Preview Newsletter

Humanitarian Issues Media Monitoring 3/17/19

Venezuela

Doctors using flashlights for surgery in Venezuela as blackout continues
Mar 11, 2019 | CBS
By Manuel Bojorquez

The crisis in Venezuela is getting more desperate by the hour as a nationwide power failure stretched into a fifth day. Food and gasoline are running out as a political power struggle plays out. Doctors have been reduced to performing emergency surgeries by flashlight ever since the power went out over much of Venezuela last Thursday. Opposition groups say an estimated 17 people have died from lack of medical care, like dialysis.
News Failed aid gambit deepens crisis for Venezuelans at closed Colombia border
Mar 14, 2019 | IRIN
By Joshua Collins

Since last month’s failed attempt to force foreign aid into Venezuela resulted in the closing of the border, aid workers in Colombia say conditions have deteriorated for Venezuelans – both those fleeing and those staying behind in frontier towns now largely cut off from assistance.

Europe's Borders

European leaders must end the humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe's borders
Mar 14, 2019 | Amnesty International

European leaders must end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands and urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across European countries, said Amnesty International and 24 other NGOs in an open letter, published on the eve of the deal’s third anniversary.
NGOs calling on European leaders to urgently take action to end the humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s borders
Mar 14, 2019 | Reliefweb

We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.

Cyclone Idai

Cyclone Idai: Many dead in Zimbabwe and Mozambique
Mar 16, 2019 | BBC

A tropical storm has swept away bridges and homes in eastern Zimbabwe, killing at least 24 people, officials say. Cyclone Idai cut off power and communications in parts of Manicaland province on the border with Mozambique. Some 40 people are missing.
UN Escalates Emergency Aid for Malawi, Mozambique Cyclone Victims
Mar 15, 2019 | Voice of America
By Lisa Schlein

The hugely destructive storm, the largest in at least a decade, made landfall Thursday near the heavily-populated Mozambican port city of Beira. This has aggravated the severe flooding, which has been creating havoc over the past week in southern Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe. U.N. agencies estimate more than 900,000 people in Malawi and 600,000 in Mozambique are affected by the heavy rains and flooding. Scores of people are believed to have been killed and injured, and tens of thousands left homeless.

Sudan

Crisis-struck Sudan signs deals for $300 million with Arab funds
Mar 16, 2019 | Reuters

Sudan has signed deals for loans worth $300 million with regional Arab funds, authorities said on Saturday, as the government struggles to cope with an economic crisis and nearly three months of street protests.
Medicines in short supply or unaffordable in Darfur
Mar 12, 2019 | Dabanga

Patients in Darfur have complained about the lack of medicines, making them unaffordable. They point to the exit of a number of pharmaceutical companies from Sudan.
Darfur: Measles, dysentery, pneumonia, and eye infections spreading fast in Jebel Marra
Mar 13, 2019 | Dabanga

The Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) has renewed its appeal to local, regional, and international organisations to intervene to save the lives of people living in Jebel Marra against rapidly spreading measles, dysentery, pneumonia, and eye infections.

South Sudan

Pope reactivates plans for South Sudan trip
Mar 16, 2019 | Reuters
By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis has asked aides to resume plans for a visit to South Sudan, a trip that had to be scrapped in 2017 because of the civil war in the world’s youngest country.

Madagascar

Aiding the Fight Against Measles in Madagascar
Mar 16, 2019 | Reliefweb
By Kayla McCarthy

With more than 1,100 reported deaths on the island since last fall, vaccination efforts are underway to prevent further spread of the disease.
In Madagascar, 1,100 measles deaths are more about money than ‘vaccine hesitancy’
Mar 14, 2019 | IRIN
By Lova Rabary

This is the front line of efforts to combat Madagascar’s deadliest measles outbreak in living memory. The virus has killed more than 1,100 people – mostly children – since September, and infected nearly 100,000 more all across this large island nation.

Congo

Ebola Epidemic in Congo Could Last Another Year, C.D.C. Director Warns
Mar 16, 2019 | The New York TImes
By Denise Grady

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not under control and could continue for another year, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on Friday.
WHO says Ebola area contained but Congo needs long-term support
Mar 14, 2019 | Reuters
By Tom Miles

The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is now concentrated in two areas and could be stopped by September, but the world must tackle Congo’s broader crisis to make it count, the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Venezuela

Doctors using flashlights for surgery in Venezuela as blackout continues

Mar 11, 2019 | CBS

By Manuel Bojorquez

Miami — The crisis in Venezuela is getting more desperate by the hour as a nationwide power failure stretched into a fifth day. Food and gasoline are running out as a political power struggle plays out.
Doctors have been reduced to performing emergency surgeries by flashlight ever since the power went out over much of Venezuela last Thursday. Opposition groups say an estimated 17 people have died from lack of medical care, like dialysis.
Doctor Luis Fernandez spoke with CBS News via skype from Caracas about one patient with a high-risk pregnancy. He said she lost the baby and is now in critical condition. With another explosion reported at a substation Monday, he worries about his other patients.
Embattled President Nicolas Maduro said the outage was the result of a cyberattack by the U.S., but provided no evidence. Opposition leader Juan Guaido alleged corruption and mismanagement by Maduro's regime.
What's clear here is the misery. Residents said pumps stopped working, forcing them to search for water.
The Caracas airport is barely functioning. With no quick fix on the horizon, a country already dealing with crisis is uncertain how much longer it will remain in the dark.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-as-blackout-continues-doctors-using-flashlights-for-surgery-2019-03-11/

Return to headline | Return to top
News Failed aid gambit deepens crisis for Venezuelans at closed Colombia border

