Riyadh [Saudi Arabia], July 27 (ANI): Saudi Arabia has suspended issuing visas to pilgrims from the Democratic Republic of the Congo over fears that Ebola could spread during next month's Hajj pilgrimage there.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday announced the decision in a note cited by Al Jazeera, saying, "The granting of arrivals visas for people entering from DRC has been stopped, to conserve the well-being of pilgrims."

The suspension came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the Ebola outbreak in Congo's eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces a public health emergency of international concern.

It was not clear how many people's applications had been affected by the move.

About three per cent of Congo's population is Muslim who had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month.

Riyadh's move came despite the World Health Organisation saying at the time of its international emergency declaration that no country should close its borders or place any restrictions on travel or trade because of Ebola and urging governments elsewhere in Africa and around the world not to "panic" in response to the decision.

The epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people - more than two-thirds of those who contracted it - since it emerged last August, according to the Congo's health ministry. It is the second-worst outbreak of its kind on record.

The Kingdom also suspended pilgrimage visas for travellers from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia - the three worst-affected countries.

Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa's Ebola outbreak a few years ago in which more than 11,000 people died. (ANI) </s> Saudi Arabia has banned entry to travellers coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo over fears Ebola could spread during next month's Hajj pilgrimage.

The decision, announced in a note issued on Wednesday by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cited last week's move by the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the Ebola outbreak in DRC's eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces a public health emergency of international concern.

"The granting of arrivals visas for people entering from DRC has been stopped, to conserve the well-being of pilgrims," the Saudi ministry's note said.

It was not clear how many people's applications had been affected by the move.

About three percent of DRC's population is Muslim, according to a poll by the New York-based Congo Research Group, while people from sub-Saharan Africa make up about 10 percent of the more than two million annual pilgrims to the holy city of Mecca.

WHO plea ignored



Riyadh's move came despite the WHO saying at the time of its international emergency declaration that no country should close its borders or place any restrictions on travel or trade because of Ebola and urging governments elsewhere in Africa and around the world not to "panic" in response to the decision.

The epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people - more than two-thirds of those who contracted it - since it emerged last August, according to the DRC's health ministry. It is the second-worst outbreak of its kind on record.

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Saudi Arabia also partially shuttered its borders to travellers amid fears over Ebola during the world's deadliest ever eruption of the virus, which killed more than 11,300 people as it surged through West Africa during 2014-2016.

The kingdom suspended pilgrimage visas for travellers from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia - the three worst-affected countries.

For Muslims, the Hajj re-enacts the actions of the Prophet Muhammad in his "farewell pilgrimage" in 632 BCE. It is a central pillar of the Islamic faith meant to cleanse followers of sin and bring them closer to God.

The six-day pilgrimage is obligatory once in a lifetime for all Muslims with the means to afford it. </s> Saudi Arabia suspends visas to people from Congo over Ebola

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions.

Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo's embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.

The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency. More than 1,700 people have died in the year-long outbreak.

Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa's Ebola outbreak a few years ago.

The decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens. </s> JOHANNESBURG: Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions.

Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month.

ALSO READ: World Bank grants USD 300 million to DR Congo to contain Ebola outbreak

A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo's embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.

The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency.

ALSO READ: DR Congo's Ebola spearhead Health Minister Oly Ilunga resigns after he was replaced

More than 1,700 people have died in the year-long outbreak.

Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa's Ebola outbreak a few years ago.

The decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens. </s> GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - At least seven U.N. peacekeepers were killed in clashes with militias in an area that is at the center of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst Ebola epidemic, United Nations and diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

“Our peacekeeping colleagues tell us that six peacekeepers from Malawi and one from Tanzania who are part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the DRC ... were killed yesterday, in Beni territory, in North Kivu,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by banditry and armed insurrections for more than two decades since the fall of military ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, but the past year has seen a surge in violence around North Kivu.

Beni and the surrounding villages are also suffering an Ebola epidemic that has infected over 300 people and killed two-thirds of them.

This makes it the third worst outbreak ever, after a 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, when 28,000 people were infected, and in Uganda in 2000, when there were 425 cases.

