Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | samedi 15/08/2015 - 19:49 GMT |

Les quelque 500 habitants de Massessbe, un village sierra-léonais où est réapparu récemment le virus Ebola, ont célébré samedi la fin de la quarantaine qui leur avait été imposée il y a 21 jours afin d'éviter la propagation du virus.

Selon un communiqué diffusé samedi par les autorités sierra-léonaises, le président Ernest Bai Koroma a coupé vendredi le ruban jaune qui entourait la localité pour mettre fin officiellement à cette quarantaine la plus massive --en terme de nombre d'habitants- décrétée depuis le début de l'épidémie.

"Aucun des villageois n'a été testé positif" à Ebola, a affirmé samedi à l'AFP un responsable du ministère de la Santé.

Dans le discours prononcé vendredi à Massessbe mais diffusé samedi sur les ondes de la radio nationale, le président Koroma a salué "une journée spéciale". "Seuls deux patients (tous deux dans le district septentrional de Bombali) sont dans des centres de traitement à travers tout le pays", s'est-il réjoui devant les villageois en liesse, "mais vous ne devriez pas baisser la garde avant qu'Ebola ne soit éradiqué", a-t-il mis en garde.

"Nous ne devons pas revenir aux mauvaises habitudes et notre effort doit être maintenu jusqu'à ce que le dernier cas ait quitté les centres de traitement", a ajouté le chef d'Etat, parfois interrompu par le son des tam-tam et de la musique locale.

"Je ferai des contrôles sur place dans tout le pays", a-t-il averti sans préciser où il débuterait.

Village agricole situé à 200 kilomètres de la capitale, situé dans le district de Tonkolili, Massessbe est devenu un centre actif de transmission d'Ebola il y a trois semaines après qu'un commerçant venu de la capitale visiter sa mère eut été testé positif et soit décédé.

Des responsables du Centre local de lutte contre Ebola au virus (DERC) ont alors alors placé le village en quarantaine pour éviter une propagation du virus.

Lors d'un point presse, Ibrahim Sesay, du Centre national de lutte (NERC) à Freetown, a déclaré samedi qu'"il n'y a(vait) pas eu de nouveau cas d'Ebola à travers le pays depuis plus d'une semaine maintenant et seulement 86 personnes sont encore en quarantaine au niveau national".

Partie en décembre 2013 du Sud guinéen, l'épidémie d'Ebola en Afrique de l'Ouest, la plus grave depuis l'identification du virus en Afrique centrale en 1976, a fait plus de 11.300 morts pour quelque 27.500 cas, un bilan sous-évalué de l'aveu même de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS).

Plus de 99% des victimes se concentrent en Guinée, en Sierra Leone et au Liberia.

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© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Saturday 8/15/2015 - 21:23 GMT

Sierra Leone has ended an Ebola lockdown in the northern village of Massessbe that had kept more than 500 residents in quarantine, as President Ernest Bai Koroma said only two people were still being treated for the virus nationwide.

Koroma himself on Friday cut the yellow ribbon that had ringed the village in the northern district of Tonkolili to mark the completion of the standard 21-day quarantine period, a State House release said.

"None of the villagers tested positive (for Ebola)," a health ministry official told AFP.

Koroma described the lifting of the last large-scale quarantine in the country as "a special day in the lives of the people", but he cautioned against "complacency in the fight against the receding virus", according to his speech which was broadcast on national radio on Saturday.

"Only two patients (both in the northern district of Bombali) are in treatment centres throughout the country", Koroma told the cheering villagers.

"But you should not rest until Ebola is eradicated," he said. "Our efforts should be sustained until the last case is discharged," he added, his voice occasionally drowned out by the sound of drums and animal horns.

"I shall be making on-the-spot checks across the country," Koroma warned, without giving further details.

Massessbe, a predominantly agricultural village some 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the capital, went on alert three weeks ago after a trader from Freetown who was visiting his mother tested positive for Ebola and later died.

