South Africa greets spring with a heatwave

Southern hemisphere heatwaves are back with us and the South African Weather Service has issued a heatwave warning for the north of the country.

El Niño Worsening Sub-Saharan Africa Food Crisis

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warns conditions are set to worsen for 60 million hungry people across sub-Saharan Africa as the El Niño weather phenomenon kicks in.

Liberia is Ebola Free (WHO)

The World Health Organization has declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus.

WHO made the declaration after Liberia reported no new Ebola cases for 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period for the deadly disease.

Ebola outbreak still a global emergency despite significant drop in cases (UN health agency)

UN, 10 April 2015 – A meeting convened by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa still poses a threat to international peace and security, despite a major fall-off in in case incidence and geographic distribution in the most-affected countries Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Sahara Dessert sand on its way to Britain

Sand blown more than 3,000 km from Africa's Sahara Dessert is expected to contribute to very high pollution levels across parts of England on Friday, the British government warned Wednesday.

African wildlife agency lauds China's ban on ivory imports

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) on Saturday welcomed a move by Chinese government to impose a one-year ban on imports of African ivory carvings.

China bans ivory imports for 1 year

Chinese authorities on Thursday announced a one-year ban on imports of African ivory carvings acquired after the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) took effect in 1975.

Floods claim 158 lives in Mozambique (official)

A total of 158 people have been killed in storms and floods that have hit central and northern Mozambique this year, the country's state news agency AIM reported Wednesday...

Thousands of Malawian flood victims unable to receive aid (Doctors without Borders)

Up to 20,000 people in the southern tip of Malawi most affected by the current floods remain cut off from the rest of the country without food, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Friday.

US helps African country's fight against wildlife trafficking

The United States on Friday committed 600 million rand (about $54 million) to the fight against wildlife trafficking in Africa.

Of the funding, over 30 million rand (about $2.7 million) will be dedicated to helping wildlife organisations in South Africa, US Under-Secretary Catherine Novelli said in Pretoria.

Interpol announces special team to combat illegal ivory trafficking

International police organisation Interpol announced on Tuesday it would establish a team to target ivory trafficking and more generally, environmental crime, in Africa. The new team, based in Nairobi, will help further the organisation's Project Wisdom, which combats elephant and rhinoceros poaching and the illegal trade of ivory.

"The global fight against illegal trafficking has just been given a significant boost," said Australian High Commissioner Geoff Tooth as the initiative was unveiled at the Australian High Commission in Kenya.

WHO experts to gather in Geneva to discuss use of experimental anti-Ebola drugs

GENEVA, September 04 /ITAR-TASS/. About 200 health experts will gather on Thursday in Geneva for a two-day conference to discuss all aspect of the use of experimental drugs that have not yet been tested on humans in anti-Ebola efforts. 

This meeting will be sequential to a mid-August conference of the World Health Organization (WHO), which gave green light to the use of anti-Ebola drugs tested only on monkeys.

Ebola: cases, deaths ‘vastly underestimated,’ says UN health agency

UN,  15 August 2014 – Health workers at Ebola outbreak sites are seeing evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths “vastly underestimate” the magnitude of the crisis as they work around the clock to stop the disease from spreading, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO, in its latest update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa dated August 14, said no new cases have been detected in Nigeria, attributing the outcome to extensive contact tracing and monitoring, implemented with support from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread.

At a news conference in Geneva Friday, WHO director Margaret Chan said the announcement is "a clear call for international solidarity.''

She said the countries affected by the deadly virus "simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity," as she appealed for greater international aid.

The impact of the WHO declaration is unclear.

Uganda refutes reports of Ebola outbreak

The Ugandan government on Thursday said there was no outbreak of the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the country after the suspected cases were confirmed to be negative.

Ruhakana Rugunda, minister of health, told reporters that laboratory results from the suspected cases turned out negative.

"There is no confirmed case of Ebola in Uganda. Media reports of reported cases in Kitgum and Kampala districts are false," he said, adding that any reported case will be investigated promptly and the public will be informed.

Security of gas supply: the role of gas developments in the Mediterranean region

European Commission, Joint Statement, Malta, 11 July 2014.

Joint statement by Günther H. Oettinger, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for energy, and Konrad Mizzi, Minister for Energy and Health of the Government of Malta:

Today, Energy Ministers from the EU, North Africa and the East Mediterranean, high officials, industry representatives and key stakeholders in the energy sector met in Malta to exchange views on how gas-related developments in the Mediterranean region can enhance security of supply in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

New UN-backed report finds ‘alarmingly high’ levels of elephant poaching across Africa

 UN, 13 June 2014 – The level of elephant poaching across Africa remains alarmingly high, according to a new United Nations-backed report release today, which also found an increase in the number of large seizures of ivory.

“Africa’s elephants continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high-levels of poaching for their ivory and with over 20,000 elephants illegally killed last year, the situation remains dire,” said John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Water scarcity among critical food security issues in Near East and North Africa. – United Nations, FAO

20 February 2014 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that water scarcity is one of the most urgent food security issues facing countries of the Near East and North Africa, with fresh water availability in the region expected to drop by 50 per cent by 2050.
FAO’s warning comes as ministers of agriculture and national officials prepare to tackle the issue at a meeting of the organization’s highest regional governing body beginning next Monday.

Report: Climate change may pose threat to economic growth

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Nearly a third of the world's economic output will come from countries facing "high" to "extreme" risks from the impacts of climate change within 12 years, according to a new report.

The Climate Change Vulnerability Index, an annual report produced by UK-based risk analysis firm Maplecroft, found that climate change "may pose a serious obstacle to sustainable economic growth in the world's most commercially important cities."

The index ranked the vulnerability of the world's countries, and the 50 cities deemed most economically important, to the impacts of climate change, by evaluating their risk of exposure to extreme climate events, the sensitivity of their populations to that exposure and the adaptive capacity of governments to respond to the challenge.

NASA alert: Middle East loses fresh reserves size of Dead Sea in 7 years

The Middle East is headed towards a water shortage crisis, as NASA satellites show that reserves the size of the Dead Sea have been depleted in just seven years, largely due to well-drilling.
Newly-obtained results show that 144 cubic kilometres of freshwater – a volume nearly equivalent to that of the Dead Sea or Lake Tahoe – had been removed from the ground in the area that encompasses Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria between 2003 and 2009.
"That's enough water to meet the needs of tens of millions to more than a hundred million people in the region each year, depending on regional water use standards and availability," said Jay Famiglietti, the UC Irvine professor who led the team who made the findings, which are due to be published on Friday in Water Resources Reasearch magazine.