'Unseen' News and Views
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s June 5 visit to Albania’s Shëngjin port underscores the folly of Italy’s scheme to send migrants and asylum seekers, intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea, to Albania.
Amid spiraling costs, delays, and serious concerns about people’s rights, the plan is revealing itself to be an example of how not to manage migration.
Children experiencing this level of food poverty are up to 50 per cent more likely to suffer from life-threatening malnutrition, new analysis finds.
NEW YORK, 6 June 2024 (UNICEF)* -– Around 181 million children worldwide under 5 years of age – or 1 in 4 – are experiencing severe child food poverty, making them up to 50 per cent more likely to experience wasting, a life-threatening form of malnutrition, a new UNICEF report reveals today.
For the first time, Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood analyses the impacts and causes of dietary deprivation among the world’s youngest people in nearly 100 countries, and across income groups.
Port Sudan, 6 June 2024 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is warning that the number of people displaced by conflict inside Sudan could top 10 million in the coming days. The world’s worst internal displacement crisis continues to escalate, with looming famine and disease adding to the havoc wrought by conflict.
IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, which issues weekly statistics, recorded 9.9 million people internally displaced across all 18 states in Sudan this week – 2.8 million prior to the April 2023 war, and 7.1 million since. More than half of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) are women, and over a quarter are children under the age of five.
(UN News)* — “It’s climate crunch time” when it comes to tackling rising carbon emissions the UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday [], stressing that while the need for global action is unprecedented, so too are the opportunities for prosperity and sustainable development.
5 June 2024 (United Nations)* — All over the world, ecosystems are threatened. From forests and drylands to farmlands and lakes, natural spaces on which humanity’s existence depends are reaching a tipping point.
According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population. The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 per cent since 2000 – without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050.
4 June 2024 (UNEP)* — The world is warming at a record pace, with unseasonable heat baking nearly every continent on Earth. April, the last month for which statistics are available, marked the 11th consecutive month the planet has set a new temperature high.
Experts say that is a clear sign the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing. But many believe – or at least say they believe – that climate change is not real, relying on a series of well-trodden myths to make their point.
(UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General has called for safeguarding Earth’s vital ecosystems from rampant pollution, worsening climate impacts and “biodiversity decimation”.
In a message marking 5 June 2024’s World Environment Day, António Guterres emphasized that countries “must deliver” on all their commitments to restore degraded ecosystems and land, and on Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework, the global agreement to protect biodiversity.
In Uvira, eastern Congo, Lake Tanganyika waters have risen so high that the town is flooded. People have been forced to move from their homes, and fields and houses have been destroyed. An estimated 180,000 people have been affected, and over 142,000 people have been displaced. 4,500 homes, 53 schools, and over 124 hectares of farmland were destroyed. Credit: WFP/Benjamin Anguandia
He is among 9.8 million people in Zambia to have been affected by a severe drought linked to the ongoing effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon.
West Coast, Yemen. 31 May 2024 (IOM)* – In her coastal home in Mokha, Zahara diligently tends to the cooking. As the head of the household, her days are bustling with chores. Dressed in vibrant traditional attire, she checks on the food and ensures the children are cared for. Given her serene demeanour, it’s easy to overlook the challenges she faces.
She cares for her husband whose health is frail and ensures that every member of her extended family is well-fed and content. She feels that she owes them for the support they provided seven years ago when her family was forced to flee the turmoil of conflict in her home district of At Tuhayta.
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 28 May 2024 (UNFPA)* – Every month, nearly 2 billion people menstruate, but gender inequality, poverty and other forms of marginalization mean the world has still not adapted to become period-friendly. In a humanitarian crisis, these inequities are greatly exacerbated.
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