Dozens died when a boat capsized in eastern Congo
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00:00Hello and welcome on France 24, I'm Clarisse Fortuné and this is Iron Africa, our top stories.
00:08Death toll is expected to rise in the DRC and people are still missing.
00:13After another crowded boat capsized on Lake Kivu, at least 78 people are known to have drowned.
00:22And meanwhile, after many delays, a major in-box vaccination is set to begin
00:26as the outbreak is getting worse and the number of cases in the capital, Kinshasa, is increasing.
00:34Land invasions in Zimbabwe were a thing of the past under former President Robert Mugabe.
00:40Today, foreign and local farmers are to be compensated with an initial payment of 20 million dollars.
00:49In the DRC, dozens of people have drowned and many more are missing.
00:53After a boat capsized on Thursday morning, just a few hundred meters from the shore of Lake Kivu.
00:59An accident which has won too many on the country's waterways.
01:03Emmett Livingstone in Kinshasa has more.
01:07On Thursday, in eastern DR Congo, a ferry crossing Lake Kivu capsized less than a kilometre from the port of Goma.
01:14Terrifying footage of the accident was shared on social media,
01:17showing the overcrowded boat flip on its side while coming into port and then capsizing.
01:22Passengers had only seconds to jump off.
01:25Dozens of people died in the accident but the exact death toll still isn't clear.
01:29One official said that the boat was run by a private operator and that it didn't have a ship's manifest
01:34and so it's impossible to tell how many people were aboard when it went down.
01:37Fatal boat accidents are depressingly common in DR Congo
01:40where travelling by river or across lakes is a necessity for many because of nearly non-existent roads.
01:45In June, about 80 people drowned when an overloaded boat sank near the capital, Kinshasa, in western Congo.
01:50The Congolese authorities regularly promise to tighten maritime rules but accidents keep occurring.
01:56As Mpox continues to spread in Africa, Ghana has recorded its first confirmed case.
02:02The patient is a young boy from the western north region, about 500 kilometres from the capital, Accra.
02:08The child has since been discharged and is in a stable condition
02:12but officials are still monitoring 25 people who were in contact with him.
02:17Meanwhile, from away for Ghana, at the epicentre of the disease,
02:21a major vaccination campaign is finally set to kick off this weekend in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
02:27The Mpox outbreak has killed nearly a thousand people there
02:30and infected more than 30,000 since the start of 2024.
02:34Health Minister says they will start vaccinating adults.
02:38Tomorrow when we land the vaccine from Goma, we will immediately bring it to South Kivu
02:43because South Kivu is the most affected province and we will try to vaccinate adults first
02:49because the vaccine we have received is already last hand for adults.
02:54And of course there is research that suggests it can also be used in children under 17.
02:59But for the moment, given the number of doses we have, we will start with adults.
03:07And they are called the forgotten victims of the war in Lebanon.
03:10Domestic workers who find themselves alone after departure of death or death of employers.
03:17The Ministry of Labour estimates that there are 250,000 domestic workers, many of them from African countries.
03:24Our colleagues at France 34 Observateurs obtained the testimony of a domestic worker from Sierra Leone
03:31and she is currently taking refuge in a flat in Beirut with around 60 other domestic workers.
03:37But this bomb incident was on Monday.
03:41I was walking into the Iblebom on Monday.
03:46The place that I was walking, my madam and my mister, they passed away.
03:51They sent me out to go and buy something from the supermarket
03:55because the place from the supermarket was not too far.
03:58When I came, I stand by the supermarket, I saw the house fell down
04:03because when they dropped the bomb, the fragment of the bomb made the house to shake and to fall.
04:09My madam and my mister were there.
04:11There are so many of us, we don't have a work right now, I don't have a job,
04:15I don't have a place to stay, only in my friend's house, I don't have any money with me.
04:21It was former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's mission to redistribute the land
04:26to undo the racist inheritance of colonial rule.
04:29It became a lawless grab for power and wealth that nearly destroyed the country.
04:34Today, the Zimbabwean government said it will pay an initial $20 million
04:39to foreign white and local black farmers who lost land in farm invasions.
04:44It's seen as an effort by current President Emerson Mwangagwa
04:48to resolve the country's huge foreign debt and revive its economy.
04:52From Harare, Nyasha Shinguno explains.
04:59In a move that is expected to better relations with the West
05:02following 20 plus years of frosty relations,
05:04the Zimbabwean government will begin to make compensation
05:07for farm owners who lost land in the 2000 land grab.
05:10The farmers will belong to a special group of private investors from Europe
05:15and some local farmers will begin to be paid this month.
05:18According to the Minister of Finance,
05:20the compensation will begin in October until December, according to the Minister.
05:24Government says they have been engaged in a verification process
05:26to make sure that the farmers are well deserving.
05:30Zimbabwe has been in the throes of economic turmoil since the year 2000
05:35when it defaulted payments to international financial institutions.
