Appointed by the Secretary-General in early February following Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel in October, the group also aims to meet Palestinian Authority officials and may request a visit to Gaza, said its chair, former French former minister Catherine Colonna, who spoke outside the Security Council after…
In a new study, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that over the past two months, the volume of trade through the Suez Canal has fallen by a whopping 42 per cent. “With major players in the shipping industry temporarily suspending Suez transits, weekly container ship transits have fallen by 67 per…
In a letter addressed to the President of the UN General Assembly, which provides the agency with its mandate, he said the agency’s ability to fulfil that mandate “is now seriously threatened”. “In just over four months in Gaza there have been more children, more journalists more medical personnel and more UN staff killed than…
“Gaza has become a death zone,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General told correspondents at a press briefing in Geneva. “Much of the territory has been destroyed. More than 29,000 people are dead; many more are missing, presumed dead; and many, many more are injured,” he added. Across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, severe malnutrition has shot…
Briefing journalists in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric cited the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, which said the damage had occurred after a water filtering station was hit. The city had a pre-war population of 220,000 people, now reduced to 90,000. The attacks also caused civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure on both sides…
Describing the move as a further sign of the junta’s “weakness and desperation”, Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews called for stronger international action to protect vulnerable populations across the country. “While wounded and increasingly desperate, the Myanmar military junta remains extremely dangerous,” he said. “Troop losses and recruitment challenges have become existential threats for the junta,…
Concluding a 10-day visit to the country, Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem noted that a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK, and one in four women there will experience some form of domestic violence in her lifetime. “Entrenched patriarchy at almost every level of society, combined with a rise in…
The 11th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) kicked off in Bangkok, with participants echoing a compelling plea for nations to swiftly implement urgent actions, fostered by robust and sustained multilateral cooperation. The stern warning suggested that countries risked lagging further behind in their pursuit of sustainable development goals amid recent global crises. Addressing the…
Briefing ambassadors on the UN Security Council, Valentine Rugwabiza, Special Representative for the Central African Republic (CAR), recalled the 15 January explosion which targeted a patrol from the mission, killing one peacekeeper and wounding five others. “Explosive ordinance devices (EODs) and light weapons are not only a threat to the population and peacekeepers but equally…
Since the brutal 7 October terror attacks by Hamas and other militants on southern Israel and the ensuing military onslaught by Israel on Gaza, more than three quarters of the enclave’s population have been displaced from their homes, many multiple times. There are widespread shortages of food, water and sanitation, and the health system continues…
