Overnight events: Priest scandal, disease funding, soldier death, more

It happened while you were sleeping. Here’s what global agencies recorded overnight from Thursday to Friday.

Father Pierre, a French Catholic clergyman who passed away in 2007 and the founder of the Emmaus movement, was accused of sexually assaulting at least seven women. Two daughters of one of the women accusing Father Pierre of sexual violence spoke with France Télévisions about the molestation the priest allegedly committed against her in 1989 and 1990. They learned about the whole story in 2019 after their mother’s death, who testified before the commission on sexual abuse in the Church. In a letter, the woman condemned the sexual abuse at the hands of the priest, which she claimed to have experienced in 1989 and 1990. She reportedly fled from an abusive husband with no means to survive. "Knowing Father Pierre personally, she asked him for help," explained one of her daughters. At the time, the 77-year-old priest reportedly asked the woman for something in return. "He quickly transitioned from charitable assistance to sexual exploitation," the mother wrote.

Agency chief Jean Kaseya said that the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) can raise $600 million to combat the growing mpox epidemic (formerly monkeypox) on the continent. After a new strain of the disease began spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring countries, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency. In August, Africa's CDC estimated the cost of fighting the disease to be $245 million. Kaseya did not explain why the costs, which do not include vaccines, increased. He added that funds could come from African Union countries, development partners, philanthropists, and the private sector. The international vaccine alliance GAVI has pledged assistance, and Africa CDC is in talks with The Pandemic Fund, a multilateral organization financing pandemic responses.

A Moldovan soldier stationed at the border with the separatist region of Transnistria died under unclear circumstances. The Moldovan Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying the soldier was "fatally wounded...as a result of a shot from the weapon in his possession while performing his duties at his post." An investigation is ongoing. The last such incident occurred in 2022.

On Thursday, unknown armed attackers assaulted civilians in the Daykundi province of Afghanistan. Several people were killed, and others were injured. The Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesperson reported the incident. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram broadcast channel but did not provide any evidence to support its claim. It was the first attack in this province since the Taliban took power.

For several days, thousands of containers of medicines, biscuits, and packaged food have been washing up on Port Alfred Beach in South Africa, reportedly coming from several dozen drifting containers nearby. "If you find medicine containers on the beach in Port Alfred, don’t open them, don’t allow dogs or children near them, and take them to the hospital for safe disposal," city officials warned. These are anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic drugs that were manufactured in the USA.

Since August, fires in Brazil have destroyed 21,800 square miles, according to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Sao Paulo, which conducts studies on space and the atmosphere. The burned area is larger than the state of Paraiba. According to INPE, fire occurrences in Brazil’s forests and fallow agricultural lands now constitute over 75% of all fires that broke out in September in South America. INPE also noted that a record number of fires occurred on September 9, when 5,000 instances of fire were recorded in forests and grasslands across the country. In total, nearly 40,000 fires have already broken out in Brazil this September, more than double the number during the same period in 2023.