Afghan migrants rest while they wait for transport by smugglers after crossing the Iran-Turkish border | Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

The mere prospect of Afghan migrants heading to Europe’s shores is forcing the Continent to confront its Achilles’ heel: It has never settled a bitter dispute over how to handle asylum seekers.

Six years ago, the European Union descended into in-fighting as it struggled to process asylum seekers fleeing war-torn Syria. Over 1 million refugees and migrants crossed the sea to reach Europe in 2015.

Officials vowed to reform, to create a system that would process and distribute asylum seekers efficiently across the Continent. Next time, they wanted to be prepared.

That never happened.

Now, as Taliban militants seize control in Afghanistan, that failure is looming over European leaders. And it’s led to officials and diplomats floating disparate ideas for how to handle an expected increase in Afghan asylum seekers.

The proposals are as varied as they are piecemeal — build border fencing, fund refugee resettlement in non-EU countries like Turkey and Pakistan, offer immediate but temporary EU protection to Afghans.

In some instances, countries have moved ahead unilaterally. Greece has already installed 40 kilometers of fencing and surveillance along its border.

Greece has increased its ability to track and limit migrant crossings | Byron Smith/Getty Images

EU ambassadors are also expected to meet this week to discuss a collective approach, according to a diplomat. On Saturday, EU leaders offered a preview of their own plan — a mixture of funding for member countries that resettle refugees and partnerships with outside nations.

The throughline, though, is that migration has, once again, seized the EU. And human rights workers warn that the focus could actually harm the bloc. For starters, officials working on migration say the majority of fleeing Afghans will likely stay in neighboring countries, not come to the EU. Additionally, NGOs argue that framing the Afghan crisis as a migration problem will give an advantage to neighboring countries — including Turkey, Belarus and Morocco — that use migrants as leverage or blackmail with the EU, not to mention the far-right political parties within the bloc itself.

“It’s almost playing into the hands of the far right to look at this crisis through that lens,” said Imogen Sudbery, executive director of policy and advocacy for Europe for the International Rescue Committee, an NGO that has worked in Afghanistan since 1988.

An intractable subject

Since 2015, EU countries have repeatedly tried — and failed — to set up a system to evenly redistribute asylum seekers who arrive in the EU.

Last year, the European Commission offered a new redistribution proposal, but there’s little optimism it will advance any time soon.

Instead, the bloc has often outsourced the asylum process to countries beyond its borders. In 2016, amid the Syrian refugee surge, the EU struck a deal with Turkey, under which Ankara pledged to work to stop migrants crossing the Aegean for Greece in exchange for the EU funding several billion euros worth of aid projects in Turkey.

On Friday, rumors started circulating of another incipient EU deal with Turkey. While Turkey doesn’t share a direct border with Afghanistan, diplomats have discussed the possibility that it could play a role in hosting Afghan refugees.

A Turkish official denied the rumors: “There’s no deal between Turkey and the EU on Afghan refugees.”

Migrants from Afghanistan wash themselves on the roadside on the outskirts of Tatvan City, Turkey | Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Still, a second EU diplomat said he expects high-level discussions on the issue between the two sides in the coming days. And sure enough, European Council President Charles Michel tweeted on Sunday that he had discussed the matter with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey isn’t the only country expected to play a role, however. On Friday, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, predicted that “any exodus” of Afghan refugees would likely go to the country’s immediate neighbors, including Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. He emphasized the need for humanitarian aid to go to these places if the global community wants to keep Afghan refugees closer to home.

“If the aid to these countries were not consistent, then there would be a strong risk that the movements would continue towards Europe,” he said.

EU leaders spoke directly to such partnerships during a Saturday appearance at a Spanish facility hosting evacuated Afghans who had worked for the EU. Michel called migration a “thorny” topic in the EU and pointed to the possibility of working with non-EU countries on the matter. And Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed to raise a global refugee resettlement program at an upcoming gathering of leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations.

Von der Leyen also said the EU would boost humanitarian aid for Afghanistan above the current €57 million earmarked for 2021. Working in Afghanistan itself poses considerable challenges, of course. EU leaders have stressed that any humanitarian assistance can’t go through the local authorities.

