Women vow to defy men who banned their vote in Pakistan village

In this picture taken on July 6, 2018, Pakistani villager women gather outside their home in Mohri Pur village, where women had previously been banned from voting, some 60 kilometres from Multan, a central city in southern Punjab province. (AFP)
Updated 12 July 2018
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Women vow to defy men who banned their vote in Pakistan village

  • Nearly 20 million new voters have been registered in the rapidly growing country, including 9.13 million women, the commission says
  • In Mohri Pur, located in Punjab province, women do work outside the home and some receive education, yet the vote ban holds

MOHRI PUR, PAKISTAN: Men banned women from voting in the village of Mohri Pur sometime around 1947, and they have obeyed ever since -- until this year, when changes to Pakistan's election laws and women's attitudes could shift the dynamic.
At least, that is the hope of many women meeting beneath a Jambolan tree in the village some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the central Pakistan city of Multan, its shade protecting them from the blazing sun.
Whether the men watching angrily as the women speak to AFP reporters will allow them to follow through when the nation goes to the polls on July 25 is another question.
"They perhaps think that women are stupid... or there is an issue of honour for them," says 31-year-old Nazia Tabbasum.
Village elders banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling station would "dishonour" them.
So-called "honour" describes a patriarchal code across South Asia that often seeks to justify the murder and oppression of women who defy conservative traditions by acts such as choosing their own husband, or working outside the home.
"I don't know where their honour goes to sleep while they lie down at home... as their women work in the fields," Tabbasum adds, scathingly.
But the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared that at least 10 percent of voters in each constituency must be women, otherwise its results will be voided.
Nearly 20 million new voters have been registered in the rapidly growing country, including 9.13 million women, the commission says.
It is another step in women's long battle for rights in Pakistan, a deeply patriarchal country of some 207 million people -- though it does little to address the gender imbalance of the 2013 elections, in which male registered voters outnumbered female by some 11 million.
The shift also sets the stage for a stand-off in conservative rural areas, like Mohri Pur.
"The main reason is that these are the areas where women are not allowed to even come out of the house," says Farzana Bari, a gender expert and rights activist.
The ECP's rule change should improve things -- though Bari warned that within each constituency there could yet be pockets where women are prevented from voting.
There is plenty of precedent: in 2015 men stopped women from voting in a local poll in Lower Dir, in the northwest. The ECP promptly cancelled the result.
In 2013 a court ordered the arrest of male elders in two other northwestern districts over banning female votes in the previous general elections.
In Mohri Pur, located in Punjab province, women do work outside the home and some receive education, yet the vote ban holds.
Many of the younger women under the Jambolan tree are eager to exercise their rights -- but not all.
Widow Nazeeran Mai, 60, says it is not "custom" for women to vote. "(T)here is no one to stop me, but still I don't vote because nobody else does," she says.
Others fear violent reprisals.
"If they go to vote alone, there will be violence and unrest, the men will abuse and beat them, so it's better not to go," explains 22-year-old Shumaila Majeed -- though she remained determined to get as many women to the polls "as possible".
Even Mohri Pur's lone female councillor Irshad Bibi -- elected under laws stipulating at least one woman on every village council -- has never voted.
When asked why, she calls on her husband to speak for her.
"Our elders had set up this custom... We stand by this today," the husband, Zafar Iqbal, tells AFP.
"In any civilised democracy, half the population ought not be disenfranchised," says newspaper columnist Hajrah Mumtaz.
But local politicians say they are helpless.
"I can't break their tradition... the people of this village have to decide when they will allow women to vote," says Raza Hayat Hiraj from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Bismillah Noor, a member of the district council who arranged the meeting under the Jambolan tree, says the men are stubborn.
"I've been trying since 2001 but nobody listens to me," she says. "In 2005, men told me their women don't want to vote so I should not force them."
Another attempt in 2013 also failed.
The determination Noor hears from the village women now gives her a glimmer of hope -- but progress is fragile.
In 2015, one woman, Fouzia Talib, became the only one in Mohri Pur to vote in local elections. She was ostracised.
Now, she is unsure if voting on July 25 for politicians she believes will do little for the area is worth the backlash.
"I will see," she tells AFP.