But with no cases emerging in the village, the director of the National Ebola Response Centre's Situation Room, Ibrahim Sesay, said the country was making progress in its battle against haemorrhagic fever.

"We are doing 90 percent better," he told reporters.

"There has not been any new case of Ebola throughout the country for more than a week now and only 86 people are in quarantine nationwide."

Ebola has claimed around 11,300 lives since late 2013. More than 99 percent of these occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

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© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

DISCHARGED CASES

• Total Survived and Discharged Cases = 4,045

NEW CASES

• New Confirmed cases = 0 as follows:

Kailahun = 0, Kenema = 0, Kono = 0 Bombali = 0, Kambia = 0, Koinadugu = 0, Port Loko =0, Tonkolili = 0 Bo = 0, Bonthe = 0, Moyamba = 0 Pujehun = 0 Western Area Urban = 0, Western Area Rural = 0, Missing = 0

CUMULATIVE CASES

• Cumulative confirmed cases = 8,697 as follows:

Kailahun = 565, Kenema = 503, Kono = 253 Bombali = 1,049, Kambia = 253, Koinadugu = 109, Port Loko = 1,484, Tonkolili = 456 Bo = 314, Bonthe = 5, Moyamba = 209, Pujehun = 31 Western Area Urban = 2,285, Western Area Rural = 1,164, Missing = 14

CUMULATIVE DEATHS

Total cumulative confirmed death is 3,586

Weekly Highlights

• From August 10-11 IOM Sierra Leone welcomed Mr. Mohammed Abdiker, Director - Department of Operations and Emergencies and Dr. Davide Mosca, Director - Migration Health Division, at IOM HQ Geneva as well as representatives from the IOM Regional Office in Dakar on a consultative mission.
  High level meetings were held with the UN Resident Coordinator, WHO Country Representative, Minister of Health, US CDC and USAID OFDA.

• IOM clinicians in collaboration with the Ebola Response Consortium are providing Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) training support at Connaught, Princess Christian’s Maternity and Ola During Children’s Hospitals and have now trained 535 hospital personnel.

• IOM and World Hope International will hold a one day conference on Cultural Burial Liaisons at the University of Makeni on 18 August.

• IOM Bombali’s Flow Monitoring Point and two Vehicle Checkpoints in Sella Limba and Tambaka Chiefdoms screened an average of 2,100 per day travelers crossing to and from Guinea, Kambia, Port Loko, Makeni and Koinadugu over the past week.

Freetown, Sierra Leone – 17 August 2015: Use of rapid response teams and strong community involvement in finding Ebola virus disease cases and contacts is yielding results in Sierra Leone. An epidemiological week has now passed with no new Ebola cases for the first time since the beginning of the outbreak.

“This is very good news but we have to keep doing this intensively-working with communities to identify potentially new cases early and rapidly stop any Ebola virus transmission” said Dr Anders Nordstrom, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone.

The Ebola response has moved to ‘phase 3’, focusing on tracking each and every chain of Ebola virus transmission and close down the remaining chains as quickly as possible. Sierra Leone is now down to a single chain of transmission, which started in Freetown but sparked a cluster of cases in Tonkolili, in the northern region of the country.

Effectively tracking chains of transmission means finding every person who has been in contact with someone proven to be infected with Ebola, monitoring them closely for symptoms for 21 days and rapidly moving them to a treatment centre if they develop symptom of potential Ebola.

In Tonkolili, a young man, who worked in Freetown but returned to his home village every month to bring food and money to his extended family, died in a hospital where he was being treated for malaria. As is done with all deaths, to ensure no case of Ebola is missed, a swab was taken. It tested positive for Ebola.

Tonkolili had not seen a case of Ebola virus disease for more than 150 days, but the lessons learned during their outbreak in December 2014 had not been forgotten. The government, WHO and other UN and international partners sent a rapid response team into the district and worked with the village chief and village taskforce to identify and monitor everyone who had been in contact with the young man.

