News Aid cuts, climate change, conflict create “perfect storm” for malaria epidemics
By Contributor
February 22, 2025
By Kidus Dawit
African officials and health experts warn that funding shortfalls, the prevalence of conflict across the continent, and climate change could translate into a surge in malaria cases, posing a real threat to millions of lives and casting serious doubts over the African Union’s goal to eradicate the disease by 2030.
In an interview with The Reporter, Joy Phumaphi, executive secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), said that failure to find alternative sources of funding for anti-malaria initiatives in light of Washington’s freeze on international aid will have “massive” repercussions for the continent.
“People will die. And apart from people dying, our health systems will become weaker,” said Phumaphi.
ALMA is a coalition of AU heads of state and government working to eliminate malaria in Africa by 2030. The body depends largely on grants from international donors, with the US government contributing the largest share.
However, the Trump administration’s crackdown on aid assistance and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) leaves health initiatives designed to fight malaria and other diseases in many African countries, including Ethiopia, in jeopardy.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the AU Summit in Addis Ababa last week, Duma Boko, president of Botswana and incoming ALMA chair, highlighted the urgency of the situation.
“Our progress has stopped, and the hard truth is that we are not on track. A perfect storm of threats, including insufficient resources, climate change, biological risks, and humanitarian crises threaten to undermine our efforts,” he said.
Phumaphi has urged African governments to disburse emergency funding to cover funding gaps for malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS programs, she told The Reporter.
“Because if they don’t, people are going to die,” said the Executive Secretary.
Data from the World Health Organization indicates that fewer than a dozen African countries account for two-thirds of global malaria cases, with an estimated 95 percent of all malaria-related deaths recorded in Africa. The disease took close to 600,000 lives globally in 2023, according to the WHO.
Ethiopia has been grappling with a spike in malaria cases since last year, as delayed detection, security hurdles, a lack of vaccines, and funding shortfalls saw close to four million cases and 900 deaths over the first seven months of 2024, according to a government report.
An estimated 1,400 woredas were affected by malaria outbreaks during those months.
By November, the number of cases had surged to 7.3 million, with well over 1,000 deaths recorded, according to data obtained from the WHO. The figure is nearly 60 percent higher than the total number of cases registered in 2023.