Congo says the death toll in fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has passed 1,500

Congo says the death toll in fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has passed 1,500

PROSPER HERI NGORORA and MARK BANCHEREAU

The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in eastern Congo, official data released on Thursday showed, marking a 50% increase in around a week that shows the emergency continuing to outpace response efforts.

As of Tuesday, 3,442 cases had been recorded, with 1,521 deaths, according to the latest government update.

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.

There are currently 797 patients in isolation or hospitalized, while a further 615 patients have recovered, the data showed. Contact tracing continues to lag, with only around 78% of known contacts monitored nationwide, well below the 95% target health officials say is needed to interrupt transmission.

Displacement from armed conflict and illegal mining in the region have made it difficult to trace thousands who have come in contact with infected individuals.

The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo's remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases, but there have been others confirmed in five provinces, including one of the country's largest cities, Kisangani.

The latest outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were reported, of which over 11,000 people died. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization says the global risk of spread remains low because Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, not through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses. Cases detected outside the affected region have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.

In Congo, however, the risk of the spread remains “very high,” according to the WHO.

The speed of transmission in the current outbreak comes amid public concern that many communities in the affected provinces are either unreachable or have been abandoned by responders in recent days over safety concerns amid attacks from angry residents and rebels.

Misinformation asserting that the deadly virus isn’t real and the restriction of traditional funerals to limit the outbreak’s spread have angered some residents and led to attacks on health facilities.

International partners supporting the Ebola response in Ituri’s Nyakunde health zone temporarily relocated after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment center, sparked by a patient’s death.

Officials say the relocation of aid groups, including Africa CDC and Mercy Corps, has disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.

Attacks such as the one in Nyakunde are causing anxiety among health workers and making it difficult for them to carry out their duties, said Pierre Akilimali, the Ebola response incident manager at the National Public Health Institute of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

Patrick Wintour

Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.

Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The Saudi defence ministry said on Thursday that 14 states including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Djibouti had issued a joint statement supporting a multinational maritime defence coalition.

The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and much of its Red Sea coastline, announced on 20 July that they were implementing a blockade against Saudi ships, but they have denied they are planning to impose tolls on all ships.

The group says it will lift the blockade once Saudi Arabia lifts its blockade on Yemen, positioning the dispute as over the future of Yemen and not directly about Iran. Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni civil war in 2015 in support of the country’s UN-recognised government against the Houthi rebels.

Riyadh has also asked the US and a group of European countries including Germany, France, the UK and Italy to join a Red Sea coalition.

The EU already has a naval protection mission, Aspides, operating in the Red Sea and it remains unclear if the Houthis are mounting a general blockade or one directed solely at Saudi Arabia.

Houthi forces said on 25 July they had hit “sensitive” oil transport sites inside Saudi Arabia linking eastern province oilfields to a Red Sea export hub.

If the Red Sea route is closed to Saudi shipping in addition to the strait of Hormuz blockade on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, the kingdom’s oil export will be severely constrained.

Up to 80% of Saudi crude exports were shipped through the strait of Hormuz before the Iran war began. The Red Sea has therefore grown in importance, with more than half of Saudi oil now transported overland to loading terminals at the port city of Yanbu.

Saudi strikes in Iraq on Wednesday killed at least 20 people as it hit back at Iraqi militia for striking its oil facilities. Donald Trump said the joint US-Saudi attacks had been mounted with the agreement of the Iraqi government, a claim that Baghdad did not confirm.

The Saudi defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, held an urgent meeting with Trump and JD Vance on Wednesday to discuss the next steps. The Saudis are keen to show they will defend themselves and their industry, but are not willing to escalate the war against Iran, arguing that the disagreements between the US and Iran can still be settled by diplomacy.

The troop movements inside Yemen involve concentrating forces for what could be an attack on al-Bayda, a governorate in central southern Yemen captured by the Houthis in 2020-21, the sources said.

Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia has erupted in the past fortnight with the Houthis mounting attacks against Saudi Aramco facilities. The strikes inside Saudi Arabia came hours after Saudi airstrikes targeted Houthi-controlled sites in the port of Hodeidah and a third Saudi commercial vessel was attacked in the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been vying for control of Yemen for more than a decade and an uneasy status quo has unravelled over the past month.

The tensions inside Yemen would be reduced if the Gulf states and Iran could reach an agreement for the reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Talks between Oman and Iran are continuing, with Iran demanding that all shipping enter the strait through a northern route close to Iran’s coast.

Houthis attack Saudi Arabia from Iraq

Houthis attack Saudi Arabia from Iraq in coordination with Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups

i24NEWS

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups. According to an exclusive report from Reuters, which spoke to two officials in the region, this union reflects a growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias. It also indicates that members of Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance have deepened their ties despite years of US and Israeli strikes on the network.

The attacks from Iraq, which the Houthis have taken responsibility for, included strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, the kingdom's main crude hub. Officials said the operations were coordinated under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Saudi Arabia has not sat quietly, however. The Kingdom carried out joint airstrikes with the United States on Iraqi sites on Wednesday. Additionally, on Thursday, an explosion was reported in Sanaa, Yemen, yet details on the cause, location, and any casualties were not immediately available.

"There is now direct training and coordination between members of the Axis of Resistance themselves, not just between them and Iran," said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank's Middle East and North Africa program, according to Reuters.

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Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi addressed the escalation in a speech Thursday, saying his forces had moved to impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in what he called a "blockade-for-blockade" equation. 

He accused Riyadh of capping Yemen's gas wealth to keep the country in economic and political crisis, saying Saudi Arabia had set a ceiling on extraction "that absolutely prevents the people from achieving a decent standard of living." 

Al-Houthi also alleged Saudi measures blocked oil extraction in Yemen's Jawf and Mahra governorates, accusing the kingdom of coveting resources in both provinces.

Report: Iran Expecting Delivery of 400 Chinese Shoulder-Fired Missiles

Report: Iran Expecting Delivery of 400 Chinese Shoulder-Fired Missiles

John Hayward

Iran is reportedly anticipating the first delivery installment of 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles within a matter of weeks, the fruit of a deal worth over $60 million arranged by a Hong Kong-based intermediary.

The missile shipment was reported by Reuters on Wednesday, based on information from three sources who “spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.”

These sources said a Hong Kong company called Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment acted as the intermediary between Beijing and Tehran for the missile shipment, which seems intended to fill the gaps in Iran’s air defenses exposed by U.S. and Israeli strikes during Operation Epic Fury.

The Iranians learned they could not defend their most sensitive and exposed military sites against state-of-the-art airpower, so China is reportedly stepping in to provide the terrorist state with between 300 and 400 Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS), including the advanced QW-12 model, which has extended range and can defeat infrared jamming defenses from the targeted aircraft.

The deal was also said to include one of China’s most powerful MANPADS, the fourth-generation FN-16, which was designed to kill low-flying planes. 

The FN-16 is believed to be highly resistant to electronic countermeasures (ECM) and can be used to attack aircraft from almost any angle. Variants of this weapon can be mounted on helicopters and used as air-to-air missiles.

In short, the QW-12 is most useful against helicopters, transport planes, and other relatively slow targets, while the FN-16 can quickly engage fast-moving warplanes and drones at low altitudes. If Iran can quickly acquire and deploy such weapons in substantial numbers, U.S. pilots might be forced to adjust their attack patterns to remain at longer distances and higher altitudes from their targets.

According to the Reuters report, Iran was desperate to acquire cash-and-carry weapons that could be delivered quickly. China worked out a scheme for shipping the weapons covertly from the western Chinese city of Urumqi through Pakistan to reach Iran. The sources for the report were uncertain whether the missiles would be shipped by air or ground during each leg of their voyage.

The report was corroborated by European and Middle Eastern security officials who said Iran has been looking to buy Chinese MANPADS for some time and has also expressed interest in Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles. The Reuters report on Wednesday offered the first confirmation that a deal had been reached and products were out for delivery.

