UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday that the Secretary-General “has been monitoring with alarm the reports of violence in the suburbs of Damascus and in the south of Syria, including reports of civilian casualties and assassination of local administration figures.” More than 100 people have reportedly been killed in...
That is the warning from a new report by the UN Spotlight Initiative, which finds that climate change is intensifying the social and economic stresses that are fuelling increased levels of violence against women and girls. The report finds that extreme weather, displacement, food insecurity, and economic instability are key factors increasing...
Special Representative María Isabel Salvador told ambassadors in the Security Council that a “deliberate and coordinated” campaign is being waged by organized crime groups to expand territorial control and paralyse the capital, Port-au-Prince. Recent gang attacks have targeted previously unaffected areas such as Delmas and Pétion-Ville, while the storming...
Renewed attacks on camps – including Zamzam and Abu Shouk – that were sheltering those displaced by earlier violence have now forced an estimated 400,000 to 450,000 people to flee again. According to the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, many are moving towards the town of Tawila,...
At least five humanitarian workers were said to be among those injured, and significant damage was reported to port infrastructure. There are also fears of oil leaks into the Red Sea, raising environmental concerns. In a statement issued on Saturday by his spokesperson, António Guterres emphasised that international law, including...
The finding comes in its latest brief on violence against civilians, which also reveals a similar rise in incidents of conflict-related sexual violence (CSRV). Sources include victims and eyewitness accounts, as well as reports from secondary sources identified during field missions, service providers and protection partners. Killings, abductions and other horrors...
Spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva via video link from Goma that children could account for up to 45 per cent of the nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence documented in January and February, amid heightened tensions between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and Government forces across the mineral-rich...
Intense clashes between local armed groups and M23 rebels were reported on Thursday in the town of Masisi Centre in North Kivu. Preliminary reports from partners on the ground indicate at least two civilian fatalities and multiple injuries, with several wounded evacuated to Masisi General Hospital. Meanwhile, many civilians remain...
It is nearly two years since the brutal war between the forces of the military government in Khartoum and the Rapid Support Forces militia erupted, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Human rights abuses have been committed on both sides and more than 30.4 million Sudanese require urgent...
The grim revelation emerged during a high-level discussion at the UN in Geneva on the human rights situation in DRC. The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Surging violence Despite best...
Gang violence, displacement and instability have long gripped Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country, but attacks over the past two months have shattered even the few remaining gang-free areas, leaving communities increasingly vulnerable. The Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed, and many neighbourhoods – once seen as...
“Israel has increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination,” maintained Chris Sidoti from the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). ‘Increasingly used’ Speaking in Geneva, the human rights lawyer said that...