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Tag: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

  • DR Congo: Killing of 14 peacekeepers,worst attack in recent times -UN

    DR Congo: Killing of 14 peacekeepers,worst attack in recent times -UN

    UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the killing of at least 14 peacekeepers in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),describing it as the “worst attack” on UN peacekeepers in recent history.

    The UN in a statement said late Thursday, the Company Operating Base of the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) at Semuliki in Beni territory, North Kivu, was attacked by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) elements.

    The attack resulted in a protracted fighting between the suspected armed group elements and MONUSCO and Armed Forces of the DRC, known by the French acronym, FARDC.

    “These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime” the Secretary-General said, adding: “I condemn this attack unequivocally.”

    He called on the DRC authorities to investigate the incident and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice.

    The UN chief stressed: “There must be no impunity for such assaults, here or anywhere else.”

    He also said that the attack was another indication of the challenges faced by UN peacekeeping operations around the world and acknowledged the sacrifices made by troop contributing countries in the service of global peace.

    “These brave women and men are putting their lives on the line every day across the world to serve peace and to protect civilians,” he noted.

    Guterres offered condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and a speedy recovery to those injured.

    He also informed that military reinforcements, including the Force Commander from MONUSCO, had arrived on the scene and medical evacuation of casualties was ongoing.

    The volatile North Kivu region, located in eastern DRC, has witnessed a number of attacks on UN peacekeeping forces.

    In October, two UN ‘blue helmets’ were killed and another 18 were injured their base was attacked by the ADF armed group.

  • Mohammed leads first joint AU-UN high-level mission to Africa

    Mohammed leads first joint AU-UN high-level mission to Africa

    Ms Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, is leading a first-ever joint AU-UN high-level mission to Africa, to highlight the role of women in achieving sustainable peace and development.

    On Mohammed’s entourage are UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, and the Special Envoy of the AU on Women, Peace and Security, Bineta Diop.

    The UN said over the past two days, the delegation met with key members of the Congolese Government, the donor community, as well as women leaders from the civil society.

    At Kinshasa, the deputy secretary-general said their discussions revolved around “a focus on women, and how we can see women’s empowerment, address women’s human rights, and women with their rights to the electoral process”.

    More broadly, while stressing the need to respect everyone’s abilities, she said “there is no one size that fits all”, adding that women’s every day rights must be addressed contextually.

    “There is no aircraft that flies anywhere, or bird that flies anywhere, on half a wing,” she underscored.

    She echoed her refrain from other stops on the trip that a critical step towards sustainable development for all is to ensure that women and girls, half the world’s population, receive the investments, opportunities, access and protection they require.

    Mohammed explained that the UN and the AU had each begun another era with new leadership, reforms and frameworks.

    The UN deputy scribe noted respectively the UN and AU 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) and the 2063 Agenda, both of which have placed women at the core.

    She stressed the importance of reversing the tragedies of violence, particularly against women and children and ensuring that women’s and girl’s voices are heard in all aspects of society.

    According to her, that should be at the core of the second leg of a high-level UN-AU mission to Africa, which visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    “Peace is the bedrock,  the foundation, to allow us to develop our full potentials, but also to ensure that human rights are respected.

    “Here we see that women’s rights, which are human rights, are not respected and we have a long way to go,” Mohammed said, emphasizing that “so much more can be done”.

    She commended the DRC’s efforts to combat gender-based sexual violence, noting that having a woman, Léonard Okitundu, Vice-Prime Minister of the DRC in charge was probably the reason for the progress.

    According to her, however, “what we really want to see is zero” gender-based violence.

    “We hear what the DRC cannot do. We are here to discuss what the country can do with its women and young people,” she stressed.

    She added that while the rights and aspirations of women “are far from” being attained, it was the job of the UN and AU to support closing the gap.

    Mohammed explained the aim of bringing women leaders into the conversation and engaging with women to find the opportunities to overcome the challenges, “to change the narrative of victims to survivors and aspirations achieved within the 2030 Agenda”.

  • Amina Mohammed, UN envoys to visit Osinbajo

    Amina Mohammed, UN envoys to visit Osinbajo

    Ms Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, has begun a trip to Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Tuesday, the UN has announced.

    Mohammed would be joined by the Executive Director of UN Women, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, and the African Union Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Bineta Diop.