Conspiracies, espionage, an enemies list: Takeaways from a wild day of confirmation hearings

Updated 1 min 16 sec ago
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Conspiracies, espionage, an enemies list: Takeaways from a wild day of confirmation hearings

  • Kennedy faced a second day of grilling to become Health and Human Services secretary
  • Gabbard is seen as the most endangered of Trump’s picks
WASHINGTON: Conspiracy theories about vaccines. Secret meetings with dictators. An enemies list.
President Donald Trump’ s most controversial Cabinet nominees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel — flooded the zone Thursday in back-to-back-to-back confirmation hearings that were like nothing the Senate has seen in modern memory.
The onslaught of claims, promises and testy exchanges did not occur in a political vacuum. The whirlwind day — Day 10 of the new White House — all unfolded as Trump himself was ranting about how diversity hiring caused the tragic airplane-and-helicopter crash outside Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport.
And it capped a tumultuous week after the White House abruptly halted federal funding for programs Americans rely on nationwide, under guidance from Trump’s budget pick Russ Vought, only to reverse course amid a public revolt.
“The American people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, earlier.
It was all challenging even the most loyal Republicans who are being asked to confirm Trump’s Cabinet or face recriminations from an army of online foot-soldiers aggressively promoting the White House agenda. A majority vote, in the Senate which is led by Republicans 53-57, is needed for confirmation, leaving little room for dissent.
Here are some takeaways from the day:
Tulsi Gabbard defends her loyalty — and makes some inroads
Gabbard is seen as the most endangered of Trump’s picks, potentially lacking the votes even from Trump’s party for confirmation for Director of National Intelligence. But her hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee offered a roadmap toward confirmation.
It opened with the chairman, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, swatting back claims that Gabbard is a foreign “asset,” undercover for some other nation, presumably Russia. He said he reviewed some 300 pages of multiple FBI background checks and she’s “clean as a whistle.”
But Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, questioned whether she could build the trust needed, at home and abroad, to do the job.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, defended her loyalty to the US She dismissed GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, when he asked whether Russia would “get a pass” from her.
“Senator, I’m offended by the question,” Gabbard responded.
Pressed on her secret 2017 trip to meet with then-Syrian President Bashir Assad, who has since been toppled by rebels and fled to Russia, she defended her work as diplomacy.
Gabbard may have made some inroads with one potentially skeptical Republican. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, asked whether Gabbard would recommend a pardon for Edward Snowden. The former government contractor was charged with espionage after leaking a trove of sensitive intelligence material, and fled to residency in Russia.
Gabbard, who has called Snowden a brave whistleblower, said it would not be her responsibility to “advocate for any actions related to Snowden.”
Picking up one notable endorsement, Gabbard was introduced by one of the Senate’s more influential voices on intelligence matters, Richard Burr, the retired Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pressed again on vaccine safety
Kennedy faced a second day of grilling to become Health and Human Services secretary, this time at the Senate Health committee, as senators probed his past views against vaccines and whether he would ban the abortion drug mifepristone.
But what skeptical Democratic senators have been driving at is whether Kennedy is trustworthy — if he holds fast to his past views or has shifted to new ones — echoing concerns raised by his cousin Caroline Kennedy that he is a charismatic “predator” hungry for power.
“You’ve spent your entire career undermining America’s vaccine program,” said Sen. Chris Murphy D-Connecticut “It just isn’t believable that when you become secretary you are going to become consistent with science.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, took the conversation in a different direction reading Kennedy’s comments about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which he said in a social media post: “It’s hard to tell what is conspiracy and what isn’t.”
“Wow,” Kaine said.
Kennedy responded that his father, the late Robert F. Kennedy, told him that people in positions of power do lie.
But Kennedy’s longtime advocacy in the anti-vaccine community continued to dominate his hearings.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., choked back tears when she told Kennedy that his work caused grave harm by relitigating what is already “settled science” — rather than helping the country advance toward new treatments and answers in health care.
But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, immediately shifted the mood saying his own sons are fans of the nominee and he thanked Kennedy for “bringing the light” particularly to a younger generation interested in his alternative views.
Pressed on whether he would ban the abortion drug mifepristone, Kennedy said it’s up to Trump.
“I will implement his policy.”
A combative Kash Patel spars with senators over his past
Kash Patel emerged as perhaps the most combative nominee in a testy hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the nominee to lead the FBI.
Confronted with his own past words, writings and public comments, Patel, a former Capitol Hill staffer turned Trump enthusiast, protested repeatedly that his views were being taken out of context as “unfair” smears.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, read aloud Patel’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and another about his published “enemies list” that includes former Trump officials who have been critical of the president.
“’We’re going to come after you,’” she read him saying.
Patel dismissed her citations as “partial statement” and “false.”
Klobuchar, exasperated, told senators: “It’s his own words.”
Patel has stood by Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol and produced a version of the national anthem featuring Trump and the so-called J6 choir of defendants as a fundraiser. The president played the song opening his campaign rallies.
During one jarring moment, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asked Patel to turn around and look at the US Capitol Police officers protecting the hearing room.
“Tell them you’re proud of what you did. Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles,” Schiff said.
Patel fired back: “That’s an abject lie, you know it. I never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement.”
Patel said he did not endorse Trump’s sweeping pardon of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said.
In another Cabinet development, Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee advanced Trump’s budget nominee Russ Vought toward confirmation after Democrats boycotted the meeting in protest.
Vought was an architect of Project 2025 and influential in the White House memo to free federal funding this week, which sparked panic in communities across the country. Advocacy organizations challenged the freeze in court, and the White House quickly rescinded it, for now.

