Author: Nicole Kamanzi Muteteri

The Minister made the revelation yesterday during a press briefing revolving around Africa’s readiness to distribute Covid-19 vaccine.

The conference featured different participants including the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti; Minister Ngamije and his counterpart of Malawi, Khumbize Kandondo Chiponda as well as Richard Mihigo, WHO Africa immunization coordinator.

Dr. Ngamije said that Rwanda is prepared enough to receive the vaccine expected to help the country enhance COVID-19 management.

“We are pleased that we will be able to vaccinate medical doctors, nurses, community health workers and others facilitating enforcement of Covid-19 preventive measures. Acquiring the vaccine gives us hope to reduce Covid-19 deaths,” he said.

Minister Ngamije recently explained that Rwanda expects to receive the first batch of 102,000 vaccines by 15th February 2021.

The vaccines in the first batch manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech, will also be distributed to other African countries including Tunisia, South Africa and Cap Vert.

As Rwanda gets ready to receive vaccines, some citizens have expressed concern that their beliefs do not allow to take these vaccines.

Ngamije said that citizens must be educated before getting vaccinated.

“The good thing is that they trust health services in the country. This is not the first vaccine we are introducing. They clearly understand that we have thorough management system. There is an independent, Food and Drug Authority (FDA) that was also involved in the process of approving the vaccine. It makes citizens trust the vaccine meets standards,” he said.

On 3rd February 2021, Rwanda’s health workers attended discussions with one of experts at Yale University who carried out research on Pfizer vaccine. He shared information to be passed to colleagues.

“Health workers need to share authentic information because they can be the right source. We shall work with leaders as usual because we integrate various institutions in such campaigns. We have no worries that citizens will reject the vaccine. I will be glad to be vaccinated first to give an example,” said Ngamije.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti also highlighted that they are working with UNICEF, among other partners, to share credible information about the vaccine.

Rwanda targets to vaccinate 60% of its population this year and continues to mobilize funds to cover more citizens.

The First Lady delivered the message yesterday on 4th February 2021 at the occasion of celebrating the World Cancer Day under the theme ‘I Am and I Will.’

World Cancer Day is an opportunity to recognize global commitment to actions that will lead to impacting progress in reducing the global impact of cancer and create a cancer-free world.

It is a global uniting initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of a group of cells in the body. It can occur at any age and if not detected at the right time and is not treated, it can increase the risk of death.

The First Lady has reminisced on the adverse impact of cancer and called for proactive measures to prevent it.

“Let us remember that behind global cancer statistics is a mother, a father, a sibling or a child, whose life will never be the same again after their diagnosis,” she said.

“On this World Cancer Day, let us pledge to continue educating our people about the importance of living healthy lifestyles, which include regular medical checkups, in order for our communities to receive the necessary treatment in time,” added Jeannette Kagame.

The World Health Organization (WHO) shows that cancer over 9.6 million died of cancer in 2018.

Recent studies estimate about one out of six people worldwide died from cancer that’s more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Hence, to raise the awareness of cancer and encourage its prevention, World Cancer Day is observed annually on February 4 as an international event.

Globally, cancer is among the leading causes of death, claiming over 70% of its victims in low- and middle-income countries, where prevention and treatment remain limited. In 2018, estimates from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) indicate the incidence in Rwanda to be 10,704 new cancer diagnoses, 4,520 cases among men and 6,184 cases among women were registered and annual mortality rates stood at 7,662. In addition, 50% to 60% of all cancer patients require radiotherapy in the course of their treatment.

The increasing cancer burden in Rwanda, and the limited accessibility of the general population to treatment, required the Government of Rwanda to act.

As per last year’s figures, WHO reported that less than 10% of the population in need was able to access treatment and about USD 1 million was spent on international transfers for radiotherapy treatment in Rwanda in four years.

On World Cancer Day celebration last year, Rwanda inaugurated the up to date Cancer Centre equipped with Radiotherapy. President Paul Kagame spoke on the important role the new centre will play in the lives of patients living with cancer, “now, many more Rwandans will be able to get the care they need with their families close by”, he said.

The Government of Rwanda embarked on a journey to decrease the burden of disease through prevention, early detection, treatment, and care interventions. In 2016, the idea for a modern radiotherapy cancer centre, called Rwanda Cancer Centre (RCC), was established at Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) in Kanombe as the first step in ultimately providing a full-service cancer centre. At the time, RMH already had advanced and existing cancer services in place and the human resource skills required to run the radiotherapy.

