DW News published this video item, entitled “Coronavirus in Africa: Is the fallout worse than the disease? | COVID-19 Special” – below is their description.
Caseloads have been lower than forecast, but the pandemic is hitting Africa’s economy hard, disrupting tourism and other crucial sectors. With work at a standstill for many, there’s less money for food and shelter. Here in the Lavendar Hill section of Capetown, volunteers are on this field Mondays through Saturdays to feed children and the homeless. Evictions are on the rise and lives are becoming more precarious.
It’s not just shelter that’s been thrown into question because of the pandemic. Food is also becoming scarcer in parts of Africa. The central Sahel region is among the continent’s hunger hotspots. More than half of the populations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria suffers from food-insecurity defined as the lack of regular access to the food they need. In Mali, the trend is getting worse.
The pandemic meanwhile rages across the African continent. Cases in Algeria and Egypt are declining, but numbers are ticking up in Morocco and Tunisia. What could another wave of COVID-19 infections mean for a region already hit hard?
DW News YouTube Channel
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In This Story: Algeria
Algeria, officially the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country on the Mediterranean coast. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest by area in the African Union and the Arab world. With an estimated population of over 44 million, it is the eighth-most populous country in Africa.
Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the southeast by Niger, to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and the Western Saharan territory, to the west by Morocco, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The country has a semi-arid geography, with most of the population living in the fertile north and the Sahara dominating the geography of the south. This arid geography makes the country very vulnerable to climate change.
2 Recent Items: Algeria
In This Story: Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa that covers an area of around 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) and is bordered by Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.
The July 2019 population estimate by the United Nations was 20,321,378. Previously called Republic of Upper Volta (1958–1984), it was renamed “Burkina Faso” on 4 August 1984 by President Thomas Sankara. Its citizens are known as Burkinabé, and its capital is Ouagadougou.
Due to French colonialism, the country’s official language of government and business is French, but this language is spoken by approximately only 10-15% of the population. There are 59 native languages spoken in Burkina, with the most common language, Moore, spoken by roughly 50% of Burkinabé.
The Republic of Upper Volta was established on 11 December 1958 as a self-governing colony within the French Community and on 5 August 1960 it gained full independence.
