Upon arrival, the vaccine doses were received by Rwanda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije and the ambassador of French to Rwanda, Antoine Anfré.
They are an addition to more 100,000 doses received from France in May 2021 when President Emmanuel Macron visited Rwanda.
A total of 1,942,368 people have been fully vaccinated while 3,735,581 received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since Rwanda began countrywide inoculation program on 5th March 2021.
Rwanda has ramped up vaccination efforts where the country targets to cover 30% of the population by December this year and 60% by the end of 2022.
Nyirarukundo served as the Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs at MINALOC for the past two years prior to her new appointment.
She also held other duties as member of the lower house of parliament for six years among others before moving to MINALOC.
Meanwhile, Assumpta Ingabire previously served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion since 2019.
Prior to the appointment, she had served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Local Government for 2 years; after one year and half in the same Ministry serving as the Director General in charge of Inspection.
Ingabire has a strong background in project management from 7 years of experience coordinating various projects with Imbuto Foundation.
Sheikh Shakhboot visited the memorial on Wednesday 27th October 2021 along with his delegation that accompanied him to Rwanda.
Upon arrival at the memorial, the official laid wreaths to the mass grave where over 250,000 victims are laid to rest. The delegation was also taken through different sections of the memorial and shown a documentary film depicting how Genocide against Tutsi was executed with extreme cruelty.
Sheikh Shakhboot wrote in the memorial’s guest book commending the bravery of Genocide survivors and the good leadership of President Paul Kagame which has transformed Rwandans’ lives.
“We are here to condole with you, restore the dignity and pay homage to victims of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. We pay tribute and remember everyone who lost life,” he said.
Sheikh Shakhboot thanked Rwanda for leaving the dark past behind to strive for peace and security highlighting that UAE will stand with Rwanda to fight against ethnic divisionism, strive for unity and brotherhood across the world as a legacy inherited from late Sheikh Zayed, the founding father and the principal driving force behind the formation of UAE.
“Remembering these times, challenges us to redouble our efforts to continue working together as partners to change the society and build a prosperous future,” he noted.
During his visit to Rwanda, Sheikh Shakhboot was received by President Paul Kagame on 26th October 2021 with whom they held talks revolving around deepening bilateral ties.
He also met with the Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Charge of East African Community, Prof. Nshuti Manasseh and discussed Rwanda’s investment opportunities in the areas of agriculture, mining, transport and technology among others.
The official recently visited Rwanda’s stand at the ongoing Dubai Expo where he thanked Rwanda’s visionary leadership that made the country a role model on the continent.
Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan was appointed UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in February 2021. He had been serving as his country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia prior to his new appointment.
The colourful ceremony held at the Police Training School (PTS) Gishari in Rwamagana District was also attended ministers, RNP leadership and senior officers from other security institutions as well as families and friends of the graduands, in compliance with the national Covid-19 prevention guidelines.
PM Ngirente thanked the commissioned officers for their resilience to complete the cadet training successfully.
“This is also a moment to thank your parents and families, who encouraged and supported you to join the cadet training and to serve your country. To achieve this milestone as officers joining the Rwanda National Police family, it required courage and determination, staying focused and discipline, and we are witnessing that today,” PM Ngirente said.
He added that one of the pillars of RNP is the existing working framework with the people and other institutions and urged the officers to add value to this community policing concept to give Rwandans services that befit them.
“Governance and security are interconnected. In the duties that you have started today to ensure security of the country, always remember that your first duty is to work for Rwandans and all people living in Rwanda.”
He thanked them for staying focused and for their sacrifice during this COVID-19 period as one of the groups that were on the frontline to implement the national efforts against the pandemic.
In the middle of their training, the officers suspended the training mid-way to support the country in tracing COVID-19 contacts, spent days and night on call center duties as well as enforcement of the directives and transportation of contacts or positive cases.
“You showed courage, respect, discipline and this is what defines your everyday duties as police officers regardless of your rank,” the Prime Minister told the officers.
“We now live in a globalized world where crimes today are facilitated by technology. As security organs, you also have to adopt and move with the trend. The Government of Rwanda will continue to support RNP to acquire modern policing equipment.”
Training he added, is continuous so as to move with the changing policing environment and to be able to effectively counter the emerging security challenges.
“This is the firm security foundation that our country wants… a foundation that gives the citizenry sustainable security, a firm pillar for our country’s development; that is how it will forever be.”
