Life for Relief and Development has launched a global campaign to find sponsors for an estimated 60,000 children in Gaza who have lost one or both parents during the war.

The initiative will provide food, health care, education, clothing and psychosocial support to orphaned children living amid displacement, damaged infrastructure and severe shortages of basic services.

The campaign comes as UNICEF estimates that more than 58,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents, while over one million require protection and mental-health or psychosocial support.

Life for Relief and Development said it has already sponsored more than 4,000 orphaned children in Gaza but that thousands remain without regular support. The organisation’s orphan-sponsorship programme, operating for more than 30 years, also provides school supplies, medical assistance and holiday support to vulnerable children and foster families in 22 countries.

The organisation urged individuals and communities worldwide to sponsor children and raise awareness of their needs.

CEPI is providing US$4.17 million to four research projects designed to assess whether vaccines already or previously licensed against Zaire ebolavirus—including Ervebo—could offer protection against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, the virus behind the rapidly escalating outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 2026. Awardees include research groups led by UCLA (USA); Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp); University of Oxford (UK); and MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (UK).

“There is no licensed vaccine against Bundibugyo virus. CEPI is funding multiple Bundibugyo vaccine candidates to address this gap, but even on the most compressed timelines those vaccines will not be available for the earliest phase of this outbreak”, explains Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. “However, vaccines do exist for the related Zaire ebolavirus, including Ervebo. Given the recent announcement that Ervebo will be deployed for emergency use against Bundibugyo virus, these CEPI-backed studies will be all the more important to inform on how we can make the best use of the existing vaccine.”

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has officially launched a comprehensive primary and secondary health care support programme in the East Wollega and West Wollega zones of Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

The support aims to restore access to essential services for host communities and internally displaced people in hard-to-reach rural areas, while strengthening the capacity of key health facilities.

In these rural zones, limited movement of patients, staff and supplies – along with shortages of medicines and medical equipment, financial barriers and weak referral systems – have made it harder to deliver timely, quality healthcare. Some facilities have operated at reduced capacity or faced temporary interruptions.

As a result, communities have experienced untreated illness, challenges in sustaining immunization and maternal health services, a high burden of malaria with a greater risk of disease outbreaks, and increased pressure on the health facilities that remain functional.

Despite the scale of need, the presence of humanitarian organisations in these zones remains limited, leaving significant gaps in both primary and secondary care.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) called on Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states today to accelerate the transformation of the region’s vast mineral and agricultural wealth into industrial production, regional value chains and lasting economic prosperity.

Addressing Heads of State and Government at the 46th Ordinary SADC Summit, ECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete delivered a stark assessment of Africa’s position in the global economy and a clear call to action.  “Africa exports minerals; others manufacture batteries, electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies. Africa exports agricultural commodities; others process, package and market higher-value food products.”

He highlighted the extraordinary endowment of Southern Africa, rich deposits of platinum, lithium, diamonds, manganese, cobalt and copper, alongside fertile land, manufacturing capacity, financial markets and transport corridors linking the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Africa holds approximately 30% of global reserves of critical energy transition minerals, for which demand could more than triple by 2030 under net-zero scenarios.