The State of Qatar reaffirmed its support for the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact and its unwavering commitment to actively participating in relevant regional and international initiatives aimed at enhancing regional and global security and stability.
This came in the State of Qatar’s statement delivered by HE the State of Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani during her participation in the opening of a meeting organized by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. The event, held at UN headquarters in New York, was on enhancing partnerships between regional organizations and the UN Counter-terrorism Coordination Compact to support the coordination of political interventions and capacity-building efforts.
Her Excellency emphasized the importance of the meeting as a constructive platform for strengthening dialogue and coordination among the members of the UN Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, contributing to more integrated and effective international efforts to combat terrorism.
Her Excellency also highlighted the ongoing partnership between the State of Qatar and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, commending the continuous efforts to enhance international cooperation and implement a shared vision for countering terrorism through coordinated and integrated action.
For his part, Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov praised Qatar’s leading role in supporting UN counter-terrorism initiatives, especially those focused on preventing violent extremism by addressing its root causes, primarily through promoting education and supporting sustainable development.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
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The Presidency of the Republic of Ghana is pleased to announce that the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Narendra Modi, will undertake a two-day Official Visit to Ghana from Wednesday, 2nd July, to Thursday, 3rd July, 2025.
The visit highlights the warm and longstanding friendly relations between Ghana and India, as well as the importance both nations place on strengthening their strategic partnership.
The itinerary for the visit includes a bilateral meeting between President Mahama and Prime Minister Modi at the Presidency. The two leaders will engage in discussions aimed at deepening cooperation across various sectors, including trade, investment, agriculture, technology, education, healthcare, and energy. They will also exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
Key highlights of the visit will include the signing of several bilateral agreements to consolidate cooperation frameworks between Ghana and India, followed by a joint Press Conference addressed by President Mahama and Prime Minister Modi. President Mahama will also host a State Dinner in honour of Prime Minister Modi and his delegation.
The visit by Prime Minister Modi is expected to strengthen bilateral ties, foster deeper economic cooperation, and solidify the bonds of friendship between the peoples of Ghana and India.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
In the shadows of Python Cave, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound – formed by bat excrement – and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) found in this cave are known carriers of one of the world’s deadliest viruses: Marburg, a close cousin of Ebola.
I am a conservation scientist with over 17 years of experience in wildlife ecology, monitoring and human-wildlife conflict. I’m the co-founder of the Kyambura Lion Project, which made this discovery.
For years, scientists studying how diseases spread from animals to humans have hypothesised that zoonotic diseases jump from a wildlife reservoir (like a bat) to an intermediate host (monkey) and potentially to us, humans.
For past Marburg outbreaks in Uganda, two spillover pathways have been identified: the first, involves humans coming into contact with a fruit bat habitat (namely caves filled with bat guano). Indeed, fruit bats are thought to have infected two tourists at Python Cave in 2007 and 2008.
The second pathway involves humans and animals eating the same fruit that bats have fed upon or made contact with. This second spillover pathway was identified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists in 2023. They tracked bats from the cave entering cultivated gardens to feed.
But Atukwatse and the team of young Ugandan scientists (Yahaya Ssemakula, Johnson Muhereza, Orin Cornille and Winfred Nsabimana) have potentially found another pathway: predation by at least 14 species.
Such rich visual evidence of a viral interface – bats, predators and people – is virtually non-existent in the literature. Many theoretical depictions of this process exist, and there are isolated incidents of a monkey predating on a bat or wildlife feeding on bat guano, but Atukwatse’s discovery of this many different predators repeatedly feeding on a known Marburg virus reservoir is a first.
A leopard grabs a fruit bat at Uganda’s Python Cave.Bosco Atukwatse/Kyambura Lion Project
His discovery highlights two uncomfortable truths:
many potential zoonotic interfaces remain undocumented – often right under our noses
the people most likely to detect them first are those living closest to wild frontiers.
But the bigger message is this: global health institutions need to stop overlooking local scientists and start funding field-based detection systems across Africa and Asia.
If we want to detect the next outbreak early, we should be empowering more Atukwatses, not waiting for the next lab test.
