Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, PhD, Former President of the Republic of Mauritius
Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Apr 3 2024 (IPS)* –– The title of this piece is not mine.
It’s from the President of Turkiye calling for a reform of the United Nations Security Council.
It has since become a motto in the UN reform campaign encapsulating the shared resentment at a global system that gives the five Permanent members – The P5 of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – unfair and often destructive veto powers that undermines the very ideals for which the UN was established.
(UN News)* — Israeli forces are blocking aid deliveries into famine-stricken northern Gaza as the five-month-long war grinds on despite recent strong demands from the top UN court and the Security Council for open aid access into the enclave and for a temporary ceasefire and the return of all hostages taken in October, as the UN plans an assessment mission into Al-Shifa Hospital, which had been occupied by Israeli troops for two weeks.
More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed related to airdrops by multiple nations who are trying to deliver desperately needed aid in the face of Israel’s slow walking food shipments at border crossings into Gaza, according to news reports.
(UNRWA)* — Alaa is a young teenager from the Zaytoun neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. She and her family, along with most of the population in Gaza, have been displaced to Rafah, all searching for safety from Israeli bombardments.
Living in the Rubble: Alaa’s Harrowing Story of Displacement
Rafah is now overrun with internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking shelter. Home to only 300,000 people before the start of the war, it now hosts some 1.5 million Palestinians.
Alaa’s story of displacement, fear, and sadness is shared by hundreds of thousands of other children.
Nairobi, 27 March 2024 (UNEP)* -– Households across all continents wasted over 1 billion meals a day in 2022, while 783 million people were affected by hunger and a third of humanity faced food insecurity.
Food waste continues to hurt the global economy and fuel climate change, nature loss, and pollution. These are the key findings of a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report published today, ahead of the International Day of Zero Waste.
MARCH 28TH, 2024 (UNDP)* — The war in Gaza led to a dire humanitarian condition, profoundly affecting the lives of its 2.2 million people – loss of life, property and desperate need of food, dignified shelter and medical care.
Over 32,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war in Gaza, and around 1.1 million are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Photos: UNICEF and UNDP PAPP/Abed Zagout
26 March 2024 — One morning, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, Salem Hathaleen, 70, received unsettling news from his neighbours.
Graffiti sprayed on a roadblock near Al-Muntar and Al- Sararat reads “open the road for the Palestinians”. The closure has been imposed since the second Intifada, according to residents. Photo: Ahmad Al-Bazz/NRC
(UN News)* —There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said on Tuesday [26 March 2024].
Francesca Albanese was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States.
“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said.
(UN News)* — Intense hostilities in Gaza continued on Tuesday [] between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces with a “double-digit number of children killed overnight” and ongoing aid delivery obstacles that are responsible for near-famine conditions, UN humanitarians said.
The continuing violence came despite an immediate ceasefire call for the remainder of Ramadan from the Security Council on Monday, prompting urgent appeals from UN aid agencies for the resolution to be respected immediately, to prevent more people dying.
Speaking from Rafah in southern Gaza, UN Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder said that 13,750 children have now been killed according to Gaza’s health authorities, amid Israeli airstrikes and bombardment launched in response to Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on 7 October.
IDLIB, Syria, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)* – Wael Al-Hassan was returning from work in the Syrian city of Harim when he heard the sound of a baby crying.
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Children eating and drinking at the Children’s House in Idlib. Abandoned children is a growing issue in the region. Credit: Sonia Al-Ali/IPS
He was returning from work on December 10, 2023. He stopped momentarily, turned on his mobile phone flashlight to investigate, and spotted a baby girl, around one month old, wrapped in a white blanket, lying by the roadside.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 