4 June 2015 – Critical aid operations supporting millions of people affected by the conflict in Iraq are at risk of shutting down unless funds are made available immediately, senior United Nations warned today as they joined an international appeal for nearly $500 million to cover the immediate needs of 5.6 million Iraqis for the next six months. “Humanitarian partners have been doing everything they can to help. But more than 50 per cent of the operation will be shut down or cut back if money is not received immediately,” Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the war-torn country…
Author: UN News
3 June 2015 – Palestinian refugee families living in substandard dwellings and owners of homes demolished in last year’s hostilities in Gaza, are among those gaining access to shelter under a United Nations-backed project to provide close to 450 newly-built housing units, which was stalled for three years due the lack of access to construction materials. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is mandated to provide assistance and protection some 5 million registered Palestine refugees, including in Gaza, announced today that the project, funded by the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent…
3 June 2015 – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today reported an increase in the intensity and geographic area of Ebola transmission in Guinea and Sierra Leone, warned that the onset of the rainy season “from now onwards” will make field operations more difficult and noted that community engagement remains a challenge in both countries. Meanwhile, Peter Graaff, the Acting Special Representative and head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), told the UN News Service that the rainy season “creates problems because it will bring other diseases like malaria that often shows similar symptoms to…
2 June 2015 – The United Nations is continuing its efforts to facilitate a dialogue among Burundian stakeholders amid the country’s ongoing political deadlock and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, a spokesperson for the Organization announced today. Briefing a press conference earlier this afternoon, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, Said Djinnit, had returned to the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, after attending the East African Community Summit on Sunday. Mr. Djinnit’s return comes as the UN official seeks to reboot talks with Burundian stakeholders on ways to resume the consultative political dialogue. Burundi…
2 June 2015 – Somalia must put in place a legal framework that guarantees freedom of expression in the country, as well as a moratorium on capital punishment, a United Nations independent expert recommended today, while commending progress accomplished so far. “Somali journalists are often harassed, arrested, censored, even imprisoned, and media organizations are closed down,” underlined Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, who is the United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the troubled Horn of Africa country, where he just completed his second mission on 29 May. “Such incidents risk having a chilling effect on this…
1 June 2015 – The new head of the United Nations relief arm today released a fresh tranche of crisis funding from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in order to support life-saving relief work for thousands of Burundian refugees dispersed between Rwanda and Tanzania, the Organization has announced. Since early April, nearly 100,000 Burundians have fled across the borders, seeking safety in neighbouring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A cholera epidemic striking refugees gathered along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania has only added to the miseries of the unfolding humanitarian crisis. “Children…
1 June 2015 – A United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) chartered ship carrying vital food assistance destined for the Yemeni port of Aden was diverted yesterday to the port of Hudaydah following reports of ongoing fighting and security threats. The MV Amsterdam was on its way from Djibouti carrying over 5,700 metric tons of food including wheat, pulses, vegetable oil and micronutrient powder, which is used to protect young children against malnutrition and anaemia, said a statement released from WFP today. “We will continue to try to reach Aden and surrounding areas by sending supplies from Hudaydah by road…
31 May 2015 – The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has strongly condemned the death of at least 70 civilians in Syria’s northern Aleppo province by barrel bombs dropped from government helicopters. “The news of aerial bombing by Syrian helicopters on a civilian market area of the Aleppo neighbourhood of Al Shaar deserves the strongest international condemnation,” the Special Envoy said in a statement issued shortly after the attack. According to news reports, at least 70 people were killed and many more wounded in the attack on al-Bab’s busy market on Saturday morning after government helicopters…
31 May 2015 – The United Nations human rights chief has urged several States to intensify their efforts to investigate long-standing allegations that soldiers in their forces sent to keep the peace in the Central African Republic (CAR) may have committed very serious violations, including killing of civilians and sexual exploitation of local women. “These allegations were extremely disturbing,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said today in a statement released by his Office (OHCHR). “People in CAR were desperate for protection. The role of international forces in halting the worst of the fighting and sectarian slaughter…
29 May 2015 – Welcoming Nebraska as the nineteenth state in the United States to abolish the death penalty, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today urged the Federal Government to engage with those states retaining the policy towards achieving a nationwide moratorium as a first step to abolition. “We welcome the abolition of the death penalty in the state of Nebraska on Wednesday,” said OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, who added that Nebraska has not executed any inmates since 1997. States, such as Colorado, Delaware, Montana and Kansas, whose legislative bodies are currently debating the…