The commandant of PTS, Commissioner of Police (CP) Robert Niyonshuti said that the course was designed to develop character, resilience, professionalism, leadership, and responsibility of police officers.
“Cadet officers were trained under difficult conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, but they remained resilient and did not let this discourage them. This was made possible by the vison of our leadership led by His Excellency Paul KAGAME, the President of the Republic, which allows the school to expand in academics, trainers and infrastructure,” CP Niyonshuti said.
He further thanked the Ministry of Justice and RNP leadership for their continued support to achieve the PTS mission.
The officers include those, who graduated from the National Police College (NPC), majority in the field of science technology. During their course, they officers also composed songs for morale boosting during training and in outreach activities.
It was all tears of joy as the commissioned officers met their loved ones for the first time in 13 months of cadet training due to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The suspects paraded before the media on Wednesday 27th October 2021 include a Congolese national, who sneaked the elephant tusks into Rwanda from Bukavu town in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He was arrested in Rusizi district.
The quartet include Desire Murokozi, Derrick Gisa, Cyriaqué Kaburaburyo from Burundi and Nicodem Bagabo from DRC.
The four men sneaked the elephant tusks using a vehicle belonging to an official working with the power utility company of the Great Lakes Region known for its French alias as Société Internationale d’Electricité des pays des Grands Lacs (SINELAC).
It is said that they wanted to use Rwanda as a transit from where they would send elephant tusks to foreign countries.
Three of them have accused the official working with the company to have dragged them into the case. The official has however refuted the allegations explaining that he gave them a lift without checking their luggage.
RIB Spokesperson, Dr. Thierry B. Murangira has said that the suspects planned to traffic the tusks to Asia through Rwanda.
“The four suspects were arrested at different times. They face charges including attempt to traffic 45kgs of elephant tusks through Rwanda. The tusks were seized in a vehicle belonging to an official working with SINELAC. The elephant tusks are not poached or sold in Rwanda but rather the country is used as a transit for such trade,” he said.
Dr. Murangira assured that the foiled trafficking is a testament that Rwanda has no place for peddlers.
If convicted, suspects are liable to a sentence between five and seven years behind bars and a fine between Rwf5 to Rwf7 million as per Rwanda’s Penal Code.
The suspects are detained at Kicukiro RIB Post awaiting their files to be transferred to the Prosecution.
Kagame was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Cancer Control Award on Tuesday 26th October 2021 during the World Cancer Leaders’ Summit 2021 held virtually to recognize leaders who exhibited outstanding commitment to prevent and control cancer globally.
Hosted by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), the summit was held under the theme ‘driving innovation to advance cancer control equitably’.
Kagame was awarded for Rwanda’s remarkable milestone in the prevention and control of different types of cancer through ensuring universal access to health services and inoculation programs among others.
He said that it has been ten years since Rwanda launched campaign to prevent different types of Cancer, ensuring universal access to state-of-the art cancer treatment since 2012.
The President highlighted that the award given to him is a deep honour and thanked UICC and the judging panel, for recognizing the efforts that Rwanda has made to prevent and treat cancer.
Kagame also commended the immediate past president of UICC, the Princess of Jordania, Dina Mired for her exceptional leadership and commitment to the field of cancer control, and her attention to Africa.
He congratulated his fellow finalists, from both the policymaker and civil society categories, whose collective achievements ‘inspire us all’.
The Head of State stressed that cancer diagnosis is frightening, in any setting noting that there is a sense of hopelessness in places with no accessible treatment options. He however revealed that any country can make a positive impact within available capacities to control cancer, no matter its income level.
Kagame pointed out an example of Rwanda where the national insurance scheme started to cover annual check-ups for all citizens above the age of 40. This has allowed for earlier detection of cancers, and better treatment outcomes.
The President stated that the top two cancers in Rwanda are breast cancer and cervical cancer.
Among others, Kagame said that the structural focus on maternal and child health in Rwanda’s health system has helped the country to give these conditions the attention they deserve.
The Ministry of Health shows that 1237 out of 5000 Cancer patients detected last year were diagnosed with breast cancer while more than 750 were screened with cervical cancer.
In the same year, the two cancers took lives of over 1400 women with 636 being victims of breast cancer while over 800 patients died of cervical cancer as per figures from the Ministry of Health.