The entire village of Massessehbeh was then put in quarantine for a period of 21 days, as was Masenga Hospital where the young man died. A water supply was established in the village and food was brought in daily. Psychosocial workers and social mobilizers provided information and support, while contact tracers checked everyone daily for symptoms of Ebola.

Two more people, both of them from the young man’s family, developed symptoms and tested positive for Ebola. They were treated at an Ebola Treatment Centre which had been on standby and run by International Medical Corps (IMC). There they were cared for by a team that included Ebola survivors, who provided much of the physical and psychological care they needed. Both are now recovering.

Last Friday, 595 people ‘graduated’ from quarantine in Tonkolili. This included patients, pregnant women, nurses, doctors and other staff who were released early on Friday morning from the hospital where they had been confined for 21 days. Later the same day, a formal ceremony was held at Massessehbeh during which the President of Sierra Leone formally cut the quarantine tape.

Joyful villagers streamed through the cut quarantine tapes, women linking arms to dance along the road, children beating water bottles in time to the singing and dancing. However, the occasion was not joyful for everyone. 43 people remain quarantined until the end of this week. Another 38 people remain in quarantine in Freetown until the 29th of August.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Margaret Harris - Media Officer, harrism@who.int , tel: +41 796 036 224 / +232 76533284

Mr Saffea Gborie - Communications Officer, Sierra Leone, gboriesa@who.int, Tel: +232 78335660

DISCHARGED CASES
 Total Survived and Discharged Cases = 4,045

 NEW CASES
 New Confirmed cases = 0 as follows:
Kailahun = 0, Kenema = 0, Kono = 0
Bombali = 0, Kambia = 0, Koinadugu = 0, Port Loko =0, Tonkolili = 0
Bo = 0, Bonthe = 0, Moyamba = 0 Pujehun = 0
Western Area Urban = 0, Western Area Rural = 0, Missing = 0

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have initiated a programme to help Ebola burial workers reintegrate into their communities and find jobs as the crisis subsides.

For a year, 800 out of 2,300 burial workers, infection control and prevention volunteers will receive psychosocial counselling and vocational and skills training so they can find new jobs and reintegrate their communities. They worked at the frontlines, and played a vital role in slowing down the epidemic. But many of them suffered extreme stress, and are still being stigmatized.

As the Ebola response winds down and hazard pay draws to a close, burial teams face the risk of being unemployed, although a few of them will return to school.

UNDP Country Director, Sudipto Mukerjee says “Communities need to embrace these young people as heroes of the society. This is definitely a very good start and it is the first such agreement between the two organizations”, pointing out that IFRC, the Sierra Leonean Red Cross and UNDP Leone have never before worked on recovery issues.

Moulaye Camara, the Head of Delegation of IFRC in Sierra Leone says the USD 1.9 million project will mainly target Kono and Kenema districts, in the east of the country and will “help us to reintegrate them in their communities after the good work they did for the past year.”

Mr. Mukerjee also noted that the project is the first Ebola recovery initiative that UNDP, IFRC and Sierra Leone Red Cross will undertake. Reintegrating Safe and Dignified Burial team members signals the end stages of the epidemic, it is important that agencies start working with communities most affected by the epidemic.

As part of the Ebola response, IFRC was given the lead coordination role for Safe and Dignified Burials. They have been responsible for conducting approximately 50% of the safe and dignified burials in Sierra Leone under the emergency Ebola response.

For more information, please contact:

Abdul Karim Bah Communications Lead, UNDP Sierra Leone. Email: abdul-karim.bah@undp.org.

Lisa Pattison, Media & Communications Delegate Sierra Leone, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Mobile: +232 78805741, Email lisa.pattison@ifrc.org.

