World in brief: November 3, 2026

Bangladesh / 4 November 2026 Striking garment workers demanding higher wages met with police and tear gas 4 November 2026 Ukraine / 4 November 2026 Kiev suffers power outages and lack of water following Russian strikes 4 November 2026 Meanwhile, rescuers continue to comb through rubble for survivors three days after deadly attack in Ukraine’s south

DR CONGO: The death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak in Africa has surpassed 5,300, with the majority of cases recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The DRC declared its 17th and largest outbreak in mid-May, and the Bundibugyo strain has infected some 10,444 people across the DRC, Uganda and Kenya, with a death rate of more than 50 per cent. 

There are no approved treatments or vaccines for the rare strain, though clinical trials have begun with the Ervebo vaccine.

PAKISTAN: Suspected militants riding a motorcycle shot and killed two police officers assigned to protect polio workers during a door-to-door vaccination campaign yesterday in north-west Pakistan, also wounding a third officer. 

The drive-by shooting occurred in Mohmand district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, and the attackers fled the scene. 

The attack came as Pakistan began a nationwide campaign to vaccinate 24 million children, with the Pakistani Taliban and other groups regularly targeting anti-polio drives.

SOMALIA: Peacekeepers plan to replace departing Ugandan troops at four bases near Somalia’s capital to prevent al-Shabaab militants from exploiting a security vacuum, according to a letter from the African Union (AU) mission.

Uganda said all its troops will leave Somalia by the end of 2027, ending a 20-year deployment, with funding shortages accelerating the withdrawal of troops deployed under a bilateral agreement. 

The AU mission plans to take over four positions described as critical to protecting Mogadishu during troop rotations scheduled for this month.

EUROPE: Dozens of supermarkets across Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland have been hit by a cyber-attack affecting their refrigerators and freezers.

Sabcobel, a Belgian company that manufactures some of the affected refrigerators, said the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing them to warm up, in what is believed to be the same method used in last month’s incident that hit hundreds of French supermarkets. 

The temperature of freezers in several shops reportedly rose to as high as 50°C.

Central Africa / 11 September 2026 Congo’s Ebola outbreak is spreading, warns Africa’s top health body 11 September 2026 Central Africa / 1 September 2026 Congo Ebola outbreak kills nearly 3,000 1 September 2026 Healthcare / 28 August 2026 The world has money for war. Why not for Ebola? 28 August 2026 As thousands die in the eastern DRC, a global health emergency is being starved of funds, says S KRISHNASWAMY