EBOLA: NIGERIANS BEG OBAMA TO GIVE INFECTED LAGOS NURSE THE VACCINE

Nigerians on different social media platforms on Saturday asked President Barack Obama to give a vaccine, ZMapp, being developed in the United States to treat a Nigerian nurse, Justina Ejelonu, reportedly infected with Ebola.

 On such websites as Facebook and Twitter, the petitioners begged Obama to release the vaccine to Ejelonu and other Africans suffering from the virus. The petitions were made on the White House website. Ejelonu, who is one of those that were infected with the Ebola virus after treating the Liberian victim, Patrick Sawyer, has said she did not have direct contact with Sawyer’s body fluids. The deadly virus, which leads to death in humans within days from infection, is transmitted through sweat, urine, blood, and other fluids from the body. Ejelonu recounted her encounter with Sawyer in a report on a website, www.southeastnigeria.com.

 According to the website, she said she had checked his vitals and helped him with food because he was too weak, and that the mode of transmission could be from touching the same surfaces as the Liberian. She said, “I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak). I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact — not directly with his fluids. “At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed. But the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution. Every patient is treated as high-risk. If it were air borne, by now wahala for dey (there would have been trouble). I still thank God.” Ejelonu added that the workers’ uniforms and Sawyer’s bedding were burnt afterwards, saying the staff were under surveillance and off-duty till August 11. She said, “Our samples have long been taken by the World Health Organisation and so far, we have been fine. Kudos to my hospital management because we work professionally with every patient considered as high-risk — that’s the training.” The health worker noted that if it were a public hospital, the outcome might have been different, adding that she was however grateful to the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government for their support.

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OBAMA AUTHORISES IRAQ AIR STRIKES ON ISLAMISTS FIGHTERS

The US president told Iraq's minorities: "America is coming"

US President Barack Obama says he has authorised air strikes against Islamic militants in northern Iraq but will not send US troops back to the country.

He said Islamic State (IS) fighters would be targeted to prevent the slaughter of religious minorities, or if they threaten US interests.

Strikes have not yet begun, but the US has made humanitarian air drops to Iraqis under threat from the militants.

IS has seized Qaraqosh, Iraq's biggest Christian town, forcing locals to flee.

The Sunni Muslim group, formerly known as Isis, has been gaining ground in northern Iraq and Syria for several months.

Islamic State fighters have taken control of large parts of northern Iraq since launching an offensive in June
Around 50,000 Yazidis are thought to have been trapped on a mountain after fleeing IS fighters

In a rapid advance in June the group took control of the northern city of Mosul and advanced south towards Baghdad.

It now controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria and says it has created an Islamic caliphate in its territory.

'Coming to help'

Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said US military aircraft had already dropped food and water to members of the Yazidi religious minority community trapped on Mount Sinjar by IS fighters.

The UN estimates that about 200,000 civilians have been displaced from the town of Sinjar and about 50,000 Yazidis are thought to have been trapped on the mountain.

The Yazidis face starvation and dehydration if they remain on the mountain, and slaughter at the hands of the IS if they flee, officials have warned.
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Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis are understood to have fled their homes in northern Iraq, as James Robbins reports

Mr Obama said the Iraqi government had requested assistance and the US would act "carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide".

US air strikes would target IS fighters if they threaten Baghdad or move towards the Kurdish capital of Irbil, where there is a significant presence of US diplomats and military advisers, Mr Obama said.

In addition, he authorised strikes "if necessary" to help Iraqi government forces break the siege at Mount Sinjar and rescue the trapped civilians.

"The only lasting solution is reconciliation among Iraqi communities and stronger Iraqi security forces," Mr Obama added.


Analysis: Tom Esslemont, BBC News, Washington

For a president still busy withdrawing his troops from Afghanistan, the situation in northern Iraq has proved decisive.

Doing nothing here was not an option and the US could not turn a blind eye to what Mr Obama called the systematic destruction of Christians and Yazidis.

He employed strong language to seek justification. It was, he said, to prevent acts of genocide.

It is a hugely symbolic and potent term for a president who a year ago decided against military intervention in Syria. And that was after a red line had been crossed and chemical weapons had been used.

This time, just across the border, the White House has a specific goal - the protection of US assets and embassy personnel in Iraq and to bring urgent relief to the civilians affected.

But to critics it is too limited an operation that will do little to diminish the power of the Islamic State jihadists.


The president spoke hours after the UN Security Council met. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply appalled" by the situation.

As many as 100,000 Christians are believed to have fled their homes ahead of the IS advance, and most of them are thought to have gone toward the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

Kurdish forces have been fighting IS for weeks, but on Wednesday it appeared they had abandoned their posts in Qaraqosh. Eyewitnesses said the militants had taken down crosses in churches and burned religious manuscripts.


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The rise of the Islamic State


Last month, hundreds of Christian families fled Mosul after rebels gave them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a special tax, or be executed.

Iraq is home to one of the world's most ancient Christian communities, but numbers have dwindled amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has faced calls from Sunni Arab, Kurdish and some Shia Arab leaders to step down because of his handling of the security crisis, as well as what they say are the sectarian and authoritarian policies he pursued during his previous two terms in office.

But as leader of the bloc that won the most seats in April's parliamentary elections, Mr Maliki has demanded the right to attempt to form a governing coalition.