    The trip, which is being carried out in conjunction with the African Union, seeks to raise awareness on the importance of women’s participation in peace and security processes, and of ensuring that the women’s voices are heard in all aspects of society.

    The UN officials would travel to Abuja, where they would meet with the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and hear from women leaders and young women who have been affected by conflicts.

    On Friday, the Deputy Secretary-General would attend the funeral of Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, the former Executive Director of the UN Population Fund.

    The UN deputy chief would briefly be back in New York to attend a Member States’ retreat over the weekend and will then rejoin the mission in the DRC.

    This trip is the first part of a two part mission focused on women’s meaningful participation in peace, security and development.

    A similar mission would cover two further countries later in the year.

    The deputy Secretary-General is expected to be back in New York on July 28.

  • DR Congo militia attack kills 28 in eastern region

    DR Congo militia attack kills 28 in eastern region

    Three Congolese soldiers and 25 militiamen were killed after fighting in the east of the Republic of the Congo, the army on Tuesday said.

    The fighting took place in Beni territory in North Kivu province from Saturday to Monday.

    Army Spokesman, Jules Ngongo said the militiamen had tried to take the village of Kabasha.

    They also ambushed UN peacekeepers, said Daniel Ruiz from the UN mission in Congo.

    Two Nepalese and three Tanzanian peacekeepers were injured.

    The army did not identify the militia group, but it identified itself as the National Movement for the Revolution.

    The new movement wants to force President Joseph Kabila to organise elections by the end of the year, its spokesman, John Mangaiko, said.
    Mangaiko accused the army of starting the fighting.

    Kabila postponed elections due in November, in what his critics saw as an attempt to extend his rule beyond the constitutional two-term limit.

    The move sparked widespread demonstrations in which dozens were killed.

    The government and part of the opposition have agreed to stage the elections by the end of the year, but not everyone trusts the government to honour the pledge.

    Dozens of armed groups vie for territory and mineral resources in eastern Congo.

  • Ebola: WHO deploys new technology for rapid diagnosis in DRC

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had deployed new technology that allowed for rapid diagnosis of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    WHO said in a statement that in collaboration with the DRC’s Ministry of Health and partners, it had rapidly set up an intensified field alert and response system resulting in early identification of suspect cases detected in the affected zone.

    The DRC is using these new tools, as well as classic ones, to respond to an ongoing outbreak of the virus in a very remote area of the north east of the country, it said.

    The world health body said scientists now quickly gathered samples, shipped them to Kinshasa and tested them at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB).

    “One of the technologies being used to detect Ebola in DRC is GeneXpert, which was primarily developed to detect cases of tuberculosis, but has been adapted to enable rapid testing of many pathogens – HIV, malaria, STIs, and Ebola.

    “At the INRB laboratory in Kinshasa – with support from USAID, WHO, Canada, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Laboratory Network (EDPLN) – technicians can use GeneXpert to test for the Zaire strain of Ebola in just one hour.

    “For samples that are negative, further testing is then undertaken to check for other strains of Ebola, other viral haemorrhagic fevers, or other diseases.

    “Other tests developed during the West African outbreak are also being deployed, such as OraQuick – a rapid diagnostic test, which has been developed with the support of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and GOARN.

    “In the field, OraQuick can test blood or saliva samples for Ebola in just half an hour,” the UN health agency said.

    Even if many or all suspect cases now being tested are negative, it remains vital to actively follow contacts of all confirmed, probable, suspect cases for 21 days, and then to continue enhanced surveillance for an additional 21-day period, it said.

    “Any period of calm is an opportunity to continue building and reinforcing local and country preparedness and response capacities and ensuring rapid investigation teams are ready in case the virus should resurface”.

    This is the eighth outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC since the disease was discovered in the 1970s in the country, WHO said.

    “Health authorities in this country are recognised throughout the African region and the world as experts in responding to outbreaks of this disease,” it said.

    Since the major outbreak in West Africa in 2014, an increasing number of diagnostic tools have become available to perform rapid initial testing of samples, the UN agency said.