Repeated armed attacks by at least two rebel groups are hampering international efforts to contain the virus, by preventing medical workers getting to Ebola victims.

A U.N. spokesman said that Secretary General Antonio Guterres “calls on all armed groups to stop their destabilizing activities, which continue to add to the suffering of the population and complicate the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak”. </s> About seven United Nations (UN) peacekeepers are reported to have died in a clash with militias in an area that is at the center of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s worst Ebola epidemic.

Following some lawlessness that aroused in the country, some peacekeepers who were sent to maintain order in a particular area in the country rattled with some soldiers hence causing about seven people’s death.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday, November 15, 2018 said, “Our peacekeeping colleagues tell us that six peacekeepers from Malawi and one from Tanzania who are part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the DRC ... were killed yesterday, in Beni territory, in North Kivu,”.

For more than two decades, since the fall of military ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, Eastern Congo has been beset by violence and armed rebellions but the past year has seen a spate in violence around North Kivu.

Beni and the surrounding villages are also suffering an Ebola endemic affecting over 300 people leaving about two-thirds of them dead.

This is the third worst outbreak ever, after a 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, when 28,000 people were infected, and in Uganda in 2000, when there were 425 cases.

Repeated armed attacks by at least two rebel groups are impeding international efforts to contain the virus, by thwarting medical workers from getting to Ebola victims.

One UN spokesman who spoke on behalf of General Antonio Guterres appealed that, “all armed groups must stop their destabilizing activities, which continue to add to the suffering of the population and complicate the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak.” </s> The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo made the long-feared jump across borders with three cases confirmed Wednesday in Uganda, including the death of a 5-year-old boy who had the virus.

The World Health Organization and Ugandan health authorities said Tuesday the Congolese boy had traveled from Congo on Sunday, entered Uganda with his family and sought medical care.

The other two confirmed cases are the boy’s 3-year-old brother and his grandmother, 50. They are being treated under isolation at the Bwera Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit, in the west of Uganda, the country’s Ministry of Health said.

In a tweet Wednesday, WHO said the boy died Tuesday night.

“The young patient – 5- year-old index case of #Ebola died last night. Two more samples were sent to UVRI and have tested positive. We, therefore, have three confirmed cases of #Ebola in #Uganda,” the tweet said, referring to the Uganda Virus Research Institute.

The ministry added that eight people who had been in contact with the family were being traced.

The Congo outbreak is both the second largest and second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

More than 1,300 people have died since it began in August. The epicenter is in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, among the most populous in the Congo and bordering Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Concern had been mounting that the infectious disease would cross the border, underscored by an increase in the number of cases in recent weeks.

Pressure on WHO to declare international emergency

Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, a UK medical research charity, said that while Uganda was well-prepared to cope with the disease, global health authorities should be ready for more cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighboring countries.

“This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon,” he said in a statement.

“There are now more deaths than any other Ebola outbreak in history, bar the West Africa Epidemic of 2013-16, and there can be no doubt that the situation could escalate towards those terrible levels.”

Uganda’s Health Ministry said the boy and his grandmother had been vomiting blood, a severe symptom of Ebola, when they had presented themselves to doctors.

“Ebola is a horrific illness that ravages the human body,” said Brechtje van Lith, Save the Children’s country director in Uganda. “This first death, of a child, is a sickening reminder of the dangers of this disease.”

WHO is likely to come under pressure to declare the outbreak an international health emergency. In April, the health body said it did not constitute a “public health emergency of international concern.”

WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.”

Unlike the outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, there are now vaccines and experimental treatments to help stop the spread of the disease.

However, the Congo outbreak has proven difficult to bring under control because of community mistrust and violent attacks on health care workers.

“A step up in the national response with full international support is critical if we’re to contain the epidemic and ensure the very best protection for the communities at risk and for the health workers working to protect lives,” Farrar said. “This needs to be championed at the highest political levels, including at the UN and the upcoming G20.”

Uganda’s health ministry said it was vaccinating front-line health workers and people who had been in contact with the family. It said people should report any symptoms including unexplained bleeding from any body opening, vomiting of blood, bloody diarrhea and muscle pain.