Mar 14, 2019 | IRIN

By Joshua Collins

Since last month’s failed attempt to force foreign aid into Venezuela resulted in the closing of the border, aid workers in Colombia say conditions have deteriorated for Venezuelans – both those fleeing and those staying behind in frontier towns now largely cut off from assistance.
“The political crisis has made the humanitarian crisis worse,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a Catholic priest who heads a local NGO called CONSORC that provides support to a growing number of vulnerable Venezuelans in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta.
Some 3.4 million Venezuelans have fled the country’s economic collapse since 2015, many of them across the two bridges that connect the Venezuelan city of San Antonio del Táchira with Cúcuta.
Colombian Red Cross workers stationed at the Simón Bolívar bridge were overwhelmed when IRIN visited. There were hundreds of Venezuelans waiting for basic medicine and examinations. A Venezuelan with heavily bandaged feet was being rolled on a stretcher to a nearby ambulance.
Last month, Juan Guaidó, the head of the National Assembly who has been recognised as interim Venezuelan president by more than 50 countries around the world, invited in humanitarian assistance from the United States and elsewhere. But President Nicolás Maduro cast aside outside offers, framing them as a prelude to a foreign invasion.
The showdown came to a head on 23 February. Although two pickup trucks of aid, amid deadly skirmishes, did pierce the Brazilian border, the blockade held firm. And while some security personnel did defect, they didn’t revolt en masse and bring down the Maduro regime.
Having returned to Caracas from Cúcuta, Guaidó now finds himself accused of sabotaging the national power grid, which went down for much of the past week, depriving Venezuelans of electricity, pumped water, and, in many places, means of communication.
“What is really a social problem – a problem of hunger, of sickness and of medical emergency – is being adversely affected by political jockeying,” said Rodriguez, who noted an increase in the numbers of Venezuelans crossing into Cúcuta despite the closed border.The trochas
Colombian immigration officials estimated before the border closure that 35,000 Venezuelans crossed the Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges into Cúcuta daily for work, trade, school, or medical care, with the majority returning home before nightfall.
With the border closed – apart from limited openings on certain days for school or medical care for some children with documentation – Venezuelans have increasingly been flocking to more dangerous routes: the network of clandestine trails called trochas that weave their way between Cúcuta and its sister Venezuelan cities of San Antonio and Ureña.
In the region around Cúcuta, the trochas are controlled primarily by three groups: paramilitary forces loyal to Maduro called the colectivos; Colombian ELN guerrillas; and the Bacrin narcotrafficking group, which uses them to smuggle cocaine through Venezuela.
The trochas are also a major smuggling corridor for other goods. Gasoline is transported from Venezuela – where it is effectively free – to be sold in Colombia, while food and basic hygiene items go the other way for large profits. The gangs who control the trochas charge 2,000 pesos (about 65 cents) to cross, with higher fees for those transporting goods.
The trochas are usually safe for migrants, but there have been some reports of violence as well as instances of criminals preying upon the particularly vulnerable. The number of Venezuelans crossing has become impossible to monitor.‘We can no longer enter’
Over the years, this informal cross-border trade has left many Venezuelans in San Antonio and Ureña economically dependent on Cúcuta.
Aid workers in Colombia fear a humanitarian crisis is brewing across the border as residents of the Venezuelan cities now find themselves unable to cross, or unwilling to pay armed criminals to do so.
“We can no longer enter,” said Red Cross doctor Gabriel Antonio Casadiego. “We used to provide basic medical attention to those right across the border, but now it is closed to everyone.”
Among the hundreds of Venezuelans seeking help on the Simón Bolívar bridge was Jesus Herrera, who said he made only 18,000 pesos ($6 USD) a month across the border.
“I came for my daughter. She was having really bad stomach pains,” he said. “There is nothing in Venezuela. At this moment, in San Antonio, we don’t even have power.”
Herrera said the gang who control the trochas had let them pass for free, but he was worried as no one could help his daughter on the Venezuelan side and they would have to return in a few days for another examination.
The doctor, Casadiego, recalled how helpless he felt as a trauma specialist during the riots on 23 February. “All I could think about the whole day was that I could have been of help there,” he said. “They don’t even have basic medical supplies; but we couldn’t enter.”
Although he has been unable to assess the situation first hand, Casadiego said the types of patients he saw in Cúcuta left him in no doubt that the situation across the border was already disastrous.
“We see malnutrition, chronic conditions that have long gone untreated, infections from a lack of antibiotics, dengue fever, and we see the aftermath of wounds from horrible work conditions and violence that were sometimes never treated properly,” he said. “They have no medical system.”Worsening situation
Just outside Cúcuta, Alma Maria Fernandez runs a shelter called Fund AR that provides food and lodging along the main route for migrants travelling on foot to the Colombian capital, Bogotá.
She said the days following the attempt to push humanitarian aid into Venezuela were particularly difficult. She estimates that 1,000 people a day passed by this small shelter, when before the number was a few hundred. “We completely ran out of food, of space. All we could offer to those passing was water.”
As the political situation in Venezuela has become more and more tense, those fleeing have become increasingly fearful that Maduro loyalists are infiltrating groups of migrants, according to Rodriguez, the priest from CONSORC.
“Many of the Venezuelans want to hide their identities,” he said. “Part of our job is trying to ensure that they have the proper documents to apply for the right to work, to enrol their children in schools and receive medical treatment. But some of them are now afraid to even tell us their real names.”
A paramedic who has worked 10 years for the Red Cross in the region but didn’t want to give his name as he couldn’t speak for the organisation referred to the aid showdown between Guaidó and Maduro as a “circus” and said it had made their jobs more difficult.
“I will say this,” he added. “Right now there’s no power in the hospitals in [the major Venezuelan city of] San Cristóbal. It is certain that people are dying. And I can’t help them. Maybe before we could have at least communicated with them and provided transportation from the border to the hospitals here. But now we can do nothing. And that kills me.”
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2019/03/14/failed-aid-gambit-deepens-crisis-venezuelans-closed-colombia-border

Return to headline | Return to top

Europe's Borders

European leaders must end the humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe's borders

