The World Health Organisation says, severe cases of malaria and mortality in Rwanda have since decreased by half following contingency plan that was put in place two and a half years ago.

W.H.O report released last year shows an estimated reduction in the country’s malaria burden, with 430,000 fewer cases recorded in 2017 than the previous year.

The achievements are attributed to many factors including the role of community health workers. Information from Rwanda biomedical center indicates that more than half of malaria cases are now treated by community health workers.

With the introduction of Home Based Management of malaria (HBM) for both adults and children through community health workers, malaria patients are being diagnosed and treated early.

At least 18 persons are reported killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo when a truck loaded with industrial acid collided with a stationary bus.

Media report that the accident happened near the village of Fungurume, in a copper and cobalt mining area in the southeast.

Police captain in charge of road traffic in Lualaba province, said on Thursday, 21 were dead and 12 injured after the acid poured out onto the passengers. But the Lualaba’s provincial Health Minister Samy Kayombo said 18 were killed and 12 hurt.

U.N. Radio Channel Okapi reports the damaged truck continued to spill its contents until midday on Thursday, and acid flowed as far as the village of Kabwe.

A Sudanese opposition party says more than ten opposition leaders were arrested by the government ahead of a day of protests that was to continue calls for President Omar Al-Bashir to resign.

The Sudanese congress party said in a statement security forces have “pre-empted” demonstrations by arresting the deputy head of the Umma Party, Mariam Sadiq Al-Mahdi; the party’s secretary-general Saaa Naqdallah; communist party leader Mokhtar Al-Khatib, and others.

Police were said to have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds who had gathered to march near the Arab market area in Khartoum.

A wave of protests, sometimes violent, has rocked Sudan since December.  Demonstrators have taken to the streets to call for president Al-Bashir’s resignation.  Activists say nearly sixty persons have been killed in these protests, but the government says figure says thirty.