Photo Anadolu Agency

Burundian health authorities on Wednesday launched a three-day polio vaccination campaign aiming to immunize over 600,000 children throughout the country.

"In all, 675,962 children born in the period of June 2016 and June 2018 will be vaccinated. They are between three years and four years nine months old," said Olivier Nijimbere, head of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI).

Nijimbere told Anadolu Agency that the vaccine would be administered in all health centers and other places chosen by officials.

He said the initiative was a catch-up campaign aimed at children who had been unable to get the jab due to a global shortage between June 2016 and March 2018.

The campaign comes amid reports of polio cases in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), neighboring Burundi.

Despite the closure of borders due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Nijimbere stressed that illegal crossings between the two countries could be the source of the spread of polio. Yvan Rukundo/Rodrigue Forku, Anadolu Agency

Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who gained fame as one of the world’s most vehement deniers of the COVID-19 threat, has died at the age of 61 after disappearing from public view more than two weeks ago.

His death was announced on Tanzanian television on Wednesday night by the vice-president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.

She said Mr. Magufuli died on Wednesday evening from a heart complication in a hospital in Dar es Salaam. But many reports, circulating for the past week, have claimed that he was seriously ill with the coronavirus.

Mr. Magufuli, nicknamed “The Bulldozer,” rose to power in 2015 and was re-elected last year in a disputed vote in which many opposition activists were arrested or forced into exile. He gained early popularity for his anti-corruption campaigns and his battles with multinational mining companies, including Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp., but later pushed the country in an authoritarian direction.

Nearly a year ago, the Tanzanian government stopped disclosing any data on COVID-19 cases, while Mr. Magufuli mocked the virus tests, criticized face masks and urged Tanzanians instead to rely on prayer, herbal remedies and steam inhalation.

Mr. Magufuli denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy and refused to allow his government to order any COVID-19 vaccines, provoking the World Health Organization to issue an unusual statement of concern in which it criticized his government’s secrecy and urged it to accept vaccines.

In early January, during a meeting with Chinese foreign affairs minister Wang Yi, he insisted there was no COVID-19 in Tanzania. He shook hands with the diplomat and thanked him for refraining from wearing a mask.

Despite his denials, there was mounting evidence that COVID-19 was inflicting heavy damage on Tanzania in recent months, especially with the arrival of new variants. Several top leaders and senior officials died of COVID-19 or from unexplained illnesses. Hospitals were reported to be full, and the WHO warned that travellers from Tanzania were exporting the virus to other countries. - Geoffrey York,  The Globe and Mail

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame receiving the first injection of the Covid-19 vaccine at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo URUGWIRO VILLAGE / AFP

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame on Thursday became the first leader in East Africa to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, which has been rolled out in the region in recent days, his office announced.

Kagame, 63, and his wife Jeannette, were pictured receiving their jabs on the Rwandan presidency's official Twitter account, which said more than 200,000 people had received the vaccine.

It was not specified which vaccine they received. Rwanda has received some 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech drug and 240,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford medicine.

Rwanda, a country of 12 million, plans to inoculate 30 percent of its population this year, and 60 percent by the end of 2022.

In February, Rwanda became the first country in East Africa to begin vaccinating against the disease, targeting high-risk groups such as healthcare workers after acquiring around 1,000 doses of the Moderna jab.

The country has carried out more than a million tests and detected almost 20,000 cases, with 271 deaths since the outbreak of the virus.

It imposed some of the strictest anti-coronavirus measures on the continent, including one of Africa's first total shutdowns in March 2020. It put capital Kigali back under a full lockdown in January after a surge in cases.

So far in East Africa, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda have begun vaccinating. Ethiopia -- the worst hit in the region -- will start on Saturday. - AFP/The EastAfrican