Category World News

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said on Friday that a total of 737 cholera cases were reported in Malakal, the capital of South Sudan’s Upper Nile state.

“The situation in Malakal remains critical, and we are concerned that the outbreak is spreading to neighbouring areas such as Tonga and Kodok”, Zakaria Mwatia, MSF’s head of mission in the country, said in a statement.

If left untreated, cholera is an acute form of diarrhoea that can be treated with antibiotics and hydration.

A germ that is most likely transmitted through a lack of access to sanitation is the cause. When people ingest food or water that contains the bug, they become infected.

#SouthSudan needs immediate response to a #cholera outbreak!

At Renk Civil Hospital, Doctors Without Borders has opened a 20-bed medical facility.

We urge all organizations in the state of Upper Nile to stop the spread of the disease. pic. twitter.com/a6lPaQ7KSO

In Friday’s statement, MSF said that its teams had set up a 100-bed cholera treatment centre near Malakal Town Hospital, but “significant gaps remain”, particularly in water and sanitation.

We have had to work harder to close significant gaps, according to Mwatia, because we have been stretched thin in our responses.

As of December 3, South Sudan had reported 1, 526 suspected and confirmed cholera cases, MSF said.

In Renk, another town in Upper Nile State that serves as “a major entry point for refugees and returnees from Sudan,” the outbreak was first declared in late October.

More than 850, 000 people have crossed from Sudan into South Sudan over the past 18 months, according to MSF.

The group continued, “The ongoing influx of refugees and returnees into South Sudan continues to put additional pressure on an already stretched health system,” the group continued.

More than 280, 000 oral cholera vaccine doses were ordered by the UN last month to be distributed in transmission hotspots, claiming that the outbreak was caused by limited access to safe drinking water and poor sanitation.

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A series of airstrikes hit the hospital’s northern and western sides on Friday, according to Hossam Abu Safieh, the director of one of the last remaining medical facilities in northern Gaza, “accompanied by intense and direct fire.”

No surgeons were left in the hospital, he added.

Before allowing them to leave the hospital hours later, soldiers stormed in and ordered all of its staff, patients, and displaced patients to enter the courtyard.

Richard Peeperkorn, spokesman of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations health agency, said “there was no official warning or evacuation order before the bombing of … the hospital, only rumours that spread panic”.

The WHO facilitated the hospital’s first emergency medical delegation’s entrance for the first time in 60 days with this announcement only a week later. The facility had run out of most supplies, including fuel.

According to Abu Safieh, some hospital employees received a permanent order to leave the building, including the emergency team.

The hospital’s staff and patients were particularly troubling because the Israeli government had allowed the medical delegation’s entry, according to Peeperkorn.

“Within one week, they feel forced, scared, whatever, to leave”, Peeperkorn said at a Geneva news briefing. That is “absolutely concerning,” he declared.

The hospital was “minimally functional”, he said. About 12, 000 people in Gaza need medical evacuation, but only 78 have so far, according to the WHO.

Since Israel sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and nearby Beit Hanoon and Jabalia in October, Gaza’s Ministry of Health has reported that the three main hospitals in northern Gaza are reportedly in jelen condition and have been attacked frequently.

The ministry charged on Friday that the Israeli military was “committing a war crime” inside and around Kamal Adwan Hospital by using “all forms of killing and violence there.”

The injured who remained inside were declared to be in critical condition and require immediate medical attention.

The attack has not yet been addressed by the Israeli army. For the past two months, a military operation in Beit Lahiya has been taking place, forcing thousands of people to flee the bombing.

Emptying the hospitals

According to Tareq Abu Azzoum, who spoke from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, medical sources confirmed that the Israeli military had ordered the patients to leave the facility while the Indonesian medical delegation was able to flee to al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

According to him, “it seems that they are attempting to impose significant military control on these areas by removing medical facilities and forcing civilians to move toward Gaza City.”

Hospitals, their staff, patients and vehicles are protected under international law.

Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, was reported to be passing through the besieged hospital’s northern Gaza gate when an Israeli drone struck him last week.

Following President Klaus Iohannis’ declassification of information this week that claimed Romania was the target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election campaign, the Constitutional Court made a final decision on Friday.

Thousands of social media platforms promoted far-right populist Calin Georgescu on platforms like TikTok and Telegram, according to the alleged effort.

In a statement released on Friday, the court said it would “avoid the entire electoral process for the election of the President of Romania” to ensure that the electoral process was legitimate and legal.

Georgescu, a pro-Russian candidate who wants to end Romania’s support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, emerged as the frontrunner in the first-round vote on November 24 despite being a political outsider who declared zero campaign spending.

In a Sunday run-off, he was scheduled to face Save Romania Union party’s pro-European-centist Elena Lasconi. Voting is already taking place in foreign polling stations.

On Friday, Georgescu did not respond to the court’s decision in a statement.

Lasconi condemned the ruling, saying “the constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy: voting”.

George Simion, leader of the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), called the decision a “coup d’etat”.

“Nine politically appointed judges, scared that a candidate outside the system had all chances to become Romania’s president, decided to annul Romanians ‘ will”, Simion added.

But Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu expressed support for the court’s ruling, saying it was “the only correct decision” after the declassified documents showed alleged Russian interference.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service, and the Romanian Intelligence Service all released intelligence files on Wednesday.

The Constitutional Court has received numerous legal complaints since their release, urging it to revoke the first-round vote. However, it is not yet clear on what grounds it took the decision.

Resuming the first round will now take place at a new time.

The Constitutional Court stated in a statement that the government will set a new date and time for the necessary steps, and that the electoral process to elect Romania’s president will be completely rerun.

Meanwhile, Romania’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit DIICOT said it was launching an investigation into Georgescu’s campaign after analysing the declassified documents.