Tag: Congo
World News in Brief: COVID risk still high, massive Congo flood displacement, concern over Sri Lanka drugs crackdown
The virus is still circulating globally but relatively few countries are following infections closely, meaning the actual threat due to the coronavirus and its variants could be anything from two to 19 times higher than what is being reported to WHO. The agency’s COVID focal point, Dr Maria Van Kerhove, told journalists in Geneva that…
Read MoreWorld News in Brief: WFP forced to halt some food aid in Sudan, DR Congo elections, peacekeeping chief visits CAR
WFP described the decision taken on safety grounds as a major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket, where staff had been regularly providing aid to over 800,000 people, including many who had escaped the fighting in Khartoum. The ongoing fighting makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian agencies to safely deliver assistance, especially with…
Read MoreWorld News in Brief: DR Congo mission extended, Sudan displacement deepens, warzone death toll for journalists spikes
The Mission, known as MONUSCO, has been in the country for two decades and is in the process of drawing down. The decision taken today by the Council sets out a comprehensive disengagement plan that includes three distinct, successive phases and the gradual handover of responsibility to the Government. MONUSCO will remain there until 20…
Read MoreDR Congo: Elections looming, amid worsening insecurity
Briefing ambassadors at the UN Security Council, Bintou Keita, Special Representative of the Secretary-General noted steady progress in the electoral process despite significant logistical, financial, and security challenges. However, the resurgence of the crises related to the M23 group in the east, and new pockets of insecurity in the Greater Katanga region, Mai-Ndombe and Tshopo…
Read MoreClashes in eastern DR Congo displace 450,000 in six weeks
Violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have displaced more than 450,000 people in the last six weeks in Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu province. People arriving in the town of Sake, located near the provincial capital Goma, spoke of having to make harrowing choices, with men risking death to feed…
Read MoreWorld News in Brief: ICC slams ‘unacceptable threats’, DR Congo displacement, UNEP ‘Champions of the Earth’
ICC President Piotr Hofmański was presenting the independent court’s annual report to the UN in New York. The ICC was established in July 2002 under a treaty known as the Rome Statute and is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Mr. Hofmański noted that he himself, along with Prosecutor Karim Khan was on the list, which…
Read MoreDR Congo: UN peacekeepers suspended over serious misconduct charges
“The Mission strongly condemns such behaviour which is not worthy of United Nations personnel,” MONUSCO said in a statement on Wednesday. Although the UN Mission did not give details, international media reported that eight South African “blue helmets” had been detained over allegations of sexual abuse. Assault and threats The personnel involved were deployed at…
Read MoreDR Congo: Few worse places to be a child warns UNICEF as twins found boobytrapped
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the country, Grant Leaity, issued the alert on Tuesday, revealing that youngsters in eastern DRC face daily atrocities, including rape, abduction and recruitment by armed groups. “I visited a centre in Beni and North Kivu for children released from armed groups where I met a couple of one-year-old twins.…
Read MoreDR Congo: Children facing worst cholera outbreak in six years
Across the country, there have been at least 31,342 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 230 deaths in the first seven months of 2023 – many of them children. The worst affected province, North Kivu, has seen more than 21,400 confirmed or suspected cases, including more than 8,000 children under five, according to the Ministry…
Read MoreEastern DR Congo: Health system at breaking point warns WHO
Speaking from Kinshasa, Dr. Jorge Castilla, WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer, told journalists at the regular briefing in Geneva there had been a major increase in displacement due to ongoing violence fuelled by armed groups, leaving around 7.4 million in need of health assistance. Disease and displacement Since March 2022, almost three million people have been…
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