Despite daunting challenges, United Nations agencies and partners in war-torn Yemen have completed a major nationwide polio inoculation campaign, vaccinating nearly five million children under the age of five against the paralyzing disease. The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank supported campaign was launched in February and saw thousands of health workers, health educators, religious leaders and local council officials mobilize their communities to maximize the campaign’s reach, including in high-risk groups, such as internally displaced persons and refugees. (UN http://bit.ly/2ok9r0R)
Ethnic massacre in South Sudan…At least 16 people were killed in the South Sudanese town of Wau on Monday, said the United Nations, as witnesses said ethnic militiamen went house to house searching for people from other groups. Streets were deserted as families hid inside, residents told Reuters by phone. Some reported seeing killings. Witnesses said the militia members were aligned with the government in the country’s ethnically charged civil war. They accused army soldiers of blocking the main road to a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said two U.N. peacekeeping patrols had been sent to the area on Monday and more were expected to patrol on Tuesday. (Reuters http://reut.rs/2ok36m4)
Top Stories
Warplanes struck the Syrian town where a chemical attack had killed scores of people last week, as Turkey warned that a retaliatory U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base would only be “cosmetic” if greater efforts are not made to remove President Bashar Assad from power. (AP https://yhoo.it/2oZNr9B)
Nigeria’s military released 593 people after clearing them of having ties with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, a spokesman said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2oZRVNl)
As fighting in Iraq reaches its peak, urgent humanitarian needs of women and girls impacted by the conflict continue to escalate. (UNFPA http://bit.ly/2oZJtx)
A Taliban health chief says the resumption of a polio vaccination scheme in north Afghanistan does not alter lingering suspicion of the international community. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2ojWJyN)
More than a dozen metro stations in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, have been closed ahead of an anti-government protest. Caracas metro said 18 stations had been closed and 20 bus routes suspended for “safety” reasons. (BBC http://bbc.in/2oZPZ7C)
A strike in English-speaking parts of Cameroon is approaching its sixth-month mark. Schools in those areas remain shut and business paralyzed. As tensions deepen, Cameroon has begun grappling with some of the deeper grievances underpinning the divide. (VOA http://bit.ly/2oZWY0C)
The future of Afghanistan’s unity government is “shaky,” according to a new report by the International Crisis Group. (VOA http://bit.ly/2ojKxyi)
Opinion/Blogs
Vali Nasr explains how his family’s escape from Iran shaped his intellectual development. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2ok6tcv)
A Male Birth Control is Coming to Market. But Not for Americans and Europeans? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2ok1Q2a)
Trump’s Humanitarian Intervention in Syria Is Just Getting Started (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/2oZMIFz)
African Feminism Past and Present (AfricaFocus http://bit.ly/2nVI49E)
Challenges to Media Freedom in Sri Lanka; The ‘New’ Government’s Performance (The Sunday Times http://bit.ly/2oZwpZ4)
Microbes, New Weapon Against Agricultural Pests in Africa (IPS http://bit.ly/2ojOYJr)
As Brazil’s ‘Car Wash’ case surfaces more corruption, will scandal fatigue slow progress? (CSM https://yhoo.it/2oZBO2A)
Refugees suffer PTSD and attempt suicide in Greece (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/2ok2z3f)
£17 million UK aid spent on legal services for Bangladeshi women – did it work? (ODI http://bit.ly/2ojZUqB)
Photo Essay: Drought took their animals and land – now hunger is taking Somalia’s children (Guardian http://bit.ly/2oZLTwh)
