Category: APO-OPA

OTTAWA, Canada, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, will make an announcement regarding Canada’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Minister Ambrose will make the announcem…

JUBA, South Sudan, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — On 10 October, three Individual Contractors employed by UNMISS, who were working at the airfield in Malakal, were seized by an unidentified armed group of 15 to 20 men in unifor…

KINSHASA, Dem. Rep. of Congo (DRC) October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — “Eradicating poverty for good in the whole world is neither an utopia nor an illusion ; it is a clear objective towards which we must all strive for,” stated Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals. Their aim is to reduce by half, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of the population living below the poverty line.

The global objective has been achieved; as in the developing world, the percentage of individuals living below the poverty line fell from 47% in 1990 to 22% in 2010. However, the progress has been unequal, and while improvements were substantial in Asia and Latin America, they were more limited in Sub-Saharan Africa. Today, there are still 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty in the world.

“The economic situation is improving every day in the DRC, the growth rate is high and inflation is under control. This positive development will not affect Congolese men and women unless companies show a real sense of social responsibility. I would like to call upon Congolese and international enterprises to share with their employees the benefits of a growing economy,” concluded the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC.

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — WHO officially declares the Ebola outbreak in Senegal over and commends the country on its diligence to end the transmission of the virus.

The introduced case was confirmed on 29 August in a young man who had travelled to Dakar, by road, from Guinea, where he had had direct contact with an Ebola patient.

Senegal’s response is a good example of what to do when faced with an imported case of Ebola. The government, under leadership of President Macky Sall and the Minister of Health Dr Awa Coll-Seck, reacted quickly to stop the disease from spreading.

The government’s response plan included identifying and monitoring 74 close contacts of the patient, prompt testing of all suspected cases, stepped-up surveillance at the country’s many entry points and nationwide public awareness campaigns.

WHO treated this case as a public health emergency and immediately dispatched a team of epidemiologists to work alongside staff from the Ministry of Health, and other partners, including Médecins sans Frontières and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On 5 September, laboratory samples from the patient tested negative, indicating that he had recovered from Ebola virus disease. He returned to Guinea on 18 September.

Senegal has maintained a high level of active “case finding” for 42 days – twice the maximum incubation period of Ebola virus disease – to detect possible unreported cases of infection.

While the outbreak is now officially over, Senegal’s geographical position makes the country vulnerable to additional imported cases of Ebola virus disease. It continues to remain vigilant for any suspected cases by strict compliance with WHO guidelines.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Amid concerns over the increasing rate of Ebola infection in Sierra Leone, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and partners today began distributing food for 265,000 people on the outskirts of the capital.

The distribution in the suburb of Waterloo will be the biggest one-off food distribution in the country since the start of the Ebola outbreak.

WFP mobilized 700 aid workers to distribute in just one day over 800 metric tons of food – rice, pulses, vegetable oil and salt – meeting families’ food needs for 30 days. The distribution is in partnership with Caritas, Community Integrated Development Organization, civil society organizations and young volunteers.

“Providing food to such a large number of people in one day is a challenge. We have to deploy many staff and speed up the distribution process to reduce risks both for the people receiving food and for staff, as Waterloo has seen some of the highest cases of Ebola infections in recent days,” said Gon Myers, WFP Country Director in Sierra Leone.

“We are working closely with the Sierra Leone Government, NGOs and UN agencies to ensure timely delivery of food assistance to all Ebola-affected people – be it in treatment centres or in quarantined households – to prevent this health crisis from becoming a food and nutrition crisis.”

The aim of the distribution is to stabilize quarantined families by giving them enough to eat so that they do not leave their homes to look for food.

Before today’s distribution in Waterloo, WFP and its partners had provided food assistance to more than 300,000 Ebola-affected people across Sierra Leone. Given the increasing rate of infections, WFP is scaling up to reach 600,000 people affected by the crisis.

Beyond the food response, WFP is supplying vital technical assistance, particularly to medical partners, in this unprecedented health emergency. This includes construction, logistics, storage, procurement and transport.

WFP is supporting the Sierra Leone Government by procuring 74 World Bank-funded vehicles including ambulances, mortuary vehicles and pickup trucks. The first batch of 30 vehicles is expected to arrive by air in the country on 18 October.

As WFP ramps up to help fight the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times, it requires US$179.6 million to distribute food and provide common humanitarian services in the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea until February 2015. Less than a third has been received.

To ensure continued assistance over the next six months, WFP requires US$24 million for its Ebola emergency operation in Sierra Leone.

CAPE-TOWN, South-Africa, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — SkyVision Global Networks Ltd. (http://www.skyvision.net), a leading global communication provider, today proudly announced that the company has been nominated for three prestigious AfricaCom 2014 Awards. SkyVision’s nominations are in the following categories: Best Connectivity Solutions for Africa, for SkyVision’s Hybrid Satellite and Terrestrial Network Solutions; Changing Lives Award, for their support of Ghana’s Crossover Academy and VSAT Innovation for Africa, for the SkyVision Active Series.

