his is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
‘Very high’ risk of Guinea’s Ebola outbreak spreading: WHO
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that there’s a “very high” risk of the Ebola virus spreading in Guinea, after an outbreak was announced last Sunday.
In an update, WHO said that its concern was based on the “unknown size, duration and origin of the outbreak”.
It has led to five deaths so far, in the southern region of Nzerekore, which borders Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire.
The first confirmed victim was a nurse from rural Gouecke health centre, who was initially diagnosed with typhoid and then malaria.
While her known contacts include a traditional healer and their family, there are potentially a large number of others -- and “limited capacity to respond”, cautioned the UN agency.
Guinea was one of the three most-affected countries in the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak which was the largest since the virus was first discovered in 1976.
Call to end instrumentalization of aid for Syrians after 10 years of war: Commission of Inquiry report
To Syria now, and after 10 years of conflict, a new call for justice for victims of the civil war and their families – and an end to the “instrumentalization” of lifesaving aid.
In their latest report, Human Rights Council-appointed investigators said that the conflict, which has likely killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, had left no Syrian family “unscathed”.
“Cities have been reduced to rubble, and a constellation of armed actors continue to prey on the population”, the Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.
In an appeal to “put Syrians first...finally”, Commission chair Paolo Pinheiro urged the international community to “expend every effort to support a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict…for all her people”.
Echoing the need for urgent action, Commissioner Karen Koning AbuZayd said that it was “unconscionable” that aid has been “consistently delayed, denied, and instrumentalized”.
“Despite the clear and consistent needs of so many Syrians, as well as Palestinian and other refugees, there are basic human rights and humanitarian needs – food, water, health care, and education – that must be met regardless of which group controls a given territory.”
UN chief condemns attack on school in Nigeria
UN chief António Guterres has strongly condemned a new attack on a boarding school in central Nigeria, in which one student died and several others were abducted.
In the middle of the night, unidentified gunmen stormed the Government Science College Kagara, in Niger state, leaving many students unaccounted for, according to reports.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Guterres called all attacks on schools and other educational facilities “abhorrent”; he urged the authorities to “spare no efforts” in rescuing the victims and holding to account those responsible.
Two months ago, more than 300 students were abducted in a similar attack on a school in Kankara, in northern Katsina state. The students abducted in that attack have since been released.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
