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From Washington, this is VOA news. Sierra Leone has some harsh words for the World Health Organization. The U.S. president prepares to spell out his country's response to the Ebola outbreak. I'm Ira Mellman reporting.
Sierra Leone is accusing the World Health Organization of being "sluggish" in facilitating an evacuation of a doctor who died from Ebola before she could be sent out of the country for medical care -- so reports the Associated Press. Dr. Olivet Buck died Saturday, hours after the U.N. health agency said it could not help evacuate her to Germany. Buck is the fourth Sierra Leonean doctor to die in an outbreak that has also touched Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal. The West African outbreak has been blamed for more than 2,400 deaths, and experts say it is out of control. The U.S. has called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council for this week to discuss the crisis. President Barack Obama travels Tuesday to the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for a briefing with health experts about the Ebola outbreak. White House officials say President Obama will announce in Atlanta new measures for the U.S. government to help fight the disease. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that because of its capability, the U.S. has a unique responsibility to step up. "Our doctors and scientists are some of the best in the world, and we are going to deploy their knowledge and resources to try to help some of the governments in Africa meet the needs of their people and confront this very difficult challenge." So far, the United States has committed $100 million to fight the disease and dispatched about a hundred health workers to West Africa. But some African leaders are saying that the United States' response has not been enough. This is VOA news. The U.S. embassy in the Central African Republic is resuming operations 21 months after it closed due to instability and violence. The announcement from Secretary of State John Kerry came as a new U.N. force, currently with 7,500 troops, officially took over peacekeeping duties in the troubled country. Kerry named diplomat David Brown as the U.S. charge d'affaires and announced an additional $28 million in humanitarian funding, bringing the U.S. total for the year to $145 million. The secretary said the C.A.R. has made progress toward ending violence, but added, "We all know that much work remains to be done." Violence has declined somewhat in recent months as a U.N.-backed transitional government works to restore stability. Some 30 countries have pledged to support Iraq in its fight against Islamic State militants by "all means necessary," including military aid. In a statement following a conference in Paris, diplomats said the aid should come in line with "needs expressed by the Iraqi authorities, in accordance with international law and without jeopardizing civilian security." It highlighted the "urgent" need to remove the Islamic State group from regions where it has established itself in Iraq. They also agreed to continue and increase emergency humanitarian aid to Iraqi authorities. The conference included the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League. It is the latest step in an effort to build a coalition, rather, to battle the Islamic State group, which has captured large areas in Iraq and Syria. Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk [says] say shelling has killed six people and wounded 15 as the U.S. calls the cease-fire between the Kyiv government and Russian-backed rebels "increasingly strained." Shelling and gunfire was heard around the city's airport. Truce monitors from the Organization for Security and [operation] Cooperation in Europe say shells landed about 200 meters from them as they inspected a market in Donetsk. Ukrainian officials and the pro-Russian separatists blame each other for the violence. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf Monday said the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine is still holding but is increasingly strained. She condemned the shelling and called on both sides to come back from the brink. The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone Monday and talked about the need for both sides to stick to the cease-fire. [the organization] The International Organization for Migration said Monday 500 migrants are feared to have drowned after traffickers rammed and sank their boat off Malta coast last week. IOM describes it as "the worst shipwreck in years." I'm Ira Mellman in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |