'Unseen' News and Views
In Germany, wind and solar energy coexist with energy generated by burning fossil fuels. A wind farm next to one of the electric power plants fired by lignite in the Western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
Expansion of Garzweiler, an open-pit lignite mine, has led to the town’s remaining residents being relocated to New Immerath, several kilometres away from the original town site, in North Rhine-Westphalia, whose biggest city is Cologne.
Some 26,500 South Sudanese, mostly women and children, have crossed into Uganda since fighting between rival forces erupted in and around the capital, Juba, on 7 July, the United Nations refugee agency on 22 July 2016 reported.
Refugees from South Sudan are transported from Elego town to the Numanzi Transit Center where meals and temporary accommodation are provided by UNHCR in Adjumani, northern Uganda. Photo: UNHCR/Will Swanson
Yesterday alone [21 July], an estimated 8,337 refugees crossed into Uganda, setting a single-day record since the influx began in 2016.
“Thousands of people continue to flee uncertainty and fighting in South Sudan,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Andreas Needham, told reporters in Geneva, adding that more than 90 per cent of those are women and children.
Elephants in a solar-powered holding pen in Malawi, which is carrying out a major translocation between conservation parks. Credit: Charles Mkoka/IPS
Patricio Ndadzela, Malawi country director of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group based in South Africa that is leading the relocation, told IPS that so far, 10 bulls and 144 family groups of elephants have been successfully captured from the park and transported 300 kilometers by truck to their new home in the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in central Malawi.
20 July 2016 – The United Nations food relief agency has launched what is set to become the largest ever emergency food relief operation in Malawi, where an unprecedented El Niño-related drought has left nearly 40 per cent of the population in need of emergency assistance.
A mother carries her daughter as they evacuate from Typhoon Koppu-hit town of Laur, Philippines, on 19 October 2015. The ongoing El Niño pattern is likely to be one of the strongest since 1998 and will continue into early 2016. Photo: UNICEF/Jeoffrey Maitem
Wrapping up a visit to southern Africa, the United Nations deputy humanitarian chief on 22 July 2016 called for urgent action to assist millions of people across the region where local coping capacities have been impacted by the worst El Niño-induced drought in 35 years.
Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang visits the Grand Sud region of Madagascar and takes a taste of the riz and maiz cooked for those in need. Photo: OCHA/ Laila Bourhil
“In Anjampaly, Southern Madagascar, people are carting water from muddy puddles on the dirt road, a water source shared with animals,” said Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang. “This is an alarming health issue: clean water is essential to combat the high rates of malnutrition,” she stressed.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 