UN News Today 21 September 2026 |

Ebola vaccine trial gets under way in DR Congo 

We start in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an Ebola vaccine trial is getting under way for frontline health workers and others involved in the response.

Announcing the development, the UN World Health Organization, WHO, said on Monday that 20,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been allocated for the research vaccination programme in Ituri province.

The aim of the trial is to improve understanding of how effective the vaccine is against Ebola Bundibugyo virus – and to protect individuals most exposed to it.

The Ervebo vaccine has been “highly effective” against Ebola Zaire virus in the past, but it is not yet known whether it can provide “meaningful protection” against Ebola Bundibugyo, which is still spreading in DR Congo.

A total of 70,000 doses of Ervebo vaccine have been made available to the Congolese authorities to support the outbreak response and related research.

The epicentre of the outbreak remains in Ituri province in eastern DR Congo, although the virus has spread to seven provinces.

Latest data indicates a total of more than 7,600 confirmed cases of infection including over 3,670 deaths, with nearly eight in 10 infections recorded in Ituri.

Venezuela’s machinery of repression “largely intact’ rights experts maintain

To the Human Rights Council, which has heard that Venezuela’s machinery of repression “has remained largely intact”, while crimes against “real or perceived opponents” of the Government have continued.

In an update to the Council, the independent council-appointed Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said that some restrictions on civil society had eased since United States forcibly removed President Nicolas Maduro from power in January – an intervention it characterized as “contrary to international law”. 

There’s also “greater tolerance for public criticism” of the Government today, although short-term arbitrary detentions have increased, said Sofía Macher, Chair of the independent investigative team:

“This carries particular significance in the context of the widespread abuses committed over the past decade. It serves as a powerful reminder to political and human rights activists that their activities continue to be monitored and that the repressive apparatus remains in place.”

Ms. Macher, who reports to the Council in her capacity as an independent expert, maintained that hundreds of individuals remain arbitrarily detained in Venezuela today. They continue to endure harsh conditions in facilities where torture and ill-treatment remain endemic, she stressed.

Among the several detention facilities still open in Venezuela, the fact-finding mission expressed particular concern about the maximum-security El Rodeo I prison and the military detention facility Fuerte Guaicaipuro. 

Extensive interviews with past detainees have provided new evidence about the “particularly cruel nature” of many of the methods of torture employed, Ms. Macher told the Human Rights Council.

‘Nowhere is safe’ in Russia, independent rights expert tells

Staying with the Council, where the Special Rapporteur on the situation in Russia maintained on Monday that Moscow has built a system to “intimidate and punish critics abroad and coerce their families at home”.

Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, said that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, accountability has been “non-existent” and investigations “absent”. 

The independent rights expert also noted that the Russian authorities have continued to deny involvement in repression “and have at times promoted or honoured alleged perpetrators”.

In her report entitled “Nowhere is safe”, Ms. Katzarova maintained that individuals faced “assassinations, attempted killings, assaults and poisonings”, while between 650,000 and 900,000 people have left the country since Moscow’s invasion began in 2022. 

“As civil society in exile grows, so does the machinery to pursue it,” the Special Rapporteur told the Human Rights Council, where the Russian delegation was not present.

The independent rights expert also told delegates that Russia issues more requests for INTERPOL Red Notices – or international arrest warrants – than any other country.

Daniel Johnson, UN News