Chinese and Pakistani officials indignantly denounced the report. China called it “completely groundless,” while Pakistan said the details of its involvement were “absolutely concocted and false.”

China has simultaneously cultivated a relationship with Iran as a junior partner in the Chinese-Russian axis of tyranny, and insisted that Beijing is a completely neutral party that seeks only peace in the region.

China is Iran’s largest trading partner and buys over 85 percent of its oil exports. In 2021, Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” that included defense cooperation. Some intelligence analysts believe China has been secretly giving Iran access to its BeiDou satellite navigation system, greatly improving the accuracy of Iran’s drone and missile attacks.

China has reportedly taken steps to ensure its oil tankers will not be harassed by Iran or its terrorist proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, who are once again menacing ships in the Red Sea. 

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Houthis are planning to extract ransoms from ships sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, much as their patrons in Iran are scheming to extort money from international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 

According to this report, China has already engaged in “direct talks” with the Houthis to ensure its ships will not be attacked or forced to pay extortionate “fees” to use the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Negotiators working on final roadmap for Gaza’s future, Hamas disarmament

Negotiators working on final roadmap for Gaza’s future, Hamas disarmament

ByAMICHAI STEIN

Discussions with mediators in Cairo are continuing and making progress, according to a diplomatic source who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, as negotiators work to finalize a comprehensive roadmap for Gaza's future governance and security arrangements.

According to the source, the roadmap is designed as a balanced and pragmatic framework centered on the complete decommissioning of all weapons and a phased transition of responsibilities to a technocratic government.

"There will be no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people," the source said. "One authority, one law, one weapon."

The source said the proposed framework establishes a process for eliminating all tunnels, weapons depots, and weapons production facilities throughout the Gaza Strip, describing it as a comprehensive effort rather than a limited security arrangement.

At the conclusion of the implementation process, the source said, there would be no remaining terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. Hamas would have no governing or military role, either publicly or behind the scenes, in a model similar to that being applied to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Under the proposal, all weapons, both heavy and light, would come under the full control of the NCAG, in coordination with and supported by the ISF, which the source said is led by a two-star US Special Forces general.

The agreement also stipulates that there will be no Israeli withdrawal from the original "Yellow Line" unless full disarmament is implemented.

As part of the arrangement, Hamas would commit to halting all military activity, including the recruitment of new operatives into its ranks. In return, Israel would suspend its targeted killings campaign.

However, the framework makes clear that if new threats emerge, Israel would retain the right to take military action.

The process of storing and surrendering weapons is expected to begin in the coming weeks, once Hamas agrees to this framework, with the weapons being transferred to the International Stabilization Force (ISF) and permanently removed from operational use.

The diplomatic source emphasized that the roadmap is based on reciprocal implementation rather than trust between the parties.

"This entire process is built on reciprocity, not trust," the source said. "Each side's fulfillment of a commitment sequences the next commitment of the other side. A verification mechanism ensures compliance."

The source described the initiative as a turning point for Gaza, saying it was developed after lengthy negotiations guided by US President Donald Trump's Comprehensive Gaza Peace Plan.

"This is a new beginning for Gaza," the source said. "It has taken a long time to reach this stage, but our guiding light has been President Trump's Comprehensive Gaza Peace Plan and its objectives of providing a better future for the people of Gaza and security for the people of Israel."

According to the source, the roadmap is intended to translate that broader vision into a practical sequence of steps for both Israelis and Palestinians.

"The Roadmap is a first-of-its-kind agreement that operationalizes the Trump peace plan into steps that both Palestinians and Israelis will have to take to open this new chapter of peace, prosperity, and security for Gaza," the source said.

"The current talks in Cairo between Hamas and the mediators are aimed at reaching a deal - not just holding another round of negotiations," a source familiar with the Cairo negotiations told the Post. 

"At this stage, it remains unclear whether an agreement will be reached. What is clear, however, is that from the perspective of the mediators and the Board of Peace, there will be no scenario in which only some of the tunnels are dismantled, or only some of the weapons are surrendered. It has to be all of it," the source said.