4 July 2024 — The crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been overlooked for years. A landlocked country in the heart of central west Africa, CAR continues to pay the price of a long-standing conflict, and one in five Central Africans remains displaced.
This family fled their village of Loura in CAR after atrocities were committed against civilians. Photo: Marion Guenard/NRC
Here are five things you need to know about what’s happening in CAR.
(UN News)* — The security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in alarming levels of violence and widespread civilian displacement, the UN envoy for the country reported on Monday [].
Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keita, informed the Security Council of an attack on the residence of a Congolese politician, during which two police officers were killed.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 8 2024 (IPS)* ––For some time, most multilateral financial institutions have urged developing countries to borrow commercially, but not from China. Now, borrowers are stuck in debt traps with little prospect of escape.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
More debt, less growth since 2008: The last decade and a half has seen protracted worldwide stagnation, with some economies and people faring much worse than others.
The 2008 global financial crisis and Great Recession have recently been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, US Federal Reserve Bank-led interest rate hikes and escalating geopolitical economic warfare.
Following Reagan-inspired tax cuts, ostensibly to induce more private investments, budget deficits have loomed larger. Instead of enabling rapid recovery, greater fiscal austerity is now demanded, as in the 1980s.
— In the first week of June 2024, searing heat in 80 countries broke temperature records – either monthly or for all time. Heatwaves scorched the US, the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Aswan in Egypt hit 50.9°C – an all time record – on the 7th June.
SOUTHERN PROVINCE, Zambia, 3 July 2024 (UNFPA)* -– “They don’t have any food, and the teenagers can become vulnerable,” said nurse Suvannah Sinakaaba, in the village of Hakankula in Zambia’s Monze District. “HIV rates are quite high among adolescents; some engage in sexual activities with fishermen, because they want [financial] help.”
Zambia is acutely exposed to the global climate emergency, hit by frequent – and deadly – droughts, floods and heat waves.
Now in the grips of its driest agricultural season in more than 40 years, the President has declared a national emergency: Crops have been wiped out, livestock have died, and poverty and food insecurity are deepening for more than 9.8 million people.
“At a time when the world is falling apart for millions of people, we are seeing an increasing trend of international neglect. I have never before seen such a glaring gap between the need for lifesaving aid and available funding…
Geneva (IOM)* – Refugees and migrants continue to face extreme forms of violence, human rights violations and exploitation not just at sea, but also on land routes across the African continent, towards its Mediterranean coastline.
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A group of migrants trek together in Tadjoura, Djibouti. Photo: IOM/Alexander Bee
This is according to a new report released today [5 July 2024] by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), titled “On this journey, no-one cares if you live or die”(Volume 2).
Only 19 per cent of the required funds for UNHCR’s refugee response have been received thus far, meaning that food rations have had to be “drastically cut”
(UN News)* — Millions of people have been forced out of Sudan as the brutal civil war continues to spread, including in Sinja Town, south of the capital Khartoum, where UN humanitarians reported on Tuesday [3 July 2024] that more than 55,000 people have already fled.
The shocking cost of poor storage in the farms of developing countries — and careless shopping in rich ones.
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Sourcing school meals ingredients from local farmers like this one in Cambodia can help reduce food waste. Photo: WFP/Samantha Reinders
– Global hunger isn’t about a lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough food to nourish every child, woman and man on the planet.
But nearly a fifth of all food produced each year is squandered or lost before it can be consumed.
In many rich countries, this food waste happens in the kitchen — when we prepare foods that go uneaten, or leave food to spoil in fridges and kitchen cabinets.
This is a summary of what was said by Andrew Harper, UNHCR Special Advisor on Climate Action – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
28 June 2024 (UNHCR)* — Devastating extreme weather events and natural disasters are shattering many refugee and other displaced communities worldwide, worsening their plight and in some cases forcing them to move onwards and start from zero once again.
This is what UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has observed with a series of catastrophic floods, earthquakes, cyclones, storms and heatwaves afflicting refugee and internal displacement settings in Africa, the AmericasLink is external, Asia and beyond.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
