guard

Two French guards collapse as Macron welcomes Slovak president

  • Le Parisien daily said that a second guard collapsed off camera, with Macron looking concerned and then hurriedly welcoming his Slovak counterpart.
  • Two members of France's elite Republican Guard collapsed almost simultaneously outside the Elysee Palace as President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Slovak counterpart, according to televised images and a presidential source.
  • Le Parisien daily said that a second guard collapsed off camera, with Macron looking concerned and then hurriedly welcoming his Slovak counterpart.
Two members of France's elite Republican Guard collapsed almost simultaneously outside the Elysee Palace as President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Slovak counterpart, according to televised images and a presidential source.
As is customary for the arrival of foreign heads of state, the Republican Guards formed an honour guard in full ceremonial dress with sabres for the arrival of Slovak President Peter Pellegrini late Wednesday.
One guard can be seen swaying before crashing to the ground, falling against a pillar at the Elysee Palace as his ceremonial sword clattered to the ground.
Aides and Macron immediately rushed towards the stricken guard, images from an AFP photographer showed. Le Parisien daily said that a second guard collapsed off camera, with Macron looking concerned and then hurriedly welcoming his Slovak counterpart.
A French presidential source, who asked not to be named, told AFP that both guards had suffered from "fainting attacks" and no other comment would be made.
"Both of them were swiftly taken care of and everything is fine," added the source.
The Republican Guard, part of the French gendarmerie, are responsible for guards of honour in France which often involve standing for long periods in heavy clothing while holding their sword upwards vertically.
bur-sjw/ah/tw

vaccines

Jab by jab, house by house, Nigeria slowly rolls out malaria vaccine

BY NICHOLAS ROLL

  • Since the introduction of the vaccine, "we have not recorded anything like the death of a child", she told AFP. Zuweira Nasiru, 39, said her two-year-old son Abdulrauf -- the first of her seven children to get the vaccine -- has only ever had mild cases of malaria.
  • The needle broke the skin, followed by wailing and the reassuring coo of "sorry, sorry" from the medical staff -- and just like that, another baby was vaccinated against malaria, an intractable child killer in Nigeria.
  • Since the introduction of the vaccine, "we have not recorded anything like the death of a child", she told AFP. Zuweira Nasiru, 39, said her two-year-old son Abdulrauf -- the first of her seven children to get the vaccine -- has only ever had mild cases of malaria.
The needle broke the skin, followed by wailing and the reassuring coo of "sorry, sorry" from the medical staff -- and just like that, another baby was vaccinated against malaria, an intractable child killer in Nigeria.
Expectations were high when the world's first malaria vaccines arrived in Africa's most populous country in late 2024, promising to limit the devastation from the mosquito-borne disease that killed nearly 200,000 Nigerians and some 600,000 people worldwide that year. 
Progress has been slow -- but on the local level, some villages have seen child deaths drop off completely, with almost a quarter-million children fully vaccinated and 1.8 million jabs administered.
"It makes me feel happy," said hairdresser Ezibanyenami Paul, her own smile contradicting her daughter's tears after she received her fourth and final jab in the town of Oruma, in southern Bayelsa state.
Combatting malaria requires a complicated mix of state and private sector capacity to procure medicines, organise public health campaigns and keep up infrastructure such as drains and sewage. 
"The malaria vaccine is a breakthrough," said Hadiza Hussayn Jibril, of the NGO PATH, which is aiding Bayelsa state in its vaccine rollout. "But it doesn't provide 100 percent protection."
Still, Bayelsa has already seen an 18-percent drop in the rate of children under five who have malaria at any given time, according to PATH -- all the more impressive considering bed net and preventative drug distributions have been lagging in the state for years.

