Category: APO-OPA

CONAKRY, Guinea, July 2, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Based on epidemiological analysis conducted by WHO, three major factors are contributing to patterns of transmission, which are currently responsible for the continuous propagation of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the sub-region. These factors include transmission of EVD in rural communities, facilitated by strong cultural practices and traditional beliefs; transmission of EVD in densely populated peri-urban areas of Conakry in Guinea and Monrovia in Liberia; and cross-border transmission of EVD along the border areas of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where commercial and social activities continue among the border areas of these countries.

Health sector response

Containment of this outbreak requires a strong response in the countries and especially along their shared border areas. As one of the response elements, WHO is organizing a high-level meeting for the Ministers of Health in the sub-region scheduled for 2–3 July 2014 in Accra, Ghana. The meeting will bring together Ministers of Health and the Directors of disease prevention and control from 11 African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda), as well as partners, Ebola survivors, representatives of airlines and mining companies, and the donor communities. The objective of the meeting is to analyse the situation, identify gaps, develop operational response plans, and to ensure increased political commitment and enhanced cross-border collaboration for EVD response activities among the countries in the sub-region.

WHO and technical partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), including the EU Mobile Laboratory consortium, the IFRC, and national societies, Institut Pasteur Dakar, Institut Pasteur Lyon, Institut Pasteur Paris, Bernard Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, Public Health Agency of Canada, Public Health England, and US CDC, together with UN agencies, DFID, EU, ECHO, and other partners are providing the necessary technical expertise and support to the Ministries of Health to stop community and health facility transmission of the virus.

WHO is closely supporting the Ministries of Health through the deployment of additional experts in various specialties, providing field logistics support, and personal protective equipment and medical supplies. These experts are drawn from WHO offices, GOARN partners, specialised networks, especially in the region, and include:

• Field epidemiologists, who are working with the countries in surveillance and monitoring of the outbreak;

• Laboratory experts who are providing mobile field laboratories in early confirmation of Ebola cases;

• Clinical management experts who are deployed to health facilities and are treating affected patients;

• Clinical management experts who are deployed to health facilities and are treating affected patients;

• Infection and prevention control experts who are helping countries in their ongoing efforts to stop transmission of the virus in the community and health-care facilities;

• Logisticians who are ensuring and operational response platform, and dispatching essential equipment and needed materials; and

• Social mobilization and risk communications teams who are helping public health officials to develop and deliver appropriate messages about how to report, handle, and treat Ebola cases.

WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone based on the current information available for this event.

Disease update

New cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) continue to be reported by the Ministries of Health in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Between 25 and 30 June 2014, 22 new cases of EVD, including 14 deaths, were reported from the three countries, as follows: Guinea, 3 new cases and 5 deaths; Liberia, 8 new cases with 7 deaths; and Sierra Leone 11 new cases and 2 deaths. These numbers include laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths of EVD.

As of 30 June 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to EVD in the three countries stands at 759, including 467 deaths. The distribution and classification of the cases are as follows: Guinea, 413 cases (293 confirmed, 88 probable, and 32 suspected) and 303 deaths (193 confirmed, 82 probable, and 28 suspected); Liberia, 107 cases (52 confirmed, 21 probable, and 34 suspected) and 65 deaths (33 confirmed, 17 probable, and 15 suspected); and Sierra Leone, 239 cases (199 confirmed, 31 probable, and 9 suspected) and 99 deaths (65 confirmed, 29 probable, and 5 suspected).

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Dr. Jill Biden has arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, her first stop on a three-country visit to Africa. Dr. Biden is joined by Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the United States Agency for Internation…

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — From 2 – 3 July, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will join other partners in Accra, Ghana, for a special ministerial meeting on Ebola virus disease. The meeting was called by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an attempt to interrupt the further spread of the deadly disease.

Ministers of health from eleven West African countries will discuss with partners, including the Red Cross, WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, the best ways of collectively addressing the Ebola outbreak, and develop a regional response plan.

As auxiliary to government, and with its volunteer networks, the Red Cross is well placed to assist in the development and execution of a response plan. To date, the Red Cross has launched emergency response operations in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and preparedness operations in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. These operations will reach a total of more than 10 million people.

IFRC will have a team in Accra, actively participating in the two-day session. Team members include health, water and sanitation specialists, as well as emergency operations personnel based in the affected countries.

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The International Organization for Migration, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), is holding a five-day seminar on diaspora mapping in Addis Aba…

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Kenya police have been urged to enforce the anti-trafficking law to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenders in Mombasa County following high cases of gender based violence, trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. These were some of key recommendations that emerged at the end of a two day training workshop organized by UNFPA, UNICEF and CRADLE to create awareness among various stakeholders in Mombasa on the Counter Trafficking in Persons Act and the Sexual Offences Act that came into force in 2010.

