Category Archives: United Nations

Israel-Gaza violence: death toll rises as UN envoy warns over escalation

Posted on by

Further airstrikes and rocket fire reported early on Wednesday in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beersheba

Israeli jets and Palestinian militants traded fresh airstrikes and rocket fire early on Wednesday as the UN’s Middle East envoy called for a cessation of hostilities, warning: “We’re escalating towards a full-scale war.”

The death toll since unrest broke out early on Tuesday rose to 40 – 35 in Gaza and five in Israel – as Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza and Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and other central Israeli cities.

Continue reading...

Libya’s first female foreign minister pressed to quit

Posted on by

Najla El-Mangoush subjected to personal abuse after demanding withdrawal of Turkish troops and mercenaries

Libya’s first female foreign minister has come under pressure to resign and been subjected to personal abuse seven weeks into the job, after she called for Turkish troops and mercenaries to leave her country.

Najla El-Mangoush, a lawyer and human rights activist, was appointed foreign minister by the country’s interim prime minister, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, after he faced a backlash for backtracking on promises that 30% of ministerial posts would go to women.

Continue reading...

Hopes for Yemen peace deal fade as ‘obscene’ Marib death toll rises

Posted on by

UN fears ceasefire talks have stalled after rebel leaders came close to accepting deal before rejecting it

The UN fears that hopes for a ceasefire in Yemen are effectively stalled until either the Houthi rebels choose to end their military offensive or decide the mounting death toll running into tens of thousands is unacceptable. The Houthis are currently driving towards the capture of the strategic and oil-rich governorate of Marib.

Extensive talks in April and May, including direct discussions between the Houthi leadership and Saudis in Oman, ended with the Houthis – also known as Ansar Allah – coming close to accepting a ceasefire deal before ultimately rejecting the offer.

Continue reading...

Revealed: 2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks

Posted on by

A Guardian analysis finds EU countries used brutal tactics to stop nearly 40,000 asylum seekers crossing borders

EU member states have used illegal operations to push back at least 40,000 asylum seekers from Europe’s borders during the pandemic, methods being linked to the death of more than 2,000 people, the Guardian can reveal.

In one of the biggest mass expulsions in decades, European countries, supported by EU’s border agency Frontex, has systematically pushed back refugees, including children fleeing from wars, in their thousands, using illegal tactics ranging from assault to brutality during detention or transportation.

Continue reading...

UN condemns violent repression of Colombia protests after at least 18 die

Posted on by

Riot police rampage across streets, shoot protesters and charge at crowds with motorcycles in week of unrest across the country

The United Nations has condemned the violent repression of protests in Colombia, after clashes between police and demonstrators left at least 18 dead and 87 people missing.

In a week of unrest across the country, riot police have rampaged across the smoke-filled streets, shooting protesters at point-blank range and charging at crowds with their motorcycles.

Continue reading...

‘Devastating for women and girls’: UK cuts 85% in aid to UN family planning

Posted on by

UNFPA says £130m being withheld would have helped prevent 250,000 child and maternal deaths in poorest countries

The British government is slashing its funding to the UN population fund (UNFPA) in a move described as “devastating” for women and girls.

The agency confirmed on Wednesday that the UK, its largest donor, is cutting funding for contraceptives and reproductive health supplies by 85% this year – from £154m to £23m – and cutting core funding from £20m to £8m.

Continue reading...

Almost 30 million will need aid in Sahel this year as crisis worsens, UN warns

Posted on by

Armed conflicts, the climate crisis and Covid-19 are contributing to chronic risk of food insecurity in the region, says Unocha report

A record 29 million people will need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin in 2021 amid a deepening crisis, a report by the UN office for humanitarian affairs (Unocha) has estimated.

Almost one in four people in the border areas of Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger and north-east Nigeria are expected to need aid in 2021, 5 million more than a year ago, and a 52% rise on 2019.

Continue reading...

UK accused of stranding vulnerable refugees after Brexit

Posted on by

Exclusive: Torture survivors and lone children stuck in Greece and Italy after Home Office ‘deliberately’ ends cooperation on family reunions

The Home Office has been accused of failing to reunite vulnerable refugees who have the right to join family in the UK under EU law, leaving lone children and torture survivors stranded.

The government faced widespread criticism when it announced that family reunion law would no longer apply after the UK left the EU, and it promised that cases under way on that date would be allowed to proceed.

Continue reading...

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to hold talks on resuming peace process

Posted on by

UN-led meeting in Geneva aims to re-energise efforts to end dispute four years after talks collapsed

Leaders from either side of Cyprus’s ethnic divide have flown to Geneva for a UN-led summit aimed at exploring whether the time is ripe to resume the peace process four years after the collapse of talks to reunify the island.

The foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey and Britain – Cyprus’s three guarantor powers – will join Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot teams in the hope of re-energising efforts to end the west’s longest-running dispute.

Continue reading...

Humanitarian system is failing people in crisis, says UN aid chief

Posted on by

Exclusive: coordinator of UN’s relief operation to say agencies not listening to needs of those in need

The world’s multibillion-dollar humanitarian system is struggling because unaccountable aid agencies are not listening to what people say they need and instead are deciding for them, the UN’s humanitarian agency head will say this week.

In a startling analysis of the programme he oversees, Mark Lowcock, the coordinator of the UN’s aid relief operation since 2017, will say he has reached the view that “one of the biggest failings” of the system is that agencies “do not pay enough attention” to the voices of people caught up in crises.

Continue reading...

Release Dubai’s Princess Latifa, UN experts tell UAE

Posted on by

Statement comes two months after BBC video in which Dubai ruler’s daughter said she was being held hostage

UN experts have demanded that the United Arab Emirates provide information about a daughter of Dubai’s ruler and release her, two months after the BBC published a video of Princess Latifa describing herself as a hostage in a villa.

The UAE said on 19 February that Sheikha Latifa was being cared for at home, after the United Nations human rights office headed by Michelle Bachelet asked for proof that she was alive amid growing international concern about her fate.

Continue reading...

‘People are not starving, they’re being starved’: millions at risk of famine, NGOs warn

Posted on by

Open letter backing UN call to action says Covid has exacerbated problems of conflict, climate crisis and inequality

World leaders are being urged to act immediately to stop multiple famines breaking out, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and caused by conflict, climate crisis and inequality.

In an open letter published on Tuesday to support the UN Call for Action to Avert Famine in 2021, hundreds of aid organisations from around the world said: “People are not starving – they are being starved.”

Continue reading...

‘It’s a day off’: wiretaps show Mediterranean migrants were left to die

Posted on by

Exclusive: Transcripts of conversations between Italian officials and Libyan coastguard contained in leaked file

At 8.18am on Friday 16 June 2017, the Libyan coastguard Col Massoud Abdalsamad received a long-distance phone call from an Italian coastguard official who told him that 10 migrant dinghies were in distress, many in Libyan territorial waters.

“It’s a day off. It’s a holiday here. But I can try to help,” Abdalsamad told the official. “Perhaps we can be there tomorrow.”

Continue reading...

Cop26 preparations to intensify after compromise on virtual talks

Posted on by

Governments to hold three-week virtual meeting next month before climate summit in November

Preparations for vital UN climate talks to take place this year in Glasgow are set to intensify next month, after nations compromised over how to conduct virtual negotiations ahead of the summit.

The climate talks, called Cop26, are set for November after being postponed for a year owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The summit is viewed as one of the last chances to put the world on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and tackle the climate emergency.

Continue reading...

UN outlines plan to close camps housing 430,000 refugees in Kenya

Posted on by

Proposals follow Kenyan government’s ultimatum to UN refugee agency to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps

The UN refugee agency has given the Kenyan government “sustainable and rights-based” proposals for the closure of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.

The response follows a 14-day ultimatum issued by the Kenyan government for the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to come up with a plan for closing the two camps, which are home to some 430,000 refugees and asylum seekers from more than 15 countries.

Continue reading...

Denmark strips Syrian refugees of residency permits and says it is safe to go home

Posted on by

Government denies renewal of temporary residency status from about 189 Syrians

Denmark has become the first European nation to revoke the residency permits of Syrian refugees, insisting that some parts of the war-torn country are safe to return to.

At least 189 Syrians have had applications for renewal of temporary residency status denied since last summer, a move the Danish authorities said was justified because of a report that found the security situation in some parts of Syria had “improved significantly”.

Continue reading...

Neglected tropical diseases are the landmines of global health | Albert Picado and John H Amuasi

Posted on by

They are 20 disparate diseases that, like mines, unduly affect the world’s poorest people. Now there’s a plan to eradicate them by 2030

In January the World Health Organization launched a new strategy for eradicating neglected tropical diseases, boldly setting targets to eliminate 20 of them by 2030.

But what are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)? There is no easy answer. The concept was first proposed in the early 2000s to bring to light a group of diseases that disproportionately affect poor people yet, despite their collective impact, do not attract as much attention as diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria or tuberculosis.

Continue reading...

Aid agencies can be harmful, says Somaliland tycoon

Posted on by

Ismail Ahmed, a refugee turned multimillionaire, says his country has had to battle ‘negative PR’

Aid agencies are hindering development and undermining efforts to attract investment in Somaliland, according to a former World Bank and UN official turned entrepreneur.

Ismail Ahmed, founder of the money-transfer company WorldRemit, claims Somaliland, his birthplace, has had to battle “negative PR” from aid agencies exaggerating their role to protect their interests. Somaliland declared itself a sovereign state independent of Somalia in 1991, but it is not recognised internationally.

Continue reading...

Iran nuclear deal talks: the key issues on the Vienna negotiating table

Posted on by

As talks resume, Iran and the signatories to the 2015 agreement face a web of sanctions to untangle

A joint commission responsible for overseeing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is looking for a way for the US to rejoin the agreement – abandoned under Donald Trump – and lift its sanctions on Tehran, and for Iran to end its retaliatory breaching of the limits placed on its nuclear programme.

Continue reading...

Zimbabwe under renewed pressure to give up Rwanda genocide suspect

Posted on by

Protais Mpiranya is top of a list of remaining fugitives indicted by an international tribunal

United Nations investigators tracking one of the most notorious killers in the Rwandan genocide believe he is hiding in Zimbabwe and are launching a new effort to convince authorities in Harare to allow the 60-year-old fugitive to face trial.

Protais Mpiranya, the former commander of the presidential guard of the Rwandan army, has been on the run for 27 years charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Continue reading...