Category Archives: United Nations

Libyan strongman orders troops to march on Tripoli

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Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar says forces’ move will ‘shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch’

The strongman who controls two thirds of Libya has ordered his forces to march to Tripoli, the capital of the UN-backed government, raising fears of a major showdown with rival militias.

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who commands the “Libya National Army” (LNA) based in the east, described his forces’ move as a “victorious march” to “shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch”.

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UN calls for food aid for starving North Koreans despite sanctions

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Exclusive: western donors urged to ‘put children before politics’ in face of food shortfall

The head of the UN World Food Programme has called for the White House and other western donors to put children’s lives before politics and fund a major injection of aid to North Korea despite the failure of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un.

David Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina who backed Trump’s campaign for the US presidency, said he had heard concerns that responding to an appeal from Pyongyang would prop up the Kim regime.

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Latin Americans fear precedent set by legal justification for Syria intervention

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Countries fear that legal standard of states being ‘unwilling or unable’ to deal with terrorism could be used in Latin America

Latin American states are mounting a challenge to the acceptance of a legal standard promoted by the US, UK and their allies to justify military operations in the Middle East, fearing the same standard could eventually be used to justify intervention in their own hemisphere.

The Mexican government is spearheading an effort at the UN to bring greater transparency to the formal legal justifications presented by western powers for military operations in Syria and elsewhere.

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UN joins Clooney in decrying ‘inhuman’ Brunei anti-gay law

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Penal code that imposes death by stoning for gay sex is serious setback for rights, says commissioner

The United Nations has condemned “cruel and inhuman” laws set to take effect in Brunei this week that impose death by stoning for gay sex and adultery, and amputations for theft.

“I appeal to the government to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protections for the people of Brunei if implemented,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, said in a statement.

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UK will change tack on UN motions criticising Israel, says Jeremy Hunt

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Policy will be to vote against claims of rights abuses by Israel brought under special protocol

The UK will oppose motions criticising rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza that are brought to the UN’s human rights council under a special procedure dedicated to Israel’s behaviour in the occupied territories, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The move is likely to delight the Trump administration, which quit the human rights council in June last year, citing its approach to Israel. It also appears aimed at cementing the Conservative party’s relations with pro-Israel sections of the British Jewish community at a time when the Labour party is mired in criticism of its handling of antisemitism complaints.

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UN to explore wave of deaths linked to food aid porridge in Uganda

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World Food Programme halts distribution of fortified cereal as four people die and hundreds suffer suspected food poisoning

The World Food Programme and Ugandan government have launched an investigation into deaths linked with the distribution of fortified porridge to refugees and people suffering from malnourishment.

The health ministry was alerted to reports of possible food poisoning among people who had consumed Super Cereal, a blended food designed to prevent malnutrition, in the north-east region of Karamoja on 12 March.

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US accused of trying to dilute global agreements on women’s rights

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Draft documents suggest US will refuse to reaffirm commitment to international declaration on women’s rights at New York forum

US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word “gender” from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women’s rights.

In negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resume at UN headquarters this week, the US wants to replace “gender” in the forum’s outcome document with references only to women and girls.

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US and Saudi Arabia blocking regulation of geoengineering, sources say

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Delegates at UN environment assembly say the oil producers are protecting their industries

The United States and Saudi Arabia have hamstrung global efforts to scrutinise climate geoengineering in order to benefit their fossil fuel industries, according to multiple sources at the United Nations environment assembly, taking place this week in Nairobi.

The world’s two biggest oil producers reportedly led opposition against plans to examine the risks of climate-manipulating technology such as sucking carbon out of the air, reflective mirrors in space, seeding the oceans and injecting particulates into the atmosphere.

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Ethiopian Airlines crash – a visual guide to what we know so far

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Disaster marks second crash for Boeing 737 Max 8 in four months, with passengers from 35 different countries

An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday near Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. Here’s what we know about the crash.

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No peace in Yemen until south’s wish to split with north heard, MPs told

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Head of southern transitional council says ignoring will of people is ‘recipe for instability’

Peace in Yemen is impossible without acknowledgement of southern Yemen’s calls for independence from the north, leaders of the United Arab Emirates-backed southern transitional council (STC) are due to tell British MPs and officials as they step up efforts to be involved in the peace talks.

