()* — Years of underfunding of humanitarian aid and increasing needs have put millions of Haitians at risk of chronic vulnerability, according to a newly released UN report.
Reversing the situation will require the international community and donors to increase the funding of UN and non-governmental organization (NGO) relief operations, the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, said in its latest advocacy note.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is closely following negotiations in Doha focused on trying to end the war in Gaza, where the situation continues to remain catastrophic after more than 10 months of unrelenting war.
The UN chief’s Spokesperson told journalists at the regular press briefing in New York on Monday [] that Mr. Guterres had spoken to the Prime Minister of Qatar yesterday.
This is a summary of what was said by UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at 13 August 2024 press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNICEF/UNI625366/IsamaldeenOn 10 August 2024, UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder speaks to 13-year-old Abu at Al Nao hospital, Sudan.
ATBARA, Sudan/GENEVA 13 August 2024 (UNICEF)* – “Sudan’s humanitarian crisis for children is, by numbers, the biggest in the world. It is also a crisis of neglect.
“So many of the countless atrocities upon children in Sudan have gone unreported, often as a result of very limited access.
(UN News)* — As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza passes the dark milestone of 40,000, UN rights chief Volker Türk called on Thursday [] for an end to the killing “once and for all” and the release of all hostages while negotiators prepared to meet in Qatar to renew efforts to halt the conflict and avert a wider war.
“Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
(UN News)* — The risk of polio spreading in Gaza remains high unless there is an urgent and comprehensive response to the serious health threat, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday [].
“At least two rounds of [orally delivered polio vaccine] will be necessary to shut down transmission,”the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) explained in an update.
(UN News)* — The killing, injury and displacement of Palestinians continues in the West Back against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, now in its 10th month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update issued on Wednesday [14 August 2024].
The number of Palestinian children killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces has almost tripled since 7 October 2023, compared with the preceding 10 months, rising from 39 to 115.
(New York) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2024 electoral campaign frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, Human Rights Watch on 14 August 2024 said.
(UN News)* —Sudan’s deepening humanitarian crisis caused by nearly 16 months of war has left countless women and girls subject to sexual violence and rape and tens of thousands of children at risk of death from hunger, UN aid teams said on Tuesday [13 August 2024].
Speaking from Sudan, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder described meeting a senior medical worker at a hospital outside Khartoum who had “direct contact with hundreds, hundreds of women and girls, some as young as eight years old, who have been raped. Many have been held captive for weeks on end.”
(UN News)* —Amid further evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military in Gaza, UN humanitarians delivered a fresh warning on Monday [12 August 2024] over the dire sanitary emergency there and the urgent need for a mass polio vaccination campaign in the embattled enclave.
UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, issued a statement from Deir al-Balah in Gaza’s central area, where untreated sewage run-off formed large pools on the road next to shelters for forcibly displaced people.
“Sewage water is all over the streets,” said UNICEF spokesperson Salim Oweis, who highlighted the destruction of Gaza’s water and sanitation network, and its sewage treatment plants, since war erupted on 7 October, after Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2024 (IPS)* –– The growing number of killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza has triggered a demand for a cut-off in US arms supplies to Israel.
The journalists gather in front of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to commemorate their friends, Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who lost their lives in Israeli army attack on a moving vehicle in the Al-Shati refugee camp, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 31, 2024. Source: Middle East Monitor. Credit: Ashraf Amra, Anadolu Agency
A letter addressed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken—and signed by scores of reporters, news outlets and journalist unions— says Israel has killed more than 165 Palestinian journalists since October 7 last year.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 