The arranged marriage typically involves the exchange of a highly prized and culturally important Zebu cow for teenage girls as young as 13 years old. Now two UN agencies UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are working together with the local authorities to educate women and also men, through sessions focusing on positive masculinity,…
“I am appalled by the recurrent mass abductions of men, women and children in northern Nigeria. Children have been abducted from schools and women taken while searching for firewood. Such horrors must not become normalised,” he said. News reports indicate at least 564 people have been abducted since 7 March. More than 280 pupils were…
Kanni Wignaraja, Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, who recently visited the country, told correspondents in New York that 69 per cent of Afghans are “subsistence insecure” – meaning they do not have enough basic resources. “Something that really hit me … was the harsh impact of continuous natural disasters,” she…
Nearly 8,600 people on the move died in 2023, a 20 per cent increase from 2022, according to the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project online platform. It details the global movement of people risking their lives to escape conflict, economic crisis and natural disasters, including drought and flooding linked to climate change. IOM says the…
“WHO and partners managed to access (Al) Shifa (hospital) in the north and deliver fuel, some lifesaving supplies for 150 patients and treatment of 50 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and also bring it vaccines,” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, UN World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For the first time…
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) study recommends responding with the same methods, running counter-narcotics campaigns offering advice that can be trusted on popular online platforms. “We can see that drug trafficking is not just carried out on the dark web. Legitimate e-commerce platforms are being exploited by criminals too,” said Jallal Toufiq, INCB President. …
The global proportion of women in the world’s voting chambers inched up to 26.9 per cent on the back of elections and appointments through the year, the international organization said in its latest report on Women in Parliament. The growth was similar to the increase in 2022, but slower than the two years prior, IPU…
Briefing ambassadors at the Security Council, Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that if the parties display greater political will and invest adequate resources, credible elections can still take place before the end of the transition period. “Despite the shortcomings in implementation, the peace agreement did instill a period of stability at the national level and brought opponents…
“The sexual abuse and the exploitation of children within the entertainment industry resulting from unethical systems, structures, practices or abuse of power and authority is widespread,” said Mama Fatima Singhateh, the UN Special Rapporteur on sale and sexual exploitation of children. Child performers in the entertainment industry are exposed to sexualized, violent and aggressive environments that…
At Beabo Primary School in Ambovombe in the south of Madagascar, teams of students are in competition to cook the tastiest and most nutritional meal using locally available products which hopefully will encourage their parents and others to change to healthier diets. Fifteen-year-old Marie-Eliane is one of six junior chefs who have produced an impressive…
