Ivorian refugees returning from Liberia were blocked from returning to their homeland by the Ivory Coast government on Tuesday because of fears they could spread the Ebola virus currently raging across West Africa.
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Ebola epidemic in western Africa is “out of control” and can only be prevented from spiraling further across the region if political and religious figures along with aid agencies immediately improve their response to the crisis.
The United Nations is facing backlash following its appointment of Uganda’s foreign minister Sam Kutesa as president of the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Health officials in Sierra Leone announced on Monday that the country’s death toll from the Ebola outbreak currently spreading throughout West Africa has doubled to at least 12 in a week.
Jonathan’s vow to rescue the missing girls, who were kidnapped from their school in Chibok three weeks ago, follows widespread criticism of his government’s response to the abduction, in a national crisis that has grown increasingly embarrassing for the Nigerian president.
Nigeria’s government has not had much to brag about in its longstanding struggle against Islamist insurgents in the north but, following a week of dismaying failures on the part of Nigerian security forces, the situation appears to becoming more bleak at a time when the country’s international profile is only rising.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete warned armed groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to disarm on Wednesday, a statement that is sure to contribute to mounting tensions between his country and neighboring Rwanda.
A French envoy has been barred from attending the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide on Monday amid escalating tensions between the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Paris.
The spread of the deadly virus across the region — and especially its entry into densely-populated urban centers — is so alarming that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has called the outbreak a serious threat to regional security.
A new proposal, which would put same-sex acts on the level of such crimes as rape, terrorism, and human trafficking, follows the enactment of similarly harsh anti-gay legislative measures in Uganda and Nigeria in a worrying trend of targeting gays for political point-scoring.
