14,000 PEOPLE AFFECTED BY HEAVY RAINS SINCE JANUARY
Over the past weeks, torrential rains have caused significant damage across different parts of CAR. 3,000 people have been affected in the capital Bangui, including over 1,000 displaced by the rains. 700 houses have been damaged and large food stocks destroyed. Floods have also caused significant damage in Ouham and Haute-Kotto Prefectures affecting about 5,000 people. Humanitarian partners are providing emergency assistance, including water, medications, and essential household items. Since the beginning of the year, rains and floods have affected about 14,000 people across CAR.
CAMEROON
THOUSANDS DEPRIVED OF ASSISTANCE IN 5 OF 7 DIVISIONS IN THE NORTH-WEST
Due to recent violence in Bali town, in the Bali division of the North-West region, the government has imposed a ban on the circulation of motorbikes. As motorbikes are a predominant form of transport in the region, non-state armed group members responded to the ban by prohibiting the movement of all vehicles, including those transporting humanitarian assistance. This is hindering humanitarian access to seven divisions in the province and preventing thousands of vulnerable people from receiving critical assistance. Health facilities are running out of medicines and medical supplies. Food insecurity is on the rise as humanitarian actors have not been able to provide food assistance since July. Humanitarian partners are calling for unhindered humanitarian access to all affected people.
BURKINA FASO
AT LEAST 80 KILLED IN ATTACK IN THE NORTH
On 18 August, an armed attack on civilians and the military in Gorgadji, Séno province, in the north of Burkina Faso, reportedly led to the death of some 80 people. The area is known as “the three borders”, straddling the frontiers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and is the most affected by violence, where thousands have died due to attacks. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the attack, which is the third in a series of non-state armed group (NSAGs) fatal attacks in less than two weeks in the north of the country.
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
FIRST CASES OF EBOLA IN 27 YEARS
On 17 August, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a second suspected case of infection by the deadly Ebola virus had been detected in Côte d’Ivoire. On 14 August, the government and WHO had confirmed an Ebola case in the country’s largest city, Abidjan, involving an 18-year-old girl hospitalized due to the virus after arriving from neighbouring Guinea, with nine contacts identified, but no deaths reported.
Côte d’Ivoire, which is combatting its first Ebola outbreak since 1994, began vaccinating high-risk populations in Abidjan, as well as frontline health workers and contact cases, after receiving vaccine doses from Guinea. In addition, the country launched a mass awareness campaign against Ebola. The epidemic in Côte d’Ivoire is the third in Africa this year after those recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.
Source: Relief Web