Flood threat looms in Niger State as hydro dams issue emergency warning - NaijaAgroNet

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The four major hydro-electric dams in Niger State, namely Shiroro, Jebba, Kainji, and Zungeru, have issued a warning of imminent water release due to excess inflow.

According to The Guardian, the notification was relayed to the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), which promptly alerted riverine communities to relocate upstream to avert possible disaster.

Listeriosis outbreak looms in Nigeria, 15 African countries, says WHO

NaijaAgroNet:

Listeriosis outbreak is looming in Nigeria and 15 other African countries, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Confirming this development, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, listed other redline countries to include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“This outbreak is a wake-up call for countries in the region to strengthen their national food safety and disease surveillance systems,” Moeti declared.

Experts have described Listeriosis as a bacterial infection most commonly caused by Listeria monocytogenes, which could cause severe illness, including severe sepsis, meningitis, or encephalitis, sometimes resulting in lifelong harm and even death.

They also said that listeria is ubiquitous and is primarily transmitted via the oral route after ingestion of contaminated food products

As said by WHO an estimated 200 South Africans have died since January 2017 as a result of contaminated ready-to-eat meat products that are widely consumed in the country and may also have been exported to two West African countries and 14 members of the South African Development Community.

South African health authorities recently declared the source of the outbreak as a factory in Polokwane, in the country’s northeast.

Isaac Oyimah with additional reports from ThePunch.

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Hunger looms in Horn of Africa – UN agency

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has pronounced that with continued drought, that another hunger season looms in the Horn of Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO also said that the subregion needs agricultural support in order to protect livestock, equip families to plant in rainy season.

According to FAO, countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year.

This is coming as the growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from FAO in an official statement made available to correspondent, that currently, about 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as families in the region face limited access to food and income, together with rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Terms of trade are particularly bad for livestock farmers, as food prices are increasing at the same time that market prices for livestock are low.

Farmers in the region, the UN agency said, need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years. 

“Production outputs in the three countries are grim,” part of the statement read.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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