Logo SkyVision: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/skyvision.jpg

Logo AfricaCom 2014 Awards: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/africacomawards.jpg

Photo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=1448 (Ori Watermann, SkyVision CEO)

As a leading service provider in Africa, SkyVision provides viable solutions that help African companies, organizations and service providers to increase their productivity and profitability, and the level of service they provide to their customers. SkyVision’s noted success in Africa is the result of its a widespread network of local partners and representatives and SkyVision offices in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa. For well over a decade, SkyVision has focused on enhancing connectivity in rural Africa, with the establishment of hubs and PoPs across the continent to deliver quality and last mile communications to customers nationwide.

“SkyVision has witnessed the immense growth of Africa’s telecom market and we are honored to have been chosen amongst our peers for these three esteemed awards,” said Ori Watermann, SkyVision CEO. “SkyVision continues to be an integral part of the ICT boom in Africa as we strongly support leading industries and organizations’ communications platforms. We are equally proud to have donated our services to rural academic institutions so desperately in need of viable communications networks. Contributing to educating Africa’s schoolchildren, helps build the foundation of Africa’s future.”

The AfricaCom Awards, the digital industry’s celebration and recognition of world leaders in digital technology, ICT, telecom and media across Africa, will take place on November 12, 2014 in Cape Town, as part of the AfricaCom 2014 Conference. SkyVision are both exhibitors and sponsors of this landmark industry event. For more information on the show visit: http://www.africacomawards.com. To meet SkyVision or for queries contact: irist@skyvision.net

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of SkyVision Global Networks Ltd.

For more information, contact:

Iris Tovim

Marketing Communications Manager

SkyVision Global Networks

+44 20 8387 1750

irist@skyvision.net

About SkyVision

SkyVision (http://www.skyvision.net) is a global communications service provider, offering comprehensive, integrated solutions to meet all corporate, government and telco market requirements. With an emphasis on its customers’ local or regional requirements, SkyVision offers superior network connectivity solutions. Known for its innovative approach, the company offers an extensive suite of both customized solutions and industry-standard services for end-to-end IP connectivity (http://www.skyvision.net/enterprise-solutions), managed from its international gateways and selected local hubs. SkyVision’s global-reaching network connects its customers to the Internet backbone with more than ten satellite platforms and a network of high-capacity fiber optic cables, via its gateways in Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East as well as multiple points of presence (POPs) in Africa. SkyVision currently commands a satellite and fiber network IP connectivity (http://www.skyvision.net/service/fiber-solutions) spanning 100 countries. The company’s C-Band and Ku-Band VSAT network solutions (http://www.skyvision.net/services/lobby2/Internet%20Connectivity) draw on SkyVision’s extensive space segment inventory from leading satellite providers and its capacity is carefully tailored to customers’ individual needs for optimal cost-effectiveness. Visit http://www.skyvision.net.

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM has opened a Country Office in Madagascar to support the Government through implementation of projects in a number of critical areas related to migration, including environmental-related internal migration, diaspora engagement and border management.

“The opening of an office in Madagascar marks the beginning of an important step that will reinforce collaboration between IOM and the Government of Madagascar in addressing migration challenges of the 21st century,” noted IOM Deputy Director General Laura Thompson, who was on an official visit to Antananarivo.

IOM will launch two counter-trafficking projects in response to a request from the Government of Madagascar, which has identified combating trafficking in persons as priority.

One project, funded by the IOM Development Fund, will provide the government with an assessment of human trafficking activities in the country, raise awareness among vulnerable communities, and strengthen coordination in the fight against human trafficking.

The second project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will support research and the development of referral and identification mechanisms; help improve services for victims of trafficking; and raise awareness in target areas on the dangers of irregular migration.

Despite a previous lack of a formal presence in the country, IOM has implemented activities in Madagascar since 2002 in the areas of migration and environment, migration health, labour migration, and assisted voluntary return and reintegration.

In May 2014, IOM published a Migration Profile for Madagascar to help strengthen the capacity of government institutions to develop policy and strategies on migration informed by relevant data and reliable statistics. With the establishment of an office, IOM aims to further strengthen its collaboration with the government and other partners.

JUBA, South Sudan, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — PRESS BRIEFING
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) will hold a press briefing on Tuesday, 21st October 2014 to update the news media on the Mission’s Protection o…

JUBA, South Sudan, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — PRESS BRIEFING
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) will hold a press briefing on Tuesday, 21st October 2014 to update the news media on the Mission’s Protection o…

NEW YORK, October 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Secretary-General strongly condemns today’s attack on the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) resulting in the killing of two Ethiopian peacekeepers near …