Floods in Nigeria kill scores, wash away farmland, raise hunger concerns

ABUJA, Nigeria — Weeks of flooding have killed 185 people in Nigeria and washed away homes and farmlands, the country’s disaster management agency said, further threatening food supplies, especially in the hard-hit northern region.

The floods, blamed on poor infrastructure and badly maintained dams, have displaced 208,000 people in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the National Emergency Management Agency said in an update Friday, triggering frantic efforts to evacuate hundreds of thousands to makeshift shelters.

Nigeria records flooding every year mostly as a result of failure to follow environmental guidelines and inadequate infrastructure. The worst floods the country has seen in a decade were in 2022, when more than 600 people were killed and more than 1 million people were displaced.

However, unlike in 2022 when the floods were blamed on heavier rainfall, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicted delayed or normal rains in most parts of the country this year and said the current floods were more a result of human activities.

“What we are doing is causing this climate change, so there is a shift from the normal,” said Ibrahim Wasiu Adeniyi, head of the central forecasting unit. “We have some who dump refuse indiscriminately, some build houses without approvals along the waterways.”

The Nigerian disaster response agency warned the flooding could get worse in the coming weeks as the flood waters flow downwards to the central and southern states.

“People [in flood-prone areas] need to evacuate now … because we don’t have time any longer,” said its spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel.

In Jigawa, the worst-hit state, has recorded 37 deaths. The impact of the floods there has been “devastating,” and authorities are converting public buildings and schools as shelters for those displaced, according to Nura Abdullahi, head of emergency services in the state.

The floods have so far destroyed 107,000 hectares of farmland, especially in northern states, among the most affected and where most of Nigeria’s harvests come from.

Many farmers in the region are already unable to farm as much as they would like either because of decreasing inputs as families struggle amid Nigeria’s economic hardship or as a result of violent attacks that have forced them to flee.

Nigeria has the highest number of hungry people in the world, with 32 million — 10% of the global burden — facing acute hunger in the country, according to the U.N. food agency.

Resident Abdullahi Gummi in Zamfara state’s Gummi council area said the floods destroyed his family’s farmlands, which are their source of income. “We spent around 300,000 naira [$188] on planting, but everything is gone,” Gummi said.

Wasn’t polio wiped out? Why it is still a problem in some countries

LONDON — Polio was eliminated from most parts of the world as part of a decadeslong effort by the World Health Organization and partners to wipe out the disease. But polio is one of the world’s most infectious diseases and is still spreading in a small number of countries. The WHO and its partners want to eradicate polio in the next few years.

Until it is gone from the planet, the virus will continue to trigger outbreaks anywhere children are not fully vaccinated. The recent polio infection in an unvaccinated baby in Gaza is the first time the disease has been reported in the territory in more than 25 years.

What is polio?

Polio is an infection caused by a virus that mostly affects children younger than 5. Most people infected with polio don’t have any symptoms, but it can cause fever, headaches, vomiting and stiffness of the spine. In severe cases, polio can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis within hours, according to the WHO. The U.N. agency estimates that 1 in 200 polio cases results in permanent paralysis, usually of the legs. Among children who are paralyzed, up to 10% die when their breathing muscles are paralyzed.

The virus spreads from person to person, entering the body though the mouth. It is most often spread by contact with waste from an infected person or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food.

Just how bad was polio in the past?

Very bad. Polio has existed for centuries; ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics show children walking with canes, with the wasted limbs characteristic of polio victims.

Before the first vaccine was developed in the 1950s, polio was among the most feared diseases. An explosive 1916 outbreak in New York killed more than 2,000 people, and the worst recorded U.S. outbreak in 1952 killed more than 3,000. Many people who survived polio suffered lifelong consequences, including paralysis and deformed limbs. Some people whose breathing muscles were paralyzed required “iron lung” chambers to help them breathe.

When did the eradication campaign begin?

WHO passed a resolution to eradicate polio in 1988, spurred on by the success of eliminating smallpox eight years earlier. Their original target was to wipe out polio by 2000. The WHO — along with partners including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and Rotary International — boosted the production of an oral vaccine and rolled out widespread immunization campaigns. Polio cases dropped by more than 99%.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped. There are also outbreaks in more than a dozen other countries, mostly in Africa. WHO and partners now aim to wipe out polio by 2026.

