'Unseen' News and Views
9 November 2017 – Yemen will be gripped by famine – one the likes of which the world has not seen in years – if the blockade on basic supplies into the country imposed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is not lifted immediately, the top United Nations humanitarian official has warned.
An internally displaced woman and her daughter look over the city of Sana’a, Yemen, from the roof of this dilapidated building they call their new home. Photo: Giles Clarke/UN OCHA
Youth groups working in Africa’s Congo Basin countries are supporting economic progress in isolated rural communities while protecting the forest, and it is high time their voices were heard, a young woman at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, on 9 November 2017 said.
The Congo Basin harbours the world’s second largest tropical forest. It is also a key resource for stabilizing the global climate. Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano
The cost of importing food is rising in 2017, driven by increased international demand for most food stuffs, as well as higher freight charges, the United Nations agriculture agency on 9 November 2017 said.
Women process cassava for food preparation in Mbaiki, Central African Republic. $6.2 million is urgently needed to prevent further worsening of the food security situation. Photo: FAO/Riccardo Gangale
While food commodity prices have been generally stable, the cost of importing food is forecast to rise six per cent in 2017 to $1.413 trillion, making it the second highest bill on record, according to the latest Food Outlook published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), expressing concern about the economic and social impact of this trend on poor countries.
Born stateless, this baby acquired nationality in 2008 in Bangladesh. Credit: UNHCR/G.M.B. Akash
These millions of human beings are victims of continued discrimination, exclusion and persecution, states a UN refugee agency’s new report, calling for “immediate action” to secure equal nationality rights for all.
. **Photo: Three F-15C Saudi from 13 Squadron | Author: Saudi88hawk | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
On Saturday the 4th November, the Berliner Gazette‘s Friendly Fire conference asked: how is citizenship changing in war times?
Very rarely are the root causes of economic crises and vulnerability addressed. Credit: IPS
Very rarely are the root causes of crises and vulnerability addressed.
In their efforts to prove themselves as worthy emerging markets, they tend to be pro-active in joining the financial globalization bandwagon.
But premature financial liberalization – with hasty integration into the international financial system, typically without adequate prudential multilateral mechanisms for speedy and orderly resolution of external liquidity and debt crises – can be very dangerous and costly.
Afghanistan has seen a sharp increase in attacks against places of worship, religious leaders and worshippers, with civilian casualties since 2016 representing nearly double the cumulative number of the preceding seven years, the United Nations mission in the country on 7 November 2017 said in a special report.
Afghanistan is home to a rich heritage of cultural sites, but many have been damaged by conflict and are in various states of disrepair. Photo UNAMA/Eric Kanalstein
7 November 2017 – The innovative data collection technology employed by the United Nations refugee agency for the first stage of Rohingya family counting in Bangladesh has revealed a worrying statistic: one-third of the refugee population is vulnerable.
Staff from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees interview Rohingyas at a UNHCR transit center in Bangladesh. Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold
“In an innovative and revealing family counting exercise, UNHCR [the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] teams found that one-third of the families are vulnerable,” Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR spokesperson told reporters at the regular press briefing in Geneva.
6 November 2017 – Expressing horror at continued violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country has called on the conflicting sides to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.
The city of Sa’ada in the Sa’ada Governorate has been heavily hit by airstrikes during the conflict in Yemen (file). Photo: OCHA/Philippe Kropf
Scene from Codrington town in Barbuda during the Secretary-General’s visit to survey the damage caused by recent hurricanes. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
On the one hand, the organisers – the UN, Fiji and Germany – express strong hopes that it will speed up the implementation of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
On the other, a giant contributor to global warming – the United States – decided to desert that milestone Agreement. Meanwhile, major European powers have been, again, prodigious in unmet promises.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 