'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
An emergency meeting of United Nations health experts on 18 May 2018 said that the Ebola outbreak in north-west Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – where cases of the deadly disease have been confirmed in an urban area – does not yet meet the criteria to be deemed a “public health emergency of international concern.”
18 May 2018 — The United Nations refugee agency is calling for urgent support for thousands of people arriving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after fleeing conflict in south-eastern Central African Republic (CAR).
400,000 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “are at risk of death” in the Kasais region from food shortages caused by conflict and displacement, according to a senior UN official who has just returned from the area, expressing shock at what he had witnessed.
21 March 2018 The security services and defence forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) killed at least 47 people during anti-government protests over a 13-month period through 31 January 2018, a United Nations human rights report has found.
The humanitarian crisis and the resulting suffering will only worsen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) if persistent violence is not brought under control and there is no political transition, the top United Nations relief official on 19 March 2018 warned.
In the span of just three days – between 10 and 13 March – more than 4,000 people, mostly terrified women and children, have crossed into Uganda from crisis-gripped eastern provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations refugee agency on 16 March 2018 said.
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14 March 2018 — As fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced 4.5 million people to flee their homes over the past year and left more than 13 million in need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator has called on the international community to urgently address the crisis.
Surging violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is driving thousands of Congolese into neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, the United Nations refugee agency on 30 January 2018 said.
Congolese refugees at a transit centre in Uganda near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (File) Photo: UNHCR/L. Beck
“Thousands of children, women and men have abandoned their homes, in the midst of intensified military operations against Mai Mai armed groups in South Kivu province,” Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told press at the regular briefing in Geneva.
The dramatic deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic over the past year has been further complicated by recent floods and health crises, the United Nations migration agency on 17 January 2018 said, appealing for urgent funding to ensure continued assistance and protection for millions in need.
Women gather at a food distribution point in Nyanzale, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The distribution targets the most vulnerable households and serves around 30 per cent of all displaced families. Photo: OCHA/Ivo Brandau
Mariya, a 14-year-old orphan and survivor of sexual assault in the DRC. Photo: Helen Vesperini/UN Migration Agency (IOM) 2017
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 