Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona received prison terms of 15 and 12 years for their roles in brutal attacks against civilians -mainly of the mainly Muslim Seleka population of the country-during the 2013-2014 civil war.

They were guilty “Beyond any reasonable doubt” to direct and facilitate attacks on civilians in the capital, Bangui, and the west of the country.

Thousands of people were killed in the violence that swept the car following a 2012 coup of state led by the mainly Muslim rebel coalition, Séléka. The fighting took a deeply sectarian tenor while the anti-balaka militia launched a brutal campaign of reprisals.

Long list of crimes

The ICC test chamber found Mr. Yekatom responsible for a number of crimes he has committed in the context of the attack on Bangui (The capital of the car), Yamwara’s events (a school where he had established a base), and during the advance of his group on the PK9-Mbaiki axis.

They included murder, torture, transfer and forced expulsion, leading an attack on a building dedicated to religion and persecution.

Mr. Ngaïssona was convicted of having helped and encouraged many of the same crimes, including persecution, forced displacement and cruel treatment.

The two men also targeted Muslims according to the perception of the anti-balaka of collective guilt for the abuses of Seleka.

The judges condemned Mr. Yekatom to 15 years old and Mr. Ngaïssona at 12 years old, time was already deducted.

The accusations of crimes of war and realization of an attack on a religious building during the attack on Bossangoa were not maintained against Mr. Ngaïssona, and those of the conscription, the enrollment and the use of children were not maintained against Mr. Yekatom.

“Instrumentalization of religion”

The room noted that While religion was instrumentalized by armed groups during the conflict, violence was not initially religious in nature.

Many witnesses have testified that Muslims and Christians had lived peacefully together before the conflict.

The convictions mark the conclusion of a trial which began in February 2021. During the procedure, the accusation called 114 witnesses, while the defense teams called 56. A total of 1,965 victims participated in the trial by means of legal representatives.

The dispute dates back to 1953 when France has mapped the border for the first time, but tensions resurfaced in May after the death of a Cambodian soldier in a border skirmish.

Secretary General António Guterres Is reports “following” the clashes, his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told New York.

“The secretary general urges the two parties to exercise a maximum restraint and to solve any problem through dialogue and in a spirit of good neighborhood, in order to find a lasting solution to the dispute,” he said.

Humanitarian assistance Intergence in Syria

The Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (Ochha) Directed an internsituding visit to the Rural Governor of Damascus in Syria on Thursday to assess needs and provide assistance to more than 500 families displaced by recent violence in the neighboring governor of Sweida.

The United Nations agencies have visited the Sayyeda Zeinab community and plan to visit the governorate of Dar’A Voisin in the coming days, where humanitarian workers support tens of thousands of people displaced by violence.

In rural Damascus and Dar’a, OCHA and its partners widen the protective services for displaced people. This includes psychosocial first aid and cases management for children.

Also Thursday, the World Food Program (Wfp) Urgent food assistance distributed to displaced families. The agency also continues to provide assistance across the country, especially to the Syrians who return home after a decade of conflict.

Limited access to Sweida

On Wednesday, a second convoy of the Syrian Arab Arab Crescent (SARC) arrived in Sweida, the United Nations agencies providing support.

The convoy included food, wheat flour, fuel, medication and health supplies. Medical supplies have been delivered to Sweida National Hospital and wheat flour was sent to bakeries.

In Sweida, Rural Damascus and Dar’a Governorats, the UN distributed more than 1,600 dignity kits to displaced women and girls. UN partners also offer recreational activities, awareness sessions on violence and support for women and children.

But despite the efforts of neighboring governors and the increase in support for Sweida, full and direct access to the Governor in conflict himself is limited due to security constraints.

Nevertheless, the UN continues a dialogue with the Syrian authorities to facilitate direct access to Sweida.

National attacks in Ukraine

The OCHA also reported that at least five civilians had been killed and 46 others injured, during attacks in several regions of Ukraine in the last two days.

Kharkiv in the northeast was one of the most affected regions, where a Glide bomb strike injured at least 16 people on Thursday, and the fighting killed three and injured five more Wednesday.

In addition, night attacks in the center of Ukraine injured seven people in Cherkasy and four in Odesa City, damaged houses, health centers, schools, commercial areas and a market.

Civilians from the southern region of Kherson, the Donetsk Eastern region and the southeast region of Zaporizhzhia were also affected.

Evacuations and humanitarian response

After the night attacks in Cherkasy and Odesa, the humanitarian workers helped the first stakeholders by providing first aid, meals, shelter equipment, hygiene kits, emotional support and legal aid to affected families.

In the midst of hostilities, nearly 600 people were evacuated from the Donetsk region and, in the last day, 24 others were evacuated from the northeast region of Sumy.

“” I started to feel very idealistic about the UN, and I have never lost this feeling“Said Mr. Stewart UN News In an exclusive interview.

