Libreville, 06 May 2022 - As part of its objective to identify priority regional interventions to support each of its eleven member countries, the Economic Community of African States (ECCAS) is organising on 11 May 2022, a meeting by videoconference for the technical validation of the regional plan for the elimination of malaria in Central Africa by 2026.

This regional plan for the elimination of malaria has been developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) and the Alliance of African Heads of State for Malaria Elimination (ALMA).

The development of this plan is part of the implementation of the ECCAS Commission's objectives to eliminate malaria in its member states and to implement the recommendations of the WHO Global Technical Strategy 2016-2030 to help countries reduce the human suffering caused by malaria.

Malaria is the leading cause of child mortality and hospitalization in Africa, with one African child dying every minute. The WHO World Malaria Report 2021 reported 228 million cases of malaria in the WHO African Region, with 602,000 deaths, 80% of which are children under 5 years old.

According to the UN, in 2019, approximately 192,429,744 million of the population living in the 11 countries of Central Africa were at risk of malaria, representing 5% of the world's population at risk. In the same year, the Region recorded 55,208,838 million cases and 93,089 deaths representing almost a quarter of the global burden of disease and mortality.

The meeting is expected to be attended by national malaria control officials from the 11 ECCAS member countries, representatives of the various partners (ALMA, RBM, WHO), experts from the ECCAS health department and its project on Strengthening Regional Disease Surveillance Systems in Central Africa (REDISSE IV), etc.

For any further information related to this meeting, please contact

Ø  Mme Kapinga-Yvette NGANDU,Commissioner in charge of the Department of Gender Promotion and Human and Social Development of ECCAS,           

Ø  Dr. Passoret VOUNBA, Courriel : v.passoret@gmail.com