People across Latin America fleeing violence face movement restrictions, exploitation, and asylum barriers, according to a new report by Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and partners through the ProLAC initiative.
Refugees and migrants from all over the world reach Necocli in Colombia on their journey in search of protection and a better life. Photo: Jess Wanless/NRC
One in four families interviewed for the report said that their lives would be at risk if they returned to their place of origin.
CARACAS, Apr 25 2025 (IPS)* –Reduced to a marginal oil producer over the past decade, Venezuela has suffered another blow as United States president Donald Trump ordered punitive measures to blockade and further restrict the country’s oil exports.| En español
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Oil extraction in the Orinoco Belt, southeastern Venezuela. The crude extracted from this rich basin is very heavy and requires blending with diluent oil for refining—a process previously handled by U.S. company Chevron, which must now cease operations in the country. Credit: PDVSA
(UN News)* —Xochimilco, nestled in the heart of Mexico City, is home to the ‘chinamperos,’ farmers who have used indigenous techniques to grow food for centuries. Today, their way of life is under threat from environmental degradation, urban expansion and climate change.
The chinamperos get their name from ‘chinampas,’ the human-made islands of floating gardens on which they farm. It was the Aztecs who discovered that, by layering mud, plants and branches on shallow lake beds, they could create highly fertile plots of land.
(UN News)* — As the planet heats up and the push to decarbonise gathers pace, Indigenous Peoples – long among the world’s most effective environmental stewards – are once again being left behind, a new UN report reveals.
Launched on , The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples exposes a stark imbalance: while Indigenous Peoples make up just six per cent of the global population, they safeguard 80 per cent of the planet’s remaining biodiversity – yet receive less than one per cent of international climate funding.
(UN News)* — The World Food Programme (WFP) has run out of food in the Gaza Strip as Israel continues to block the entry of all humanitarian aid into the enclave, home to over two million people.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 2025 (IPS)* – The US State Department, in a wide-ranging political re-structuring of its policies, will eliminate 132 domestic offices, lay-off about 700 federal workers and reduce diplomatic missions overseas.
(UN News)* —The near two-month ban on humanitarian aid and supplies entering Gaza is driving families to the edge of survival, as critical essentials – including food, shelter and medicine – are rapidly running out.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a news briefing at UN Headquarters on Thursday that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate rapidly.
22 April 2025 — As Gaza enters the eighth week of an Israel-imposed siege, blocking aid, vital supplies and commercial goods, Oxfam staff are describing conditions as the “stuff of nightmares”, with Israel’s mass forced displacement orders spreading terror, Oxfam said.
Children and their families are returning to their homes or the remains of their homes to check the status of their homes. (Photo: Alef Multimedia Company/Oxfam)
(UN News)* —A lack of funding and dwindling supplies are forcing the UN World Food Programme to suspend lifesaving treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia by the end of the month. “We are at the breaking point,” the agency warned.
In total, 3.6 million of the “most vulnerable” people in Ethiopia stand to lose WFP food and nutrition assistance unless funding arrives urgently, warned Zlatan Milisic, the UN agency’s Country Director.
NAIROBI, Apr 24 2025 (IPS)* – The majority of African countries are yet to commit 15 percent of their GDP to funding the health sector, despite the growing disease burden weighing down the continent and two decades after the coming into force of the Abuja declaration on health sector funding.
Health workers getting ready for duty at an mpox treatment center in Lwiro in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, a hotspot for the pandemic that CD Africa handled in 2024. Credit: WHO