'It was hectic'

In Oruma, in a cluster of squat houses and shaded verandas on a neat grid carved out from the surrounding tangles of forest, clinic workers doled out a four-part immunisation regime spread over the first 15 months of an infant's life.
Children under five, with weaker immune systems, account for more than 75 percent of malaria deaths in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. 
The vaccine's effectiveness fades over time, but the idea is to protect children while they're most vulnerable.
"It was hectic," Elizabeth Ogisi, director of primary health care for the wider Ogbia local government area, said of the time before the vaccine.
"A child died. What happened? He was convulsing," she said, recalling "rampant" cases of malaria progressing to the point of seizure.
Since the introduction of the vaccine, "we have not recorded anything like the death of a child", she told AFP.
Zuweira Nasiru, 39, said her two-year-old son Abdulrauf -- the first of her seven children to get the vaccine -- has only ever had mild cases of malaria.
Paul's infant has not had it once -- a big deal, the 24-year-old hairdresser told AFP, because of the cost of malaria drugs. 
At 5,000 naira ($3.75), she said, medicine for the easily treatable disease is too expensive.

Slow rollout

Oruma represents a small slice of Nigeria's 240 million people and 68.5 million annual infections.
So far, jabs are only being deployed in four out of 36 states.
The slow start has helped health workers bring down "dropout rates" between doses and work out kinks in reaching remote villages.
There "are very difficult zones that we normally don't get to. No roads, you have to take a boat," said James Kurofou, director of immunisation for Sagbama local government area, speaking to AFP on the banks of one of the Niger Delta's many wide, mud-coloured rivers.
In some cases, health care workers decided to dole out jabs during home visits, in cases where parents -- often those who couldn't afford to travel -- missed appointments.
Bayelsa's verdant mangroves and winding creeks are repeatedly interrupted by armed men guarding oil pipelines -- a reminder of the glaring economic inequality in the country.
"The oil wealth you see in a state like Bayelsa does not automatically translate into functioning primary health care," said Muhammed Afolabi, co-director at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Vaccine Centre, noting decades of government corruption and underinvestment in health infrastructure in Nigeria.
The Bayelsa health ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
At a ceremony in the state capital Yenagoa, organised by PATH and local authorities to thank health care workers from Sagbama and Ogbia, the mood was raucous as people took turns singing and dancing in a meeting hall.
But the gifts the workers were given were a reminder of the task that remains: rubber boots, a raincoat and an umbrella to help them keep trekking through the tropical elements.
nro/sn/kjm/ceg

climate

Indonesia fires burned through nearly 2.9 million hectares: monitor

  • Indonesia also experienced devastating fires in 2015, but the satellite imagery used then was different, making a direct comparison difficult.
  • Fires in Indonesia driven partly by a strong El Nino have burned through 2.88 million hectares (7.1 million acres) so far in 2026, a monitor analysing satellite imagery told AFP on Wednesday.
  • Indonesia also experienced devastating fires in 2015, but the satellite imagery used then was different, making a direct comparison difficult.
Fires in Indonesia driven partly by a strong El Nino have burned through 2.88 million hectares (7.1 million acres) so far in 2026, a monitor analysing satellite imagery told AFP on Wednesday.
The burned area figure -- 18 times the size of London -- has increased nearly a million hectares since deforestation monitoring site Nusantara Atlas's last update in September.
Indonesia's government has not provided official figures for areas burned since announcing 202,000 hectares had been razed by the end of July.
The burning detected in analysis through the end of October is a conservative estimate, warned Nusantara Atlas founder David Gaveau, in part because smoke has obscured satellite images.
But it already exceeds the full-year figure for 2019, previously the worst year on record in Nusantara Atlas data.
Indonesia also experienced devastating fires in 2015, but the satellite imagery used then was different, making a direct comparison difficult.
Still, the scale of destruction is clear, said Gaveau.
"Basically, it's a really bad year," he said.
The arrival of rain has brought some of the worst blazes under control, and monitoring shows the number of so-called hotspots starting to flatten or decline.
But the figure for total burned area is likely to rise further given some fires are still burning, and as burn scars previously hidden by smoke become visible to satellites in coming months.
Forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP the government was still working on its updated estimates of fire-affected land.
"Updating the data on the size of land and forest fires-affected areas requires in-depth confirmation and verification," said Ristianto.
"At the moment, we cannot yet confirm a schedule for the announcement."
Indonesia experiences fires every dry season, but this year's blazes have been particularly severe in part due to an intense drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern.
Experts say the fires are also the result of decades of deforestation and the drying out of peatlands for plantations, making large swathes of land more vulnerable to flames.
The fires have caused devastating local pollution that has sickened hundreds of thousands of people and sent haze into neighbouring countries, including Malaysia and Singapore.
sah-mrc/lga

