Six aid workers were ambushed and killed in South Sudan, the deadliest attack on humanitarian workers since the East African nation’s civil war began in 2013. The attack took place Saturday on the road from Juba, the capital, to Pibor, where there have been recent reports of fighting, said Eugene Owusu, the top U.N. humanitarian official in South Sudan in a statement issued Sunday. He did not identify the nationalities of the aid workers or their organization. “At a time when humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels, it is entirely unacceptable that those who are trying to help are being attacked and killed,” said Owusu.” (AP http://bit.ly/2o6w5HH)
An out of control measles epidemic in Romania…The ongoing measles outbreak in Romania has infected 3,446 people by March 10 this year, killing 17 children, according to data from the National Institute of Public Health, cited by local Agerpres. (Romania Insider http://bit.ly/2o6FkYi )
Top Stories
Militia fighters in DR Congo have decapitated about 40 police officers in an ambush in the central province of Kasai, local officials say. (BBC http://bbc.in/2o6EMSs)
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was elected as Hong Kong’s first female leader on Sunday, promising to unite a divided city with a more inclusive style of governance and appealing for the chance to start a new chapter. (SCMP http://bit.ly/2o6OfsV )
President Nicolas Maduro said he asked the United Nations for help in dealing with Venezuela’s medicine shortages, which have grown severe as the country grapples with a crippling economic crisis. (CNN http://cnn.it/2nCFV6b)
Moroccan Prime Minster Saad Eddine El Othmani said he agreed to form a coalition government with five other parties, breaking nearly six months of post-election deadlock. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2n6ponr)
Syria’s chief negotiator at U.N. peace talks in Geneva delivered a 40-minute polemic attacking the political and armed opposition and their foreign backers, labeling them all “terrorists.” (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2n6vYdp)
The International Criminal Court has for the first time ordered a war criminal to pay reparations to victims of his atrocities. Germain Katanga, an ex-militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, should pay $1million to villagers targeted in 2003, judges ruled. (BBC http://bbc.in/2o6N1Oc )
Somalia’s president asked leaders of an African trade bloc to help his country find a durable solution to the Somali refugee crisis, including reintegration of returnees inside the Horn of Africa nation, where a civil conflict is now in its 26th year. (VOA http://bit.ly/2nXAgJ6)
More than 200,000 people have fled fighting in west Mosul since the operation to retake the area from jihadists was launched last month, Iraq’s ministry of migration and displaced said. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2n6sbgp)
The specter of diseases thriving amid pools of stagnant water in flooded neighborhoods is one of a raft of problems Peru faces as it waits for an end to an unusually brutal rainy season. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2nUISQa)
Congo’s government must cooperate with United Nations efforts to locate experts who have been missing in the violent Kasai region for nearly two weeks, Human Rights Watch said. (AP https://yhoo.it/2n6kFlu)
The world’s major nations are responsible for maintaining global peace, and all countries should remain committed to a road of stable and peaceful development, China’s Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2n6wojT)
Opinion/Blogs
Massive Cuts Coming for UNICEF and UN Peacekeeping? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2okASoj)
Can Resettlement Prevent Irregular Migration? (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/2nkPXqt)
Why there’s no need to panic on UN peacekeeping cuts (IRIN http://bit.ly/2okF87b)
Activism is mainstream again … how can protests create change? (Guardian http://bit.ly/2nXAqQx)
Is China Bankrolling Regional Security? (Africa in Fact http://bit.ly/2nXxUK5)
Responding to Trump’s ‘Discoarse’? an African Humanist Philosophy May Be the Way (The Conversation http://bit.ly/2nXxZ0l)
Video: US Charity Brings Hearing Aid to Syrian Refugee Children (VOA http://bit.ly/2n7LCGe)
Investment in Africa – There’s Room for Everyone (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/2n6ffqG)
‘Who knows what we’ll find next?’ Journey to the heart of Mozambique’s hidden forest (Guardian http://bit.ly/2nXAj7z)
What If You Held An African Summit And No Africans Could Come? (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2nXD5cX)
Top takeaways from the UN’s largest women’s rights gathering (Devex http://bit.ly/2nXlH8f)