“One option could be to see whether the Taliban can help, but that’s hard to believe,” the second diplomat said.

Build that wall?

Despite long-standing protestations from some EU leaders, fencing has started cropping up along some of the EU’s border states — and some diplomats are discussing whether walling people out should become a more common approach.

The prospect is a touchy one for the EU.

When Hungary built a barrier in 2015 along its border with Serbia and Croatia, the structure quickly became a symbol of a populist shortcut for a multifaceted problem like migration. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Donald Trump was vowing to build a border wall as an insurgent candidate for U.S. president.

At the time, then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker admonished the Hungarian move, saying “walls and fences have no place in an EU member state.”

That reluctance seems to have slowly eroded over time — as long as EU money is not involved.

The Commission didn’t criticize Lithuania when it recently announced a border fence to prevent neighboring Belarus, run by the autocratic Alexander Lukashenko, from intentionally sending migrants across the border. In fact, a Commission spokesperson said, “in the situation that Lithuania faces, such a barrier could indeed be a good idea,” while clarifying that EU money wouldn’t finance “fences as such.”

Migrants are seen through a fence at a camp near the border town of Kapciamiestis, Lithuania | Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images

Now Greece has turned its fence-building efforts toward Afghan migrants.

On Friday, Greek Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis visited the country’s border with Turkey and vowed to keep the dividing line “secure and impenetrable.” He said Greece would move before the EU acted.

“We, as a European country, participate in the institutions of the European Union,” he said. “However, as a country, we cannot wait idly for the possible consequences.”

Observers point to a key moment that occurred last year in March, when von der Leyen, newly installed as Commission president, went to Greece. While there, she thanked the country “for being our European shield in these times.”

Immediate protection — for now

There is also a push within the EU to help Afghans actually come to Europe, swiftly and legally.

In recent days, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has called on member states “to increase resettlement quotas” for Afghans. And von der Leyen echoed that call on Saturday, describing it as “our duty” to resettle Afghan migrants. She offered “the necessary budget means” for EU countries that “step up and help resettle refugees.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has floated an even more ambitious idea.

During an appearance before the European Parliament on Thursday, Borrell, a socialist, mentioned the possibility of invoking a never-before-used EU clause known as the Temporary Protection directive.

The measure, introduced in 2001 following the refugee crisis in Kosovo, offers instant protection to a refugee category and allows EU countries to redistribute those refugees on a voluntary basis. And unlike many EU initiatives, the directive does not require unanimity. The Council, which comprises the 27 member states, can trigger it with just a majority vote after the Commission proposes it.

“This might be the occasion to use it,” Borrell said Thursday.

Yet EU officials are skeptical. They stressed that the directive was floated during the Arab Spring uprisings 10 years ago and failed to gain enough support among EU member states.

“We should work on it now,” urged one official, saying public opinion might be in favor this time.

“But,” he added, “I’m afraid it is a very limited window of opportunity.”

Nektaria Stamouli contributed reporting.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/afghanistan-migrants-europe-no-eu-refugee-plan/

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• US evacuation flights from Afghanistan will stop on August 31.
• The US is reportedly evacuating people from Kabul at a rate of 20,000 a day.
• Based on one estimate, 150,000 Afghans who worked with the US could be left behind.

As many as 150,000 Afghan nationals who helped the US military could be stranded after August 31, data from a new estimate published in The New York Times suggests.

The US is to cease all evacuations from Afghanistan on August 31, in line with President Joe Biden’s plan to have all troops out of the country before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby said Wednesday that the US hoped to evacuate around 100,000 people by August 31.

But, as of Wednesday, at least 250,000 Afghans who helped the US military are still in Afghanistan, according to an analysis of Department of Defense data conducted by the Association of Wartime Allies, which was cited by The Times. The estimate is based on annual DOD reports on Afghan employment, The Times said.

The US is currently evacuating people at a rate of 20,000 a day, The Times said. At that rate, around 150,000 Afghans eligible for expedited visas would be left behind, based on that estimate.

Many of the 250,000 are entitled to Special Immigrant Visas and Priority 2 visas as a result of working with or for the US military in Afghanistan since 2001.

