Massive Yellow Fever Vaccination Campaign Underway

Some 10 million doses are expected to be given in DRC in a campaign that starts this week. “A last-ditch effort to prevent yellow fever spreading through Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and potentially developing into a global epidemic is to be launched using vaccines containing a fifth of the normal dose because the global stockpile is so low. Yellow fever is frequently lethal, killing half of those who develop severe symptoms. It is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also responsible for the spread of Zika virus. There is a vaccine which protects people for life, but few adults had been immunised in Angola when yellow fever broke out there in December last year, and in the DRC, to where it has spread. If it takes hold in Kinshasa, a densely packed city of more than 10 million people, it is feared that infected mosquitoes could travel beyond the central African region, which has been experiencing so severe an outbreak that vaccine stocks are almost exhausted.”  (Guardian http://bit.ly/2bDXOhn)

Shocking new stats on sexual violence…One in four women living in a key platinum mining area in South Africa has been raped in her lifetime, a survey by medical charity MSF has said.About half of women in Rustenburg had been subject to sexual violence or intimate partner violence, it said. The charity said the findings of its survey were “shocking but not uncommon” in South Africa. South Africa has one of the highest incidences of rape in the world and a low prosecution rate. Based on its survey of more than 800 women aged 18-49 in Rustenburg municipality, north-west of Johannesburg, MSF said only 5% of the approximately 11,000 women and girls raped each year reported the incident to a health worker.” BBC http://bbc.in/2bDYMdg)

Africa

Zambian President Edgar Lungu said on Tuesday his inauguration would be delayed until a court rules on a challenge from his main election rival who said the vote was rigged. (Reuters http://reut.rs/2bDYqDv)

Thousands of mine workers gathered around a rocky hill on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the deadliest protest in South Africa in decades. (ABC http://abcn.ws/2bDZ1F5 )

Aid workers are struggling to get hundreds of tons of aid to people made homeless by widespread flooding in Sudan after torrential rains severed a highway and other roads. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2aX7v4a)

Talks to secure a lasting ceasefire in Sudan’s three warring regions under a road map for peace have collapsed less than a week after they began, the government’s chief negotiator said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2by5pfO)

Zambian police have arrested 133 people protesting against the re-election of President Edgar Lungu after his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema said the vote was rigged, a senior officer said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bvHQ4J)

An Ethiopian court has charged 23 South Sudanese refugees with carrying out the “gruesome” murder of 10 Ethiopian civilians using sticks and shovels at a refugee camp in the western part of the country last April. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2aYiv1z)

South African opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the ruling ANC for failing to deliver on its promises, four years after police killed 34 striking miners at Marikana in a massacre that shocked the world. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2aZ6gF6)

The United States has strongly condemned a targeted attack last month in which South Sudanese soldiers raped several foreign aid workers and murdered a journalist at a hotel in the capital, Juba. (VOA http://bit.ly/2babIoV)

Thirteen Mauritanian anti-slavery campaigners who are on trial for “rebellion and use of violence” told a court on Monday they had been tortured in custody, their lawyer said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2by6lRn)

MENA

 

Iraq’s assistance to civilians forced from their homes by conflict has been far from adequate, Amnesty International said Tuesday, warning that fresh displacement could spell catastrophe. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bfINgv)

Air raids killed 19 civilians, including three children, in rebel-held districts of Syria’s battleground second city Aleppo on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bfIOAZ)

The Syrian government and rebel factions seeking to topple it poured reinforcements into the besieged northern city of Aleppo, as both sides braced for a decisive battle that diplomats are trying to avert. (VOA http://bit.ly/2bkZdsj)

An airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen killed nine civilians east of Sanaa on Tuesday, residents said, the third deadly air raid reported to have to hit civilian targets since Saturday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bfJ1UG)

The Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen accused the militants on Tuesday of using peace negotiations to rearm, after an escalation of fighting following the talks’ suspension. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2by5NLC)


Asia

Bangladeshi security forces said on Tuesday they had arrested four women suspected of being members of a home-grown militant group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe last month in which 22 people were killed. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aYi5bz)

The Americas

Peruvians took to the streets en masse to reject violence against women, in what was seen as a major new step in awareness-raising in the country that ranks third in the world in terms of domestic sexual violence. (IPS http://bit.ly/2aZ6M61)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s approval rating fell to a nine-month low of 21.2 percent in July amid calls from government critics for a recall referendum next year, according to a local pollster Datanalisis. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bvIWgw)

Mexico will launch a year-long simulation of a cap-and-trade program in November, Mexican officials said on Monday, in a test run for a national carbon market expected to launch in 2018. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bkYS8X)

The tropical glaciers of South America are dying from soot and rising temperatures, threatening water supplies to communities that have depended on them for centuries. But experts say that the slow process measured in inches of glacial retreat per year also can lead to a sudden, dramatic tragedy. (AP http://yhoo.it/2aZ6UT2)

The son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman may be among the half-dozen men abducted by a squad of gunmen at a restaurant in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, authorities said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/2by5S1P)

…and the rest

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he would personally like to see a woman lead the United Nations for the first time since it was established more than 70 years ago. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bfJzKh)

The pound’s sharp drop following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union is starting to weigh on companies, particularly manufacturers, by increasing the cost of the imported raw materials and goods they require to do business. (AP http://yhoo.it/2by5dgT)

Children are being smuggled, sexually abused, maimed, killed for their vital organs, recruited as soldiers or otherwise enslaved. Not only: 69 million children under five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million will live in poverty, and 263 million are out of school. And 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030. (IPS http://bit.ly/2by5W1q)

The French government has defended municipal bans on body-covering Muslim burkini swimwear but called on mayors to try and cool tensions between communities. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2aYiif9)

The weak outlook for the UK economy will outweigh any potential pay rise for British workers if the country’s EU exit leads to immigration cuts, a report warned. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bl0u2u)

Opinion/Blogs

Veganism is not the key to sustainable development – natural resources are vital (Guardian http://bit.ly/2aYQn1q)

Ethiopia: Unprecedented Nationwide Oromo Protests – Who, What, Why? (African Arguments http://bit.ly/2aYSpP6)

Secret aid worker: I want to help Afghanistan but I am an outsider in my own country (Guardian http://bit.ly/2bfnHyQ)

NGOs’ regulatory framework (IPS http://bit.ly/2aY08tD)

Ivorian Children Join Digital Revolution (VOA http://bit.ly/2aYi6MI)

Where does foreign aid go? (Economist http://econ.st/2bkYJCL)

How can Academics & NGOs join up? (From Poverty to Power http://buff.ly/2bl1Tqa)

Where they stand: Democrats and Republicans on global development (Devex http://buff.ly/2aYlWWd)

Does international volunteering promote children’s rights? (WhyDev Blog http://buff.ly/2bl22tp)

Reaching universal secondary school won’t solve the learning crisis (Roving Bandit http://buff.ly/2bfOB9T)

Donald Trump’s ‘Plan’ to Defeat Terrorism: A Little Obama, a Lot Illegal, and Inaccurate (Foreign Policy http://buff.ly/2b23zBk)