Saturday 15 March 2025 {HMC} Researchers warn that type 2 diabetes could affect millions more people in the coming decades after a study published this month revealed the disease is rising far faster among people in sub-Saharan Africa than previously thought.

Take 51-year-old security guard Sibusiso Sithole, for example. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes came as a shock, he said, because he walked six miles to and from work every day and never thought his weight was a problem.

Then his wife noticed changes in his health.

Since his diagnosis 13 years ago, Sithole has been on a rigorous treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure.

“I have to take six … medications every day,” he said.

Diabetes is a condition in which the body struggles to turn food into energy due to insufficient insulin. Without insulin, sugar stays in the blood instead of entering cells, leading to high blood-sugar levels. Long-term complications include heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and amputations.

The International Diabetes Federation estimated in 2021 that 24 million adults in sub-Saharan Africa were living with the condition. Researchers had projected that by 2045, about 6% of sub-Saharan Africans — over 50 million — would have diabetes.

The new study, published this month in the medical journal The Lancet, suggested the actual percentage could be nearly double that.

By tracking more than 10,000 participants in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso over seven years, researchers found that poor eating habits, lack of health care access, obesity and physical inactivity are key drivers of diabetes in Africa.

Dr. Raylton Chikwati, a study co-author from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, said another risk factor is living in or moving to the outskirts of cities, or “peri-urban areas.”

“Access to health care, you know, in the rural areas is a bit less than in the urban areas,” Chikwati said, adding that increased use of processed foods in the peri-urban areas was a problem.

Palwende Boua, a research associate at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro in Burkina Faso, said long-term studies are rare in Africa but essential to understanding diseases.

“Being able to have a repeated measure and following up [with] the same people … is providing much more information and much valuable information,” Boua said, “rather than having to see people once and trying to understand a phenomenon.”

Boua is preparing a policy brief for Burkina Faso’s government to assist in the fight against diabetes.

For Sithole, managing his diabetes has been a long journey. But with treatment and lifestyle changes, he has regained control over his health.

“What I can tell people is that they must go and check — check the way they eat — because that time I was having too much weight in my body,” he said. “I was wearing size 40 that time. Now I’m wearing size 34.”

Experts stressed that Africans should get their blood-sugar level tested and seek treatment when diabetes is diagnosed.

SOURCE VOA

Saturday 15 March 2025 {HMC} Botswana has made $4 million from the sale of licenses to hunt wild animals, the highest figure since lifting a hunting ban in 2019. The hunting season, which ended in November, was held amid growing opposition from some European countries that want a ban on the importation of African wildlife trophies.

Botswana issues around 400 elephant licenses annually, with most purchased by overseas hunters.

Wynter Mmolotsi, minister of environment and tourism, told Parliament Thursday that millions of dollars were generated through the sale of mostly elephant licenses in villages in wildlife areas.

“In order to manage the wildlife population, the country is implementing a combination of both consumptive and nonconsumptive utilization of our wildlife resources to derive optimum economic benefit, particularly for our communities,” he said. “For the 2024 hunting season, the community quotas generated the sum of 42,863,423 pulas. Further, a total of 15,633,950 pulas was realized from the sale of special elephant quotas to support elephant conservation and community-led projects within the elephant range.”

In 2023, Botswana earned $2.7 million from hunting licenses.

Mmolotsi, however, says the hunts face increasing Western opposition. Canada and Belgium are among countries that have recently banned importation of wildlife trophies.

“The country is facing opposition from animal rights organizations to our policy of sustainable wildlife utilization of using hunting as a tool and empowerment to our local communities. The ministry, working with the hunting industry and affected community trusts stepped up efforts to counter this growing opposition to sustainable hunting through engagements carried out in the U.K. and Germany,” he said.

Siyoka Simasiku, director at the conservation coalition, Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organisations says communities will be the hardest hit if the U.K. imposes restrictions. He has been to Europe to campaign against trophy import bans.

“The U.K. ban is going to be bad on community benefits as the U.K. is an economic superpower and might influence other countries to actually follow suit and then communities might lose the market that already exists as more hunters will not be coming to Botswana to hunt in community concessions due to the trophy bans,” he said.

Oaitse Nawa of the Elephant Protection Society is among those who want the hunts to be stopped. He also argues, revenue accrued from hunting does not significantly benefit Botswanans.

“They are giving us figures of the money that they made from hunting, but also let us look at the compensation that they give the people. And also the result of hunting, what does hunting bring to the local people because the animals that experience hunting, they tend to change their behavior and they kill people. That is why we are saying there should be proper research in that regard,” said Nawa.

