[UN News] The UN Charter is facing one of its gravest tests in decades, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, warning that wars, arms races, climate shocks and the erosion of international law are placing intense pressure on the multilateral system established to prevent a third world war.
The World Health Organization warned Monday that a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda was outpacing response efforts, with at least 220 suspected deaths reported. Health workers in the conflict-hit Ituri province face attacks on medical facilities, complicating efforts to contain the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus.
Senegal's parliamentary speaker El Malick Ndiaye stepped down Sunday, clearing the way for his ally Ousmane Sonko – sacked two days ago by the country's president – to run for his position as the head of parliament. Sonko's Pastef party commands a strong majority in the West African nation's legislature.
The World Health Organization has raised the risk of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola spreading across the Democratic Republic of Congo to “very high,” warning the outbreak could accelerate rapidly. With no approved vaccine or treatment available, health officials are racing to contain the virus and prevent wider regional spread.
India and the African Union (AU) on Thursday postponed the India-Africa Forum Summit scheduled for next week in New Delhi, due to the "emerging public health situation" in Africa, India's foreign ministry said, in an apparent reference to the Ebola outbreak. A first Ebola case was confirmed in the DR Congo's rebel-held South Kivu province.
Some 175 militants belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group were killed in joint Nigerian-US strikes in Nigeria's northeast in recent days, both militaries said Tuesday. Washington sent troops to the West African nation in February as armed groups stepped up their attacks on communities across the country.
Former prison boss Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri was "one of the worst instigators" of torture, rape and murder in Libya's notorious Mitiga prison, prosecutors told the International Criminal Court Tuesday. Judges will have 60 days to determine whether the charges against El Hishri – including 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity – are credible enough to proceed to a full trial.
The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen sharply to at least 131 from 513 suspected cases, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said, as the World Health Organization on Tuesday hosted an emergency committee meeting to address the crisis. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the WHO "a little late" in identifying the outbreak after the Trump administration's sweeping funding cuts to the organisation earlier this year.