Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral again into a global health emergency

Patients listen to a doctor outside the consultation room of the Mpox treatment centre at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
Patients listen to a doctor outside the consultation room of the Mpox treatment centre at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 18 August 2024
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Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral again into a global health emergency

Congo’s humanitarian crisis helped mpox spiral again into a global health emergency
  • Millions are thought to be out of reach of medical help or advice in the conflict-torn east, where dozens of rebel groups have been fighting Congolese army forces for years over mineral-rich areas, causing a huge displacement crisis

GOMA, Congo: Sarah Bagheni had a headache, fever, and itchy and unusual skin lesions for days, but she had no inkling that her symptoms might have been caused by mpox and that she might be another case in a growing global health emergency.

She also has no idea where to go to get medical help.

She and her husband live in the Bulengo displacement camp in eastern Congo, a region that is effectively ground zero for a series of mpox outbreaks in Africa.

This year’s alarming rise in cases, including a new form of the virus identified by scientists in eastern Congo, led the World Health Organization to declare it a global health emergency on Wednesday. It said the new variant could spread beyond the five African countries where it had already been detected — a timely warning that came a day before Sweden reported its first case of the new strain.

In the vast central African nation of Congo, which has had more than 96 percent of the world’s roughly 17,000 recorded cases of mpox this year — and some 500 deaths from the disease — many of the most vulnerable seem unaware of its existence or the threat that it poses.

“We know nothing about this,” Bagheni’s husband, Habumuremyiza Hire, said Thursday about mpox. “I watch her condition helplessly because I don’t know what to do. We continue to share the same room.”

Millions are thought to be out of reach of medical help or advice in the conflict-torn east, where dozens of rebel groups have been fighting Congolese army forces for years over mineral-rich areas, causing a huge displacement crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people like Bagheni and her husband have been forced into overcrowded refugee camps around Goma, while more have taken refuge in the city.

Conditions in the camps are dire and medical facilities are almost nonexistent.

Mahoro Faustin, who runs the Bulengo camp, said that about three months ago, administrators first started noticing people in the camp exhibiting fever, body aches and chills — symptoms that could signal malaria, measles or mpox.

There is no way of knowing how many mpox cases there might be in Bulengo because of a lack of testing, he said. There haven’t been any recent health campaigns to educate the tens of thousands of people in the camp about mpox, and Faustin said he’s worried about how many people might be undiagnosed.

“Just look at the overcrowding here,” he said, pointing to a sea of ramshackle tents. “If nothing is done, we will all be infected here, or maybe we are already all infected.”

Around 70 percent of the new mpox cases in the Goma area in the last two months that were registered at a treatment center run by Medair were from displacement camps, said Dr. Pierre Olivier Ngadjole, the international aid group’s health adviser in Congo. The youngest of those cases was a month-old baby and the oldest a 90-year-old, he said.

In severe cases of mpox, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, arms, chest and genitals. While the disease originated in animals, the virus has in recent years been spreading between people via close physical contact, including sex.

Bagheni’s best hope of getting a diagnosis for her lesions is a government hospital that’s a two-hour drive away. That’s likely out of the question, given that she already struggles with mobility having previously had both her legs amputated.

Seven million people are internally displaced in Congo, with more than 5.5 million of them in the country’s east, according the UN refugee agency. Congo has the largest displacement camp population in Africa, and one of the largest in the world.

The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has almost every possible complication when it comes to stopping an mpox outbreak, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Duke University’s Global Health Institute.

That includes war, illicit mining industries that attract sex workers, transient populations near border regions, and entrenched poverty. He also said the global community missed multiple warning signs.

“We’re paying attention to it now, but mpox has been spreading since 2017 in Congo and Nigeria,” Beyrer said, adding that experts have long been calling for vaccines to be shared with Africa, but to little effect. He said the WHO’s emergency declaration was “late in coming,” with more than a dozen countries already affected.

Beyrer said that unlike COVID-19 or HIV, there’s a good vaccine and good treatments and diagnostics for mpox, but “the access issues are worse than ever” in places like eastern Congo.

