Vaccinators Vaccinate in War Torn Yemen

Despite daunting challenges, United Nations agencies and partners in war-torn Yemen have completed a major nationwide polio inoculation campaign, vaccinating nearly five million children under the age of five against the paralyzing disease. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-UN World Health Organization (WHO)-World Bank supported campaign was launched in February and saw thousands of health workers, health educators, religious leaders and local council officials mobilize their communities to maximize the campaign’s reach, including in high-risk groups, such as internally displaced persons and refugees. “Every minute, the situation of Yemen’s children gets worse. It is unacceptable that children in the country are dying of preventable diseases,” said the UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Meritxell Relaño, in a news release today. “This is why, together with partners, we are sparing no effort to save more lives.” Through the campaign, more than 369,000 children between the ages of six months and 15 years in the violence struck Sa’ada governorate were also inoculated against measles – a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease.” (UN http://bit.ly/2ok9r0R )

Ethnic Massacre in South Sudan…At least 16 people were killed in the South Sudanese town of Wau on Monday, said the United Nations, as witnesses said ethnic militiamen went house to house searching for people from other groups. Streets were deserted as families hid inside, residents told Reuters by phone. Some reported seeing killings. Witnesses said the militia members were aligned with the government in the country’s ethnically charged civil war. They accused army soldiers of blocking the main road to a civilian encampment protected by U.N. peacekeepers. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said two U.N. peacekeeping patrols had been sent to the area on Monday and more were expected to patrol on Tuesday. The U.N. peacekeeping mission is known as UNMISS…Five residents, all of whom asked not to be named, described members of the president’s Dinka ethnic group searching for members of the local Luo and Fertit groups. The head of the military is also Dinka.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/2ok36m4)

Vali Nasr explains how his family’s escape from Iran shaped his intellectual development. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2ok6tcv)

A Male Birth Control is Coming to Market. But Not for Americans and Europeans? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2ok1Q2a)