WHO Warns of a Coming Meningitis Outbreak in West Africa

UNICEF, MSF, WHO and the IFRC are urging vaccine manufacturers to ramp up production of the meningitis vaccine. “‘In just the first six months of 2015, there have been 12,000 cases of meningitis C in Niger and Nigeria, and 800 deaths. At the same time, there has been a critical shortage of vaccine,’” said Dr Myriam Henkens, International Medical Coordinator, MSF. ‘The campaigns consequently were limited to the critically affected age groups and areas, and even so, had to be delayed until vaccine supply became available and we believe next year will be worse. We need vaccine manufacturers to plan production of multivalent vaccine now to allow sufficient lead time and capacity to meet this demand.’” (WHO http://bit.ly/1Ipqgqp )

Here’s How Many Yemeni’s The UN Can Reach With Humanitarian Aid If Only There Were A Pause in Fighting…The latest attempt at a humanitarian pause in Yemen “has not been respected by any party to the conflict,” the U.N. humanitarian chief said Tuesday, adding that a plan to reach 3 million Yemenis with aid is ready to go if only the fighting would stop. Stephen O’Brien briefed the Security Council and repeated the call for an “unconditional freeze” in the months-long fighting between a Saudi-led coalition and Shiite Houthi rebels in the Arab world’s poorest country. A five-day humanitarian pause announced by the Saudi-led coalition quickly fell apart early Monday. An earlier pause announced this month by the U.N. also failed.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/1fFcPf4)

 

Quote of the Day: Obama, at the AU… “I have to say Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk from leaders who refuse to step aside when their terms end,” Obama told delegates from across the continent.

“Let me be honest with you – I just don’t understand this. I am in my second term … I love my work but under our constitution, I cannot run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president: I think if I ran I could win, but I can’t.” (Guardian http://bit.ly/1fFcXet)

Obama in Africa

During his visit to Ethiopia, U.S. President Barack Obama took the time Tuesday to meet with Ethiopians who have benefited from U.S. development initiatives. (VOA http://bit.ly/1D9lC3N)

On Burundi: “When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife, as we’ve seen in Burundi,” said Obama during his remarks to the African Union. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Mt6OPC)

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Ethiopia “cannot unleash the full potential of its people” if it jails journalists and restricts legitimate opposition groups. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1ON4iD9)

Africa

Cameroon will send around 2,000 extra troops to the north of the country to fight Boko Haram, the Nigerian jihadist movement behind bloody cross-border raids and suicide bombings, state television said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1h3o81F)

A high court in the Ghanaian capital Accra sentenced a man to a 10-year prison term Tuesday after he confessed to having planned to kill President John Dramani Mahama. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1ON68nm)

War-torn Somalia will not be able to hold full elections due next year, lawmakers said Tuesday, although it remained unclear whether some kind of voting process would still be held. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1ON60Ek)

In between the run-down buildings in a seemingly inauspicious part of Lagos, a city of around 21 million, tech start-ups are taking root and creating a buzz that is drawing international venture capitalists and more established digital firms. (VOA http://bit.ly/1D9lvVI)

Mozambique’s president travelled to the country’s northwest where fighting between government troops and opposition fighters has forced hundreds to flee to neighboring Malawi, state-run radio reported on Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Mt8yZ2)

Kenya will be getting new support to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS among adolescent girls. President Obama announced Sunday that Kenya would be included in the DREAMS project. It’s funded by the U.S., the Nike Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (VOA http://bit.ly/1ON452z)

Corruption is pervasive throughout the asylum process in South Africa, according to a report published this month. (VOA http://bit.ly/1D9lAZC)

Thousands of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe fear they will be going hungry this winter after abandoning traditional staples like maize, sorghum and groundnuts for tobacco, a cash crop known locally in this southern African nation as “green gold.” (VOA http://bit.ly/1D9lxNm)

Proposed laws to allow the seizure of land and property to redress the imbalance of ownership between black and white South Africans, could be unconstitutional and subject to the whims of ministers, rights groups told parliament on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1ON4oKK)

Former Tanzanian prime minister Edward Lowassa on Tuesday defected from the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, accusing it of “oppressive leadership”, less than three months ahead of a general election scheduled for October 25. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1JsNml2)