Abubakar Tarawallie, Head of Communications, Sierra Leone Red Cross Society. Mobile : +232 76 624511. Email : btarawallie@sierraleoneredcross.org

Au 19 juillet 2015, la région de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (AOC) a enregistré environ 10 975 cas et 233 décès (Let. = 2.1%) de choléra dans 7 pays. Comparativement à la même époque en 2014, on note dans la région 72% de cas rapportés en moins.

Les données des dernières semaines indiquent une persistance des cas au Nigeria et en RDC. Au Nigeria, pour la première fois depuis le début de l’année, des cas ont été signalés dans l’état de Bauchi (LGA de Bauchi, Dass, Gamawa, Ganjuwa, Tafawa-Balewa, Toro), dans ’état de Benue state (LGA Obi) et dans l’état de Lagos (LGA de Badagry, Eti Osa).

En RDC la tendance est à la baisse. Dans la province du Sud Kivu, pour la première fois depuis de l’année, on note zéro cas de choléra rapport en semaine 29 dans l'ensemble des zones de santé. A la semaine 28, on notait 5 cas à Kadutu et 5 cas à Minova. Dans la province du Maniama, pour la première fois aussi, des cas sont rapportés à partir de la semaine 26 (district de santé de Lubutu).

As of 19 July 2015, 10 975 cases and 233 deaths (CFR = 2.1%) of cholera have been registered in 7 countries of the West and Central Africa (WCA) region. Compared with the same period in 2014, we observe a reduction of 72% in reported cases.

Data from the past few weeks indicate a persistent of cholera cases in Nigeria and DRC.

In Nigeria, for the first time since the beginning of the year, cases were reported in Bauchi state (LGAs Bauchi, Dass, Gamawa, Ganjuwa, Tafawa-Balewa, Toro), in Benue state (LGA Obi), and in Lagos state (LGAs Badagry, Eti Osa).

In DRC the trend is downward. In the province of South Kivu, for the first time since the beginning of the year, zero case was reported across all health zones during the week 29. During week 28, 5 cases were reported in Kadutu and 5 cases in Minova. In the province of Maniama, for the first time also, new cases were reported from week 26 (Lubutu Health District).

L'Essentiel

• La soudure pastorale perdure malgré l’amélioration des précipitations en fin juillet 2015 dans la zone pastorale.

• La campagne agricole tarde à prendre une allure normale en raison d’une persistance du déficit pluviométrique dans la zone sahélienne.

• La poursuite des conflits et de l’insécurité civile au Nigeria et au Mali continuent à occasionner les mouvements de population.

• L'indice FAO des prix des produits alimentaires au niveau mondial est à son plus bas niveau depuis six ans.

Installation définitive de la campagne agricole au Sahel, avec des retards localement importants

MESSAGES CLES

• Le régime pluviométrique s’est significativement amélioré à partir de mi-juillet et les prévisions sont favorables pour des cumuls supérieurs à la moyenne pour le reste de la saison au Sahel y compris les zones ayant souffert de déficits pluviométriques et retards significatifs notamment le nord Sénégal, le sud-ouest Mauritanie, nord Maradi, nord Zinder, et Diffa, au Niger et le nord-est du Nigeria.

• Les disponibilités alimentaires céréalières sont au-dessus de la moyenne et seront renforcées à partir d’octobrenovembre suite aux nouvelles récoltes. L’état d’approvisionnement des marchés restera satisfaisant jusqu’en décembre et cela même dans certaines zones affectées par les conflits notamment dans le nord Mali avec l’accord signé le 20 juin. Toutefois, au nord-est Nigeria affecté par conflit, les niveaux d’approvisionnement vont rester relativement faibles par rapport à la normale.

• Les zones affectées par le conflit de Boko Haram sont les plus affectées par l’insécurité alimentaire. Le seuil d’Urgence (Phase 4 de l’IPC) est actuellement en cours dans les zones les plus touchées et cette situation pourra se maintenir jusqu’en septembre. Une amélioration est possible à partir d’octobre suite aux nouvelles récoltes mais le niveau de Crise (Phase 3 de l’IPC) se maintiendra dans ces zones jusqu’en décembre.

