Nearly two dozen bullets were fired at the Toyota Landcruiser in which Sharif and his brother were travelling. One shot went through his head.
Sharif was a critic of the powerful Pakistani military and supporter of the country’s former prime minister Imran Khan, who was ejected from office following a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April.
Sharif’s death is unusual in that journalists with his profile rarely get killed, even by accident, in countries where they live in exile or refuge these days unless they’re covering a conflict. In the past, it was a dangerous business.
In Africa, the racist regime in South Africa then, particularly targeted anti-apartheid activists and journalists abroad.
Most notably, on August 17, 1982, in Maputo, Mozambique, anti-apartheid activist, scholar, and journalist Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb sent by the South African police.
Sharif’s death brings the number of journalists and media workers killed worldwide so far in 2022 to at least 60 and confirms a terrifying trend this year. According to UNESCO, 55 journalists and media workers were killed around the world in 2021, which was the lowest annual death toll in over a decade. However, there are slightly over two months to go in the year, and that number has been surpassed already.
While the number of journalists killed was down last year, those jailed reached a record 293, the highest in nearly 20 years. The clampdown on journalists brought on by the Russia-Ukraine war, in the recent “hijab” protests, the Tigray war in Ethiopia, and the new wave of military coups in West Africa, look likely to combine and contribute to new records of journalists jailed.
Otherwise, the killing of journalists in Africa is sharply down this year. Somalia, in recent years the most dangerous place for journalists in Africa, has seen notably few casualties so far. After a mostly safe spell for most of 2022, Somali National TV journalist Ahmed Mohamed Shukur was killed on September 30, 2022, in a roadside bomb blast in the town of Basra while covering a security operation against militant group al-Shabab.
On February 9, 2022, unidentified people in Chad’s southern village of Sandana shot and killed Evariste Djailoramdji, a reporter working for the local broadcaster Lotiko Radio, while he covered a conflict in the area.
At the end of August, Bruno Koko Chirambiza, a 24-year-old Radio Star reporter, was stabbed in the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
There was a time when that number of journalists were killed just over a weekend in Somalia.
Outside conflict zones (the killings of journalists in crossfire in Ukraine have considerably bumped up the numbers for 2022), the number of journalists killed and arrested (at least up to the end of 2021) was trending down for the strangest reason – technology. As most journalism moves online and on social media, sending goons with bats to clobber a troublesome scribe to death is less necessary.
The media censors, too, have moved online. They have discovered that getting 100 trolls to pile on a journalist all day, threatening via social media to cook and eat their children live in the town square and to burn her grandmother’s house, can have a far more chilling effect than threats of physical attack. Somali journalists called it a “digital siege”.
In the past, you could hide a threat from your family or spouse. Today, they might read it before you, and when you get and are greeted by the terrified look in your children’s eyes, you need no other encouragement to self-censor.
It will be interesting to see what further investigations into Sharif’s death will unearth and if there will be any arrests or prosecutions.
Looking ahead and against the growing “digital siege” background, we could be headed into very strange times. In countries where there is not even the pretence of free media and no space for a few brave and suicidal souls to poke those in power, you hardly have any journalists jailed or killed. There is no opportunity to cause offence or make a mistake.
In such countries, there are no bold bloggers, or journalists posting critical tweets about the head of state, while they are in the country. Most of the critical journalism is done by the diaspora and exile journalists.
It’s only in the countries with a reasonable degree of media freedom and some level of commitment to the rule of law that journalists will soldier on unafraid of those in power, or the trolls on social media, in the belief that they have some legal and democratic protections.
Exposed, they are more likely to be physically harmed. From all accounts we have read, Sharif wasn’t afraid in Kenya.
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Tanzania Confirms Second Marburg Outbreak After WHO Chief Visit
Dar es Salaam — Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has declared an outbreak of Marburg virus, confirming a single case in the northwestern region of Kagera after a meeting with WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The confirmation follows days of speculation about a possible outbreak in the region, after the WHO reported a number of deaths suspected to be linked to the highly infectious disease.
While Tanzania’s Ministry of Health declared last week that all suspected cases had tested negative for Marburg, the WHO called for additional testing at international reference laboratories.
