire in northwest Tigray has been bombarded for several days in a joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops, with civilian casualties reported in the push against rebels from the war-torn region.
The International Rescue Committee, an aid organisation delivering relief to stricken Tigray, announced on Saturday that one of its staff was among three civilians killed in an attack in Shire.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has joined the United States and other Western powers in expressing grave concern over the worsening violence and its impact on civilians, and called on both sides to negotiate peace.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, and the Tigrayan authorities, have accepted an AU invitation to talk, but negotiations scheduled to start last weekend in South Africa failed to take place.
AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat said the escalating violence was of ‘grave concern’.
AFP
3 (TEHRAN, 16 OCT, AFP) – The fire that broke out in Iran’s Evin prison in Tehran overnight killed four inmates and left 61 others injured, the judicial authority said on its website Sunday.
‘Four prisoners died due to smoke inhalation caused by the fire and 61 were injured,’ Mizan Online reported, adding that four of the injured were in ‘serious condition’.
The four inmates who died in the fire ‘had been convicted of robbery and were serving their sentence in Evin prison,’ Mizan said.
Iran has been rocked by weeks of protests since 22-year-old Masha Amini’s death was announced on September 16, three days after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
Flames and a plume of smoke rose over the prison in Tehran’s north, where some of those detained during the demonstrations over Amini’s death in custody have reportedly been sent.
AFP
4 (VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT, AFP) – Pope Francis said the need to reform the United Nations was ‘more than obvious’ after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war exposed its limits, in an extract of his new book published Sunday.
The Argentine pontiff said Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine highlighted the need to ensure the current multilateral structure — especially the UN Security Council — finds ‘more agile and effective ways of resolving conflicts’.
‘In wartime, it is essential to affirm that we need more multilateralism and a better multilateralism,’ but the UN is no longer fit for ‘new realities’, he added in an extract published by La Stampa daily.
The organisation was founded to prevent the horrors of two World Wars from happening again, but although the threat represented by those conflicts was still alive, ‘today’s world is no longer the same’, said Francis.
‘The necessity of these reforms became more than obvious after the pandemic’ when the current multilateral system ‘showed all its limits’, he added.
AFP
5 (WASHINGTON, 16 OCT, AFP) – President Joe Biden has ‘no plans’ to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a November G20 summit in Indonesia, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
Biden ‘has no plans to meet with the crown prince at the G20 summit,’ Sullivan told CNN, speaking as already stormy US-Saudi relations have been further strained by Riyadh’s support for oil production cuts.
The planned cuts have infuriated Washington, with Biden warning on Tuesday of unspecified ‘consequences.’
The move last week by OPEC+ — composed of the Riyadh-led OPEC cartel and an additional group of 10 exporters headed by Russia — would reduce global output by up to two million barrels per day from November.
It could send energy prices soaring amid an energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and as inflation-weary American voters prepare to cast ballots in midterm elections.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
