In the capital Khartoum, WFP’s Jon Dumont finds a war-shattered, hungry city
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The broken doll at Khartoum’s Omdurman market. Photo: WFP/Jonathan Dumont
(WFP)*, 1 October 2024 — Walking through Khartoum’s shattered streets a few weeks ago, I spotted this doll’s head — eyes wide open, red mouth eerily smiling — lost in the rubble of the city’s once-iconic Omdurman market.
()* — The UN-designated human rights expert on Sudan has called for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with their allied militias, to take immediate steps to protect civilians in greater Khartoum amid escalating violence and alarming reports of summary executions.
The warning on Thursday [3 October 2024] comes as the SAF launched a major offensive last month to regain control of key areas currently held by the RSF. The two armies led by rival generals have been locked in a brutal power struggle since April 2023.
Armed conflict puts children at an increased risk of grave violations while their risk of being trafficked similarly increases, including in transitional periods, a new UN study has revealed.
The report – the first of its kind – analyses the links between child trafficking and the six grave violations against children caught up in war.
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They are recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.
(UN News)* —Action is needed now to stop the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea from “becoming mass graves for migrants”, two UN agencies on warned the Security Council.
“The scale of this tragedy, its impact on survivors, families and communities and the frequency with which we witness deaths in transit constitute an intolerable and utterly soluble, humanitarian crisis,” said Pär Liljert, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN, referring to one of the world’s most deadly routes for migrants and refugees, as they attempt to reach countries of the European Union.
Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah
In her village in Sudan’s West Darfur region, Samar once eagerly attended class, especially math, her favorite. Today, she lives in a teeming refugee site just across the border in Chad, fetching water and milling sorghum so her family can survive.
NEW YORK, Sep 30 2024 (IPS)** –The world is standing at a critical juncture. Climate change is not just a future threat—it’s here, and it’s already devastating lives. From record-breaking heat waves to floods and landslides, the planet is sending us clear signals that we cannot afford to ignore.
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Nakabuye speaks to a crowd of over one thousand at the Youth Climate Strike rally in New York City on September 20, 2024.
But for many of us in the Global South, this crisis is not new. It is a daily reality that we have been living with for years, despite contributing almost nothing to the problem.
ROME, 25 September 2024 – The Italian authorities imposed yet another punitive measure on the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for performing its legal and humanitarian duty to save lives at sea.
This time, the vessel received two separate detention orders, immediately after the Geo Barents had finished disembarking 206 survivors in Genoa, in northern Italy.
26 September 2024 —There is a stand-alone article in the European Union’s founding Treaty that puts human rights at the core of EU foreign policy.
There are authoritative guidelines and a comprehensive action plan on human rights and democracy, adopted by EU governments, to guide the bloc’s external actions.
MVOMERO, Tanzania, Sep 24 2024 (IPS)* – In the scorching sun of Mikese village in Tanzania’s eastern Mvomero district, 31-year-old Maria Naeku tirelessly tends to her small vegetable patch. Each time she pulls a weed, the red soil stains her hands as she guides the trickle of water from a maze of pipes through an elevated bed to nurture her plants. In a drought-stricken area, Naeku’s small garden is a lifeline for her family, giving them food and income.
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Maria Naeku, a Maasaiwoman in Mikese village in Mvomero district tends to her vegetable garden.Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS
Everyone seems to have had a family member or friend who has either gotten seriously ill or died due to acquiring an infection that did not respond to prescribed medicines, and the underlying reason was often antimicrobial resistance.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 