❌

Normal view

Africa’s ‘unprecedented’ Ebola outbreak could reach UK, says top health official

28 October 2026 at 12:37

Jean Kaseya, of the Africa CDC, warns of the illness spreading like Covid unless more funding is secured to increase preparedness and possible treatment

The “unprecedented” spread of the Ebola outbreak means it could reach the UK and other countries, according to one of Africa’s top health officials.

As the current outbreak reached 10,000 cases, with almost 5,000 deaths, Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), compared the outbreak to the Covid pandemic, which first took hold in China before spreading to countries across the world, claiming millions of lives, and ravaging health systems and economies.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters

© Photograph: Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters

© Photograph: Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters

UK sanctions Sudanese military leaders implicated in El Fasher ‘campaign of rape’

26 October 2026 at 18:07

Commanders suspected of sexual violence during the largest and fastest slaughter of civilians in more than 30 years have been subjected to travel ban and asset freeze

Senior Sudanese commanders implicated in a “campaign of rape” have been targeted by the UK on the first anniversary of a mass atrocity that saw tens of thousands of civilians killed over several days.

A year after the fall of El Fasher, the British government said it had sanctioned military leaders from both sides in the country’s ongoing conflict whom it suspected of sexual violence during the siege of the city.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty Images

US forces accused of ‘weaponising’ Somalia’s floods by trapping women and children in the path of El Niño

Exclusive: Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?

The water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia, never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.

“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

© Photograph: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

India slashes cost of cancer drugs after court rules mark-ups are ‘extortion’

Case filed in 2022 by patient unable to afford medicine leads to cap on drug prices for millions who face ruin if diagnosed

The Indian government has moved to reduce the price of cancer drugs after a retired bank clerk took her case to the supreme court.

From next month, 137 cancer drugs in India will be cheaper as the government tries to tackle the tragedy of poorer patients either forgoing treatment, selling land or falling into debt to meet the high cost of some medicines, which are making large profits for hospitals and pharmacists.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

❌