Iraq's minorities
Iraq's Christian population has plummeted in recent years

Christians

The majority are Chaldeans, part of the Catholic Church

Numbers have fallen from around 1.5 million since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 350,000-450,000

In Nineveh, they live mainly in towns such as Qaraqosh (also known as Baghdida), Bartella, Al-Hamdaniya and Tel Kef

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BARACK OBAMA CONSIDERING INTERVENTION AGAINST ISLAMISTS MILITANTS IN IRAQ

The president is considering ordering a US intervention including air strikes, White House officials say.

President Barack Obama is actively considering ordering US intervention, including air-strikes, against Islamist militants in Iraq attacking Christian and religious minority groups in the north of the country, administration officials have said.

The potentially sharp reversal of US policy came as Islamic State (formerly ISIS) militants continued to make significant gains on Thursday including claiming to have seized control of Iraq’s largest dam, giving them control of vast water and power resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.

“The situation is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe,” warned Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, “We are gravely concerned for their health and safety.”

Mr Obama spent yesterday morning conferring with his national security team. Administration officials said he was considering a full range of “active and passive” options - from humanitarian air-drops to targeted air-strikes - with a decision expected imminently. “This could be a fast-moving train,” one official told The New York Times.

“The cold and calculated manner in which (Islamic State) has targeted defenceless Iraqis, like the Yazidis and Christians, solely because of their ethnic and religious identity demonstrates a callous disregard for human rights and it is deeply disturbing,” the White House spokesman added.

“In particular, we’re concerned about the welfare of the large community of Iraqi Yazidis who are stranded on Mount Sinjar without food, water or shelter and the Iraqi Christians who have been force to flee from their villages in the region.”

Officials stressed that any military action would be “very limited in scope”, aimed at objectives such as “protecting American personnel or confronting counter-terrorism threats”.

When Islamic State militants swept through central Iraq in July, at one point threatening Baghdad, Mr Obama denied requests from the Shia-led Iraqi government of Nouri Al-Maliki to strike them.

The apparent change of heart came as reports of the plight of the Yazidi minority hit America’s front pages, triggering calls for action from leading figures such as Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate.

Iraqis inspect the site of a double car bomb attack which took place in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad 

Calling reports of Islamic State advance “deeply disturbing” Mr McCain accused the Obama administration of failing to act against an organisation that, he said, now posed a “direct threat” to US national security.


Area in Iraq controlled by Islamic State in January 2014

In its crushing victory on Thursday, fighters of the Islamic State jihadist group swept aside resistance to seize the last remaining Christian towns of northern Iraq,


Area in Iraq controlled by Islamic State in August 2014

After overwhelming the Yazidi minority group of the deserts of north-western Iraq at the weekend, Islamic State broke the lines of Kurdish forces that had been defending the Christian towns of Bartella, Tel Kayf and Qaraqosh, north and east of the city of Mosul, after continuous bombardment in recent days.

“There was no electricity, no water, we were frightened. A lot of people left,” said Rowaid, 20, who until recently was a university student in the city Mosul, which was seized two months ago. He fled Tal Kayf with his family of seven, including two elderly aunts.

“There were a lot of skirmishes outside the town and the situation in our area was intolerable. And we knew what was coming.

“Since they began attacking with the mortars three of my relatives have been killed.”

The towns were the last remaining hold-outs from among the Christian populations that once dominated the biblical Ninevah Plain. All Christians were told to leave Mosul last month, with the 20 too old to leave said by the church to have been forcibly converted to Islam.

Displaced people who have fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar west of Mosul, take refuge at Dohuk province (Reuters)

The last three towns’ tens of thousands of inhabitants fled on Wednesday night and Thursday morning into the Kurdistan Autonomous Region, and its capital, Erbil. “All the territories of the Plain of Ninevah are now empty of Christians. It has come under the control of Islamic State,” Father Yousef Benjamin, the coadjutor bishop of Tel Kayf, who was among those who left, told The Telegraph.


Iraq's ethnic mix

He said that as well as Erbil, residents had sought refuge in the city of Dohuk, three hours’ drive away, and some Christian villages in the mountains. “The situation is extremely bad,” he said. “There are many people sleeping in the streets, public parks, and in the cars, while there are no services for them.”

The seizure of the Christian towns followed an abrupt withdrawal by the Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, that had pledged to defend them. “The Peshmerga withdrew - they didn’t tell us what happened, or why that happened,” Fr Yousef said. “It’s strange that an army could collapse all of a sudden just in some areas.

“The Peshmerga used to tell us that they would protect us, that our district’s security was as firm as Dohuk’s. That lasted for two months. They were fighting before but we don’t what happened yesterday.”

That collapse in Kurdish morale followed a similar withdrawal at the weekend from towns occupied by the Yazidi community, another religious minority who unlike the Christians are ethnically Kurdish. Thousands of Yazidis, who are termed devil-worshippers by the Islamic State, are stranded in the desert mountains south of the town of Sinjar, with some children already succumbing to dehydration and the heat.

Attempts to rescue them by a combined force of Peshmerga and guerrillas from the Kurdish regions of Syria and Turkey have so far failed.

The Islamic State posted a message on its social media pages celebrating its victories, saying it had taken 17 towns and cities and the Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest, in five days. By taking the towns of Bartella and Qaraqosh, they were able to move to about half an hour’s drive from Erbil.

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