2 November 2023 — She leans her veiled head against her hand holding a walking stick. Is she 80 or 90? She doesn’t know. But her hands are as weathered as time itself.
Her name is Ndamukunzi. It means “without friends”.
.
.
In North Kivu province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), over 1.2 million people have been displaced since March 2022 when a wave of violence erupted among armed groups fighting over power and resources.
4 Nov 2023 – Nobel Peace Laureate called on the Irish government to trigger the Genocide Convention as a way to help halt the Israeli genocidal attack on Palestinians, in front of the American embassy in Belfast today.
.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
The governments of the US, UK, Germany and most of Europe are wholly complicit in the horrific assault on the people of Gaza.
Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations to ensure respect for the Geneva Convention but they are in fact actively arming the assault by providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s war crimes.
Palestinians in Gaza are being demonized, suffering ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment. This is a classic case of genocide and the Israeli government must be held accountable.
IWGIA – International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs*, 1 November 2023 — While miners are blamed for the destruction of the forests, this gold fever would not exist without the lavish consumption of sheikhs, influencers, rappers, footballers, brokers, Hollywood actors and famous singers.
Following the rise in the price of gold during Covid-19, Central Banks and speculators have further boosted this demand.
In Brazil and Venezuela, the land area affected by mining is increasing rapidly and the presence of gold miners threatens the indigenous communities living near the deposits.
When we think of the illegal and legal gold mining that is bleeding the Amazon, the culprits are obvious.
— Three weeks of near-constant bombardment in Gaza have left its entire population in desperate and catastrophic conditions. The World Food Programme (WFP) is striving to reach over 1 million people for whom water and food are running out.
.
A boy picks his way through a destroyed neighbourhood in Gaza. Photo: WFP Photolibrary
Here, one WFP employee (who prefers not to be identified) describes the horror, the personal grief of losing at least seven family members as well as some friends, her dreams for a better future, and why her work must go on in the face of it all.
(WHO)* — East Jerusalem/Geneva/ New York,3 November 2023 — Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services, warn the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
UNAMID/Mohamad Almahady | Intercommunal violence in Darfur has left millions in need of assistance. Pictured here, an IDP settlement in north Darfur. (file)
The number of people killed in Gaza is nearing the 9,000 mark amid mounting concerns over the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on a densely-populated refugee camp near Gaza City, while a key hospital has stopped operations and UN humanitarians are unable to deliver aid to the north as the ground war intensifies.
WFP-FAO report highlights 22 countries or territories needing urgent attention as funding shortfall hampers support
, 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.
(UN News)* — More than 820 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been displaced amid settler violence and increased movement restrictions since the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October and the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, the UN relief wing said on Wednesday [].
OCHA | Palestinians being displaced amid threats by Israeli settlers in Nablus area. (October 2023)
Israeli settler violence has increased significantly, from an already high average of three incidents per day in 2023 to seven a day now, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCA).
During this period, OCHA recorded 171 settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in 26 different casualty incidents, damage to 115 Palestinian properties, and some 30 reported incidents of both property damage and casualties.
(UN News)* — Gaza has become a “graveyard” for children with thousands now killed under Israeli bombardment, while more than a million face dire shortages of essentials and a lifetime of trauma ahead, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday [].
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, who has been visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, spoke to families in Gaza over the phone from east Jerusalem on Tuesday and said that what they have endured since the start of Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ deadly 7 October attacks is “beyond devastating”.
“When an eight-year-old tells you that she doesn’t want to die, it’s hard not to feel helpless,” he wrote on social platform X.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 