“We never know when an outbreak might occur in a neighbouring nation. So we ensure infection prevention control assessments at every point of care as routine as a morning greeting at our workplaces.”Amelia Clemence, public health researcher
Subsequent laboratory tests conducted at Kagera’s Kabaile Mobile Laboratory and confirmed in Dar es Salaam identified one positive case, while 25 other suspected cases tested negative, the president told a press conference in Dodoma, in the east of the country today (Monday).
“The epicentre has now shifted to Biharamulo district of Kagera,” she told the press conference, distinguishing this outbreak from the previous one centred in Bukoba district.
Tedros said the WHO would release US$3 million from its emergencies contingency fund to support efforts to contain the outbreak.
Health authorities stepped up surveillance and deployed emergency response teams after the WHO raised the alarm about nine suspected cases in the region, including eight deaths.
The suspected cases displayed symptoms consistent with Marburg infection, including headache, high fever, diarrhoea, and haemorrhagic complications, according to the WHO’s alert to member countries on 14 January. The organisation noted a case fatality rate of 89 per cent among the suspected cases.
“We appreciate the swift attention accorded by the WHO,” Hassan said.
She said her administration immediately investigated the WHO’s alert.
“The government took several measures, including the investigation of suspected individuals and the deployment of emergency response teams,” she added.
Cross-border transmission
The emergence of this case in a region that experienced Tanzania’s first-ever Marburg outbreak in March 2023 has raised concerns about cross-border transmission, particularly following Rwanda’s recent outbreak that infected 66 people and killed 15 before being declared over in December 2024.
The situation is particularly critical given Kagera’s position as a transport hub connecting four East African nations.
Amelia Clemence, a public health researcher working in the region, says constant vigilance is required.
“We never know when an outbreak might occur in a neighbouring nation. So we ensure infection prevention control assessments at every point of care as routine as a morning greeting at our workplaces.”
The Kagera region’s ecosystem, home to fruit bats that serve as natural reservoirs for the Marburg virus, adds another layer of complexity to disease surveillance efforts.
The virus, closely related to Ebola, spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe haemorrhagic fever.
Transparency urged
Elizabeth Sanga, shadow minister of health for Tanzania’s ACT Wazalendo opposition party, says greater transparency would help guide public health measures.
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“This could have helped to guide those who are traveling to the affected region to be more vigilant and prevent the risk of further spread,” she said.
WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says early notification of investigation outcomes is important.
“We stand ready to support the government in its efforts to investigate and ensure that measures are in place for an effective and rapid response,” she said, noting that existing national capacities built from previous health emergencies could be quickly mobilised.
The situation coincides with leadership changes in Tanzania’s Ministry of Health, with both the chief medical officer and permanent secretary being replaced.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
Source: allafrica.com
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‘No Marburg Confirmed In Tanzania’, But Mpox Remains ‘Public Health Emergency’
Monrovia — The Director General of the African Centers for Disease Control, Jean Kaseya, has said the center stands ready to support Tanzania and other countries in the region where suspected cases of the infectious Marburg Virus Disease have been identified. The World Health Organization earlier this week issued an alert warning of a possible outbreak in the country, although the Tanzanian Health Ministry has said tests conducted on available samples did not show the existence of Marburg in the East African nation.
“As of the 15 of January 2025, laboratory results from all suspected individuals were negative for Marburg Virus,” Tanzanian Health Minister Jenista Mhagama said in a statement. This would have marked the country’s second experience with the highly infectious disease that recently killed over a dozen people in neighboring Rwanda. Tanzania previously reported an outbreak of Marburg in 2023 in the Kegara region, said to have been the epicenter of the new suspected cases.
At the Africa CDC online briefing on Thursday, Kaseya also said another infectious disease, Mpox, “remains a public health concern”. He said that while in December 2024, the disease had afflicted 20 countries, a new country – Sierra Leone – has been added to the number after recent outbreak there. Sierra Leonean health authorities said on January 10 that two cases of Mpox had been confirmed in the country and dozens of contacts are being traced.
With thousands of confirmed cases of Mpox across Africa and more than 1000 people having died of the disease – mainly in Central Africa – Kaseya emphasized the need to increase testing, a theme he’s heralded before. The Africa CDC boss said over the next few months the continental health watchdog will deploy additional epidemiologists and community health workers to areas considered hot spots of infectious diseases in the region.
Source: allafrica.com