  • World leaders to tackle neglected tropical diseases

    …citing Remarkable Progress Since 2012

     Governments and private donors pledge US$812 millionaround five-day summit in Geneva; World Health Organization releases data showing medicines to prevent NTDs reach nearly a billion people each year

    GENEVA (19 April 2017) – This week, leaders from governments, pharmaceutical companies and charitable organizations convened at a five-day summit in Geneva to pledge new commitments to the collective efforts to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The summit coincided with the launch of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Fourth Report on NTDs, showing transformational progress against these debilitating diseases, and a commitment by the United Kingdom to more than double its funding for NTDs.

    The meeting comes five years after the launch of the London Declaration on NTDs, a commitment by the public and private sectors to achieve the WHO goals for control, elimination and eradication of 10 NTDs. In that time, billions of treatments have been donated by pharmaceutical companies and delivered to impoverished communities in nearly 150 countries, reaching nearly a billion people in 2015.

    NTDs are some of the oldest and most painful diseases, afflicting the world’s poorest communities. One in six people suffer from NTDs worldwide, including more than half a billion children. NTDs disable, debilitate and perpetuate cycles of poverty, keeping children out of school, parents out of work, and dampening hope of any chance of an economic future.

    New Report Shows Dramatic Progress

    A new report titled Integrating Neglected Tropical Diseases in Global Health and Development by the WHO revealed that more people are being reached with needed NTD interventions than ever before. In 2015, nearly a billion people receivedtreatments donated by pharmaceutical companies for at least one NTD, representing a 36 percent increase since 2011, the year before the launch of the London Declaration. As more districts, countries and regions eliminate NTDs,the number of people requiring treatments has decreased from 2 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2015.

    “WHO has observed record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees,” says WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan. “Over the past 10 years, millions of people have been rescued from disability and poverty, thanks to one of the most effective global partnerships in modern public health.”

    The report detailed progress against each disease, citing countries and regions that are reaching control and elimination goals for specific NTDs. Highlights include:

     

    • Lymphatic filariasis (LF) racing toward finish line: In the last year, eight countries(Cambodia, Cook Islands, Maldives, Marshall Islands,Niue, Sri Lanka, Togo and Vanuatu) eliminatedLF, and 10 other countries are waiting on surveillance results to verify elimination. Thanks to strong programs, the number of people globally requiring preventative treatment has dropped from 1.4 billion in 2011 to fewer than 950 million in 2015.
    • Fewest-ever cases of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, or sleeping sickness): In2015, there were fewer reported cases of sleeping sickness than any other year in history, with fewer than 3,000 cases worldwide – an 89 percent reduction since 2000. Innovative vector control and diagnostic technologies, supported by increasing numbers of product development partnerships, are revolutionizing sleeping sickness diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
    • Eighty-two percent decrease in visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases in India, Nepal and Bangladesh: Since 2008, cases of VLacross India, Nepal and Bangladesh have decreased by 82 percent due to improvements in vector control, social mobilization of village volunteers, collaboration with other NTD programs and drug donations from industry partners.
    • Guinea worm disease nearing eradication: Cases of Guinea worm disease have reduced from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986 to just 25 human cases in 2016 in just three countries – Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

     

    Global Donors Pledge Additional Support

    Governments and other donors announced new commitments at the summit to expand the reach and impact of NTD programs around the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $335 million in grants over the next four years to support a diverse group of NTD programs focused on drug development and delivery, disease surveillance and vector control. The commitment includes $42 million to support The Carter Center’s guinea worm eradication initiative, as well as dedicated funding to accelerate the elimination of African sleeping sickness.

    “NTDs are some of the most painful, debilitating and stigmatizing diseases that affect the world’s poorest communities. That’s why we helped launch the London Declaration, a historic milestone that led to significant progress in treating and reducing the spread of NTDs and demonstrated the impact that the public sector, the private sector, communities and NGOs can have by working together,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    “Thanks to this partnership, these neglected diseases are now getting the attention they deserve so fewer people have to suffer from these treatable conditions. There have been many successes in the past five years, but the job is not done yet. We have set ambitious targets for 2020 that require the continued commitment of pharmaceutical companies, donor and recipient governments, and frontline health workers to ensure drugs are available and delivered to the hardest to reach people.”

    The Belgian government also pledged an additional $27 million, spread equally over the next nine years, toward the elimination of sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This amount will be matched for the next three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, establishing a platform for increased collaboration between Belgium, the DRC and the broader NTD partnership.

