Bush Africa Trip - Monday News Round-Up
February 18th, 2008 at 3:30 pm | posted by Virginia SimmonsReuters: Bush offers more aid to fight malaria in Africa
On the third day of his five-nation Africa tour, Bush travelled to this northern Tanzanian city in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro to focus attention on the mosquito-borne disease, which kills at least 1 million infants and children under age 5 in sub-Saharan Africa each year.
“For years malaria has been a health crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease keeps sick workers home, school yards quiet, communities in mourning,” he said during a visit to Meru District Hospital. “The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable.”
Calling the effort to help fight malaria in Africa a “campaign of compassion”, Bush announced a new plan, in partnership with the World Bank, to distribute 5.2 million insecticide-treated bed nets in Tanzania.
He said the campaign, which will begin within six months, will provide enough nets to protect every child in Tanzania between the ages of 1 and 5.
The Independent UK: Popular in Africa: Bush has given more aid than any other US president
The US President’s visit to Benin, Liberia, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania may, on the surface, be about promoting America’s funding for Aids treatment, shoring up support for a US military base on the continent, and quietly scoping out new oil opportunities. But there is another, perhaps more important, reason for President Bush’s week-long visit to Africa: people actually like him here.
A recent report from the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that “the US image is much stronger in Africa than in other regions of the world”. At least 80 per cent of respondents in Ghana, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire were favourable to the US. In all other sub-Saharan African countries polled, there were more “favourables” than “non-favourables”. Part of the reason for that support is money. Lots of it.
