Category: APO-OPA

NEW YORK, October 16, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — On 14 October 2014, the members of the Security Council heard briefings by Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Mission for Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER) Anthony Banbury, as well as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous and Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Tayé-Brook Zerihoun.

The members of the Security Council reiterated their grave concern about the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, which constitutes a threat to international peace and security, as well as the impact of the Ebola virus on West Africa, in particular, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The members of the Security Council recognized the strenuous efforts made by the Member States of the region, especially Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, to lead the ground-level response against the Ebola outbreak, as well as to address the wider political, security, socioeconomic and humanitarian impact of the Ebola outbreak on communities. The members of the Security Council affirmed the importance of preparedness by all Member States to detect, prevent, respond to, isolate and mitigate suspected cases of Ebola within and across borders. They also recalled the International Health Regulations (2005), which aim to improve the capacity of all countries to detect, assess, notify and respond to public health threats.

The members of the Security Council welcomed the swift establishment on 19 September 2014 by United Nations General Assembly resolution 69/1 of UNMEER. They expressed their appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the Mission to provide overall leadership and direction to the operational work of the United Nations System, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly. They requested that the Secretary-General help to ensure that all relevant United Nations System entities, including the United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions in West Africa, within their existing mandates and capacities, collaborate closely and urgently to respond to UNMEER’s requests and to provide immediate Ebola response assistance to the governments of the three most affected countries.

The members of the Security Council reiterated their deep and abiding admiration for the the first-line responders to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including national health and humanitarian relief workers, educators, and those providing burial services, as well as international health and humanitarian relief workers contributed by the Member States of diverse regions and non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations. The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of the victims of the Ebola outbreak, including national and international first-line responders, and wished swift recovery to those infected. They also underscored the critical importance of putting in place necessary arrangements, including medical evacuation capacities and treatment and transport provisions, to facilitate the immediate and unhindered deployment of health and humanitarian relief workers in the affected countries.

The members of the Security Council called on the governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to continue to strengthen coordination with all national, regional and international actors, including bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, including the Mano River Union, African Union, Economic Community of West African States, European Union, World Bank Group and the United Nations System, in order to more fully and efficiently utilize all Ebola response assistance.

The members of the Security Council stressed that the response of the international community to the Ebola outbreak has failed to date to adequately address the magnitude of the outbreak and its effects. In this regard, they urged all Member States, and bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, to accelerate and dramatically expand the provision of resources and financial and material assistance, including mobile laboratories; field hospitals; dedicated and trained clinical personnel and services in Ebola Treatment Units and isolation units; therapies, vaccines and diagnostics to treat patients and limit or prevent further Ebola infection or transmission; and personal protective equipment for first-line responders. They further urged Member States and all relevant actors to provide logistical, aeromedical, transport and construction capabilities for the Ebola response. They called on Member States, especially in the region, to facilitate immediately the delivery of such assistance, to the most affected countries.

The members of the Security Council strongly urged Member States, as well as airlines and shipping companies, while applying appropriate public health protocols, to maintain trade and transport links with the most affected countries to enable the timely utilization of all efforts aimed at containing the Ebola outbreak within and across borders of the region. They expressed their continued concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of the affected countries as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on and to the affected countries, as well as acts of discrimination against the nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, October 16, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is closely monitoring the situation in Madagascar, following the return of Mr. Marc R…

MONROVIA, Liberia, October 16, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah announced nearly $142 million in humanitarian projects and grants to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Shah made the announcement after meeting with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in the capital city of Monrovia. It was the first stop in a week-long trip for Shah to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Senegal to meet with national and local officials, aid organizations, and staff involved in the international response to the Ebola outbreak. The announcement brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Ebola crisis to more than $258 million.

“Stopping Ebola in West Africa will require a significant international effort, and the United States urges our global partners to provide additional assistance to help bring the outbreak under control,” said Shah. “We are helping affected countries gain positive and strong momentum by the day, but much more must be done to win this fight.”

The new projects and grants will support:

• Construction and support of additional Ebola treatment units in partnership with the affected countries and international organizations;

• Training and support for health care workers and safe burial teams;

• The Government of Liberia’s strategy to establish and staff community care centers, which, in tandem with Ebola treatment units, will provide another level of Ebola isolation and care to communities while helping to break the chain of transmission; and

• Critical logistics support for international partners working in West Africa.