Atukwatse had heard from nearby guides that a large bat cave lay close to the survey grid. That kind of site, he reasoned, could be perfect leopard territory: a place to hunt, rest or avoid the heat.
This is ecological attentiveness at its best – the field biology equivalent of a commodities trader spotting volatility in a geopolitical flashpoint.
A blue monkey with bat in hand at Python Cave.Bosco Atukwatse/Kyambura Lion Project
Atukwatse had his radar on and acted on instinct, setting five camera traps at the cave’s entrance and along the surrounding animal trails. Just one week later, he got what he hoped for: three separate clips of a leopard hunting bats in broad daylight. He left the cameras in place in protective casing. He checked them every 7–10 days.
But that was just the beginning.
The scale of the discovery
When I first looked at Atukwatse’s videos, our joint excitement was around the leopard footage. We knew they were adaptable and could even eat small rodents , but no one had ever recorded them eating bats in Africa.
As more clips came in, we realised something bigger was unfolding. Blue monkeys were seen grabbing bats mid-roost. A crowned eagle and a Nile monitor fought over two bat carcasses. A fish eagle – typically a piscivore, which is a carnivorous species that primarily eats fish – was filmed clutching bats in its talons.
Over 304 trap-nights, Atukwatse’s traps recorded 261 independent predator events from at least 14 different species.
Then came the second shock: over 400 human visitors – many of them tourists – were filmed approaching the cave mouth without any protective gear. Some stood just metres from a known Marburg virus reservoir. Importantly, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has built a sanctioned viewing platform about 35 metres from the cave. However, tourists broke park rules and walked within two metres of the cave mouth.
Bosco Atukwatse.
It was only after I visited the cave myself to take stills of the team that we put this all together. Atukwatse had just found the first visual evidence, at a large scale in nature, of at least 14 predators feeding on a known wildlife virus reservoir harbouring one of Earth’s deadliest viruses.
This wasn’t the result of million-dollar pathogen surveillance. It wasn’t even the core aim of our leopard survey. This happened because a young Ugandan field scientist followed his ecological gut.
Why does the discovery matter?
For decades, disease ecologists have known that major outbreaks often originate in wildlife – swine flu, avian flu and even SARS-CoV-2 all trace back to animal hosts. But what’s often missing is direct observation of spillover interfaces – the exact moments when a virus jumps from a bat, goose, or other animal into new species like humans, livestock or other wildlife.
Atukwatse’s discovery may be the first large-scale visual record of such an interface in nature: a roost of Egyptian fruit bats known to harbour a deadly virus, actively predated upon by at least 14 species, with hundreds of humans visiting the same cave mouth unprotected.
This may be a Rosetta Stone moment for spillover ecology – shifting our understanding from hypothetical models to a real, observable interface.
These kinds of spillover sites exist in other places in nature: in a Chinese wet market where a civet meets a meat processor, or in a Gabonese village where a bat is butchered for bushmeat. The difference? Most of them go undocumented. Atukwatse just filmed one.
– How does Marburg virus spread between species? Young Ugandan scientist’s photos give important clues – https://theconversation.com/how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues-259806
H.M. Letsie III, King of the Kingdom of Lesotho and H.M. Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso will pay a visit to Japan from June 29 to July 4.
During their stay in Japan, Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress will participate the National Day Event of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, as official guest of the Government of Japan.
The visit of Their Majesties the Emperor and the Empress is expected to further develop the bilateral relations between Japan and Lesotho.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will undertake a visit to Ghana from July 02-03, 2025. This will be Prime Minister’s first ever bilateral visit to Ghana. This Prime Ministerial visit from India to Ghana is taking place after three decades. During the visit, Prime Minister will hold talks with the President of Ghana to review the strong bilateral partnership and discuss further avenues to enhance it through economic, energy, and defence collaboration, and development cooperation partnership. This visit will reaffirm the shared commitment of the two countries to deepen bilateral ties and strengthen India’s engagement with the ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] and the African Union.