UN

Bloody spit: Ghana waste dump poses health, environmental 'crisis'

BY WINIFRED LARTEY

  • Agbogbloshie's refuse comes largely from beyond Ghana's borders.
  • An acrid haze hung over a sprawling dump in Ghana's capital, Accra, as excavators gouged into mounds of smouldering rubbish. 
  • Agbogbloshie's refuse comes largely from beyond Ghana's borders.
An acrid haze hung over a sprawling dump in Ghana's capital, Accra, as excavators gouged into mounds of smouldering rubbish. 
Thin plumes of black smoke curled from burning plastic and rubber, mingling with the rank odour of stagnant lagoon water.
At Agbogbloshie, a district on the Korle Lagoon delta, thousands of tonnes of refuse have accumulated over decades, overwhelming the fragile wetlands overlooking a slum of around 80,000 residents, many of them migrants and traders.
For scrap dealer James Hassan, a 31-year-old Liberian immigrant, it is both his home and livelihood.
Without gloves or a mask, he sifts daily through piles of unwanted electronics and metal for scraps to sell.
The skin on his palms is thickened and scarred from cuts and rashes but he has become accustomed to the pain and discomfort.
"I have headaches and coughs after long days under the sun, but I have never sought medical care. I feel they are normal," he told AFP.
Environmental health experts say that workers are exposed to toxic metals and chemicals through skin cuts, inhaling waste smoke and dust.
While no study as yet links specific diseases to Agbogbloshie's pollution, "the cumulative contamination raises concern even if precise causal chains remain unquantified," epidemiologist Reginald Quansah, of the University of Ghana, said.

Global pipeline of waste

Waste management is a prominent theme at the COP31 climate talks, which began in Turkey on Monday.
Agbogbloshie's refuse comes largely from beyond Ghana's borders.
Accra's huge second-hand clothing market has imports from Europe, North America and Asia -- but often with a troubling byproduct.
"A lot of clothes that are shipped into Ghana come as waste," Greenpeace Africa's head of investigations Samuel Quashie-Idun told AFP.
Greenpeace estimates that 15 million used garments arrive in Ghana each week.
Even after traders extract what they can sell, roughly half ends up as "dead waste" dumped on beaches and fields or burned, it said.
One study Greenpeace cited put Ghana's used clothing imports at over 110,000 tonnes in 2022.
For the country's 35 million people, "these volumes far exceed local demand and... burdens waste systems," Quashie-Idun said.
Greenpeace found that 89 percent of sampled "dead" garments contained petrochemical fibres such as polyester, which shed microplastics as they decay, and release carcinogens hundreds of times above safe levels in smoke when the textiles are burnt.
"This is not just an environmental crisis... it's also a human health crisis," said Hellen Kahaso Dena, Greenpeace's plastics project expert.

'Fashion waste dumping ground'