• En Mauritanie et Sénégal, les effets des déficits de productions agricoles et pastorales de 2014/15 maintiennent une insécurité alimentaire de type Crise (Phase 3 de l’IPC). Elle pourra se prolonger jusqu’à septembre en zones agro-pastorales. En octobredécembre, une amélioration est possible vers l’Insécurité alimentaire Minimale (Phase 1 de l’IPC) ou le Stress (Phase 2 de l’IPC) suite à la restauration des complètes des pâturages et des revenus issus de la vente de bétail.

• En Guinée, Libéria et Sierra Leone, les revenus inférieurs à la moyenne, consécutifs aux effets résiduels de la crise Ebola ou aux nouveaux cas, maintiendront jusqu’en septembre plusieurs ménages pauvres en Stress (Phase 2 de l’IPC) ou Crise (IPC Phase 3). En octobre-décembre, les nouvelles récoltes et les améliorations de revenus, permettront une évolution vers la phase Minimale (Phase 1 de l’IPC) sauf en Sierra Leone où le Stress (Phase 2 de l’IPC) sera localement observé.

• Dans le reste de la région, l’insécurité alimentaire Minimale (Phase 1 de l’IPC) va davantage se renforcer jusqu’en septembre 2015 avec l’installation de la saison et la restauration des productions pastorales. Elle sera maintenue entre octobre et décembre suite à la généralisation des récoltes dans la région.

Snapshot 12 August –18 August 2015

Yemen: The humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to deteriorate. 1.4 million people have become displaced since conflict escalated in March – a 12% increase since early July. Fuel shortages and access issues continue to affect provision of health services. 23% of Yemen’s health facilities are either partially funtional or non-functional.

Iraq: The security situation continues to deteriorate. Of the 3.17 million IDPs, 16% have been displaced since April. Many are stranded in conflict areas such as Ramadi and Falluja in Anbar and face access restrictions into neighbouring governorates. 8.6 million people are in urgent need of aid overall and 5 million are estimated to live in hard to reach IS-held areas.

Niger: A new assessment finds 2.7 million people severely food insecure during the June–September lean season in Niger, corresponding to 15% of the Nigerien population and indicating a severe humanitarian crisis. Population displacement in Diffa region and current flooding in central and southern Niger, affecting 20,000, also impact food security levels in the long-term.

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface

Introduction

The outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa is unprecedented in its scale, severity, and complexity. More than 23,200 people have been infected by 15 February 2015, resulting in over 9,300 deaths. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are still affected by this outbreak, and are struggling to control the epidemic against a backdrop of extreme poverty, weak health systems and social customs that make breaking human-to-human transmission difficult.

For UNHCR, the Ebola epidemic came at a time when the voluntary return of Ivorian refugees from Liberia and Guinea to Côte d’Ivoire was gaining momentum. Return efforts came to a standstill with the declaration of the outbreak at the national, and later international, levels. Instead, UNHCR shifted its priority to ensuring that refugees are integrated into national EVD response plans.

During 2014, UNHCR successfully incorporated refugee populations under the national plans in all three affected countries. UNHCR also implemented prevention and preparedness measures in refugee camps. These measures, in place since March 2014, have proven to be effective to date, and refugee camps in Guinea and Liberia have remained Ebola-free, despite the heightened risk of importation from affected surrounding host communities. Nonetheless, national plans face gaps and resource constraints responding effectively in areas hosting refugees. Outside of camps, seven locally-integrated refugees in Sierra Leone and seven urban refugees in Liberia have fallen victim to the disease.