The facility launched last year complemented existing prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services including a 20-bed chemotherapy unit already in operation. In addition, the centre will allow full scale up of screening and early detection for cancers such as cervical, breast, and those related to hepatitis C virus.

Rwanda’s future plans indicate further diagnostic and inpatient services to be gradually added in order to provide comprehensive cancer treatment and palliative care to those with late state diagnosis. In addition, specialists are currently being trained in order to provide the necessary skill level.

The launch date coincided with the official launch of the first National Cancer Control Plan, the National Cancer Registry, and the National Cancer Management guidelines, three key milestones for the success of the cancer centre. The implementation of the 2020-2024 National Cancer Control Plan is intended to reduce cancer mortality and morbidity nationwide.

Kagame made the revelation yesterday during discussions with Herbert Raymond McMaster, a retired United States Army Lieutenant General who served as the 26th United States National Security Advisor from 2017 to 2018.

McMaster is the author of ‘Battlegrounds’, a book which is a valuable memoir of that period. It also contains his recommendations for the future.

Battlegrounds provides a fascinating tour of current US foreign policy challenges, region by region, beginning with Russia and China, followed by South Asia, the Middle East, Iran and North Korea.

The conversation was the 8th of its kind with Kagame and was centered on “Rwanda AndThe African Union: The Promise Of Increased U.S.-Africa Engagement.”

McMaster’s conversations termed as ‘Battlegrounds’ invites leaders from different countries to share ideas on challenges and opportunities based on US foreign policy.

President Kagame was asked questions on various topics including Rwanda’s relations with foreign countries, security matters in the region, Rwanda’s relations with Uganda among others including peacekeeping missions to which Rwanda contributes.

When asked about security matters in the Eastern DRC and the region, Kagame said that the situation has deteriorated for many years.

“For the Eastern Congo, the situation is not getting worse as such. The situation has been there for decades. The solutions have been touch and go. And then, one moment things are calm but clearly problems have not been addressed,” he said.

“In other words, they happen in a sort of way that it is periodically. Then it comes three years, then another three years is blur, instability is along the Eastern Congo side, and then another three years, it heightens and keeps going and coming. I think, we need a long term solution,” added Kagame.

President Kagame also highlighted that the current Government in DRC under President, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi who is becoming the African Union Chairperson this year ‘has been helpful in terms of being available, responsive and wanting to work with the neighbors so that this problem is addressed’.

“I think that is absolutely necessary and we think we can get better results than what we have had in the past,” he said.

President Kagame stressed that security problems in Eastern DRC have to be looked at in the general context of the country itself and seek how it can come together and get assisted by neighbors and others beyond to address these problems.

He also commented on relations between Rwanda and Uganda that have worsened for quite sometimes and expressed optimism that ongoing discussions will finally come out with a solution.

“The problem between Rwanda and Uganda has been there for quite some time. Only what we had this time to resolve the matter is that we brought to suffix and started discussing it publicly and openly,” he said.

“Otherwise, things were happening without necessarily people knowing what the matter is. But with Angola, DRC, Uganda and ourselves Rwanda, we sat and brought out these issues that have been affecting our relationship. And in that arrangement, we have had a series of discussions to address what we brought out as the root causes. We hope that may deliver good results at some point but the problems have been there for a long time,” highlighted Kagame.

Currently, Rwanda has troops, both the military and police serving under the United Nations peacekeeping mission in CAR and Darfur in Sudan mission which ended towards the end of last year.

Rwanda also contributed to peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Haiti in the past.

President Kagame has explained that Rwandan troops serving under these missions are not told what to but rather work professionally and bring expertise from Rwanda’s tragic history and share experience on how to resolve conflicts.

“As we serve under the UN, we are not just peacekeepers being told do this, don’t do that. We also bring a bit of experience from our own country during the tragic days where we can share with people how to resolve some of the causes of the conflict as their exist. We make an effort to try understanding them in those countries where we serve and also use availability under the UN to tell them stories about our own situation and how possibly they could benefit from addressing their problems in certain ways,” he stressed.

“Whether it was in Darfur in Sudan or South Sudan, we work with communities, citizens, and even Governments through UN. We tell the UN, if we could do things like this as UN contingent or force in any part of the world, we could help to bring peace, not just sit and wait until peace happens and then we keep it. That is why some forces have stayed for too long, in one place. They are waiting to keep peace that never actually happens. That is what we bring in that contribution,” added Kagame.

The President also said that Ethiopia conflict is a worrying situation to everyone who gets to know and hear what is happening there.

He highlighted that the UN, U.S.A and others should think of what they can do together with Africa engaged to find a solution.