Yemen
Children are going increasingly hungry in Yemen as escalating fighting disrupts access to healthcare and treatment centers, the U.N. children’s agency said. “We're very concerned about a very visible increase in acute malnutrition among children,” UNICEF’s Country Representative in Yemen, Akhil Iyer, told reporters via video link from Aden. Iyer said that more than a quarter of almost 2,900 children screened in recent weeks by UNICEF in accessible areas were acutely malnourished, including 200 classified as severe, which is the worst level. The agency said that represented just a snapshot in a country where 2.2 million children under five are projected to be acutely malnourished this year, with over half a million estimated to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
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DR Congo
A young doctor has died of Ebola on the front lines of the battle against the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Victor Kingombe, who was working in Tshopo, one of the most recently affected provinces, was buried by healthcare workers in full protective gear as friends and family watched from a distance. “Our internal medicine doctor is gone. Doctor Victor, why? Why, Doctor? Our internal medicine doctor,” one of his colleagues, fellow doctor Agnes Kalokola, cried out. Though hope was recently sparked by a downturn in cases in Ituri province, the outbreak’s epicenter, neighbouring provinces have seen escalating infections. The epidemic has killed a confirmed 3,779 people out of 7,820 cases, according to the latest figures. The true number is believed to be higher.
More from Africa News here.
Africa-UN
Several African leaders took the opportunity of the U.N. General Assembly this week to push for a permanent seat for the continent on the Security Council. The 15-member Security Council has five permanent members – the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China – that hold veto power. The remaining seats, which have no such power, are rotated every two years, and Africa holds three of those. There is growing disquiet among African leaders, though, who argue that level of representation is insufficient. “Every nation is sovereign and equal under the (U.N.) charter. Yet, on the gravest question of war and peace, five nations possess a permanent power that the other 188 do not. The equality proclaimed in this assembly ends at the doors of the security council,” Kenyan President William Ruto told delegates. “How can a world led with a right conscience justify the denial of 1.6 billion Africans the right to equal representation?” asked Ethiopia’s President Taye Atske Selassie. The leaders of Liberia, Botswana, Namibia and Somalia also called for reform.
More from AP here.