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

• Uganda – Refugee influx (ERCC). On 12 November, armed violence in Kichanga villages-Beni territory, North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) forced over 1,000 individuals to flee to Uganda. Forcibly displaced persons reported Allied Democratic Forces’ (ADF) attacks against civilian population, killings 19 individuals. On 14 November, UNHCR reported that the influx was still ongoing.
• Extremist-linked rebels have killed at least 44 villagers in separate attacks in Congo’s volatile east (AP), local authorities and civil society leaders said Tuesday.
• Anti-junta fighters in Myanmar’s Chin state are trying to gain control of part of the porous border with India (Reuters), after taking over two military outposts on the mountainous frontier, a rebel commander said, part of a wider offensive against the junta.
• The first openly nonbinary person to assume judicial office in Mexico was found dead yesterday (AP) after receiving death threats due to their gender identity, officials said. Jesús Ociel Baena was one of the most visible LGBTQ+ figures in Mexico and was among the first to be issued a nonbinary passport. Thousands of people marched in the country’s capital last night demanding justice for Baena.
• Fighting gripped the area around the shattered eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka (Reuters), Ukraine’s military said, with Moscow’s forces intensifying air bombardments and trying to move forward with ground forces.
• Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital were digging a mass grave on Tuesday (Reuters) to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators.

Demonstrations

• Reuters has mapped protests and public demonstrations– both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel – that have rippled around the world over the war in Gaza. The maps were created using data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Across Europe, major cities have been rankled by protests and counter-protests between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators, some of which turned violent. According to ACLED, the United States was “home to the highest number of counter-demonstrations involving opposing pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protestors.

Infrastructure

• El Salvador’s government has begun slapping a $1,130 fee on travelers from dozens of countries connecting through the nation’s main airport (AP), amid U.S. pressure to help control migration flows to its southern border. Since the end of October, citizens of 57 largely African countries and India have had to pay the fee, according to El Salvador’s aviation authority.
• Nepal’s government said yesterday that the social media platform had refused to curb hateful content (NYT). The Chinese-owned app has also been banned in India and is subject to increased restrictions in the United States, Canada, and Europe over national security concerns. Nepal’s reasoning [to ban the app] focused on content that was stoking religious hate, violence, and sexual abuse, officials said.

Environment

• Ireland and United Kingdom – Severe weather (ERCC). Heavy rainfall and strong winds have been affecting Ireland and Northern Ireland since 13 November, causing floods and power outages, that resulted in damage.
• Iceland – Volcanic unrest, update (ERCC). Following the intense seismic activity that started in the Reykjanes peninsula in south-western Iceland on 25 October, the number of damages is increasing. According to national authorities,  as of 14 November, at least 3,700 people living in Grindavík Towns have been preventively evacuated, boats are being evacuated from the harbour, several roads have been damaged as well as several water and power infrastructures and sewage. A State of emergency was declared on 10 November.
• Brazil – Severe weather (ERCC). Heavy rainfall, strong winds, thunderstorms and storm surges have been affecting southern Brazil, in particular the Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina States since 11 November, causing a number of severe weather-related incidents, particularly due to the strong wind that have resulted in evacuations and damage.
• The worsening flood situation in Kenya has forced as many as 58,000 people from their homes (floodlist), according to the latest reports from humanitarian organisations. Currently the worst affected areas are in the north of the country, in particular in Samburu, Wajir, Isiolo, Marsabit and Mandera counties.
• Southern Africa – El Niño event (ERCC). The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has issued an alert for Southern Africa; deficit-producing areas of Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, southern and central Mozambique, and southern Madagascar are of highest concern. El Niño is expected to result in a below-average October-March rainy season in many areas across the region, which will likely cause harvests to underperform in 2024. Grazing conditions are expected to deteriorate atypically early in 2024, and higher-than-average livestock deaths are projected in the second half of 2024.

Health

• There is an outbreak of chikungunya in Burkina Faso (CDC). Several districts have reported cases. Pregnant travelers should reconsider travel to Burkina Faso. Mothers infected around the time of delivery can pass the virus to their baby before or during delivery. Newborns infected in this way or by mosquito bite are at risk for severe illness, including poor long-term outcomes.
• UN health agency WHO hailed on Tuesday the “heroic efforts” of staff at Gaza City’s besieged Al-Shifa hospital (UN News) and expressed concern for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the enclave where heavy rainfall has caused flooding and aggravated the already dire health crisis.
• Cholera vaccines are expected to arrive in Sudan this month (UN News) as the country continues to face a deadly outbreak of the disease amidst the ongoing war, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Tuesday. At least 2,525 suspected cases of acute watery diarrhoea/cholera have been reported, including 78 associated deaths, in 27 localities across seven states. More than 3.1 million people are estimated to be at risk through the end of the year, according to the latest OCHA update.
• Some 739 million children worldwide – or one in three – already live in areas exposed to high or very high water scarcity (UN News), with climate change threatening to push that alarming figure higher, according to a new UNICEF report. According to the report, the largest number of youngsters are exposed in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regions – meaning they live in places with limited water resources and high levels of seasonal and interannual variability, ground water decline or drought risk.

Migration and displacement

• Pakistan opened three new border crossings (AP) to accelerate the deportation of undocumented Afghan migrants, Pakistani officials said yesterday. Nearly three hundred thousand Afghans have left Pakistan in recent weeks following a government deadline.

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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