Friday, April 24, 2026
Home Blog Page 318

World News in Brief: Houthi-Israel Tensions, cases of Sudan cholera increase, deadly attacks in Ukraine

0

These strikes occurred while the United Nations mission to support the Hudaydah agreement -Created in 2018 to support the ceasefire between the government of Yemen and the Houthis-patrolled in places in the northern parts of the port.

The secretary general also expressed a deep concern about missiles and drones of drones led by Houthis against Israel.

Risk of new escalation

Concerned about the risk of a new escalation, the UN recalled that international law, as well as international humanitarian law, should be respected by all parties at any time, including the obligations to respect and protect civil infrastructure.

“The secretary general remains deeply concerned about the risk of a new escalation in the region,” said Dujarric.

While the UN chief reiterated his call for “all the persons involved in ceasing all military actions and to exercise maximum reservoir”, he also renewed his appeal to the immediate and unconditional liberation of all the United Nations and other members of the staff arbitrarily detained by the Houthi authorities.

Sudan: the crisis is getting worse while cholera and floods must be higher

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues to deepen as cholera spreads, flooding moves communities and thousands of people return to areas without support, according to the United Nations Bureau for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ochha).

In the locality of Tawiola, in the state of Darfur du Nord, more than 1,300 confirmed cases of cholera in just a week were reported on Sunday by an association of Sudanese doctors.

Although local and international partners have set up cholera treatment centers, the current capacity is far from sufficient to deal with the increasing workload.

While Tawila welcomes several hundred thousand displaced people, the partners in the field have trouble keeping the pace of increasing needs, especially as such needs should increase as the next rainy season sets up.

Vulnerable return

Everywhere in Sudan, people who return to their communities are faced with serious challenges, including the lack of essential services and the threat posed by the explosive remains of the war.

In the state of the white Nile, some residents began to come back after being moved for a year. However, an evaluation of the OCHA and its partners last week revealed that health, water, sanitation and hygiene support are urgently necessary, even more before the rainy season.

Likewise, in East Sudan, OCHA warns that many families returning to the state of Kassala have trouble facing the impact of heavy rains and floods, while heavy rains destroyed more than 280 houses in the village of Tirik earlier in July.

In addition, while insecurity continues to interfere with the work of humanitarian workers, the challenges faced by repatriated families often lead them to return to travel sites, undergoing the sustainability of return efforts.

In this context, the OCHA called for increased international support to meet the arrow needs of Sudan.

Ukraine: at least 20 civilians would have been killed in recent attacks

In Ukraine, attacks during the weekend and Monday would have killed more than 20 civilians and injured more than 100 other people, including several children, according to the authorities.

The strikes affected the capital kyiv, as well as the western and first -line regions, harmful houses, schools and a health facility.

In Kyiv, a kindergarten, metro stations, stores and residential buildings was affected.

The Ivano-Frakivsk region in western Ukraine, which welcomed many displaced people and had been less affected by hostilities, suffered the greatest attack since the Russian invasion on a large scale in February 2022.

First line regions

Meanwhile, in areas close to the fronts of the Donetsk, Dnipro and Kherson regions, hostilities have caused civilian victims and other damage to schools, a health facility and apartments. Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy and other regions also said that houses and stores had been destroyed.

With the support of the United Nations agencies and coordination with local authorities and first respondents, humanitarian organizations in the field continue to provide shelter equipment, non -food articles, legal aid, psychosocial support and assistance to children across the country.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

Syria: current violence fueling mass movement in Sweida

0

More than 93,000 Syrians have been moved through SweidaThe governor of Dar’a Voisin and Rural Damascus due to the climbing of violence in the city, said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, during the daily newspaper on Monday in New York.

Sweida’s most displaced people remain with local communities or in one of the 15 reception centers, while around 30 collective shelters opened in Dar’a.

Infrastructure and services suffer in the region. Some Sweida Hospitals and Health Centers are out of service, water infrastructure has been seriously damaged, significant electricity cuts have been reported and access to food is disrupted.

