ABUJA: Popular African singers Angelique Kidjo and Davido on Monday called on G20 leaders scheduled to meet later this month to urgently donate coronavirus vaccines to the continent.
In an open letter published by UNICEF, a group of influencers warned that only four percent of the continent’s population are fully vaccinated while some wealthy countries have already met or exceeded 70 percent.
“This inequity is unjust — and self-defeating. It leaves Africans — and the whole world — at the mercy of the virus. Unchecked, it can create new and more dangerous variants,” the letter said.
“We cannot wait for promises to be fulfilled, we need vaccines NOW,” said popular Beninese singer and activist Angelique Kidjo.
Covid-19 deaths are declining almost everywhere except in Africa, where they are rising, the group said.
Nigeria’s Afrobeat popstar David Adedeji Adeleke, known as Davido, also issued a special video message urging vaccine equity.
“For this pandemic to truly end, it has to end everywhere. Africans must have their fair access to the vaccines,” he said.
Other influential Nigerians in business and entertainment joined the call, including musician Femi Kuti and businessman Tony Elumelu.
Around 57 million vaccine doses have been donated so far to Africa by governments and private firms, about three-quarters of the total 77.5 million pledged, according to UNICEF.
‘We need vaccines now’: African singers urge donations
https://arab.news/6z2tj
‘We need vaccines now’: African singers urge donations
- A group of influencers warned that only four percent of the continent's population are fully vaccinated
- "We cannot wait for promises to be fulfilled, we need vaccines NOW," said popular Beninese singer and activist Angelique Kidjo
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
