Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst yellow fever outbreak in decades has ended two months after Angola declared its epidemic to be over, following a massive U.N.-backed vaccine campaign, the World Health Organization said. No new cases have been reported in either country in six months, just over a year after the outbreak began in December 2015 in a slum in Angola’s capital, Luanda, before spreading into neighboring DRC. In all, more than 400 people died, the WHO said. The epidemic prompted a campaign to vaccinate 30 million people in the two countries with more than 41,000 volunteers and 56 charities carrying out mass the immunization program. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2kqO2T8)
Sudan appeal…The UN children’s agency on Wednesday launched a $110 million appeal to help two million acutely malnourished children across Sudan, including hundreds of thousands living in conflict areas. UNICEF said Sudan is home to around 13 percent of all children suffering from acute malnutrition across Africa. Their situation is exacerbated by conflict-related displacements, El Nino, epidemics, floods and droughts. The agency said two million children under five in Sudan are acutely malnourished. And two million children have been displaced due to violence in Darfur, the regions of South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei, with many separated from their relatives and affected by grave violations. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2litAnf)
Top Stories
Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday urged all warring parties in Yemen to allow aid deliveries, saying it had treated more than 55,000 people wounded during a Saudi-led intervention in the country. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2l9cTIp)
Security concerns forced the United Nations to pause its aid operations this week in east Mosul, which Iraqi forces recaptured from Islamic State last month, but they will resume soon, a U.N. humanitarian official said. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2l926xK)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned against abandoning the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying there was “no alternative.” (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2lQjkzW)
A Kenyan court released seven doctors who are officials in the medics’ union and who were jailed earlier this week for not calling off a strike by doctors working in public hospitals and other institutions. (AP https://yhoo.it/2kL8IRR)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte supported his environment minister’s decision to cancel nearly a third of contracts for undeveloped mines, saying it was based on law. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2kTwM7w)
The United Nations human rights office is seeking nearly $253 million this year from states and private donors in what it called its “most ambitious” appeal yet. (AP https://yhoo.it/2lQ90YG)
Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than a half billion people live without electricity, trails the world in government policies that promote sustainable energy, according to a new World Bank report Wednesday. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2l96rkC)
G20 foreign ministers will discuss ways to fight poverty in Africa, strengthen governmental institutions and better utilize the potential of many African countries, German ministry officials said on the eve of a two-day meeting in Bonn. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2kKVZyD)
The two founders of the law firm at the center of 2016’s explosive Panama Papers scandal are claiming innocence after they were arrested. (CNN http://cnn.it/2kKJpQ6)
Opinion/Blogs
Yemen’s war is impacting young girls in a way no one wants to talk about – child marriage appears to be on the rise. (IRIN http://bit.ly/2kqS268)
Childhoods lost: disabilities and seizures blight India’s endosulfan victims (Guardian http://bit.ly/2lQeaE0)
For war refugees, sanctuary in the West isn’t always a happy ending (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/2kTDg6q)
The German Namibian Genocide–What is to be done? (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/2l92OLe)
Global Citizens, National Shirkers (Project Syndicate http://bit.ly/2l996uG)
A rough guide to foreign military bases in Africa (IRIN http://bit.ly/2liAUza)
What drives the Gates Foundation’s global health work? Data. (Devex http://bit.ly/2kyTKNX)
Economics in Low-Income Countries (Africanist Perspective http://bit.ly/2kz7HeJ)
Can Technology Really Solve China’s Healthcare Crisis? (Forbes http://bit.ly/2lijAdq)