Mar 14, 2019 | Amnesty International

European leaders must end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands and urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across European countries, said Amnesty International and 24 other NGOs in an open letter, published on the eve of the deal’s third anniversary.
Letter to European leaders
We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.
The policy that traps people on the Greek islands and prevents them from reaching the European mainland has caused a recurrent and endless cycle of overcrowding, substandard living conditions and extremely poor access to services: the European “hotspots” continue to provide accommodation and basic services, such as food and medical assistance, well below minimum standards. The European response in Greece has proven to have disastrous consequences on refugees’ rights, including their health and safety. This has been exhaustively documented and brought to your attention through countless reports over the last three years.
As many as 20,000 asylum seekers were stranded in unsafe, unhygienic and degrading conditions on the Greek islands in 2018. Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centres built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.
While the number of asylum applications across Europe has dropped over the last three years, the number of asylum applications filed in Greece has increased exponentially. In Lesvos alone, for instance, the number of asylum applications more than tripled between 2016 (5,000 applications) and 2018 (17,270 applications). At the same time, organizations providing medical and legal assistance are stretched beyond capacity. By preventing most asylum seekers from leaving the islands and being transferred to the European mainland, European governments are putting undue pressure on the islands’ residents, local community resources, local authorities, and on Greece, while reception conditions, including the protection mechanisms for asylum seekers are still substandard.
The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.
It is shameful that, despite this sobering reality, some European governments have been holding hostage any real responsibility sharing mechanism until returns are sped up and increased, focusing instead on deterrence policies and border controls at the expense of basic rights and safeguards. The current situation at the borders of Europe is the direct result of those short-sighted and unsustainable policies implemented following the EU-Turkey deal and the lack of aptitude and political will across Europe to find common ground on key aspects of a common European asylum system.
As civil society organizations from across the European continent, we are convinced that the EU has sufficient resources and capacity to respond humanely to the needs of all those seeking asylum in its territory. Taking immediate measures to improve the conditions of people seeking asylum in Europe and finding a solution to the current humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s border is your responsibility and duty. We therefore call on you to live up to Europe’s human rights foundation and values. To that end, we, the undersigned organizations, call on you to:urgently agree on fair and sustainable arrangements for sharing responsibility for asylum seekers arriving in Europe, that will ensure member states’ ability to provide decent and dignified conditions for people in need of protection. In this context, we welcome the recent announcement of an agreement between the governments of Portugal and Greece, to gradually relocate 1,000 refugees out of the camps.
urge the Greek Government to suspend immediately the restriction of movement that unnecessarily contains asylum seekers in the Greek islands, imposing squalid and dangerous living conditions on them and putting unfair pressure on Greece and the residents of the Aegean islands. To facilitate the transfer of asylum seekers off the islands increased capacity on the sites in the mainland through an improved and more effective shelter allocation is therefore needed.
Yours sincerely,
ActionAid Hellas
Amnesty International
Avocats Sans Frontières France
Boat Refugee Foundation
Caritas Hellas
CEAR - Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado
Danish Refugee Council
DIOTIMA - Center for Research on Women’s Issues
Equal Rights Beyond Borders
Greek Council for Refugees
Greek Helsinki Monitor
Human Rights Watch
International Rescue Committee
JRS Europe
JRS Hellas
Legal Center Lesbos
Mare Liberum
Médecins du monde - Greece
Oxfam
Praksis
Refugee Legal Support
Refugee Rights Europe
Solidar
Solidarity Now
Terre des hommes Hellas
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/03/european-leaders-must-end-the-humanitarian-and-human-rights-crisis-at-europes-borders/

Return to headline | Return to top
NGOs calling on European leaders to urgently take action to end the humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s borders

Mar 14, 2019 | Reliefweb

We, the 25 undersigned humanitarian, human rights and volunteer organizations call on you, in the run up to the third anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, to take immediate and sustained action to end the unfair and unnecessary containment policy which is preventing asylum seekers from leaving the Greek islands. We also call on you to urgently reach a common responsibility-sharing agreement for hosting asylum seekers across EU Member States.
The policy that traps people on the Greek islands and prevents them from reaching the European mainland has caused a recurrent and endless cycle of overcrowding, substandard living conditions and extremely poor access to services: the European “hotspots” continue to provide accommodation and basic services, such as food and medical assistance, well below minimum standards. The European response in Greece has proven to have disastrous consequences on refugees’ rights, including their health and safety. This has been exhaustively documented and brought to your attention through countless reports over the last three years1 .
As many as 20,000 asylum seekers were stranded in unsafe, unhygienic and degrading conditions on the Greek islands in 2018. Currently, around 12,000 people are still forced to live in inadequate reception and identification centers built for a maximum capacity of half this population: sleeping in unheated tents or overcrowded containers with limited access to running water and electricity, and often exposed to ongoing violence, harassment and exploitation, amid high tensions, lack of security and minimal protection.
While the number of asylum applications across Europe has dropped over the last three years, the number of asylum applications filed in Greece has increased exponentially. In Lesvos alone, for instance, the number of asylum applications more than tripled between 2016 (5,000 applications) and 2018 (17,270 applications). At the same time, organizations providing medical and legal assistance are stretched beyond capacity. By preventing most asylum seekers from leaving the islands and being transferred to the European mainland, European governments are putting undue pressure on the islands’ residents, local community resources, local authorities, and on Greece, while reception conditions, including the protection mechanisms for asylum seekers are still substandard.
The expectation that most newcomers could be returned to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal has proved to be dangerously unrealistic. According to Greek Asylum Service representatives in Lesvos, only up to 6% of the asylum-seekers arriving to Lesvos would be eligible for return to Turkey.
It is shameful that, despite this sobering reality, some European governments have been holding hostage any real responsibility sharing mechanism until returns are sped up and increased, focusing instead on deterrence policies and border controls at the expense of basic rights and safeguards. The current situation at the borders of Europe is the direct result of those short-sighted and unsustainable policies implemented following the EU-Turkey deal and the lack of aptitude and political will across Europe to find common ground on key aspects of a common European asylum system.
As civil society organizations from across the European continent, we are convinced that the EU has sufficient resources and capacity to respond humanely to the needs of all those seeking asylum in its territory. Taking immediate measures to improve the conditions of people seeking asylum in Europe and finding a solution to the current humanitarian and human rights crisis at Europe’s border is your responsibility and duty. We therefore call on you to live up to Europe’s human rights foundation and values. To that end, we, the undersigned organizations, call on you to:
urgently agree on fair and sustainable arrangements for sharing responsibility for asylum seekers arriving in Europe, that will ensure member states’ ability to provide decent and dignified conditions for people in need of protection. In this context, we welcome the recent announcement of an agreement between the governments of Portugal and Greece, to gradually relocate 1,000 refugees out of the camps.
urge the Greek Government to suspend immediately the restriction of movement that unnecessarily contains asylum seekers in the Greek islands, imposing squalid and dangerous living conditions on them and putting unfair pressure on Greece and the residents of the Aegean islands. To facilitate the transfer of asylum seekers off the islands, increased reception capacity in the mainland and more effective shelter allocation are needed.
urge the Greek Government to better allocate and use EU funding - not only prioritizing the support of the border control and asylum procedures, but also ensuring the provision of essential services - such as medical and legal services for the safety and rights of migrants - as well as the planning of a fair and an efficient asylum system and a long term and sustainable reception and integration plan for refugees and migrants in Greece.
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/ngos-calling-european-leaders-urgently-take-action-end-humanitarian-and-human-rights

