♦ Niger becomes the first country in the African Region to eliminate onchocerciasis. Niger’s Minister of Public Health, Population and Social Affairs Garba Hakimi officially declared that the country is free of onchocerciasis.  

♦ Niger is recognised as the fifth country in the world, the first in Africa, to have successfully halted the transmission of the parasite Onchocerca volvulus.

♦ The other four countries that have reached this milestone are all located in the Americas: Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

♦ Onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness, is a parasitic disease and is the second leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide, after trachoma.