Today in Africa — October 21, 2026: Africa CDC Calls Emergency Ebola Meeting, Burkina Faso Restores the Death Penalty

Nigeria is tracing 44 contacts, mostly health workers, including the patient's husband, a Swiss national who lives with her in Abuja. Officials are also tracing passengers who traveled with her from Uganda but do not believe she was symptomatic during the flight. Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate says the patient is isolated and receiving treatment, and that Nigeria contained Ebola in 2014 and has the systems to respond now.

Uganda says travel through the country does not establish that infection occurred there, and it has no active Ebola cases. It says the woman had traveled to DR Congo, but Nigerian authorities have not confirmed that. Uganda declared itself Ebola-free after 20 cases, and Kenya has recorded nine cases linked to one patient.

Nigerian physician Ayoade Alakija, who co-chairs a G7 committee for investment in global health, says the spread from East to West Africa makes this a "pan-African event." She notes it took 12 days from the woman falling sick to her being tested, and said Abuja's daily air and road links make that delay worrying.

In parts of DR Congo, including North Kivu, health authorities say the disease is out of control, with most deaths occurring in the community and contact tracing struggling to keep pace. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or treatment, and France has also recorded a case.

Health officials fear misinformation and funding shortfalls could fuel further spread. The World Health Organization advised all countries in the region to sustain a high level of readiness.

Burkina Faso abolished the death penalty in 2018, and its last known judicial execution was in 1988, according to Amnesty International. The government presents the change as part of its response to an Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

Bayala said the previous penal code's relative leniency helped armed groups recruit members.

Human Rights Watch said when the Council of Ministers first approved the bill last year that reinstating the death penalty could deepen repression, entrench a climate of fear, and send a chilling message to critics of the military government.

Rights groups say the law could be used against critics, which puts them at odds with the government's framing of it as a counterinsurgency measure.

Meyer says he read the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 early and saw a "deviation" from the Republican Party he knew in the 1980s. Asked why Pretoria's rebuttals of white genocide claims are not landing, he says either Washington has not heard him clearly, or there is "a fundamental ideological difference." He says he has no proof of a broader accusation and is there to represent South Africa, not a faction.

Meyer helped lead the apartheid government's side opposite Ramaphosa in the talks that ended white minority rule. He says those talks worked because both sides were prepared to listen, and that today it is "hard to find a basis for real dialogue."

He says South Africa’s relationship with the U.S. is about 50% political and 50% trade and investment. The political tension dates to the February 2025 executive order on South Africa, which led to five U.S. demands. Local interests in the poultry and pork industries are among the difficult trade sticking points.

Meyer says Black Economic Empowerment rules in mining and telecoms "still leave room for further adjustments," and that discussions are underway with companies looking to invest. He notes the framework has shifted from an initial focus on equity toward equity-equivalence measures.

He says some concerns come from Capitol Hill on a bipartisan basis and that some geopolitical issues predate the current administration. He says part of his job is relaying U.S. concerns to Pretoria and correcting wrong assumptions there.