In the second leg of his visit, at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, H.E. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister will pay an Official Visit to Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) from July 03 – 04, 2025. This will be his first visit to the country as Prime Minister and the first bilateral visit at the Prime Ministerial level to T&T since 1999. During the visit, Prime Minister will hold talks with the President of Trinidad & Tobago, H.E. Christine Carla Kangaloo, and Prime Minister H.E. Kamla Persad-Bissessar and discuss further strengthening of the India-Trinidad & Tobago relationship. Prime Minister is also expected to address a Joint Session of the Parliament of T&T. The visit of Prime Minister to T&T will impart fresh impetus to the deep-rooted and historical ties between the two countries.
In the third leg of his visit, at the invitation of the President of Republic of Argentina, H.E. Mr. Javier Milei, Prime Minister will travel to Argentina on an Official Visit from July 04-05, 2025. Prime Minister is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with President Milei to review ongoing cooperation and discuss ways to further enhance India-Argentina partnership in key areas including defence, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, trade and investment, and people-to-people ties. The bilateral visit of Prime Minister will further deepen the multifaceted Strategic Partnership between India and Argentina.
In the fourth leg of his visit, at the invitation of President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, H.E. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Prime Minister will travel to Brazil from July 5-8, 2025 to attend the 17th BRICS Summit 2025 followed by a State Visit. This will be Prime Minister’s fourth visit to Brazil. The 17th BRICS Leaders’ Summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro. During the Summit, Prime Minister will exchange views on key global issues including reform of global governance, peace and security, strengthening multilateralism, responsible use of artificial intelligence, climate action, global health, economic and financial matters. Prime Minister is also likely to hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit. For the State Visit to Brazil, Prime Minister will travel to Brasilia where he will hold bilateral discussions with President Lula on the broadening of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries in areas of mutual interest, including trade, defence, energy, space, technology, agriculture, health and people to people linkages.
In the final leg of his visit, at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Namibia, H.E. Dr. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Prime Minister will embark on a State Visit to Namibia on July 09, 2025. This will be the first visit of Prime Minister to Namibia, and the third ever Prime Ministerial visit from India to Namibia. During his visit, Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with President Nandi-Ndaitwah. Prime Minister will also pay homage to the Founding Father and first President of Namibia, Late Dr. Sam Nujoma. He is also expected to deliver an address at the Parliament of Namibia. The visit of Prime Minister is a reiteration of India’s multi-faceted and deep-rooted historical ties with Namibia.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of External Affairs – Government of India.
As the Foreign Ministers of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed a draft peace agreement in Washington this Friday, tensions and violence continue to grip eastern DRC.
Since January, the region has seen a new escalation of violence as the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group launched an offensive in North and South Kivu provinces.
While tensions persist in the DRC, both frontlines and negotiation positions are shifting, paving the way for peace, the Security Council heard this Friday.
The path to lasting peace in the DRC requires “collective action,” said Bintou Keita, Head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO.
“Priority must be given to dialogue over division, and national cohesion must be actively preserved,” she said.
Yet, while diplomatic efforts focus on ways to address the current crisis, the situation in other regions within MONUSCO’s area of operations also demands urgent attention.
Humanitarian situation
With seven million people currently displaced across the country, 27.8 million people facing food insecurity and almost 1.4 million children in acute malnutrition, the humanitarian situation is dire.
The security crisis in the east of the country has worsened the humanitarian situation, yet due to funding cuts, MONUSCO does not have sufficient means to respond to it accordingly.
The suspension of funding from MONUSCO’s main donor, which covered 70 per cent of the humanitarian response in 2024, is “forcing humanitarian actors to focus solely on life-saving emergencies,” said Ms. Keita.
“We are at the end of July, and the humanitarian response plan is only 11 per cent funded,” she added.
Insecurity, sexual violence and abductions
Violence in the east of the country continues to disproportionately affect women, boys, and girls, notably as rape and other forms of sexual violence are still being systematically used as weapons of war.
Men and boys accused of links with opposing forces are at risk of abduction, while women and girls who have survived sexual violence face severely limited access to healthcare, as healthcare facilities are often targeted by attacks.
In 2025, over 290 schools were destroyed, with ongoing cycles of violence keeping 1.3 million children out of the education system in Ituri, in the east of the country.
