Schools in DRC to reopen on 03/8/2020

Renewed school year calendar 2019-2020:
Course resumption is scheduled for Monday, August 03 and the end of 2019-2020 is set for September 03, 2020.
Out of 26 million students, only 3 million will go back to school this Monday, August 03
With regard to the national primary school graduation test (TENAFEP), it is confirmed from August 13 to 14 The State exam will be organized from August 24th to 27th.
For off sessions; the essay is scheduled for August 17 and oral French from August 19 to 22, 2020.
It should be noted that for participation costs in TENAFEP, only private schools will pay the participation fees, state schools and conventional schools are in line with the logic of free education.
On the contrary, for state exams, all schools will pay the fees set by provincial governors.
The Prime Minister chaired this Monday, July 27 a meeting focused on the modalities of resumption of activities in the sector of primary and secondary education. The VPM and Minister of the Interior, Gilbert Kankonde, who read the report of the meeting, explained that from August 3, classes resume in the final classes of primary education and on August 10 for the final at the University and promotions with low enrollment. “As of today, we have proceeded to disinfect premises in all our universities and from 03 August there will be administrative resumption. On August 10, it is the resumption of classes in the promotions of small numbers and more mainly in the final classes. In primary secondary and technical education, the start of the school year will be effective from August 3 in the final classes of primary and secondary ”Gilbert Kankonde also specified that there will be no blank year nor in primary, nor in higher and university education. “There will be no white year in education. Everything is in place to make this year count for our children. The specialized services are working to try to accommodate the academic calendar so that what can be taken back is recovered, ”said the VPM and Minister of the Interior. And to conclude, the VPM insisted on respecting barrier gestures. “Now more than ever, wearing a mask is compulsory in all public places, the disease is indeed there. Just because the state of emergency has been lifted doesn't mean the disease is no longer circulating. Barrier measures must be in place, they are part of our everyday culture ”, concluded Gilbert Kankonde. This meeting brought together the Ministries of the Interior, Budget, Decentralization, Primary, Secondary and Technical Education, Finance, Health, National Defense and Veterans Affairs, Social Affairs. 

General sylivano kasongo bans the entry of heavy vehicles in kinshasha by 9pm.

General Sylvano Kasongo, deputy divisional commissioner and police commander in Kinshasa, recalled this Monday, July 27, in a statement, the drivers and attendants of trailers and other heavy-duty trucks that “the regulation of entries and exits” in the Congolese capital remains in force.
According to this measure, we can read in the police statement, “no heavy goods vehicle or trailer can enter the city before 9 pm”.
General Sylvano Kasongo calls on the drivers concerned to comply so as not to suffer the rigor of the law, because, he adds, the elements of the police committed at the borders of Kinshasa are instructed for the execution of this measure without complacency.

Armed violence in Ituri displaces about 1.6 million civilians;noted UNICEF.

Armed violence in the territories of Djugu, Mahagi and Irumu has displaced 1.6 million people, mostly women and children, UNICEF said in a statement on Monday (July 27th).
“The situation of children is particularly worrying, since 151 allegations of serious violations of children's rights, such as rape, murder and mutilation, attacks on schools and health centers have been recorded since May to June 2020.”, the statement said.
UNICEF has identified 165 schools destroyed in conflict zones and fears school wastage on the eve of the resumption of classes that were suspended following the covid-19 pandemic.
“While the Congolese Government's demobilization and reconciliation efforts have revived hopes for peace in Ituri, thousands of internally displaced families and children lack access to basic services, education and health care. Many students may not have a place to study at the start of the school year next week, because 165 of them have been destroyed since January 2020, "the agency said.
This is how UNICEF claims to have "provided access to education for more than one million children who are out of school due to COVID-19. Children can access distance education through 57 community radios or printed textbooks. UNICEF distributed 24,000 workbooks and more than 1,000 solar-powered radios to vulnerable children. "
These displaced people have found refuge in host communities and already overcrowded displacement sites in and around Bunia, the capital of the province.
In addition, some 100,000 children and their families have benefited from food assistance. Dozens of children have either been reunited with their families, placed with foster families, or disassociated from armed groups. There are 9,992 malnourished children in Ituri today, UNICEF said.

