UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 2024 (IPS)*– Back in August 2003, the United Nations faced one of its violent tragedies when a terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad claimed the lives of 22 people.
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Among those killed was Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the UN envoy in Iraq and High Commissioner for Human Rights, who had a long and distinguished UN career stretching over 30 years.
As the UN commemorated World Humanitarian Day on August 19, it continues to be confronted with rising death tolls among both its humanitarian workers and peacekeepers worldwide.
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 18 August 2024 (UNFPA)* – There were more than 1,500 attacks on health facilities last year. More than 280 humanitarians and at least 750 health workers and patients were killed.
These numbers were racked up not on battlefields, but in hospitals, in homes, in vehicles delivering vital medical care, in spaces designed to be safe.
More health workers and patients were killed or injured in 2023 than any previous year – a grim record the world is on track to beat in 2024.
14 August 2024 (UNHCR)* — When Ibrahim Abdulrahman’s name was announced on national radio as the top performing student in the country’s high school examinations in 2020, his achievement was celebrated by everyone in his small mountainous village of Al-Dambaire in Sudan’s North Kordofan State.
This is a summary of what was said by UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at 13 August 2024 press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNICEF/UNI625366/IsamaldeenOn 10 August 2024, UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder speaks to 13-year-old Abu at Al Nao hospital, Sudan.
ATBARA, Sudan/GENEVA 13 August 2024 (UNICEF)* – “Sudan’s humanitarian crisis for children is, by numbers, the biggest in the world. It is also a crisis of neglect.
“So many of the countless atrocities upon children in Sudan have gone unreported, often as a result of very limited access.
(UN News)* —The perpetrators of a deadly rampage targeting a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank must face justice to deter future attacks, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, insisted on Friday [].
Echoing widespread condemnation internationally and within Israel of the attack reportedly by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit on Thursday which left a Palestinian man dead and about a dozen injured, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani described the incident as “horrific”.
She noted that the killing “was not an isolated attack”, in reference to years of violence directed at Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers, maintaining that it was “the direct consequence” of Israel’s policy of occupation.
15 August 2024 — The number of Colombians living in areas where armed groups operate has increased by 70 per cent since 2021, reports the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
Carmen is from an indigenous community, hours into the Colombian Pacific jungle. They face violence, threats, and displacement from armed groups and have been forced to flee many times. Carmen said her community is being destroyed. Photo: Jess Wanless/NRC
Today, nearly 8.4 million Colombians live in these zones of conflict, 3.5 million more than in 2021. Civilian suffering is being ignored, and more must be done by both the government and aid agencies to address the humanitarian and protection needs of the civilian population.
(UN News)* — Exceptionally heavy rain and deadly flash flooding in Yemen have compounded the already dire situation for people across the country, UN humanitarians said on Thursday [].
In a joint alert, UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, and UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, said that rising waters had shattered people’s lives in several Yemeni governorates and particularly in Hudaydah, Hajjah, Sa’ada and Taizz. The northern governorate of Marib has also been affected.
(UN News)* — As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza passes the dark milestone of 40,000, UN rights chief Volker Türk called on Thursday [] for an end to the killing “once and for all” and the release of all hostages while negotiators prepared to meet in Qatar to renew efforts to halt the conflict and avert a wider war.
“Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
(UN News)* — The risk of polio spreading in Gaza remains high unless there is an urgent and comprehensive response to the serious health threat, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday [].
“At least two rounds of [orally delivered polio vaccine] will be necessary to shut down transmission,”the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) explained in an update.
(UN News)* — The killing, injury and displacement of Palestinians continues in the West Back against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, now in its 10th month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update issued on Wednesday [14 August 2024].
The number of Palestinian children killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces has almost tripled since 7 October 2023, compared with the preceding 10 months, rising from 39 to 115.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 