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African press review 14 November 2014

There’s jubilation in Mubi as it is recaptured from Boko Haram. Ebola drugs are to be tested in west Africa. A South African killer’s trial has been postponed 30 times. And what is the correct mobile etiquette for church-goers?

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The Nigerian military has recaptured Mubi, the second largest city in Adamawa state which was taken over by Boko Haram insurgents two weeks ago.

Abuja-based Punch says a notorious Boko Haram leader known as Amir was arrested in the operation carried out by a combined military force backed by thousands of local hunters and vigilante groups.

ThisDay reports scenes of jubilation and euphoria with residents marching from street to street, chanting songs of victory. According to the paper more than 30,000 local hunters and civilians mobilised from Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno States were involved in the night-time operation. The paper also reports that Vintim, the hometown of the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, is one of the five towns liberated during the joint military operation.

Vanguard’s breaking of some good news coming from the French charity Doctors without Borders (MSF), which is about to launch the unprecedented testing of a series of Ebola drugs on patients across west Africa.

According to the Nigerian newspaper, the trials include the use of survivors’ blood as therapy to battle the epidemic which has taken 5,000 lives since December. Annick Antierens, who is coordinating the operation for MSF told Vanguard that the first trials which include an anti-viral drug Favipiravir made by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) are to begin in Guinea in December with the first results expected in February.

MSF also said it was having a discussion with global health experts about a third trial, on antiviral Brincidofovir in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, but has not yet been given the green light.

Vanguard says that, while the hunt for an Ebola licensed vaccine heats up, one of the leading candidates, known as ChAd3 made by Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, is being tested in Mali and elsewhere. This is as the Antwerp-based Institute of Tropical Medicine will lead trials of “convalescent whole blood and plasma therapy” at MSF’s Donka Ebola centre in Conakry, Guinea’s capital.

In their special coverage of the epidemic several Nigerian papers publish tips from global experts about how to diagnose the killer disease and slow down its development.
Most underline that a patient’s best chance of survival lie in early detection, taking paracetamol for fever, rehydrating and being well nourished during quarantine.

South Africa’s judiciary is far from agreeing on whether a Johannesburg man who killed his wife and his sister in-law is fit to face the full force of the law.

The Star reports that a psychiatrist told the Johannesburg high court sitting in Palm Ridge that Frans Seroba has religious delusions - he considers himself a black Jew who was chosen for greater things. The testimony comes in spite of the fact that Seroba has undergone two psychiatric evaluations at Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital and was found to be fit to stand trial. Seroba’s case has been postponed more than 30 times in seven years.

And what are your thoughts about people who answer their phones in church?
The Sowetan popped the question after posting a rather funny video on its website of an apparently possessed man who halted an anointment prayer by his exorcist pastor to answer his phone.
 

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