The stakeholders drawn from the police, NGOs, Ministry of Health, civil society, and Tourism Regulatory Authority, who gathered in Malindi from 24-26th June 2014, decried the alarmingly low number of investigations on the rampant practice of sexual exploitation of children by tourists on the Kenyan coast. They called for the prosecution of government officials suspected of complicity in human trafficking. “We have children as young as 12 years being sexually exploited,” stated Sewe Malamba of USAID APHIA Plus, who attended the workshop. It has been reported that vehicles transporting ‘khat’ (aka Miraa) to Somalia return to Kenya with young Somali girls “who often end up in brothels in Nairobi’s Eastleigh and Mombasa”.

“The poverty in Mombasa and the rest of the country serves as the right incubator for thriving child sex tourism,” said Esther E. Kasiva, a counsellor from Pahali Pa Usalama. “Children from poor family backgrounds are easy targets, with the promise for better life.”

The stakeholders also called for specialized training for law enforcement officials with a main focus on how to identify and respond to trafficking crimes. Malindi was the ideal location to tackle the issue, as the coastline of Kenya is known as the hub of trafficking. There has been a high number of cases on gender-based violence, trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. Kenya has been identified as a country of origin, transit, and destination for victims of human trafficking. In June 2012, the United States Department of State placed Kenya on the Tier 2 Watch List in its Annual Trafficking in Persons Report as it did not show evidence of increasing efforts to combat human trafficking. The report reflects uncoordinated government efforts, which create an environment conducive to trafficking.

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Zambia, in close cooperation with the UN country team, and with the support of the European Union and the IOM Development Fund, last week hosted the 4th National Symposium on Human Trafficking in Lusaka.

The two-day meeting, which had the theme “Zambia@50: Protecting Migrants from Trafficking and Exploitation”, brought together over 100 government and NGO participants from across the country to reflect on what has been achieved in the fight against human trafficking and how to improve protection for vulnerable migrants in the future.

At the opening of the event, Zambian Vice President Dr. Guy Scott officially launched a new tool kit for the protection of vulnerable migrants.

The tools, which were developed by IOM, UNICEF and UNHCR, together with government and civil society counterparts, include mechanisms for the identification, protection and referral of the most vulnerable people on the move.

They are intended to strengthen border officials and service providers’ awareness and understanding of international, regional and national legal instruments for the protection of migrants, including victims of human trafficking.

“Across generations human beings have migrated in search of a better life. But such hopes do not always materialize. Lured by the false promises of traffickers, many victims of trafficking are subject to abuse and violations of human rights of the worst kind, including violence at the hands of traffickers or migrant smugglers whilst in transit, and ultimately facing sexual or labour exploitation,” said UN Resident Coordinator Simon Cammelbeeck.

Zambia is a source, destination and transit point for human trafficking and the complexity of population movements from, to and through the country is increasing. Flows often include refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants, victims of trafficking and unaccompanied and separated minors.

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — After the Italian navy found some 30 bodies in a fishing boat carrying up to 600 migrants between the Libyan coast and Sicily, the International Organization for Migration called upon European countries to provide additional resources for rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

“It’s unacceptable that migrants should die while fleeing misfortune in hopes of a better life. We see in the latest tragedy that criminals mistreat migrants, cramming them into the holds of unsafe vessels,” said IOM Director General, William Lacy Swing.

“We don’t yet know why these migrants died, but the focus must now be on the smuggling gangs who routinely send them to their deaths on unsafe vessels,” Swing added.

The Italian naval vessel Grecale found the overloaded fishing vessel after responding to a distress call made by the migrants who called an emigre Eritrean radio station in Sweden which then relayed the information to the Italian navy.

The Grecale was patrolling the Mediterranean between North Africa and Sicily under Italy’s policy of Mare Nostrum, aimed at saving the lives of migrants making the passage from North Africa in unsafe vessels. Italy’s search and rescue operations have saved tens of thousands of migrants’ lives in the past 10 months. Upon boarding the fishing vessel on Sunday the navy discovered the bodies of 30 migrants in the hold, who had apparently asphyxiated from engine fumes.

There were between 300-600 migrants aboard the vessel according to reports, some of them pregnant women in distress. The Grecale was expected in Pozzallo, southern Sicily on Tuesday, 2 July.

Smugglers are increasingly putting migrants aboard unsafe vessels, without sufficient fuel to make the crossing. Life vests are rarely found aboard the migrant vessels, as smugglers prefer cramming more people aboard to increase the profitability of every passage.

“This new tragedy shows that traffickers are cramming migrants onto shockingly unsafe vessels,” said Ambassador Swing. “It must be possible to track down and prosecute these criminal gangs who cynically send migrants to their deaths,” Swing said.