Delivery of initial aid

On Sunday, the first aid convoy deployed by the Syrian Arab Arab Croissant reached Sweida and the Salkhad district in the city, where most displaced people are looking for security.

The convoy of 32 trucks carried food, water, medical supplies and fuel provided by the World Food Program (Wfp), the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and other partners.

The United Nations Coordinator of the United Nations Tom Fletcher welcomed This initial delivery on social networks, claiming that it was a “first step desperately necessary, but much more relief is necessary”.

Mr. Dujarric stressed that, as the UN is committed to the relevant parties to facilitate humanitarian access and ensure the protection of civilians, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ochha) Work with the authorities to facilitate a direct visit to Sweida to provide assistance when the security conditions allow.

Mr. Fletcher echoes this feeling, saying that the Ocha teams “are mobilized to move as much as possible”.

“We continue to urge all the parties to protect people who have been taken in violence, including by allowing them to freely move to security and medical assistance,” concluded Dujarric.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

Operation targeting human trafficking and money laundering: 13 arrests in Romania and Netherlands

0
Operation targeting human trafficking and money laundering: 13  arrests in Romania and Netherlands

An organised crime group that took vulnerable women from Romania to the Netherlands for sexual exploitation has been halted thanks to a coordinated operation between Romanian and Dutch authorities, in collaboration with Eurojust. During an action day earlier this month, 13 suspects were arrested in both countries. Four of the suspects have been surrendered from […]

Source link

Dreams amid the rubble: Gaza’s women speak of homes, loss and hungry children

0
Dreams amid the rubble: Gaza’s women speak of homes, loss and hungry children

In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared, grim reality.

Many have been forced to flee the fighting dozens of times. Most find themselves homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future.

Khadija Manoun and her daughter in the space she uses as a kitchen inside a destroyed building.

Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of life’s leftovers

Khadija Manoun said she and her family have moved more than 20 times, from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to a destroyed building in western Gaza, in search of shelter. She had owned a new fully furnished house, which she had built with a bank loan.

“I furnished my house well, with tiles and electrical appliances,” she said. “It had only been three years since I had the house. Then the war came and everything was lost.”

Today, everything has changed, Ms. Manoun said. Her spacious, fully equipped kitchen is now just a corner in the rubble, where a solitary soap dish borrowed from a neighbour sits. Metal utensils have been replaced with plastic tea containers to serve 10 people.

The bathroom was reduced to a corner covered with pieces of cloth that had been blankets. Her dressing room is now home to tattered suitcases.

“This is now my closet where I put everything,” she said. “I had a bedroom that had cost me 10,000 shekels.”

Her family sleeps on simple mattresses. Clean drinking water is a luxury that Khadija chases after, running between trucks, often returning with empty containers.

Amid all this, she sometimes reminisces, scrolling through photos on her mobile phone of her old home and the meals they used to eat.

Badriya Barrawi, a displaced person in Gaza, is living among the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Badriya Barrawi, a displaced person in Gaza, is living among the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Badriya Barawi: Exhausted by hunger

In her modest tent on the beach west of Gaza City, Badriya Barawi, from Beit Lahia, sits, arranging what remains of her life. Tears stream from her eyes.

“Have mercy on us,” she said. “We are fed up and exhausted, mentally and physically. We can’t bear it any longer. How long will this life go on?”

She says her children are crying from the heat and hunger.

“We haven’t had bread for three days. This morning, I fed the children hummus, but is that enough for their stomachs?” said Ms. Barawi, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

She said she collapses daily from a lack of food.

Hiyam Zayed is displaced from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hiyam Zayed is displaced from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hiyam Zayed: Trampled garden of dreams

In a nearby tent, Hiyam Zayed and her eight daughters eat lentil soup without bread. Describing her former home, she said there were six rooms and a garden.

