Tag Archives: lives

UN chief ‘deeply saddened’ as Air India crash claims lives of over 200 on board

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The plane – a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – crashed into a medical college about a mile from the city’s main airport reportedly killing five students and injuring around 50 who have been hospitalised.

The full extent of deaths and injuries on the ground has yet to be established but one British-Indian passenger on the plane miraculously survived the crash, reportedly telling journalists that there had been a loud noise around 30 seconds after take-off.

Heartfelt condolences

In a statement issued by his Spokesperson, Secretary-General António Guterres extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of India, and to other countries who have lost citizens during the disaster.

He wished a swift and full recovery to all those injured as a result of the tragedy.

According to news reports, there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven from Portugal and one Canadian on the flight.

Officials at the crash site reported that the jet had continued to skid after crash landing, dragging along the ground before bursting into flames. Hundreds of police and emergency workers remain at the scene, combing through the wreckage for survivors. 

President of the UN General Assembly Philémon Yang said in a social media post that his thoughts were with all the victims and those impacted by the disaster, adding, “may they find strength and solace during this difficult time.”

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Gaza: Search for food puts lives on the line

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Since the end of May, aid distribution in Gaza has been carried out by a mechanism backed by Israel and the United States bypassing UN agencies and their established partners, which has been plagued by deadly incidents and chaos.

On Monday, UN partner the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that 29 casualties arrived at its field hospital in west Rafah that morning, eight of whom had died. 

Almost all had explosive trauma wounds, with two others suffering gunshot wounds. 

Forced to choose

“The UN reiterates that civilians must always be protected,” said Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, speaking from Headquarters in New York.

“No person, anywhere, should be forced to choose between risking one’s life and feeding one’s family.”  

Fuelling aid efforts

Meanwhile, fuel stocks in Gaza are dangerously low, putting further strain on critical services and humanitarian operations. 

Mr. Haq said that some 260,000 litres of fuel were looted in northern Gaza over the weekend.

Prior to this, the UN had repeatedly tried to reach these stocks to retrieve them, but the Israeli authorities denied these attempts – with 14 denials since 15 May. 

“Our attempts to reach fuel supplies in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, also continue to be denied,” he added.

“The UN warns that unless a solution is found in the coming days, the entire aid operation could come to a standstill.”

© UNRWA/Louise Wateridge

Palestinians who have taken refuge in a UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah camp in central Gaza are struggling to survive as they lack access to basic humanitarian needs in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

‘Desperate, starving people’

Mr. Haq also updated on efforts to bring desperately needed humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip, where the entire population, more than two million people, faces famine conditions.

On Monday, the UN led a mission to deliver supplies that entered the enclave via the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Gaza City, which was still ongoing. 

Since Israel allowed limited amounts of aid to enter on 19 May, the UN and partners have only been able to collect about 4,600 metric tonnes of wheat flour from Kerem Shalom.

“Most of it was taken by desperate, starving people before the supplies reached their destinations. In some cases, the supplies were looted by armed gangs,” he said.

Resume aid flow now

Mr. Haq emphasized that as the occupying power, Israel bears responsibility when it comes to public order and safety in Gaza. 

“That should include letting in far more essential supplies, through multiple crossings and routes, to meet humanitarian needs and help reduce looting,” he said.

UN partners working on food security estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 metric tonnes of wheat flour is required to reach all families across Gaza with at least a single bag.

He stressed that “the sustained and unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza must resume as soon as possible.” 

Dangerous routes, driver shortages and delays

He said no missions to collect supplies from Kerem Shalom took place at the weekend as Israel informed that the crossing would remain closed on Friday and Saturday.

Humanitarians also continue to face major impediments that affect their ability to conduct these operations, including unacceptably dangerous routes, a severe shortage of vetted drivers, and delays.

West Bank update

Mr. Haq also touched on the situation in the occupied West Bank.

He said operations by the Israeli forces in the north have continued over the past week, destroying roads and disrupting Palestinians’ access to essential services. 

The UN and partners continue to respond, including by providing water, sanitation and hygiene assistance to tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians.  

SECURITY COUNCIL LIVE: Ambassadors debate safety of civilians with 36,000 lives lost during conflict last year

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We’re live as the Security Council convenes for its annual open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, with briefings from UN relief chief Tom Fletcher and the head of UN Women Sima Bahous. Ambassadors will discuss evolving threats, including use of heavy weapons and the rise of lethal autonomous killing machines such as drones. The UN has documented a spike in deaths, with Gaza, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine among the hardest-hit. Mobile app users can follow here.