Since the first cases of Ebola were reported in West Africa in March 2014, the United States has moved quickly to contain and stop the epidemic, while also taking prudent measures at home. In West Africa, USAID works alongside partner countries and international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and colleagues from the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), State, Defense, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are currently more than 600 U.S. government personnel in West Africa, including a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team coordinating overall Ebola response efforts, making this the largest-ever U.S. response to a global health crisis.

As the United States continues to scale up its response in West Africa, particularly with the arrival of Department of Defense personnel and resources, U.S. support has already helped increase the number of Ebola treatment units (ETU) in the region to 12, with additional ETUs coming online in the weeks ahead; supported the salaries of state health workers and the deployment of doctors and nurses by the African Union; supported 56 safe burial teams now working in every county in Liberia to safely and respectfully dispose of bodies within 24 hours; funded aggressive social change outreach and education that reaches deep into even the most rural locations of the affected countries; helped to more than double lab capacity in Liberia to determine if a patient has Ebola; and procured and delivered hundreds of thousands of sets of personal protective equipment and other personal protective supplies, among others.

For more information about USAID’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, please visit www.usaid.gov/ebola.

LUSAKA, Zambia, October 16, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Just ahead of World Food Day, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (http://goo.gl/AwrAkl) has established that ‘orange’ vitamin A maize increases vitamin A storage in the body. This maize has been conventionally bred (non-GMO) to have higher levels of beta-carotene, a naturally occurring plant pigment that the body then converts into vitamin A.

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/harvestplus.png

Photos: http://goo.gl/u9ygCR

Video: http://goo.gl/0KODjM

Lack of sufficient vitamin A blinds up to 500,000 children annually and increases the risk of death from disease (such as diarrhea in children). Vitamin A deficiency is widely prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Foods that are good sources of vitamin A, such as orange fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or meat, are not always available, or may be too expensive in some regions. In many African countries, people eat large amounts of staple foods like cassava or maize. For example, in Zambia, people eat up to a pound of white maize daily. However, this white maize provides no beta-carotene. Switching to orange maize, which is rich in beta-carotene, could potentially provide maize-dependent populations with up to half their daily vitamin A needs.

In this controlled efficacy study, children from the Eastern Province of Zambia were randomly assigned to three feeding groups and received either white maize, orange maize, or a daily vitamin A supplement. After three months, both groups that received either the orange maize or vitamin A supplements showed significant increases in their total body stores of vitamin A, with no changes observed in the group that received white maize.

Lead scientist Sherry Tanumihardjo said “we were surprised to find that most of the children in this study already had substantial stores of vitamin A. We attribute this to the success of fortifying sugar with vitamin A, the provision of vitamin A supplements to young children, and perhaps better diets. Yet, despite having adequate vitamin A stores, we still saw this store increase in children as a result of eating the orange maize. So, I’m confident that orange maize would be especially effective in increasing body stores of vitamin A in populations suffering from vitamin A deficiency.” Unlike the form of vitamin A found in supplements and fortified foods, the body regulates conversion of beta-carotene into vitamin A, and consuming high levels of beta-carotene is not harmful to health.

Several orange maize varieties have been released by the governments of Zambia and Nigeria. In Zambia, HarvestPlus (http://www.harvestplus.org) has provided orange maize to more than 10,000 farming households and is now working with the private sector with the goal of reaching 100,000 famers by 2015. According to Eliab Simpungwe, HarvestPlus Country Manager for Zambia, “the orange maize has been embraced by consumers once they have had a chance to taste it. When they also understand the benefits of vitamin A in the diets they are all the more enthusiastic about orange maize.” The orange maize varieties released are also high yielding, disease and virus resistant, and drought tolerant.

The Zambian Government has officially recognized biofortification, which it includes in the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan for Zambia 2011-2015. Musonda Mofu, Acting Executive Director of the National Food and Nutrition Commission in Zambia and who was also on the study team, said “there are still many pockets where vitamin A deficiency remains a problem in Zambia. Food-based approaches such as orange maize can provide people—especially women and children—with a good portion of their daily vitamin A needs through nshima or other traditional foods made from maize, that we Zambians eat every day. For us, this is cost-effective and a safe approach to improving nutrition.”

HarvestPlus and its partners have developed and disseminated other conventionally bred crops to provide needed vitamins and minerals in the diet. These are vitamin A cassava (Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria), vitamin A orange sweet potato (throughout Sub-Saharan Africa) and iron beans (Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda). Zinc wheat and rice and iron pearl millet have been targeted to South Asia.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of HarvestPlus.

