Category Archives: United Nations

Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv rocked by missile strikes during UN chief’s visit, Ukraine responds to ‘heinous act of barbarism’ – live

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Two cruise missiles strike Ukrainian capital, injuring at least ten; officials respond to attack

More than 8,500 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.

A total of 8,653 cases have been reported and 217 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.

Unfortunately this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponising energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict.

And we have been working for some time now, for months, with partners around the world to diversify natural gas supply to Europe to — in anticipation of and to also address near-term needs and replace volumes that would otherwise come from Russia.”

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UN secretary general describes war in Ukraine as ‘absurdity’ in 21st century

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António Guterres visits Borodianka outside Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians

The UN secretary general has described the war in Ukraine as “an absurdity” in the 21st century on a visit to the scene of civilian killings outside Kyiv, as Russia warned the west that increasing arms supplies to Ukraine would endanger European security.

António Guterres was touring Borodianka on Thursday, where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians before their withdrawal, on his first visit to Ukraine since the start of the invasion on 24 February, before talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

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Tanzania’s Maasai appeal to west to stop eviction for conservation plans

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Thousands of Indigenous people sign letter to UK, US and EU protesting at appropriation of land for tourist safaris and hunting

Thousands of Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania have written to the UK and US governments and the EU appealing for help to stop plans to evict them from their ancestral land.

More than 150,000 Maasai people face eviction by the Tanzanian government due to moves by the UN cultural agency Unesco and a safari company to use the land for conservation and commercial hunting.

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António Guterres urged to take lead in securing peace in Ukraine or risk future of UN

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Former UN officials say body could be doomed if secretary general does not play a bigger role in mediating for peace in Ukraine

A group of more than 200 former senior UN officials have written to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warning him that unless he does more personally to take a lead in trying to mediate a peace in Ukraine, the UN risks not just irrelevance, but its continued existence.

The former staff members, including many former UN undersecretaries, urged him to raise his profile and be prepared to take personal risks to secure peace, saying the UN is facing an existential threat due to the invasion of Ukraine by one of the five permanent members of the security council.

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Australia failing its own citizens held in ‘sordid’ camps in Syria, UN experts say

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Letter to government renews calls to repatriate citizens, including 30 children, held in conditions that ‘meet the standard of torture’

United Nations experts have accused Australia of failing to prevent the “sheer obliteration of the rights” of its own citizens including children who are held in “sordid” conditions in camps in north-eastern Syria.

In a move that humanitarian groups hope will intensify pressure on Australia to act, 12 UN special rapporteurs have written jointly to the government to raise concerns about 46 Australian citizens, including 30 children, held in the camps.

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Boat capsizes off Libya, leaving 35 people dead or presumed dead

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Wooden vessel launched from Sabratha, a major departure point for Europe, says UN migration agency

A boat carrying 35 people has capsized off the Libyan coast, , the UN migration agency has said.

The incident took place on Friday off the western Libyan city of Sabratha, a major launching point for the mainly African people making the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean, said the International Organization for Migration.

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Iraq’s ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change

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Water shortages leading to rising salt concentrations and sandstorms are eroding world’s ancient sites

Some of the world’s most ancient buildings are being destroyed by climate change, as rising concentrations of salt in Iraq eat away at mud brick and more frequent sandstorms erode ancient wonders.

Iraq is known as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that agriculture was born, some of the world’s oldest cities were built, such as the Sumerian capital Ur, and one of the first writing systems was developed – cuneiform. The country has “tens of thousands of sites from the Palaeolithic through Islamic eras”, explained Augusta McMahon, professor of Mesopotamian archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

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More than 150 Palestinians injured in Jerusalem clash, say medics

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Palestine Red Crescent says people injured by rubber bullets, Israeli police batons and stun grenades at al-Aqsa mosque

Medics say more than 150 Palestinians have been injured in clashes that erupted when Israeli riot police entered Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, in the most significant violence at the holy site since similar scenes sparked a war last year.

Most of the Palestinian injuries on Friday were incurred by rubber bullets, stun grenades and beatings with police batons, the Palestine Red Crescent said.

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Raising cash for water: why Somalis are bypassing aid agencies in drought crisis

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Analysis: with more than 6 million people in need, there is anger at perceived lack of action from the government and the UN

The UN this week issued a stark warning on Somalia, projecting that 350,000 children could starve to death without urgent action.