In the next ten years, Rwanda plans to be among top countries taking the lead in eradicating cervical cancer. The country has so far achieved a major stride where over 97% of teens are vaccinated against the virus that causes the cancer every year.
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President Paul Kagame has said that the region has some of the highest rates of liver cancer in the world, due to untreated hepatitis infections and shed light on Rwanda’s efforts.
“In 2018, we began an eradication program for hepatitis C, which screened more than 5 million at-risk people. Those found to be infected received treatment, free of charge. We also made hepatitis B vaccination routine,” he noted.
The President emphasized that early detection is only relevant when treatment is available and accessible. To this end, he said that Rwanda has started offering state-of-the art treatment that citizens no longer have to travel abroad.
“Since 2019, the Rwanda Cancer Center has been operational, offering both radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments. This means that Rwandans no longer have to travel abroad for many cancer treatments,” noted Kagame.
He stressed that local production of morphine has reduced the suffering of patients in palliative care.
The Head of State also said that partnerships are essential highlighting that the modest gains that Rwanda has made in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer have come by working together with others.
He commended the partnership between Rwanda and Partners in Health led by Dr. Paul Farmer which bore fruits and paved the way for establishment of Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence located in Burera district, Northern Province in 2012.
Kagame revealed that the Africa Training Center of the Institute for Research on Digestive Cancers (IRCAD) will be inaugurated in Rwanda next year.
The center is under construction in Masaka, Kigali City on partnership between Rwanda and Professor Jacques Marescaux, a world leader in minimally-invasive cancer surgery who founded IRCAD in 1994.
Kagame said that there is still a long way to go in the fight to control cancer in Rwanda and Africa, noting that the award gives motivation to aspire to do even more and better in the years ahead.
Kagame is among six leaders honoured with the award from two categories including policymakers and civil society categories.
Finalists in policy makers category include President Paul Kagame, President of the United States of America, Amerika Joe Biden and Greg Hunt, Australia’s Minister for Health and Aged Care.
Finalists in the category of Civil Society include Maira Caleffi, Breast surgeon and founder of FEMAMA, a Brazilian Federation of Philanthropic Institutions for Breast Health Support and Advocacy.
Othera are; Dr. Paul Farmer the founder of Partners In Health (PIH) and Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, the Chief Executive Officer of The Max Foundation, an organization dedicated to accelerating health equity by increasing global access to treatment, care, and support for people living with cancer.
These include Jean-Yves Le Drian from France, Nasser Bourita from Morocco, Amb. Tete Antonio from Angola.
The President also received the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Sheikh Shakhbout bin Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and his delegation for a discussion on key areas of bilateral cooperation.
Among others, Kagame met with the European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
The decision is the result of a meeting between Rwanda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Aïssata Tall Sall, Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-Founder of BioNTech and Sierk Poetting, COO of BioNTech as well as Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre and Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall, Director General of Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Kigali.
The meeting happened upon the invitation of the kENUP Foundation. It took place as a side-event of the Second Ministerial Meeting of the African Union and the European Union and resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This comes after the parties signed a Joint Communiqué at a previous meeting in Berlin on August 27, 2021.
Speaking at the event; Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech thanked all participants of the meeting for the support and trust to establish the first mRNA manufacturing facility within the African Union.
“Together, we will work on developing a regional manufacturing network to support the access to vaccines manufactured in Africa, for Africa. Our goal is to develop vaccines in the African Union and to establish sustainable vaccine production capabilities to jointly improve medical care in Africa. We have made great progress in the past few weeks, which will help us on our way to turn these plans into reality,” he said.
Sierk Poetting, the COO of BioNTech emphasized that the company seeks to accelerate the building of a GMP-certified manufacturing facility and plan to begin the construction on site in mid-2022.
“The MoU underlines that time is a critical success factor in the development of sustainable vaccine production for the African Union. We have finalized the planning and initial assets for the new facility have already been ordered,” he revealed.
The parties agree to jointly establish end-to-end manufacturing capacities for mRNA-based vaccines in Africa starting immediately. BioNTech has finalized the construction plans and ordered the assets, which will be delivered by mid-2022.
The new manufacturing facility could become the first node in a decentralized and robust African end-to-end manufacturing network enabling an annual manufacturing capacity of several hundreds of million mRNA vaccine doses.
BioNTech plans to develop and implement a scalable construction network based on the expertise and learnings from the ramp-up of the Company’s production facility in Marburg.
