COVID-19

Top US General Milley Negative for COVID but Quarantining: Defense Official

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, tested negative for COVID-19 but is self-quarantining after contact with an infected Coast Guard officer.

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Ninety Lebanon Peacekeepers Contract Coronavirus: UNIFIL

Ninety UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon have tested positive for coronavirus, a spokesman for the UNIFIL force said.

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Virus Lockdowns Limit IS Attacks in Many Nations: UN

Coronavirus lockdowns appear to have reduced the threat of Islamic State group attacks in many countries, but the risk is greater in Iraq and Syria, a UN official said.

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How Islamic State Could Utilize COVID-19 Woes as Catalyst for African Resurgence

Islamic State appears to have rebounded from its defeat in the Levant and is utilizing security and economic gaps caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to launch a resurgence in Africa.

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Coronavirus Fails to Halt Conflict in DR Congo’s Powder-Keg East

Coronavirus has swiftly gained status as the world’s No. 1 threat but in eastern DR Congo, one of Africa’s most volatile regions, militia killings and ethnic violence are an older and — for now — far greater source of dread. Some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) distant from the capital Kinshasa, this beautiful region bordering Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi has been a notorious flashpoint since the Congo Wars of the 1990s. “The COVID-19 crisis must not make us forget the atrocities which are taking place in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” 2018 Nobel peace laureate Denis Mukwege said on Tuesday. In the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, “civilians are being massacred,” he said. “In South Kivu, Rwandan and Burundian armies are battling armed groups in the high plateaus of Minembwe, destroying everything in their wake,” Mukwege said. “And in Tanganyika, the Zambians who had until now had good neighborly relations with DR Congo… recently invaded our territory.” Mukwege co-won the coveted prize for his treatment in helping women raped by armed rebels in South Kivu. The Kivu Security Tracker, an NGO which documents bloodshed in the two Kivu provinces, said March was one of the least violent months it …

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Coronavirus outbreak hits second US Navy ship at sea

A US Navy destroyer deployed off Mexico's western coast is the second American warship at sea to suffer an outbreak of coronavirus onboard

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South Africa to deploy 73,000 more troops to enforce COVID-19 lockdown

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to deploy more than 73,000 extra troops to help implement a nationwide coronavirus lockdown

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Afghan government releases 71 more Taliban prisoners under peace deal terms

The Afghan government released an additional 71 Taliban prisoners in seven provinces, bringing the number released in recent days to 432

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Driver killed in attack on UN vehicle in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed in Rakhine state when their UN vehicle was ambushed as they were carrying COVID-19 test samples

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Nigeria records first coronavirus death in conflict-hit Borno state

Nigeria confirmed its first coronavirus infection in insurgency-hit Borno, after a medic with Doctors Without Borders died from COVID-19

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