August 18, 2019 No comments
Paying tribute and strengthening the role of #WomenHumanitarians on World Humanitarian Day
INTERNATIONAL, 18 August 2019, Humanitarian Aid - The work of women humanitarians makes a “huge difference” to the lives of millions of women, men and children in urgent need, the United Nations chief said in his message for World Humanitarian Day. Marking the official day’s tenth anniversary on Monday, the UN is honouring the contribution of tens of thousands of women humanitarian aid workers who provide life-saving support to vulnerable people caught up in crises in some of the world’s most dangerous places. The day is commemorated each year on 19 August, the date back in 2003 when the UN headquarters in Baghdad was targeted by a large terrorist truck bomb, killing 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN’s top representative in Iraq. This year’s focus...
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August 17, 2019 No comments
Terrorism survivors: ‘I lived in fear that I would be killed’
INTERNATIONAL, 17 August 2019, Peace and Security - To mark the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism this coming Wednesday, UN News travelled to Chad and the Far North region of Cameroon in West Africa to interview people who have personal stories to tell about how terrorism has shattered their lives. For this final story in our special UN News series, we’ll hear from Fati Yahaya, who is 24-years old and comes from the village of Koghum in the north-east of Nigeria. She and her two young children were taken by armed insurgents in 2015 and spent three years as their prisoners. She has been living in Minawao, a camp for Nigerian refugees in the Far North region of Cameroon,...
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August 16, 2019 No comments
Displaced by DR Congo violence, survivors’ testimonies highlight brutality of armed militia
INTERNATIONAL, 16 August 2019, Peace and Security - Two months since hundreds of thousands of people fled violence in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians warned on Friday that armed militia continue to make their safe return impossible. Briefing journalists in Geneva, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Spokesperson Babar Baloch, said that staff had heard numerous testimonies from people whose family members had been killed in Ituri province. Severe underfunding for aid work and insecurity involving the Hema and Lendu groups have meant that increasing numbers are vulnerable and unable even to go home to pick up essentials, he added. “These people are not even able to return,” Mr. Baloch said. “Many of them have reported people who have tried - or relatives...
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August 16, 2019 No comments
UN Security Council discusses Kashmir, China urges India and Pakistan to ease tensions
INTERNATIONAL, 16 August 2019, Peace and Security - The Security Council met to consider the volatile situation surrounding Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on Friday, addressing the issue directly within the UN body dedicated to resolving matters of international peace and security, for the first time since 1965. Although the meeting took place behind closed doors in New York, the Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Jun, spoke to reporters outside the chamber following deliberations, urging both India and Pakistan to “refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate” what was an already “tense and very dangerous” situation. The Indian-administered part of the majority-Muslim region, known as Jammu and Kashmir had its special status within the constitution revoked by the Indian Government on 5 August, placing...
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August 16, 2019 No comments
Two years after exodus, Myanmar’s ‘desperate’ Rohingya youth need education, skills: UNICEF
INTERNATIONAL, 16 August 2019, Migrants and Refugees - The daily struggle to survive for Myanmar’s Rohingya people in one of the world’s largest refugee settlements, has caused “overwhelming” despair and jeopardized the hopes of an entire generation, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore, said on Friday. In a report marking two years since the arrival of around 745,000 Rohingya civilians in Bangladesh - after fleeing State-led persecution and violence in Myanmar - Executive Director Fore appealed for urgent investment in education and skills training. ‘Mere survival is not enough’ “For the Rohingya children and youth now in Bangladesh, mere survival is not enough,” she said. “It is absolutely critical that they are provided with the quality learning and skills development that they need to...
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