UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly started debating Monday whether to demand that Russia reverse course on annexing four regions of Ukraine — a discussion that came as Moscow’s most extensive missile strikes in months alarmed much of the international community anew.
The assembly meeting, planned before Monday’s barrage, was intended to respond to Russia’s purported absorption last month of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The move followed Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” that the Ukrainian government and the West have dismissed as illegitimate.
But countries took the occasion to speak out on the Monday morning rush-hour attacks that hit at least 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital of Kyiv, and killed at least 14 people. Russia said it targeted military and energy facilities. But some of the missiles smashed into civilian areas.
Ukrainian Ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya told the assembly that some of his own close relatives were imperiled and unable to take cover in a bomb shelter.
“The entire world has once again seen the true face of the terrorist state that kills our people,” he said as the debate began. Russia hadn’t yet had its turn to speak.
Earlier Monday, Russia said it was retaliating for what it called a Ukrainian “terrorist” attack Saturday on an important bridge. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak has called the bridge accusation “too cynical even for Russia.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was “deeply shocked” by the Russian attacks and spoke Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
Hours later, the UN assembly gathered to consider a proposed resolution that would condemn the “referendums” and claimed annexations as illegal.
The European Union-led measure also would demand that Moscow “immediately and unconditionally” scrap its purported annexations, call on all countries not to recognize them and insist upon the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from all of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.
A vote is expected later in the week. Russia wanted secret balloting, an unusual move that the assembly rejected, 107-13, with 39 abstentions.
Russia recently vetoed a similar but legally binding UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned the supposed annexations. Under a decision made earlier this year, Security Council vetoes must now be explained in the General Assembly.
The assembly doesn’t allow vetoes and its resolutions aren’t legally binding. During the war, the assembly has voted to demand that Russia withdraw, to blame Moscow for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, there has been a stalemate in the Security Council, where Russia is among five countries with veto power.
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UN assembly meets on Ukraine hours after Russian strikes
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UN assembly meets on Ukraine hours after Russian strikes
- UN assembly gathered to consider a proposed resolution that would condemn the “referendums” and claimed annexations as illegal
- Russia wanted secret balloting, an unusual move that the assembly rejected, 107-13, with 39 abstentions
Neglected killer: kala-azar disease surges in Kenya
MANDERA: For nearly a year, repeated misdiagnoses of the deadly kala-azar disease left 60-year-old Harada Hussein Abdirahman’s health deteriorating, as an outbreak in Kenya’s arid regions claimed a record number of lives.
Kala-azar is spread by sandflies and is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases, with a fatality rate of 95 percent if untreated, causing fever, weight loss, and enlargement of the spleen and liver.
Cases of kala-azar, also known as visceral leishmaniasis, have spiked in Kenya, from 1,575 in 2024 to 3,577 in 2025, according to the health ministry.
It is spreading to previously untouched regions and becoming endemic, driven by changing climatic conditions and expanding human settlements, say health officials, with millions potentially at risk of infection.
Abdirahman, a 60-year-old grandmother, was bitten while herding livestock in Mandera county in Kenya’s northeast, a hotspot for the parasite but with only three treatment facilities capable of treating the disease.
She was forced to rely on a local pharmacist who repeatedly misdiagnosed her with malaria and dengue fever for about a year.
“I thought I was dying,” she told AFP. “It is worse than all the diseases they thought I had.”
She was left with hearing problems after the harsh treatment to remove the toxins from her body.
East Africa generally accounts for more than two-thirds of global cases, according to the World Health Organization.
“Climate change is expanding the range of sandflies and increasing the risk of outbreaks in new areas,” said Dr. Cherinet Adera, a researcher at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative in Nairobi.
- ‘So scared’ -
A surge in cases among migrant workers at a quarry site in Mandera last year led authorities to restrict movement at dusk and dawn when sandflies are most active.
At least two workers died, their colleagues said. Others returned to their villages and their fates are unknown.
