Author: Ohene Anochie

Algeria, Sierra Leone, Guyana and South Korea were elected unchallenged on Tuesday to sit on the UN Security Council in 2024-25, while Slovenia handily beat Belarus for the only contested seat. The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom ) and ten countries elected for two years, half renewed each year, and respecting rules geographical distribution. In the secret ballot vote in the General Assembly, Slovenia – competing with Belarus for the seat going to Eastern Europe – obtained 153 votes, against 38 in Belarus.…

Outbreak at a glance: Since the WHO Disease Outbreak News on Acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology – the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was published on 15 April 2022, there have been continuing further reports of cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin among young children. It is not yet clear if there has been an increase in hepatitis cases, or an increase in awareness of hepatitis cases that occur at the expected rate but go undetected. While adenovirus is a possible hypothesis, investigations are ongoing for the causative agent. Outbreak overview As of 21 April 2022,…

The destruction today of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant Dam (hereinafter Kakhovka Dam) – which crosses the Dnipro River on the front line in Nova Kakhovka in Khersonska – has led to massive flooding, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and impacting at least 37 towns and villages which have been reported fully or partially flooded, according to the Ukrainian authorities. The Government has announced that they are supporting the evacuation of at some16,000 people due to the loss or severe damage to their homes in the floods. They are being evacuated by buses and trains to Mykolaiv,…

Number of Crisis-Impacted Children in Need of Education Support Rises Significantly: Education Cannot Wait Issues New Global Estimates Study Armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other crises increased the number of crisis-impacted children in need of urgent quality education to 224 million, according to a new Global Estimates Study issued today by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. The study was released at the Education in Emergencies Data and Evidence Summit in Geneva. The study offers a refined methodology in calculating the numbers of crisis-impacted children in need of…

At least seven young schoolgirls who were going to take college entrance exams on Monday drowned after their canoe capsized on the Niger River near the town of Kouroussa in Upper Guinea, said a minister and a relative of a victim. “We are struck by this bad news of the shipwreck of seven students who have lost their lives,” the Minister of Pre-university Education and Literacy, Guillaume Hawing , who is in the region for launch the first tests of the examination. Mamadi Kéita, a security guard, told AFP that he lost his half-sister in this drowning. “She was leaving…

The killing of 10 lions in just one week in May at Kenya’s Amboseli National Park has highlighted an increasing conflict between humans and wildlife over resources and climate change. One of slain lions was 19 year-old Loonkiito; one of Kenya’s oldest lions. In some areas, lion populations overlap with human settlements and livestock grazing areas leading to negative interaction and conflicts that often result in economic losses, threats to human life and conservation challenges. Daniel Ole Sambu heads the predator protection program, Big Life Foundation and explains how the lions’ territory is under threat. “These wild animal needs space,…