At the beginning of August, he moved as a special representative of the secretary general and head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (Unclog).

His departure comes at a time of cautious optimism on the island. Last week, the secretary general reported that the talks between Greek Cypriot chiefs and Turkish Cypriot chiefs were “constructive”, with a “common understanding” on new initiatives.

Mr. Stewart called on “an important stage” talks in the maintenance of the momentum.

“We are at a difficult time for Cyprus because of the coming elections in the North and other dynamics,” he said. “The intention was to keep the ball and maintain the momentum, and I think it has succeeded. »»

Peace by preventing sparks

By thinking about his mandate in Cyprus, Mr. Stewart compared UNFIC’s daily work to eliminate sparks before igniting.

“There are all kinds of activities in the buffer zone every day, each having the potential to degenerate,” he said. “” Our work is to prevent these sparks from bursting into flames. When I am Security advice That things are calm, it means that we have succeeded.“”

Our work is to prevent sparks from bursting into flames. When I point out to the Security Council that things are calm, it means that we have succeeded.

The figures confirm its point: in more than half a century of UN peacekeeping on the island, no blow was drawn between the two soldiers.

“” Some people ask why the peacekeeping mission is still necessary, since it has been peaceful for 50 years … The answer is simple – it’s peaceful because the mission does its job. Without this, the deep distrust between the sides could easily slip into the confrontation. »»

Lessons on confidence and empathy

Mr. Stewart was also the special advisor to Cyprus, leading the good office of the Secretary General to support full regulations. The biggest obstacle, he said, does not reside in public feeling but in political will.

“” People get along well“, He noted.Millions of people cross one side to the other each year without incident. But among political leaders, distrust is so deep that even the idea of compromise is considered negatively.“”

This distrust, he said, is rooted in decades of hard line accounts that depict the other side as an enemy rather than a partner. Breaking these stories is essential.

“Peace consolidation requires not only negotiations, but a desire to dismantle these rigid stories and strengthen empathy,” he said. “And we do it all the time at an individual level. Bring two people who have each lost something against each other, and they can very easily sympathize with each other and share common sorrow. ”

This belief in the power of empathy, he added, resonates far beyond Cyprus: in many conflicts, peace emerges when people begin to recognize humanity-and suffering-on the other side.

Peacekeeping not a single size

Mr. Stewart’s career gave him a panoramic vision of the evolution of peacekeeping.

In Timor-Leste, he saw how the support of the United Nations can help an emerging state to strengthen resilience. In Addis Ababa, as part of the United Nations Office at the African Union, he witnessed the power of partnerships. And in the west of the Sahara, he experienced the limits of peacekeeping when a cease-fire did not hold.

He stressed that peacekeeping is not a single size mode – it is modular – “a little of that and a little that”, adapted to the circumstances and working with a wide range of partners.

“” I guess I experienced the evolution of peacekeeping and seen many different aspects, [but] I am always more convinced that peacekeeping is an absolutely essential tool for the international community.“”

A quiet outing

Now prepare for life after the UN, Mr. Stewart is clear: he does not intend to return to a role of advice or advice.

“For me, retirement means retirement,” he said with a smile.

“I want to do everything I have postponed for my entire career – living in a house I have, spending time with my teenage son who goes to high school … It’s the life I have in mind.”

Idealism remains intact

By concluding the interview, I asked if he had final words. While looking for ideas, I suggested: “Maybe your first day of work.”

He recalled his beginnings to the United Nations, a trip that started with the referendum for self-determination in Timor-Leste in the 1990s, in the context of intimidation, violence and a fragile security environment.

I started to feel very idealistic about the UN, and I have never lost this feeling … The UN is there to do good things – good things

“It was our watch, our responsibility for making a free and fair vote,” he said, “and that was going to be impossible in these circumstances. However, despite the chances, the Timorai vote continued, and the result was clear – a success against all expectations.

“” It was a very exhilarating and exciting experience to start the UN … It pushed me to feel very idealistic about the UN, and I have never lost this feeling that, you know, the UN is there to do good things, to do good things.“”

As he moves away from the UN, Mr. Stewart says that idealism remains intact.

“” It could take time, but we will succeed … even if people are discouraged because it is very, very difficult for all kinds of reasons that are out of our control, it is a wonderful principle to serve. So, I leave only the best for my colleagues who will continue the fight.“”

Philippe Lazzarini, general commissioner for the United Nations Rescue and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said that is what one of his workers told him on Thursday morning.

This comment which gives to think occurs in the middle of the increasingly serious malnutrition for children and adults throughout the Gaza Strip.

“When the malnutrition of children increases, the adaptation mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine is silently begins to take place,” said Mr. Lazzarini in a tweet.

Bombs are not the only thing that kills

Gaza faces a relentless bombardment for almost three years, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, General manager of the World Health Organization (WHO), said to a briefing Wednesday, it is not only the bombs that kill the Palestinians.

