Key international actors, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, have used terms such as “gender apartheid” to describe the high levels of discrimination. “Gender apartheid is not merely a theoretical possibility or legal construct, but a real threat and lived reality for millions of women and girls around the…
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visited the region for the first time this week to see the dire conditions there for himself. “The staggering scale of the conflict in eastern DRC, the horrific level of violence, and its devastating impact on the children and women I met is heart-wrenching,” said Mr. Bloom. “No child should…
Only three field hospitals are operating in Rafah in southern Gaza, one of which is only functioning partially, and all of these facilities are overwhelmed and undersupplied, OCHA said, with the seven-month-long war severely impacting civilians and the infrastructure they depend on for healthcare. The UN humanitarian aid agency said the Malnutrition Stabilisation Centre in…
Concluding a five-day visit to the region, UNICEF Deputy Director Ted Chaiban noted that fighting has reached new heights and created the worst humanitarian crisis there since 2003. He highlighted growing concerns for safeguarding children’s rights and protection of civilians as the situation worsens. Grave violations mount “Children are being killed, maimed, abducted, and recruited…
First awarded in 2022, it acknowledges the exceptional contributions made by women justice and corrections officers serving from Member States across the world, who challenge gender stereotypes and barriers. In an interview with UN News, Major Bouzi said she was deeply honoured and grateful to have been recognized for her efforts. “First of all, it…
The camps were in the neighbourhoods of Lac Vert and Mugunga, near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, which has seen a sharp uptick in violence over the past few months. UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York that the situation around Goma continues to remain very tense,…
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) called for greater international support for the Congolese people to avoid a potential catastrophe for the country and the region. Current conflicts have escalated levels of gender-based violence, displacement and hunger in the restive eastern region where multiple armed groups are battling the national army and each other for control….
The huge central African nation has seen years of violence in the restive but resources-rich east, which have uprooted millions of people – some 2.7 million in North Kivu alone and more than seven million nationally. “What breaks my heart is to see a population exhausted by violence, exhausted by conflict, exhausted by the horrors…
In a statement following a briefing last week by Bintou Keita, the head of the UN mission, MONUSCO, ambassadors condemned all armed groups operating in the country and demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and of any further advances by the M23. They expressed concern over ongoing displacement in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu…
Ms. Keita, who also heads the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO, sounded the alarm over the humanitarian disaster “unfolding before our very eyes”. More than seven million people in the country are displaced, particularly due to the operations of armed groups such as the M23 and the Allied Defense Forces (ADF) across the…
