Echoing new dire assessments of the catastrophic situation in the devastated enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new ceasefire call so that humanitarian relief can be brought into Gaza to help rebuild hospitals including Al Shifa, which has been “basically destroyed” after a recent Israeli incursion. “The management is trying to get the…
The call by Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland followed Monday’s adoption by the Security Council of a resolution “demanding” an immediate ceasefire in the enclave for the remainder of Ramadan, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. However, intense hostilities have continued between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, with reports of many killed overnight,…
In a scheduled update to the UN’s top rights forum, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights explained that the humanitarian emergency there linked to the 2021 coup had worsened in recent months. “Three years of military rule have inflicted – and continue to inflict – unbearable levels of suffering and cruelty on people in…
Alice Wairimu Nderitu also underscored the need to intensify diplomatic efforts to bring the crisis to an end. “Civilians should never pay the price of a conflict for which they bear no responsibility,” she said in a statement. “Their most basic rights must be protected and preserved, and their humanitarian needs must be met,” she…
In the early hours of 6 February 2023, a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the border region between the two countries, claiming over 50,000 lives in Türkiye and a further 5,900 in Syria, with thousands more injured. “Thousands of families have yet to heal from the impact of the devastation; survivors live with the loss…
Reflecting on 2023, which also marked the UN agency’s 75th anniversary, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted key achievements and set out objectives for the coming year. “In May, I declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. This marked a turning point for the world following three years of crisis,…
Mr. Guterres is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas this past Friday, including rocket fire towards Israel from Gaza and Israel’s renewed ground operations and intensified airstrikes, increasingly in the south of the enclave. “The UN continues to appeal to Israeli Forces to avoid further action that would exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza…
Her comments came amid reports on Wednesday morning of an ongoing Israeli Defense Forces raid inside Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, where patients including premature babies have died over the course of the past days after incubators and other life-saving equipment lost power. “Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” UN relief chief Martin Griffiths wrote on social platform…
Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, voiced concern over the “continued, near-daily attacks” on civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine. “Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured and millions have been displaced,” he told ambassadors, adding that nearly half of the population – an estimated 17.6 million people – need life-saving assistance….
Rosemary DiCarlo called on the national army and so-called Rapid Support Forces to lay down their arms, more than five months after they began facing off in the streets of Khartoum. She told a high level ministerial event on The Cost of Inaction in Sudan taking place at UN Headquarters in New York that only…
