In its latest Global Trade Update, released this week, UNCTAD describes copper as “the new strategic raw material” at the heart of the rapidly electrifying and digitising global economy. But with demand set to rise more than 40 per cent by 2040, copper supply is under severe strain – posing a critical bottleneck for […]
The UN estimates that in the past few weeks, over 330,000 people have fled into Tawila after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched violent attacks in the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps and in El Fasher, the regional capital. Over 100,000 people also remain trapped in El Fasher. ‘Massive’ humanitarian needs Since the beginning […]
In a statement, UNFPA said the move – which invokes a 1985 legal provision known as the Kemp-Kasten Amendment – is based on “unfounded claims” about the agency’s work in China. These allegations, it noted, have “long been disproven”, including by the US Government itself. The Kemp-Kasten amendment states that no funds can go to […]
More than 36 million are struggling to meet their basic food needs, which is projected to rise to over 52 million during the lean season from June to August, latest analysis reveals. This includes almost three million people facing emergency conditions, and 2,600 people in Mali who are at risk of catastrophic hunger. Although needs […]
“Without funding, asylum seekers are left in limbo – undocumented, unsupported and increasingly desperate,” said Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection. Her comments follow a 41 per cent budget cut to the UN agency’s operations in the country that have had devastating consequences. “This is not about luxuries; the assistance we’re cutting is critical […]
In March, the family fled the gangs again – this time to Boucan-Carré where Leineda’s treatments were put on hold: “Sometimes, we suffer from silent illnesses that destroy us from the inside,” Christiana said. Gangs on the march In the past few months, armed gangs in Haiti have been expanding their reach beyond Port-au-Prince towards […]
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder insisted that the Israeli proposal to create a handful of aid hubs exclusively in the south of the Strip would create an “impossible choice between displacement and death”. The plan “contravenes basic humanitarian principles” and appears designed to “reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic”, he […]
Introduced by the United States and supported by 11 other Council members, the resolution extended the mandate of UNMISS until 30 April next year. This action follows a short nine-day “technical rollover” approved by the Council on 30 April to allow more time for negotiations. Through the text – adopted on Thursday – the Security […]
His Holiness Pope Leo XIV – born Robert Francis Prevost – is the first person from the United States to lead the Catholic Church, although he also holds Peruvian citizenship after working in the Latin American country for many years. He was selected by cardinals voting at the Vatican and later greeted thousands gathered in […]
The landmark decision, announced on Thursday, also considered the harm caused to succeeding generations. “Forced displacement is permanent in nature until the victims benefit from a safe and dignified return to their place of habitual residence or are voluntarily resettled elsewhere,” said Committee member Hélène Tigroudja. Conflict, displacement and violations The Committee found that the […]
The Quartet is calling on the country’s leaders to end hostilities and return to dialogue to fully implement the 2018 peace agreement known as the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into a […]
The UN chief warned that any further escalation of the conflict could result in massive civilian casualties and worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation across the country. “The expansion of the conflict into an area that has served as a place of refuge for a large number of displaced people is alarming,” he said in […]
Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari described a troubling pattern of weapons testing and growing nuclear ambition from DPRK – more commonly known as North Korea. This includes the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in October 2024 and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile last January. Meanwhile, the International […]
The escalation is occurring as war grinds on between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who appear to be targeting airports in each other’s areas of control. “Very concerned by ongoing drone strikes on Port Sudan,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher tweeted on Wednesday. “International humanitarian law must […]
Their paintings and drawings range from a portrait of an esteemed Palestinian poet and family members killed in conflict, to a sky blackened by thick smoke – and a child crying in front of his mother’s corpse. The poignant images are currently on display at UNRWA’s Remal School in Gaza City, which has been transformed […]
The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, maintained that Israeli forces hit the school in Al Bureij, Middle Gaza, at around 6pm on Tuesday and again at 10.20pm. “The school sustained severe damage and a fire broke out in the shelter, making it difficult to evacuate the casualties. Residents had to open a hole in […]
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that trucks packed with cereals, beans and cooking oil reached the city of Beni in North Kivu province from neighbouring Uganda, amid clashes between Rwanda-backed M23 rebel fighters and Congolese forces. Aid for 140,000 WFP said that it intends to use the thousands of tonnes of relief supplies […]
In a note to correspondents issued by his spokesperson on Tuesday, Secretary-General António Guterres called for military restraint from both countries. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the note said. On Monday, the Secretary-General had warned that the tensions between the two South Asian neighbours had reached “their highest in […]
High Representative Christian Schmidt briefed on latest developments surrounding implementation of the 1995 General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ended more than three years of bloodshed and genocide following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The accord, also known as the Dayton Peace Agreement, established a new constitution and created two […]
“Every time this happens, people lose access to health services – and sometimes, to hope,” said Dr Humphrey Karamagi, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Representative in South Sudan. “Health is the last safety net. If it fails, everything else will also fall.” The apparent airstrike on the hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) […]