    As part of its commitment to eliminating HAT, Vestergaard pledged to donate 20 percent of its insecticide-treated “tiny targets” used to control the tsetse flies that carry the disease, scaling over the next three years towards 100 percent as elimination nears.

    These commitments build on the UK Government’s announcement earlier this week, in which it pledgedalmost $450 million over 5 yearsto support NTD control and elimination efforts around the world.

    Industry Contributions Expand Scale and Reach of NTD Program

    Progress against NTDs has been enabled by the large-scale donation of medicines by 10 pharmaceutical companies. In the five years since the London Declaration,companies have donated over 7 billion treatments that, with the support of partners, now reach nearly 1 billion people every year. These donations, worth an estimated $19 billion from 2012 through 2020, greatly multiply the impact of donor investments; USAID estimates that each dollar invested in delivery leverages $26 worth of donated drugs.

    In a statement released today, industry leaders reaffirmed their 2012 pledge to do their part to beat these diseases, and encouraged other sectors to maintain their commitments as well.

    “The London Declaration is a powerful example of the impact of successful partnerships,” said Haruo Naito, CEO of Eisai and an original signatory of the London Declaration. “By leveraging our resources and focusing on a common goal, we are already making unprecedented progress towards eliminating these horrific diseases. The work we are doing today is a long-term investment into a healthier and more prosperous future.”

    In addition to donations, pharmaceutical companies are working together and with research institutes to discover and develop new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat NTDs. A report released today by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations collected the full scope of industry investment in NTD R&D, including:

    • Sanofi and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) are developing a new oral drug candidate for HAT, fexinidazole, which would replace the current mixed oral-intravenous drug regimen. Fexinidazole could represent a therapeutic breakthrough which will support sustainable elimination efforts as per the WHO roadmap for 2020. The drug is expected to be submitted for regulatory approval later in 2017.
    • Several companies are working to develop pediatric formulations of existing NTD medicines, including Bayer (nifurtimox, for Chagas disease), Merck KGaA (praziquantel, for schistosomiasis),and Elea/Mundo Sano (who are working with DNDito develop a second pediatric source of benznidazole, for Chagas disease), while Johnson & Johnson (mebendazole, for soil-transmitted helminths) developed a new chewable form of mebendazole, recently approved by the FDA, for children too young to swallow.
    • AbbVie, Bayer, Eisai, Johnson & Johnson and Merck KGaAare part of the Macrofilaricide Drug Accelerator Program, an initiative aimed at identifying and generating new drug compounds that can kill the adult worms that cause onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis.
    • Bayer is working with DNDi to develop emodepside, an oral treatment for lymphatic filariasis and river blindness
    • Eisai is working with DNDi to develop ravuconazole, a new oral drug currently in clinical trials for Chagas disease, and is partnering with DNDi to develop ravuconazole in a new disease area, mycetoma.
    • GlaxoSmithKline and DNDi have agreed to jointly pursue the pre-clinical development of the two novel candidates for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis; the candidates were developed by a collaboration between GSK and the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit, and the work was funded by Wellcome. The agreement for pre-clinical development will be conditional on signing an additional agreement.
    • In 2015, Eisai, Shionogi, Takeda, AstraZeneca and DNDi launched the NTD Drug Discovery Booster, a multi-company effort to accelerate the discovery of new drugs for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.In 2016 they were joined by Celgene Global Health. Merck KGaA announced today that it will join the consortium.
    • Many companies – including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Chemo, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai,Elea, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck KGaA, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, Shionogi, and Takeda– have given DNDi and other non-profits access to their compound libraries and/or contribute scientific and technical expertise to DNDi and conduct pre-clinical and clinical studies to facilitate the development of new drugs to combat various NTDs.
    • Gilead is collaborating with the US Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health as well as multiple academic institutions to discover and develop novel antivirals for highly pathogenic infections and neglected/emerging viral diseases, including dengue fever. GS-5734, Gilead’s most advanced investigational agent, is currently being studied in Ebola survivors.

    Companies are also working with partners to solve supply chain problems, develop program strategies and build in-country capacity to ensure that drugs, tools and other interventions reach those who need them most.

