Angola

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 44 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:

• Marburg virus disease in Uganda

• Plague in Madagascar

• Malaria in Cabo Verde

• Dengue fever in Côte d’Ivoire

• Cholera in Zambia

• Cholera in north-east Nigeria.

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 45 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:

• Marburg in Uganda

• Monkeypox in Nigeria

• Plague in Madagascar

• Dengue fever in Burkina Faso

• Cholera in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Cholera in Tanzania.

This weekly bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 44 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:

• Wildlife anthrax in Namibia

• Cholera in Zambia

• Plague in Madagascar

• Dengue fever in Burkina Faso

• Humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.

Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone: The Ebola outbreak that started at the beginning of 2014 has resurged, with more than 635 cases recorded, including 399 deaths, as of 23 June. WHO is urging a wider, inter-country response to the subregional crisis.

South Sudan: SAM was found to be at 6% from a screening of 500,000 children. In Bentiu UN base, the under-five mortality rate has passed the emergency threshold. 2,300 cases of cholera have been reported.

Iraq: 1.2 million people have been displaced by the ISIL June offensive and the Anbar crisis. Humanitarian access to militant-held areas remains a challenge. The security situation in Anbar, Ninevah, Salah al Din and Diyala is volatile and unpredictable. Host communities are facing difficulties assisting new IDPs and over 226,000 Syrian refugees.

Pakistan: The military offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan has reportedly killed up to 30 Taliban and displaced at least 300,000 people to neighbouring provinces as well as Afghanistan.

Iraq: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its allies have overrun non-Kurdish controlled areas Ninevah and significant areas of neighbouring Salah al Din and Kirkuk governorates, as well as part of northern Diyala. Access is severely limited, and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Iraq: An estimated 500,000 Iraqis have fled Mosul following the city’s takeover by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The IDPs are fleeing from the west to the east of the city, to other parts of Ninevah governorate, and to the Kurdistan region. Indiscriminate shelling is reportedly continuing. In Anbar governorate, armed violence has displaced close to half a million people so far this year.

CAR: The security situation in Bangui has reportedly deteriorated; 25 have been killed in renewed clashes. Violence has disrupted the April–May planting season, which will likely lead to below-average 2014–2015 harvests.

Syria: 241,000 people are estimated to be living under siege, 196,000 besieged by government forces, and 45,000 by opposition forces. Nearly 2,000 civilians are reported to have been killed in air strikes on Aleppo this year. Humanitarian access to both government and opposition controlled areas dropped significantly in May.

Balkans: On 13 May, cyclone Tamara hit the Balkans. Heavy rainfall resulted in extensive flooding in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia; 1.6 million, 1.5 million, and 38,000 people have been affected, respectively. In total, 81,879 people have been evacuated. Relief efforts are being hampered by landslides, damaged infrastructure, blocked roads, and blackouts.

South Sudan: A cholera outbreak was reported in Juba, with 43 suspected cases and two deaths recorded. Displacement figures have climbed to 1,005,000 IDPs and 310,000 refugees in neighbouring countries. Juba and the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army – Cobra Faction signed a peace agreement over conflict in the Greater Pibor area.

Iraq: 6,000 people fled the Iraqi military’s shelling of Fallujah over 6–16 May. The Iraqi Government has denied using barrel bombs, but residents keep describing what appear to be such devices.

South Sudan: Peace negotiations in Addis Ababa have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between South Sudan’s president and the head of the opposition. The number of IDPs in South Sudan stands at 983,000. Following fighting in Upper Nile state, at least 11,000 new South Sudanese refugees have crossed into Ethiopia, bringing the total to 120,000. Altogether, 341,000 South Sudanese refugees are in neighbouring countries.

Syria: Fierce fighting between opposition groups has led to further displacement in Deir-ez-Zor while a truce between the Government and the opposition is expected to see the Old City of Homs handed over to the Government after its recent campaign to retake it.

Syria: The security situation had deteriorated with escalating violence in the West of the country resulting in population displacement and hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Large numbers of newly displaced are heading to the calmer regions of Idleb governorate, which hosts over 500,000 IDPs. In the East, Iraqi helicopters hit an opposition convoy in the first strike claimed by Iraq inside Syria since the conflict began.

Snapshot 12 – 19 November

Snapshot 08 – 15 October

In Syria, heavy fighting is ongoing in Rural Damascus, Dar’a, Aleppo, Idleb and Homs, with government forces making gains in Rural Damascus while the opposition has won ground in Dar’a. Despite the call of al-Qaeda’s leader for opposition fighters to unite, inter-group fighting has escalated in Aleppo over control for neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the Syrian National Council announced that it did not intend to participate in the proposed Geneva II peace talks.

Snapshot 16-23 September

In Syria, intensive fighting continued in Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa, Rural Damascus and Homs. Intensive clashes which ignited at the start of the month between Government and opposition groups in the governorate of Lattakia appeared however to have ceased. At the start of the week, the US warned that a military strike against Syria was imminent, following the alleged use of chemical weapons near Damascus on 21 August. By the end of the week, President Obama indicated that he would seek congressional approval of the Congress before undertaking such an action.

Snapshot 12 – 19 August

In Syria, fighting between governmental forces and opposition groups has been concentrated in Aleppo, Deir-ez-Zor, Homs, Lattakia and Rural Damascus this week. Meanwhile, infighting is ongoing within the opposition. As during previous weeks, FSA forces have clashed with Islamist opposition groups on multiple occasions while Kurdish groups continued to fight with Islamist groups in the north of the country. The mass influx of Syrian refugees to neighbouring countries is ongoing. As of 19 August, over 1.9 million Syrians had fled the country.

In Syria, large-scale fighting between opposition and Government forces has been reported across Al-Hassakeh, Ar-Raqqa, Homs, Aleppo, and especially Lattakia and Damascus governorates. Increasing strife between combatants of the FSA and al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic fighters continue to also be reported, especially around Aleppo and its countryside. In addition, as clashes increased between Kurdish armed groups and fighters of the ISIS, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan openly floated the idea of staging an intervention in Syria to support fellow Kurds.

In Syria, Government forces are advancing in Homs and expected to retake opposition-held districts in the short-term, while operations have been ongoing in other major cities, including Aleppo and Damascus. Meanwhile, infighting within opposition forces is spreading between various armed groups. Clashes are continuously reported between Kurdish fighters and al-Qaeda affiliated Islamists near the border with Turkey in Al-Hassakeh and Ar-Raqqa governorates.