Rwanda-backed force vows to march on capital in DR Congo conflict

Updated 49 sec ago
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Rwanda-backed force vows to march on capital in DR Congo conflict

  • Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has pledged to continue fighting
  • Angola, China, the EU, France, the UN and US have all urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces

GOMA, DR Congo: The Rwanda-backed armed group M23 vowed on Thursday to march on the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, as its fighters made further advances in the mineral-rich east of the country.
The group’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, is a dramatic escalation in a region that has seen decades of conflict involving multiple armed groups.
Rwanda says its primary interest is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide but it is accused of seeking to profit from the region’s reserves of minerals used in global electronics.
“We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa,” Corneille Nangaa, head of a coalition of groups including the M23, told reporters in Goma.
“We are in Goma and we will not leave... for as long as the questions for which we took up arms have not been answered,” he said.
Nangaa said the group would restore electricity and security in the city in the coming days and establish humanitarian corridors to help displaced people return home.
Late on Wednesday, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi pledged to continue fighting.
In an address to the nation he said a “vigorous and coordinated response against these terrorists and their sponsors is under way.”

DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi speaks during the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City on September 25, 2024. (AFP)

The United Nations said on Thursday it was “deeply concerned” by “credible reports” that M23 was advancing south from Goma to Bukavu, capital of the neighboring province of South Kivu.
Local sources told AFP late on Wednesday that Rwandan-backed fighters were advancing on a new front and had seized two districts in South Kivu.
The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has yet to comment on the M23 advances.
After days of intense clashes that left more than 100 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally of hospital figures, some Goma residents on Thursday ventured out to take stock.
“We do not want to live under the thumb of these people,” one person, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Angola, China, the European Union, France, the UN and United States have all urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Rwanda on Thursday to meet President Paul Kagame after holding talks with Tshisekedi in Kinshasa earlier in the day.
Kagame directly criticized Tshisekedi at an online meeting of the regional East African Community bloc late on Wednesday.
“Why do we leaders of our own countries accept this to go on forever and just accept that we should be manipulated by Tshisekedi or whoever is supporting him?” he asked.
Kagame said “M23 are not Rwandans — they are Congolese.”

Belgium on Thursday asked the EU to consider sanctions against Rwanda, suggesting the bloc could use as leverage its agreement with Kigali over key mineral resources.
Britain threatened to reexamine its aid to Rwanda, in a statement from its foreign ministry.
The 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said it will hold a special summit on the crisis on Friday.
Kagame has told South African President Cyril Ramaphosa his country is “in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator.”
South African soldiers, 13 of whom have been killed in the past week in the DRC, are part of a UN peacekeeping force and southern Africa’s own peacekeeping mission (SAMIDRC).
Kagame said SAMIDRC “is not a peacekeeping force and it has no place in this situation.”

M23 fighters and Rwandan troops entered Goma on Sunday.
After four days of fighting, residents could be seen on the streets again on Thursday.
“There is nothing left to eat. Everything has been looted,” said Bosco, a local who gave only one name.
“We need help urgently.”

M23 rebels escort government soldiers and police who surrendered to an undisclosed location in Goma, DR Congo, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)

The offensive has heightened an already dire humanitarian crisis in the region, causing food and water shortages and forcing half a million people from their homes this month, the UN said.
Africa’s health agency warned that the “unnecessary war” in eastern DRC — a hotspot for infectious diseases — raised the risk of pandemic.
The DRC is rich in gold and other minerals such as cobalt, coltan, tantalum and tin used in batteries and electronics worldwide.
Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of waging the offensive to profit from the region’s mineral wealth — an allegation backed by UN experts who say Kigali has thousands of troops in the DRC and “de facto control” over the M23.
Rwanda has denied the accusations.
 


