(UN News)* — As nearly 40 per cent of land across the planet is degraded with more acres lost every second, governments, businesses and communities must galvanize action to reverse the damage and protect Earth, the UN chief said in a strong message for the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, marked annually on 17 June.
“The security, prosperity and health of billions of people rely on thriving lands supporting lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, but we’re vandalising the Earth that sustains us.”
Brussels (IOM)* — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 14 June 2024 launched two new reports on Belgium’s remittances landscape and the impact of high transaction costs on remittance flows and development outcomes for 21 countries.
Kriticos who is originally from Zambia and Tanzania and Jason from Rwanda are two of the many diaspora members who have embraced a new life in Belgium as well as their roots. Photo: IOM/Moayad Zaghdani
In Belgium, where one third of the population has a migrant background, over USD 7 billion (EUR 6.5 billion) in remittances were sent in 2023, but the costs of sending are high.
(UN News)* —Violence against children caught in armed conflict reached “extreme levels” last year, with a “shocking” 21 per cent increase in extreme violations, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a report published on Thursday [13 June 2024].
Children were killed and maimed in unprecedented numbers in places such as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, notably Gaza; Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Ukraine, his annual report on Children and Armed Conflict revealed.
The alarming increase was due to the evolving nature, complexity, and intensification of armed conflict, as well as the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, the report said.
UNHCR warns against apathy and inaction amid spike in forced displacement.
GENEVA, 13 June 2024 (UNHCR)* — Overall numbers rise to 120 million by May 2024; conflicts from Sudan to Gaza and Myanmar are creating new displacement and urgently require resolution.
Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The rise in overall forced displacement – to 120 million by May 2024 – was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises.
The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan’s.
KARACHI, Jun 12 2024 (IPS)* –A dark head emerges, followed by the torso. The balding man heaves himself up, hands on the sides of the manhole, as he is helped by two men. Gasping for breath, the man, who seems to be in his late 40s, sits on the edge, wearing just a pair of dark pants, the same color as the putrid swirling water he comes out from.
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A sewer worker who is popularly known as Mithoo emerges from the sewer. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS
This is an all-too-familiar sight in Karachi, with its over 20 million residents producing 475 million gallons per day(MGD) of wastewater going into decades-old crumbling sewerage-systems.
11 June 2024 (UN News)* — The Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a campaign on Tuesday to address the unfolding crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, amid the going war between rival military forces that erupted last April.
In a video posted on social media, Karim Khan urged victim groups, civil society organizations, national authorities, and international partners to engage with his Office and provide any evidence and material relating to the ongoing atrocities being inflicted on civilians.
3 June 2024 — For the second year in a row Burkina Faso is the world’s most neglected displacement crisis, according to a new report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). The normalisation of neglect is exacerbating needs and deepening despair.
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“My biggest worry as a mother is that my children are hungry, and I don’t have enough food to feed them,” said Mariam, a displaced mother now living in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso.
The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media attention, and a lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives compared to the number of people in need.
The crisis in Cameroon is listed second, having featured on the list every year since 2018.
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Alpha Seydi Ba – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at 7 June 2024’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
GENEVA – (UNHCR)* — UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply concerned about the fast-growing humanitarian crisis in the Sahel Region.
In the Central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, over 3.3 million people are forcibly displaced due to relentless conflict, exacerbated by the worsening effects of the climate crisis, according to April 2024 data. This staggering forced displacement of civilians demands immediate international action to prevent it worsening.
Benin-City, Edo State, Nigeria, 11 June 2024 (IOM)* –Frederick could barely hold back tears as he recounted his story. Six years after his return, he is still healing from the trauma of his experience in Libya.
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Frederick poses in his barbershop in Benin-City, Edo State. Like him, thousands of Nigerians have returned home and with IOM’s support, they’re slowly rebuilding their lives. Photo: IOM/François-Xavier
“When I came back, I had nothing,” he says in a low, breaking voice, sitting outside his modest barbershop in a suburb of Benin-City, in Nigeria’s Edo State. “But today, at least I have a business and I am healthy. I was in hell in that country, but I am happy to be back home.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 