Sierra Leone

Conflicts and climatic shocks aggravate current food insecurity in many countries

Some 39 countries in need of food assistance - FAO expects slightly lower global cereal production

20 September 2018, Rome - Persistent conflicts and climate-related shocks are currently driving high levels of severe food insecurity, particularly in Southern African and Near East countries, which continue to require humanitarian assistance, according to a new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today.

Executive Summary

This research report mainly builds on data collected between June and October 2017 through the Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism Initiative (4Mi) including 1,062 surveys collected by 4Mi field monitors.

L’OIM travaille avec les autorités nationales, locales et des partenaires locaux, afin de mieux comprendre et connaître les mouvements migratoires à travers l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre. Le suivi des flux de population (FMP) est une activité qui permet de quantifier et de qualifier les flux, les profils des migrants, les tendances et les routes migratoires sur un point d’entrée, de transit ou de sortie donné. En Guinée, 5 points de suivi ont été installés depuis avril 2017 dans les localités frontalières avec Mali et le Sénégal dont 3 sont actifs à ce jour.

Written by Dr Trina Helderman, Senior Health & Nutrition Advisor for Medair’s Global Emergency Response Team

Leave and launch

In mid-2014, following a three-and-a-half-year stint working with Medair in South Sudan, I was at home for a few months to rest. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was escalating and I remember thinking ‘I really need to get some sleep and recover quickly because I should be responding to this outbreak.’

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 52 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:

Executive summary

Tackling the problems of poverty, vulnerability and exclusion that persist in parts of the world that continue to be affected by violence or political insecurity is difficult for several reasons. For one, because of the complexity of the prevailing social, economic and political systems, solutions to chronic problems are far from obvious.
One response to this aspect of the challenge is adaptive programme design and management.

Flood risk remains high over parts of Nigeria, as heavy rainfall is expected to continue

Africa Weather Hazards

1. Heavy rainfall caused flooding in western and southern Nigeria. The forecast rain during the next week increases the risks for flooding over the region.

2. Torrential rain has increased the level of the Atbara and Dindir Rivers. Additional rainfall over the region is likely to further raise water levels, including the Nile River and its tributaries.

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 55 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:

Declaration of the end of the listeriosis outbreak in South Africa
Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cholera in Niger
Cholera in Cameroon
Hepatitis E in Namibia
Humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic.

G/SM/19199-PBC/127

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Peacebuilding Commission’s ambassadorial-level meeting on “Leadership, accountability and capacities”, in New York today:

Thank you for your focus today on enhancing leadership, capacities and accountability to sustain peace.

Between 1 January and 31 August 2018, 3,092 unaccompanied and separated children arrived in Italy by sea, representing 15 per cent of all sea arrivals in this period. Consistent with an overall decrease in sea arrivals this year so far, the numbers of UASC reaching Italian shores in the first eight months of 2018 are considerably lower than in the same period last year, when over 13,200 landed in Italy. However, the proportion of UASC among sea arrivals in the January-August 2018 period (15 per cent) is only slightly higher than in January-August 2017 (13 per cent).

Despite a recent improvement in rainfall, dryness remains over parts of East Africa

Africa Weather Hazards

1. Heavy rainfall caused flooding in western and southern Nigeria. The forecast rain during the next week increases the risks for flooding over the region.

2. Torrential rain has increased the level of the Atbara and Dindir Rivers. Additional rainfall over the region is likely to further raise water levels, including the Nile River and its tributaries.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. For each FEWS NET country and region, the Price Bulletin provides a set of charts showing monthly prices in the current marketing year in selected urban centers and allowing users to compare current trends with both five-year average prices, indicative of seasonal trends, and prices in the previous year.

Le Réseau de systèmes d’alerte précoce contre la famine (FEWS NET) surveille les tendances des prix des aliments de base dans les pays vulnérables à l'insécurité alimentaire. Pour chaque pays et chaque région couvert par FEWS NET, le Bulletin des prix fournit un ensemble de graphiques indiquant les prix mensuels de l’année commerciale en cours pour certains centres urbains, et permettant à l’utilisateur de comparer les tendances actuelles à la fois aux moyennes quinquennales, qui indiquent les tendances saisonnières, et aux prix de l'année précédente.

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 60 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:

Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Measles in Mauritius
Cholera in Niger
Humanitarian crisis in Cameroon
Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.

Poor rainfall conditions persist in northern Senegal and southwestern Mauritania.

KEY MESSAGES

• The ITF (Intertropical Front) underwent a slight retreat over its eastern portion during the second dekad of August in comparison with its first dekad position; however, it has remained north of its average position over the region with the exception of western Mauritania where it is slightly south of its average position.

Key Findings

CITATION

Morin C, Bost I, Mercier A, Dozon J, Atlani-Duault L. Information Circulation in times of Ebola: Twitter and the Sexual Transmission of Ebola by Survivors. PLOS Currents Outbreaks. 2018 Aug 28 . Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.4e35a9446b89c1b46f8308099840d48f.

AUTHORS

Celine Morin, Ida Bost, Arnaud Mercier, Jean-Pierre Dozon, Laetitia Atlani-Duault

ABSTRACT