Emergency food aid is being delivered to people affected by the Ebola virus in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Thursday.

The UN agency is airlifting high energy biscuits from its warehouse in Dubai to Goma, capital of North Kivu province, where an Ebola outbreak was declared on 1 August. 

So far, 111 cases have been recorded, 83 of which have been confirmed, while more than 4,000 people have been vaccinated.

“This tenth Ebola outbreak is unfolding in an area of active armed conflict and displacement. It poses a risk of a regional health emergency involving three countries – DRC, Rwanda and Uganda,” said Claude Jibidar, WFP Country Director, in a press release.

“With its food assistance, logistics and air support already firmly in place, WFP is committed to do even more, to save lives and to prevent the epidemic from spreading.”

WFP and its partner, Caritas, are providing food to patients and caregivers in hospitals in the town of Mangina as well as in Beni, located in the epicentre of the outbreak.

High energy biscuits are often used in emergency situations as they are easy to transport and do not require cooking, the agency explained.

Food is also being distributed to villages in the area, with around 4,000 people receiving a month’s supply of cereal, beans, oil and salt. WFP wants to reach those who have been in contact with affected people and their families in efforts to limit population movements and prevent the virus from being spread further.

Prior to the outbreak, WFP was already assisting hundreds of thousands of people in North Kivu province who were displaced by fighting, with 12,000 in Beni territory receiving monthly food rations since July.

WFP also has been providing logistical support to the DRC’s Ministry of Health and its sister UN agency, the World Health Organization (WHO).  This same approach was taken during the Ebola outbreak in DRC’s Equateur province in May, which was recently halted

The agency has deployed three mobile warehouses to Beni, while seven of its trucks carry medicine, food, cars, motorbikes, thermometers, refrigerators, and other supplies to treatment centres.

Meanwhile, WFP aviation specialists are helping with air traffic management in and out of the town, while WFP-run humanitarian flights transport aid workers as well as medical and protection equipment, and other cargo, between Goma and Beni each day.

The Ebola outbreak in North Kivu province is the 10th in the DRC in 40 years.

Ebola virus was first identified in 1976.  WHO said although its origin is not known, fruit bats potentially may be a host.

A massive military escalation by the Government of Syria to retake Idlib risks a “worst case scenario”,  United Nations negotiator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday.

A massive military escalation by the Government of Syria to retake Idlib risks a “worst case scenario”, top UN negotiator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the UN Special Envoy for Syria offered to personally escort residents of Idlib to safety ahead of any attack on the last main opposition-held area in the country, echoing an offer to do the same in Aleppo in 2016.

The envoy’s comments reiterate an earlier appeal by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who cautioned against a full-scale military operation and expressed deep concern over the growing risk of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the war-torn province, which borders Turkey and is home to nearly three million people.

“There is…no other Idlib, where can they go?” Mr. de Mistura said. “Where can anyone go? So, for every time there was a crisis and there was a conclusion to that one crisis, there was a place where many could opt to go. There is no other Idlib.”

The fate of Idlib is important because it’s mainly civilian population has been displaced or evacuated from other conflict zones in the country amid territorial gains by Government forces in the more than seven-year war.

So I’m once again prepared, personally and physically, to get involved myself, with the Government cooperation this time, because that is an area where they are in charge outside Idlib  – Staffan de Mistura

It is also the last zone in Syria that is covered by an internationally-agreed ceasefire deal, Mr. de Mistura explained, a reference to a de-escalation pact between Russia, Turkey and Iran, known as the ‘Astana guarantors’ after the Kazakh capital where the deal was struck.

“Why such a hurry and not provide more time, to allow more discussions, especially among the Astana guarantors?” he said. “They are the ones … who announced and provided the guarantees originally for this last but hugely inhabited de-escalation area.”

In the past six months alone, a reported 500,000 people have arrived in Idlib after fleeing Government offensives in Dera’a, eastern Ghouta and other opposition-held areas.

The north-western province is also the base for “an extremely high concentration of foreign fighters”, Mr. de Mistura said, noting that this amounted to approximately 10,000 Al Nusra or Al Qaeda members, who have been recognized as terrorists by the UN.

