()* — The UN-designated human rights expert on Sudan has called for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with their allied militias, to take immediate steps to protect civilians in greater Khartoum amid escalating violence and alarming reports of summary executions.
The warning on Thursday [3 October 2024] comes as the SAF launched a major offensive last month to regain control of key areas currently held by the RSF. The two armies led by rival generals have been locked in a brutal power struggle since April 2023.
Armed conflict puts children at an increased risk of grave violations while their risk of being trafficked similarly increases, including in transitional periods, a new UN study has revealed.
The report – the first of its kind – analyses the links between child trafficking and the six grave violations against children caught up in war.
.
They are recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 4 2024 (IPS)* –Over the past few months, the escalation of gang violence and mass displacement in Haiti have been of great concern for humanitarian organizations.
.
Severe levels of armed violence have resulted in significant instability, with food insecurity, sexual violence, civilian casualities, and restricted freedom of movement plaguing the nation.
A recently displaced mother holds her child in a makeshift displacement shelter in Haiti. Credit: UNICEF/Maxime Le Lijour
2 October 2024 (UNHCR)* — Since a deadly escalation of the conflict in Lebanon began just over a week ago, the Government estimates that more than 1 million people have already been forced to flee their homes – the worst displacement in decades.
The attacks are the most intense since 2006, with Israeli airstrikes hitting dozens of towns across the country, including South Lebanon, Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Displacement in Haiti increased 22 per cent over the past three months. In Port-au-Prince, many Haitians displaced find shelter in the playgrounds of schools in the city centre. Credit: IOM Haiti
Geneva/ Port-au-Prince, 02 October 2024 (IOM)* –Over 700,000 people, more than half of whom are children, are now internally displaced across Haiti, according to a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
These latest figures show a 22 per cent increase in the number of internally displaced people since June, highlighting the worsening humanitarian situation.
(UN News)* —Action is needed now to stop the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea from “becoming mass graves for migrants”, two UN agencies on warned the Security Council.
“The scale of this tragedy, its impact on survivors, families and communities and the frequency with which we witness deaths in transit constitute an intolerable and utterly soluble, humanitarian crisis,” said Pär Liljert, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN, referring to one of the world’s most deadly routes for migrants and refugees, as they attempt to reach countries of the European Union.
For anyone — including a Jew like myself — who hasn’t stubbornly closed their eyes and covered their ears over the past eleven months, one thing should be obvious: it’s simply absurd to label outrage, protest, and despair over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as “antisemitism.” Period.
23 Sep 2024 – It is irony at its most bitter. Not so very long ago, hundreds of white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. With tiki-torches held high, they chanted “Jews will not replace us!”
And yet here we are, seven years later, and apparently these fanatical card-carrying antisemites have indeed been “replaced” in the minds of many Americans. Why?
Because a deceitful campaign now portrays anti-genocide college students (including many Jews) as the leading purveyors of “the world’s oldest hatred.”
But for anyone — including a Jew like myself — who hasn’t stubbornly closed their eyes and covered their ears over the past eleven months, one thing should be obvious: it’s simply absurd to label outrage, protest, and despair over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as “antisemitism.” Period.
(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government’s attacks and unlawful blockade against Gazahave inflicted profound trauma and suffering on Palestinian children, especially those with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 30 September 2024.
.The Israeli military’s extensive use of explosive weapons has caused serious injuries resulting in permanent disabilities and lifelong scarring for children in Gaza.
Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah
In her village in Sudan’s West Darfur region, Samar once eagerly attended class, especially math, her favorite. Today, she lives in a teeming refugee site just across the border in Chad, fetching water and milling sorghum so her family can survive.
(UN News)* — More than one million people across Lebanon have been uprooted by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, including one reported early Monday [] morning in a residential area of central Beirut, adding to fears of a full-scale invasion.
In a situation update published on Monday the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 11 health workers had been killed and 10 injured between 17 and 28 September.
Some 37 health centres have been forced to close due to the fighting out of 317 in total, and three hospitals treating patients have been evacuated.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 