Why has it taken so long?

It’s extraordinarily difficult. Stopping polio outbreaks means vaccinating at least 95% of the population everywhere, including in conflict-ridden countries and poor regions with broken health systems and other priorities.

The oral vaccine is cheap, easy to use and is better at preventing entire populations from becoming infected. But it contains weakened, live polio virus and in very rare cases can spread and cause polio in unvaccinated people. In even rarer instances, the live virus from the vaccine can mutate into a new form capable of starting new outbreaks.

Health authorities have become more successful in reducing the number of cases caused by the wild polio virus. Vaccine-related cases now cause the majority of infections worldwide.

“The problem with trying to eradicate polio is that the need for perfection is so great and there are so many weak links,” said Scott Barrett, a Columbia University professor who has studied polio eradication. “The technical feasibility is there, but we live in a vastly imperfect world.” 

Africa’s mpox outbreaks could be stopped in 6 months, WHO chief says

geneva — The head of the World Health Organization believes mpox outbreaks in Africa might be stopped in the next six months, and he said Friday that the agency’s first shipment of vaccines should arrive in Congo within days. 

To date, Africa has received a small fraction of the vaccines needed to slow the spread of the virus, especially in Congo, which has the most cases — more than 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths. 

“With the governments’ leadership and close cooperation between partners, we believe we can stop these outbreaks in the next six months,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing. 

He said that while mpox infections have been rising quickly in the last few weeks, there have been relatively few deaths. Tedros also noted there were 258 cases of the newest version of mpox, with patients identified in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Sweden and Thailand. 

Earlier this month, WHO declared the mpox outbreaks in Africa a global emergency, hoping to spur a robust global response to the disease on a continent where cases were spreading largely unnoticed for years, including in Nigeria. In May, scientists detected a new version of the disease in Congo that they think could be spreading more easily. 

Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is related to smallpox but typically causes milder symptoms, including fever, headache and body aches. In severe cases, people can develop painful sores and blisters on the face, chest, hands and genitals. Mpox is typically spread via close skin-to-skin contact. 

WHO estimated about 230,000 vaccines could be sent “imminently” to Congo and elsewhere. The agency said it was also working on education campaigns to raise awareness of how people could avoid spreading mpox in countries with outbreaks. 

Maria Van Kerkhove, who directs WHO’s epidemic and pandemic diseases department, said the agency was working to expedite vaccine access for affected countries — given the limited supply available. 

Scientists have previously pointed out that without a better understanding of how mpox is spreading in Africa, it may be difficult to know how best to use the shots. 

Earlier this week, the head of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent was hoping to receive about 380,000 doses of mpox vaccines promised by donors, including the U.S. and the European Union. That’s less than 15% of the doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in Congo. 

Israel gives go-ahead for Gaza polio vaccination campaign

Geneva — World Health Organization officials say Israel has given United Nations agencies the go-ahead to start inoculating hundreds of thousands of young Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip against polio.

A mass polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 640,000 children under the age 10 against the crippling disease is set to begin Sunday, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Speaking from Deir al Balah in central Gaza, Peeperkorn told journalists in Geneva Friday that Israel has agreed to a series of so-called humanitarian pauses.

“We want to emphasize without humanitarian pauses, the campaign’s delivery, which is already being implemented under incredibly complex and challenging circumstances, will not be possible,” Peeperkorn said.

“So, we welcome the preliminary commitment to these area-specific humanitarian pauses during the campaign,” he said. “We call on all parties to pause the fighting to allow children and families to safely access health facilities and for community outreach workers to get the children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccinations.”

The campaign, which is being run by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA and partners, will be split into three, three-day phases, starting with central Gaza, followed by south Gaza, and lastly north Gaza.

The campaign will involve two doses of novel oral polio vaccine and will be given to the children in two rounds four weeks apart. The WHO says 1.26 million doses of vaccine and 500 vaccine carriers have been delivered to Gaza, noting that an additional 400,000 doses will arrive in Gaza soon.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told journalists during an online briefing Friday that staff have prepared for the logistically mammoth undertaking.