Thanks to Mare Nostrum the number of reported deaths in the Mediterranean has decreased this year. In 2013, by contrast, some 700 migrants were reported to have drowned at sea. Italy has recovered 50 bodies this year, including the latest 30, but many more are believed to disappear without trace throughout the Mediterranean.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 60,000 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Italy by sea, compared to 42,000 during 2013.

“This is a humanitarian emergency that concerns all Europe,” said Ambassador Swing.

Many of the migrants rescued this year were fleeing war and totalitarian regimes in the Middle East and Africa. Most of the arrivals since the beginning of this year have been fleeing hardship and oppression in Eritrea and Syria. Many transit via Libya where they often suffer torture and abuse at the hands of gangs and militias, on their route to find international protection in Europe. Migrants who previously arrived in Sicily have told IOM’s officers upon arrival that they decided to risk boarding a boat bound for Italy because life in Syria, Eritrea and Libya had become unbearable, and they felt they had no alternative but to put their lives in the hands of smugglers.

Italy’s Mare Nostrum operation started on 16 October 2013 after the worst tragedy in the Mediterranean for many years. On 5 October 2013, 368 men, women and children drowned when their boat caught fire. Mare Nostrum aims to save as many people as possible with ships which patrol the Mediterranean 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At the moment, the operation is carried out only by the Italian government, which says it costs more than 10 million Euros per month and cannot continue without additional support from other EU member states.

JUBA, South Sudan, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Violence in hospitals and the destruction of medical facilities are denying medical services to many of South Sudan’s most vulnerable people, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said today in a report, South Sudan Conflict: Violence Against Healthcare.

Read the full report: South Sudan Conflict: Violence Against Healthcare.

Since armed conflict erupted in South Sudan in December, at least 58 people have been killed on hospital grounds, and hospitals were ransacked or burnt on at least six occasions, MSF said. These figures are not comprehensive, only representing the best of MSF’s knowledge about incidents in areas where MSF has activities or conducted medical assessments.

“The conflict has at times seen horrific levels of violence, including against healthcare facilities,” said Raphael Gorgeu, MSF head of mission. “Patients have been shot in their beds, and lifesaving medical facilities have been burned and effectively destroyed. These attacks have far-reaching consequences for hundreds of thousands of people who are cut off from medical services.”

The aim of the report is to encourage dialogue and raise awareness about the impact of the crisis on the provision of medical care, and encourage positive change towards ensuring safe access to healthcare for the people of South Sudan.

Hospitals have been ransacked in the towns of Bor, Malakal, Bentiu, Nasir and Leer, often during periods of heavy fighting. The damage goes far beyond the acts of violence themselves as vulnerable people are cut off from healthcare when they desperately need it.

For example, MSF’s hospital in Leer, southern Unity state, was destroyed along with most of town in late January and early February. It was the only facility providing secondary healthcare, including surgery and treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, in an area with approximately 270,000 people. Entire buildings were reduced to ash, and equipment needed for surgery, the storage of vaccines, blood transfusions and laboratory work were destroyed.

In May, MSF resumed some activities as people started to return to Leer. Staff members treated more than 1,600 children for malnutrition in the first three weeks alone. However, the organisation is unable to offer anything like the services it used to, such as routine vaccinations and emergency surgeries.

“Unfortunately, because of this crisis we lost track of many of our patients, some of whom may have died if they could not access ongoing treatment,” said Dr. Muhammed Shoaib, MSF medical coordinator. “Now, we are back and treating some patients, but can only offer a fraction of our previous services. There are no options at all for surgery in the whole of southern Unity state, for example.”

South Sudan State hospitals have been the sites of some of the worst violence. At Bor State Hospital, 14 patients and one Ministry of Health staff member were shot dead during violence in December. Fourteen people, including eleven patients shot in their beds, were killed at Malakal Teaching Hospital in February. At Bentiu State Hospital, at least 28 people were killed in April, including at least one Ministry of Health staff member.

MSF has repeatedly condemned such incidents, which have greatly affected its ability to deliver humanitarian assistance at the time when people need it most. MSF calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure that all people in South Sudan can seek medical care without fear of violence.

The report is part of MSF’s Medical Care Under Fire project which was launched in South Sudan in November 2013. The initiative is part of a global project which seeks to better understand the nature of violence that healthcare providers face in conflict zones, to improve the security of patients, staff and healthcare facilities. In South Sudan, MSF works with communities, medical and humanitarian actors and authorities at local, national and international levels to create a safer environment for the provision of medical care.

VATICAN, Holy See, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — This morning in the Vatican Apostolic Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the president of the Republic of Madagascar, Hery Martial Rajaonarimampianina, who subsequen…

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Press Statement
Marie Harf
Deputy Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
June 30, 2014

The United States congratulates the people of Mauritania on the successfu…