KENYA AND ZIMBABWE BACK IN FUFA IRRESPECTIVE OF THE BAN

 

 

 

Kenya and Zimbabwe will be included in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying draw on Tuesday in Johannesburg despite being banned by FIFA over government interference.

“We have included the two countries in the hope that the bans will be lifted not later than two weeks before the first matchday in June,” a Confederation of African Football (CAF) spokesman told AFP.

A Zimbabwe government-funded umbrella sport body drew the ire of FIFA by sacking national football association executives led by Felton Kamambo over issues including failing to account for public funds.

Kenyan sports ministry officials disbanded the national football federation after its president, Nick Mwendwa, was charged with multiple counts of fraud.

CAF have set a deadline of mid May for the bans to be lifted or the countries will be barred from taking part.

Should Kenya and or Zimbabwe fail to have the suspensions lifted, the groups they are placed in will shrink from four nations to three with the top two finishers still qualifying for the finals.

The first two qualifying matchdays are scheduled between May 30 and June 14, with two more rounds between September 19 and 27 and the final two next year from March 20-28.

Ivory Coast, who staged the tournament in 1984 when it comprises just eight teams and was won for the first time by Cameroon, will host a 24-team event next June and July.

The Ivorians hope home advantage will help complete a treble after becoming African champions in 1992 in Senegal and again in 2015 in Equatorial Guinea.

Since the Cup of Nations was expanded from 16 teams to 24 three years ago, six stadiums are required and Abidjan (two), Bouake, Korhogo, San Pedro and Yamoussoukro are the Ivorian choices.

On a visit to the west African country this month, CAF president Patrice Motsepe was updated on the stadium building and refurbishments.

The South African heard that good progress had been made except for the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny, formerly the main Ivorian stadium but now second in size in Abidjan to the new national stadium.

Rebuilding behind schedule

Rebuilding work is reportedly only about 25 percent complete at the stadium named after the president who ruled the former French colony for 33 years after achieving independence in 1960.

Retired African stars Lucas Radebe, the South Africa centre-back who captained Leeds United when they were last a top-flight club, and Ivory Coast forward Salomon Kalou will assist with the draw.

Both are Cup of Nations final winners — Radebe with Bafana Bafana (The Boys) in 1996 and Kalou with the Elephants in 2015.

A seeded draw will create 12 groups of four teams with the Ivory Coast taking part to gain competitive match practice, instead of relying on often meaningless friendly matches in the tournament build-up.

Ivory Coast will qualify wherever they finish in the group with the highest placed of the other three teams also booking a place at the finals.

All five African qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon and Ghana — are among the top seeds.

The top 42 African teams in the latest FIFA rankings were automatic entrants while the Gambia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Sao Tome e Principe and South Sudan won preliminary ties and Botswana received a walkover.

Gambia, who took Africa by storm this year when reaching the 2021/2022 quarter-finals, almost missed out with an added-time penalty salvaging a draw against Chad that squeezed them through.

Seeding

Pot 1: Senegal (holders), Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria, Mali, Ivory Coast (hosts), Burkina Faso, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo

Pot 2: South Africa, Cape Verde, Guinea, Gabon, Benin, Uganda, Zambia, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Kenya, Sierra Leone

Pot 3: Namibia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Libya, Mozambique, Malawi, Togo, Zimbabwe, Gambia, Angola, Comoros

Pot 4: Tanzania, Central African Republic, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Liberia, South Sudan, Sao Tome e Principe

 

 

NAMUTUMBA, UGANDA: Busoga East police are holding a man accused of dropping leaflets in the community with threatening messages in Namutumba district. The suspect is Ronald Nantamu, a resident of Mawundo village in Namutumba sub-county.

He was arrested on Easter Sunday for dropping leaflets with messages directing residents to vacate the village and pave way for development activities or risk losing their lives.

Police swung into action after receiving complaints from community members who found the leaflets in their compounds. Detectives used canine dogs and after inspecting several homes within the village, zeroed in on Nantamu’s home.

The detectives recovered an unspecified number of leaflets, pens, markers and plain papers, which the suspect is believed to have used to write the life-threatening leaflets.

Esther Namwase told journalists that the leaflet that was dropped in her compound on Saturday night contained messages instructing her to vacate from the village within seven days.

“The leaflet was written detailing the time frame granted to me by the author to vacate the village and I handed it over to the area LC1 chairperson, only to realize that over 13 families in our village had received similar threatening leaflets,” she said.

KAGAME VISITS UGANDA ON MUHOOZ'S BIRTHDAY

KAMPALA, UGANDA: Rwandan President Paul Kagame is expected to make his first visit to Uganda in two years to attend Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s 48th birthday celebrations in Kampala.