“We did not know about the strange disease causing our colleagues to die,” said Evans Omondi, 34, who traveled hundreds of miles from western Kenya to work at the quarry.
“We were so scared,” added Peter Otieno, another worker from western Kenya, recalling how they watched their infected colleagues waste away day by day.
In 2023, the six most-affected African nations adopted a framework in Nairobi to eliminate the disease by 2030.
But there are “very few facilities in the country able to actively diagnose and treat,” kala-azar, Dr. Paul Kibati, tropical disease expert for health NGO Amref, told AFP.
He said more training is needed as mistakes in testing and treatment can be fatal.
The treatment can last up to 30 days and involves daily injections and often blood transfusions, costing as much as 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($775), excluding the cost of drugs, said Kibati, adding there is a need for “facilities to be adequately equipped.”
The sandfly commonly shelters in cracks in poorly plastered mud houses, anthills and soil fissures, multiplying during the rainy season after prolonged drought.
Northeastern Kenya, as well as neighboring regions in Ethiopia and Somalia, have experienced a devastating drought in recent months.
“Kala-azar affects mostly the poorest in our community,” Kibati said, exacerbated by malnutrition and weak immunity.
“We are expecting more cases when the rains start,” Kibati said.
Kala-azar is spread by sandflies and is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases, with a fatality rate of 95 percent if untreated, causing fever, weight loss, and enlargement of the spleen and liver.
Cases of kala-azar, also known as visceral leishmaniasis, have spiked in Kenya, from 1,575 in 2024 to 3,577 in 2025, according to the health ministry.
It is spreading to previously untouched regions and becoming endemic, driven by changing climatic conditions and expanding human settlements, say health officials, with millions potentially at risk of infection.
Abdirahman, a 60-year-old grandmother, was bitten while herding livestock in Mandera county in Kenya’s northeast, a hotspot for the parasite but with only three treatment facilities capable of treating the disease.
She was forced to rely on a local pharmacist who repeatedly misdiagnosed her with malaria and dengue fever for about a year.
“I thought I was dying,” she told AFP. “It is worse than all the diseases they thought I had.”
She was left with hearing problems after the harsh treatment to remove the toxins from her body.
East Africa generally accounts for more than two-thirds of global cases, according to the World Health Organization.
“Climate change is expanding the range of sandflies and increasing the risk of outbreaks in new areas,” said Dr. Cherinet Adera, a researcher at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative in Nairobi.
- ‘So scared’ -
A surge in cases among migrant workers at a quarry site in Mandera last year led authorities to restrict movement at dusk and dawn when sandflies are most active.
At least two workers died, their colleagues said. Others returned to their villages and their fates are unknown.
“We did not know about the strange disease causing our colleagues to die,” said Evans Omondi, 34, who traveled hundreds of miles from western Kenya to work at the quarry.
“We were so scared,” added Peter Otieno, another worker from western Kenya, recalling how they watched their infected colleagues waste away day by day.
In 2023, the six most-affected African nations adopted a framework in Nairobi to eliminate the disease by 2030.
But there are “very few facilities in the country able to actively diagnose and treat,” kala-azar, Dr. Paul Kibati, tropical disease expert for health NGO Amref, told AFP.
He said more training is needed as mistakes in testing and treatment can be fatal.
The treatment can last up to 30 days and involves daily injections and often blood transfusions, costing as much as 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($775), excluding the cost of drugs, said Kibati, adding there is a need for “facilities to be adequately equipped.”
The sandfly commonly shelters in cracks in poorly plastered mud houses, anthills and soil fissures, multiplying during the rainy season after prolonged drought.
Northeastern Kenya, as well as neighboring regions in Ethiopia and Somalia, have experienced a devastating drought in recent months.
“Kala-azar affects mostly the poorest in our community,” Kibati said, exacerbated by malnutrition and weak immunity.
“We are expecting more cases when the rains start,” Kibati said.
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