In 2022, there were outbreaks in more than 70 countries around the world, including the United States, which led the WHO to also declare an emergency that lasted until mid-2023. It was largely shut down in wealthy countries within months through the use of vaccines and treatments, but few doses have been made available in Africa.

The new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox was first detected this year in a mining town in eastern Congo, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Goma. It’s unclear how much the new strain is to blame, but Congo is now enduring its worst outbreak yet and at least 13 African countries have recorded cases, four of them for the first time.

The outbreaks in those four countries — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — have been linked to Congo’s, and Doctors Without Borders said Friday that Congo’s surge “threatens a major spread of the disease” to other countries.

Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious disease expert who chairs the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency committee, said the Congo outbreak has a particularly concerning change, in that it’s disproportionately affecting young people. Children under 15 account for 70 percent of cases and 85 percent of all deaths in the country, the Africa CDC reported.

Unlike the 2022 global outbreak, which predominantly affected gay and bisexual men, mpox now appears to be spreading in heterosexual populations.

All of Congo’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases, according to the state-run news agency. But Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said Thursday that the country doesn’t have a single vaccine dose yet and he pleaded for “vigilance in all directions from all Congolese.”

Dr. Rachel Maguru, who heads the multi-epidemic center at Goma’s North Kivu provincial hospital, said they also don’t have drugs or any established treatments for mpox and are relying on other experts such as dermatologists to help where they can. A larger outbreak around the city and its numerous displacement camps already overburdened with an influx of people would be “terrible,” she said.

She also noted a pivotal problem: poor and displaced people have other priorities, like earning enough money to eat and survive. Aid agencies and stretched local authorities are already wrestling with providing food, shelter and basic health care to the millions displaced, while also dealing with outbreaks of other diseases like cholera.

 

 


Israel is in danger of becoming isolated, German foreign minister warns

Israel is in danger of becoming isolated, German foreign minister warns
Updated 25 min 8 sec ago
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Israel is in danger of becoming isolated, German foreign minister warns

Israel is in danger of becoming isolated, German foreign minister warns
  • Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul made the remarks while on a trip to Israel

FRANKFURT: Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Israel was in danger of becoming isolated and Germany was trying to prevent that.

“Israel must always find friends, partners and supporters in the international community. And that is currently in danger in this situation. And if there is one country that has a responsibility to prevent this, then in my view it is Germany,” Wadephul told reporters on a trip to Israel.

He added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “beyond imagination,” after meeting senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem.

“The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination.”

Wadephul said: “(Israel is) obliged to quickly and safely send sufficient humanitarian and medical aid to avoid mass death as part of a famine.”


Turbulence forces Delta flight to land and sends 25 people to hospitals, airline says

Turbulence forces Delta flight to land and sends 25 people to hospitals, airline says
Updated 31 July 2025
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Turbulence forces Delta flight to land and sends 25 people to hospitals, airline says

Turbulence forces Delta flight to land and sends 25 people to hospitals, airline says
  • The 25 were taken to hospitals for evaluation and treatment, the airline said
  • One passenger said people who weren’t wearing seat belts were thrown about the cabin

MINNEAPOLIS: A Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam was hit by serious turbulence, sending 25 people on board to hospitals and forcing the flight to divert to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the airline said.

The Airbus A330-900, carrying 275 customers and 13-member crew, landed around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday. The airport fire department and paramedics met the flight. The 25 were taken to hospitals for evaluation and treatment, the airline said.

One passenger said people who weren’t wearing seat belts were thrown about the cabin.

“They hit the ceiling, and then they fell to the ground,” Leann Clement-Nash told ABC News. “And the carts also hit the ceiling and fell to the ground and people were injured. It happened several times, so it was really scary.”

Delta said in a statement: “We are grateful for the support of all emergency responders involved.”

Serious injuries from in-flight turbulence are rare, but scientists say they may be becoming more common as climate change alters the jet stream.

The disturbance Wednesday is one of several turbulence-impacted flights reported this year. It also raises awareness about aviation safety ranging from of January’s midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people, to last weekend’s smoking jet at Denver International Airport, where passengers slid down an emergency slide.