“I was happy in my home,” she said. “My daughters and I used to have fun there. They played on the roof or inside the rooms. We had a beautiful garden in front of the house, and we grew plants and ate its produce and raised chickens. My daughters were very happy. We fed them the best food and dressed them in the best clothes.”

She also said she used to have a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a refrigerator “full of goodies”.

Now, everything is gone.

“No food, no washing machine, no feelings: we’ve become depressed,” she added.

“My daughters wear the worst clothes. I can’t find a way to bathe them. I used to turn on the water tap at home and water would run for drinking or bathing. Now, we live in a tent in the sand. I light a fire to cook after I used to have gas. I borrow cooking utensils.”

“How are we to blame for what happened, and who bears responsibility?” Ms. Zayed asked. “What is my fault and my children’s fault when we are displaced from one place to another and they die of hunger?”

Hiyam's daughters eating a lunch of lentil soup, without bread, where they live, inside a destroyed building.

Hiyam’s daughters eating a lunch of lentil soup, without bread, where they live, inside a destroyed building.

Mass displacement

According to UN reports, more than two million Palestinians –the population of Gaza – live in about 15 per cent of the Strip’s area after the war caused widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes.

International organizations have warned that the continuation of the conflict threatens to have “catastrophic consequences” in the near term.

That includes a serious impact on children’s mental and physical health, the spread of disease and the disintegration of social structures.

This amid the absence of any clear path towards a political or humanitarian solution.

Source link

Gaza: Guterres condemns the murder of people looking for food while humanitarian conditions deteriorate

0

Stéphane Dujarric addressed journalists at the UN headquarters in New York one day after dozens of Palestinians were killed in search of food aid.

He said the Secretary -General deplored growing children and adults suffering from malnutrition and strongly condemned current violence, including shooting, murder and injury of people who are trying to have food.

Not a target

“” Civilians must be protected and respected, and they should never be targeted“Said Mr. Dujarric, noting that the population of Gaza remains seriously underemployed with the basic necessities of life.

He stressed that “Israel has the obligation to authorize and facilitate all means at its disposal the humanitarian recovery provided by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.”

Dujarric said the Secretary -General noted that recent hostilities intensified while the humanitarian system in Gaza is hampered, mined and threatened.

New evacuation orders

He underlined a new evacuation order issued for certain parts of Deir al-Balah, which pushes people in more desperate conditions and arouses additional displacement, while restricting the capacity of the UN to provide aid.

He reported that two UN guest houses in Deir al-Balah had been struck, despite the informed parties of their location.

“They have suffered damage,” he said, answering the question of a journalist. “The UN staff inside was, to say the least, shaken. »»

Mr. Dujarric stressed that the UN intends to stay at Deir al-Balah.

Ceasefire now

The secretary general reiterated his urgent call for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian staff, and for the supply of essential resources to ensure their survival.

He again called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Dujarric said the UN was ready to considerably increase its humanitarian operations in Gaza, adding that “time for a ceasefire is now”.

People who die of malnutrition

In the midst of bombing, trips and destruction in progress in Gaza, humanitarian workers continue to receive reports from seriously malnutric persons arriving at medical points and healthy hospitals.

More than a dozen people, including children, have been hungry in the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health agencies.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (Ochha) Recalled that around 88% Gaza is now under travel orders or in travel areas.

Shelter and fuel

The Gaza population is around 2.1 million and approximately 1.35 million need shelters and household items. However, no shelter supply has been allowed to enter for more than four months.

The disastrous fuel crisis also continues, the humanitarian workers continuing to warn that the limited quantities that have been authorized to enter in recent days are hardly sufficient.

Traditional critical aid systems: UN official

Meanwhile, the new United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Ramiz Alakbarov, met the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, Mohammad Mustafa, in Ramallah.

At a press conference, Dr. Alakbarov called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the unconditional hostage release and the lifting of all restrictions on access to people in Gaza.

He said he met immediate needs, humanitarian organizations must be able to use traditional aid delivery systems.

