(UN News)* —A senior UN aid official has called on the Security Council to ensure better protection for civilians in Sudan together with unhindered humanitarian access, as the brutal war between rival militaries approaches a second year.
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WFP | Displaced Sudanese people wait to receive food from the World Food Programme (WFP). (file)
“Now more than ever, two years on, the people of Sudan need your action,” Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said in a briefing to ambassadors on Wednesday [].
“Nearly two years of relentless conflict in Sudan have inflicted immense suffering and turned parts of the country into a hellscape,” she added, listing some of the impacts.
Mogadishu, 26 February 2025 – New data from Somalia shows that 4.4 million people could face hunger by April 2025, driven by worsening drought conditions, conflict and high food prices.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)* – Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) appeal captured US mass discontent against globalisation.
In recent decades, variations of America First have reflected growing ethnonationalism in the world’s presumptive hegemon.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Deglobalisation?
Trade liberalisation probably peaked at the end of the 20th century with the creation of the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO), which the West kept outside the UN system.
With deindustrialisation in the North blamed on globalisation, their governments gradually abandoned trade liberalisation, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Free trade mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati has long complained of the weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalisation. Most recent supposed free trade agreements (FTAs) have been plurilateral or bilateral, undermining multilateralism while promoting non-trade measures.
Those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are the worst affected, while those who have done the most to provoke it are the most shielded from its impacts.
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We talk about this in the new episode of SystemShift, a Greenpeace podcast that explores how we can move from a world that serves the economy to an economy that works for people and the planet.
This time Carl and Joycelyn host two young climate leaders: Lali Riascos, from Guapi, Colombia, and Mateus Fernandes, from Sao Paulo,Brazil.
MBARALI, Tanzania, Feb 21 2025 (IPS)* – A hush had fallen over Mbarali District, but it was not the quiet of peace—it was the silence of uncertainty.
The REGROW project, aimed at doubling the size of Ruaha National Park, has left many without land and prospects. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
Just months ago, the rolling plains were gripped by fear as government-backed rangers, dressed in olive green fatigues, roamed through villages, seizing cattle, torching homes, and forcing entire communities to the wobbly edge of survival.
21 February 2025 — In early 2024, clashes between armed forces and non-state armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo resumed after a period of inactivity. By late 2024, the city of Goma was surrounded and most access roads were blocked.
Jorime and Desanges were forced to flee their homes by brutal violence in eastern DR Congo. Photo: Desire Cimerhe/NRC
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The already isolated population was deprived of access to essential goods. They had no idea they were about to face the country’s most dramatic crisis since the conflict began nearly three decades ago.
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In the village of Kivale, daily life was relatively peaceful. Children ran freely, families cooked tasty meals under the shade of the trees, and people cultivated the land and ran their businesses as best they could.
20 February 2025 – The Trump administration has enacted new immigration policies at a dizzying pace, some of which obliterate programs built over decades to enable avenues to safety for people fleeing war and persecution.
The impact of these policies is felt directly by the asylum seekers, migrants, refugees, their families and communities. But the impact will also be far-reaching as the US sets an example that is likely to cause other countries to turn their backs on people fleeing for their lives.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)regrets to inform that we, for the first time in our history, will have to suspend ongoing and urgent US-funded humanitarian work in nearly 20 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement.
This will impact hundreds of thousands of people. These dramatic measures come in response to the stop, partial suspension, or lack of reimbursement of United States funding for our global humanitarian operations.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 2025 (IPS)* – When some of the world’s “authoritarian and repressive regimes” were elected as members of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) –including Cuba, China, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — a US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher infamously remarked:
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“The inmates have taken over the asylum, I don’t plan to give the lunatics any more American tax dollars to play with.”
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The UN General Assembly votes to suspend the rights of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Human Rights Council during an Emergency Special Session on Ukraine. April 2022. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 2025 (IPS)* – The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US government’s primary channel for humanitarian aid and disaster relief, is expected to have a devastating impact on the world’s developing nations.
The 2025 Budget Request, under the former Biden administration, amounted to a staggering $58.8 billion in US foreign aid for this year.
The proposed aid included funding to fully support the US priorities and commitments made at the U.S.-Africa Leader’s Summit in May last year.
The request also fulfills Biden’s pledge made at the U.S.-hosted Seventh Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to match $1 for every $2 contributed by other donors by providing $1.2 billion to the Global Fund.
The 2025 Budget Request, under the former Biden administration, amounted to a staggering $58.8 billion in US foreign aid for this year.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 