     Addressing the Challenges Ahead

    Though tremendous progress has been made in reducing the burden of NTDs, global control and elimination targets cannot be met without increased financial support, stronger political commitment and better tools to prevent, diagnose and treat the diseases. This week, partners from private philanthropy, affected country governments and cross-sector partnerships recommitted to leveraging their respective resources and expertise to fill critical gaps.

     

    Financial Resources

    Although nearly a billion people received NTD treatments in 2015, more funding is needed to ensure that NTD programs reach all people and communities affected by the diseases. WHO estimates that 340 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa could be covered by new investments of $150 million per year through the year 2020.

    In addition to government commitments, private philanthropy is helping to address these gaps by supporting drug delivery and surveillance programs, as well as research and development into new medicines, diagnostics and other health tools. The END Fund, founded shortly after the London Declaration, has raised over $75 million to target the five most common NTDs, helping to treat over 145 million people around the world.

     

    Political Commitment

    Strong leadership from affected countries is vital to sustaining progress against NTDs, particularly in the face of shifting economic climates and competing health priorities. Despite these challenges, some countries are increasing financing for NTD programs and integrating them into national health systems. Among other countries, Ethiopia has made significant strides in fighting trachoma by including progress against the disease as a target in its national health plan, providing significant domestic funding, participating in the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and training surgeons to conduct eye-lid surgeries to correct the effects of trachoma.

    “Ethiopia is fully committed to realizing ambitious, yet achievable, elimination targets for trachoma and other NTDs with proactive program coordination,” said H.E Professor YifruBerhanMitke, Ethiopian Minister of Health.“An increased direct program financial contribution by the government to NTDs, as high as 3 million USD by 2016, is a big step forward in alleviating the burden and stigma of these diseases.”

     

    New Tools and Innovations

    To meet control and elimination targets, more research and development is needed to provide NTD programs with improved tools to prevent, detect and treat the diseases. Promising new therapies are in the pipeline: A new three-drug regimen for LF known as triple therapy has the potential to dramatically accelerate the pace of elimination in affected countries, and is currently in large-scale safety trials in India.

    R&D organizations such as PATH and partnerships like DNDiand the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund have catalyzed the development of better and more cost-effective tools. These innovations, which include new drugs and rapid diagnostic tests for sleeping sickness and river blindness, are especially critical in the low-resource settings most burdened by NTDs. Several new vector control tools are under development and being piloted to address the growing problem of diseases transmitted by Aedes mosquitos.

    The Global Partners Meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases will be hosted by the World Health Organization on 19 April 2017. From 20-22 April, Uniting to Combat NTDs and the global NTD community will host the NTD Summit, which will feature technical discussions on the best strategies to reach the NTD control and elimination goals.

    About Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases:Established in 2012, Uniting to Combat NTDs is a group of organizations committed to achieving the WHO’s 2020 goal to control and eliminate 10 NTDs as laid out in in the London Declaration. By working together, Uniting to Combat NTDs aims to chart a new course toward health and sustainability among the world’s poorest communities.

    The 10 diseases covered by the London Declaration include onchocerciasis (river blindness), Guinea worm disease, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), blinding trachoma, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, leprosy, Chagas disease, visceral leishmaniasis and human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). To find out more about the work of Uniting to Combat NTDs and to learn more about NTDs, please visit our website.

    About the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases: The London Declaration on NTDs, launched on 30 January 2012, is a joint commitment to control, eliminate or eradicate NTDs, signed by WHO, 13 pharmaceutical companies, donor and endemic country governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.

     

  • Six minors, five women impregnated by UN peacekeepers

    Six minors, five women impregnated by UN peacekeepers

    Six minors were among 11 victims of alleged sexual abuse by Tanzanian United Nations {UN} peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that resulted in pregnancies, a UN spokesman has said.

    The allegations from the DRC came to light during the weekend as the UN had been embroiled in numerous reports of sexual abuse and exploitation by its peacekeepers over the last year.

    The sexual abuse and exploitation mainly involved troops in the Central African Republic.

    Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, confirmed the allegation.

    “We can confirm that out of the 11 allegedly abused women, six were minors.

    “Seven of the alleged victims have already given birth and four women are still pregnant,’’ Haq said.

    He said that Tanzania, which had the primary responsibility to respond to the allegations as the troop-contributing country, had appointed a team of investigators that would travel to DRC “in the coming days”.