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

• UN rights office concerned over pre-election violence in Liberia (UN News). Supporters of both main parties have accused each other of instigating the violence. Videos circulating on social media depict scenes of chaos, with rival groups engaged in altercations and hurling objects at each other, sending shockwaves through the community.
• Ukraine: Report documents mounting deaths, rights violations (UN News). Civilians continue to pay a horrendous price in the war in Ukraine, with nearly 10,000 dead and tens of thousands injured since conflict began in February 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country said in a report published on Wednesday.
• Mali army, northern rebels head toward potentially decisive confrontation (France 24 on MSN.com). Mali’s army is deploying towards a northern separatist rebel stronghold in a high-risk operation which could foreshadow a widescale confrontation and prove a turning point after a decade of conflict.
• Cameroon, Chad Agree to Jointly Combat Security Threats (Voice of America). Officials say a day hardly goes by without cases of either Boko Haram terrorist attacks or cross-border crimes, including armed gangs attacking civilians and wildlife, reported on both sides of the border between Cameroon and Chad.
• The U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances on Tuesday raised concerns over what it called an inadequate investigation of the “alarming” number of disappearances in Mexico (Reuters), its consequential low convictions, and “almost absolute impunity”.
• Japan’s defense minister said yesterday that the country will start procuring Tomahawk missiles (Nikkei) in fiscal year 2025 in response to the stern security environment in Asia.

Infrastructure

• Costs mount as migration-related delays stall trucks at US-Mexico border (Reuters). Trucks attempting to enter the United States from Mexico queued for miles on Wednesday. In Ciudad Juarez, trucks waited to cross a bridge into Santa Teresa, New Mexico, after cargo processing was temporarily suspended at a bridge connecting the city to El Paso, Texas, to allow customs officers to assist in processing migrants arriving outside official crossings. An industry group said the value of goods stalled in Mexico had surpassed $1.5 billion.

Road safety

• A bus plummeted 50 feet from an elevated road in Venice, killing 21 people in a fiery crash (AP). A bus carrying dozens of people plummeted 15 meters (50 feet) from an elevated road in Venice, causing a fiery crash that killed 21 people and injured at least 15, mostly foreign tourists returning to a nearby campsite.

Environment

• Nepal – Earthquake, update (ERCC). According to the National Society of Red Cross, 334 houses have been fully damaged and 1,185 have been partially damaged. The assessment is still ongoing in the affected areas. The displaced people are staying either in schools or with neighbours. The response is slow due to access constraints requiring walking for a day or two to reach the affected communities.
• Ethiopia – Floods (ERCC). In the region of Gambella, 36,129 individuals are affected and 25,140 are displaced following heavy rains, which caused the Baro and Gilo rivers to overflow on 8 September 2023.
• Spain – Wildfires (ERCC). Wildfires occurred in August in Tenerife Island (Canary Islands) that affected 15,000 people and resulted in the evacuation of 12,000 others have been reactivated and resulted in new evacuations.
• Philippines, Taiwan, China – Tropical cyclone KOINU, update (ERCC). Tropical cyclone KOINU crossed southern Taiwan and entered the South China Sea. On 5 October at 5.15 UTC. In Taiwan, 190 people have been injured, most of them along the west coast of the island, including Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. In addition, most domestic flights and 42 international flights have been cancelled on 5 October. In the Philippines, KOINU with the combined effect of Southwest Monsson affected 275 people and displaced 194 others.
• India – Floods (ERCC). Floods due to heavy rains have been affecting Sikkim State in recent days, causing causalities and damages.
• Australia state swings from bush fires to flash floods in 24 hours (Reuters on MSN.com). Less than 24 hours since residents in parts of Australia’s Victoria state fled bush fires, authorities warned on Wednesday of flooding as heavy rain douses flames and swells rivers in the southeastern state.
• This year is on track to become the hottest on record (Ruters), with the global mean temperature to date 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said. The global temperature for January-September is also 1.4C higher than the preindustrial average. “What is especially worrying is that the warming El Niño event is still developing, and so we can expect these record-breaking temperatures to continue for months, with cascading impacts on our environment and society,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, referring to the climate phenomenon that drives extreme heat.

Health

• Source unknown in India’s latest Nipah virus outbreak (CIDRAP). Tests on samples from bats, bat droppings, and fruit from the village and forested area where the first patient lived turned up no positives.
• ‘Haze Cannot Be the Norm’: Malaysia Urges Indonesia to Take Action (U.S. News & World Report). KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia called on neighbour Indonesia and a grouping of Southeast Asian nations to take action as air quality worsens across the country due to fires in Indonesia, its environment minister told Reuters on Thursday.
• South Africa has culled about 7.5 million chickens (NPR) in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two separate strains of avian influenza. Now South African retailers ration eggs as shortages persist (Reuters).

Migration and Displacement

• Sudan conflict creates world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis (UN News). Half of Sudan’s population – 24.7 million people – now require humanitarian assistance and protection, the UN official continued, before warning that conflict, displacement and disease outbreaks now “threaten to consume the entire country”.
• Pakistan announces mass deportation of ‘illegal immigrants’ including Afghans (CNN on MSN.com). Pakistan, home to more than 1.7 million people who have fled violence in neighboring Afghanistan, is launching a mass deportation of “illegal immigrants,” authorities said Tuesday.

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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