African press review 20 August 2013

The main story in the African press is the reported death of a Boko Haram leader.

The Nigerian daily the Vanguard headlines with the story and reports that, according to military sources, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram Islamist sect may have been fatally shot and died from his wounds during a gun duel with the Nigerian Army.

The military statement was issued and signed by the spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), explains the paper, saying that Shekau had sustained a mortal wound on June 30 in the northeast Sambisa forest from the military’s superior arsenals.

But the statement was not detailed about the incident, especially on what had been done with the body, says the paper, which adds that its efforts to get official confirmation from the Nigerian Defence Headquarters were fruitless. Last week, explains the Vanguard, a military source had already reported the death of Momodu Bama, second-in-command to Shekau.

The South African newspaper Mail & Guardian reports on the Marikana mineworkers and their ongoing quest for justice, a year after the so-called Marikana massacre, when 34 miners were shot dead by the police.

Yesterday, the 259 arrested and injured Marikana miners lost a legal battle, demanding the state pay lawyers to represent them at a public inquiry into the tragedy. Despite the South African Constitutional Court dismissing a demand of appeal, the miners’ Union announced they would raise the money themselves, reports the paper.

The head of the Union told the Mail & Guardian that, if need be, they would “take second bonds on [their] houses" and go to the streets to raise money to ensure workers are represented at the investigation commission.

The Mail & Guardian explains that collections for the legal fees have already begun with buckets for donations being passed around at last Friday's one-year anniversary memorial service for the 34 miners who were killed by police at Marikana on 16 August, 2012.

Polio, a disease the World Health Organisation once declared eradicated worldwide has resurfaced in Kenya triggering a major alert, reports the country’s Daily Nation.

Kenya has consequently launched mandatory polio vaccination in 22 districts after the disease killed a 23-year-old Somali refugee last month, reports the paper.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, explains the paper, transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestines, from where it can invade the nervous system, leading to paralysis and death.

Kenya has recorded 12 positive tests and two death in the recent months, reports the paper, and since the origin of the virus seems to be Somalia, the Kenyan government is working with Somalia to synchronise the vaccination.

Also, a rare skin infection, which is fast spreading among children in the Ugandan Masaka District, is worrying medics who fear the disease could spread faster, reports the nation’s Daily Monitor.

The cause of the autoimmune skin infections is not known, explains the paper but it affects large parts of the body and since the start of the year, the local hospital has received about five cases of children with autoimmune skin infection.

The infection first appears as in inflamed skin and painful blisters and quickly spreads to the patient’s entire body, resulting in hypersensitivity of the skin and loss of adhesion between epidermis and dermis, resulting in blisters and extensive erosion of the skin.