As of 3 a.m. Thursday, 82,300 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 14, the day before the Taliban took Kabul, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre  tweeted.

The International Rescue Committee estimated earlier this month that about 300,000 Afghans “have been affiliated with the US mission,” but the Association of Wartime Allies said a top-end estimate indicates that as many as one million Afghans could be eligible for the expedited visas.

On Monday, the director of the CIA, William Burns, held a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul, The Washington Post reported.

While the CIA has refused to say what the meeting was about, The Post reported that it was “likely” the meeting included talks about Biden’s plans to end evacuations on August 31.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said as many as 1,500 American civilians were still in Afghanistan.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/150k-afghans-helped-us-military-likely-left-behind-estimate-suggests-2021-8

The post 150,000 Afghans who helped the US could be left stranded after the August 31 deadline, new estimate suggests first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Five years after Europe’s migrant crisis eased, Turkey is warning that it may no longer be able to handle a growing flood of refugees from Syria on its own.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have moved towards the Turkish border in recent weeks because of attacks launched by Syrian regime and Russian forces on rebel positions in Syria’s north-western Idlib province.

The situation could exacerbate severe overcrowding and dire conditions in migrant camps on the Greek islands, which have already seen an uptick in arrivals from the Turkish coast since the summer.

If Syrians start to pour across the Turkish border, “Turkey will not carry this migration burden alone”, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees.

“The negative effects of this pressure on us will be an issue felt by all European countries, especially Greece,” he said, warning that a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis would become inevitable.

A Syrian boy held by his mother in a convoy of vehicles fleeing Idlib province CREDIT: AFP

The post Turkey warns refugee crisis could return with a vengeance in 2020 as Greece struggles with overcrowded camps first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A total of 3,004 people have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since Aug. 1 of last year, according to Congolese health officials, and 2,899 of those individuals have tested positive for Ebola virus disease, which is transmitted through contact with blood or secretions from an infected person and causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever.

There have been 2,006 deaths so far, including 1,901 people who died from confirmed cases of Ebola. The other deaths are considered probable cases. Just over 900 people sickened with the virus have recovered so far, according to Congolese health officials.

The grim milestone comes a month after the World Health Organization (WHO), the global health arm of the United Nations, declared the ongoing outbreak an international emergency. The WHO’s director-general has described the outbreak as more complex than the deadlier 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa due to the region’s political and security instability, attacks on health workers, a highly mobile population and community mistrust and misinformation.

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Hugh Kinsella Cunningham/EPA via Shutterstock

This is the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the most severe there since 1976 when scientists first identified the virus near the eponymous Ebola River. It’s also one of the worst on record anywhere, second only to the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in multiple West African nations that infected 28,652 people and killed 11,325, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The current outbreak is now spread across three eastern Congolese provinces that share international borders with South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

On Thursday, Uganda’s Ministry of Health said that a 9-year-old Congolese girl with Ebola had traveled across the border to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her mother to seek medical care. The child has been placed in isolation at an Ebola treatment center that was set up in a nearby Ugandan town in preparation for cross-border cases, according to the health ministry.

Although the average number of new cases reported per week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has dipped slightly during the last few weeks, the number of affected areashas increased.

Cases have been identified in new geographical areas in recent weeks, though the epidemic’s epicenter is North Kivu province, where conflict and limited infrastructure has hampered the response.

A technical committee running the Ebola response and reporting directly to the Congolese president organized two days of training this week with health workers in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, to help prevent the potential spread of the virus there and prepare for the response by strengthening the city’s entry checkpoints. There are currently no suspected cases of Ebola in Kinshasa, which is some 1,700 miles west of the outbreak’s epicenter, according to a press release from the committee on Thursday.

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Jerome Delay/AP, FILE

Dr. Benoit Kebela, a Congolese epidemiologist on the committee, said the only effective weapon to stopping the spread of the virus is community involvement.

“It is community ownership that will stop this 10th epidemic,” Kebela said in a statement Thursday. “In the city of Kinshasa, there are community leaders such as street leaders, localities, neighborhoods, communes and the whole community with whom we can put an end to this epidemic.”