It appealed to the public to “suspend social norms like shaking hands and hugging” and called on border districts to suspend mass gatherings such as weddings and markets and in places of worship. </s> The current Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the worst in the country's recorded history, with 319 confirmed and probable cases, resulting in 198 deaths, the country's health ministry said.

Ebola virus disease, which causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever, is endemic to the region. It's the 10th outbreak the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen since 1976, the year that scientists first identified the deadly virus near the eponymous Ebola River.

"No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," the country's health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, said in a statement late on Friday.

The outbreak is also the third most severe in the recorded history of the African continent, following 28,652 cases in the 2013-2016 outbreak in multiple West African nations and 425 cases in the 2000 outbreak in Uganda, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the total amount of people who have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever since the country's latest outbreak began Aug. 1, 284 of them have tested positive for Ebola virus disease. Nearly 28,000 people have been vaccinated in the outbreak zone since Aug. 8, according to the health ministry.

The outbreak has been heavily concentrated in the northeastern province of North Kivu, where about half of all cases have been recorded in the conflict-torn city of Beni, which is home to 800,000 people. People have also been infected in neighboring Ituri province.

North Kivu and Ituri are among the most populous provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and share borders with Uganda and Rwanda. They are also awash with violence and insecurity, particularly in the mineral-rich borderlands where militia activity has surged in the past year, all of which complicates the response to the outbreak.

There is also misinformation and mistrust from the community, partly due to the security situation, and there's a reluctance among some residents to seek care or allow health workers to vaccinate, conduct contact tracing and perform safe burials, according to the health ministry.

"Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack," the health minister said in his statement Friday night.

Although the outbreak remains "dangerous and unpredictable," new measures to overcome these challenges are having a "positive impact," the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Thursday after a joint mission to assess the situation.

"The fact that we have so far prevented Ebola from spreading into neighboring countries is a testament to the hard work and determination of staff from all partners," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has recently adopted an "active approach" to the armed groups operating in North Kivu, providing a "period of calm" in and around Beni, although some attacks have persisted in surrounding villages.

"We are facing numerous complex challenges, but it’s encouraging and inspiring to see that our efforts to deliver as one UN have been extremely successful in many hotspots and will help to end the outbreak and save lives," United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in the statement.

Last month, the WHO heeded the recommendation of an expert advisory committee to not declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern -- a proclamation that would have mobilized more resources and garnered global attention.

The committee chairman, Robert Steffen, said they came to the decision by looking at three main criteria.

"Is it extraordinary? Is there a risk of cross-border spread? Is there potential for requiring international response?" Steffen told reporters in a teleconference Oct. 17.

Despite its conclusion, the committee emphasized in a statement that the Congolese government, WHO and partners "must intensify the current response" to the ongoing outbreak and this "should be supported by the entire international community," otherwise "the situation is likely to deteriorate significantly."

"I’ve accepted the recommendation of the committee but this does not mean that we are not taking the outbreak seriously," WHO's director-general, Tedros, told reporters. "We will not rest until this outbreak is finished." </s> One of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history continues to worsen in the Democratic Republic of Congo with as many as 319 people now dead.

The Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 542 Ebola cases had been recorded in the province of North Kivu — 494 of which have been confirmed. Of the 319 believed to have died from the virus so far, 271 have been confirmed.

On average, Ebola — which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging — kills about half of those infected, but fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered due to “non-engagement” from local communities and armed conflict in the region.

North Kivu, which includes the cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, though cases have been reported in neighboring Ituri province, according to the WHO. The two provinces are among the most populated in the nation and border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

The public health agency estimates that more than a million refugees and internally displaced people are traveling through and out of North Kivu and Ituri, which could hasten the spread of the virus further.

The Congo outbreak is the second-deadliest ever, behind only in West Africa in 2014, when the virus killed more than 11,000 people. It is Congo’s 10th epidemic since 1976, and second this year.
Saudi Arabia suspends visas for Hajj pilgrims arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid safety concerns regarding the ongoing Ebola epidemic in Kivu.