Lawyers For Human Rights has written a scathing open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa saying his Home Affairs Department is in crisis and flouts court rulings in favor of asylum seekers facing the longest backlog in the world

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba did not respond directly to the criticism from the pressure groups and NGOs, much of which focussed on Lindela which is South Africa’s largest repatriation  centre outside Johannesburg.

It was repeatedly referred to as a detention centre where human rights are violated.

At a function marking World Refugee Day, Gigaba said South Africa did not have a problem with asylum seekers but was challenged by illegal migrants.

Lawyers For Human Rights said South Africa rejects 96% of asylum applications, often after keeping applicants waiting for as long  as 15 years.

It accused authorities of discriminating against African asylum seekers, noting that there was not a single white occupant of Lindela.

It said asylum seekers in South Africa have to endure official corruption and  routine physical abuse from a system that cripplingly inefficient and operating in flagrant disregard of constitutional values.

Medicines Sans Frontiers has tabled an official complaint that treatment for tuberculosis and HIV /AIDS is absent from Lindela.

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The drama’s provoked a call by medical charity Doctors Without Borders for governments to put lives ahead of politics.

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MSF denounces Italy’s closure of its ports to stop rescued people from disembarking and European governments’ choice of political point-scoring over saving lives at sea.

The charity’s head of emergencies Karline Kleijer says the men, women, and children on board the Aquarius have fled conflict and poverty, and have survived horrific abuse in Libya. They have been shipped from one boat to another like cargo and endured the elements on an unnecessarily long journey at sea.

She says MSF is grateful to Spain for stepping in, even as Italian and other European governments have shamefully failed in their humanitarian responsibilities and placed politics over the lives of vulnerable people.

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Another case of Ebola has been confirmed in Northwest DRC brining to 35 number of cases – 18 of which have been fatal.

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World Health Organization boss Tedros Ghebreyesus says the vaccine comes from available stockpiles and will arrive in the DRC onWednesday.

Ghebreyesus ism on a two day visit to the DRC where Ebola has broken out near the border with the Republic of Congo.

The WHO chief has seen President Joseph Kabila and praised him for the speedy response to the outbreak and the cooperation with the UN children’s fund UNICEF and Medicines Sans Frontiers

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The remoteness of the area, which has made access difficult for them, militates against the haemorrhagic disease spreading.

This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the virus was identified there 42 years ago.

Medical teams say they’ve developed a successful model for preventing the spread of the disease carried by contact with human body fluids.

They’ve also learned valuable lessons from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak that killed 11 000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea four years ago 

Teams from the World Health Organisation and Medecins Sans Frontiers are on the ground in Bikoro, in northwest DRC, applying their experience.  

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With 21 suspicious illnesses and 17 deaths, the World Health Organization has released $1M in emergency funds.

Two of the five samples taken from the iIkoko Iponge health facility near Bikoro in Equateur Province these past five weeks have tested positive for the viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola.

There have been 17 deaths from in  the northwestern DRC.

Local authorities have limited health facilities and rely on international aid and supplies.

A group of specialists from the WHO and Medecines Sans Frontiers are moving to the area to scale response efforts.

Ebola killed four people in an outbreak in the Congo last year. 

In 2014 Ebola killed 11 000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

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He tells refugees he’s been assured by his security chiefs that all the areas under the control of Boko Haram will soon be recaptured.

On his first visit to the region since March 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan spent three hours on the ground in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

He met soldiers, wounded troops and visited a camp for thousands of displaced people whom he assured would soon be back in their homes

Some 5000 people from Baga in northern Borno, which was attacked on 3 January, are being helped in the a camp in Maiduguri, says medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

Boko Haram’s attack on Baga is feared to have killed hundreds, if not more, in an upsurge in violence likely aimed at further undermining the legitimacy of presidential elections next month.

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Many residents of the fishing town of Baga on Lake Chad have fled into the neighbouring country seeking shelter.

Over the past two years, Baga has suffered several attacks from Boko Haram.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders was forced to close its clinic in Baga because their personnel were under persistent attack.

There was a Massacre in 2013 by Boko Haram seeking young men hiding from the insurgents.

This time they overpowered soldiers of the Multinational Joint Task Force and wrecked property

A number of people are reported drowned on Lake Chad trying to escape the terrorists.

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In its most damning assessment yet of the fight against the Ebola outbreak, MSF says itstreatment centers are reduced to places where people go to die alone – where little more than palliative care is offered.
Dr Joanne Liu, the organisation’s international president tells the UN it’s become impossible to keep up with the sheer numbers of infected people pouring into the MSF facilities.
(Take in Sierra clip here)
She says Despite repeated calls by MSF for a massive mobilisation on the ground, the international response has been lethally inadequate.

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The World Health Organisation says the epidemic in the DRC has been contained in the remote Equateur province northwest of the DRC.

The dense tropical forest 800 kilometres north of the Congolese capital Kinshasa is containing the Ebola outbreak diagnosed in the Central African giant a fortnight ago.

In the remote town of Boende, which has already been quarantined, there have 53 co nfirmed cases of Ebola and at least 185 people being closely watched having had contact with the victims.

Facing the seventh outbreak of Ebola in the DRC,  Medicines Sans Frontiers has despatched addtional personnel and set up an Ebola clinic in the affected area.

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They’re doubled the number of hospital beds for victims.

The World Health Organisation says there have been 19 deaths over three days this week.

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At least 539 West Africans have died of Ebola since the outbreak began in neighbouring Guinea in February.

Regional leaders have now agreed to set up a fund to combat its spread.

The World Health Organisation says Sierra Leone had accounted for 32 new cases and 15 deaths, while Liberia reported 11 new cases and four deaths.

Medecins Sans Frontiers say they’ve no idea how many villages are affected.

It fears it’s only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

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