Return to headline | Return to top

Cyclone Idai

Cyclone Idai: Many dead in Zimbabwe and Mozambique

Mar 16, 2019 | BBC

A tropical storm has swept away bridges and homes in eastern Zimbabwe, killing at least 24 people, officials say.
Cyclone Idai cut off power and communications in parts of Manicaland province on the border with Mozambique. Some 40 people are missing.
People fled from their homes to the slopes of mountain and were waiting to be rescued, but strong winds have hampered helicopter flights.
In Mozambique, where Idai made landfall on Thursday, at least 19 people died.
Flooding across the rest of the country had already killed nearly 70 people before the storm's arrival.The effects of drought and severe weather in Mozambique
Zimbabwe's information ministry said the town of Chimanimani had been cut from the rest of Manicaland province. The country's national army was leading the rescue efforts, it added.
The death toll was expected to rise as authorities continued to assess the situation.
Jacob Mafume, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said a "serious humanitarian crisis [was] unfolding" in the east of the country.
The death toll was expected to rise as authorities continued to assess the situation.
Jacob Mafume, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said a "serious humanitarian crisis [was] unfolding" in the east of the country.
Beira has often seen the worst of the storms and has worked to limit the effects of rising waters brought about by climate change through a series of infrastructure projects.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47595863

Return to headline | Return to top
UN Escalates Emergency Aid for Malawi, Mozambique Cyclone Victims

Mar 15, 2019 | Voice of America

By Lisa Schlein

GENEVA — U.N. agencies are making preparations to provide emergency aid to hundreds of thousands of victims of Tropical Cyclone Idai in response to appeals from the governments of Malawi and Mozambique.
The hugely destructive storm, the largest in at least a decade, made landfall Thursday near the heavily-populated Mozambican port city of Beira. This has aggravated the severe flooding, which has been creating havoc over the past week in southern Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe.
U.N. agencies estimate more than 900,000 people in Malawi and 600,000 in Mozambique are affected by the heavy rains and flooding. Scores of people are believed to have been killed and injured, and tens of thousands left homeless.
Precise figures will not be available until aid agencies gain access to all areas of the affected region and are able to fully assess the damage. The World Food Program says it had pre-positioned a small amount of food in the region before the cyclone hit and has distributed a limited amount to some of the victims.
The agency says it is preparing a large-scale operation to meet the enormous assistance needs. World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier told VOA his agency also is making preparations to deal with the huge health needs likely to result from this disaster.
‘Following the flooding, which is coming with the rains, you have of course the risks of drowning and victims. But you also have crush and trauma injuries through the flooding. This is typically followed then later by water-borne diseases, the rise of air-borne diseases like malaria could also be expected,” he said.
Lindmeier said the mid and long-term effects that result from extensive damage to infrastructure and health facilities can be very serious. He said assistance to pregnant women or delivery of aid to diabetes patients could be hampered.
Aid agencies are doing their best to provide assistance while the cyclone plays out. But this is very difficult. They say many areas are inaccessible due to the flooding. They say the airspace over Mozambique is closed for the moment because of the weather, so flying in relief supplies for now is largely stalled.
The agencies say they are bracing for another possible disaster as the cyclone moves toward Zimbabwe.
https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-mozambique-cyclone-aid/4830793.html

Return to headline | Return to top

Sudan

Crisis-struck Sudan signs deals for $300 million with Arab funds

Mar 16, 2019 | Reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan has signed deals for loans worth $300 million with regional Arab funds, authorities said on Saturday, as the government struggles to cope with an economic crisis and nearly three months of street protests.
The finance ministry agreed a $230 million loan with the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund to support the balance of payments, the ministry said in a statement.
A deal for a second loan worth $70 million was signed with the Arab Trade Financing Program, whose shareholders include the Arab Monetary Fund and which is also based in Abu Dhabi, according to a statement from Sudan’s presidency.
The deals were signed as President Omar al-Bashir and other officials including the central bank governor met Arab Monetary Fund Director General Abdulrahman Al Hamidy in the capital, Khartoum.
A worsening economic crisis in Sudan triggered frequent demonstrations across the country since Dec. 19 in which protesters have called for an end to Bashir’s three-decade rule.
The government has expanded the money supply, pushing inflation to more than 70 percent before the end of last year before it slowed to under 50 percent in January and February, according to official figures.
Diplomats say the government has struggled to raise new funds from abroad as it tries to keep the economy afloat.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-economy/crisis-struck-sudan-signs-deals-for-300-million-with-arab-funds-idUSKCN1QX0EQ

Return to headline | Return to top
Medicines in short supply or unaffordable in Darfur

Mar 12, 2019 | Dabanga

Patients in Darfur have complained about the lack of medicines, making them unaffordable. They point to the exit of a number of pharmaceutical companies from Sudan.
A number of patients and their families in El Geneina, Nyala, Zalingei, and El Fasher hospitals in Darfur have complained of lack of medicines and their high prices. The patients said that all they get in hospitals is prescriptions from doctors, and complain of the lack of medical examination devices, drinking water, and toilets in the hospitals.
A number of patients told Radio Dabanga, that four dialysis machines in El Fasher Teaching Hospital are non-operational, in addition to the CT scanner. They expressed their grief and concern for not being able to afford to go to Khartoum.
The Central Pharmacists Committee said the country will face an even worse medicine crisis in the next few weeks because a number of the companies involved in the import of medicine are planning to stop the import of medicines to Sudan until further notice because of the rise of the Dollar prices.
They pointed out that the exit of a number of pharmaceutical companies from the medicine market in Sudan has led to the stop of the import of many types of medicines.
In February, Indian and English pharmaceutical companies left the Sudanese market, such as Sun Pharma, which specialises in psychiatric and neurological medicines. Also the scientific office of the Saudi company Jamjoom in Khartoum has had to shut down.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/medicines-in-short-supply-or-unaffordable-in-darfur

