Archive for ‘Africa’

15/09/2024

Nigeria: Hundreds of Thousands in Need of Aid as Flooding Wipes Out Homes – World Food Programme

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — UN humanitarians are rushing to assist scores of newly displaced people in northeast Nigeria, after torrential rains caused a dam to collapse and flood the area, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday [].

Millions remain displaced across Nigeria due to conflict, climate change impacts and natural disasters. In this file photo, a girl carries water to her shelter at an IDP camp in the country's northeast. (file)
© UNICEF/KC Nwakalor | Millions remain displaced across Nigeria due to conflict, climate change impacts and natural disasters. In this file photo, a girl carries water to her shelter at an IDP camp in the country’s northeast. (file)
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Alau Dam, located just over 10 miles to the south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, collapsed in the middle of the night on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.
13/09/2024

The Deadly US Weapons of Civilian Destruction

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 2024 (IPS)* As the devastating 11-month-old conflict in Gaza keeps escalating, with over 41,000 mostly civilian killings, and more than 92,000 Palestinians injured –in retaliation for the 1,200 killings inside Israel last October– the Israelis continue to defy the United States which maintains its uninterrupted flow of heavy weapons to Tel Aviv.

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Much of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed in the conflict. Credit: UNRWA

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13/09/2024

Atmosphere of ‘Desperation, Extreme Fear and Trauma’ Envelops Women of Sudan

Human Wrongs Watch

By Abdelmonem Makki

(UN News)* — An atmosphere of desperation, extreme fear and trauma envelops the women of Sudan in a conflict that has left half of its 50-million-person population in dire need of assistance, according to Laila Baker, a senior regional director from the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA.

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Laila Baker, UNFPA Regional Director for Arab States, talks to a Sudanese displaced woman in Port Sudan.
UNFPA | Laila Baker, UNFPA Regional Director for Arab States, talks to a Sudanese displaced woman in Port Sudan.
10/09/2024

Cooking Smoke Kills Millions Every Year. Here’s What the World Can Do about That

Human Wrongs Watch

5 September 2024 (UNEP)* — For billions of people across the developing world, particularly children and women, mealtime starts by firing up a kerosene stove, lighting a charcoal grill or setting some logs ablaze. 

Credit: Robert Harding via AFP/Lee Frost
10/09/2024

Tackling Climate Change Will Be a Pyrrhic Victory If We Lose Sight of the Poor

Human Wrongs Watch

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ROME, Sep 3 2024 (IPS)** Last July, we were confronted with alarming statistics: 733 million people experienced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally.

In Africa it was even higher, with one in five people going hungry. Climate change is a significant driver of this crisis.

Social protection programmes have a critical role to play building a future that is mutually beneficial to People and Planet.

A Latin American rural family. Credit: Santiago Billy / FAO

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09/09/2024

Vicious Circle of Climate Change, Wildfires and Air Pollution Has Major Impacts – World Meteorological Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

05 September 2024 (WMO)* — A vicious cycle of climate change, wildfires and air pollution is having a spiralling negative impact on human health, ecosystems and agriculture, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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The WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin includes a special focus on wildfires. It also looks at global and regional concentrations of particulate matter pollution and its harmful effects on crops in 2023. 

09/09/2024

Climate Change: ‘Graveyard of Glaciers’ Lays bare Existential Threat of Melting Ice

Human Wrongs Watch

By Árni Snævarr

Iceland´s glaciers are retreating so rapidly that future generations may wonder how the ancient island nation got its name. No surprise then that the land of the Vikings was chosen to house the world’s first global glacier graveyard which was unveiled at a ceremony last month, close to the capital Reykjavik.

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The glacier graveyard is located close to the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.
© Josh Okun | The glacier graveyard is located close to the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.
09/09/2024

The World Must ‘Wake Up and Help Sudan Out of the Nightmare of Conflict’ – World Health Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Sudan’s health system is “near collapse” after 16 months of war have left the country and its people facing what the UN’s top health official described on Sunday [] as the “perfect storm of crises”, which the world is largely ignoring.

An internally displaced woman cooks in an open space in the El Ban Gadeed settlement in Sudan.
© UNOCHA/Ala Kheir | An internally displaced woman cooks in an open space in the El Ban Gadeed settlement in Sudan.
08/09/2024

Bangladesh: “Catastrophic and Massive Floods” Have Affected over 18 Million People 

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Recent “catastrophic and massive floods” in Bangladesh have affected millions of people across the country, including those in Cox’s Bazar where nearly one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live alongside host communities, spokesperson William Spindler told journalists in Geneva on Friday []. 

A mother carries her daughters through flood waters during July's monsoon season in Bangladesh.
© UNICEF/Salahuddin Ahmed Paulash | A mother carries her daughters through flood waters during July’s monsoon season in Bangladesh.
07/09/2024

Maasai Face Yet Another Violation of Their Rights in Tanzania in Their Ongoing Struggle

Human Wrongs Watch

By the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)*

On 14 August [2024], Indigenous Peoples and rights activists came to find out that the Tanzanian government decided to exclude people from 11 wards composed of 25 villages and 96 sub-villages in Ngorongoro from voter registration, effectively denying more than 100,000 Maasai from their guaranteed democratic right to civic participation.