Speaking to reporters from a basement in Kherson, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Ukraine Munir Mammadzade said the frontline town remains “under constant fire” with daily attacks destroying homes and critical infrastructure, as well as the services on which people depend. […]
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
Between 31 January and 10 February, tropical cyclones Fytia and Gezani struck the island nation, causing widespread destruction.
WFP assessments indicate that 1.57 million people in Madagascar are currently food insecure, including 84,000 facing emergency conditions. That figure could rise to 1.8 million in the coming months.
“Families are telling us they have lost everything. Many are sheltering in damaged homes or temporary sites, uncertain about how they will access their next meal,” the agency said.
WFP faces an $18.3 million funding shortfall for its emergency operations over the next six months. It has already reduced planned assistance during the lean season to just 10 per cent of originally targeted beneficiaries, leaving more than half a million people without aid at a critical time.
“This is not just an emergency response moment; we will need sustained support over the coming months to help people recover, rebuild, and strengthen their resilience against further shocks,” the agency added.
The UN, together with partners and the Government of Colombia, has launched the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan to address the country’s complex challenges, including armed conflict, climate-related disasters and migration pressures.
Nearly seven million people – roughly one in eight Colombians – are expected to require assistance this year.
Conflict involving non-state armed groups, now present in 60 per cent of municipalities, mainly in rural areas, has led to forced displacement, confinement and restrictions on movement.
Attacks against civilians rose by 58 per cent last year, with grave violations affecting children, including recruitment, sexual violence and attacks on schools and teachers. Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, particularly children in rural areas, have been disproportionately affected.
Climate-related emergencies have compounded the crisis. Recent floods in Córdoba department affected more than 150,000 people.
The 2026 plan seeks $287 million to assist 1.2 million people. In 2025, only 24 per cent of requested funding was received.
Refugee women prepare food in a displacement site in Ouallam, in the Tillaberi region of Niger.
Millions worldwide are facing the combined impacts of climate change and forced displacement.
With global temperatures projected to rise by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, livelihoods are increasingly at risk, potentially driving more people to move.
While sudden disasters such as floods and storms trigger immediate displacement, slow-onset events – including drought, rising temperatures and sea-level rise – contribute to longer-term migration trends, particularly in vulnerable communities.
To better anticipate these movements, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has developed a machine-learning model focused on East, Central and West Africa.
The model analyses refugee and asylum-seeker data to help predict cross-border displacement linked to gradual climate impacts. Internally displaced populations were not included due to data limitations.
UNHCR said the initiative highlights the need for proactive strategies to address the growing intersection of climate change and forced migration.
After Hurricane Melissa swept through Cuba last year, recovery efforts have been further complicated by fuel shortages, which have deepened energy constraints, disrupted water delivery, healthcare and other critical services across the island.
“The Secretary-General has been following the situation in Cuba extremely closely, and I can tell you that he’s very concerned about the situation in Cuba, which is worsening as oil needs continue to be unmet,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in response to a question at his regular news briefing in New York.
“The General Assembly has consistently called for an end to the embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba. The Secretary-General would like to see all parties pursue dialogue and respect for international law yet again.”
UN teams on the ground are working with the Government to help support the humanitarian relief for the people of Cuba, Mr. Dujarric added.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomed the Bahraini Ambassador to the United States at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City on Thursday, February 12, 2026. This was the first official visit of His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa to […]
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomed the Bahraini Ambassador to the United States at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City on Thursday, February 12, 2026. This was the first official visit of His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa to […]
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomed the Bahrain Ambassador to the United States to Church headquarters in Salt Lake City on Thursday, February 12, 2026.
This was the first official visit of His Excellency Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa to Temple Square, following visits with Church leaders and Bahraini leaders in the Middle East.
The Apostle and His Excellency Al Khalifa discussed education, strengthening the family and peace in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf.
“Guided by the vision of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Bahrain continues to promote initiatives that strengthen dialogue among civilisations, uphold freedom of religion and belief, and foster inclusive, harmonious societies grounded in human dignity,” said His Excellency Al Khalifa.
In November, Elder Bednar and his wife, Susan, met with His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdulla Al Aradi, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the King Hamad Global Center for Coexistence and Tolerance, in Manama, Bahrain, to advance interfaith understanding and cooperation. The Church collaborates with the King Hamad Center for Coexistence and Tolerance on potential interfaith initiatives.