Botswana, with the world’s largest elephant herd at more than 130,000 elephants has recorded an increase in human fatalities, while crops are damaged.

SOURCE VOA

Saturday 15 March 2025 {HMC} The head of the U.N. children’s program, UNICEF, said Thursday that 16 million children in Sudan are suffering horribly from the country’s civil war, with many facing daily threats of violence, starvation, disease and sexual assault.

“The fighting is happening right at their doorsteps, around their homes, their schools and hospitals, and across many of Sudan’s cities, towns, and villages,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

She said children under the age of five are particularly at risk, with more than 1.3 million living in five famine hotspots in the country, and another 3 million at risk of diseases including cholera, malaria and dengue due to the failing health system. At least 16.5 million young people are out of school.

Russell said there were 221 cases of rape against children reported in nine of Sudan’s 18 states last year. She said two-thirds were girls.

“In 16 of the recorded cases, the children were under the age of five. Four were babies under the age of one,” she said.

While she demanded an end to the hostilities, she said it would not erase the pain those children have endured.

“The trauma these children experience and the deep scars it leaves behind do not end with the signing of a ceasefire or a peace agreement,” she said. “They will need ongoing care and support to heal and rebuild their lives.”

The head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told the council that his teams in Sudan have also seen evidence of sexual violence, having treated 385 survivors last year.

“The vast majority — including some younger than five — had been raped, often by armed men,” said Secretary General Christopher Lockyear. “Nearly half were assaulted while working in the fields. Women and girls are not merely unprotected, they are being brutally targeted.”

The children are caught up in a power struggle between two rival generals that began in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023, but has since spread to large parts of the country, including the Darfur region. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the United Nations says both sides have committed grave human rights abuses.

The head of MSF told the council that he was in Sudan six weeks ago and witnessed a scene of “utter carnage” at one of their partner hospitals in Omdurman, near the capital.

“I witnessed the lives of men, women, and children being torn apart in front of me,” Lockyear said.

He told the 15-nation Security Council that their repeated calls on the parties to end the war have gone unanswered.

“While statements are made in this chamber, civilians remain unseen, unprotected, bombed, besieged, raped, displaced, deprived of food, of medical care, of dignity,” Lockyear said.

He later told reporters that the situation in Sudan “is so catastrophic for millions of people, it should be something that is on all of our consciences on a daily basis.”

The UNICEF director said the agency needs a billion dollars this year to provide critical support to 8.7 million children in Sudan, including nutrition, water and sanitation, protection, health, and education. She and Lockyear both urged the council to press the warring parties to remove obstacles to the delivery of aid.

SOURCE VOA

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson asked Bock whether she signed documents linked to the $250 million fraud, and repeatedly pressed her about the large number of meals reportedly served in order to receive federal reimbursement.

Friday 14, March  2025 {HMC}  A federal prosecutor began an aggressive cross-examination of Feeding Our Future leader Aimee Bock Thursday morning in an attempt to counter her claims that she tried to combat fraud.

Bock remained defiant during several hours of tense back and forth exchanges with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, maintaining that she followed the law.

Thompson highlighted Bock’s signature on all checks and applications submitted by Feeding Our Future for participation in federal child nutrition programs designed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thompson asked Bock whether she signed off on the applications and other documents businesses submitted through Feeding Our Future reporting the number of children they fed.

“Yes or no? Yes or no?” Thompson asked.

“Yes I signed it, and there was no intentional misinformation,” Bock said.

Bock’s cross- examination came on her third day of testimony, and is scheduled to continue into Friday. Bock is accused of leading a $250 million fraud scheme involving 69 other co-defendants. She is charged with four counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and bribery.

Thompson peppered Bock with questions about high meal counts from various sites, many of which claimed to serve more than 4,000 meals a day.
“Every single day?” he asked repeatedly about the number of meals the food sites reported serving.

“Yes,” Bock said.

Thompson also asked about the number of meals reported by Safari Restaurant, whose co-owner at the time, Salim Said, is being jointly tried with Bock. Safari was one of the largest food sites working with Feeding Our Future.

“That’s a pretty extraordinary number,” Thompson said of Safari’s claims that it served 5,000 meals a day in the summer of 2020. “You would agree, wouldn’t you, Ms. Bock?”

“Now, yes,” Bock testified. “At the time, no.”

The alleged fraud involved Feeding Our Future receiving federal funds through the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). Feeding Our Future then distributed those funds to food vendors and food sites such as Safari, which were supposed to provide ready-to-eat meals to local children during the pandemic.

Working through Feeding Our Future, several organizations reported serving thousands more meals than they actually did, or never served any at all, in order to receive more federal reimbursement dollars, according to prosecutors.

