Africa accounted for 95 per cent of 600,000 global malaria deaths in 2023, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Malaria Report 2024.

About 400,000 of the total deaths were children under five years old.

There is also an estimation of 1.8 million deaths in 2025 due to malaria if urgent measures are not implemented on the continent.

This was revealed when Parliamentarians across Africa converged on Accra yesterday to discuss ways to develop strategies to eliminate malaria on the continent.

The meeting was also to launch the coalition of parliamentarians to end malaria in Africa (COPEMA) in that regard.

COPEMA was established following the Africa Malaria Ministerial Meeting in March 2024 in Cameroun, which emerged from the Yaoundé Declaration.

The event was aimed at sensitising parliamentarians to the importance of the fight against malaria.

It was also to provide a platform for policymakers and the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) managers to, among others, strengthen domestic financing and ensure that malaria response efforts were driven by evidence and real-world implementation experience.

COPEMA

The Chairman of the Health Committee of Parliament, Dr Mark Nawaane, commended COPEMA for bringing parliamentarians together to develop strategies to fight malaria in Africa.

He commended the health authorities in Ghana for their efforts in the fight against malaria.

“I think last year, on record, we had fewer than 300 deaths from malaria. We can do far better than what we are doing now if only we can provide more resources to the Malaria Control Programme,” he said.

A Parliamentarian from Uganda and a Member of COPEMA, Santa Okot, also called for a strong political will to eliminate malaria from the continent.

“If the executive order in January has removed funding from malaria, and our government does not step up and put money to add on to domestic revenue, then we shall go nowhere,” she added.

Heads of State

The Chief Executive Officer of Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership to End Malaria, Dr Michael Adekunle, said the malaria fight could be won with parliamentarians advocating in parliament and also ensuring that heads of state were aware of the significance of the fight against malaria.

“Last year, we did a survey that showed that if we can reduce the burden of malaria by 90 per cent by the year 2030, we will increase the gross domestic product on the African continent by $127 billion,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of Afrika Kwanza Health Impact, Dr Corine Karema, said the goal of eliminating malaria remained at risk due to stagnating funding, operational challenges and emerging threats such as insecticide and drug resistance.

To that effect, she said there had been innovations with new mosquito nets with strong insecticides that could kill mosquitoes as wel as a malaria vaccine and new tools that were in the research and development pipeline.

Dr Karema said the world needed at least $8.3 billion for the malaria response but said only $4.3 billion was available.

She indicated that the figure was less than 50 per cent of the funding needed by countries to buy mosquito nets, for treatment, diagnosis, and malaria interventions.

“Today, one child is dying every minute, so we must act now,” she said.

Dr Karema, said that only three countries — Algeria, Mauritius and Cabo Verde — had eliminated malaria which she described as a preventable and treatable disease.