Today in Africa — Nov. 12, 2026: UN Peacekeepers and South Sudan Accused of Ignoring Warnings Before Deadly Attack; Africa’s Early Disaster Warning Systems Now Match the Americas’

Amnesty interviewed 82 people, including survivors, witnesses, and medical workers, and used satellite imagery and verified photos and videos. Survivors described people shot in their homes or while fleeing, and some killed at close range after being captured or wounded. Satellite images showed more than 230 structures destroyed by fire, and most victims were buried in two mass graves.

UNMISS spokesperson Priyanka Chowdhury said the mission did its best with limited resources to protect and treat about 2,500 people sheltering in a protected area. She said it repeatedly asked the national army to send more forces after early warnings and that budget cuts and reduced personnel forced it to focus on protecting people inside its base.

The mission sent 40 additional police after the attack. Amnesty asked why they were not deployed earlier, especially after a similar deadly attack in April 2025. The UNMISS statement did not directly address that.

Amnesty said the attack may have been triggered by unresolved killings of several young men from Mayom County in Abiemnom. The area has seen cycles of retaliatory violence tied to land access and cattle raiding, and the fighting has undermined a 2018 deal that ended five years of civil war.

South Sudanese authorities did not respond to two letters from Amnesty, and government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny did not respond to the Associated Press. In April, the UN Security Council renewed the mission's mandate while cutting its authorized troop ceiling from 17,000 to 12,000.

One in three countries worldwide is still unprotected, especially least developed countries and small island states. In 2025, 146 anticipatory action activations in 54 countries reached 9.6 million people before disasters struck.

Many national weather services lack resources. Only 15 in every 100 have all the technicians they need, only 14 in every 100 offer impact-based forecasts, and 29 still work with an unstable internet connection.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, "No one should lose their life simply because a warning came too late – or never came at all." About $2 billion has been mobilized since 2022, and around 160 countries are getting support. He wants early warnings made a permanent public service, financing and capacity gaps closed, and long-term support for country-led plans.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said this year's El Niño is the strongest since 1950 and is testing every system at once. She urged countries to fund national weather services year after year, like hospitals, not only on opening day.

Speakers at the COP31 event stressed that the Early Warnings for All initiative must continue beyond 2027, its original target year.

MSF says contact tracing, a key way to stop the spread, remains "deeply problematic" despite the resources allocated. It described surveillance teams that exist "on paper but are nowhere to be seen on the ground," and says two-thirds of deaths are happening in communities, not treatment centers. British epidemiologist Neil Ferguson says more than half of cases are going undetected, so the outbreak could last another year, Reuters reports.

MSF says efforts are too concentrated in some areas. It called the response "too slow" in North Kivu and says Haut-Uélé is "dramatically overlooked." Facilities in both provinces lack basics like water, chlorine, or triage systems, which MSF says has turned some into new centers of transmission.

The warning follows concerns last month from Africa CDC, which said $700 million of the $962 million disbursed to response organizations was unaccounted for. Chief Jean Kaseya called it a major transparency and reporting failure, not embezzlement. Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said only 22% of aid agencies had given the ministry details of their work.

Today, Thursday, November 12, the UN and government warned that the worst-hit areas also face a severe food crisis, with almost 10 million people in dire need. The epicenter in eastern DR Congo has few good roads and is wracked by conflict, with some areas under rebel control.

The outbreak has spread to Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. Kenya discharged its last Ebola patient yesterday, Wednesday, November 11. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or treatment, though trials are under way.