Return to headline | Return to top
Darfur: Measles, dysentery, pneumonia, and eye infections spreading fast in Jebel Marra

Mar 13, 2019 | Dabanga

The Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) has renewed its appeal to local, regional, and international organisations to intervene to save the lives of people living in Jebel Marra against rapidly spreading measles, dysentery, pneumonia, and eye infections.
Mohamed Abdallah, the official of the health unit in Turung Tawra in the southern part of Jebel Tawra reported that they have closed schools in the area to combat the infection of the students and teachers with the disease and to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Dr Abdelaziz Adam, head of the health office in the Jebel Marra areas under control of the SLM-AW, reported the deaths of dozens and hundreds of those diseases because of the shortage of medicines and medical staff. He also said that the regime blockades access or delivery of any medicines, and government forces arrest any traders coming to Jebel Marra under the emergency law.
He called for pressure on Khartoum regime to allow the entry of medicines and the humanitarian organisation for the relief of patients and to prevent a humanitarian disaster and the fall of more victims.
‘Acute watery diarrhoea’
The Legitimate Sudan Doctors Union pointed to the frequency of information that there are many cases of acute watery diarrhoea (often a sign of cholera) in the area of Libei in eastern Jebel Marra.
It explained that the region suffers from a complete collapse of health facilities and public health systems. It pointed to reports of the arrival of a large number of cases to various hospitals in East Darfur for nearly two weeks now, accusing authorities of covering up the disease.
The union warned of the seriousness of the outbreak of the epidemic in the region, pointing to the overcrowding of the people affected by the war in the displaced camps.
It called on the humanitarian organisations working in Darfur and the WHO office in Sudan to conduct epidemiological investigation of the source of ill health, care for the infected and provide vaccines for those exposed to the disease.
Agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Central Darfur arrested 35-year-old nurse Mousa Ahmed Ali from inside a clinic in Turr in southern Jebel Marra.
A member of Ali’s family told Radio Dabanga that a security force in two vehicles came from Nierteti on Sunday morning and held the nurse from inside a clinic in Turr and took him to Nierteti without giving any explanation.
He expressed concern that Ali might be tortured or ill-treated and demanded his immediate release.
Jebel Marra access
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan, during the first half of 2018, some 15,000 people were newly displaced in Darfur, all of which was in and from Jebel Marra. In Radio Dabanga’s ongoing reporting on the renewed heavy clashes in Darfur’s Jebel Marra, the SLM-AW was the only armed movement reported to be involved in the fighting.
The mountainous Jebel Marra is the only place in Darfur where armed opposition maintains prolonged control over territory and the only area in Darfur to which humanitarian organisations had no access between 2011 and 2015. For this reason, access restrictions have been put in place by Khartoum for government- and rebel-controlled areas.
As the latest periodic report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the UN Security Council of January 14 pointed out: “Notwithstanding sustained and positive engagement between state authorities and Unamid, corroborating reports on human rights incidents in Central Darfur continued to be a challenge.”
In September 2018, however, the SLM-AW announced a ceasefire to facilitate access and relief aid to a landslide-affected area in East Jebel Marra. Abdelgader Gadoura, commander-in-chief of the movement, said in November that although the SLM-AW has declared a ceasefire, the regime has continued to breach the agreement.
Peace process
The SLM-AW, that, together with the Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against the Khartoum government in 2002-03, has witnessed a number of splits. The largest one was the breakaway of a group led by Minni Minawi in 2006. They were divided on the issue of the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Still, Abdelwahid El Nur and his movement resolutely refuse to enter into talks or negotiations with the Khartoum government. Last month, the head of the Unamid Joint Special Representative (JSR), Jeremiah Mamabolo, renewed his appeal to the holdout rebel leader to join the peace process.
Mamabolo’s remarks drew sharp criticism from the heads of Darfur’s armed movements. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Arko Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), the opposition Sudanese Congress Party, and Abdelwahid El Nur himself, all strongly criticised Mamabolo, accusing him of exceeding his mandate.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/darfur-measles-dysentery-pneumonia-and-eye-infections-spreading-fast-in-jebel-marra

Return to headline | Return to top

South Sudan

Pope reactivates plans for South Sudan trip

Mar 16, 2019 | Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has asked aides to resume plans for a visit to South Sudan, a trip that had to be scrapped in 2017 because of the civil war in the world’s youngest country.
During a meeting with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Saturday, Francis “expressed the wish to ascertain the conditions for a possible visit to South Sudan,” a Vatican statement said.
It added that he wanted to make the trip as “a sign of closeness to the population and of encouragement for the peace process”.
Oil-producing South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, descended into civil war in December 2013 when a dispute between Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar sparked fighting, often along ethnic lines.
In September, Kiir, who is Catholic, and Machar, a Presbyterian, signed a peace deal calling on the two main rival factions to assemble, screen and train their respective forces and unify them into a national army before the formation of a unity government in May.
Three days ago, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report that the six-month-old peace deal risked collapse because none of these steps have occurred, just two months before the deadline.
More than half of the population of South Sudan is Christian, while Sudan is predominantly Muslim.
In 2017, Catholic Church leaders in the country said they had expected the pope would visit the capital, Juba, in the autumn of that year. The tentative plans were scrapped because of security concerns.
About 400,000 people have been killed, and more than a third of the country’s 12 million people uprooted by the civil war - a conflict punctuated by multiple rounds of mediation followed by renewed bloodshed.
The original trip was to have lasted only one day for security reasons and the pope was to have flown in after spending a night in another African country.
Francis is expected to visit several African countries this year, including Madagascar.
The pope was to have made the 2017 trip to South Sudan with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the worldwide Anglican communion, in an effort to promote unity in the mostly Christian country.
The conflict sparked Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide and plunged parts of the country into famine.
More than 875,000 refugees have fled into neighboring Uganda since the war broke out.
The pope and Kiir discussed the return of refugees, the Vatican statement said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-southsudan/pope-reactivates-plans-for-south-sudan-trip-idUSKCN1QX0GO

