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 

• Rwanda Travel Advisory (DOS). Reissued with updates to add area of Level 3: Rwanda-Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Border – Level 3: Reconsider Travel. Armed groups operate in DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces and Virunga Park which is adjacent to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. The area has experienced escalating levels of armed conflict which could spill across poorly marked borders. Permits are required from the Rwanda Development Board prior to entry to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
• UN launches investigation into Lebanon explosion that injured peacekeepers (UN News). The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) has announced that it is investigating an explosion in the Rmeish area that injured four unarmed peacekeepers on a foot patrol along the Blue Line that divides Israel from Lebanon and the disputed Golan Heights. 
• Gunmen in Ecuador kill 9, injure 10 others in attack in coastal city of Guayaquil as violence surges (AP). Armed gunmen attacked a group of people in Ecuador ’s coastal city of Guayaquil killing nine and injuring 10 others, police said Sunday, the latest in a string of violent incidents in the South American country.
• Peruvian president rules out resignation amid Rolex inquiry (Reuters). Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Saturday said she would not resign after her house was raided as part of inquiries into possible illicit enrichment and failure to declare ownership of luxury watches.

Haiti crisis

• Canada to train troops from Caribbean nations for Haiti mission (Reuters). Canada has sent around 70 soldiers to Jamaica to train troops from Caribbean nations who are due to take part in a U.N.-authorized mission to Haiti, the Canadian defense ministry said on Saturday.
• Haiti now needs up to 5,000 police to help tackle `catastrophic’ gang violence , UN expert says (AP News). Haiti now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police to help tackle “catastrophic” gang violence which is targeting key individuals and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, the U.N. rights expert for the conflict-wracked Caribbean nation said Thursday.
• Bold action needed now to address ‘cataclysmic’ situation in Haiti (UN News). Corruption, impunity and poor governance, compounded by increasing levels of gang violence, have eroded the rule of law in the Caribbean country and brought state institutions close to collapse.

Israel-Hamas crisis 

• Israel hits Syria in heaviest raid on Iran proxies in months (Reuters). Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria’s Aleppo province early on Friday and said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran’s proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza. 
• World Court orders Israel to halt Gaza famine; Hamas says ceasefire needed (Reuters). The order from the International Court of Justice came as Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled in close combat around Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire. 
• Israeli troops exit Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, leaving rubble and bodies (Reuters).  Israeli forces left Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week operation, leaving a wasteland of destroyed buildings and Palestinian bodies scattered in the dirt. 
• Tens of thousands of people attended demonstrations in Israel over the weekend (WaPo) calling for new elections and the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. They represented the merging of two protesting groups, one led by the families of hostages and one by the political opposition.

Demonstrations

• South Korea’s Yoon urges doctors to end impasse over trainees (Reuters). South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Monday his government is open to talks with doctors who oppose his plan to increase medical school admissions, while accusing critics of offering no reasonable alternative to ease a doctor shortage.

Infrastructure

• An unusually warm winter in Canada has delayed the opening of a 250-mile ice road (Reuters), that is rebuilt every year as the main conduit for Rio Tinto, Burgundy Mines, and De Beers to access their diamond mines in the remote Arctic region. 
• Romania and Bulgaria partially join Europe’s Schengen travel zone, but checks at land borders remain (The Associated Press). Romania and Bulgaria partially joined Europe’s ID-check-free travel zone on Sunday, marking a new step in the two countries’ integration with the European Union.
• Investigators comb scene of deadly South Africa bus crash (Africa News). Investigators are scouring the site of a tragic bus accident in South Africa, where a bus carrying pilgrims to an Easter gathering veered off a bridge, resulting in at least 45 fatalities.

Environment

• Millions in Southern Africa Left Hungry By Extreme Drought (VOA). A new drought has left millions facing hunger in southern Africa as they experience the effects of extreme weather that scientists say is becoming more frequent and more damaging.
• Heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan kill 8 people, mostly children, and injure 12 (AP). Heavy rains killed eight people, mostly children, and injured 12 in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Saturday.

Health

• Why the mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is worrying disease docs (NPR). The DRC is seeing record numbers. About 400 suspect cases are reported each week – the majority in children. 
• Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic following a spike in dengue cases (AP). Puerto Rico’s health secretary declared an epidemic on Monday following a spike in dengue cases. 
• China sees dramatic rise in ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhea (CIDRAP). China is seeing an alarming increase in ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhea, researchers report today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. 
• Record dengue pace in the Americas (CIDRAP). top officials with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned that cases in region are running three times higher than last year at this time, putting the region on track to break last year’s record of 4.5 million cases. Jarbas Barbosa, MD, PAHO’s director, said countries in the Southern Cone, including Brazil, Argentina are experiencing summer surges. 
• 5 dead and over 100 hospitalized from recalled Japanese health supplements (AP News). Five people who took a Japanese health supplement have died and more than 100 have been hospitalized as of Friday, a week after a pharmaceutical company issued a recall of the products, officials said.

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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