“We have trained more than 2,100 workers and community outreach workers to provide vaccinations and inform communities about the campaign,” he said. “Our aim is to reach at least 90% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to stop the current outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio.”

Decisions to vaccinate Gaza’s children were made just days after a 10-month-old baby became partially paralyzed with polio, the first case of the infectious disease in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years.

Polio mainly affects young children and is spread through contact with feces or from contaminated food or water. Health officials agree that the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions under which people in Gaza are forced to live create an environment in which the poliovirus thrives.

“Due to insecurity, damage to road and infrastructure, and constant population displacement, conducting the campaign for just three days in each area is unlikely to be sufficient to achieve adequate vaccination coverage,” Tedros said.

“Vaccination coverage will be monitored throughout the campaign,” he said, “and it has been agreed that vaccination will be extended by one day wherever necessary.”

Peeperkorn said that every day a technical team will analyze the campaign to see how it is progressing and whether adjustments need to be made.

“In an ideal situation, you would go house to house. Unfortunately, that is not feasible in Gaza,” he said.

“If after three days, we see that coverage is too low, we will ask for additional days,” he added, explaining that this has been approved by the Israeli COGAT authority, which coordinates government activities in the Palestinian territories.

“We have this agreement, and I expect all the parties to stick to this agreement,” he said. “We are here. The teams are ready to move forward, and we expect that this will happen in the best possible way.”

WHO: Israel agrees to daily pauses in Gaza for polio vaccinations

United Nations — A senior World Health Organization official said Thursday that Israel has agreed to a series of daily nine-hour humanitarian pauses for the duration of a massive polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, where the first case of the disease was found in a baby earlier this month.

“The campaign will start on the first of September in central Gaza for three days,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the Palestinian Territory, told reporters in a video call from Gaza. “There will be a humanitarian pause during the vaccination for three days.”

He said they had agreed to a humanitarian pause from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily during each vaccination day with COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates access for humanitarians in Gaza.

Peeperkorn said their teams would evaluate after the first three days whether an additional one to two days more were necessary to reach enough children in central Gaza. Then the teams would move to southern Gaza and finally northern Gaza, with each area expected to take three to five days.

More than 1.2 million doses of the polio vaccine have already been delivered to Gaza and an additional 400,000 are on the way.

The virus was detected last month in environmental samples in southern and central Gaza. At least one case has been confirmed, in an 11-month-old baby — the first case in Gaza in 25 years — raising fears of a larger outbreak.

“Israel will work with WHO and other organs to support all the campaigns to bring vaccines into Gaza,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Wednesday.

WHO says that Gaza had a high level of vaccination coverage before the escalation of hostilities in October but that the war has disrupted routine immunizations, including polio.

Peeperkorn said at least 90% of children need to be vaccinated to stop transmission of the poliovirus, which can cause irreversible paralysis in children. The virus is spread from person to person, mainly through feces, but also through contaminated food and water. Gaza’s water, sewage and sanitation systems have collapsed during the 10-month-long conflict, and living conditions are desperate.

More than 2,000 health care workers and community volunteers will be aiming to reach 640,000 children under age 10 during the campaign with a double dose of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2. The second dose will be administered four weeks after the first one.

Peeperkorn said the humanitarian pauses are vital to allow health workers and families to reach the vaccination sites.

“We need these humanitarian pauses, and that has been very clear. There is an agreement on that, so we expect that all parties will to stick to that,” he said. “Otherwise, indeed, it is actually impossible to do a proper campaign because you will definitely not reach your 90% [coverage].”

WHO, along with the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, and UNRWA, the agency that assists Palestinian refugees, will be implementing the vaccination campaign. There will be 392 sites across Gaza where families can take their children for the polio vaccine. Nearly 300 other mobile units will be in the field to reach those who cannot access a vaccination site.

Israel has issued 16 separate evacuation orders to Gaza residents during August, displacing more than a quarter of a million Palestinians. Peeperkorn said Israel has agreed not to issue any evacuation orders on the days the vaccination campaign is in progress.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the U.S. envoy expressed support for the vaccination campaign.

