Text: Kristine Grønhaug. Photo/video: Richard Ashton. Design: Tove Skjeflo
One day last year, when 12-year-old Salwa was at the market in her hometown in Sudan, the dark shadow of war came over her. And when, a few weeks later, her neighbours’ house was bombed and the children who lived there were killed, she fled.
()* — Spotlighting crises roiling parts of eastern Africa, the UN deputy chief concluded a regional visit in Adré, Chad, on Friday [], calling for global solidarity to tackle famine in Sudan, flooding and mass displacement while ensuring free-flowing aid for millions trapped in war zones and those fleeing for their lives.
Chad hosts more than 1.1 million refugees, many escaping violence in Sudan, where rival militaries have been fighting since April 2023. At the same time, the war has also triggered colossal suffering within Sudan’s borders.
Yemen: Needs grow for millions displaced amid catastrophic flooding and prolonged humanitarian emergency
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Mysa Khalaf – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
30 August 2024 (UNHCR)* — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning that millions of displaced Yemenis face worsening conditions as Yemen’s prolonged crisis deepens. This is according to the findings of a latest UNHCR assessment.
UNICEF calls for US$ 35 million for life-saving supplies as thousands of people and children remain stranded without food or emergency relief supplies
UNICEF/UNI631509/MukutPeople wading through the flood waters in Feni, Bangladesh, August 2024
DHAKA, 30 August 2024 (UNICEF)* -– Over two million children in eastern Bangladesh are at risk as floods sweep through homes, schools and villages, UNICEF has warned. In all, these floods, the worst in eastern Bangladesh in 34 years, have affected 5.6 million people.
Nairobi, 28 August 2024 – In half the world’s countries one or more types of freshwater ecosystems are degraded, including rivers, lakes and aquifers. River flow has significantly decreased, surface water bodies are shrinking or being lost, ambient water is growing more polluted, and water management is off-track.
()* — The level of the sea globally is rising faster and higher than ever before, creating what the United Nations has described as an “urgent and escalating threat” to people around the world.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been visiting the Pacific Ocean nations, Tonga and Samoa, where sea level rise has been one of the key issues he has been discussing with the communities he has met.
On 25 September, global leaders and experts will gather at the UN to discuss how best to address the threat.
Here’s what you need to know about sea level rise:
(UN News)* —Over 18 million people in Bangladesh have been affected by severe monsoon conditions, with more than 1.2 million families trapped as flash floods submerge vast areas of the country’s east and southeast.
The worst affected regions are Chattogram and Sylhet, where major rivers are “flowing well above danger levels”, further aggravating the situation, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
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Initial estimates suggest that around five million people – including two million children – have been affected, many stranded without food and relief.
(UN News)* — Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday [], the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation”.
The development follows “at least four” airstrikes by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) in the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem on Monday night that left five dead – three Palestinian men and two boys aged 13 and 15.
While election year politics dominates the news, the control of both major U.S. political parties by the fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex makes the policies they agree on more dangerous than their disagreements.
DNC delegates unfurl banner during Biden’s speech at the DNC. Photo credit: Esam Boraey
(UN News)* — The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday [] a pause in the movement of its employees in Gaza until further notice following an attack on a team returning from an aid delivery mission on Tuesday evening, just metres from an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.
WFP | A WFP team came under fire on the evening of 27 August, a few metres from an Israeli checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza Bridge.
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“This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza,” said the UN agency’s Executive Director Cindy McCain, calling on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza.