Cape Verde has become the third African country to be officially declared free of malaria.
It joins Algeria and Mauritius which were declared free of the disease in 2019 and 1973 respectively.
Cape Verde, also known as Cabo Verde, is an archipelago of ten islands off the coast of West Africa. It is a former Portuguese colony and has a population of nearly 600 000 people.
In order to be declared malaria-free, a country must have broken the chain of transmission for at least three years.
The director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was quoted as saying: ‘I salute the government and people of Cabo Verde for their unwavering commitment and resilience in their journey to eliminating malaria.’
The WHO estimates that over 600 000 people died from malaria in 2022, with over 90% of these deaths being in Africa.