President of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday morning to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Hassan's plane landed in the Chinese capital at around 09:40 local time.
China and Tanzania enjoy profound traditional friendship and are comprehensive strategic cooperative partners. In recent years, the two countries have conducted frequent high-level exchanges. In November 2022, President Hassan paid a state visit to China as the first African head of state after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
China and Tanzania have enjoyed firm political mutual trust and supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns. The two countries established a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in 2022.
As a member of FOCAC, Tanzania has actively participated in the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. Major projects undertaken by Chinese enterprises in the African country, such as the standard gauge railway, the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station and the National ICT Broadband Backbone are progressing steadily. In 2023, bilateral import and export volume of goods stood at 8.779 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 8.9 percent year on year. China has been Tanzania's largest trading partner for seven consecutive years.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Tanzania and is also the China-Tanzania Tourism and Culture Year. An opening gala was held in Beijing on May 15. The TV series "Welcome to Milele," primarily filmed in Tanzania, was also aired in China.
The 2024 FOCAC summit will be held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday under the theme "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future."
President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote speech at the summit's opening ceremony on Thursday.
President of Tanzania arrives in Beijing for 2024 FOCAC summit
The South Sudanese government has ramped up efforts to prevent the spread of cholera following the deaths of at least 60 people since the outbreak in late October.
Minister of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services Michael Makuei Lueth said that 60 deaths have been reported so far, along with 6,000 cases recorded nationwide.
Makuei told journalists in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, that efforts are underway to procure more vaccines after the first batch, sufficient to treat 150,000 people, was dispatched to northern Renk County in Upper Nile State.
"Efforts are now underway to rescue the situation. The Ministry of Health has asked for vaccines. The quantity received so far is very small and they have sent it to Renk so that the people who are there are rescued. Efforts are underway to get more vaccines for the other areas," he said.
The first cholera case was reported on Oct. 28 at the Renk transit center for refugees and returnees fleeing conflict in neighboring Sudan.
Makuei said that most of the cholera cases have been reported among refugees in Renk County, Rubkona County in Unity State, and Aweil town in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State, as well as recently in Juba.
Minister of Health Yolanda Awel Deng recently announced that an additional one million vaccine doses are needed to target vulnerable populations across the country.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), refugees and returnees are the most affected by the outbreak, particularly children under the age of five and the elderly.
The WHO said that contributing factors include limited access to clean water, poor sanitation, open defecation, and overcrowding in transit centers and camps.
South Sudan requires 32 million U.S. dollars to sustain the first three months of the emergency response to the cholera outbreak, the WHO reported.
The funds will be used to strengthen current operations, deploy response teams to newly identified hotspots, maintain essential health services, and procure and distribute additional emergency supplies.
Death toll from cholera outbreak in South Sudan hits 60