Trump was challenged after blaming DEI for the DC plane crash. Here’s what he said

Updated 31 January 2025
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Trump was challenged after blaming DEI for the DC plane crash. Here’s what he said

  • Trump on Thursday variously pointed the finger at the helicopter’s pilot, air traffic control, his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: President Donald Trump began his White House briefing Thursday with a moment of silence and a prayer for victims of Wednesday’s crash at Reagan National Airport. But his remarks quickly became a diatribe against diversity hiring and his allegation — so far without evidence — that lowered standards were to blame for the crash.
Trump on Thursday variously pointed the finger at the helicopter’s pilot, air traffic control, his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whom he labeled a “disaster.” Buttigieg responded by calling Trump “despicable.”
The cause of the crash is still unknown. Authorities are investigating and have not publicly identified the cause or said who might have been responsible for the collision of an American Airlines plane and a US Army helicopter.
Reporters on Thursday challenged Trump’s claims. Here’s a look at how Trump responded to some of their questions.
Placing blame on diversity hiring
Trump was asked repeatedly to explain why he was blaming federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the crash, at one point alleging that previous leadership had determined that the Federal Aviation Administration workforce was “too white.” He did not back up those claims, while also declaring it was still not clear the FAA or air traffic controllers were responsible for the crash.
Q: “Are you saying this crash was somehow caused as the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”
TRUMP: “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brainpower. You have to go by psychological quality, and psychological quality is a very important element of it. These are various, very powerful tests that we put to use. And they were terminated by Biden. And Biden went by a standard that seeks the exact opposite. So we don’t know. But we do know that you had two planes at the same level. You had a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn’t have happened. And, we’ll see. We’re going to look into that, and we’re going to see. But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.”

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Q: “You have today blamed the diversity elements but then told us that you weren’t sure that the controllers made any mistake. You then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistake.”
TRUMP: “It’s all under investigation.”
Q: “I understand that. That’s why I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.”
TRUMP: “Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, and they’re all coming in different directions, and you’re dealing with very high-level computer, computer work and very complex computers.”
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Trump was challenged on his claim that the FAA under Democratic presidents had promoted the hiring of people with disabilities. The page Trump referenced has existed on the FAA’s website for a decade, including his first term.
Q: “The implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, is demonstrably false. It’s been on the FAA’s website — ”
TRUMP: “Who said that, you?”
Q: “No, it’s on the website, the FAA’s website. It was there from 2013 ... it was there for the entirety, it was there for the entirety of your administration, too. So my question is, why didn’t you change the policy during your first administration?”
TRUMP: “I did change it. I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in and he changed it. And then when I came in two days, three days ago, I signed a new order, bringing it to the highest level of intelligence.”
Calling for fast confirmations
Trump agreed it was helpful to have Sean Duffy, his new transportation secretary, sworn and ready to respond when the major crisis hit.
Q: “Is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?”
TRUMP: “For sure, we want fast confirmations. And the Democrats, as you know, are doing everything they can to delay. They’ve taken too long. We’re struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed. But we’re struggling to get them out faster. We want them out faster.”
Reassuring people it is safe to fly
Trump was asked if Americans should feel safe to fly after the crash.
According to the FAA, Trump is expected to fly to Palm Beach, Florida, where his Mar-a-Lago club is located, for the weekend on Friday.
Trump took another opportunity to criticize diversity hiring efforts for the crash as he wrapped up the news briefing.
Q: “Should people be hesitant to fly right now?”
TRUMP: “No. Not at all. I would not hesitate to fly. This is something that it’s been many years that something like this has happened, and the collision is just something that, we don’t expect ever to happen again. We are going to have the highest-level people. We’ve already hired some of the people that you already hired for that position long before we knew about this. I mean, long before, from the time I came in, we started going out and getting the best people because I said ‘It’s not appropriate what they’re doing.’ I think it’s a tremendous mistake. You know? They like to do things, and they like to take them too far. And this is sometimes what ends up happening.
“Now with that, I’m not blaming the controller. I’m saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level and going the opposite direction. That’s not a positive. But, no, we’re already hiring people.
“Flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way.”
 