From the onset, UNHCR’s interventions have been within the overall UN response plan: initially in line with the WHO’s roadmap, and under the UNMEER coordination mechanism since September 2014. UNHCR’s regional Ebola preparedness and response plan is aligned with the UN System Response Strategy (STEPP) and the WHO roadmap and links to the national response mechanisms. In 2015, UNHCR will continue to focus on the three countries directly affected by EVD (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) while simultaneously working on preparedness in the surrounding 11 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo). UNHCR’s key objectives in these 14 countries are to ensure the preservation of protection space for refugees, asylum-seekers and other populations of concern, and that these populations are included in national response and preparedness plans. The safety of UNHCR staff, implementing partners’ medical staff and community mobilization staff remains of the utmost importance.

The funding requested in this supplementary appeal will enable UNHCR to enhance preventive, preparedness and response measures against EVD, participate in the regional and country inter-agency response and ensure continuity of operations, including preparations for the resumption of the voluntary repatriation of Ivorian refugees, in the face of the Ebola crisis.

PROJECTED FOOD ASSISTANCE NEEDS FOR FEBRUARY 2016

This brief summarizes FEWS NET’s most forward-looking analysis of projected emergency food assistance needs in FEWS NET coverage countries. The projected size of each country’s acutely food insecure population (IPC Phase 3 and higher) is compared to last year and the recent five-year average and categorized as Higher ( S), Similar ( X), or Lower ( T). Countries where external emergency food assistance needs are anticipated are identified. Projected lean season months highlighted in red indicate either an early start or an extension to the typical lean season.
Additional information is provided for countries with large food insecure populations, an expectation of high severity, or where other key issues warrant additional discussion. Analytical confidence is lower in remote monitoring countries, denoted by “RM”. Visit www.fews.net for detailed country reports

KUWAIT, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's prominent contributions to the humanitarian field had an international impact and recognition, as the UN celebrates the World Humanitarian Day on Wednesday August 19.
Kuwait had been providing humanitarian aid all over the world ahead of its independence, however, the contributions and efforts had strongly developed since His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah came into position in 2006.
His Highness, who was awarded the title of "Humanitarian Leader" by the UN, had taken the responsibility to aid people in natural disaster-struck countries such as Somalia, Turkey, Japan and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Kuwait also played a huge role in easing the suffering of those living in conflict-struck countries in the Arab World, including Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Palestine.
The country also held three donors conferences for Syria, which resulted in pledges of USD 300 million in the first conference in 2013, USD 500 million in 2014 and USD 500 million in 2015.
Kuwaiti charity organizations including the Red Crescent and the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) had been continuously delivering aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.
As for the Palestinian Cause, Kuwait had also been delivering humanitarian aid to provide citizens with their basic needs amidst Israeli siege and war.
Moreover, His Highness Sheikh Sabah had donated USD 34 million for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in January 2009 to develop its role.

Kuwait had also donated USD 200 million for the Palestinian government for the next five years in March 2009, as part of the plan to reconstruct Gaza after the Israeli war.
In 2012, the country had signed an agreement with the World Bank to contribute USD 50 million to the Palestinian program for reform and reconstruction affiliated with the bank.
In addition, Kuwait had organized many humanitarian aid campaigns to aid people in Yemen, as the war had waged in the country.
As for natural disasters aid, Kuwait had donated USD ten mln for Bangladesh which was struck by a tornado in November 2007. Meanwhile, it had also aided Japan with five million oil barrel (worth about USD 500 million) upon the destructive tsunami earthquake that struck the country in March 2011.
In July 2012, Kuwait had delivered humanitarian aid worth USD ten million to Somalia to aid people suffering from famine and drought.
In 2012, the country had donated USD 250,000 for victims of Turkey's earthquake. Moreover, it had provided USD ten million to the Philippines, suffering the aftermath of a devastating tornado in 2014, while also contributing USD five million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to fight the Ebola virus in the same year.
The UN celebrates the World Humanitarian Day on August 19 of each year, which is the anniversary of the 2003 Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN workers, including the UN's Special Representative in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injured over 100. The blast targeted the UN's Assistance Mission in Iraq created just five days earlier. (end) aas.aas.ag