She knows what it’s like to be silenced. Born into a family that didn’t believe in educating girls, she had to stay home while her brothers went to school. Only when she moved to Khartoum with her uncle did she get a chance to study, though not for long. “I was forced into marriage at 14,” Awrelia...
That ordeal reduced people to eating peanut shells and animal feed, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday, before condemning the reported mass killings of civilians, executions based on ethnicity and other atrocities, which are likely continuing. At the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk told Member...
“Women speaking to us from El Fasher, the heart of Sudan’s latest catastrophe, tell us that they’ve endured starvation…displacement, rape and bombardment,” Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, told reporters in Geneva. “Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity...
“We see massive violations of international human rights law, direct attacks on civilians, noncompliance with international humanitarian law, which regulates conduct in relation to hostilities, and that the attacks are largely on civilians,” said Chaloka Beyani, who recently took up his post as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General for the Prevention...
Reports of mass atrocities in and around the newly-captured city of El Fasher in Darfur mark a new low in Sudan’s brutal civil war and the Security Council met in emergency session on Thursday morning in New York to address the rapidly deteriorating situation. Civilians are facing starvation and mass...
In Nairobi, home to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Executive Director Inger Andersen highlighted the city’s unique role as the only UN headquarters in the Global South – and underscored UNEP’s long-standing work on climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Youth participation was also recognised as a driving force for...
Sudan stands at the epicentre of one of the world’s “most severe” humanitarian crises, according to the UN. Over 30 million people now need urgent humanitarian assistance, among them 9.6 million displaced from their homes and nearly 15 million children caught in a struggle for daily survival. “This is one...
The warning from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, follows ongoing and repeated attacks on El Fasher, which is under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Ten days ago, the Darfuri city’s Daraja Oula neighbourhood was targeted in a drone strike, killing at least 57 civilians who’d been displaced...
The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan issued the warning at the conclusion of a mission to the Africa Union (AU) headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, but deadly fighting broke out in late 2013 between troops loyal to President...
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, has received reports that the attack occurred in a facility hosting families displaced by the ongoing conflict in the region. A further 21 children were reportedly injured. According to media reporting, up to 60 people were killed on Saturday’s assault by the Rapid Support Forces...
This follows reports that at least 53 civilians were killed and more than 60 injured by members of the Rapid Support Forces militia, the RSF, between 5 and 8 October alone. Preliminary information from the area – the last government-controlled city in North Darfur – suggests the number may be...
On Thursday, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group reportedly opened fire on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Saudi hospital and a local mosque, where displaced families had sought refuge. The Saudi hospital “is the last functioning medical facility in the city,...