Covid19 vaccines slated to be in use by early 2021

While a number of COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine trials are in their later stages, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert recently revealed that actual use of the vaccines is slated for 2021, at the earliest.
"We're making good progress," Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said.
"Realistically it is going to be the first part of next year before we start seeing people getting vaccinated.”
Ryan noted that mainly individuals between the ages of 18 and 55 have been stepping up around the world for trials.“That’s a massive contribution to the whole world,” he added.
“Vaccines in this pandemic are not for the wealthy; they’re not for the poor; they’re for everybody,” he argued, stressing that “fairness” in how a future vaccine is allocated is important to the public health agency.
The WHO expert also expressed during the Q&A that communities around the world should make sending children back to school a primary goal in battling the pandemic.
“There are many schools that act as very important points of nutrition for children, the points of safety for children in areas that are not necessarily as safe - socially - for kids. So schools don’t just function as sites of education,” he argued.
“We have to do everything possible to bring our children back to school, and the most effective thing we can do is to stop the disease in the community.”
“The results of phase 1 and/or phase 2 trials have been very promising. We should definitely believe these results, while acknowledging that they do not prove the vaccine is effective," said Aubree Gordon, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, as reported by Reuters.
"These early phase trials address safety and whether the vaccine elicits a good immune response. The good news is that we have several vaccines that have or are moving forward into phase 3 trials - the phase needed to prove it works for licensing.”

.....writer is a Russian friend doing masters in  Virology....

India deploys a squadron of T-90 missile firing tanks along india-china border

Satellite images have captured an additional build-up of troops and equipment by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the Aksai Chin area. The Indian government has expedited weapons and troop deployment after making an assessment that PLA troops are preparing for a long and harsh winter in the Himalayas.
India has started deploying a squadron (12) of T-90 missile-firing tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and a full troop brigade (4,000 men) to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) to prevent any possible Chinese incursion from the Shaksgam-Karakoram pass axis in the Ladakh region, as per military commanders quoted by the Indian news daily Hindustan Times .
The move has reportedly come after disengagement talks failed to topple the Chinese military build-up, wherein the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deployed close to 50,000 troops in Aksai Chin.
Since the bridges on the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road cannot handle the weight of a 46-tonne T-90 tank, the missile firing tanks were deployed by fording the rivers and rivulets using specialised equipment. The army has also deployed infantry combat vehicles, US-made M-777 155mm howitzers, and 130 mm guns at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh which include DBO, Galwan, and Pangong Tso.
The satellite images have shown large
concentrations of troops in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the use of possible tunnels to amass equipment, Indian news website ThePrint has claimed. The assessment of a new build-up has suggested that the People’s Liberation Army appears to be getting ready for a long and harsh winter.
Since the disengagement talks are nowhere near over, the Indian Army is matching the troop strength while keeping an eye on the PLA's movement along the Line of Actual Control.
The military and diplomatic level talks since the violent face-off on 15 June, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, has resulted in disengagement only in the Galwan Valley. Indian Army sources said that Beijing has not yet withdrawn its troops from either Pangong Tso or the Depsang Valley.
Chinese troops are almost 8 kilometres inside Indian territory in the Depsang Valley, as per government sources. India and China are in one of the longest border standoffs, which began in the last week of April after Beijing raised objections over infrastructure development by New Delhi along the loosely demarcated border.

India receives 36 Rafale jets from France,A boost to its air power.

India purchased 36 Rafale fighter jets from France under a government-to-government deal in 2016 at a cost of $8.7 billion. The delivery of the jets was expedited by France at the behest of India after border tensions with China worsened in April of this year.
The new Rafale jets add strategic depth and strength to India’s air combat capabilities, says an Indian official after inducting five Dassault Aviation fighters on Monday. The jets are headed to the Ambala Air Base in Punjab, close to Ladakh and the Pakistan border.
Pilots and ground crew have received comprehensive training on the aircraft, including its highly advanced weapons systems, the Indian Air Force said last week in a rare declaration of operational status.
After the arrival of the Rafale fighter jets “efforts will focus on operationalisation of the aircraft at the earliest”.
Sources indicated that the Indian Air Force has also decided to purchase an Armement Air-Sol Modulaire Hammer air-to-ground precision strike weapon system.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh talked to his French counterpart Florence Parly on 2 June after receiving reports of delay in the delivery of jets due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for the supply of 36 Rafale jet envisages delivery of aircraft in a flyaway condition along with associated equipment. The Indian government did not seek to license manufacturing or transfer of technology as it considered the “deal would not have been cost effective for an order of this size”.
Dassault aviation will provide five years of performance-based logistics (PBL) support with options for an additional seven-year extension. The terms finalised by the two sides also provide for 50-year product support by the manufacturer.
Dassault has made India-specific changes to the aircraft and mounted different types of missiles: beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air Meteor, short and medium-range air-to-air MICA, and precision-guided air-to-ground SCALP missiles.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Monday that it will sue Google for collecting Australian users’ data without their "explicit informed consent" to boost its advertising businesses.