“It is especially important for Israel to facilitate access for agencies carrying out the vaccination campaign, and for it to ensure periods of calm and to refrain from military operations during vaccination campaign periods,” Ambassador Robert Wood said. “We urge Israel to avoid further evacuation orders during this period.”

Snakehead fish: The invasive species disaster that wasn’t

Invasive plants and animals disrupt food supplies, carry diseases and cause an estimated $423 billion in damage every year around the world. When an Asian fish called the snakehead invaded waterways near Washington, experts warned it might devour the competition and upset of the ecosystem. But, as VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, that’s not what ended up happening. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.

Second elephant calf in 2 weeks is born at California zoo

FRESNO, Calif. — The second elephant calf in two weeks has been born at a California zoo.

African elephant Amahle gave birth early Monday morning, according to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The event came 10 days after Amahle’s mother, Nolwazi, gave birth to another male calf.

The new additions are the first elephants born at the zoo, about 240 kilometers southeast of San Francisco, which has embarked on a program to breed elephants in the hope that they can be seen by zoogoers in years to come.

“To have two healthy calves is a historic milestone,” Jon Forrest Dohlin, the zoo’s chief executive, said in a statement Tuesday. “We cannot wait for the public to see the new additions to our herd and share in our excitement.”

The elephants and their calves will continue to be monitored behind the scenes for now, Dohlin said. While the zoo expanded its exhibit in anticipation of growing its herd, some animal activists have opposed the breeding program, saying elephants shouldn’t be in zoos because of their complex needs.

In 2022, the zoo brought in male elephant Mabu hoping he’d breed with the two females. The future of elephants — which have relatively few offspring and a 22-month gestation period — in zoos hinges largely on breeding.

Mpox outbreak in Africa poses risks for refugees, displaced communities

GENEVA — U.N. agencies warn that refugees and displaced communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries infected with mpox are at particular risk of illness and death because of conditions under which they are forced to live.

The World Health Organization says at least 42 suspected cases of mpox have been identified among the refugee population in DR Congo’s South Kivu Province, one of the regions hardest hit by the disease. Confirmed and suspected cases of the new clade 1b strain also have been recorded among refugee populations in the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

“Suspected cases are being reported in conflict-impacted provinces that host the majority of the DRC’s 7.3 million internally displaced people,” Dr. Allen Maina, UNHCR public health chief, said Tuesday.

“In these areas, the virus threatens to exacerbate an already impossible situation for a population devastated by decades of conflict, forced displacement, appalling human rights abuses and a lack of international assistance,” the U.N. refugee official said.

He also warned that without additional, urgent international support, the recently declared mpox outbreak “could become devastating” for the DRC and other impacted African countries.

Nearly two weeks ago, the WHO declared mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern following an upsurge in the deadly disease in the DRC and 11 other countries in Africa.

Maina told journalists at a briefing in Geneva that refugees and displaced people are particularly vulnerable to mpox because people fleeing violence “are unable to implement many of the mpox prevention measures” that could keep them healthy and save their lives.

“Displaced families living in crowded schools, shelters and tents, and also in churches, and also in farmers’ fields have no space to isolate when they develop symptoms of the disease. UNHCR staff have found some affected individuals trying diligently to follow preventive measures and protect their communities by sleeping outside,” he said.

So far this year, the WHO reports more than 18,910 cases of mpox and 615 deaths, most in the DRC. “But most of these are suspected cases as they have not yet been laboratory confirmed,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, WHO spokesperson, adding that “We are seeing outbreaks of both clade 1a and clade 1b.”

Clade 1a is primarily transmitted through sexual contact, and there also have been outbreaks resulting from zoonotic spillover; while the new strain of the virus, clade 1b, is exclusively spread by contact between humans.

The WHO says a lot of outbreaks in north and south Kivu provinces are caused by clade 1b. The U.N. health agency has recorded 5,400 suspected cases as of August 23, noting that more than 220 cases of the new strain also have been found in neighboring countries.

