A German aid worker and an Afghan guard were killed in and a Finnish national was abducted from a house in Kabul late on Saturday, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman has said. The three were working for a Swedish aid group called Operation Mercy, spokesman Najib Danish said on Sunday. The Finnish foreign ministry confirmed that a Finnish national had been kidnapped in Afghanistan but had no further comment. There was no immediate comment from the German foreign ministry. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2rFJVm4)
Security and training for U.N. experts lacking…The killings have stirred a sharp debate over the United Nations’ responsibility to prepare and protect the people it hires to investigate wrongdoing around the world. Ms. Catalán and Mr. Sharp belonged to a panel of six experts authorized by the Security Council to investigate rapes, massacres and the exploitation of Congo’s vast natural resources. They traveled without United Nations escorts, often going into areas that are no-go zones for United Nations employees. As independent contractors, the investigators had no health insurance and received little training on how to operate in hostile environments. They were bound by the United Nations’ security rules. (NYT http://nyti.ms/2rFD8J8)
WHO travel Budget Under Scrutiny…The World Health Organization routinely spends about $200 million a year on travel — far more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health including AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. (AP http://apne.ws/2qEKqyf)
Top Stories
Rescuers pulled 2,121 migrants to safety from boats in the Mediterranean late on Friday and early on Saturday and recovered one dead body, the Italian coastguard said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2rGQ3db)
Masses of protesters with white shirts, homemade gas masks and flags draped around their shoulders shut down a main road in the Venezuelan capital on Saturday in a continuation of near-daily street protests. (AP http://apne.ws/2q9Fe21)
Girls released from Boko Haram captivity, as part of a negotiation brokered by the ICRC, have been reunited with their parents, who drove for a day and a night to reach them in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. (BBC http://bbc.in/2qIpQOb)
In response to rising food insecurity in Yemen, the World Bank will finance cash transfers to about 8 million people, to ensure they have the means to purchase food, and provide nutritious supplements to an additional one million of the most vulnerable and in need Yemenis. (World Bank http://bit.ly/2q9F2jl)
The World Health Organization with the Federal Government of Somalia and UNICEF launched a preventative measles vaccination campaign yesterday targeting 125 000 children aged 6 to 59 months from communities of internally displaced persons in Banadir and Afgoye. (WHO http://bit.ly/2q9EOsv)
Fighting this week between rival Christian and Muslim militias in the Central African Republic town of Bria killed at least 22 people, including 17 civilians, and forced some 10,000 others to flee, the country’s United Nations mission said on Saturday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2qIQgiz)
Nearly 130,000 undocumented Afghan refugees have been forced by the Iranian government to go home this year, heading to an uncertain future with the resurgent Taliban now holding more than 40 percent rural territory in Afghanistan. (VOA http://bit.ly/2qEHCS4)
The World Health Organization’s regional chief for Africa reports prospects for rapidly controlling the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo are good. (VOA http://bit.ly/2q9R6kx)
Opinion/Blogs
Map of the Day: In Yemen, a Looming Famine and Current Cholera Outbreak form a Deadly Nexus. (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2q9GQZF)
Angola’s ‘Omnipresent’ Leader Won’t Run Again. But Will He Relinquish Power? (NY Times http://nyti.ms/2qIjVZc)
Study Reveals the Gender Gap in Tanzania, Uganda Climate Policies (The Conversation http://bit.ly/2rGHJu2)
For 2 Experts Killed in Congo, U.N. Provided Little Training and No Protection (NY Times http://nyti.ms/2rGYUvn)
Teen Vogue has the best coverage of the refugee crisis: Here’s why (WhyDev http://bit.ly/2rqLPtO)
Transitions from war to peace (Reinventing Peace http://bit.ly/2qEMMx5)
