• The Democratic Republic of Congo’s health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, resigned on July 22 after being stripped of responsibility for managing the country’s Ebola outbreak, potentially paving the way for the introduction of a second vaccine to contain the spreading epidemic. Ilunga had overseen the DRC’s nearly year-long response to what is now the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which has killed more than 1,700 and been declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization.
(“Congo Minister’s Resignation Over Ebola Snub Could Unblock New Vaccine,” Reuters, July 22, 2019; “WHO Declares Ebola in Congo to Be Emergency of ‘International Concern’,” Washington Post, July 14, 2019; “The World Bank Has the Money to Fight Ebola but Won’t Use It,” Foreign Policy,July 22, 2019)
• Advocates of the 2016 Colombia peace accord between the government and leftist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or FARC), promised a peace dividend as investment would now be able to flow to impoverished rural areas, and undermine lucrative trafficking in illegal drugs. Instead, the peace deal that ended a 50-year civil war that killed an estimated 200,000, displaced some 4 million and disappeared thousands more, is now collapsing.
(“Colombia’s Uneasy Peace,” Foreign Policy, July 16, 2019; “Blow Up,” Economist, July 6, 2019; “Despite the Peace Deal, Former FARC Fighters Face a New War in Rural Colombia,”NPR, July 18, 2019)
• Across the western coast of Alaska, native fisherman in the Bering Sea are suffering economic losses due to climate change with eroding land, rising seas and flooding rivers. Buildings in native villages are sinking each year as indigenous communities are now forced to consider moving entire coastal villages inland. Alaska’s native villagers are among the world’s growing number of climate refugees.
(“Will Climate Change Force This Alaska Village to Relocate?” Christian Science Monitor, July 1, 2019)
This week’s News Summary was narrated by Anna Manzo.