Harris says scientists do not have the data to know whether clade 1b is more dangerous than clade 1a.

“Studies are underway to understand the properties of the new strain. The available epidemiological data does not suggest that the clade 1b variant causes more severe cases as yet.” She noted, however, that the disease spreads rapidly, putting refugees and displaced people at particular risk.

“You just heard the descriptions of the conditions under which people are living and have arrived already very stressed, hungry, terrified, displaced,” she said.

These difficult living conditions have led to weaker immune systems, she said, “which makes them more likely to become more ill with anything they get, including mpox.”

Mpox is a deadly infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is spread through close physical contact, which makes children particularly vulnerable “as the disease spreads easily through skin-to-skin contact,” Harris said, adding that children who have close physical contact with an infected adult relative “cannot fight off the virus because of a weakened immune system.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus launched a six-month global strategic preparedness and response plan Monday to stop human-to-human transmission of mpox through global, regional and national efforts.

“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” Tedros said in a statement.

The WHO followed Monday’s launch with an $87.4 million appeal Tuesday to implement critical activities over the next six months, emphasizing surveillance, research, equitable access to medical countermeasures and community empowerment.

The WHO is calling on donors to urgently fund the mpox response “to prevent further spread and protect those most at risk.”

The UNHCRs public health chief, Maina, has no doubt as to who is most at risk and what must be done.

“International solidarity is urgently needed to expand health services, isolation centers, humanitarian shelters, access to water and soap for those forced to flee,” he said. “In conflict zones, peace is also desperately needed, to ensure a sustainable response to stop the spread of the disease.”

WHO launches plan to stanch mpox transmission, says virus can be stopped

GENEVA — The U.N. health agency on Monday launched a six-month plan to help stanch outbreaks of mpox transmission, including ramping up staffing in affected countries and boosting surveillance, prevention and response strategies.

The World Health Organization said it expected the plan, running from September through February next year, would require $135 million in funding. The plan would also aim to improve fair access to vaccines, notably in African countries hardest hit by the outbreak.

“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.

The agency is “significantly scaling up staff” in affected countries, it said. In mid-August, WHO classified the current mpox outbreak as a global health emergency.

Also Monday, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Germany was donating 100,000 doses of mpox vaccine to affected countries from stocks held by its military, German news agency dpa reported.

Last Tuesday, Congo — the hardest-hit country — reported more than 1,000 new mpox cases over the previous week.

In its latest update on the outbreak, the African Centers for Disease Control reported that as of Thursday, more than 21,300 suspected or confirmed cases and 590 deaths have been reported this year in 12 African countries.

Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but typically causes milder symptoms such as fever, chills and body aches. It mostly spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including sexual intercourse. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

Congo-Brazzaville reports 21 mpox cases

Brazzaville, Congo — Twenty-one cases of mpox have been recorded in Congo-Brazzaville, the country’s health minister told state television Sunday.

Gilbert Mokoki said that the central African country had “registered 158 suspect cases” since the beginning of the year, “21 of which we have confirmed.”

The latest two were reported Thursday, he said.

Cases of the infectious disease — formerly known as monkeypox — have been surging in eastern and central Africa, but the virus has also been detected in Asia and Europe, with the World Health Organization declaring an international emergency.

The virus has been reported in five of Congo-Brazzaville’s 15 regions, with the forested areas of Sangha and Likouala in the north particularly affected.

A new variant of mpox has swept across neighboring DR Congo, killing more than 570 people so far this year.

Mokoki said that the epidemic was not alarming in Congo-Brazzaville, but appealed to people to take preventative measures like regularly washing their hands.

While mpox has been known for decades, a new more deadly and more transmissible strain — known as Clade 1b — has driven the recent surge in cases.

Cholera poses new risks for millions of Sudan’s displaced

GENEVA — U.N. agencies are scaling up cholera prevention and treatment programs to get on top of a new, deadly cholera outbreak in Sudan that threatens to further destabilize communities suffering from hunger and the ill effects of more than 16 months of conflict.

The recent cholera outbreak has resurged after several weeks of heavy rainfall and resulting flooding,” Kristine Hambrouck, UNHCR representative in Sudan, told journalists Friday in Geneva.