The south of Yemen, briefly a communist state, was united with the north in 1990 and southern separatists were then beaten militarily when they tried to secede in 1994. Continued southern resentment at the north’s control of the country’s resources, including by the rebel Houthis, is a large undercurrent in the civil war.

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UN says Israel’s killings at Gaza protests may amount to war crimes

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Inquiry accuses army of killing demonstrators ‘who were not posing an imminent threat’

UN investigators have accused Israeli soldiers of intentionally firing on civilians and said they may have committed war crimes in their lethal response to Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.

The independent Commission of Inquiry, set up last year by the UN’s human rights council, said Israeli forces killed 189 people and shot more than 6,100 others with live ammunition near the fence that divides the two territories.

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Infant mortality in Venezuela has doubled during crisis, UN says

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UN security council officials clash over ‘politicised’ aid to troubled country as peace-building chief warns of ‘grim realities’

Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country.

Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela’s health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level.

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Rohingya crisis: UN investigates its ‘dysfunctional’ conduct in Myanmar

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Exclusive: Inquiry follows claims it ignored warning signs before alleged Rohingya genocide

The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority.

UN sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the initially hesitant UN secretary general, António Guterres, decided to proceed with the investigation after a “build-up in pressure” within the organisation.

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Trump’s UN ambassador pick, Heather Nauert, withdraws from consideration

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Former Fox News host says she is not going ahead with appointment for family reasons

The state department says Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert, has withdrawn.

The department released a statement on Saturday evening Washington time saying Nauert had withdrawn and another nominee would be announced “soon”.

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Condom handouts in schools prevent disease without encouraging sex

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UN study finds misgivings over impact of condom distribution in secondary schools are misplaced

Making condoms available to teenagers at school does not make them more promiscuous – but neither does it reduce teenage pregnancy rates.

According to a major review by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), giving out condoms in secondary schools does not increase sexual activity, or encourage young people to have sex at an earlier age.

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Saudi crown prince wanted to go after Jamal Khashoggi ‘with a bullet’ – report

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US media quotes intelligence sources who intercepted a conversation between Mohammed bin Salman and an aide in 2017

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince told a senior aide he would go after Jamal Khashoggi “with a bullet” a year before the dissident journalist was killed inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, according to a US media report.

US intelligence understood that Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s 33-year-old de facto ruler, was ready to kill the journalist, although he may not have literally meant he planned to shoot him, according to the New York Times ($).

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Yemen war: UN anchors ship off Red Sea port for ‘neutral ground’ talks

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Vessel moored near Hodeidah hosts meetings with Yemen government delegates and Houthi rebels

Yemen peace talks have been held onboard a UN-chartered boat anchored in the Red Sea in an attempt to find a neutral venue acceptable to both sides.

Patrick Cammaert, a retired Dutch general and head of the UN mission in Yemen, chaired the meeting on the ship moored off the port city of Hodeidah. Houthi rebel military officials had refused to meet in government-held areas in southern Hodeidah, citing security fears.

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Hodeidah residents fear Yemen violence will rupture ceasefire

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Houthi fighters resume planting landmines and aid workers say families are sifting through rubbish for food

Residents and aid workers in the besieged Yemeni city of Hodeidah fear that growing violence in the city will rupture the fragile ceasefire, despite insistences from the UN that both sides remain committed to negotiating the end of the four-year-old civil war.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in control of the city sparked fears of escalation this week after UAE foreign minister Anwar Gargash said it struck 10 Houthi training camps elsewhere in the country in retaliation for what he said was a spike in Houthi violations of the truce.

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Djibouti: scores feared dead after two migrant boats overturn

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Coastguard warns death toll will rise, as UN reveals six migrants die at sea each day

Scores of people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Djibouti after two migrant boats capsized, amid new warnings from the UN that six people a day die on maritime smuggling routes to Europe and elsewhere.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the alarm was raised over the latest incident after two survivors were recovered. As the search for more survivors continued, the IOM said on Wednesday that 38 people had been confirmed dead.

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Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues

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UNHCHR wants access after Indonesian military crackdown in response to guerrilla attack

Indonesia has agreed in principle to allow the UN office of the human rights commissioner into West Papua amid continuing violence in the region.

The long-running low-level insurgency violently escalated late last year, after West Papuan guerrillas attacked a construction site in Nduga, killing at least 17 people they claimed were Indonesian military but who Jakarta insists were civilian workers.

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