Return to headline | Return to top

Madagascar

Aiding the Fight Against Measles in Madagascar

Mar 16, 2019 | Reliefweb

By Kayla McCarthy

An outbreak of measles has infected nearly 87,000 people across Madagascar since last October, and the country’s health sector is working to stem the spread of the disease.
Measles is one of the most contagious viral diseases known, and can result in serious complications, such as pneumonia, encephalitis, and blindness. In severe cases, it can also be fatal, particularly in young children.
Since October, the disease has already claimed the lives of 1,141 individuals, and 70 percent of the deaths are of children, 14 and under. Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health and its civil society partners have launched an aggressive vaccination campaign across the country in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease.
This is an alarming situation,” said Dr. Ali Ouenzar, National Director of PIVOT, a prominent health sector NGO and Direct Relief partner on the front lines of the epidemic. Preventive measures must be accelerated to prevent the spread of the disease, he said. The group just completed a vaccination campaign effort that reached 65,000 children, ages 6 months to 9 years, in the district of Ifanadiana.
The weather may complicate continued vaccination efforts this week, as a hurricane-force storm system from Cyclone Idai is expected to bringing flooding and high winds to many places in Madagascar already suffering from the measles outbreak.
While progress on measles vaccination has been made, funding gaps remain a serious concern for the campaign effort — as does the lack of adequate medicine and supplies for healthcare facilities to properly treat the rising number of cases.
RESURGENCE OF MEASLES AS A GLOBAL THREAT
Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths globally each year.  Through an extended global vaccination effort since the introduction of the vaccine, the number of cases of measles, and therefore deaths due to complications from measles, has drastically declined over the last half-century.
However, the reality is that measles remains a deadly threat.
WHO reports that 110,000 deaths occurred due to measles infection in 2017. Measles infections in 2018 have doubled globally since 2017, with extended outbreaks occurring across regions and in countries that had previously achieved measles elimination. Those numbers are difficult to come to terms with given that the disease is 100 percent preventable and had been eliminated until recently from many parts of the world.
Patterns of immunization coverage may be one reason for the recent spike in cases and deaths. Madagascar’s health sector, like many of the poorest countries, has struggled in recent years to meet widely accepted vaccination targets. Estimated measles immunization coverage in Madagascar prior to the outbreak was only at 58 percent, far below the 95 percent needed to protect against an epidemic.
Further complicating the outbreak in Madagascar, the country has the highest proportion of malnutrition among children under the age of five in the African region, leaving roughly half of the country’s children especially vulnerable to the disease.
SUPPORTING LOCAL PARTNERS ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE OUTBREAK
In response to an urgent request from PIVOT Works and the Ministry of Public Health of Madagascar, Direct Relief is equipping health centers and hospitals in the region of Vatovavy-Fitovinany with essential medicines and supplies needed to treat both pediatric and adult measles cases. Included in this request is Vitamin A, which studies have shown to reduce morbidity and mortality in measles, and is a recommended treatment for all children with severe measles, whether or not they are thought to have a nutritional deficiency.
Direct Relief has been supporting maternal and child health in Madagascar since 2013 through the United Nations Population Fund, Freedom from Fistula Foundation, and the Sarobidy Maternity Center.
In 2017, the country experienced an alarming pneumonic plague epidemic, which Direct Relief responded to by providing the Ministry of Public Health with personal protective equipment and medicine supplies to support plague treatment centers and maternity centers.
https://reliefweb.int/report/madagascar/aiding-fight-against-measles-madagascar

Return to headline | Return to top
In Madagascar, 1,100 measles deaths are more about money than ‘vaccine hesitancy’

