Violence Imperils Coronavirus Response in Conflict Zones Around the World by Danielle Paquette, Susannah George and Sudarsan Raghavan - Washington Post
The head of the United Nations has urged a global cease-fire. So has the Pope. Yet violence keeps battering swaths of Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe as governments struggle to fight both insurgents and the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said recently during a virtual speech.
The Islamic State is calling on loyalists everywhere to capitalize on the chaos, according to its media channels. The Taliban is launching major attacks in Afghanistan while handing out masks, gloves and soap.
In conflict zones across the globe, the threat of airstrikes, ambushes and roadside bombs is blocking health-care workers from patients, medical experts say, and national security forces — newly tasked with enforcing strict lockdowns — are stretched thin…