“The Kingdom’s initiatives further include the Kingdom of Bahrain Declaration on freedom of religion and belief, international conferences dedicated to dialogue among civilisations, and global awards promoting tolerance and empowerment,” His Excellency Al Khalifa said. “Bahrain also continues to advocate internationally for stronger measures to combat hate speech and extremism, including proposals to advance global frameworks that safeguard religious freedom and social cohesion.”
In May 2024, Elder Anthony D. Perkins, President of the Middle East/Africa North Area of the Church, accompanied by his wife, Christine, visited Bahrain to meet with His Excellency Dr. Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, chair of the Center’s Board of Trustees. During the meeting, they discussed common issues and emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation at the regional and international levels.
The Kingdom of Bahrain underscores the importance of interfaith dialogue and coexistence in the region. Expatriates comprise over half of the country’s 1.5 million population.
Latter-day Saints have been working and living in Bahrain for over 50 years and have enjoyed the privilege of gathering and worshiping in Manama, the capital city. The first small congregation of Latter-day Saints was formed in the early 1970s. The Church also has a senior couple in Bahrain who support local Church members and leaders.
A complaint by Montenegro’s Human Rights Action, prompted by leaked preliminary findings linked to the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee, has put the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota back under scrutiny. Beyond denouncing alleged degrading conditions, the controversy is sharpening a wider European argument: that preventing abuse in closed psychiatric settings requires a rights-based shift away from institutionalisation toward community support, peer-led services, and independent safeguards.
On 28 January 2026, the Montenegrin watchdog Human Rights Action (HRA) issued a public complaint after what it described as leaked preliminary findings from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), a Council of Europe body that inspects places where people are deprived of liberty.
HRA said the leaked material—reported by the newspaper Vijesti—raised serious concerns about long-standing problems in closed institutions, including the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota. The watchdog’s central demand is transparency: publish the relevant CPT documentation and set out clear, public steps to prevent abuse and protect patients’ rights.
The information currently in the public domain points to a familiar risk pattern in closed settings: overcrowding, poor living conditions, and the potential for neglect and degrading treatment when oversight is weak and people have limited ability to complain safely. Vijesti quoted Dobrota’s management disputing parts of the picture, while acknowledging operational pressures and referencing a “court hospital” solution—an approach that critics argue can reinforce reliance on institutional pathways rather than reduce them.
Because the CPT’s full report has not been officially published in this case, the public discussion is built on partial reporting and civil-society statements. Still, HRA’s message is unambiguous: when credible concerns arise in a closed psychiatric institution, secrecy is itself part of the problem, and independent scrutiny becomes urgent.
Across Europe, allegations of abuse in psychiatric and forensic facilities repeatedly raise the same question: can closed institutions ever be made reliably safe for those inside them, or do they structurally generate risk? Disability-rights advocates increasingly point to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) General Comment No. 5 on Article 19 (“living independently and being included in the community”), which stresses choice, autonomy, and access to community support as prerequisites for full rights.
In its 2022 Guidelines on deinstitutionalization, including in emergencies, the CRPD Committee sets out how states should plan and deliver a transition away from institutions—building community-based supports and preventing new forms of segregation from replacing old ones. For many rights groups, the Dobrota controversy is therefore not only about conditions inside one hospital; it is about whether governments are willing to reduce and ultimately end dependence on institutional models that place people at heightened vulnerability.
HRA’s position is that credibility requires publication and follow-through. That means, at minimum, authorising disclosure of the relevant CPT findings (once finalised), answering publicly to any identified shortcomings, and enabling independent monitoring mechanisms to assess the situation on the ground. Where allegations indicate possible criminal conduct, rights groups argue that the response must include independent investigation and, if warranted, prosecution—because administrative “lessons learned” alone rarely deter repeat harm.
The Dobrota case lands amid an intensifying Europe-wide debate about coercion, safeguards, and alternatives. Advocacy networks have highlighted growing institutional resistance to approaches they view as incompatible with the CRPD’s direction, including proposals that could normalise coercive frameworks rather than reduce them. Within that wider landscape, previous reporting on The European Times has tracked how legal challenges and policy shifts are reshaping arguments over forced treatment and rights protections.
Three developments will determine whether this complaint leads to meaningful protection from abuse.