Gen. Muhoozi, the first son of President Museveni and Commander of Land Forces (CLF) will on April 24 celebrate 48 years with a series of events and a mega party for his fans set to be hosted on April 23 at Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala.

The decorated General announced the development on Twitter confirming that Kagame will be part of a dinner hosted by his father Mr. Museveni on April 24 at State House, Entebbe.

“I am very happy to announce that my uncle, the very great Commander, President and Leader of Rwanda will be attending my birthday celebration. Ruhanga asiimwe! Inkotanyi cyane indeed!,” Muhoozi tweeted on April 16.

Kagame last visited Uganda in 2020 during a meeting of regional leaders at the common border that was part of the resolutions of the quadripartite summit held in Luanda, Angola to resolve Uganda’s differences with Rwanda.

 

CHRISTIANO RONALDO LOSES BABY BOY

MANCHESTER, UK: Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner Georgina Rodriguez announced on Monday that their newborn baby son has died, describing it the “greatest pain that any parents can feel”.

The Manchester United forward wrote on social media that although his partner Georgina Rodriguez had given birth to a girl, her twin brother had died. “It is with deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away,” said the message.

“It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away. It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel,” Ronaldo and Rodriguez said in a jointly-signed statement.

“Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness. We would like to thank the doctors and nurses for all their expert care and support.

“We are all devastated at this loss and we kindly ask for privacy at this very difficult time.”

The couple, who met during Ronaldo’s time at Real Madrid, have a four-year-old daughter together, while Ronaldo has three other children.

In response, Manchester United said on Twitter: “Your pain is our pain. Sending love and strength to you and the family at this time.”

Real Madrid also responded saying on their web page that the club, “its President and its Board of Directors deeply regret the death of one of the children that our beloved Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner, Georgina Rodriguez, were expecting. Real Madrid joins the grief of the whole family and wants to show them all our love and affection.”

 

COVID NEWS IN AFRICA

 

More than two-thirds of Africans may have contracted Covid-19 over the past two years, around 97 times more than reported infections, a World Health Organization report suggested on Thursday.

Laboratory tests have detected 11.5 million Covid cases and 252,000 fatalities across the African continent, Yet, according to the report, by September last year, some 800 million people could have already been infected.

But the WHO Africa region said its study — which is still being peer-reviewed — suggests the officially confirmed numbers were “likely only scratching the surface of the real extent of coronavirus infections in Africa”.

“A new meta-analysis of standardised seroprevalence study revealed that the true number of infections could be as much as 97 times higher than the number of confirmed reported cases,” said WHO Africa boss Matshidiso Moeti.

“This suggests that more than two-thirds of all Africans have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus,” she added.

The report analysed more than 150 studies published between January 2020 and December last year. It showed exposure to the virus jumped from just three percent in June 2020 to 65 percent by September last year.

“In real terms, this means that in September 2021, rather than the reported 8.2 million cases, there were 800 million,” said Moeti.

The global average of true infection numbers is believed to be 16 times higher than the number of confirmed reported cases.

With limited access to testing facilities for much of Africa’s populations, many infections went undetected, as testing was mainly carried out on symptomatic patients in hospitals and travellers requiring negative PCR results.

“The focus was very much on testing people who were symptomatic when there were challenges in having access to testing supplies” and this resulted in “under-representing the true number of people who have been exposed and are infected by the virus”, Moeti told journalists.

Pandemic fears proved wrong
Moeti said producing accurate data on the continent, which largely has inadequate and under-resourced health facilities, has been difficult because “67 percent” of people on the continent show no symptoms.

While the pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on some parts of the globe, Africa appeared to have escaped the worst and was not as badly hit as initially feared at the start of the pandemic.

With weak health facilities and services, many experts had feared the systems would be overwhelmed.

Several analyses have been made of the pattern of the pandemic in Africa, with some concluding that the continent’s youthful population acted as a buffer against severe illness.

In Ghana, the WHO study established that the most infected were young people, according to Dr Irene Owusu Donkor of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

Many African countries are accustomed to epidemics, but reported numbers do not always reflect the reality.

The WHO had last year already cautioned that six out of every seven Covid infections went undetected in Africa.

Most covid cases on the continent have been recorded in South Africa – with over 3.7 million infections — which conducted most tests and boasts of better-resourced health facilities compared to most sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Even so, its official covid fatality toll is believed to be much lower than the actual numbers of people killed by the virus.

Latest data compiled by the South African Medical Research Council shows that numbers of deaths could be triple the reported figures. 

South Africa  recorded 303,969 excess deaths from natural causes between May 3, 2020 and last Saturday – yet official figures show that Covid killed 100,075 people since the start of the pandemic.

 

by daily express