Bob Kitchen, vice president for emergencies at the International Rescue Committee, one of the aid groups on the ground assisting Congolese health officials, told ABC News in a statement Thursday that many people in the affected areas are “afraid to seek treatment for illnesses, worried they will be sent to an Ebola treatment center where they fear they could contract the disease.”

The “lack of community acceptance” remains the greatest obstacle to containing the outbreak, Kitchen said.

“Building trust with the community doesn’t just mean dialogue with the affected population,” he added. “It means working with the community to adapt the response and address the overall needs they are facing inside and outside of the Ebola outbreak.”

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The Associated Press

An experimental Ebola vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical company Merck that was tested in the West Africa epidemic was approved for use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a week after the outbreak was declared last year. More than 206,000 people in the current outbreak zone have received the experimental vaccine since Aug. 8, 2018, according to Congolese health officials.

Meanwhile, two of four experimental treatments being tested in the outbreak are now being offered to all patients after showing promise in saving lives. Preliminary findings from a randomized controlled trial that began last November in four Ebola treatment centers in North Kivu indicated that patients receiving either of two antibody-based therapies, known as REGN-EB3 and mAb114, had a greater chance of survival compared to those receiving two other experiential drugs, known as ZMapp and remdesivir.

After a meeting to review the initial results, an independent monitoring board recommended all future patients be offered either REGN-EB3 or mAb114, while the other two treatments be stopped.

“From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable,” Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director-general of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, which is co-sponsoring the clinical study, told reporters during a telephone briefing earlier this month.

But the epidemic is still not under control. Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a medical charity which is providing care for Ebola patients in collaboration with Congolese authorities, said it is “extremely concerned about the lack of visibility on the actual epidemiological situation,” since a high number of Ebola deaths are being reported from where people live, rather than from treatment centers, in recent weeks.

“Many people have died of Ebola in their communities before they could be identified, diagnosed, and admitted for treatment of the disease,” MSF said in a statement Thursday. “Roughly a third of Ebola-related deaths have been diagnosed only post-mortem, which is a clear indication the response to the epidemic is failing in identifying and tracing people who’ve potentially contracted Ebola.”

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/worlds-2nd-largest-ebola-outbreak-surpasses-3000-cases/story?id=65261822

The post World’s 2nd-largest Ebola outbreak surpasses 3,000 cases first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

In recent months, public health experts have claimed the deadly Ebola virus outbreak that has been ravaging the Congo will not become a global health threat.

However, recent events and updates paint a less optimistic picture.

Last week, the World Health Organization issued a statement on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

If this Ebola outbreak isn’t stopped soon, it could become a global threat.

The recent spike of cases increases the threat that the deadly virus will spread to other countries and efforts must be redoubled to stop it, the WHO said last Friday after a meeting of its expert committee.

On April 12, the WHO claimed that while the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is of “deep concern” the situation does not yet warrant being declared a global emergency.

But don’t get too comfortable.

Here are a few concerning excerpts from the statement:

However, the Committee wished to express their deep concern about the recent increase in transmission in specific areas, and therefore the potential risk of spread to neighbouring countries.

Special emphasis should be placed on addressing the rise in case numbers in the remaining epicentres, notably Butembo, Katwa, Vuhovi, and Mandima.

Because there is a very high risk of regional spread, neighbouring countries should continue to accelerate current preparedness and surveillance efforts, including vaccination of health care workers and front-line workers in surrounding countries.

Cross-border collaboration should continue to be strengthened, including timely sharing of data and alerts, cross-border community engagement and awareness raising. In addition, work should be done to better map population movements and understand social networks bridging national boundaries.

The Committee maintains its previous advice that it is particularly important that no international travel or trade restrictions should be applied. Exit screening, including at airports, ports, and land crossings, is of great importance; however, entry screening, particularly in distant airports, is not considered to be of any public health or cost-benefit value. (source)

This Ebola outbreak has no end in sight.

The outbreak has become the second-deadliest in history, behind the West African one from 2014-16 that killed more than 11,300 people.

As of April 15, the outbreak has claimed 821 lives. The total case number is 1273. Unfortunately, both numbers are soaring, and experts say it is not even close to ending:

Some health experts predicted months ago that the outbreak would end within six months’ time. As complications keep appearing, the time frame is pushed back.

