Uganda | Pakistan

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern”, posing risks to neighbouring countries. The WHO said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency, but that countries sharing land borders with the DRC are at high risk for further spread. The UN health agency said in a statement that 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases had been reported as of Saturday in the DRC’s Ituri province across at least three health zones, including Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu. International spread documented, WHO says The DRC health ministry had said on Friday that 80 people had died in the new outbreak in the eastern province. The 17th outbreak in the country, where Ebola was first identified in 1976, could in fact be much larger, given the high positivity rate of the initial samples and increasing number of su...

When Zohran Mamdani inveighed against inequality and corruption during his underdog bid for New York City mayor, Joseph Beyanga at Uganda’s Daily Monitor could hear echoes of conversations almost 20 years earlier with the then-intern on the newspaper’s sports desk. “Mamdani would sit with me in the production room. He would always ask me, so who is affected by this one? Who pays the price?” Beyanga, The Daily Monitor’s media manager, told Reuters. “He was always interested in how the big picture affects the everyday person,” Beyanga said. The 34-year-old Mamdani’s resolutely progressive message, focused on lowering the cost of living and addressing inequalities through direct government interventions, propelled him to victory in an election on Tuesday that drew the highest turnout since 1969 in the most populous US city. Young Mamdani lived ‘in a simple way’ despite privilege The son of a Ugandan academic of Indian origins and an Indian-American filmmaker, Mamdani was born and spent several years as a child i...