Category Archives: United Nations

More than 150 Palestinians injured in Jerusalem clash, say medics

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Putin’s daughters targeted in US sanctions against Russia

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.”

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Afghanistan aid pledges could fall far short of target, officials fear

Posted on by

Taliban’s increasingly repressive rule could lead to donor backlash at UN pledging conference on Thursday

Western officials fear a UN pledging conference this Thursday aimed at raising more than $4.4bn (£3.34bn) aid for Afghanistan is likely to fall well short of its target. One UN official admitted he feared the Taliban’s increasingly repressive rule would lead to a donor backlash.

The new UN appeal, on top of the flash appeal for $600m in the immediate wake of the Taliban takeover in August, is hoping to raise the biggest sum ever for a single country at a pledging conference.

Continue reading...

Eight UN peacekeepers killed in helicopter crash in DRC

Posted on by

Six Pakistanis, a Russian and a Serb victims of fatal reconnaissance mission, officials say

Eight UN peacekeepers – six Pakistanis, a Russian and a Serb – were killed on Tuesday when a Puma helicopter crashed in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UN and Pakistani officials said.

“While undertaking a reconnaissance mission in Congo, 1 Puma Helicopter crashed. Exact cause of crash is yet to be ascertained,” the Pakistani military’s media wing said. It added that six Pakistani troops were among those killed.

Continue reading...

UN condemns attacks by Yemen rebels and Saudi-led coalition

Posted on by

UN chief António Guterres calls for ‘restraint’ on all sides in seven-year conflict

UN chief António Guterres on Saturday condemned an exchange of attacks between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition, calling for “restraint” on all sides in the seven-year conflict.

“The secretary-general strongly condemns the recent escalation of the conflict in Yemen,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement Saturday.

Continue reading...

Russia’s invasion crystallises divide between west and rest of world

Posted on by

Ukraine crisis is uniting democracies in Europe and Pacific but complicating relationships with China, India and Gulf states

“Decide who you are with” Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European council, pointing to a choice that is becoming increasingly hard to avoid, as the sheer violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crystallises the division of the world into two camps.

The camp that stands with Russians is becoming easier to define with every passing day of the war. The colour-coded scoreboard at the UN general assembly in recent weeks, recording the votes on resolutions deploring the attack and calling for a ceasefire, could not have been clearer.

Continue reading...

UN mission must see coral bleaching to get ‘whole picture’ of Great Barrier Reef, experts say

Posted on by

Government’s reef envoy says visiting scientists ‘have to see the good and the bad’ as widespread bleaching confirmed

A UN mission under way in Queensland to see if the Great Barrier Reef should be put on an “in danger” list will not get “the whole picture” unless it visits reefs currently experiencing coral bleaching, conservationists and the government’s own reef envoy have said.

Details of the 10-day mission, which began on Monday in Brisbane, are being kept confidential and the locations to be visited have not been formally disclosed.

Continue reading...

China’s decisive turning point: will it side with Russia and divide the world?

Posted on by

Analysis: the world faces the possibility of a dramatic shift in the geopolitical balance of power as Beijing mulls support for Russia over the Ukraine war

Joe Biden is due to make a phone call to Xi Jinping on Friday at a potential tipping point in China’s role in the world as it decides how far to go in backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

While China has abstained on United Nations security council resolutions on the invasion, it has sided with Moscow rhetorically, echoing Russian talking points blaming Nato, and recycling conspiracy theories, and the Biden administration believes it has already decided to bail Russia out economically.

Continue reading...

Widespread abuses since Myanmar coup may amount to war crimes, says UN report

Posted on by

UN rights office warns military has shown ‘flagrant disregard for human life’ and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021

Myanmar’s military junta has committed widespread and systematic abuses against civilians that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the first comprehensive report to be produced by the UN’s human rights office since last year’s coup.

The UN rights office warns the military has shown “flagrant disregard for human life” and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021.

Continue reading...

Russia makes claims of US-backed biological weapon plot at UN

Posted on by

Fears claims of plot to use birds to spread disease could be pretext for biological attack by Russia itself

Russia has accused Ukraine and the US at the UN security council of a plot to use migratory birds and bats to spread pathogens, raising alarm among other council members that the accusations could be intended to provide cover for future Russian use of biological weapons.

The Russian permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, delivered a lengthy account of the alleged biological weapons plot, and said the birds, bats and insects supposedly intended to spread disease would cross Ukraine’s western border.

Continue reading...