Category Archives: Malawi

Dismay as key cholera vaccine is discontinued

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Exclusive: halt to production of Shanchol vaccine alarms WHO amid ‘unprecedented’ global outbreaks

The manufacturer of one of only two cholera vaccines for use in humanitarian emergencies is to halt production at the end of this year, just as the world faces an “unprecedented” series of deadly outbreaks, the Guardian has learned.

Shantha Biotechnics, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, will stop production of its Shanchol vaccine within months and cease supply by the end of 2023, causing alarm among health officials.

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Prince Harry wildlife NGO under fire after elephants kill three in Malawi

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African Parks, of which the prince is president, is one of three parties accused of rushing a mass translocation of the mammals


Two wildlife organisations, including one headed by Prince Harry, have been accused of caring about animals more than people after three men died following an elephant translocation in Malawi.

In July, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country’s second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi’s national park service and the NGOs African Parks and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

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Petrol pumps run dry across Malawi as fuel import problems deepen

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Motorists forced to pay premium for smuggled black market fuel or drive to service stations at border with neighbouring Mozambique

Motorists in Malawi are having to rely on fuel smuggled in from neighbouring Mozambique as pumps across the country run dry, while some drivers told the Guardian they had to cross the border to get petrol as the country grapples with severe shortages.

“We have been depending on smuggled fuel from Mozambique,” said Allick Pondani, a motorist from the southern Malawi district of Phalombe. “Some entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the situation and are smuggling the scarce commodity, which they are selling at 50% over the normal pump price.”

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Anticolonial hero statue to occupy Trafalgar Square fourth plinth from September

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Antelope by Samson Kambalu depicts John Chilembwe wearing hat in defiance of colonial rule in Nyasaland, now Malawi

A sculpture of a preacher who was killed in an anticolonialist uprising in what is now Malawi will be unveiled in September on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Antelope by Samson Kambalu is the 14th contemporary artwork to be commissioned for public display in the historic central London square.

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Mozambique confirms first wild poliovirus case in 30 years

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Case in child in Tete province follows detection of similar strain in Malawi in February, officials say

Mozambique has identified its first case of wild polio in three decades following the genetic sequencing of a similar strain of the childhood disease in Malawi earlier this year.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the detection of the new case was “greatly concerning” and that it demonstrated “how dangerous this virus is and how quickly it can spread”.

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Millions of children to be vaccinated for polio in Africa after Malawi detects case

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First case of wild polio detected in Malawi for 30 years prompts emergency rollout of vaccinations in five African countries

More than 23 million young children across southern Africa will be offered vaccinations against wild polio after an outbreak of the virus was detected in Malawi for the first time since 1992.

Children under five in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, began to be immunised on Sunday as part of a mass drive against the disease.

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Tropical Cyclone Gombe hits countries in south-east Africa

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Damaging winds and torrential rainfall strike Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi

Tropical Cyclone Gombe affected parts of Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi last week, bringing damaging winds and torrential rainfall. Gombe made landfall in the Nampula province of northern Mozambique on Friday as a category three tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of about 120mph and more that 100mm of rainfall in places. Mozambique has already been hit this year by Tropical Storm Ana in January and tropical depression Dumako in February.

A powerful late-winter storm system surged across eastern parts of the US on Friday night and Saturday, bringing heavy rain, widespread heavy snow, strong winds, thunderstorms and freezing temperatures. Snow was reported as far south as Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, with 20-30cm falling quite widely across the Appalachians and northwards through parts of Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont. Damaging winds affected parts of Florida, with a tornado reported near Crescent City, Florida. Cold weather plunging well into the south has been a frequent feature of this winter in the US.

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Storm Ana: heavy floods hit southern Africa after week of torrential rain – video

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The death toll from tropical Storm Ana, which struck three southern African countries, has risen to 77 as emergency teams work to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of people. Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before tracking across Mozambique and Malawi during the week, bringing high winds and torrential rain

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Dozens killed in Tropical Storm Ana as southern Africa braces for more wild weather

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Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi lashed by high winds and torrential rains, leaving nearly 80 people dead

The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries has risen to 77 as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and help tens of thousands of victims.

Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before ploughing into Mozambique and Malawi through the week, bringing torrential rains

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Aid agencies scale up Storm Ana response amid floods and rising death toll

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Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique worst affected with 77 people reported dead and 80,000 more forced from their homes

Humanitarian agencies have mounted an emergency response across southern Africa this week as the death toll from tropical Storm Ana reached 77.

Officials reported that at least 41 people had been killed in Madagascar, 18 in Mozambique and 11 in Malawi. The EU’s aid agency Echo said on Thursday that at least 350,000 people have been affected across the three countries, including more than 80,000 displaced from their homes. Flooding has cut off roads and damaged power and water supplies.

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At least four killed after tropical Storm Ana hits Malawi and Mozambique

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Search and rescue operations under way as dozens reported missing in region battered by extreme weather in recent years

At least four people have died and dozens are missing after strong winds and heavy downpours wreaked havoc in Malawi and Mozambique as Tropical Storm Ana made landfall on Monday.

Almost 16,000 people in the south of Malawi have been affected, according to the Red Cross, as search and rescue operations continue after the first cyclone of the region’s season. At least two people were killed and 66 injured in Mozambique on Monday and a further two people died on Tuesday in Malawi.

