World Status Report

This report intends to give the UTD Community a snapshot of international risks, and other issues as reported by the linked media and official sources from the U.S. and other countries.

More health and security information for each country can be found in the travel advisories issued by the governments of the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia, and the CDC, ECDC, and WHO sites. Not all advise in these sites will apply to US travelers.

Please note the publication date of this report and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.

Security

• On 8 February 2023, two humanitarian workers have been killed in the Boucle du Mouhoun region in Burkina Faso (ERCC). A medical team of four was riding in a clearly identified vehicle when it has been targeted by armed men. The other two humanitarian workers managed to escape the killing by fleeing.
• Since 2012, the conflict in Mali has affected millions of civilians (ERCC). Over 3.9 million people require protection assistance in 2023, as serious human rights violations, including sexual violence, have increased.
• UN troops kill eight civilians in DRC convoy attack: Governor (Al Jazeera English on MSN.com). Convoy was firing ‘warning shots’ which also wounded 28 people in North Kivu province, UN mission MONUSCO says. The UN convoy was returning from a resupply mission north of Goma, the provincial capital, when assailants set four trucks on fire.
• Indonesian security forces search for NZ pilot taken hostage (AP News). Indonesian security forces searched Wednesday for a pilot from New Zealand who was taken hostage by separatist rebels in restive Papua province.
• U.S. is training Haiti police to combat gangs, but that’s not its only security worry (Miami Herald on MSN.com)Kidnappings are rampant, averaging one every six hours last year, while killings are up, with 2,200 homicides in 2022, a dramatic increase over the previous year. The size of Haiti’s national police force is less than half of what it needs to be.
• Twitter was blocked for at least 12 hours on major Turkish mobile providers in an outage that ended early Thursday (France24), following a flurry of online criticism of the government’s response to this week’s deadly earthquake. Turkey has in the past restricted social media during national emergencies and safety incidents.

Natural Disasters

• Heavy rainfall has been affecting southern South Africa (in particular the Eastern Cape Province) over the last 24 hours (ERCC), causing floods and river overflow (particularly the Komani River) that have resulted in evacuations and damage.
• Heavy rainfall has been affecting southern Brazil (particularly the São Paulo State and the neighbouring Rio de Janeiro State) over the past 48 hours (ERCC), causing floods, severe weather-related incidents (in particular due to lightning), and triggering landslides that have resulted in casualties and damage.
• Over the past few days, five departments of Bolivia (ERCC) continue to suffer heavy rainfall that caused floods and resulted in casualties and damage.
• The number of casualties continues to increase following the 7.8 M earthquake of 6 February in southern Türkiye close to the border with northern Syria (ERCC). In Türkiye as of 9 February at 4.45 UTC, 12,873 people have died, and almost 63,000 have been injured. In Syria, UN OCHA reports 3,262 death and 7,285 injured people across Northwest Syria and government-controlled areas.
• Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world and for several years, particularly in 2020 and 2021, rainfall deficits have caused a significant drop in agricultural and pastoral resources (ERCC). Almost 695,000 people (15% of the population) will face acute food insecurity during the forthcoming 2023 lean season.
• As wildfires continued to burn through Chile’s central-south (MercoPress), authorities ordered residents of fourteen communes, a Chilean administrative unit similar to a municipality, to evacuate.
• Residents of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, are being asked to prepare for further bad weather (Reuters) as a system described as potentially “the most serious storm to impact New Zealand this century” is forecast to hit in coming days.

Health

• No new SARS-CoV-2 strains seen in first 3 weeks after China lifted lockdowns (CIDRAP). All genomes belonged to the existing 123 Pango lineage, demonstrating no persistently dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants or new strains.
• Oman confirms MERS in 60-year-old man (CIDRAP). The man didn’t have direct contact with camels, though camel racing exercises were held near his house before he fell ill.
• Meningitis outbreak reported in southeast Niger (CIDRAP). Since Nov 1, 2022, a total of 559 cases have been reported, 18 of them fatal, for a case-fatality rate of 2.3%. Although the country has seasonal outbreaks every year, activity is tracking higher than in previous seasons, said the World Health Organization (WHO).

Traveler mobility

• Singapore drops pre-departure requirements for travelers, further eases mask rules (CNBC on MSN.com. Singapore is set to remove mask-wearing on public transport from Monday, as it seeks to exit the “acute phase” of the pandemic, said the Ministry of Health.

Migration

• Ethiopia received about 10, 000 new refugees/asylum seekers, reportedly coming from Lasano area of Somaliland (ERCC), over the past few days in Doolo and Warder zones (in the Somali region of Ethiopia). This happened as a result of severe fighting that erupted on 6 February 2023 in Somaliland following tensions in the region.

Please note the publication date of this report and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.

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