“Given the average number of cases we’re seeing now, this is not going to be over for at least another six months or more,” Tariq Riebl with the International Rescue Committee said Friday.

The chair of WHO’s expert committee that unanimously decided the outbreak is not yet a global emergency, Robert Steffen, said experts were “moderately optimistic” the outbreak could be contained within a “foreseeable time.” (source)

A top Red Cross official told the Associated Press he’s “more concerned than I have ever been” about the possible regional spread of the Ebola virus in Congo after a recent spike in cases.

Emanuele Capobianco spoke by phone ahead of a key World Health Organization meeting in Geneva later Friday about whether to declare the Ebola outbreak in northeastern Congo an international health emergency.

Capobianco, head of health and care at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, cited Congolese health ministry statistics announced on Thursday showing 40 new cases over two days this week.

He called that rate unprecedented in the current eight-month outbreak. (source)

Here’s why Ebola is so dangerous.

As Daisy Luther explained in It’s Back: How to Prep for Ebola 2.0, “Part of the reason Ebola seems particularly terrifying is the graphic presentation, which is the stuff of horror movies. It is a hemorrhagic disease, which means that it can cause bleeding from the mouth, eyes, nose, and rectum.”

Here’s how it progresses:

The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. Humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms. First symptoms are the sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding (e.g. oozing from the gums, blood in the stools). Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes. (source)

But it isn’t just the gruesome visuals. Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, depending on the strain. This outbreak is the Zaire strain of Ebola, which is the same one that made it to America back in 2014.

Could an Ebola outbreak occur in America?

The odds of an Ebola outbreak occurring in the US have long been considered extremely low, mainly because of how the disease is transmitted. People in America usually don’t eat bushmeat, and we have much better sanitation, health education, and health care facilities.

National Geographic explains how Ebola is transmitted from animals to humans:

Ebola is a zoonosis, or a disease that can “spill over” into humans from nonhuman animals in the wild that carry the sickness. Researchers don’t know for sure which animals are Ebola carriers, but there’s evidence that fruit bats may play a role in spreading the virus to other animals, such as chimpanzees, gorillas, and duikers. Humans, in turn, can come into contact with the virus by interacting with infected animals, such as by hunting or preparing bushmeat.

Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids—such as blood, urine, feces, vomit, breast milk, and saliva—from people who have fallen ill or died from EVD. The virus gets into the body through breaks in the skin or through mucous membranes, such as those in the eyes, nose, or mouth. Contaminated needles or syringes also can transmit the virus, and there’s a strong chance that it can also spread via sexual contact. The virus can persist in semen, even after a man has recovered from EVD. (source)

It is possible that migrants from Africa could bring Ebola to the US.

Some independent news outlets are reporting that 20 African migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo were monitored for Ebola and other diseases at the border of Mexico and Laredo, Texas. Full disclosure: Those reports have been difficult to verify and may not be factual.

However, in an article dated April 16 and titled Hundreds of Africans tried to reach the United States. Now they’re stuck in Mexico, The Washington Post reported:

Although the vast majority of migrants passing through Mexico on their way to the United States come from Central America, hundreds are from African countries such as Congo, Cameroon and Ethiopia.

At the Casa Del Migrante Amar, a migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on the Texas border, more than 80 African migrants have gathered. Most are from Congo, Ethi­o­pia or Eritrea.

So, we do know that migrants from Congo are trying to get to the United States, but data on how many have actually arrived – and whether any of them have been screened for Ebola – are not available.

For now, getting prepared for a possible outbreak isn’t a bad idea. To learn how, please see It’s Back: How to Prep for Ebola 2.0.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-18/ebola-outbreak-congo-close-becoming-global-emergency

The post The Ebola Outbreak In Congo Is Close To Becoming A Global Emergency first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The number of Ebola cases announced Thursday surpassed those of the 2000 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, making it second only to the 2014-2016 outbreak in multiple West African nations that killed 11,325 people, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The case fatality rate is currently 57 percent, which the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental aid organization, said is higher than typically seen at this stage of an Ebola outbreak, especially since a vaccine for prevention as well as experimental drug treatment are available for the first time.

