Please continue to pray for the success of thermal-imaging screening and other airport precautions to contain coronavirus. Over 130 people have died, and the total is rising daily; there are 6,000 confirmed cases, but due to under-reporting the true figure may well be much higher. Pray for those who have unwittingly been in contact with the virus to be discovered by investigating authorities, as only detective searches can bring this epidemic to an end. Currently there is no vaccine for the virus; may God help scientists make an antidote. Pray for His peace to surround the many frustrated people who are subject to limits on travel at home and abroad. Pray for the success of the information programme encouraging hand-washing. Praise God for a 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital , completed after 48 hours of construction, and for an even more ambitious hospital building project due to be completed by Monday. Pray for an equally speedy delivery of protective clothing for healthcare workers. See also

With rich countries like the US evacuating their students, Doctor Bakari, a Tanzanian PhD student, has become a leader for hundreds of students from poorer African countries stranded in Wuhan with little chance of escape. Beijing’s expanding influence on the youthful African continent means Africans are the second-largest population of foreign students. Over 4,000 are estimated to be in Wuhan alone. No one knows how long the lockdown will last, or all the ways the virus can spread. Students fear that angering Chinese or their country’s authorities could lead to retribution such as withdrawing scholarships. Kenya’s government had to defend itself against accusations that it was not helping its students. ‘Students don’t have a clue what’s going on’, says Bakari, who is sending updates on social media to 400+ Tanzanian students in Wuhan and hundreds more across China. ‘Together we are one family,’ his association tweeted, encouraging fellow Africans to take precautionary measures.

Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have rejected Donald Trump’s peace plan which was unveiled on 28 January. Many Palestinians protested in the West Bank, and the US embassy warned of potential terror attacks. The plan calls for a two-state solution with detailed maps of territory showing territory currently under Palestinian control more than doubled, while recognising Israeli sovereignty over major West Bank settlement blocs. Palestine’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, had a rare phone call with Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh in which they agreed to work together against the plan, even though Abbas’s Fatah faction has been at loggerheads with Hamas for over a decade. Palestinian demonstrators at the entrance to Ramallah City burnt tyres, chanting, ‘We will resist the occupier and we announce our rejection of the deal of the century. We won’t accept any substitute for Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.’ Trump’s plan enshrines Jerusalem as Israel’s ‘undivided’ capital.

Insecurity in some parts of the country has led people to form their own vigilante units. A reporter writes, ‘Last week, I helped pay a ransom to free the kidnapped wife and two daughters of a friend; they had been held for eight days after being snatched from their home in the northern city of Kaduna. What I did is no longer unusual, and is one of the many stories resulting from insecurity in this vast country. The government is accused of ineffectiveness, and the governors of six states in the south-west of the country have come up with their own plan to set up a security outfit called amotekun (leopard). It will involve employing new security personnel, with the power to arrest and share intelligence and security infrastructure across the states. The plan has riled the national authorities, and led some to accuse the six states of plotting to secede from Nigeria.