For centuries and emboldened by colonial treaties, Egypt has enjoyed overwhelming hydro-hegemony in the (NBR) Nile Basin River region. However, Egyptian dominance over the NBR has been challenged by Ethiopia following her unilateral construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Using A qualitative, deductive approach based on multiple sources of evidence, this paper analyses the historical imbalance in the Nile colonial treaties that gave Egypt monopoly over the waters of the NBR. The article also describes various human security threats in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, where the dam project is located and the geopolitical implications of this development against the backdrop of climate change and the coming of new actors and donors such as China, including the leasing of land to corporations and countries such as India, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. We recommend collaborative and holistic management instead of the dominant state-centric water development approach in this international waterway. The development of sustainable cooperation over this shared waterway will help meet climate change challenges and mitigate the contemporary conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt, including other countries within the region.

Vaccination is an indisputable intervention that has tremendously mitigated the global burden of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). The number of armed conflicts globally seems to be at an all-time high, with devastating effects on vaccination coverage. This paper will examine how armed conflicts affect childhood vaccination and lead to the reemergence and spread of VPDs. Unarguably, socioeconomic factors, population demographics, the apparent long vaccination timetable, multiple vaccine doses, lack of trust in vaccination processes and the rumor of the adverse effects of some vaccines unnerve some parents and create a puzzle. By bringing under the global floodlight, the impact of armed conflicts which contextually affect vaccination coverage, this article will help strengthen the advocacy for vaccination, and call for the fortification of existing treaties on the rule of engagement during conflicts. In order to eliminate or eradicate VPDs, strategies to reach children that are left behind during conflicts is paramount.

Despite the WHO providing a framework for the integration of traditional medicines into the health systems with pandemics like HIV/AIDS and the COVID-19, most countries are yet to adopt the recommendations. This study explored why the integration of traditional medicines with the biomedical healthcare system in Qokolweni in Eastern Cape, South Africa was stalling. The research employed qualitative research methods; participant observation and in-depth ethnographic interviews of community members, traditional healers, and nurses. The study found that: traditional medicines are widely used in Qokolweni due to accessibility and long-built trust; the practice is broad and not certified. To achieve the integration of traditional medicine into the conventional health systems, the central government needs to show political will by setting up regulatory strategies that provide for the scientific evaluation and certification of traditional medicines. This will build confidence among biomedical scientists and health practitioners, thereby fostering easy collaboration and integration.

Background: Local people’s interaction with bats render them vulnerable to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). This paper examines perceptions of risk involved in the hunting, handling, processing and consumption of bat meat in the Mount Cameroon region of Southwest Cameroon. It focuses on the myriad cultural beliefs, gendered patterns of activity and institutional arrangements in which the bat meat production chain is embedded. Methods: We conducted 30 ethnographic interviews with a sample of purposively selected men and women involved in the bat meat trade. The interviews were tape recorded, transcribed verbatim and inductive analysis was performed on the data. Findings: The findings suggests that more urban men than villagers and hunters consume bat meat. Different practices and behaviours expose the mostly uneducated, young, single men and women to the risk of Ebola infection depending on their differential level of intervention in the human-bat interaction and value chain linking hunters, sellers and customers. The killing of bats with the mouth during hunting expose hunters (young men) while the preparation of bat carcasses for consumption also put women, (mostly young and unmarried) at risk. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the complexity and nuances of gender, poverty and Ebola outcomes predispose some marginal groups to the risk of infection with zoonotic diseases. There is the need to improve public health intervention and health education among the rural masses in the Mount Cameroon region.

Background: University students are one of the most vulnerable groups to sexual reproductive health [SRH] threats like sexually transmitted infections [STIs], unwanted pregnancies, and unsafe abortions and often have limited access to SRH information, goods, and services. This study assessed the effectiveness of using a mobile phone application (APP) to increase access to SRH information, goods, and services among university students in Uganda. Methods: Using data from a double-blinded randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to both the intervention (APP) and control (standard of care) arms. We executed descriptive analyses for baseline demographic characteristics by intervention, difference in difference (DID), and quantile regression analyses for both primary and secondary outcomes. Results: The median age of participants was 21 years of age, and the majority were female (over 60%), unemployed (over 85%) and Christian (90%). Over 50% were resident in off-campus hostels and in a relationship. Between baseline and end-line, there was a significant increase in SRH knowledge score (DID = 2, P < 0.001), contraceptive use (DID = 6.6%, P < 0.001), HIV Voluntary testing and counselling (DID = 17.2%, P < 0.001), STI diagnosis and treatment (DID = 12.9%, P < 0.001), and condom use at last sex (DID = 4%,P = 0.02) among students who used the APP. There was a significant 0.98 unit increase in knowledge score (adjusted coefficient = 0.98, P < 0.001), a significant 1.6-fold increase in odds of contraceptive use (adjusted coefficient = 1.6, P = 0.04), a significant 3.5-fold increase in HIV VCT (adjusted coefficient = 3.5, P < 0.001), and a significant 2-fold increase in odds of STI testing and treatment (adjusted coefficient = 1.9, P < 0.001) after adjusting for demographic characteristics among APP users compared to the control group. Conclusion: A mobile phone application increased sexual and reproductive health information (knowledge score), access to goods (contraceptives), and services (HIV voluntary testing and counseling and sexually transmitted infection diagnosis and management) among sexually active university students in Uganda. Further technical development, including the refinement of youth-friendly attributes, extending access to the app with other platforms besides android which was pilot tested, as well as further research into potential economic impact and paths to sustainability, is needed before the app is deployed to the general youth population in Uganda and other low-income settings. Trial registration: MUREC1/7 No. 07/05–18. Registered on June 29, 2018.

The indigenous Baka Pygmies of southeast Cameroon depend mainly on environmental incomes for their livelihoods, usually hunting and gathering and the sustainable use of their ecological systems. They are at the verge of profound political, socioeconomic, and environmental transformations orchestrated by modern state laws regulating hunting and international development actors and agencies whose development vision expressed through conservation often underlie a contradiction with their way of life. This ethnographic study aims to document the dynamics of the institution of the great hunting expedition among the Baka. An interplay between the overexploitation of forestry resources, the creation of protected areas (fortress conservation), the full protection of certain classes of large mammals, the use of specific tools forbidden by existing forestry legislation and the ruthless behaviour of ‘eco-guards’ have led to changes in the organization of the great hunting expedition. To better address the socio-cultural aspects of biodiversity conservation and consequently strengthen the legislation regulating the wildlife sector in the country, conservation stakeholders must be conscious of the multiple entanglements between human and other life forms and the ecology of hunting. This suggests the need for a rights-based approach to conservation that recognizes the entanglement of ‘multispecies assemblages’ and respects indigenous land rights.