May 24, 2019 No comments
UN honours peacekeepers who ‘paid the ultimate price’, for the sake of others
INTERNATIONAL, 24 May 2019, Peace and Security - Ever since the UN deployed the first of its 72 peacekeeping missions back in 1948, more than 3,800 peacekeepers have lost their lives, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday, at a wreath laying ceremony in honour of those “brave men and women” who serve. Speaking of “the true cost of peacekeeping”, the UN chief called for a moment of silence for those who “paid the ultimate price” to protect others and “to give war-torn countries a chance for peace and hope”. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned –Secretary-General Hammarskjöld “Today, in 14 missions around the world, our peacekeepers serve heroically to preserve...
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May 24, 2019 No comments
Around 600,000 Afghan children face death through malnutrition without emergency funds: UNICEF
INTERNATIONAL, 24 May 2019, Humanitarian Aid - In Afghanistan, children suffering from the most serious form of malnutrition may die, unless $7 million in funding is found within weeks, UNICEF said on Friday. Speaking in Geneva, UN Children’s Fund spokesperson Christophe Boulierac, likened the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country to “one of the worst disasters on earth”. And he warned that increased violence and last year’s severe drought have left hundreds of thousands of under-fives, critically vulnerable in the west and north of the country. “There are two million children in the country which suffer from acute malnutrition, among them 600,000 children that suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” he said. “A child that suffers from acute severe malnutrition is a child that needs urgent...
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May 23, 2019 No comments
‘Great cause of concern’ UN chief tells Security Council on 'bleak' state of civilian protection
INTERNATIONAL, 23 May 2019, Peace and Security - Marking 20 years since the UN Security Council added the protection of civilians to its agenda, Secretary-General António Guterres told the chamber on Thursday that while safeguards were stronger, “compliance has deteriorated”. “We are rightly critical when assessing the state of the protection of civilians, for there is great cause of concern”, he said. The UN chief walked members through 20 years of progress, saying that a “culture of protection” had indeed “taken root” that encompasses a comprehensive framework based on international law, and becoming one of the peace and security body’s “core issues”. Also, in the plus column, he credited deploying specialist advisors in peace operations and reinforcing humanitarian agencies’ work to strengthen child protection...
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May 23, 2019 No comments
DR Congo: ‘No time to lose’ says newly appointed UN Ebola response coordinator
INTERNATIONAL, 23 May 2019, Health - With the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s worst ever Ebola outbreak now in its tenth month, the United Nations on Thursday announced measures to strengthen its response, with the Organization’s newly appointed Emergency Coordinator (EERC) declaring there is “no time to lose”. Amidst a surge in new cases, the epidemic has claimed more than 1,200 lives and threatens to spread to other provinces in the east, as well as neighbouring countries. A third of those infected have been children; a higher proportion than during previous outbreaks. Up to the middle of this month, the number of cases, according to UN figures, stood at 1,847 (1,759 confirmed and 88 probable). In total, there have been 1,223 deaths (1,135 confirmed and 88 probable)...
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May 23, 2019 No comments
End ‘shame, isolation and segregation’ of fistula sufferers, urges UN reproductive health chief
INTERNATIONAL, 23 May 2019, Women - Although obstetric fistula has largely been eliminated in developed countries, more than two million women and girls still live with the painful and disfiguring condition, according to UN data. Marking the International Day on 23 May to end the almost entirely preventable condition, the head of the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, said that sufferers continue to “face devastating social stigma”. “Shame, isolation and segregation are among the indignities faced by the hundreds of thousands of women and girls worldwide who suffer from obstetric fistula”, said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director, in a statement issued on Thursday. Obstetric fistula is one of the most serious injuries that can occur during childbirth, leaving a hole between the birth canal and...
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