Mozambique’s President Filipe Jacint Nyusi arrived in Kigali, Monday to attend the week-long International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) which is attracting about 10,000 delegates from 150 countries around the world.
Organised under the theme “AIDS Free Africa Innovation, Community, and Political Leadership”, World’s leading scientists, policymakers, activists, People Living with HIV, government leaders – as well as civil society representatives – will be joining the debate on how to achieve an Aids-Free Africa agenda.
Organisers said ICASA 2019 seeks to serve as an opportunity for all stakeholders, particularly governments, to compare notes, learn from best practices and renew their commitment to scaling up and accelerating HIV/AIDS response.
Estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that out of the 34 million HIV-positive people worldwide, 69% live in sub-Saharan Africa.
There are roughly 23.8 million infected persons in all of Africa. 91% of the world’s HIV-positive children live in Africa where more than one million adults and children die every year from HIV/AIDS in Africa alone, according to the same source.
The 20th ICASA summit in Kigali is being attended by the First Ladies of Botswana Neo Masisi and her Chadian counterpart Hinda Deby Itno, Antoinette Sassou N’guesso of Congo Brazzaville, Rebecca Akufo-Addo of Ghana, Neo Masisi of Botswana and Jeannette Kagame of Rwanda.
The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winny Byanyima, the Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Donald Kaberuka and the Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO) are among other dignataries in attendance.
CU/abj/APA