"The global north is effectively using Ghana as a dumping ground for fashion waste," she told AFP.
The metals and electronics tell a similar story.
Runoff from Accra pours into Korle Lagoon beside Agbogbloshie, making it one of the city's most polluted waterways. 
Here, old fridges, TVs and appliances are crudely recycled.
Scrap dealer Barima Okuanaju pulls apart refrigerators and cars by hand, recovering copper wiring, aluminium panels and iron parts to sell.
He makes about 50–100 cedi ($4–$9) a day.
While he mines every inch of wire and circuit boards, polluting fumes rise around him.
Burning computer cables and batteries release lead, mercury and other toxins; open fires emit soot and dioxins that communities breathe in.
At a market in Agbogbloshie, stalls ring the dump, where women and children sell food, tools and water, amid the smoke.
Fourteen-year-old Aminatu Fatawu sells bottled water to the dump workers.
The smoke makes her cough and lately she has noticed blood in her saliva.
"The boys here are always burning... it always makes me cough. When I spit, there's blood sometimes," she said.
Her mother allows her to work to help cover her school fees, she said.
Those working at Agbogbloshie face lung and neurological health conditions, Quansah, the epidemiologist, said.
Scientists warn that contamination from the dump seeps into the lagoon and soil, ending up in the food chain and potentially affecting local diets for years to come.
In September, President John Mahama launched a three-month cleanup to remove about one million tonnes of waste from Agbogbloshie.
Heavy military and public works equipment has begun hauling garbage to a landfill about 50 kilometres (31 miles) outside Accra, where it will be compacted and covered under strict environmental safeguards.
Informal workers won't be forgotten, Local Government Minister Mahama Ayariga said.
He plans to bring garbage pickers and tricycle hauliers into the formal recycling process and hopes "to create up to 20,000 permanent jobs in waste management and the circular economy".
Nevertheless, the scavengers feel uncertain about the future.
Hassan said he had heard similar pledges before and just wants "safer" work.
str/sn/kjm/ceg

pope

Pope leads mega mass in Buenos Aires, meets abuse victims

BY SONIA AVALOS

  • Leo also privately met five victims of clerical abuse, hearing from each individually about their suffering at the hands of the clergy or within ecclesial institutions in Argentina.
  • Pope Leo XIV led a mass with two and a half million people in Argentina on Monday, and later urged protection of society's most vulnerable as he met disabled people and clerical abuse victims.
  • Leo also privately met five victims of clerical abuse, hearing from each individually about their suffering at the hands of the clergy or within ecclesial institutions in Argentina.
Pope Leo XIV led a mass with two and a half million people in Argentina on Monday, and later urged protection of society's most vulnerable as he met disabled people and clerical abuse victims.
The Buenos Aires mass drew the largest crowd of Leo's papacy to date, as faithful traveled from far and wide to see the 71-year-old less than a month after he underwent lung cancer surgery.
Cheering and waving crowds packed a kilometers-long stretch of Avenida del Libertador, with excitement reaching fever pitch when giant screens relayed images of the pope's journey through the city.
"It was very moving," said mechanic Hector Solis, who traveled cross-country in a three-car convoy for the mass.
"We were at the vigil last night, from midnight, and were surprised by how many people were already there," he told AFP.
Across the capital, vendors sold T-shirts, caps and flags bearing Leo's image, while his likeness appeared on alfajores pastries and jars of dulce de leche as Argentines marked the first papal visit to the country in decades.
"There is a great deal of emotion here," said 60-year-old Carlos Fuentes, who had come 1,500 kilometers.
There were emotional scenes in the evening as well, when Leo appeared on the balcony of the archbishop's residence to wave to crowds gathered below.
"Thank you, Buenos Aires. Thank you, Argentina. May the Lord's blessing reach the heart of each one of you!" he said, leaving many of the faithful wiping away tears.

'Beloved'

The trip is being seen by many as a homecoming of sorts, in honor of Leo's Argentine predecessor Francis, who never returned to the country after becoming pope.
Leo became emotional as he paid tribute to Francis, calling him "our beloved" pope.
Many in the crowd were visibly moved too. Teacher Gonzalo Trejo said the pope was prioritizing the Church's social doctrine "which Pope Francis championed."
Leo also privately met five victims of clerical abuse, hearing from each individually about their suffering at the hands of the clergy or within ecclesial institutions in Argentina.
The private audience followed criticism from a network of clergy abuse survivors in Argentina who accuse the Church of failing to deliver on its promises of "zero tolerance" of abusers.
Leo expressed his "commitment to strengthening measures for protection" within the Catholic Church and expressed his closeness to other victims he had not been able to meet, the Vatican said.