Mar 14, 2019 | IRIN

By Lova Rabary

This is the front line of efforts to combat Madagascar’s deadliest measles outbreak in living memory. The virus has killed more than 1,100 people – mostly children – since September, and infected nearly 100,000 more all across this large island nation.
The outbreak is raging, at least in part, due to low immunisation rates. But unlike in more developed countries where parents refuse to vaccinate their children because of so-called “vaccine hesitancy”, the challenge in Madagascar is one of affordability and accessibility.
Despite measures put in place to tackle the spread of measles, the response in Madagascar has been complicated by the high cost and logistical challenge of transporting the vaccine to health centres in remote districts, and storing it long enough at the required low temperature.
Madagascar is among Africa’s poorest countries; 75 percent of its population of 26 million live on less than $2 per day. It faces a host of humanitarian challenges, including El Niño-induced droughts that fuel food insecurity; cyclones that displace tens of thousands annually; and severe health problems such as seasonal plague, chronic malnutrition, and now measles.One dose, or two?
Faneva received his first dose of the measles vaccine when he was just nine months old, his father, Fanilo Andrianarivony, told IRIN. But his school now requires everyone who is nine years old or younger to be vaccinated with a second dose. In Faneva’s class at school, 15 pupils caught the virus between November and December, despite medical reports indicating they had been vaccinated as babies, their teacher said.
Although a double dose of the vaccine – one at six to eight months, and a booster at least a month later – is recommended by international health bodies, the second dose is not yet part of the routine immunisation schedule recommended by Madagascar’s health ministry. As a result, very few parents take their children to receive a booster dose.
"A single dose is only half effective,” said Jean-Benoît Manhes, the deputy representative for UNICEF in Madagascar. “To become 85 percent effective, a second dose is needed."
Even with the double dose, there is still a 15 percent risk of contagion, Manhes said, explaining that “for individual coverage to work, you need mass immunity, up to 95 percent”.
Reaching the required level of immunity is a huge challenge in Madagascar, where measles vaccination coverage – children who have received at least one dose of the vaccine – is barely 60 percent, according to the World Health Organisation. This low coverage rate has been one of the main drivers of the current outbreak, the WHO said.Lack of vaccines
Poor health infrastructure and low levels of awareness are factors that have led to an increase in measles cases globally, not just in Madagascar, according to UNICEF. At the same time, complacency and vaccine hesitancy have caused the virus to re-emerge and spread in more developed countries that had been declared measles-free.
“Global cases of measles are surging to alarmingly high levels,” UNICEF warned this month, with 10 countries accounting for over 74 percent of the total increase in 2018.
"Almost all of these cases are preventable," UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. "Measles may be the disease, but, all too often, the real infection is misinformation, mistrust, and complacency. We must do more to accurately inform every parent, to help us safely vaccinate every child."
In Madagascar, UNICEF, the WHO, and the health ministry launched an immunisation campaign to target all 114 districts in the first quarter of this year.
More than two million children, including Faneva, were immunised in January, and 1.4 million children were vaccinated in February. But the campaigns only reached 25 and 22 districts respectively, meaning another 67 districts still have to wait until the end of March or the beginning of April.
"We are asking the authorities to send vaccines as quickly as possible to our region," a nurse working in a health centre in one of the yet-to-be-reached southern districts told IRIN, preferring her name not be used.
The nurse said that in districts like hers the lack of vaccines means they can only vaccinate children under nine months old with the first routine dose. "It's heartbreaking to see the desperation of parents, but we can’t do anything until [more] vaccines arrive,” she said.
To immunise all the nearly eight million children from nine months to nine years old, Madagascar needed $7 million; however, all the necessary funds were only collected this month. And even now, financial and logistical obstacles remain.
"Ideally, a single national campaign at the same time for all the districts would have been perfect to interrupt the outbreak," UNICEF’s Manhes said.Help from the sun
Sourcing the number of vaccines needed was a major challenge, and getting eight million doses at one time was “very complicated”, Manhes said.
"Very few laboratories are producing the measles vaccine, and orders are still planned five years in advance," he explained. UNICEF had to negotiate with countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Yemen to get all the vaccines it needed.
Even when stocks are available, disseminating the vaccines and syringes across Madagascar is no easy task due to the vast size of the island – roughly the same size as France or Spain but with notoriously tricky terrain and poor roads, especially in the more remote regions.
In mid-February, the WHO said there was a gap of $3 million in the budget for the third and final vaccination campaign. But at the beginning of March, the Malagasy authorities, with the support of their technical and financial partners, said it would now be possible.
On 5 March, UNICEF and the government signed an agreement to supply 500 health centres in remote parts of the country with $4.5 million worth of solar refrigerators, allowing them to store the vaccines and cut back on shortages in areas where there is no electricity.
"Health centres will be able to offer daily immunisation services when they are equipped with solar refrigerators," said Julio Rakotonirina, a professor of epidemiology who is Madagascar’s minister of public health.
Manhes explained how difficult it is in remote, rural regions far from the capital. "It can happen that parents come to the [health] centre with their children and there is no vaccine,” he said. “When they come back a week later, the centre is closed because the staff went to get their pay. A week later, they come back but the vaccine is out of date or no longer effective because the cold chain has broken down. Do you think they will come back a fourth time, especially if their village is a few hours walk from this centre?”
For Manhes, these broader failings are driving the upsurge in epidemics like the current one. "It is important that Madagascar adopts a sustainable and strengthened health system," he said."I did not expect that not being vaccinated could kill him”
Other health and humanitarian concerns in Madagascar also risk worsening the effects of the epidemic. With 47 percent of Malagasy children under age five facing chronic malnutrition, there are risks of serious complications and death if they contract measles, the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, said.
"Malnutrition that strikes one child in two, also makes the measles bed in Madagascar,” said the WHO representative in Madagascar, Dr. Charlotte Faty Ndiaye.
While families with children unprotected from the virus live in fear, others, like the parents of four-year-old Rado, mourn the outbreak’s latest victims.
"He had coughed a lot and had a very high fever," Rado’s mother, Haingo Nomenjanahary, recalled of the days when her son first became ill.
She took him to the health centre only when rashes developed on his face and body. "We were rushed to the hospital, but the doctors did not save my son," she said.
Rado had never been vaccinated against measles. "He had another [different] vaccine at six months, but when he was nine months old, I had no time to take him to the basic health centre,” Nomenjanahary said. "I did not expect that not being vaccinated could kill him.”
Rado’s one-year-old sister, Ravaka, is luckier than her brother. Nomenjanahary now knows that to protect her youngest daughter she has to take her to be vaccinated, and a few weeks after her son died, she did just that.
Ravaka received her first dose of the measles vaccine at 11 months. "I hope that now she is immune to this danger," her mother said. "And if God still gives me children, I'll take them to the basic health centre to be vaccinated," she promised.
https://www.irinnews.org/news-feature/2019/03/14/madagascar-1100-measles-deaths-are-more-about-money-vaccine-hesitancy