Until full documentation is published, the responsible conclusion is necessarily cautious. But the stakes are not: closed institutions concentrate vulnerability. If the aim is to prevent abuse—not merely respond after harm occurs—then transparency, independent safeguards, and a credible pathway away from institutionalisation are the measures that rights advocates say matter most.
New research by scientists at the University of Liverpool looks at how artificial intelligence (AI) can help doctors
“More and more people are killed and injured every year. Millions of people have only a few hours of electricity per day. Hundreds of thousands of people are suffering without heat in freezing weather,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). […]
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
Some families have survived in those harsh conditions for months.
Among them, 17-year-old Doha and her brothers and sisters reached Tawila after a three-day long journey from El Fasher by foot and donkey cart, exhausted and frightened. Home in the key Darfur city had become too dangerous. Food was scarce. Health facilities were destroyed. School, once the centre of Doha’s days, was no more.
“This girl caught our eye because she was smiling,” Eva Hinds, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan told UN News. “And she so desperately wanted to speak English. I’m always so struck when I see someone who is beaming in the middle of such a hardship environment.”
Her first name, Doha, means “morning” in Arabic and is often used colloquially to refer to the period from dawn to sunrise.
“The light in the eyes of this girl showed she lives to her name,” said Ms. Hinds.
Before the war broke out, Doha was studying English and was keen to know if there were opportunities to continue learning English in Tawila. She told Ms. Hinds she’d like to teach others at some point.
“I’m always struck by how people are resilient and they’re not giving up when the world is stuck against them,” said Ms. Hinds.
According to a recent report from the UN Human Rights Office based on victims and witnesses’ testimonies, more than 6,000 people were killed in three days when Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city of El Fasher last year. The key city of Darfur came under 18 months of sustained siege. This is where some of the most harrowing stories have emerged out of this brutal conflict.
“There are millions of children who’ve had to flee their homes several times, not only once or twice, but more than that,” underlined Ms. Hinds.
These children end up in camps for internally displaced, which are very difficult places to grow up in, with cramped spaces and very limited access to safe water, food and opportunities to continue learning.
“Their sense of safety has been shaken as they’ve been forced to flee and they’ve seen things that many children have never seen and should never see,” she said.
Their routines, friendships and sense of security have been completely upended as they struggle with the most basic things, such as getting food and enough water to drink and wash.
On the ground, UNICEF and its partners provide different types of support, from healthcare to nutrition, and also safe spaces where heavily traumatised children can start receiving psychosocial services so they can start going through their traumatic experiences amid a sense of normalcy for the first time. It’s a space where they can play, be with friends and start learning.
But, Sudan is an immense country, with around 34 million people who need humanitarian assistance, and needs keep growing. This is a challenge for humanitarians operating on the ground. The dramatic situation for children is worsening in conflict zones, where the risks of violence, including sexual violence, are escalating.
UNICEF works to identify and support children, looks for the adults in their families to reunite them and offers them refuge if needed.
“With regard to sexual violence, it is essential to provide safe spaces, especially for women and girls,” according to UNICEF.
“Needs are skyrocketing and the funding is dwindling,” the agency’s spokesperson said. “It’s a very difficult equation to make, and unfortunately, it’s often the most vulnerable that pay the heaviest price: the children.”
Sudan is also one of the countries that practices female genital mutilation (FGM). UNICEF and the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, have a joint programme on the elimination of the practice, which the agencies continue to implement despite the challenges of a country at war.
“We foster girls clubs as part of the programming,” Ms. Hinds explained. “These clubs are safe spaces where girls and adolescents come together, where they learn. It’s a place where they can support one another and develop a sense of identity and belonging and this is very much about the positive social norms. These clubs also play a critical role in encouraging girls to stay in school, complete their studies and challenge harmful practices, including female genital mutilation.”
In camps for displaced people, education and basic services provide children with a fragile sense of safety and stability. “Education is a lifeline,” UNICEF insists.
Despite ongoing violence in Darfur and Kordofan, hope remains the last refuge for thousands of children like Doha in Tawila, who dream of a peaceful Sudan and the chance to reclaim a stolen childhood.
Between January 31 and February 10, tropical cyclones Fytia and Gezani struck the island nation, causing widespread destruction. WFP assessments indicate that 1.57 million people in Madagascar are currently food insecure, of whom 84,000 are facing emergency conditions. This figure could reach 1.8 million in the […]
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