Russian drone attack kills nine in east Ukraine

Updated 30 January 2025
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Russian drone attack kills nine in east Ukraine

  • Images distributed by the emergency services showed a gaping hole in the facade of the long block of flats and rescue workers digging through debris for survivors
  • “This is a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media

KYIV: A Russian drone attack on a residential block killed nine people including three elderly couples in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, officials said on Thursday.
Moscow has pummelled Ukrainian cities with dozens of drones or missiles almost daily since it invaded in early 2022.
Images distributed by the emergency services showed a gaping hole in the facade of the long block of flats and rescue workers digging through debris for survivors.
“This is a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime. It is very important that the world does not pause in putting pressure on Russia for this terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
National Police later said the search operation had been completed after 19 hours, with rescuers finding nine bodies in the ruins, while 13 people were wounded.
Among the dead were three couples — men and women between the ages of 61 and 74 — Ukrainian prosecutors said.
Those killed also included a 37-year-old woman, while her eight-year-old daughter was wounded, the Sumy prosecutor’s office said.
Sumy lies just over the border from Russia in northeastern Ukraine and has been regularly targeted by Moscow. Around 255,000 people lived there before the war.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin claims to be ready for negotiations, but this is what he actually does. Only strength works with liars,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.
Ukraine said Russian guided bombs hit the Kyiv-held town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, one of which damaged a boarding school used to house Russian residents trapped by the cross-border offensive.
“As a result of the strike, the windows of the boarding school were smashed again, the doors were broken. The elderly people will have to spend the night in the cold,” Ukraine’s military spokesman for Kursk, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, said in a video statement.
The school was damaged by air strikes earlier this month, according to Ukraine, with one woman dying after being wounded.
Dmytrashkivsky said at the time that all those housed in the school are elderly and many are disabled and ill.
Several thousand Kursk region residents remain missing since Ukraine captured territory there, prompting criticism from relatives over the slow pace of efforts to return them.
Dmytrashkivsky accused Russian officials of seeking to “destroy” Kursk residents.
The Ukrainian air force said Moscow had attacked with 81 drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed type.
Ukraine’s air defense units downed 37 of the drones in various regions, including in Sumy and near the capital Kyiv.
In the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea, officials said Russian drones targeted the port town of Izmail, one of several important Ukrainian export hubs.
Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak on Thursday accused Russia of launching Shahed drones charged with shrapnel “to increase the number of civilian casualties.”
Separate Russian attacks killed one person and wounded 14 more, including two children, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin said it annexed in late 2022.
Ukrainian shelling of a Moscow-held village on the Dnipro River’s western bank in the southern Kherson region killed an elderly man and wounded a woman, a spokesman for the Russian authorities told TASS news agency.


Hospital nurse dies in Uganda in first Ebola virus outbreak since 2022

Updated 30 January 2025
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Hospital nurse dies in Uganda in first Ebola virus outbreak since 2022

KAMPALA: Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the capital, Kampala, with the first confirmed patient dying from it on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.

It is the East African country’s ninth outbreak since it recorded its first viral disease infection in 2000.

The patient, a male nurse at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, had initially sought treatment at various facilities, including Mulago, as well as with a traditional healer, after developing fever-like symptoms.

“The patient experienced multi-organ failure and succumbed to the illness at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Jan. 29. Post-mortem samples confirmed the Sudan Ebola Virus Disease (strain),” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said 44 contacts of the deceased man have been listed for tracing, including 30 health workers.

However, contact tracing could be challenging as Kampala, where the latest Ebola infection cropped up, is a crowded city of over 4 million people and a crossroads for traffic to South Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and other countries.

The highly infectious hemorrhagic fever is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue. Symptoms include headache, vomiting of blood, muscle pains, and bleeding.

Ugandan authorities have used capacities built up over the years, such as laboratory testing, patient care know-how, contact tracing, and other skills, to bring recent Ebola outbreaks under control in relatively short order.

Uganda last suffered an outbreak in late 2022, declared over on Jan. 11, 2023, after nearly four months in which it struggled to contain the viral infection.

The last outbreak killed 55 of the 143 people infected, and the dead included six health workers.

The ministry said the patient had also sought treatment at a public hospital in Mbale, 240 km east of Kampala, near the border with Kenya.

Vaccination against Ebola for all contacts of the deceased will begin immediately, the ministry said. 

There is currently no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain of Ebola, though Uganda received some trial vaccine doses during the last outbreak.

An outbreak of Marburg, a cousin of Ebola, was declared in Tanzania last week.