Famine is “another killer”.

At least 100 people would have died of hunger, and WHO has documented at least 21 cases of children under the age of five who die from malnutrition.

In addition, Mr. Lazzarini said that one in five children in Gaza City is badly nourished, a number increasing every day that humanitarian aid without hindrance is refused. He said that these children need urgent treatment, but that supplies remain low.

Between early March and mid-May-80 consecutive days-no help was allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, pushing the population on the verge of famine. Although the minimum help has entered since, Tedros stressed that it is not enough.

“Deliveries of food have resumed intermittently, but remain well below what is necessary for the survival of the population,” he said.

Shelters are no longer safe

Tedros reported that between May 27 on July 21, more than 1,000 people in Gaza had been killed when they were trying to access food.

Many of them have died on or around the sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a distribution of aid managed by the Americans and to support the Americans who, according to the UN, repeatedly violates the well -established principles of international humanitarian law.

“Parents tell us that their children cry to sleep hunger. Food distribution sites have become places of violence, ”said Tedros.

In addition to risking their lives when looking for a desperately necessary humanitarian assistance, hospitals – which have been systematically targeted, according to Unfpa – are no longer safe shelters.

“Hospitals, which are supposed to be safe shelters, have been regularly attacked and many no longer work,” said Tedros.

He recalled that on Monday, an WHO staff residence, a humanitarian site, had been attacked, the male personnel being stripped and questioned, the women and children forced to flee on foot in the midst of violence and a member of the staff of the WHO held.

“Despite this, WHO and other United Nations agencies remain in Gaza. Our commitment is firm. United Nations agencies should be protected while operating in conflict zones, “said Tedros.

Front line workers face hunger

In addition to the Gaza Palestinians who are “emaciated, low and at high risk of dying”, humanitarian workers also feel the effects of the sustained lack of supplies.

Most UNRWA The workers survive in a meager bowl of lenses every day, said Mr. Lazzarini, leading many of them to vanish Hunger at work.

“When the guards cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system collapses,” he said.

Some parents are too hungry to take care of their children, and even those who reach clinics for treatment are often too tired to follow the advice provided.

Lazzarini noted that UNRWA alone has 6,000 food and medical supplies desperately necessary in Jordan and Egypt. He asked that this aid and others were immediately allowed to pass.

“Families no longer face the fall. They break down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened, “he said. “Allow humanitarian partners to provide without restriction and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance in Gaza.”

At the end of the conference, the Member States adopted a ministerial declaration by a vote of 154-2-2, the United States and Israel voting against the document and Paraguay and Iran abstain.

“We strongly reaffirm our commitment to effectively implement the 2030 agenda [which]… There remains our global roadmap to obtain sustainable development and overcome the multiple crises we face, “said the declaration.

15 years of HLPF

The HLPF has occurred on an annual basis since 2010 and is summoned by the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) to discuss progress, or its absence, on the 17th Sustainable development objectives (SDD), which were adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 program and aspires to create a more equitable and inclusive world.

This year, the forum focused on five of these objectives: good health and well-being, gender equality,, decent work and economic growth, life below water and partnerships.

Negotiations concerning the ministerial document were led by representatives of CNOCHé and Saint-Vincent and Grenadines, who stressed the importance of the procedure.

“This year’s deliberations were of particular importance. Ten years after the adoption of the 2030 agenda, a range of interconnected and persistent challenges continues to compromise the full achievement of the SDGs, “said Jakub Kulhánek, permanent representative of Czechia and one of the two facilitators of the declaration.

The clock turns

In the ministerial declaration, the Member States have declared that the time is exhausted to reach the SDGs, which remain seriously off the track.

According to the secretary general’s report on the objectives, which was released The first day of the HLPF, only 18% of the SDGs are on the right track to be made by 2030, with more than half of progress which is too slow.

While the ministerial declaration addressed each of the five SDGs under the spotlights of the forum, the Member States particularly highlighted the role of poverty in the stack of sustainable development and the worsening of the climate crisis which threatens all aspects of the development agenda.

The declaration called these two problems, some of the “largest worldwide challenges” with which the world is confronted.

In accordance with the SDG 16, which underlines the role that institutions and governments must play in the promotion of peace, the Member States have also affirmed that strong governance and partnership are essential to carry out peace as a prerequisite for development.

“We recognize that sustainable development cannot be carried out without peace and security, and peace and security will be in danger without sustainable development,” he said.

Action plan

In the midst of the challenges of multilateralism, the Member States declared that the declaration was an affirmation of the commitment of the United Nations towards multilateralism, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year.

“At a time when serious doubts about the future of multilateralism persist, your constant commitment was both reassuring and inspiring,” said Kulhánek.

The Member States, in the declaration, have confirmed a commitment to work urgent to the SDGs in order to reach a better world.

“We will urgently act to realize his vision as an action plan for people, the planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, leaving no one behind.”