The extremists are understood to have the capability of weaponizing chlorine – as is the Government of Syria – Mr. de Mistura said, highlighting the risks of a “worst case scenario” occurring in the event of a military attack.

Although “no-one questions” the Syrian Government’s right to fight UN-identified terrorists, nor its right to recover “all of its territorial integrity”, there was “no justification” to using heavy weapons in densely populated areas, he added.

UN Photo/Violaine Martin

Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria.

Reiterating the UN Secretary General’s statement on Wednesday, he noted that the systematic use of indiscriminate weapons in populated areas may amount to war crimes.

It would be a “tragic irony” at the end of the war inside Syria with a “most horrific tragedy” involving large numbers of civilians, Mr. de Mistura insisted, ahead of his offer to escort people away from Idlib.

His offer to do the same in Aleppo in 2016 had been rejected by Al Nusra, he reminded journalists, saying that this had led to thousands of people dying.

“So I’m once again prepared, personally and physically, to get involved myself, with the Government cooperation this time, because that is an area where they are in charge outside Idlib,” he said. To ensure such a temporary corridor(s) would be feasible and guaranteed for the people, so that they can then could return to their own places untouched once this is over.”

Responding to questions, the UN official said he had no “specific information” that an attack on Idlib was imminent. “But I do have eyes and information regarding preparations and build-ups and messages and declarations,” he said. “And the fact that while we are talking, two of the main guarantors – in this case Turkey and the Russian Federation – are trying and we hope will succeed, in avoiding the worst-case scenario.”

UN-led efforts to secure a peaceful solution to the conflict are set to continue with meetings planned in Geneva on 10 and 11 September with representatives from Russia, Turkey and Iran, Mr de Mistura said.

Those discussions are due to be followed on 14 September by encounters on constitutional matters with senior delegations from seven other Member States: Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The United Nations on Wednesday called for urgent action to address the human rights crisis in Nicaragua, where “repression and retaliation against demonstrators continue … as the world looks away.”

A new report from the UN human rights office has detailed what it describes as numerous violations carried out by the Nicaraguan Government after mass protests erupted in mid-April over planed social security reforms.

“The violence and impunity of these past four months have exposed the fragility of the country’s institutions and the rule of law, and created a climate of fear and mistrust,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

The report covers the period from when protests against planned social security reforms began on 18 April, up to 18 August.

The disproportionate use of force by police, sometimes resulting in extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; widespread arbitrary detentions; torture and ill-treatment; and rights violations to freedom of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly have all been documented in the report.

The report notes that in the initial stage, the police and pro-Government armed elements responded harshly to protests. During the “clean-up” stage, from mid-June to mid-July, they forcibly dismantled roadblocks and barricades – according to information obtained, armed elements often acted in coordination with high-level State authorities and the National Police.

“The Government no longer denies the existence of pro-Government armed elements, [and] it condones their actions and allows them to operate with impunity,” the report says. 

Most of the violence took place from mid-April to mid-July and has reportedly left some 300 people dead and 2,000 others injured – mostly men under 30, including university students and young professionals.

The report also noted that 22 police officers were killed. 

In the current stage, demonstrators and so-called Government opponents are being persecuted and criminalized. As of 18 August, information indicates that at least 300 protesters are being prosecuted, including on charges of terrorism and organized crime. These trials have serious flaws and do not observe due process, including the impartiality of the courts, the report says.

Civil servants, including teachers and doctors, have been sacked, and the authorities have been increasingly stigmatizing and discrediting protesters and human rights defenders as “terrorists” or “coup-mongers.”

“Rather than recognizing responsibility for any wrongdoing during the crisis, the Government has placed the blame on social and opposition leaders for what they have termed ‘coup-related violence,’” the report notes.

The report calls on the Government to immediately end the harassment, intimidation and criminalization; and to disarm pro-government elements, halt all unlawful arrests, and release all those arbitrarily detained.

Mr. Zeid urged the UN Human Rights Council and the international community “to take concrete action to prevent the current crisis from descending into deeper social and political turmoil.”

“Any such action should aim to ensure full accountability for human rights violations and abuses, enable victims to have effective access to justice and appropriate remedies, including reparations and the right to know the truth,” concluded the High Commissioner.