He noted that these systems are currently compromised by violence, including armed looting and recurring shootings in civilians asking for help. which, according to him, must be the subject of an independent investigation.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

Dreams in the middle of the rubble: Gaza women talk about houses, loss and hungry children

0

In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared and dark reality.

Many have been forced to flee the fights of tens of times. Most are homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future.

Khadija Manoun and her daughter in the space she uses as a kitchen inside a destroyed building.

Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of the remains of life

Khadija Manoun said that she and her family had moved more than 20 times, from Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip in a building destroyed in west of Gaza, in search of a shelter. She had had a new fully furnished house, which she had built with a bank loan.

“I provided my house well, with tiles and electrical devices,” she said. “It’s been only three years since I had the house. Then the war came and everything was lost. ”

Today, everything has changed, said Ms. Manoun. Its spacious and fully equipped kitchen is now just a corner in the rubble, where a lonely soap dish borrowed from a neighbor is seated. Metal utensils have been replaced by plastic tea containers to serve 10 people.

The bathroom was reduced to a corner covered with pieces of fabric that had been blankets. His dressing room is now home to shreds.

“It is now my closet where I put everything,” she said. “I had a room that cost me 10,000 shekels.”

His family sleeps on simple mattresses. Drinking water is a luxury Khadija pursues, flowing between trucks, often returning with empty containers.

In the middle of all this, she sometimes remembers, scrolling the photos on her mobile phone from her old house and the meals they ate.

Badriya Barrawi, a person moved to Gaza, lives among the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Badriya Barawi: exhausted by hunger

In his modest tent on the beach west of Gaza City, Badriya Barawi, Beit Lahia, is, arranging what remains of her life. Tears flow from his eyes.

“Have mercy on us,” she said. “We are fed up and exhausted, mentally and physically. We can no longer bear it. How long will this life continue? ”

She says her children cry from heat and hunger.

“We haven’t had bread for three days. This morning, I nourished children’s hummus, but is it enough for their stomach? said Ms. Barawi, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

She said she collapses daily for lack of food.

Hiyam Zayed is moved from Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Hiyam Zayed: Garden of Broken Dreams

In a neighboring tent, Hiyam Zayed and his eight daughters eat a lens soup without bread. Describing her old house, she said there were six bedrooms and a garden.

“I was happy with me,” she said. “My daughters and I am amused there. They played on the roof or inside the rooms. We had a beautiful garden in front of the house, and we cultivated plants and ate its products and raised with chickens. My daughters were very happy. We have nourished the best food and dressed them in the best clothes. ”

She also said that she had a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a “goodie” refrigerator.

Now everything has gone.

“No food, no washing machine, no feelings: we have become depressed,” she added.

“My daughters wear the worst clothes. I can’t find a way to bathe them. I used to light the water tap at home and the water would run to drink or bathe. Now we live in a tent in the sand. I light a fire to cook after getting used to gas. I borrow utensils. “

“How do we want to blame what happened and who is responsible?” Ms. Zayed asked. “What is my fault and the fault of my children when we move from one place to another and they die of hunger?”

Hiyam’s girls eat a lens soup lunch, without bread, where they live, inside a destroyed building.

Mass displacement

According to UN reports, more than two million Palestinians – the population of Gaza – live in around 15% of the strip area after the war, the general destruction of infrastructure and houses.

International organizations have warned that the continuation of the conflict is threatening to have short -term “catastrophic consequences”.

This includes a serious impact on the mental and physical health of children, the spread of the disease and the disintegration of social structures.

This in the midst of the absence of any clear path towards a political or humanitarian solution.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

The droughts cause record devastation worldwide, reveals the uninformed report

0

It is according to a new report of United Nations Convention to Fight Desertification (UNCCD), the National Center for US National Dryness (NDMC) and the International alliance of resilience of drought On the global impacts of droughts from 2023 to 2025.

“Drought is a silent killer. He slips, drains the resources and devastates lives in slow motion. His scars are deep, “said UNCD executive secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.