Media Contacts:

Vidushi Sinha, HarvestPlus. Washington DC. v.s.vidushi@cgiar.org Tel: +1 703-505-7438

Eliab Simpungwe, HarvestPlus, Zambia e.simpungwe@cgiar.org Tel: +260974214152

Journal Article Reference:

Biofortified orange maize is as efficacious as a vitamin A supplement in Zambian children even in the presence of high liver reserves of vitamin A: a community-based, randomized placebo-controlled trial (http://goo.gl/Kqj54y),

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; December 2014 ajcn.087379; First published online October 8, 2014. doi:10.3945/ajcn.114.08737.

Related Research:

– Vitamin A equivalence of the β-carotene in β-carotene–biofortified maize porridge consumed by women: http://goo.gl/pOI4jY

– Food-Based Approaches for Ensuring Adequate Vitamin A Nutrition: http://goo.gl/celuOr

Photos: Orange vitamin A maize: http://goo.gl/LbswKD

More About Vitamin A Maize

Maize is the third most important cereal food in the world, and is a staple food for more than one billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. It is high in carbohydrates but lacks essential micronutrients such as vitamin A. Maize exhibits tremendous genetic diversity, and there are many types with high levels of beta-carotene, a naturally occurring plant pigment that is converted by the body into vitamin A when the maize is eaten. This genetic diversity has been used to conventionally breed new varieties of maize that are high-yielding and also rich in vitamin A. HarvestPlus has partnered with many institutions to develop and test orange maize, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) (http://www.cimmyt.org/en), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (http://www.iita.org), Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) (http://goo.gl/NCgy4y) and Purdue University.

More about HarvestPlus

HarvestPlus (http://www.harvestplus.org) leads a global effort to improve nutrition and public health by developing and deploying staple food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals. These are cassava, maize, and orange sweet potato that provide more vitamin A; beans and pearl millet that provide more iron; and rice and wheat that provide more zinc. We work with public and private sector partners in more than 40 countries. HarvestPlus is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Its science is carried out by its 15 research centers in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. The HarvestPlus program is coordinated by two of these centers – the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (http://ciat.cgiar.org) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (http://www.ifpri.org).

NAIROBI, Kenya, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — UN Women with the African Union (AU), IFAD, FAO and WFP are co-hosting an exciting regional Sharefair for Rural Women’s Technologies on October 15-17 at the UN Compound in Gigiri.

The first of its kind, this showcase stemmed from a need to simultaneously address the successes, the innovations and yet the continued constraints faced by African women farmers, particularly in the Eastern and Southern African region. The Sharefair, will bring almost 100 exhibitors to showcase their agricultural innovations.

The three day exhibition will run over International Day of Rural Women and World Food Day and aims to highlight the opportunities in investing in technologies for rural women. While women are central in all aspects of agriculture and off-farm activities in the communities, their efforts are often hampered by their lack of access to productive resources, technologies, services and markets.

“This Sharefair is testament of the transformative power of agricultural technologies. Importantly, it underlines the huge potential to be realized from bringing women, who are the vanguard of rural economies across Africa, on board,” said Ms Christine Musisi, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

Running concurrently to the exhibitions will be high-level policy discussions and panels with regional and national government officials and other sector leaders. These will highlight efforts on gender-sensitive agricultural and nutrition policies; identify promising technologies, and address the constraints to scaling up innovations. Simultaneous, hands-on, practical workshops will be held by successful women and other agriculture sector leaders.

Ms Musisi also urges governments, financial institutions and communities in the Eastern and Southern Africa region to prioritize support through policies, funding and programming for female farmers;

“Women are untapped resources of agriculture in East and Southern African. This 2014 Sharefair acknowledges this, but also digs deeply into the mind and hearts of those who can physically, financially and politically take these ready resources to a prosperous future,” she said.

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The media accreditation process for the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014 presented by TOYOTA is now open. The competition will be held in Marrakech and Rabat from 10 to 20 December 2014.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 17 November 2014.

The competition will feature Auckland City FC from New Zealand, Cruz Azul FC from Mexico, Moghreb Athletic de Tétouan from Morocco, Real Madrid CF from Spain and CA San Lorenzo from Argentina. These five clubs will be joined by the respective winners of the AFC Champions League and CAF Champions League.

Media accreditation process

Please note that the media accreditation process for any FIFA competition involves two steps:

1. Register for access to the FIFA Media Channel by logging on to: http://media.fifa.com/registration. You will then receive confirmation that you have been granted access to the FIFA Media Channel.

2. Once you have received your username and password, or if you are already registered, log on to: http://media.fifa.com. Select “FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014” from the “Competitions & Events” section and complete the

online media accreditation form.

