11 December 2018 (Norwegian Refugee Council)* – Conflict and natural disasters from 2017 – 2018 caused massive displacement to cities – says new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Fatumo Abdullahi, 35, and her family live in a settlement for displaced families in Mogadishu’s Kaxda district. Fatumo and her family members were displaced from Bay region due to the drought. Photo: NRC/EU Christian Jepsen
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“Somali families are fleeing to Mogadishu seeking shelter, protection and aid. With nowhere else to go, they crowd into camps that are unhealthy and unsafe. This influx has made Mogadishu the most densely populated city in Africa, with more people arriving every day,” said Evelyn Aero, Regional Adviser for Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
2.6 million people are displaced within Somalia. Drought, competition for resources and poor living conditions has fuelled fighting in rural areas, and pushed people towards Mogadishu, says a new report from NRC’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.
Watching the ongoing debate between liberal and right-wing pundits on US mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding chaotic situation in Central America.
In fact, no other country is as accountable as the United States for the ongoing chaos and resulting refugee crisis. So why, despite the seemingly substantial ideological and political differences between right-wing Fox News and liberal CNN, are both media outlets working hard to safeguard their country’s dirty little secret?
Djibouti, 13 December 2018 (IOM)*– An important seaport country in the Horn of Africa occupied by less than a million people, Djibouti is at the crossroads of one of the most transited and increasingly dangerous migration routes in the world.
Ahmed, an Ethiopian migrant traveling through Djibouti, has walked for five days straight. He travels mostly at night to avoid the sun’s heat. Photo credit: IOM 2017/Muse Mohammed.
With neighbouring Somalia to the Southeast, Ethiopia to the West and South and Eritrea to the North, Djibouti is a patchwork of ethnicities: its citizens descendants of European 19th century settlers, the Afar from Ethiopia, and the French-speaking Somali.
Half of Syria’s children, that’s four million, have grown up only knowing a life of violence, as the war-battered country enters its eighth year of conflict, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on 13 December 2018.
UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0218/Romenzi | Syrian children shelter in the doorway of a house, amid gunfire and shelling, in a city affected by the conflict.
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“Every eight-year-old in Syria has been growing up amidst danger, destruction and death,” the agency’s Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, explained following a five-day visit to the country.
“These children need to be able to return to school, receive their vaccinations, and feel safe and protected. We need to be able to help them.”
While there is “staunch support” among Member States for the 2016 Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, that is tempered by concerns over some of its other activities, which Iran “should carefully consider and address” according to the latest report on the deal from the UN Secretary-General.
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UN Photo/Manuel Elias | The UN Security Council debates Iran’s nuclear programme on 12 December 2018.
With roadblocks continuing at the COP24 climate change conference over how to implement the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, United Nations chief António Guterres returned to Poland on 12 December 2018, to challenge the more than 100 Government leaders gathered in Katowice to find consensus and “finish the job.”
UNFCCC Secretariat/James Dowson | UN Secretary-General
“In my opening statement to this conference one week ago…I warned that climate change is running faster than we are and that Katowice must — in no uncertain terms — be a success, as a necessary platform to reverse this trend,” said Secretary-General Guterres.
12 December 2018 — Nearly 30 million babies are born too soon, too small or become sick, requiring specialized care to survive beyond the first month of life, according to a new report by a global coalition that includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).
GAVI Alliance | In Ghana, a community health worker weighs babies before administering vaccines. In 2012 Ghana became the first country in Africa to simultaneously introduce vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus, targeting the world’s leading killers of children – pneumonia and diarrhoea.
“When it comes to babies and their mothers, the right care at the right time in the right place can make all the difference,” said Omar Abdi, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director. Yet,” he continued, “millions of small and sick babies and women are dying every year because they simply do not receive the quality care that is their right, and our collective responsibility.”
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 13 December 2018 – While it is now very late in the life cycle of homo sapiens, with extinction now due to consign us to Earth’s fossil record – see ‘Will humans be extinct by 2026?’ – I would like to make a belated pitch for the importance of the human individual and why nurturing each individual’s uniqueness is so important even if it is now probably too late.
Robert J. Burrowes
‘Why are you writing about this?’ you might ask, adding that many people accept that each one of us is unique, important and deserves the opportunities and support necessary to live a fulfilling life according to our own culture and choices.
It is just the sexists, racists, bigots (religious and otherwise), upper class, governments, corporations, members of the global elite, and some other categories of people, as well as many organizations, particularly those that are violent, that do not.
Well, I wish that this was true. But I am troubled by the overwhelming evidence that suggests it is not.
At least half of the world’s population still do not have full coverage of essential health services.
About 100 million people are still being pushed into “extreme poverty” (living on 1.90 USD (1) or less a day) because they have to pay for health care.
Over 800 million people (almost 12% of the world’s population) spent at least 10% of their household budgets to pay for health care.
All UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
7 December 2018 (WHO)* — More people can access essential health services today than ever before, but at least half of the world’s population still go without. Those living in the poorest countries, in the most marginalized communities, face the greatest challenges in access, the highest burden of disease, and the worst health outcomes.
This year is an opportunity to stand up for their rights. It is the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, and the 70th anniversary of WHO. Both the Declaration and WHO’s Constitution, the organization’s founding document, assert that health is a fundamental right for all people.
These are the ABCs of what it will take to deliver the right to health.