“This is not a period of drought,” said Dr. Mark Svoboda, co-author and director of NDMC. “This is a global disaster with slow evolution, the worst that I have ever seen. This report underlines the need for systematic monitoring of the way in which drought affects the lives, livelihoods and the health of the ecosystems on which we all depend. ”

Record devastation in Africa

According to the report, while 90 million people face acute hunger across East and South Africa, certain regions of the region have experienced the worst drought ever recorded.

In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, corn and wheat crops have undergone repeated failures. In Zimbabwe, in particular, the 2024 corn harvest fell 70% in the year, corn prices have doubled and 9,000 cattle died of thirst and famine.

Some 43,000 people in Somalia died in 2022 only due to the hunger linked to drought. The crisis continued until 2025, with a quarter of the population in the face of food insecurity in terms of the crisis at the start of the year.

Following the drought, Zambia suffers from one of the worst energy crises in the world: in April, the Zambezi river fell to 20% of its long -term average, and the country’s largest hydroelectric factory, the Kariba barrier, fell to 7% production capacity, causing a characteristic of electricity that can go up to 21 hours a day. This led to closing hospitals, bakeries and factories, further aggravating devastation.

World impacts

But the effects of drought extend beyond Africa. For example, by September 2023 in Spain, two years of drought and record heat caused a 50% drop in olive harvest, doubling the prices of olive oil nationwide.

In Türkiye, the exhaustion of the groundwater accelerated by the drought has triggered chasms, by endangering communities and their infrastructure while reducing the storage capacity of aquifers.

In the Amazon basin, record river levels in 2023 and 2024 led to the death of fish and endangered dolphins, disturbed the supply of drinking water and created transport challenges for hundreds of thousands. Deforestation and current fires also threaten to move the Amazon from a carbon well to a carbon source.

The drop in water levels in the Panama Canal has reduced the transit by more than a third, resulting in major global trade disturbances. Among the overflowing effects were the drop in American exports and shortages of soybeans and the price increase in British grocery stores.

Call for cooperation and solutions

The report has listed several recommendations to help fight this crisis, including stronger early alert systems, surveillance of drought in real time and impact on drought, and nature -based solutions such as the restoration of watersheds and the use of Aboriginal crops.

He also called for more resilient infrastructure – including out -of -network energy and alternative water supply systems – and global cooperation, in particular with regard to cross -border river basins and commercial roads.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

Frontex Independent Fundamental Rights Office releases its 2024 Annual Report

0
Frontex Independent Fundamental Rights Office releases its 2024 Annual Report

Frontex’s Fundamental Rights Office (FRO) has published its 2024 Annual Report, offering a clear view of how rights are being protected at the EU’s external borders and where concerns remain. The report highlights how the Office is shaping operations by embedding rights protections into all areas of Frontex’s work. Learn more here…

Source link

Gaza: Guterres condemns killing of people seeking food as humanitarian conditions deteriorate

0
Gaza: Guterres condemns killing of people seeking food as humanitarian conditions deteriorate

Stéphane Dujarric was speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York a day after dozens of Palestinians were killed seeking food aid.

He said the Secretary-General deplored the growing reports of both children and adults suffering from malnutrition and strongly condemned the ongoing violence, including the shooting, killing and injuring of people attempting to get food.

Not a target

Civilians must be protected and respected, and they must never be targeted,” said Mr. Dujarric, noting that the population in Gaza remains gravely undersupplied with the basic necessities of life.

He stressed that “Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations.” 

Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General noted that the recent intensification of hostilities comes as the humanitarian system in Gaza is being impeded, undermined and endangered.

New evacuation orders

He pointed to a new evacuation order issued for parts of Deir Al-Balah, which is pushing people into more desperate conditions and sparking further displacement, while restricting the UN’s ability to deliver aid.

He reported that two UN guesthouses in Deir Al-Balah were struck, despite the parties being informed about their locations. 

