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African Union: Use of AstraZeneca COVID Shot Should Continue

FILE PHOTO: Biomedical engineers pack a consignment of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines under the COVAX scheme against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before distribution at the Kitengela cold rooms stores in Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya March 4, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Biomedical engineers pack a consignment of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines under the COVAX scheme against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before distribution at the Kitengela cold rooms stores in Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya March 4, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
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African Union: Use of AstraZeneca COVID Shot Should Continue

FILE PHOTO: Biomedical engineers pack a consignment of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines under the COVAX scheme against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before distribution at the Kitengela cold rooms stores in Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya March 4, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Biomedical engineers pack a consignment of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines under the COVAX scheme against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before distribution at the Kitengela cold rooms stores in Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya March 4, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo

The African Union said on Thursday that African countries should continue to use AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, echoing the World Health Organization (WHO) by saying the shot’s benefits outweighed risks.

The recommendation comes after more than a dozen European countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid concerns over the risk of blood clots.

Africa has lagged wealthier parts of the world in vaccinations, with many countries on the continent using free AstraZeneca shots distributed by a global scheme co-led by the WHO to kick-start immunization campaigns.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference the “benefits still outweigh the risks” and countries should “move forward”.

The head of the disease control body added that any adverse reactions should be monitored and reported.

“I encourage countries...to continue with their vaccination campaigns and not to pause, as we are in a race against time,” the WHO’s Africa director Matshidiso Moeti told a separate briefing. “The more people are protected, the less likelihood of mutations producing more dangerous variants of the virus.”

AstraZeneca said on Sunday that a review of safety data of more than 17 million people in the United Kingdom and European Union who had been given its vaccine had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

The European Medicines Agency is investigating reports of 30 cases of unusual blood disorders out of 5 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the 27-nation EU. It said it has so far found no causal link.

In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo has delayed the rollout of AstraZeneca’s shot, citing the suspensions in Europe.

But other countries are forging ahead. Angolan Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said on Thursday her country had not recorded any serious side-effects from AstraZeneca’s vaccine so far. She said doses shipped to Angola were from a different batch to ones distributed in Europe.

Muluken Yohannes, a senior adviser to Ethiopia’s health ministry, said the government there would continue using the AstraZeneca shot. “It is too early to associate the link between the current problem and the vaccine,” he told Reuters.

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North Korea Sent More Conventional Weapons to Russia, South Korea Says

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
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North Korea Sent More Conventional Weapons to Russia, South Korea Says

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)

North Korea recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine, while some of the thousands of North Korean troops deployed in Russia have begun engaging in combat, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday.

The South Korean assessment came after Russia warned Monday that US President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war. US officials said Biden’s decision was triggered almost entirely by North Korea’s entry into the war.

In a closed-door briefing at parliament, the National Intelligence Service said that North Korea exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems to Russia, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

Lee told reporters that the NIS assessed those weapons are a type of artillery the Russian military doesn’t operate so North Korea likely dispatched personnel to teach the Russians how to use them and handle their maintenance.

Last week, Russian Telegram channels and other social media posts published photos apparently showing North Korean’s “Koksan” 170mm self-propelled guns being moved by rail inside Russia. The Financial Times, citing Ukrainian intelligence assessments, reported Sunday that North Korea in recent weeks sent some 50 domestically produced 170mm self-propelled howitzers and 20 240mm multiple launch rocket systems to Russia.

The artillery systems are the latest conventional weapons that North Korea is believed to have provided to Russia as the two countries are sharply expanding their military cooperation in the face of separate confrontations with the US and its allies. Last month, the NIS said that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

During its Wednesday briefing, the NIS said that an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers in late October were moved to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized parts of its territory this year, following their training in Russia's northeast, Lee said. He cited the NIS as saying the North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the frontlines.

The US, Ukraine and others have similar estimates on the size of North Korea's troop deployment. They say the North Korean soldiers arrived in Russia in October and that some of them have since engaged in combat in the Kursk region. Observers say North Korea's participation in the almost 3-year war threatens to escalate the conflict.

Park Sunwon, another lawmaker who was present at the NIS meeting, made similar comments on the briefing. He said the spy agency couldn’t provide an assessment on possible North Korean casualties.

Moscow said Tuesday that Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, in what would be Kyiv’s first use of the weapon inside Russia. Ukraine’s General Staff did not confirm whether the weapon was used, but said the armed forces struck an ammunition warehouse in the Bryansk region, which neighbors Kursk and was likely supplying Russian forces fighting there.

Since the first year of the war, Ukrainian leaders have lobbied Western allies to allow them to use advanced weapons to strike key targets inside Russia.