Speaking on a video-link from Port Sudan, she warned, “Risks are compounded by the continuing conflict and dire humanitarian conditions, including overcrowding in camps and gathering sites for refugees and Sudanese displaced by the war, as well as limited medical supplies and health workers.”

She expressed particular concern about the spread of the deadly disease in areas hosting refugees, mainly in Kassala, Gedaref and al-Jazirah states.

“In addition to hosting refugees from other countries, these states are also sheltering thousands of displaced Sudanese who have sought safety from ongoing hostilities,” she said.

The United Nations describes Sudan as the largest displacement crisis in the world.  Latest figures put the number of people displaced inside Sudan at more than 10.7 million, with an additional 2 million who have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Additionally, the UNHCR says Sudan continues to host tens of thousands of refugees from countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Sudan’s health ministry officially declared a cholera outbreak on August 12. In the one month since the first suspected cases were reported, the World Health Organization says 658 cholera cases and 28 deaths have been reported by five states, “with a high case-fatality ratio of 4.3%.”

Kassala has reported the highest number of cholera cases at 473, followed by Gedaref with 110 cases, and al-Jazairah with 51 cases. Two other states, Khartoum and River Nile, have reported fewer numbers.

“These cases are not linked to the previous cholera outbreak, which had been declared in September 2023,” said Dr. Shible Sahbani, the WHO representative to Sudan, noting that the outbreak “technically ended” in May 2024 after no cases were reported for two consecutive incubation periods.

Speaking from Port Sudan, Sahbani described the situation in Kassala as very worrisome. He said the state’s health system already was under stress because of the large number of displaced people and refugees living there. “So, the health system is not able to cope with the additional influx of refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons].”

“But in addition to that, it puts a big burden on the WASH system — the water, sanitation, and hygiene system. So, this makes the situation more complicated in favor of the spread of cholera,” he said.

Besides the dangers posed by cholera, UNICEF representative Hambrouck also warns of an increasing number of cases of waterborne diseases, including malaria and diarrhea, which also need to be brought under control.

“Constraints in humanitarian access are also impacting response efforts. Violence, insecurity and persistent rainfall are hampering the transportation of humanitarian aid,” she said.

She noted that more than 7.4 million refugees and internally displaced Sudanese living in White Nile, Darfur and Kordofan states are having to do without “critical medicines and relief supplies” because of delays in delivery.

The WHO and UNHCR are working closely with Sudan’s Ministry of Health to coordinate the cholera outbreak response. Among its many initiatives, UNHCR says it is working with health partners to strengthen surveillance, early warning systems and contact tracing in affected locations.

“Disease surveillance and testing are ongoing, and awareness-raising and training on cholera case management for health staff are also being conducted,” said Hambrouck.

For its part, Sahbani said the WHO has prepositioned cholera kits and other essential medical supplies “in high-risk states in anticipation of the risks associated with the rainy season.”

He said the WHO was spearheading a cholera vaccination campaign, noting that “a three-day oral cholera vaccination campaign in two localities of Kassala state concluded Thursday.”

He said the campaign already has used 51,000 doses and “the good news is that we got the approval of an additional 155,000 doses of cholera vaccine. So, this is the good news in the middle of this horrible crisis.”

One dose of the vaccine, he said, would protect the population against cholera for six months, while two doses would provide protection for up to three years.

“So, this is really good news because this will help us to contain the outbreak,” he said.  Without more funding, however, he warned the good news will quickly evaporate, noting that the WHO has received just one-third of its $85.6 million appeal.

“This will indeed limit our capacity to launch a robust response to reach a larger segment of the people in need,” he said.

His UNHCR colleague, Hambrouck, echoed the sentiments.

“With the humanitarian situation and funding level already precarious prior to this latest cholera outbreak, funds are desperately needed to support the provision of health care and other life-saving aid,” she said.

Cholera spreads as Sudan grapples with rains and displacement

Port Sudan — For the second consecutive year Sudan is in the grip of a cholera outbreak that has left at least 28 people dead in the last month as rains fall in areas crammed with those fleeing the country’s 16-month-old war, officials said.