FIFA Media Channel

The FIFA Media Channel is a password-protected website that is updated constantly during a competition. It is designed to provide media professionals with information on the latest event activities, including press conferences, team training sessions, details about competition media facilities and stadium media centres (SMCs), and media ticketing. You will also find useful contacts and other media resources on the FIFA Media Channel.

Access to the FIFA Media Channel and an accreditation application do not guarantee that you will be issued with accreditation for a FIFA competition. If we are unable to accommodate you on this occasion, you will be informed by e-mail.

Visa information

Media representatives visiting Morocco are advised that they may require a visa to enter the country and are responsible for making their own arrangements.

TV/radio

For TV and radio accreditation queries, please contact: fcwc-tv@dentsu.co.jp

For more information on the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014, please visit: www.fifa.com/morocco2014

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A United Nations report released today details serious violations of human rights, including summary and extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, committed against civilians by Congolese security forces in the context of Operation “Likofi” in Kinshasa between 15 November 2013 and 15 February 2014.

The report, based on investigations conducted by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO)* in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), documents the killing of at least nine civilians and the enforced disappearance of at least 32 civilians by agents of the Congolese National Police (PNC) as part of Operation “Likofi”. The total number of victims could be much higher since UNJHRO human rights officers faced various difficulties in their investigations into these human rights violations.

“I am appalled by the gravity of the human rights violations documented in this report and I call on the Congolese authorities to bring to justice without delay the perpetrators of these human rights violations,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the DRC, Martin Kobler, added that “this shows how urgent it is to accelerate security sector reform and to establish strong accountability mechanisms within the Congolese police force.”

Note to editors:

In accordance with its mandate, UNJHRO staff conducted investigations into violations of human rights committed in Kinshasa by the PNC as part of Operation “Likofi” (meaning “Punch” in Lingala) between 15 November 2013 and 15 February 2014. The objective of Operation “Likofi” was to track down delinquents, commonly called “kulunas”, in the city of Kinshasa. For this report, UNJHRO staff collected more than 70 testimonies from different sources, including within the police itself.

The report documents 41 victims, including four children, of violations of the right to life, including summary and extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances, committed during the Operation “Likofi” in several communes of the capital. The human rights violations documented in the report implicate the PNC and particularly members of the Légion nationale d’intervention (LENI) and of the Groupe mobile d’intervention (GMI). The majority of the killings and enforced disappearances of civilians documented in the report were perpetrated with the same modus operandi by PNC agents, who generally operated at night, wore masks, and traveled in vehicles without license plates in certain neighborhoods of Kinshasa.

The UNJHRO took note of the decision taken by the General Commissioner of the PNC on 15 August 2014 to set up a commission of inquiry aimed at investigating and identifying abuses allegedly committed by PNC agents in the scope of Operation Likofi.

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has today called on governments and international donors to urgently mobilize increased financial, medical, and logistical assistance to Ebo…

DUBLIN, Ireland, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Their Excellencies, the Ambassadors of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of Namibia and the Kingdom of Sweden presented their Letters of Credence to the President at Áras an Uachtaráin today.

H.E. Mr. Kyaw Zwar Minn, Ambassador of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Aye Minn Myat, and by Ms. Moe Thuzar, Counsellor at the Embassy.

H.E. Mr. Steve Vemunavi Katjiuanjo, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia, was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Christophine Katjiuanjo, and by Mr. Michael Ndivayele, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy.

H.E. Ms. Ulrika Sundberg, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, travelled from Stockholm for today’s ceremony.

Mr. Michael Ring, T.D.,Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, represented the Government at the ceremony.

The following were also present: Mr. Art O’Leary, Secretary-General to the President; Mr. Niall Burgess, Secretary-General, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Ms. Orla O’Hanrahan, Chief of Protocol, Mr. Joe Brennan and Mr Shane Stephens, Protocol, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Ambassadors were escorted to and from Áras an Uachtaráin by an Escort of Honour consisting of a motorcycle detachment drawn from the 2nd Cavalry Squadron, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin, under the command of Lieutenant Richard Piggott.

A Guard of Honour was provided at Áras an Uachtaráin by the 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron, Defence Forces Training Centre, Curragh Camp, Co. Kildare, under the command of Lieutenant Donncha Lenihan.

Captain Fergal Carroll conducted the Army No. 1 Band.

NEW YORK, October 15, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Ebola outbreak is “winning the race” against attempts to contain it, the head of the United Nations mission working to stop the deadly virus warned the Security Council today as he urged the international community to help expand on-the-ground efforts across the affected nations in West Africa.