“This tragic milestone clearly demonstrates the complexity and severity of the outbreak,” Michelle Gayer, senior director of emergency health at the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement Thursday. “While the numbers are far from those from West Africa in 2014, we’re witnessing how the dynamics of conflict pose a different kind of threat: a protracted outbreak is highly likely and the end is simply not in sight.”

Ebola virus disease, which causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever, is endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is the 10th outbreak and the worst that the country has seen since 1976, the year that scientists first identified the deadly virus near the eponymous Ebola River.

(MORE: Democratic Republic of Congo’s current Ebola outbreak worst in country’s history, officials say)

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Congolese health workers clean gumboots as they prepare the Ebola treatment centre in the village of Mangina in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 18, 2018.  Olivia Acland/Reuters FILE

Among the 426 patients who have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever since the country’s latest epidemic began, at least 379 of them have tested positive for Ebola, including 198 who have succumbed to the deadly virus. More than 37,000 people have been vaccinated for the disease in the outbreak zone since Aug. 8, according to the health ministry’s daily bulletin on Thursday.

The outbreak has been heavily concentrated in the northeastern province of North Kivu, where a majority of all cases have been recorded in the conflict-torn city of Beni, which is home to 800,000 people. Ebola cases have also been recorded in neighboring Ituri province.

North Kivu and Ituri are among the most populous provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and share borders with Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. They are also awash with violence and insecurity, particularly in the mineral-rich borderlands where militia activity has surged over the past year, all of which complicates the response to the outbreak.

 

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A Congolese health worker administers Ebola vaccine to a boy who had contact with an Ebola sufferer in the village of Mangina in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 18, 2018. |Olivia Acland/Reuters

The security situation in the region has at times limited the response efforts. Some field activities, including vaccination, were temporarily halted in Beni, the outbreak’s epicenter, on Nov. 17 following attacks by an armed rebel group.

There is also misinformation and mistrust of the medical response from the local community, partly due to many years of conflict in the region. There is also a reluctance among some residents to seek care or allow health workers to vaccinate, conduct contact tracing and perform safe burials, according to health officials.

“No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing,” the Congolese health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, said in a Nov. 9 statement.

The International Rescue Committee, which has response teams on the ground in North Kivu, described the combination of insecurity, community resistance and disrupted or failing health services as a “perfect storm” for disease transmission.

“The outbreak is far from under control and it is highly likely that it will not be beaten for another six months. We fear that hundreds more people will lose their life in this outbreak,” Gayer said in her statement Thursday. “Yes we need to see more funds and resources mobilized, but also address the impacts of the protracted conflict.”

(MORE: Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak could become ‘worst ever’ in East Africa, IRC warns)

 

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In this Sept 9, 2018, file photo, a health worker sprays disinfectant on his colleague after working at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, Eastern Congo. Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently has 300 specialists deployed to the Central African nation to support the ongoing response efforts, with a focus on Beni as well as the new hotspots Butembo, Kalunguta and Katwa. Preliminary data indicate a positive impact of public health control measures in Beni and Kalunguta, but community engagement remains a challenge in Katwa, according to a press release from the WHO on Thursday.

There are also concerns regarding the high number of young children affected with the virus, according to the WHO. A total of 36 cases have been reported among newborn babies and children below the age of 2, while 17 cases have been reported among pregnant women since the outbreak began.

The WHO said that although the risk of a global spread remains low, the risk of the outbreak spreading to other provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as to neighboring countries remains “very high.” Over the past week, alerts have been reported from South Sudan and Uganda, though Ebola has been ruled out for all those cases thus far.

(MORE: Ebola survivors suffer ‘severe’ neurological and psychiatric effects, new study finds)

 

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Health workers escort an unconfirmed Ebola patient at a newly build MSF (Doctors Without Borders)  supported Ebola treatment centre in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nov. 7, 2018. John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images

Last month, the WHO heeded the recommendation of an expert advisory committee to not declare the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s latest Ebola epidemic a public health emergency of international concern — a proclamation that would have mobilized more resources and garnered global attention.