Since July 22, when the current wave began, 658 cases of cholera have been recorded across five states, World Health Organization (WHO) country director Shible Sahbani told Reuters in Port Sudan.

With much of the country’s health infrastructure collapsed or destroyed and staffing thinned by displacement, 4.3% of cases have resulted in deaths, a high rate compared to other outbreaks, Sahbani said.

Some 200,000 are at high risk of falling ill, he said.

The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises and displaced more than 10 million people inside Sudan and beyond its borders.

The country is dealing with a total of five concurrent disease outbreaks include dengue fever and measles.

The RSF has advanced across swathes of Sudan, where people have been cut off from aid as the army has withheld access and RSF soldiers loot supplies and hospitals. Efforts to deliver aid to the western region of Darfur have been complicated by rains.

International experts have determined that there is a famine in Darfur’s Zamzam camp, an area flooded in the rains and highly susceptible to cholera.

About 12,000 cases and more than 350 deaths were registered in the previous cholera wave between October 2023 and May 2024, health minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said, adding that there had been no major outbreak in the nine years before the war.

The current outbreak is centered in Kassala and Gedaref states, which host 1.2 million displaced people.

In Gedaref, a Reuters reporter filmed pools of water attracting insects and large ponds of stagnant rain water mixing with refuse. A local official said that the vast majority of diseases were caused by insects, poor water quality, and sewage.

Many people fleeing raids by the RSF shelter in crowded, makeshift displacement centers, where lavatories have overflowed as heavier-than-usual rains continue to fall. Cholera is transmitted from food and water contaminated with infected feces and thrives in such conditions.

Sahbani said that states like Khartoum and Gezira, largely controlled by the RSF, had also seen cholera cases, while states in the Kordofan and Darfur regions could likely see outbreaks.

“The challenge is getting supplies to the areas we need them. Due to the rainy season many roads are not usable now, but also there are security constraints and bureaucratic constraints,” he said.

On Friday, he told reporters in a virtual briefing that the International Coordinated Group for vaccine allocation (ICG) had approved delivery of 455,000 cholera vaccine doses to Sudan, some “good news in the middle of this horrible crisis.”

Ibrahim said the army-aligned government had used “unorthodox measures” including air drops to try to get vaccines and supplies into those RSF-controlled areas as well as isolated army-controlled areas.

Both officials emphasized that the need in Sudan far outweighed the aid effort, particularly as the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal for Sudan is only about one-third funded.

 

Second set of giant panda cubs born in Berlin

BERLIN — The Berlin Zoo announced Friday that longtime resident giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins — for a second time.

The cubs were born on Thursday, the zoo said in a statement. They were born only 11 days after ultrasound scans showed that Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant. Their sex has not yet been determined “with certainty.”

“Now it’s time to keep your fingers crossed for the critical first few days,” the zoo said. The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams respectively, and are about 14 centimeters long.

As with other large bears, giant pandas are born deaf, blind and pink. Their black-and-white panda markings only develop later.

“I am relieved that the two were born healthy,” zoo director Andreas Knieriem said. “The little ones make a lively impression and mom Meng Meng takes great care of her offspring.”

The zoo said that giant pandas usually only raise one cub when they give birth to twins, so it will “actively support” Meng Meng’s cub care in cooperation with two experts from China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding who are in the German capital.

“With around 20 births a year, they have much more experience and are better able to assess development,” panda curator Florian Sicks said.

The cubs will alternate being with their mother every two to three hours to drink milk and are otherwise being cared for in an incubator donated by a Berlin hospital.

Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. In August 2019, Meng Meng gave birth to male twins Pit and Paule, also known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, the first giant pandas born in Germany.

The twins were a star attraction in Berlin, but they were flown to China in December — a trip that was contractually agreed from the start but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. China gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot for decades as part of a “panda diplomacy” policy. The country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms.

Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.

Meng Meng was artificially inseminated on March 26. Female pandas are fertile only for a few days per year at the most.

The new arrivals and their mother won’t be on show to the public for the time being — but visitors can still see Jiao Qing, 14, as male pandas don’t get involved in rearing cubs.