To enable an expedient set-up of production capacities according to GMP standards, BioNTech will start with the construction and validation of a first production line enabling the manufacturing of drug product for about 50 million of, for example, COVID-19 vaccine doses per year, once fully operational.
The capacity will be increased sequentially by adding further manufacturing lines and sites to the manufacturing network on the continent, supporting the production of several hundreds of millions of mRNA vaccine doses.
BioNTech will initially staff, own and operate the facility to support the safe and rapid initiation of the production of mRNA-based vaccine doses. BioNTech plans to transfer manufacturing capacities and the know-how to local partners.
Therefore, BioNTech, Rwanda Development Board and Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal agreed to swiftly build-up the required human resources capacity and systems so that the partners can take over ownership and operational duties.
In parallel, the Republic of Rwanda and the Institut Pasteur de Dakar have committed themselves to scale-up fill and finish capacities to complete the local end-to-end manufacturing process. In addition, BioNTech is in discussions about an expansion of the current partnership with Cape Town-based vaccine manufacturer Biovac, which is part of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing network.
Commenting the development; Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Rwanda’s Minister of Health said that bringing end-to-end vaccine manufacturing of biologicals to Africa is essential for the continent’s health security and prosperity.
He stressed that Rwanda is committed to working with the African Union, the European Union, BioNTech, and other technology partners ‘to make this a reality as quickly as possible’.
“The BioNTech partnership will not only build physical infrastructure but also strengthen human capacity in Africa to develop the most advanced vaccine technologies,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Aïssata Tall Sall. “With decades of experience manufacturing yellow fever vaccines, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar is ready to partner with BioNTech to rise to the challenge of developing mRNA vaccines for Africa.”
Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission who also attended discussions, highlighted that by working together in the spirit of the meeting, ‘the African Union, the European Union, key technology partners, and other stakeholders, can make decisive contributions and effective coordination in the fight against this pandemic, and future health challenges’.
Jutta Urpilainen, European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships welcomed the milestone which he considered a concrete step towards making mRNA-based vaccines in Africa, for Africa.
“Through our Team Europe Initiative on local manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and medical technologies, the European Union is committed to making this initiative a success,” he said.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa noted that state-of-the-art facilities like the one to be developed will be life-savers and game-changers for Africa and could lead to millions of cutting-edge vaccines being made for Africans, by Africans in Africa.
“This is also crucial for transferring knowledge and know-how, bringing in new jobs and skills and ultimately strengthening Africa’s health security. WHO is ready to work with countries to step up their commitment to vaccine manufacturing,” he said.
Holm Keller, the Executive Chairman of kENUP Foundation emphasized that global vaccine equity is key to accelerating the end of the pandemic.
He said that today’s announcement is an important next step towards sustainable vaccine production in Africa, thanked partners for their decisive contribution and their relentlessness towards making swift Africa vaccine production a reality.
The initiative is aligned with the Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and medical technologies (MAV+) led by the European Commission in collaboration with the EU Member States and the European Investment Bank.
The meeting brings together foreign affairs ministers from both continents to discuss COVID-19 response and recovery as well as building resilience.
Ministers attending the meeting on 25th and 26th October 2021, are expected to exchange views on the EU-AU partnership and how to strengthen cooperation.
Discussions will also revolve around various topics including the response to and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic as well as building resilience.
Other areas of interest are investing in the digital and green transitions, peace, security and global governance, migration and mobility, education, science, technology and skills development.
The ministers who held talks with Dr. Biruta on Monday 25th October 2021 include his counterpart of Denmark, Danemark, Jeppe Kofod; Gordan Grlić Radman of Croatia; Christophe Lutundula of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Gen Jeje Odongo of Uganda.
Minister Biruta also met with Martin Tlapa, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic and Poland Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcin Przydacz.
Discussions revolved around deepening bilateral relations and cooperation, strengthening political and economic cooperation, cooperation in education, trade and climate change.
As she opened the AU-EU ministerial meeting on Monday; the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clementine Mukeka said that it is an occasion to strengthen existing cooperation and explore new potential areas.
“It also an opportunity to reflect on the AU-EU relationship and propose areas for improvement,” she stressed.
Africa and the European Union enjoy partnership in different development areas.
Figures from EU show that Europe exported goods worth Euro 124 billion to Africa while Africa’s exports to EU are estimated at Euro 101 billion in 2020.