MENA

The United Nations human rights office is “deeply disturbed” by death sentences handed down in a trial of former officials who served under Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, it said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1h3oa9K)

Since March, nearly 25,000 people a day have slipped into hunger in Yemen, and every second person – or nearly 13 million people – is now struggling to find enough to eat, according to Oxfam. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1ScMerq)

Human Rights Watch condemned as an “apparent war crime” on Tuesday a Saudi-led air raid in Yemen last week that it said killed at least 65 civilians in residential compounds. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1SLmGwC)

Insurgents have launched a major offensive on government-held areas in northwestern Syria in a bid to advance towards a coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad’s control of the west, a monitoring group and activists said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Mt6TTc)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the formation of a safe zone inside war-torn Syria, free from the Islamic State group, would help the return of 1.7 million refugees. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Mt6U9G)

A dissident Moroccan journalist on Tuesday ended a monthlong hunger strike protesting his treatment by the government after an official said he could get a new passport in three days, a member of his support committee said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1ON63Qw)

Asia

Thailand has hit back after being blacklisted in a US report for the second consecutive year for not combatting modern-day slavery, arguing it has made serious steps to tackle human trafficking. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GZ1tZb)

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday his government would make available loans of up to 1 billion pounds to Indonesia to help finance infrastructure projects. (VOA http://bit.ly/1ON4278)

South Korea on Tuesday declared the effective end to a deadly outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that killed 36 people, triggered widespread panic and stymied growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1ON4n9O)

The nationwide death toll from this month’s flash floods in various parts of Pakistan rose to 81 on Tuesday as floodwater inundated hundreds of villages, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless, authorities said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1ON4mTe)

The Americas

Forensic experts in Colombia have begun a search for dozens of bodies at a landfill site believed to be one of the largest urban mass graves in the world. (BBC http://bbc.in/1D9l51M)

UN experts have called on the government of the Dominican Republic to stop the “arbitrary deportations” of Dominicans of Haitian descent, warning that its actions risk violating international laws as well as the country’s own constitution. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1ON46n8)

Brazil’s penitentiaries are notorious for rampant overcrowding and violence endured by all inmates. But advocates say few prisoners are as vulnerable as transvestites and transgender people, who are often singled out for taunting and physical and sexual abuse. (AP http://yhoo.it/1ON4mCI)

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Monday called for citizens to break the pacts of silence that have covered up human rights violations during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship, praising a former soldier who helped the investigation into the burning death of a U.S. resident. (VOA http://bit.ly/1D9lwsP)

…and the rest

Rescuers found 13 dead migrants on a boat off the coast of Libya with more than 500 others aboard, an Italian coast guard spokesman said on Tuesday, giving no details about how they had died. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Mt6RLk)

A prominent Russian human rights group said on Tuesday it is closing down its operations this week because of a repressive law, but has come up with a plan to continue its work. (AP http://yhoo.it/1h3o9T9)

Opinion/Blogs

Did Obama Avoid the Difficult Questions in Kenya? (OZY http://bit.ly/1gjtaqP)

Obama just pulled off two important firsts for a sitting US president (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1D95wH8)

Justin Forsyth: ‘If NGOs stay politically correct, we won’t have an impact’ (Guardian http://bit.ly/1DMktdb)

On corruption and mass atrocities (Reinventing Peace http://bit.ly/1MtbHYI)

Did You Hear About the Great Ebola Land Grab? Expect a Wave of Mystery Plagues (East African http://bit.ly/1Mt4A2I)

This Nicaraguan native community endured Spanish conquest. Will it survive modern times? (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1SLcnZi)

Drones: a force for good when flying in the face of disaster (Guardian http://bit.ly/1gjFI1d)

4 Ways Your Phone May Be Fueling Instability Around the World (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1MtbTr8)

The things we do: The connection between sleep and poverty (People, Spaces, Deliberation http://bit.ly/1MtbTYd)

Where should money go to manage global health’s ‘silent epidemic’? (Devex http://bit.ly/1DMS72G)

Look Out Pelley, Muir And Holt. Rapping Reporters Could Give You A Jolt (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1ON957v)

Learning by un-doing: the magic of immersion (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/1DMRYfr)
Feeding West Africa: An Agenda for Regional Trade (Africa Can End Poverty http://bit.ly/1gk94fO)