(UN News)* —The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan presented its latest report to the Human Rights Council on 28 February 2025 in Geneva, detailing widespread violations, including extrajudicial killings, forced recruitment of children and systematic sexual violence.
Despite South Sudan winning independence over a decade ago and repeated commitments to peace during years of civil war, the Commission found that the same patterns of abuses persist, often implicating high-ranking officials.
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 27 2025 (IPS)* –Renewable energy and climate change activists have challenged African heads of state to take a united stance to safeguard essential mineral resources, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other parts of the continent, which are selfishly exploited by foreign miners with disregard for poverty-stricken local communities.
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Dr. Augustine Njamnshi of ACSEA addresses a group of civil society organizations ahead of the AUC Summit in Addis Ababa. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
Konaté sits on the step of her home. Photo: OCHA/Ibrahima Koné
At the Sossokoira displacement site in Gao, she sits in a tent with other women from her community. Her face is etched with exhaustion and quiet strength.
Like thousands of other residents of Talataye village, Nana sought refuge in this displacement site on the outskirts of Gao, far from the home she once knew.
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb 19 2024 (IPS)* –– Imperialism continues to dominate the world. Globalisation is losing to some of its anti-theses, but imperialism still rules, increasingly by law, albeit in changing even contradictory ways.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Hence, we live in challenging times. It is often difficult to see the main challenges we face as there seem to be so many.
Also, the new or the unusual gains far more attention than what appears commonplace.
Power and empire Our histories and cultures are often quite different despite our common, but varied experiences of foreign domination, even rule.
Such power involves varied mixes of socioeconomic and political relations, involving governance and even the rule of law.
Our world has seen empires and imperialism for over two millennia, at least from before the time of Jesus Christ in Palestine, who had to deal with the satraps of the Roman empire then.
(UN News)* — There were just under 150 incidents of illegal or unauthorised activity involving nuclear and other radioactive material reported last year, according to the international nuclear energy watchdog’s monitoring database tracking these incidents.
New data released on Friday [] from the UN-backed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reveals that while the overall number remains consistent with previous years, the continued incidents of trafficking and radioactive contamination cases raises concerns over nuclear security.
PORT SUDAN, Sudan, – Intense fighting in Zamzam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region has forced the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to temporarily pause the distribution of life-saving food and nutrition assistance in the famine-hit camp for displaced people.
(UN News)* — The United States has cut $377 million worth of funding to the UN reproductive and sexual health agency, UNFPA, it was confirmed on Thursday [], leading to potentially “devasting impacts”, on women and girls.
“At 7pm on 26 February, UNFPA was informed that nearly all of our grants (48 as of now) with USAID and the US State Department have been terminated,” the UN agency said in a statement.
“This decision will have devastating impacts on women and girls and the health and aid workers who serve them in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”
(UN News)* — UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday [] called for an end to the “abhorrent, dehumanizing narratives” that continue to hamper a positive outcome to the Middle East crisis.
Mr. Türk – making his closing remarks during the session reporting on the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the Human Rights Council – said he was deeply troubled by the “dangerous manipulation of language” and disinformation that surrounds discussions over the Palestine-Israel conflict.
(UN News)* —A senior UN aid official has called on the Security Council to ensure better protection for civilians in Sudan together with unhindered humanitarian access, as the brutal war between rival militaries approaches a second year.
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WFP | Displaced Sudanese people wait to receive food from the World Food Programme (WFP). (file)
“Now more than ever, two years on, the people of Sudan need your action,” Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said in a briefing to ambassadors on Wednesday [].
“Nearly two years of relentless conflict in Sudan have inflicted immense suffering and turned parts of the country into a hellscape,” she added, listing some of the impacts.
Mogadishu, 26 February 2025 – New data from Somalia shows that 4.4 million people could face hunger by April 2025, driven by worsening drought conditions, conflict and high food prices.
© WFP/Eulalia Berlanga | Displaced South Sudanese people arrive at a camp in Upper Nile State. (file)
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 