DR Congo crisis has increased risk of mpox transmission, warns WHO’s Tedros
With no end to the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday, UN humanitarians warned that families are still trapped by the violence and do not have enough to eat.
“We urge all parties to choose dialogue over conflict. The people of DRC deserve peace,” the World Food Programme (WFP) said in an online appeal, after Rwanda-backed M23 rebel forces took control of regional capital, Goma.
At least 770 people have been killed in clashes in and around the city, according to the authorities, with more than 2,800 injured who are receiving treatment in health facilities. Media reports indicated that M23 fighters were continuing to advance south on the city of Bukavu.
To date, 18 UN peacekeepers have been reported killed in clashes with the mostly-Tutsi M23 rebel group.
Their move into Goma marks the biggest escalation of a decades-long conflict springing from the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis, and a continuing struggle for control of rich mineral resources in a region that’s home to dozens of armed groups.
In a related development on Monday, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned that “many patients” have left mpox treatment centres because of the violence, “increasing the risks of transmission”.
WHO declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern last August, amid concerns about the rise in cases of the virus in DR Congo and in neighbouring countries.
Speaking in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in response to the outbreak, WHO had approved the first mpox vaccines and tests and established an allocations mechanism to coordinate donations of six million vaccine doses across 15 countries.
“About 70,000 people have been vaccinated, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he told a meeting of WHO’s Executive Board, adding that limited resources in affected countries had slowed the speed and scale of vaccinations.
Around a third of women globally experience physical or sexual violence: Rights experts
Approximately one in three women is subjected to physical or sexual violence and 800 women and girls continue to die every day from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth, a top independent rights panel meeting heard on Monday.
Addressing the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women at the UN in Geneva, Andrea Ori from the UN human rights office, said that the world is “still far” from achieving the goal of gender parity.
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“The global landscape has changed; we are witnessing a backlash against women’s human rights and gender equality, especially against women’s sexual and reproductive health rights, with an increase in attacks against abortion providers, shrinking civic space for women human rights defenders, and reduced funding.”
Mr. Ori noted that 2025 marks 30 years since the universal adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for ensuring women’s human rights and achieving gender equality around the world.
It remains the case, however, that sexual violence against women and girls continues to be used as a tactic of war in numerous conflicts, the UN human rights official said, while only 26 per cent of parliamentarians in the world are women and about the same tally have managerial roles at work.
Time to cut down on booze, WHO warns Europeans
Medical news now, and the UN World Health Organization, WHO, urged Nordic countries on Monday to keep a lid on alcohol sales, or risk reversing the positive impact of strict regulations put in place years ago.
For decades, governments in Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands have restricted supermarkets and private retailers from selling stronger alcoholic beverages.
This policy has resulted in some of the lowest alcohol consumption levels in the European Union – which by contrast is the booziest region globally, with drinking habits “largely unchanged” for over 10 years, WHO said.
The Nordic model is now at risk however, from legislative initiatives in the region that signal a potential shift toward privatization of alcohol sales, warned WHO’s Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges.
In Sweden, for instance, a court is hearing a challenge to the Government’s exclusive rights to online sales of alcohol, while proposed laws would permit sales of alcoholic beverages in farm shops.
Dr Ferreira-Borges explained that Nordic countries’ alcohol controls – that involve increasing taxes and raising prices, limiting availability and restricting advertising – have reduced alcohol-related harms.
These span from “liver disease, cancers and cardiovascular conditions, to injuries and drownings”, she insisted.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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