'Blessing,' not a burden

The US-born pontiff has dedicated much of his 12-day tour of South America so far to defending the rights of the weak and downtrodden.
Earlier Monday, he visited the Pequeno Cottolengo home for people with disabilities in the Buenos Aires suburb of Claypole, where he said a nation's progress should be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens.
His comments touched on a sensitive issue in Argentina, where disability organizations and church leaders have slammed the human costs of President Javier Milei's austerity drive.
Resident Marta Torres -- who is blind, has cerebral palsy and was abandoned by her mother as a child -- told Leo how she had long searched for "a place to live."
At Cottolengo "they helped me stop feeling rejected," she said. "Here, I feel so happy."
Leo said disabled people were "not a burden on society" but "a blessing."
He also praised communities that uphold the dignity and inclusion of people often pushed to society's margins.
"Places like this have much to say to our societies, which are often driven solely by the pursuit of economic success or the cult of outward appearance," he said.
Founded by an Italian saint, the 50-hectare (124-acre) Cottolengo complex is one of Argentina's best-known Catholic charitable institutions, described by the Vatican as a "city of charity." 

'Indispensable'

The pope's packed schedule -- which Leo refused to reduce following his surgery -- saw him also meet Monday with business leaders, workers and trade unions, which are angered by Milei's labor reforms, which limit the right to strike.
Leo praised the "indispensable" role played by unions "when they defend those who have no voice and resist the commodification of labor."
And he urged them to help precarious workers in particular.
Around 45 percent of workers in Argentina are in informal jobs, lacking pension contributions and formal labor protections.
The stop formed part of Leo's first trip to Latin America as pope, a tour taking him to Uruguay, Argentina and then Peru, where he spent nearly two decades  before his election.
bur-arb-ide/sla/des

pope

Pope in Argentina says nation judged by how it treats disabled citizens

  • "A nation's progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs," he said.
  • Pope Leo XIV visited a home for people with disabilities on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Monday, telling Argentines that a nation's progress should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens.
  • "A nation's progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs," he said.
Pope Leo XIV visited a home for people with disabilities on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Monday, telling Argentines that a nation's progress should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens.
Thousands lined the roads leading to the Pequeno Cottolengo, a sprawling care home founded in 1935 for abandoned people with disabilities, in the working-class Buenos Aires suburb of Claypole.
Addressing residents, staff and volunteers, Leo said disabled people were "not a burden on society" but "a blessing." 
"A nation's progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs," he said.
His remarks touched on a sensitive issue in Argentina, where disability organizations and Church leaders have voiced concern over measures affecting assistance programs under President Javier Milei's austerity drive.
Founded by an Italian saint, Cottolengo is one of Argentina's best-known Catholic charitable institutions.
The Vatican describes the sprawling 50-hectare (124-acre) complex as a "city of charity."
The stop formed part of Leo's first trip to Latin America as pope, a tour taking him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, where the Chicago-born pontiff spent years as a missionary and bishop before his election.
Crowds cheered and waved Vatican yellow-and-white flags as Leo arrived in the popemobile, smiling and waving back.
Others held homemade signs reading "Welcome Pope Leo" and "Bless this country." 
While some pilgrims left after catching a glimpse of the pope, others stayed to watch giant screens showing him greeting residents inside the home and shaking a seemingly endless line of outstretched hands.
Many in the crowd had arrived hours earlier.
Chamame folk music played over loudspeakers while pilgrims from the northeastern province of Corrientes passed the time dancing and letting out traditional cries. 
In his speech, Leo praised communities that uphold the dignity and inclusion of people often pushed to society's margins. 
"Places like this have much to say to our societies, which are often driven solely by the pursuit of economic success or the cult of outward appearance," he said.
The visit also followed comments by Leo a day earlier that appeared to challenge Milei's economic policies. 
Speaking after arriving in Argentina on Sunday, the pope said the economy should serve people rather than the reverse and called for special concern for those affected by "illness, dependency and disability." 
Leo also expressed hope that Argentina would remain a country where "the love of Christ triumphs over individualism and exclusion," and urged young people to embrace what he called the country's tradition of charity. 
Across Buenos Aires, enthusiasm for the first papal visit to Argentina in decades was evident in souvenir stalls selling T-shirts, caps and flags bearing Leo's image.
His likeness has even appeared on alfajores pastries and jars of dulce de leche as Argentines celebrate the landmark visit.
bur-arb/mlm