In a press conference this month, the head of BAT industry in Benin Republic announced that offices of cigarette manufacturers, British American Tobacco, situated in Ouidah, a former slave trade post located at 50 km from Cotonou, will be closed on 31st October, 2009.

The decision by officials of the company, which supplies several countries in the sub-region, including Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, follows the persistent drop in production since 2006. With a capacity to produce one billion cigarettes per year, the company only produced 490 million cigarettes in 2008 and even fewer in 2009.

In view of these developments, the company, in 2006, lost its customers in the sub-region. The company said, however, that 33 of its workers affected by the closure, would be given new jobs and their entitlements paid accordingly.

The Togo chapter of the Africa Journalists Network on Tobacco Control has been inaugurated after the formation of a national network of journalists. The inauguration took place during a two-days workshop organised by ANCE Togo this August to strengthen the technical capacities of the journalists on  FCTC and its guidelines, which was financially supported by Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids (CTFK).

The network was named "Réseau des Journalistes pour le Contrôle du Tabac au Togo" (RJCTT) – (Network of Journalists for Tobacco Control in Togo).

The network, which has members from public and private media is presided over by Mr Essohanam Téoutéou a journalists at the national television of Togo and has the general secretary as Mr Sinon a journalist at the Togolese News Agency.

As the host organisation in Togo, ANCE Togo is currently providing facility support to journalist network, while ATCRI with collaboration from Africa FCA is providing technical support for the network.

Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) has formed a continental network of journalists to create strategic platform for information sharing and sound propagation of tobacco control messages in the region. This is achieving a national-level formation of media interaction in each country within the sub-Saharan Africa and building up to a high-level interaction at the continental level.

Smoke Free Malawi, a project  of the Youth Alliance in Social and Economic Development (YASED) has challenged the government of Malawi to act in response to the newly released report by PLAN International. The group also called for the resignation of the Minister of Labour over his response to the report. Quotes from the two Press Release:

We wish to register our sincere shock and regret that while it is well known that tobacco fumes exposure is dangerous to human health, there has been clear disregard by Government and the industry to protect innocent Malawians. The report by PLAN Malawi that Malawian Children in tobacco industry are exposed to nicotine levels equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day should send a clear warning to all Malawians that smoking will soon become a national epidemic.

As we have advanced before, the cost of social, health, economic and environmental damage of tobacco growing are huge than the actual benefits that have been propagated as coming from the industry. Apart from 500,000 Malawians working in poor conditions in tobacco estates, exposure of young children to nicotine will guarantee a generation of smokers exposed to the risk of having cancer and many other diseases. The report from PLAN should awaken our Government, specifically the Ministries of Agriculture, Health and those responsible for the welfare of the children.

We appeal to Government to immediately implement the much promised economic diversification programme to save lives of many Malawians that are currently at risk due to exposure to tobacco fumes.

Call for Minister’s Resignation:
Follow up to the report by PLAN International, Smoke Free Malawi takes an exception to the reaction from the Minister of Labour Hon. Yunus Mussa and his officials in trying to bring academic arguments other than addressing the problem that exist in tobacco estates.

We find the reaction of the Ministry unacceptable to summon PLAN to account for the methodology of the research other than to find solutions to the problem of exposure to tobacco fumes. That Malawi tobacco estates have high rates of child labour is a fact proven by many research projects and the tenants in those estates live in poor conditions is another fact. That both pregnant women and Children are engaged in semi-slavery conditions and are exposed to tobacco fumes is undeniable fact.

We take exception to the reaction to start debate on figures which to us means it is acceptable in the thinking of the Minister and his Ministry to have a few child labourers exposed to high levels of nicotine. The Minister does not explain the same exposures to pregnant women and children below the age of five who are used to work in the same estates to support the husband.

The Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI) has challenged the Malawian governments to take urgent steps in signing and ratifying the FCTC in the country to ensure that lives of its citizens, especially women and children are protected.

This call is coming in the wake of a new report released by Plan International, which revealed how child tobacco pickers in Malawi are being exposed to high levels of nicotine poisoning, equivalent of 50 cigarettes per day.

ATCRI in a statement, says that the report, which estimated that  over 78,000 children, some  as young as 5, work on tobacco estates across Malawi for as little as 1 pence an hour, up to 12 hours a day is highly commendable, and the realities of the plight of these children are completed unacceptable in a democratic nation as Malawi.

The statement says that ATCRI disagrees completely with the Honourable Minister of Labour’s claim that the figure of 78,000 children is exaggerated. “We wish to state that, even if only 1 Malawian child is affected and is suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, it is the responsibility of the government to swift into action to protect such life, rather than engage in the debate of lower or higher figure.” says ATCRI Communications Manager, Mr Tosin Orogun.

ATCRI will host a discussion around communication strategies for ATSA  projects in Africa.  The discussion which will involve representatives of IDRC,FCA ATCA and ATCRI is aimed at developing strategies to enable ATSA teams enhance communication, share experience and new findings as the Africa situation Analysis project progress in selected countries. 

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is conducting a situational analysis in 12 countries in the Africa region, including Cameroon, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia, in an initiative designed to understand the critical determinants of success for tobacco control in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has been built with extensive consultation with key African stakeholders. 

This initiative aims to inform the broader development and implementation of tobacco control strategies in Africa.  This is being achieved by gathering data and information in a timely manner, and analyze and interpret the data and information on an ongoing basis in order to inform immediate action for tobacco control as well as longer-term strategies.

The meeting is scheduled to hold between 30th September and 1st October, 2009 at the ATCRI office in Lagos, Nigeria.

The landmark event of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, comes to an end with former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasanjo calling for increased collaborations between the Western nations and NGOs working in Cancer and Tobacco Control in Africa, noting that Africa is currently witnessing increasing cases of tobacco-induced cancer.

The Cancer Summit made the case for acting urgently to address the global cancer burden and introduce new commitments to cancer control by bringing together world leaders, corporations, non-governmental organizations and advocates in an unprecedented show of solidarity. This also provided a platform on which world leaders, organizations and individuals interacted to achieve greater visibility and resonance for their efforts.

Up to 250 organizations and individuals making extraordinary commitments were invited to attend the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, which gave them the opportunity to connect with other advocates, network and gain media exposure.