DR Congo
Four out of five new Ebola cases in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have no known link to existing patients, a senior U.N. health agency official said, suggesting the virus is still spreading largely undetected. The true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official data shows, WHO Emergencies Director Chikwe Ihekweazu said. "Patients are out there much longer than we would like," he said. "The longer patients are outside of care, the more likely they are to transmit this illness." The death toll has now passed 600, according to the health ministry, with the number of confirmed cases at 1,759.
More from Reuters here.
Episode 7 of The Proximities Podcast is now live. This week, I spoke to investigative journalist Mohamed Gabobe about a U.S. drone strike in Somalia that killed 12 civilians, including eight children. But the U.S. military, which has been waging a covert war in Somalia for decades, will not admit that a single civilian was killed that day.
It’s on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.
Pakistan
Pakistani troops backed by attack helicopters have killed more than 75 insurgents in recent days, officials said, as separatist rebels step up their armed campaign in Balochistan province. Authorities in Balochistan said the operation began after fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) attacked a police post. They said 18 police officers were abducted and later found blindfolded and shot dead. Ethnic separatists have been fighting the Pakistani government in Balochistan, the country’s biggest and poorest province, for decades. While once considered relatively small, analysts say the groups are now expanding their reach.
More from AP here.
Bangladesh
Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told Reuters that she plans to return from exile in India along with senior party colleagues in September despite facing a death sentence at home. “They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me,” Hasina, 78, said in an interview. “Still, I have to go,” she said. “My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.” Hasina, who had been in power since 2009, was toppled during a violent student-led street uprising in 2024.
More from Reuters here.
Interesting about Bangladesh. It was an incredible movement that got her ousted. Please keep us posted on this.