(UN News)* — Yemen’s already dire hunger crisis is “teetering on the edge of outright catastrophe”, UN agency chiefs said on Monday [14 March 2022], as new data analysis from the war-ravaged country indicated potentially record food insecurity.
Today, more than 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure; an additional 1.6 million “are expected to fall into emergency levels of hunger” in coming months, taking the total of those with emergency needs, to 7.3 million by the end of the year.
Famine to rise fivefold
Of extreme concern to humanitarians is the likelihood that the number of people experiencing “catastrophic”– or famine-like – levels of hunger, will increase five-fold, from 31,000 now, to 161,000,by 31 December.
With 95% of Venezuelans living in extreme poverty, every day hundreds are forced to walk to neighbouring Colombia in search of work | PORTUGUÊS
Nearly six million Venezuelans have left for neighbouring countries | Carlos Garcia Rawlins/REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo
12 March 2022 (openDemocracy)* — “I gave my children a small cup of rice. That was all we had. Then I left,” says Emily, sitting on a grassy mound near a river and a road that leads into the Colombian town of Pamplona. Like nearly six million other Venezuelans, she has left home for a neighbouring country.
(UN News)* — Syria’s 11 years of brutal fighting has come at an “unconscionable human cost”, subjecting millions there to human rights violations on a “massive and systematic scale”, said the UN chief on Friday[11 March 2022], marking yet another tragic anniversary.
“The destruction that Syrians have endured is so extensive and deadly that it has few equals in modern history”, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
(UN News)* — More than 70 percent of South Sudan’s population will struggle to survive the peak of the annual ‘lean season’ this year, as the country grapples with unprecedented levels of food insecurity caused by conflict, climate shocks, COVID-19, and rising costs, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday[11 March 2022]
While global attention is focused on Ukraine, said WFP in a press release, a “hidden hunger emergency” is engulfing South Sudan with about 8.3 million there – including refugees – facing extreme hunger in the coming months.
10 March 2022(UN News)* — The business model of the news media is ‘broken’ and with it, our fundamental right to information is at risk, a new UNESCO report examining global trends in freedom of expression warns.
Unsplash/Lilly Rum | The dominating presence of social media has led to a decline in demand for traditional print journalism.
In the past five years, both news audiences and advertising revenues have moved in huge numbers to internet platforms, with only two companies – Google and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) – soaking up half of all global digital advertising spending.
(UN News)* — The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent, UN-backed body, is calling on governments to do more to regulate social media platforms that glamourize drug-related negative behaviour and boost sales of controlled substances.
In its annual report, released on Thursday [10 March 2022], the INCB notes increasing evidence of a link between exposure to social media and drug use, which disproportionately affects young people, the main users of social media platforms, and an age group with relatively high rates of drug abuse.
MADRID, Mar 10 2022 (IPS)* – Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 percent by 2030, 30 percent by the end of 2050 and 50 percent by the end of the century, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and GRID-Arendal, a non-profit environmental communications centre based in Norway.
Protect our people and future generations: Water and Climate Leaders call for urgent action
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Geneva 8 March 2022 (WMO)* – Water and Climate Coalition leaders have issued a call for more urgent and united action “to protect our people and future generations” in the face of alarming new scientific evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of growing global threats to water availability and from water-related hazards.
(UN News)* — At least two-thirds of households with children have lost income since the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, according to a joint report published on Wednesday [9 March 2022] by the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) and World Bank.
The report, Impact of COVID-19 on the welfare of households with children, presents findings from data collected in 35 countries, and notes that households with three or more children were most likely to have come up short, with more than three-quarters experiencing a reduction in earnings.
(UN News)* — Top UN-appointed rights investigators on Wednesday [9 March 2022] urged renewed efforts for a political solution to Syria’s devastating war, which has been marked by an uptick of violence and a deepening humanitarian crisis in recent months.
Presenting the latest UN Human Rights Council-mandated report on the nearly 11-year-old conflictat a virtual press conference in Geneva, Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, described the “devastating” impact on communities.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 