)*— The UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed alarm on Friday [3 November 2023] over reports that in Sudan, women and girls are being abducted, chained and held in “inhuman, degrading slave-like conditions” in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur.
UNAMID/Mohamad Almahady | Intercommunal violence in Darfur has left millions in need of assistance. Pictured here, an IDP settlement in north Darfur. (file)
WFP-FAO report highlights 22 countries or territories needing urgent attention as funding shortfall hampers support
31 October 2023, Paul Anthem
The Democratic Republic of the Congo: A woman collects food for her family in Bulengo displacement camp in the east. A total of 2.9 million people are expected to face Emergency levels of acute food insecurity in the country between January and June 2024. Photo: WFP/Benjamin Anguandia
(WFP)* — The latest Hunger Hotspots report provides a telling reminder of critical humanitarian emergencies that risk falling under the radar while the world’s attention is on the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
“…If you wanna make the world a better place Take a look at yourself and then make a change…” — Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard
Tucked into a corner of a tiny apartment on the 8th floor of a block of flats not far from the Douro River in Porto, Portugal, are a small desk, two laptops and an orthopedic chair. “This,” proclaimed Antonio with a flourish, “isTMS!”
Antonio C.S. Rosa, Porto Oct 2023 | Photo by Marilyn Langlois
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday [30 October 2023] called on the world to “stop the madness” of climate change as he visited the Everest region in Nepal where melting glaciers are putting entire communities at risk of extinction.
UN Photo/Narendra Shrestha | UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits Syangbpoche in Solukhumbu district, Nepal.
Nepal has lost almost a third of its ice volume in 30 years, with glaciers melting 65 per cent faster in the last decade than in the previous one.
“The rooftops of the world are caving in,” the UN chief said, warning that the “disappearance of glaciers altogether” looms even larger.
Geneva/Cairo/Port Sudan, 16 October 2023 (IOM)* – Six months into the conflict, Sudan has become the largest internal displacement crisis in the world with over 7.1 million people displaced within the country, 4.5 million of whom have been displaced since violence erupted in mid-April, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Ali, originally from Khartoum, is now forced to sleep in the open air in Northern Sudan. Shelter is among the most pressing needs for millions displaced by the violence. Photo: IOM Sudan/Noory Taha
Approximately three million are originally from Khartoum, the capital and the epicenter of the conflict.
Marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Mr. Guterres pointed out that nearly 700 million people are living on less than $2.15 per day and over a billion don’t have access to basic needs like food, water, health care and education.
Billions more lack sanitation and access to energy, jobs, housing and social safety nets, he added.
Distress is being deepened by conflicts, the climate crisis, discrimination and exclusion – particularly against women and girls, the UN chief said.
The 20th Century saw a great global uprising against European imperialism as the former colonial countries shook off their shackles and rose up for independence. More than a half century later, global inequality is sharper than ever before.
To understand the current predicament of the vast majority of the world’s people, we must understand the intervening decades.
(Austin, TX) – Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has called a special session of the Texas legislature for October 10, 2023 to consider proposals that would increase human rights violations and lead to long sentences for thousands of young Texans, Human Rights Watch said today [6 October 2023].