Thompson highlighted how Bock clicked a checkmark on every meal claim that she submitted to the state on behalf of Feeding Our Future’s food sites. The checkmark certified that the numbers Bock submitted were accurate under penalty of perjury, according to copies of the meal claims shown in court.

Bock, however, said the checkmark had a different meaning.

“I certified I had the [meal count] records available, and they were classified in the right category and that there was no deliberate misrepresentation,” Bock said of the checkmark.

Bock testified multiple times that she didn’t look at meal counts from food sites that were emailed to her, but instead relied on her staff to review them and submit them to an online system called CenterPilot. Bock said she would use the meal counts entered into CenterPilot to support the meal claims she filled out and submitted to the government for federal dollars.

When Thompson showed emails Bock personally received with inflated meal counts from food sites, Bock said she forwarded those to Feeding Our Future’s meal claims department to handle.

“Are you sitting on the stand right now and saying you never once looked at a meal count?” Thompson asked.

“I looked at them, but not often, usually as responding to questions from staff,” she said.

Bock denied knowing that Feeding Our Future’s food site operators were spending money on big houses, luxury cars and commercial properties. Thompson at one point asserted that Bock rode in luxury cars herself.

“I have been an unwilling passenger in a Lamborghini,” she responded.

She also denied testimony from multiple prosecution witnesses who said at trial that she told food site operators to stop flaunting their money because it could draw suspicion.

Bock testified that she was passionate about feeding underprivileged children.

“I even told the [FBI] agents at my house that I’d do anything to help catch people committing fraud,” Bock said.

“Well, you did a heck of a job of it, Ms. Bock,” Thompson said.

Thompson also countered Bock’s earlier testimony that she shut down several food sites because she suspected them of fraud. He presented emails showing that MDE denied some food sites like Sambusa King and Lido Restaurant in the spring of 2020, and that Feeding Our Future had actually appealed the denial of those food sites. Thompson then showed a text message Bock sent explaining that MDE was ending the sites because they were restaurants.

Bock said that Feeding Our Future was contractually obligated to appeal all denials of food sites even when it didn’t want to.

“That is a part of an agreement we made with sites, that we would represent them,” she said.

Bock then maintained that MDE denied the sites for the summer program, and Feeding Our Future then decided to terminate them “because they were no longer needed.”

Bock says she tried to stop fraud

Thursday was the first time prosecutors were able to question Bock at trial. She began her testimony last Friday afternoon under direct questioning from her attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, and resumed that testimony yesterday.

Bock testified under Udoibok that she detected fraud and tried to stop it. She continued some of that testimony Thursday morning. She acknowledged that she could not stop all fraud from taking place under Feeding Our Future’s watch.

“Investigations were sometimes really difficult,” Bock testified.

She said she looked into suspiciously high meal claims, but that when she asked food vendors if they provided the claimed amount of food and followed up with wholesalers to see if food was purchased, she was often told yes. Bock testified that now that she’s seen bank records, she agrees that fraud occurred.

“They were all saying yes, because, as the government has been able to show, they were all in on it together,” she said of the businesses that worked through Feeding Our Future to access federal food-aid money.

Bock denied all the charges under questioning from Udoibok, which sought to portray her as a concerned watchdog rather than a benefactor. Prosecutors accused Bock at trial of making $1.9 million through the fraud, but she testified under her attorney that she never asked for any kickbacks or bribes, or knowingly submitted false meal claims to the state. It wouldn’t be worth the risk, she told the court.

“Nothing would be worse or worth ever being separated from my children,” she said Thursday through muffled tears.

The prosecution launched five weeks of testimony against Bock, whose testimony offered explanations for the money she allegedly stole.

“Did you devise any scheme to mislead the public to your benefit?” Udoibok asked Bock Thursday.

“No, it was just the opposite,” Bock testified. “I was trying to expose what we were seeing. I was trying to take it seriously.”

Bock is being tried alongside former Safari Restaurant co-owner Salim Said.

Under questioning from Udoibok, Bock also provided explanations for text message evidence the government presented against her earlier in the trial.

In February 2019, Bock exchanged messages with Feeding Our Future employee Hadith Ahmed about rumors being circulated by a woman running a meal site. Feeding Our Future worked quickly to shut down the rumors that the organization wasn’t promptly paying out reimbursement claims.

“We may have become the mob,” Bock messaged Hadith Ahmed.

The message was a “sarcastic joke,” Bock testified Thursday.

“When we had problems, we would aggressively attack and eliminate,” Bock said.

She described herself as such a stickler for the rules that she refused to take home a sample vial of perfume that an employee tried to give her.

by Andrew Hazzard and Joey Peters