{"id":21156,"date":"2024-07-12T19:05:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T19:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=21156"},"modified":"2024-07-12T19:09:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T19:09:22","slug":"democratic-republic-congo-conflict-escalation-linked-to-deadly-mpox-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=21156","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Republic Congo: Conflict escalation linked to deadly Mpox threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 9 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

For decades, conflict in the mineral-rich eastern DRC has triggered alarming levels of violence, mass displacement, widespread disease, gender-based violence and severe mental trauma, explained Dr Adelheid Marschang, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Today, the vast central African nation now has\u00a0the \u201chighest number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the entire world, with 25.4 million affected\u201d\u00a0and many in \u201cchronic and acute shock\u201d, she told journalists in Geneva.<\/p>\n

A staggering\u00a07.4 million people have been displaced, including 2.8 million in North Kivu alone.<\/p>\n

The number of people forcibly uprooted has increased since the separatist M23 movement launched a major offensive in 2022, prompting national and regional military responses that have struggled to restrain the militia\u2019s advance.<\/p>\n

Left with nothing<\/p>\n

The resulting mass displacement has overwhelmed water and sanitation systems and brought an additional burden to the population\u2019s scarce resources, the WHO official warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 40 per cent of the population, that is\u00a040.8 million people, face serious food shortages, with 15.7 million facing severe food insecurity\u00a0and as a result, a higher risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases,\u201d Dr Marschang said. \u201cIf immediate action is not taken to address basic needs in DRC, over one million children will suffer from acute malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mpox one of many health threats<\/p>\n

Outbreaks of cholera, measles, meningitis, Mpox and plague have all been reported, exacerbated by severe flooding and landslides.<\/p>\n

Specifically on Mpox \u2013 which remains a global health threat with 26 countries reporting cases to WHO this month \u2013 Dr Marschang said that DRC has seen 20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from the virus since the start of 2023.<\/p>\n

Over 11,000 cases, including 443 deaths, have been reported so far this year, \u201cagain affecting mostly children\u201d, she noted.<\/p>\n

Mpox spreads through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and skin rash. Scientists\u00a0raised the alarm last month\u00a0about the spread of a dangerous new strain of Mpox in South Kivu and fear it will spread in overcrowded camps in and around Goma.<\/p>\n

Military activity around those camps has made it difficult for health authorities to contain the virus if security is not granted, the UN health agency explained.<\/p>\n

Rights crisis neglected<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the\u00a0Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keita<\/a>, told the UN\u00a0Security Council<\/a>\u00a0that the DRC faces one of the most severe and neglected humanitarian crises of our times.<\/p>\n

Dr\u00a0Marschang echoed that observation, explaining that the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2024 aims to assist 8.7 million people and requires $2.6 billion for all UN and partner agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe underfunding is severe,\u201d she stressed, as \u201c16 per cent of the Humanitarian Response plan is currently funded. For WHO, we are looking for something like $30 million to address the situation until the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deterioration of the security situation has accompanied the full withdrawal from South Kivu of the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO<\/a>), ending the first phase of disengagement from DRC following a request to close the mission from the Government in Kinshasa.<\/p>\n

MONUSCO\u2019s operations began winding down in January after two decades of operations, but its Head, Bintou Keita, told the UN Security Council on Monday there should not be a rush to further disengagement since this process has thrown up unexpected challenges. She explained the rebel activity from the M23 carries a \u201cvery real risk of provoking a wider regional conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n

Violent insecurity in DRC has reached alarming levels,\u00a0UN human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk<\/a>\u00a0has warned, \u201cwith an absence of State authority over large swathes of territory has also cleared the way for brutal levels of violence and attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.<\/p>

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For decades, conflict in the mineral-rich eastern DRC has triggered alarming levels of violence, mass displacement, widespread disease, gender-based violence and severe mental trauma, explained Dr Adelheid Marschang, Senior Emergency… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21171,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21156\/revisions\/21171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}