The Head of the European Union Delegation for the Seychelles, H.E. Ambassador Oskar Benedikt paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Minister Sylvestre Radegonde, on Friday 27th June 2025, at Maison Quéau de Quinssy.
During their meeting, they discussed the cooperation between the European Union and Seychelles, particularly the status of the Port Victoria Rehabilitation and Extension Project and the implementation of the ‘European Solidarity Action Plan with Seychelles’, a Technical Cooperation Facility between the EU and Seychelles signed in 2024. They also touched on the progress of the ongoing negotiation to deepen and broaden the interim Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Eastern and Southern Africa configuration (the latter comprises of Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Zimbabwe).
They further discussed the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes and the efforts being done by the Government to ensure that Seychelles be removed from the list. The upcoming presidential and legislative elections was also discussed by Minister Radegonde and Ambassador Benedikt.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Republic of Seychelles.
On Friday, 27 June 2025, H.E. Henry Jardine, United States Ambassador to Seychelles, and Rear Admiral Michael Mattis, Director of Strategic Effects at U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF), paid a courtesy call on Mr. Sylvestre Radegonde, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, at Maison Quéau de Quinssy.
The meeting focused primarily on enhancing maritime and defence cooperation, particularly through the ongoing initiatives of NAVEUR–NAVAF. Discussions covered the challenges faced in patrolling Seychelles’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the potential for leveraging drone technology to assist in maritime surveillance efforts.
Minister Radegonde commended NAVEUR–NAVAF for its leadership in promoting maritime security in the region and for its continued support in building the capacity of the Seychelles Defence Forces through joint exercises. Notably, he highlighted the successful 2025 edition of Cutlass Express, which was conducted earlier this year under the leadership of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
Minister Radegonde also expressed his appreciation for the United States’ participation in this year’s National Day Parade, underlining the strength of the bilateral relationship.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Republic of Seychelles.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
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We welcome the signing of the peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
This important achievement for Africa and international security has been made possible thanks to the decisive role of the United States and personally President Donald Trump, as well as a number of countries and international organizations.
In particular, we commend the constructive efforts of the Presidents of Angola and Kenya, the African Union, the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community, and the United Nations.
The State of Qatar has made a significant contribution to advancing the peace settlement, especially by ensuring complementarity and coherence among various mediation initiatives.
Ukraine highly values the effective mediation by the United States. We congratulate U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and American diplomacy on this achievement. The active involvement of the American side in the negotiation process played a decisive role in reaching and signing the peace agreement.
We hope for the responsible efforts of both parties in implementing the peace agreement and in ensuring lasting peace and security in the Great Lakes region. This will create favourable conditions for strengthening the economic potential and social stability of the states in the region, improving their investment attractiveness, and deepening economic ties with other countries.
Ukraine reaffirms its commitment to comprehensively intensify mutually beneficial cooperation with the countries of the region, including a readiness to contribute meaningfully to achieving their socio-economic development goals.
We are confident that the United States can play a similarly decisive role in achieving a just peace and ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This peace agreement demonstrates that it is possible to stop the killing and restore peace even under challenging circumstances, when the international community acts resolutely and the parties participate in the peace process in good faith.
We emphasize that the foundation of the peaceful settlement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda is based on the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, including the mutual obligation of states to respect each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders, to refrain from the threat or use of force, to avoid interference in internal affairs, and to facilitate the return of refugees and internally displaced persons.
It is precisely these universally recognized principles of international law that underpin Ukraine’s proposals for ending the war in Europe and restoring a comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace for Ukraine.
– on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
On June 26th , Yin Chengwu, Chinese Ambassador to Liberia, met with Dr. J. Alexander Nuetah, Minister of Agriculture of Liberia.
Yin briefed on the relevant information of the Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, and expressed that China is willing to strengthen agricultural cooperation between the two countries, deepening the bilateral relations.
Dr. Nuetah said that the Liberian side thanks China for its strong support for Liberia’s development and looks forward to continuing to strengthen cooperation with China on agricultural mechanization and modernization.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Liberia.