The country is in the middle of a drought that is already killing people. Some regions in the Horn of Africa are the hottest they have been since satellites started recording data 40 years ago, according to an analysis by the World Food Programme.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Zelenskiy announces capture of Putin ally in Ukraine – live

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Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of Ukraine’s biggest opposition party, had been in hiding since the early days of the invasion

More than 6,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.

A total of 6,036 cases have been reported and 186 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.

Security work is under way in the northern regions of our country, from where the occupiers were expelled.

First of all, it is mine clearance. Russian troops left behind tens if not hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects. These are shells that did not explode, mines, tripwire mines. At least several thousand such items are disposed of daily.

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All-female newsroom launched in Somalia to widen media’s scope

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The pioneering Bilan project, funded by UN, will report on gender-based violence, women in politics and female entrepreneurs

The first all-women media house in Somalia has been launched, creating a rare opportunity for female journalists in the country to research and publish stories they want to tell.

Led by one of the few female senior news producers in the country, the team of six will produce content for TV, radio and online media on issues such as gender-based violence, women in politics and female entrepreneurs.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Kremlin admits ‘significant’ troop losses; Russia suspended from UN human rights council – live

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Ninety-three countries vote to suspend Russia amid ‘grave concern’ about abuses; Kremlin spokesman says number of Russian soldiers lost is a ‘tragedy’

Russia is focusing on an impending offensive operation in eastern Ukraine with the aim to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s ministry of defence has said, corroborating western intelligence report.

Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said some withdrawn Russian units are now located in “tent camps” in a number of regions bordering Ukraine.

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Putin’s daughters targeted in US sanctions against Russia

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Joe Biden links new measures directly to accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha

The US has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s top public and private banks and two daughters of Vladimir Putin, following mounting global accusations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The sanctions targeted Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two adult daughters of Putin’s with his former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.

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Yemen: two-month ceasefire begins with hopes for peace talks

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UN special envoy Hans Grundberg stresses importance of building on truce in effort to end six-year war

A UN-brokered two-month ceasefire in Yemen was broadly holding on its first full day with oil shipments reaching the port of Hodeida, including some ships that have been barred from entering for 88 days.

The ceasefire is the biggest step forward in the six-year war and is intended to apply inside and outside the country’s borders.

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‘We feel safer’: how green energy is brightening refugee lives in Rwanda

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Solar panels and cleaner-burning stoves have reduced dangers faced by residents of three camps

“The camp has come from the dark into the light,” says Edson Sebutozi Munyakarambi, a refugee living in the Kigeme camp in southern Rwanda.

“Before the solar-powered street lamps, the camp was dark. Some people would come and steal things from the houses,” says Munyakarambi, who chairs the committee that represents the 16,000 people in the camp. “But now no one can rob people on the street corners and the children can study or play outside while they wait for their dinner.”

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Yemen’s warring sides accept two-month truce starting with Ramadan

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Agreement comes after significant escalation in bloody conflict between Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels

Yemen’s warring sides have accepted a two-month truce, starting with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to the UN envoy to the country.

Hans Grundberg announced the agreement from Amman, Jordan, after meeting separately with both sides in the country’s brutal civil war. He said he hoped the truce would be renewed after two months.

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Seabed regulator accused of deciding deep sea’s future ‘behind closed doors’

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The ISA, obliged to frame industry rules by 2023, drops reporting service and is accused of lacking transparency in plans for mining
• Podcast: The race to mine the deep sea

The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees deep-sea mining, a controversial new industry, has been accused of failings of transparency after an independent body responsible for reporting on negotiations was kicked out.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is meeting this week at its council headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, to develop regulations for the fledgling industry. But it emerged this week that Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB), a division of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), which has covered previous ISA negotiations, had not had its contract renewed.

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UN donor conference falls billions short of $4.4bn target to help Afghanistan

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Conference raises only $2.44bn as Russian foreign minister says west is responsible for country’s humanitarian crisis

The world’s donor drought, and growing global divisions over Afghanistan’s political direction, have been laid bare when a UN appeal for $4.4bn (£3.35bn) to help Afghanistan fell massively short, the second UN donor conference in a month to do so.

Donor countries pledged only $2.44bn towards the appeal, a senior UN official said on Thursday after a high-level pledging conference.

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Russia may be committing war crimes in Ukraine, UN human rights chief says

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Michelle Bachelet said the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure indicates the rules of war have ‘not been sufficiently adhered to’

Ukrainian cities have been pounded by airstrikes and heavy shelling in Russia’s five-week-old invasion, killing civilians and destroying hospitals in acts that may amount to war crimes, the top United Nations human rights official has said.

Michelle Bachelet, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, called on Russia to withdraw its troops.

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