05:40According to data from Treasury,
05:42Zimbabwe owes nearly $12 billion to international financial institutions.
05:46The country has not been able to access loans from the World Bank or the IMF.
05:51Zimbabwe believes that paying these farmers
05:53will help unlock new lines of credit.
05:57Zimbabwe is also owing a group of former commercial farmers
06:00about $3.5 billion in a deal that was signed four years ago.
06:05According to the debt restructuring programme that is ongoing,
06:09Zimbabwe is supposed to pay and compensate these farmers
06:13for it to be able to engage in meaningful talks with creditors.
06:17Hundreds of Ghanaians have taken to the streets of Accra
06:20as part of a three-day protest against illegal gold mining known as Galamzé.
06:26They are also calling for the release of 54 activists.
06:29The government's handling of Galamzé,
06:32and particularly its impact on natural resources,
06:35has become a key issue as the country prepares itself
06:38for the upcoming presidential elections in December.
06:41Clémence Valère has more.
06:45There are hundreds calling for the immediate end
06:47of illegal gold mining in Ghana
06:50and the release of 54 anti-Galamzé activists.
06:54Walking through the streets of Accra,
06:57many displayed bottles of polluted water from the Praa and Birim rivers,
07:01two of the biggest in the West African nation,
07:04to highlight the devastating environmental impact of illegal mining.
07:08This is poison water.
07:10It's going to get to everyone.
07:12We already don't have a proper health care system.
07:15Do we really want to play this game?
07:18Known as Galamzé, the mining practice has plagued the country for decades,
07:22destroying the environment,
07:24polluting crucial drinking water sources and endangering livelihoods.
07:28The situation is deemed so severe
07:31that according to the Institute for Security Studies,
07:34Ghana could end up importing drinking water by 2030.
07:38The government handling of Galamzé has become a flashpoint issue
07:41that will play a big role in the December presidential election.
07:45Sorry, but I'm tempted to use this word,
07:48to hell with your policies,
07:50to hell with your flagship programs and all.
07:53What a day when we do not have basic drinking water.
07:57When President Nana Akufo-Addo took office in 2017,
08:01he vowed to make the fight against Galamzé his top priority.
08:05That same year,
08:07he set up the Interministerial Committee on Illegal Mining,
08:09chaired by the Environment Minister.
08:12Since then, several operations have been launched
08:15to arrest illegal miners and seize their equipments,
08:18with little effect.
08:20Ghana's labor unions have announced a nationwide strike for October 10th
08:24to force authorities to take urgent action.
08:28It remains a taboo in many countries.
08:31In a DR Congo,
08:33many girls skip class because of stigma surrounding menstruation
08:36and a lack of sanitary facilities in schools.
08:39One NGO, Movement Alert,
08:41is trying to break these taboos among schoolchildren
08:44using a comic strip.
08:46Emmett Livingstone, Aurelie Bazara-Kibongula, has the story.
08:52In this classroom in Kinshasa,
08:54Anita tries to break down taboos concerning menstruation.
08:57When you'll get older, you'll have periods.
09:00And when that will happen, you should not feel ashamed.
09:03She's fighting clichés using a comic called Konku.
09:06It tells the story of a teenage boy
09:07who helps his sister while she has her period.
09:10Armed with the comic,
09:12Anita can explain to pupils what happens to girls' bodies
09:15once they reach puberty.
09:17They can't go into the same showers,
09:19they can't touch the utensils.
09:21Why?
09:23Because they're menstruating.
09:25Because it's believed that menstruation,
09:27that blood,
09:29makes a woman impure
09:31and can make anything she touches impure
09:33when it's not true.
09:34In this setting,
09:36schoolchildren can ask any questions without embarrassment.
09:39The back and forth is frank and direct.
09:41In DR Congo,
09:43having your period at school
09:45is all too often seen as something to be ashamed of.
09:47Louise and her friends
09:49say that they've witnessed girls being ridiculed.
09:51When my friend went to the blackboard to write,
09:53her uniform was stained.
09:55And the boys laughed,
09:57saying she's a dirty girl, that she's dirty,
09:59she gets red things on her skirt.
10:01And she's dirty.
10:02She tried and left the room.
10:04Girls face taboos,
10:06but also practical hindrances.
10:08The school is almost derelict
10:10and the sanitary facilities are out of order.
10:12According to the school headmaster,
10:14many girls skip classes every month
10:16because of their periods.
10:18When a girl takes four days off,
10:21she misses classes.
10:23In our secondary school,
10:25there are seven hours of lessons a day.
10:28So over four or five days,
10:30it is a lot.
10:32The NGO hopes to distribute
10:34its Kongu comic book
10:36to every school in Kinshasa
10:38and raise awareness among pupils
10:40and parents alike.
10:42In DR Congo,
10:44only one woman in two
10:46has access to sanitary products.