The committee chairman, Robert Steffen, said they came to the decision by looking at three main criteria.

“Is it extraordinary? Is there a risk of cross-border spread? Is there potential for requiring international response?” Steffen told reporters in a teleconference Oct. 17.

Despite its conclusion, the committee emphasized in a statement that the Congolese government, WHO and partners “must intensify the current response” to the ongoing outbreak and that this “should be supported by the entire international community,” or “the situation is likely to deteriorate significantly.”

“I’ve accepted the recommendation of the committee but this does not mean that we are not taking the outbreak seriously,” WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters. “We will not rest until this outbreak is finished.”

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Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/ebola-outbreak-democratic-republic-congo-now-2nd-worst/story?id=59495234

[Disclaimer]

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(CNN) Rebels in Yemen announced Sunday that they would stop missile and drone strikes on Saudi coalition targets at the request of the United Nations.

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Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees risk being pushed to return home this year despite ongoing violence, a report by a coalition of aid agencies has warned.

The NGOs said Syrian Government victories in the conflict have fuelled “misleading rhetoric” suggesting Syria is safe for refugees to return.

The report added that for every Syrian who did return home last year, three more were newly displaced.

“There is this narrative that maybe Syria will be safe to return, but our research shows this is not the case,” Save the Children’s Middle East regional advocacy manager Yousra Semmache said.

PHOTO: Many parts of Syria are still experiencing violence. (AP)

She said in the wake of the defeat of Islamic State (IS) in many parts of Syria, and de-escalation zones in others, governments, political parties and politicians have begun openly contemplating the return of Syrian refugees.

“It is definitely present in the discourse, both in host countries, but also something European governments are discussing for maybe the near future,” she said.

Some 5 million Syrian refugees live in neighbouring countries and 1 million are taking refuge in Europe.

Ms Semmache said while many Syrians did return home last year, a far greater number fled their homes.

“There are still massive protection risks inside Syria,” she said.

“For every Syrian that returns home, three have to flee.”

The report from a coalition of NGOs including Save the Children, Care International and the International Rescue Committee, found while 66,000 refugees returned to Syria in 2017, Turkish and Jordanian authorities prevented nearly 300,000 people who were trying to leave Syria from crossing their borders.

There is also evidence of the deportation of Syrian refugees living in neighbouring countries.

Joelle Bassoul, who works for aid agency Care in Lebanon, said Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have sent a number of refugees back to Syria.

PHOTO: Syrian refugees are being sent back home by some neighbouring countries. (Reuters: Erik De Castro, file photo)

She added the failure of some wealthy countries to share responsibility for the world’s largest refugee crisis enabled Syria’s neighbours to justify harsher measures.

“Those countries have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis for years now and they are reaching the point where if the international community doesn’t step up and help them, we will see more and more returns into Syria,” she said.

Lebanon has the highest per capita number of Syrian refugees in the world. One in every four people in the country is a Syrian refugee.

Ms Bassoul said Syrians in Lebanon are now facing increasing crackdowns, as political goodwill towards refugees has slowly worn down.

“Lebanon has called repeatedly for more support from the international community to provide help for refugees,” she said.

“But funding had been lacking every year since the start of the crisis.

“So now we face evictions, raids, arrests, detentions and curfews and generally restrictions on their freedom of movement.”

She said more than 10,000 Syrian refugees living in informal tent settlements in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley were recently issued with eviction notices.

“And those refugees were already among the most vulnerable,” she said.

“And we also saw some municipalities order the eviction of Syria refugees living in those areas.

“So this obviously created a kind of fear in refugees and they limit their movements in the country.”

The aid worker is calling on Western governments to give more.

“I mean overall when you think of it, since the start of the crisis, rich countries have only resettled 3 per cent of all Syrian refugees,” Ms Bassoul said.

“It’s nothing when you think that a quarter of the pre-war population has left Syria and crossed into the neighbouring countries.”

PHOTO: Just 3 per cent of all Syrian refugees have been resettled in the West. (Reuters: Alkis Konstantinidis)

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Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-05/syrian-refugees-being-pushed-back-home-despite-ongoing-violence/9396008

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