Currently, she’s a qualified refugee and human rights lawyer in New Zealand – but on Tuesday she recalled becoming displaced aged 14 and described the harrowing limbo that followed. Invisible and alone “I grew up invisible to the world,” she said. “Without rights, opportunities, or safety.” That all changed in...
At least 75 civilians have been killed in hostilities between the national army (SSPDF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) – which is both a political party and militia group loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar – and their respective allied armed groups, said UN human rights...
Nearly 20,000 people – mainly traumatized women and children – have reached Chad in the past two weeks, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “Most arrived in Chad with nothing – no food, money or identification,” said Magatte Guisse, UNHCR Representative in Chad. “Several wounded individuals, including children and elderly...
Over 850,000 civilians have been displaced in South Kivu province, nearly half of them children, according to the agency. Many are living in precarious conditions, sheltering in schools, churches or in the open, lacking clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. Grave violations against children have also sharply risen, including...
“Near the frontlines, sexual violence and human rights abuses remain rampant, as is the looting and destruction of civilian homes and businesses,” said Patrick Eba, Deputy Director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection. Speaking in Geneva, Mr. Eba told journalists that that North and South Kivu provinces remain unstable, with...
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at a regular news briefing in New York that aid trucks from Türkiye to Idlib via Bab Al-Hawa are continuing to get through with vital assistance to communities in need. “Yesterday, 43 trucks carrying more than 1,000 metric tonnes of food from the World...
Ten “Land Heroes” from around the world, all under the age of 35, have been chosen by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to share their achievements and ideas for sustainable land management in the face of the growing global threat of desertification and land loss. As UNCCD’s 16th global...
Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with their allied militias, continue to flout international humanitarian and human rights laws, said Martha Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa at the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), while addressing the Security Council. “Violations...
Wad Madani is located some 140 kilometres southeast of the war-torn capital Khartoum and sits at the heart of Al Jazirah state, known as Sudan’s breadbasket. Nearly half a million people have fled to the state since war broke out in April between the Sudanese Army and a rival military...
Speaking in Doha at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview, Mr. Griffiths said that the situation was “getting worse”, while efforts to secure “moments of peace” remained of the “greatest importance”. According to the latest update on the emergency from UN relief coordination office (OCHA), tens of thousands of people “in desperate...
Among those fighting the military are a loose coalition of well-armed ethnic militias, as well as the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) – an armed group supporting National Unity Government (NUG) and opposed to the February 2021 military coup, according to media reports. Telecommunication blackouts In a flash update, the UN...
In a joint statement 27 aid organisations including UN agencies and their partners issued a call for an immediate stop to the fighting, stressing that conditions in Gaza are “amongst the worst we have witnessed”. Emergency meeting in New York Meanwhile, in New York, Ecuador – which holds the presidency...