In his briefing, Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), told the 15-nation Council that he is “deeply worried” that the steps implemented by the international community are “not nearly enough” to halt the advance of the fatal disease.

“Ebola got a head start on us,” he said. “It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us, and it is winning the race. If Ebola wins, we the peoples of the United Nations lose so very much…,” he said.

“We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan,” Mr. Banbury told the Council via video link from the operation’s headquarters in Ghana.

In its most recent situation report on the disease, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the wider UN response, reported 8,376 cases and 4,024 deaths from Ebola based on information provided by the Ministries of Health of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, whose UN delegations were represented at today’s Security Council briefing.

The agency notes that the upward epidemic trend continues in Sierra Leone and most probably also in Liberia. By contrast, the situation in Guinea appears to be more stable, though, in the context of an Ebola outbreak, a stable pattern of transmission is still of a very grave concern, and could change quickly.

“With every day that passes, the number of sick people increases,” continued Mr. Banbury. “Time is our biggest enemy. We must use every minute of every day to our advantage and that is what UNMEER is doing.”

Mr. Banbury recalled WHO’s recommendation that, within 60 days of 1 October, 70 per cent of all those infected must be in the hospital and 70 per cent of the victims safely buried, if the outbreak were to be successfully arrested. Otherwise, he warned, the Ebola numbers risked rising “dramatically” and overwhelming the overall response.

“This is what we are fighting for now: we are fighting to prevent unavoidable deaths. We are fighting for people who are alive and healthy today, but will become infected…and die if we do not put in place the necessary emergency response,” he declared.

In particular, he called for an increase in the number of diagnostic laboratories, transport support, and funding to help with operation logistics which, he said, would help aid the UN response to a crisis so vast in scope and magnitude.

Moreover, with the number of infected growing exponentially each day, Mr. Banbury cautioned that UNMEER could expect new caseloads of approximately 10,000 people per week by 1 December, meaning that 7,000 beds for treatment were needed. He noted that his Mission expected to have 4,300 beds in treatment centres by that date but lamented that there was no staff to operate many of them under current plans.

“UNMEER is playing the critical role of crisis manager,” he added, “but responding to a complex crisis, especially one that cuts across multiple national boundaries, requires an overall perspective and a comprehensive plan.”

The UNMEER head pointed out that his mission plan would ultimately ensure that no gaps were left unfilled and that resources were allocated appropriately, all the while permitting Governments to own the Ebola responses in their respective countries.

“There’s much bad news about Ebola but the good news is we know how to stop it,” said Mr. Banbury, while emphasizing that failure was “inconceivable” and “unacceptable.”

“We must defeat Ebola and we must do it fast,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, a UN children’s rights official briefed reporters on the broader UN response to the Ebola outbreak.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) spokesperson, Christophe Boulierac, reported that an upcoming conference to be held on 16 and 17 October in Kenema, Sierra Leone, would confront the issues facing Ebola survivors as well as the caring of children infected or affected by the disease.

Alongside the devastating physiological effects of the virus, the outbreak has ignited panic and fear across affected areas with some survivors, victims, and their children, being spurned by their local communities.

Mr. Boulierac noted that one “creative” method to help treat and care for children in a more compassionate manner involved the use of Ebola survivors who could provide those children with the attention they need at no risk to themselves or others. Ebola survivors, as medical professionals have frequently reiterated, are no longer capable of contracting the virus. In addition, he pointed out that the conference would address the stigma and discrimination facing Ebola survivors as such challenges undermined their recovery.

In other news, Karin Landgren, head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), announced the death today of the United Nations Volunteer who worked in the Mission’s medical team and was evacuated to Germany last week to receive treatment for Ebola. This is the second death at UNMIL due to Ebola, after an earlier probable case that resulted in the death of a national staff member on 25 September.

“UNMIL colleagues are saddened by the tragic news as they continue to serve at this very difficult time. Our thoughts now are with the family and friends of the departed,” a UN spokesperson said today in New York.

As for international support against Ebola, the spokesperson noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that it will provide specialized diagnostic equipment to help Sierra Leone in its efforts to combat the outbreak. That support will later be extended to Liberia and Guinea.

It will consist of supplementing the country’s ability to diagnose Ebola quickly, using a technology known as Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Early diagnosis, if combined with appropriate medical care, increases the victims’ chance of survival and helps curtail the spread of the disease by making it possible to isolate and treat the patients earlier, the spokesperson explained.