Return to headline | Return to top

Congo

Ebola Epidemic in Congo Could Last Another Year, C.D.C. Director Warns

Mar 16, 2019 | The New York TImes

By Denise Grady

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not under control and could continue for another year, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on Friday.
“Let’s not underestimate this outbreak,” he said.
His outlook was less optimistic than that of the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said at a news conference on Thursday that his goal was to end the outbreak in six months.
Dr. Redfield has just returned from a trip to the region that included a visit on March 9 to a treatment center in Butembo that, just hours before, had come under gunfire by attackers who killed a police officer. It was the second attack on that center.
Another was attacked on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, Dr. Redfield related his observations from the region, telling a Senate subcommittee that sometime between May and mid-September, Congo could run out of an Ebola vaccine that is widely believed to have kept the epidemic from becoming even worse.
More than 87,000 people have received the vaccine, which is being donated by its manufacturer, Merck. The vaccine is not yet licensed and cannot be sold. So far, Merck has donated 133,000 doses.
In response to Dr. Redfield’s warning that vaccine supplies could become dangerously low, Pamela L. Eisele, a spokeswoman for Merck, said in an email that the company could not comment on the C.D.C.’s projections. She also said that Merck keeps a stockpile of 300,000 doses, which it replenishes by making more vaccine whenever doses are deployed for outbreaks.
“Our commitment is to keep at least 300,000 doses,” she said.
This outbreak began in August. There had been 932 cases and 587 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the World Health Organization. The epidemic is the second largest ever, after the one in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, which killed more than 11,000 people.
The disease has struck two of Congo’s northeastern provinces, North Kivu and Ituri, a conflict zone where people have for decades lived in fear of armed militias, the police and soldiers. The most heavily affected areas are urban, with a surrounding population of about one million.
The region is close to Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda, and tens of thousands of people cross those borders every day. Some 20 million have gone back and forth from the outbreak zone since August, Dr. Redfield estimated, and added, “Truly, it’s nearly miraculous that we haven’t seen cross-border spread yet.”
The C.D.C. has worked with the neighboring countries to set up screening stations to stop the disease from reaching them. Some travelers with suspicious symptoms have been tested, but so far none have been infected.
Dr. Redfield said that experts from his agency could do more to help stop the disease, but that so far, because of violence in the area, the United States government had not permitted them to work where they are needed most, in the epicenters of the outbreak. Some were deployed in August to Beni, but were quickly relocated because of unrest in the area. C.D.C. employees are working in other parts of Congo, however, to train health workers and help coordinate the response.
The State Department decides whether it is safe for government employees to work in other countries.
“We’re ready to deploy as soon as they tell us it’s time,” Dr. Redfield said.
He noted that health workers from the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, Alima and other aid groups, had been working nonstop in the region for more than seven months. Fatigue was setting in, he said, and workers needed reinforcements, especially leaders with deep experience in this kind of outbreak.
Several red flags indicate that the outbreak is not under control, Dr. Redfield said. One is that too many people — about 40 percent — are dying at home and never going to treatment centers. There is a high risk that they have infected family members, health workers and other patients at local clinics they might have gone to for help. The disease is spread by bodily fluids and becomes highly contagious when symptoms start.
Corpses are very infectious and pose a big risk to relatives who may wash, dress and prepare them for burial.
To control an outbreak, at least 70 percent of patients need to be isolated and treated safely in isolation units so that they do not infect anyone else, and that percentage needs to be maintained for several months. In the epicenters in Congo now, that figure is only about 58 percent, Dr. Redfield said.
Another bad sign is that too many new cases are turning up who were not known contacts of patients and were not being monitored, meaning they could have infected yet more unknown people.
Also problematic is that a high percentage of patients, about 25 percent, became infected at local health centers, and about 75 health workers from those centers have also been infected. Rates that high indicate that information about the disease and how to avoid spreading it have not reached those clinics.
Many patients in the current outbreak, about 30 percent, have been children, and doctors say they think some caught Ebola when they were taken to local clinics for other illnesses.
In addition, the contact tracing has not always been effective. In some cases, if contacts missed a scheduled appointment to be checked for symptoms, their names were simply dropped from the list, Dr. Redfield said.
He said one incentive to encourage contacts to cooperate was to offer food if they showed up. But then a decision was made locally to hand out the food at a central location, which defeated the purpose of using it as an incentive.
He said local workers needed on-the-ground training in person from experts in this kind of epidemiologic work — something the C.D.C. can offer if its employees are given permission to deploy into the hot zones.
r. Redfield also echoed a concern expressed by Dr. Joanne Liu, the president of Doctors Without Borders, that medical teams had not fully gained the trust of the affected communities. Without that connection, people will continue to avoid testing and treatment, and decline help in carrying out safe funerals and burials.
“How exactly to accomplish that is going to take some time, some thought,” Dr. Redfield said. “I haven’t seen evidence to date that we have an effective partnership with the community.”
Speaking to the Senate subcommittee, he said: “The community doesn’t trust its own government. And it sure doesn’t trust outsiders.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/health/ebola-congo-cdc.html

Return to headline | Return to top
WHO says Ebola area contained but Congo needs long-term support

Mar 14, 2019 | Reuters

By Tom Miles

GENEVA, March 14 (Reuters) - The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is now concentrated in two areas and could be stopped by September, but the world must tackle Congo’s broader crisis to make it count, the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
The outbreak, the second worst in history, has killed 584 people in a region beset by violence and poverty, but a rapid international response has so far stopped the disease spreading into neighbouring countries.
“We have averted a much larger outbreak,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus Adhanom told a news conference, adding that the affected area was contained and shrinking within a certain geographic area.
“Our target now is to finish it within the next six months.”
The number of new cases has halved to 25 per week since January, and the virus was now concentrated in Butembo and Katwa, although community distrust and attacks by armed groups were hampering the response.
On Thursday, a group of young men attacked an Ebola centre for the fifth time since last month, said Richard Nyembo Wa Nyembo, the administrator of Lubero territory, after health workers attempted to collect samples from the body of a man who had died of the virus.
Nyembo told Reuters the assailants torched the facility and some vehicles in Lubero’s Biena health zone, which is west of Butembo, and that one person was injured when police opened fire.
Last week the head of medical charity MSF, which had two facilities attacked, said the battle against Ebola was being lost because ordinary people did not trust health workers and the response was overly militarised.
Tedros, who had just returned from the outbreak zone, said local people were despairing, and rightly wondered why the world was so exercised by Ebola and cared so little about other problems, including cholera and malaria.
“I’d actually like to call upon the international community to link the outbreak control now with developing the health system,” he said.
“That’s a big challenge. Otherwise we will appear as if we are preventing Ebola getting into other countries and we don’t care about the demands of the community.”
He said the WHO would not leave when the outbreak ended, but would help the government to build stronger health services.
“The vulnerability comes from weakened systems, and what the people are asking for is correct,” he said.
He called on the international community to fund the $148 million plan to tackle Ebola in the next six months, a tiny spend compared to the potential cost. The worst outbreak, which killed 11,300 people in West Africa in 2013-2016, cost an estimated $53 billion, according to one study. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Additional reporting by Fiston Mahamba in Goma and Giulia Paravicini in Brussels; Editing by Alison Williams)
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-ebola-congo/who-says-ebola-area-contained-but-congo-needs-long-term-support-idUSL8N2115X1

Return to headline | Return to top

Add recipients

Suggested