COVID-19/AFRICA
behaving, except that more men have died than women. The young African population is also not too healthy due to high prevalence of malnutrition, anaemia, malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The ability to treat severe forms of COVIDS-19 will depend on the availability of ventilators, electricity and oxygen. A recent analysis of countries with the highest number of intensive care beds per capita does not include any African nation. Liberia for instance, does not have a single intensive care unit (ICU) with ventilators. Uganda has 0.1 ICU bed per 100,000 population. In contrast, the US has 34.7 beds per 100,000 population. Another immediate concern is making food available to the millions under lockdown.
The Democratic Republic of Congo announced total confinement for three weeks in the province of Kinshasa, the epicentre of COVID-19, from March 28th. It allowed an intermittent four-day relaxation for people to get basic food supplies. But immediately after the announcement, people invaded the markets and by the afternoon, many products had become unavailable. “I went through many places but didn’t get even toilet paper. I don’t know if I’ll find potatoes,” says Mariam Gwabije, a resident of Kinshasa. “Hunger will kill us during confinement, especially since we have not been warned,” regrets Mugoli Camunani, a daily wager. “We live on what we earn per day. D R Congo differs from the European Union that feeds its citizens,” adds Charles Mukendi Mwenzele, a street trader.
Far away in Senegal, people are facing another kind of problem. Tapalapa bread, which is the first meal of the day for many Senegalese, is usually sold at kiosks. But in the wake of the pandemic, the government has banned it and instead, recommends direct purchase from bakeries. This has resulted in large crowds at bakeries, sometimes in violation of the ‘social distancing’ recommended by public health experts to combat COVID-19. Malik Ba, a 34-year-old father of two buys bread every
CLOSE TO 70 PER CENT OF AFRICA’S POPULATION IS INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE, BUT IT IS ALSO AMONGST THE WORST SUFFERERS, SHOWS THE 2018 AFRICA AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT
morning from a nearby neighbourhood bakery. He says he was worried about the chaotic scenes at the bakery. “The crowds are not regulated. I’m afraid some people could easily get infected or spread the disease through close contact,” he says.
Food is likely to be an issue during the pandemic and even after it. In Rwanda, an agrarian country, the restrictions are making life difficult for farmers. Agro dealer Jeremie Ruhirwa struggled with the purchase of fertilisers despite official claims that agriculture activities must continue. Ruhirwa, who sells agri-inputs in villages of Ntunga sector of Gasabo district, expresses his failure to purchase DAP fertiliser from the wholesaler. “Inputs are prepaid to an accredited wholesaler. I travelled for an hour on my motorcycle, but the office and the store were closed,” he says. “Some employees could not come because there was no public transport— the lockdown had started on March 21. Now I cannot give the farmers DAP. They may use fertilisers not recommended for crops. It can affect the produce,” he adds. “There are people who earn from nonagricultural businesses to invest in agriculture. These businesses are closed. Many of them are in urban areas and their families in rural areas depend on their earning,” says Teddy Kaberuka, an economy analyst.
The Africa Agriculture Status Report 2018 shows that close to 70 per cent of the continent’s population is involved in agriculture, but it is also amongst the worst sufferers. “I used to cultivate with the daily wages I earned from working in a school in Kigali. Now the school is closed and I’m unable to exploit this planting season as I do not have cash to buy seeds and fertilisers,” Theogene Bahanugira, a smallholder farmer in Nyabihu district says. Joseph Gafaranga, a farmer and secretary-general of Imbaraga Farmers Organization, expresses the challenges linked to lockdown. “We use several daily wage employees in farming, but we are employing only a few now to minimise