Two deaths in remote region of Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed as Ebola but “unrelated” to west Afica epidemic…report by The Telegraph

The Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed its two first cases of Ebola this year, but claimed they were unrelated to the epidemic raging in four countries of West Africa.

Congolese health minister Felix Kabange Numbi said that two of eight samples taken from victims of a mystery fever had tested positive for Ebola.

“The results are positive. The Ebola virus is confirmed in DRC,” Mr Kabange told AFP.

Speaking later on public television, he said the confirmation marked the seventh outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo, where the virus was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River.

But he said the two new cases had “no link to [the epidemic] raging in West Africa” and were different strains from one another.

Authorities immediately imposed a quarantine around the affected area in Equateur province near Jera, more than 750 miles northeast of the Congolese capital Kinshasa.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was sending a crew to help handle patients in the area.

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile announced that one of its health experts, an epidemiologist, had been infected while working in Sierra Leone.

The WHO gave no details of its infected expert, but said the person was “receiving the best care possible” and that it was considering a medical evacuation.

Also on Sunday, Britain’s first Ebola patient, a male nurse who contracted the disease in Sierra Leone, was admitted to a London hospital.

He arrived yesterday at Britain’s only specialist Ebola isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

The patient, who is not “seriously unwell” according to the Department of Health, was evacuated in a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force military plane before being taken by military ambulance across London flanked by a police escort.

The sobering news of Ebola’s spread came as UN officials pledged to step up efforts against the lethal tropical virus, which has infected more than 2,600 and killed 1,427, according to WHO figures released Friday.

Sierra Leone, where 392 Ebola deaths have been recorded, is one of four West African states struggling to control the spread of the aggressively contagious virus, which can spread through bodily fluids including saliva and blood.

Liberia has been particularly hard hit since the outbreak began in March, with 624 deaths, compared with 406 for Guinea and five for Nigeria, according to a WHO count on Friday.

On Saturday the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special representative for Liberia, Karin Landgren, pledged the world body would take a “strong role” in coordinating the response to the emergency.

But the WHO has warned that it could take “several months” to bring the epidemic under control, and estimates its count of the infected and dead is likely far too low, due in part to community resistance to outside medical staff and a lack of access to infected areas.

The epidemic, which first erupted in the forests in the south of Guinea, is also taking its toll on the economies of some of the world’s poorest countries.

“It is a total catastrophe. We are losing lots of money,” Alhaji Bamogo, who sells clothes in the market in the Liberian capital Monrovia, told AFP recently.

“All those who are coming to the market come only to buy food or products for the disinfection of Ebola,” he said.

Several international airlines have halted flights to the region in a move that Moody’s ratings agency warns “will exact an economic toll”.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal said contractors at its iron ore works in Liberia had suspended operations and were pulling out staff.

And in quarantined areas in Sierra Leone and Liberia, cash crops like cocoa and coffee are being left to rot as farmers fear to stray from home.

On Sunday, Benin postponed a meeting of African health ministers scheduled for early September.

Meanwhile the Ivory Coast has closed its borders with Guinea and Liberia, just days after Senegal did the same with Guinea.

And South Africa has banned entry for non-citizens arriving from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

The measures taken against Ebola-afflicted countries, especially by neighbours, have caused friction in the region.

Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, the chairman of Sierra Leone’s presidential task force on Ebola, said he was “surprised” by the lack of solidarity among African countries.

It “gives the impression that we are pariah states,” Kargo said on state television.

Original Post by The Telegraph

A town in the north east of Nigeria is under an ‘Islamic caliphate’, according to Boko Haram’s leader which the Nigerian military denies…report by worthynews

Boko Haram’s leader said a town in the north east of Nigeria seized by the insurgents earlier this month has been placed under an Islamic caliphate, in a video obtained by AFP on Sunday.

“Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in (the town of) Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.

The military however rejected the claim, saying in a statement the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact”.

In a July video, Shekau voiced support for the leader of the Islamic State and the Levant (Isil) militants Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere”.

But there was no indication from Shekau in the latest video that he was associating himself with Baghdadi, whose Sunni Muslim fighters have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.

As such, it was not clear if Shekau was declaring himself to be a part of Baghdadi’s call or if he was referring to a separate Nigerian caliphate.

In the 19th century, a Sokoto caliphate was proclaimed across most of modern-day northern Nigeria and was considered separate from other Islamic kingdoms, such as the Ottoman Empire.

Shekau – who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States – is shown in the video wearing military fatigues, with a Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his body.

He alternates between Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in the region.

He is pictured standing in front of three SUVs and flanked by four fighters, who are masked and armed. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed.

There was no indication that Shekau was actually in Gwoza for the filming and his whereabouts remain unknown but another unidentified fighter who speaks later in the video vowed that Boko Haram would keep control of the area.

“By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,” said the militant wearing a green shirt and a white cap.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.

Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state.

Mapping the precise areas which have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible.

There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region, which has been under a state of emergency since May of last year, has poor mobile phone coverage.

Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria.

But many analysts believe the military still has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.

A major offensive launched when emergency rule was declared in May last year appeared to put the militants on the defensive.

Critics say top brass failed to sustain the pressure and allowed the Islamists to retake some of the areas they had abandoned.

A lack of adequate weapons for troops sent to fight the well-armed rebels has hampered the counter-insurgency and some soldiers this week refused to deploy to Gwoza without better gear in an apparent mutiny.

Reacting to Shekau’s video, defence spokesman Chris Olukolade assured that the military would secure Gwoza.

“Any group of terrorists laying claim to any portion of the country will not be allowed to get away with that expression of delusion and crime,” he said. “Operations to secure that area from the activities of the bandits (are) still ongoing,” he added.

After Shekau’s 25-minute speech, the video shows militant fighters on pick-up trucks firing rocket-propelled grenades and other heavily armed insurgents firing weapons as they walk calmly along the road.

The footage appears to show them taking over a military base, stealing weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as fuel cans.

In one frame, a fighter stands on top of a tank, waving the Islamists’ black flag.

The end of the video apparently depicts scenes of grisly executions, similar to those released by Isil in recent weeks. Boko Haram have used similar tactics before, however.

In one scene, about 20 men in civilian clothing are shown with their hands tied behind their backs and lying by the roadside before they are shot at close range.

A second shows two men, whom Shekau said disguised themselves as women to escape the town, beaten to death with shovels. Two others similarly dressed are shot beside what appears to be a trench full of bodies.

Original Post by Worthy News