"The ACCC has launched Federal Court proceedings against Google LLC (Google), alleging Google misled Australian consumers to obtain their consent to expand the scope of personal information that Google could collect and combine about consumers’ internet activity, for use by Google, including for targeted advertising," the watchdog said.

According to the commission, the tech giant "failed to properly inform consumers, and did not gain their explicit informed consent" about its move in 2016 to begin combining personal information from users’ Google accounts with data about those people’s activities on non-Google websites that used Google technology.

"This meant this data about users’ non-Google online activity became linked to their names and other identifying information held by Google. Previously, this information had been kept separately from users’ Google accounts," the watchdog explained.

The ACCC believes that this policy has enabled Google to significantly boost its advertising businesses and generate "much higher profits."

Consumers, the watchdog concludes, "effectively pay for Google’s services with their data," but the policy in question has increased this "price" for users.

COVID19 cases continue to increase in whole KIVU ,with 568 cases

The multisectoral committee to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the DRC reported four (4) cases of death recorded on evening of Sunday July 26. 190 patients, on the other hand, were declared cured and left hospitals.
For the same day, notes the response team, 13 new cases were notified, including 6 in Kinshasa, 5 in Haut-Katanga and 2 in North Kivu.
Since the start of the epidemic declared on March 10, 2020, the cumulative amount has been 8,844 cases, including 8,843 confirmed cases and 1 probable case. In total, there were 208 deaths (207 confirmed cases and 1 probable case) and 5,700 people cured.
The 15 affected provinces are Kinshasa (epicenter) 7,459 cases; Kongo Central 359 cases; South Kivu 286 cases; North Kivu 282 cases; Haut-Katanga 275 cases; Lualaba 75 cases; Ituri 45 cases; Tshopo 24 cases; Haut-Uélé 20 cases; Kwilu 6 cases; Ecuador 5 cases; Sud-Ubangi 4 cases; Haut-Lomami 1 case: Kasaï 1 case and Kwango 1 case.

Martin Fayulu and Denis Mukwege denounce and calls for an international investigation on the Kipupu massacres where over 200 Congolese perished on 16/7/2020

Kipupu attack on July 16 continues to be talked about. The final toll of all who were killed is still not known. The DRC  Army has deployed to the area, but has not yet released the numbers. MONUSCO is only going there this Monday. In the meantime, the messages of revolt against this massacres multiply.
After the Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, it is up to Martin Fayulu to denounce what he calls an odious massacre. The former 2018 presidential candidate takes up the figure of 200 dead reported by provincial deputies. He adds that the perpetrators of this slaughter in south kivu are supported by neighbouring/foreign powers, without citing them.
"The repeated massacres of populations, the destruction of their villages and the looting of their property which have just culminated with this event are part of a plan to destabilize this part of the country and show that our compatriots are left defenseless and abandoned to their own,sad fate, ”he said.
He considers these events to be crimes against humanity which should not go unpunished. Martin Fayulu even suggests an international investigation.
Read more on the Kipupu massacre here

NB: Martin Fayulu will be back to DRC on 1/8/2020

Population in Largu riot against the recalling of a FARDC Commander in their area

The  population of Largu in Djugu territory rose to riots on the streets
on Saturday July 25, 2020 to protest against the return of a FARDC commander based in Masumbuko in the Bahema North sector, more than 80 km from Bunia. , capital of Ituri.
“There was an uprising of the population, because the population was abrupted by the return of Commander Yve Kidjenga who was for a long time commander of the 3308th Regiment based in Djugu. In his time, there were a lot of massacres by CODECO and then there were a lot of people who fled as displaced ”explains Charité Banza.
According to him, the absence of this officer, there has been calm
on the ground in terms of security and his return is interpreted as another ordeal by the inhabitants.
In response, the army spokesman in Ituri condemns the population uprising.
“Why does this population have to select soldiers to protect it? I remember that there is another commander whom the same population had refused "indicates Lieutenant Jules Ngongo who adds, however, that the operations commander is already seized of this situation.
“This commander is criticized for allyi g with the Lendu. We are a republican army, we must collaborate with everyone without any distinction. The Lendu are not enemies of the Republic "concluded Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, before calling on the people of Largu to trust the army.