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How an ancient rainmaker inspired a quest to nurture female writers in Malawi

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I was struck by how few authors I could name who are women. With Makewana, the ‘mother’ responsible for rain, as our namesake, my group set out to end the literary drought

I have often tried to imagine what Makewana, the original female rainmaker of ancient Malawi, must have looked like.

There is a statue of her with long hair at Mua Mission in Dedza, since to cut her hair would have signified drought.

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World’s poorest bear brunt of climate crisis: 10 underreported emergencies

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Care International report highlights ‘deep injustice’ neglected by world’s media, as extreme weather along with Covid wipes out decades of progress

From Afghanistan to Ethiopia, about 235 million people worldwide needed assistance in 2021. But while some crises received global attention, others are lesser known.

Humanitarian organisation Care International has published its annual report of the 10 countries that had the least attention in online articles in five languages around the world in 2021, despite each having at least 1 million people affected by conflict or climate disasters.

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From corruption to the ‘mark of the beast’ – why countries like Malawi are struggling against Covid | Madalitso Wills Kateta

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With 80% of pandemic funds misused and widespread vaccine myths, citizens have had to step up where government has failed

In January 2021, the Malawian rights activist Paul Msoma wrote that he was in Kamuzu central hospital, struggling to breathe. The hospital had oxygen cylinders but no flowmeters – the necessary instrument to connect him to them. I was left wondering where the funds that had been released for the country’s Covid-19 response were going. “My situation is getting bad and l desperately need oxygen,” Msoma wrote on Facebook. “Anyone who can urgently help out there please help by donating this very gadget.”

Kamuzu central hospital is one of the biggest referral hospitals in Malawi and it did not seem right for such a big hospital not to have oxygen flowmeters, which are very basic medical equipment costing around £18 a piece. This was at a time when the government had released more than £5.6m for the Covid-19 response effort.

Madalitso Wills Kateta is a freelance journalist based in Lilongwe, Malawi

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Mandatory Covid jabs in Malawi ‘violate human rights’, say civil society groups

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Measure aimed at frontline workers to reduce spread of Omicron variant may increase unrest in country with low vaccine take-up, critics warn

Civil rights groups in Malawi have cautioned the government on its decision to make the Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for frontline workers.

From January, it will be compulsory for public sector workers, including healthcare staff, police and teachers, as well as journalists, to be vaccinated, after an announcement by Malawi’s health minister, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, last week.

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Return to the refugee camp: Malawi orders thousands back to ‘congested’ Dzaleka

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People who’ve integrated into society are expected to return to the country’s oldest refugee camp, as cost of living and anti-refugee sentiment rises

Dzaleka, Malawi’s first refugee camp, is about 25 miles north of the capital Lilongwe. Built 25 years ago in response to a surge of people fleeing genocide and wars in Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was then home to between 10,000 and 14,000 refugees. But the camp now houses more than 48,000 people from east and southern African countries – four times more than its initial capacity.

Several hundred continue to arrive each month, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and in August 181 babies were born there. The deteriorating situation in neighbouring Mozambique is swelling the numbers further, as is the government’s recent decree that an estimated 2,000 refugees who had over the years left Dzaleka to integrate into wider Malawian society should go back, citing them as a possible danger to national security.

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Pregnant women at risk in Malawi as drug shortage prevents caesareans

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Patients travelling long distances to find surgery cancelled as lack of anaesthetics shuts operating theatres in half of hospitals

Almost half of Malawi’s district hospitals have closed their operating theatres due to a dire shortage of anaesthetics.

Maternity care has been affected by a lack of drugs, said doctors. Surgery, including caesareans, has been cancelled and patients needing emergency care have been moved hundreds of miles around the country.

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Malawian campaigner makes history as country’s first elected MP with albinism

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Overstone Kondowe’s election hailed as ‘giant step forward’ in continent where people with albinism face stigma and attacks


The first Malawian with albinism to become an elected MP took his seat in the new parliament on Monday, making history in the southern African country. It also marks a significant milestone in a continent where people with the hereditary lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes face severe discrimination and physical attacks.

Overstone Kondowe, the 42-year-old son of a teacher, grew up in a village without any help to ease the pain in his sun-sensitive skin or glasses to aid his poor eyesight.

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‘Everything is changing’: the struggle for food as Malawi’s Lake Chilwa shrinks

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The livelihoods of 1.5 million people are at risk as the lake’s occasional dry spells occur ever more frequently

• All photographs by Dennis Lupenga/WaterAid

There was a time when the vast Lake Chilwa almost disappeared. In 2012 it had been extremely hot in southern Malawi, with little rain to fill the rivers that ran into the lake.

“Many fishermen were forced to scramble for land near the lake banks, while others had to migrate to the city,” says Alfred Samuel. “We could barely feed our children because the lake could not provide enough fish, or water for rice growing.”

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‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism

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From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

In March last year, it was predicted that the global travel shutdown would cause international arrivals to plummet by 20 to 30% by the end of 2020.

Six weeks later, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revised their warning: international arrivals could fall by up to 80% – equating to a billion fewer tourists and the worst crisis in the history of the industry.

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