COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 23 July 2021

It was particularly pleasing for me, on the occasion of the International Year for the Abolition of Child Labour, Forced Labour and Trafficking in Persons, which Africa celebrated on 18 June 2021, to launch a reflection on child labour in Central Africa, particularly in the mining sector, and the influence of COVID-19 on this unfortunate scourge. The problem of child labour in the world, and particularly in Africa, is a major issue that deserves to be addressed with the utmost rigour and urgency.

With new technologies and the evolution of medical science in the twenty first century, the COVID-19 vaccine was developed faster than vaccines for previous pandemics and epidemics. Vaccine nationalism, where some governments signed agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers to supply their own populations with vaccines before they had become available for other countries, has led to the politicization of COVID-19 vaccines.

Amid the climate emergency, access to freshwater is a potential source of tension and conflict between states. One example of tension tied up to a transboundary watercourse is the on-going dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the water resources of the River Nile. A long-standing dispute between the countries has gained tension due to the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) by Ethiopia.