Dozens died when a boat capsized in eastern Congo

Guardian Nigeria

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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.

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