“They suffered damage,” he said, responding a reporter’s question. “The UN staff inside was, to say the least, rattled.”

Mr. Dujarric underscored that the UN intends to remain in Deir Al-Balah.

Ceasefire now

The Secretary-General reiterated his urgent call for the protection of civilians, including humanitarian personnel, and for the provision of essential resources to ensure their survival.

He once again called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Mr. Dujarric said the UN stands ready to significantly scale up its humanitarian operations in Gaza, adding “the time for a ceasefire is now.” 

More to follow…

Source link

Terror and chaos for the people of Gaza now between the “death phase”

0

In an alert, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWAhas relayed desperate testimonies of his colleagues who also find it difficult to survive in the enclave torn by the war.

“We are in the death phase,” said an UNRWA worker. “” All around people at the moment is death, whether bombs or strikes, wasting children Before their eyes malnutrition, dehydration and death. »»

Doctors and nurses who continue to work in clinics and medical centers of the United Nations Agency “Watch the children disappear and die before their eyes, and there is absolutely nothing that they can do it, ” The worker continued.

The civilians faced the sniper and the tank-tire ‘

Development comes after desperate Gazans looking for aid were criticized on weekends “Israeli tanks, elite shooters and other shots”, According to the United Nations World Food Program (Wfp).

In a detail statement After the incident on Sunday, July 20, he explained that a truck convoy of 25 trucks had crossed the border point of Zikim in the north of Gaza “intended for hungry communities”.

Shortly after having successfully completed the final checkpoint after Zikim’s crossing point, the convoy met large crowds of civilians while waiting to access food supplies. It was then that the shooting started, leaving “countless” “dead” gasans, WFP said, echoing the reports of the health authorities.

Convicing the incident, WFP noted that the victims “simply tried to access food to feed themselves and their families on the verge of famine”.

The United Nations agency said violence had occurred “Despite the insurance of the Israeli authorities that humanitarian operational conditions would improve; Including that the armed forces will not be present or will engage at any stage along the humanitarian convoy roads. »»

Without such fundamental guarantees, it will not be possible to continue to provide vital support through the Gaza Strip, said WPF, its reaction one day after 36 people asking for help were killed near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Center led by the Israelis and the United States in the southern band.

Evacuation shock Deir al-Balah

In the Central Gaza, Deir al-Balah, 50,000 to 80,000 people were affected by a mass movement order emitted by the Israeli army-the first since the war broke out on October 7, 2023.

“The new order crosses Deir al-Balah to the Mediterranean Sea, more exploding the band”, Ochha said. “This will limit the capacity of the UN and our partners to move safely and effectively in Gaza, suffocating humanitarian access when necessary. “”

The UN staff remain in Deir Al-Balah in “dozens of premises” whose contact details were shared with the parties at war. “These locations – as for all civil sites – must be protected, whatever the travel orders,” insisted OCHA, because the Israeli tanks have moved to the southern and east regions of the city.

According to information, this may be there that some of the remaining hostages seized in terrorist attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023 in Israel can still be held.

Gaza cuts in half

The last evacuation order means that almost 88% Gaza is assigned by travel orders or is located in the Israeli-militarized areas. Some 2.1 million civilians who have been uprooted on several occasions are now pressed in the remaining space, where the essential services have collapsed.

“There is nowhere [Gazans] escape. They are trapped, “said Louise Waterridge, head of UNRWA senior emergencies.” They cannot leave the Gaza Strip. They try to keep their children alive. They try to keep themselves alive.

In the comments of UN NewsThe veteran humanitarian has explained that no food is available and only very limited water, explaining why so many desperate Gazans are likely that their lives have come to the help of the few distribution centers and still operational arrival points.

“The children are unwelcome, they are dehydrated, they die in front of their [parents’] eyes, “continued Ms. Waterridge.” Bombs and strikes continue; There is no way to run, there is nowhere to hide. There is no way to escape there.

Originally published at Almouwatin.com