Rome, 31 October 2024(FAO/WFP)*– Acute food insecurity is set to increase in both magnitude and severity across 22 countries and territories, according to a new United Nations report.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1 2024 (IPS)* – The United Nations continues to be virtually paralyzed – and remains politically impotent amidst two raging conflicts—as Russia and Israel keep defying the world body.
Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
The killings of civilians and the destruction of cities, particularly by Israel, are devastating and continue despite repeated warnings from the UN, its humanitarian agencies, the International Criminal Court (ICC), UN human right experts and the Security Council.
Which prompts the question: has the UN outlived its usefulness –even as it commemorated its 79th anniversary on the annual UN Day on October 24?
CALI, Columbia, Oct 31 2024 (IPS)* – José Aruna, a forest defender from Sud Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remembers the night in September 2019 when a group of heavily armed men barged into his house in the middle of the night.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General at COP16, sent a message that peace with nature was only possible if there was a political solution to conflicts. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
Aruna and his wife—6 months pregnant at the time—were in bed when he heard sounds of boots on the front yard and quickly knew something was about to happen.
He silently slipped out of the bed and hid behind a tree at the back of the house.
By Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration*
Port Sudan, 29 October (IOM)* – Good morning, I am glad to be able to speak with you this morning live from Port Sudan.
I arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit, into a deteriorating security situation with alarming reports of new atrocities.
IOM Director General interacts with some of those who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Photo: IOM/Philippa Lowe
I have heard distressing detail from our teams on the ground of the conditions faced by ordinary Sudanese people whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by this conflict.
GENEVA, 25 October 2024 (UNICEF)* – “Children are being medically evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one child per day. If this lethally slow pace continues, it would take more than seven years to evacuate the 2,500 children needing urgent medical care.
UNICEFFILE Photo, 9-year-old Jouri in the European Hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza on 9 April 2024. The bones in Jouri’s right arm, wrist and the right side of her face had several breaks, likely requiring further surgery. She had serious open wounds that were yet to receive reconstructive surgery – the hospital was not able to do this so was forced to focus on keeping the wound clean.
(UN News)* —Monday ’s vote by the Israeli Knesset banning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) contradicts principles of the UN Charter, violates Israel’s obligations under international law, and sets a dangerous precedent, the head of the Agency, Philippe Lazzarini has warned. The UN chief pledged later he would take the issue to the General Assembly.
“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees,” Mr. Lazzarini said in a post on X, following reports of the long-anticipated vote being taken by Knesset members, passing by a margin on 92-10.
25 Oct 2024 – Western publics are being subjected to a campaign of psychological warfare, where genocide is classed as ‘self-defence’ and opposition to it ‘terrorism.’
Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to its liking.
They would hedge every report of a new Israeli atrocity – if they covered them at all – with a “Hamas claims” or “Gaza family members allege”.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 28 2024 (IPS)* – As it continues to leave a mounting trail of death and destruction in Gaza, Israel has come under severe attack from the international community, including the United Nations and its humanitarian agencies, Western allies, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and scores of human rights experts.
PORT-AU-PRINCE – Haiti today marks another grim milestone, as the number of people facing acute hunger has now reached half of the country’s population, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis (30 September 2024).
(UN News)* —The UN’s top humanitarian official warned on Saturday [] that the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying, calling for an immediate stop to “blatant disregard for basic humanity” by Israeli forces.
UN | Aftermath of an Israeli strike at a site where displaced civilians were sheltering in northern Gaza. (file)
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“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement posted on the social media platform X.
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Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted. “Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added.
Livestock-holding farmers and herders receive animal fodder distributed by FAO to support local food production in Rafah, Gaza Strip. ©FAO/Yousef Alrozzi
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 