hello and welcome you're watching Ion Africa and I'm Clarice Fortune these are the headlines the world of Athletics loses one of its own to domestic violence Olympic Athlete Rebecca Shep died days after being set on fire by a former boyfriend shocking the World of Sport and Beyond the UN strongly condemns her violent murder the first batch of empo vaccines have finally arrived in a DRC the country has been the AP center of the outbreak with other 19,000 cases reported China pledges to give $50 billion in financing for Africa for more than 50 African leaders also secured many deals in agriculture mining trade and energy she was 33 years old she had just returned from Paris for the Olympics now Olympic Athlete Rebecca Shep is dead she died from complications after being set on fire by a former boyfriend the murder has sparked widespread emotion particularly in her home country Uganda Bastian Ru reports the first reactions to Rebecca Chap's killing came from Uganda the minister for education and sports sent his condolences to the family and to ugandans at large then the Uganda Athletics Federation said How Deeply sudden it is by the death of its athlete and called for justice and then later later in the day the family spoke to the media in Elder the town where she died of course they shared their pain they said how painful it is to lose a sister a daughter and then they blamed the Kenyan police they said that she had been threatened by the man who killed her for a while listen to her mother I have no strength I just blame the police and her home of endes they were responsible for providing security for my child's home but failed I have nothing else to say there is now an investigation ongoing according to the police 80% of her body was burnt after she was allegedly attacked by a former boyfriend the police said that a neighbors witnessed the attack they said that they saw the man pouring a liquid on Chap's body before burning her this man is now in hospital he was injured as well 30% of his body was burnt he will be arrested as soon as he is discharged from hospital according to the police many reactions from all over the place from Janet musini uganda's first lady to Kenyan Sports Minister kunga Moman who said it was a stock reminder that more must be done to combat gender-based violence the Paris Olympics organizers also voiced their profound indignation and sadness outrage and sorrow as well from fellow athletes we athletes we are more vulnerable because we have uh we are being used we have we have these men who come around and just used as as properties they want they saw they see a young girl manipulate them and it was the latest horrific act of gender-based violence in the east African country where activists have warned of a rising femicide epidemic and are calling for long overdue action Jerry migui is the founder of usim an organization that fights gender-based violence this is the fourth murder in a series of murder from 2021 uh for female athletes but this is also another I will not call it murder I will call it femicide because femicide is the intentional murdering of women due to their gender and also intimate femicide which is what happened in this case if you look at the intentionality of the of the murders between all these athletes who have been murdered by their husbands boyfriends or Partners if you look at it there is a thread of fin fincial finances the fact that these women have been able to be on the prime of their life been able to amass wealth and this wealth unfortunately has led to their death femicide has been rampant in this country I remember in the beginning of this year on 27th of January as Kenyans and as Kenyan women and thank God for the Kenyan public as well we did a femicide match on 27th of January where we were demanding for the government to speak about and also act upon incidents of femicide by that time we had 32 cases of dead women in one month as we're looking at reported cases are 112 as of this month that is a lot of women who have died you see if we don't act upon something what are the repercussions when these women are killed when um Agnes T was killed the case is still in court uh when Demaris was killed the man disappeared when uh and all this I'm looking at athlete cases I'm also looking at cases that have happened yet and still we have not seen the pursuance of Justice we have not seen The Stance of the nation against femicide if the head of the nation the president does not say anything about femicide how are we going to treat it now in other news the first lot of empo vaccines have has finally arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo the country has been the AP center of the outbreak more than 19,000 cases have been registered and nearly 630 deaths reported EMT Livingstone in kesta has more nearly 100,000 empx vaccines arrived by plane in Dr Congo's capital kinasa on Thursday the first batch to reach the country which is the epicenter of the global empo Outbreak The vaccines produced by Bavarian Nordic were procured and delivered by the European Union 100,000 more vaccines are expected to arrive in Congo on Saturday but experts are warning that the rollout could be complicated in Congo which has dire infrastructure and is plagued by conflict once more the temperature at which the vaccine has to be kept poses a problem now they have to be delivered to difficult areas such as South Kevo and the equator region where the vaccine has to be kept in a cold storage at minus 20° these are logistical challenges and we are in the process of working with our partners in particular UNICEF the Ministry of Health and various NOS different European countries and the EU are due to donate a total of 566,000 vaccines to Congo however this number is unlikely to end the epidemic Congo's Health Ministry says it needs 3.5 million vaccine doses to tackle empo the country has recorded about 18,000 empx infections and over 600 deaths this represents over 90% of the global cases according to the wh let's head now to Beijing where the ninth China afca forum fak is underway almost every African country has sent a high level delegation to the event that focuses on trade and development goals across the continent and this Thursday Chinese leader Jin ping pledged over $50 billion do in credit Aid and investment covering the summit for us is our Beijing correspondent yali the China Africa relationship is now at its best in history that's what president Xi Jinping said during his keynote speech at this year's focac he described China's ties to the continent as mutually beneficial whilst adding that I quote the Western approach has inflicted immense suffering the Chinese leader also announced over50 billion US in credit Aid and investment including 1 billion in military assistance it's interesting to note that focac was first launched in 2000 and this is the ninth Edition compared to the US for example that has held just two us Africa leaders Summits once in 2014 and again in 2022 now after president she's opening address African leaders representing different parts of the continent also took to the stage South Africa's siril Raposa thanked the hosts at least five times mostly for their approach towards the continent saluting China's interest and their collaborative approach president Raposa ended his short speech with a preview of the upcoming Final Declaration of this year's Forum saying that the signatories support a one China policy and view that the uh People's Republic of China is the I quote again true and only representative of the people of China nothing new per se but certainly a strong message of support to the room full of high ranking Chinese officials and of course African delegates sitting in beijing's Great Hall of the people and meanwhile the United States announced this week an additional $40 million to combat food insecurity on the continent at a time when malnutrition and famine are on the rise thousands of experts are also looking at solution to this crisis in Rwanda at the biggest African Forum on agriculture clona has more African agriculture Specialists gathered in Kali to learn from recent crisis and find Solutions almost 10 years ago African Union member states signed the malabo Declaration aimed at reducing poverty and improving access to food by 2025 around 50 countries committed to various objectives including dedicating 10% of their budget to agriculture however this goal remains far from being achieved according to the UN this year at least 55 million people in West and central Africa struggled to feed themselves what we're seeing overall is that malnutrition rates are increasing exponentially there's been some progress in the area of uh improving breastfeeding but all the other nutrition indicators were behind so we need a seismic shift some new creativity some Innovation the causes of malnutrition and famine include conflicts like in Sudan as well as climate change and Rising food and fertilizer prices in 20123 the DIA Congo and Nigeria Sudan and Ethiopia were ranked by the UN as among the countries most affected by food crisis the Kali forum is exploring new ideas such as crop diversification grain processing better management of agricultural budgets and improving trade between African States and that's the end of our Edition thank you for watching Ion Africa