Regarding turbulence, five people were taken to a North Carolina hospital for evaluation in June after an American Airlines flight from Miami hit turbulence on its way to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The plane landed safely.

Earlier that month, severe storms in southern Germany forced a Ryanair flight to make an emergency landing after violent turbulence injured nine people on board, German police said. The flight was traveling from Berlin to Milan with 179 passengers and six crew members. Eight passengers and one crew member were hurt.

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Singapore experienced severe turbulence in March. At the time, the plane carrying 174 passengers and 14 crew members were flying over the Philippines. Five people were injured and the plane was able to land safely in Singapore.

Several flights were diverted to Waco, Texas, on March 3, because of turbulence. Five people were injured aboard one of them, a United Express plane flying from Springfield, Missouri, to Houston.

A man was killed when a Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence in May 2024, the first person to die from turbulence on a major airline in several decades.


Trump wants deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by Aug. 8, US tells UN

A view shows the site of an apartment building hit by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.
A view shows the site of an apartment building hit by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Updated 31 July 2025
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Trump wants deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by Aug. 8, US tells UN

A view shows the site of an apartment building hit by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.

UNITED NATIONS: US President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by August 8, the United States told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

“Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace,” senior US diplomat John Kelley told the 15-member council.


GHF aid system in Gaza is a ‘scandal, and shameful’ says French foreign minister

A mourner reacts next to a body during the funeral of Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli fire while trying to receive aid.
A mourner reacts next to a body during the funeral of Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli fire while trying to receive aid.
Updated 31 July 2025
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GHF aid system in Gaza is a ‘scandal, and shameful’ says French foreign minister

A mourner reacts next to a body during the funeral of Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli fire while trying to receive aid.
  • UN estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food since May, most near militarised distribution sites of the GHF

NICOSIA: France’s foreign minister said on Thursday a US and Israel-backed aid distribution system in Gaza had generated a “bloodbath” and had to cease activity.

“I want to call for the cessation of the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the militarised distribution of humanitarian aid that has generated a bloodbath in distribution lines in Gaza, which is a scandal, which is shameful, and has to stop,” Foreign and European Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters after meeting his Cyprus counterpart in Nicosia.

A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted.

The UN estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food since May, most near militarised distribution sites of the GHF, which employs a US logistics firm run by a former CIA officer and armed US veterans. The GHF denies that there have been deadly incidents at its sites, and says the deadliest have been near other aid convoys.

The Israeli military has acknowledged that civilians have been harmed by its gunfire near distribution centers, and says its forces have now received better instructions. Israel accuses Hamas fighters of stealing aid — which the militants deny — and the UN of failing to prevent it. The UN says it has not seen evidence of Hamas diverting much aid. Hamas accuses Israel of causing starvation and using aid as a weapon.

Barrot said France would carry out four humanitarian flights carrying 10 tons each of aid from Friday into Gaza in cooperation with Jordan.

Cyprus was briefly a staging point for about 22,000 tons of pre-screened aid sent to Gaza by sea in 2024 via a short-lived US-built landing jetty. Some 1,200 tons of aid is still on the island, awaiting delivery when conditions allow, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said.


‘Poisoning’ arrest at UK childrens summer camp

A police officer stands in Leicestershire, central England. (File/AFP)
A police officer stands in Leicestershire, central England. (File/AFP)
Updated 31 July 2025
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‘Poisoning’ arrest at UK childrens summer camp

A police officer stands in Leicestershire, central England. (File/AFP)
  • Emergency services were called to the camp in the village of Stathern in central England
  • A triage center was set up to assess all the youngsters

LONDON: UK police said on Thursday they had arrested a 76-year-old man on suspicion of administering poison after eight children at a summer camp were taken to hospital.

Emergency services were called to the camp in the village of Stathern in central England on Monday after a “report of several children feeling unwell,” Leicestershire police said in a statement.

A triage center was set up to assess all the youngsters at and “eight children were taken to hospital as a precaution and have all since been discharged,” the police added.

The man in custody is being questioned on suspicion of “administering poison/a noxious thing with intent to injure/aggrieve/annoy,” the police said.