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Funding cuts in Afghanistan mean ‘lives lost and lives less lived’

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Many women came to the clinic who had walked multiple hours to receive maternal care – some of them with their newborns and some heavily pregnant.

And then there were the health workers themselves, committed to serving those in need in hard-to-reach areas of the impoverished Taliban-controlled nation.

‘Off the radar’

These were some of the scenes witnessed up close by Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director with the UN’s reproductive health agency (UNFPA), on a mission to assess the impact of the recent steep funding cuts.

“I saw and understood the devastating impacts that the massive cuts to UNFPA will have in one of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises, a crisis which may be off the radar of the news but remains one of the world’s greatest crises,” Mr. Saberton told journalists in New York on Wednesday.

During his trip, the senior official visited UN-supported services in Kabul, Bamyan and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He hoped to understand the difference that UNFPA is making in Afghanistan while also getting a better sense of the impact of funding cuts.

Andrew Saberton (second right), UNFPA Deputy Executive Director for Management, visits the obstetric fistula ward in Kabul, Afghanistan, where survivors receive care.

Budget slashed

The United States has recently announced cuts of approximately $330 million to UNFPA worldwide, $102 million of which will directly impact UNFPA’s work in Afghanistan, according to Mr. Saberton.

Most of this funding would have been used towards the provision of family health and mobile care, both of which are essential in Afghanistan which already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

This funding would also have gone towards the providing much needed psychosocial support.

He estimates that 6.9 million women and children in Afghanistan will be affected by the cuts. Moreover, UNFPA will only be able to support approximately 400 of the current 900 health clinics that it supports in Afghanistan, each of which provides life-saving care.

Providing aid with few resources

Despite these challenges, Saberton emphasized that UNFPA will remain in Afghanistan and will continue providing life-saving care.

“UNFPA will be staying to deliver, but we cannot sustain our response without help. We need urgent support to keep these services running and to protect the dignity, health and lives of Afghan women and newborns,” he said.

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Lives of pregnant women and newborns at risk as funding cuts impact midwifery support

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But despite their critical role, UN support for midwifery is under serious threat due to severe funding cuts.

Each year, three-quarters of all maternal deaths occur in just 25 countries, the majority of them located in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA. 

Midwives are often the first and only responders delivering life-saving care to pregnant women and their newborns in crisis settings, where the risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth doubles.

Funding cuts are now forcing UNFPA to scale back its support for midwifery. In eight of the affected countries the agency will only be able to fund 47 per cent of the 3,521 midwives it had intended to support in 2025.

On the frontline

In times of crisis, women often lose critical access to vital maternity services. Coming to the rescue in the direst of circumstances and serving as a lifeline to pregnant women, “midwives save lives,” said Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA.

UN support for midwives in humanitarian settings includes training, providing supplies and equipment and in some cases transportation for mobile health clinics. All this is having to be cut back amid the funding cuts. 

“When crises strike and systems break down, midwives step up,” said UNFPA, marking International Day of the Midwife.

Funding cuts

Amid a global shortage of nearly one million midwives, rising death rates among women and newborns in conflict zones and fragile contexts are now being reported following budget cuts.

“We’re lacking everything, from blood bags to medicines. With the support of UNFPA and other partners, we can still provide services – but for how long?” said Fabrice Bishenge, Director of Kyeshero General Hospital in eastern DR Congo.

Deaths during childbirth in fragile and conflict-affected settings now account for 60 per cent of all maternal deaths globally. Worldwide, deep funding cuts only exacerbate this trend. In Yemen, for instance, over 590,000 women of childbearing age are expected to lose access to a midwife.

© UNICEF/Mukhtar Neikrawa

The waiting room of a maternity hospital in Herat Province, Afghanistan.

New initiative

In light of the current funding crisis, UNFPA and partners recently launched the Global Midwifery Accelerator — a coordinated initiative to scale up midwife-led care in countries with the highest maternal mortality rates.

The initiative sets out a cost-effective roadmap focused on saving lives and strengthening national health systems, even in the most fragile contexts.

Making an urgent call for greater funding, training, and advocacy for midwifery, UNFPA stressed that universal midwife-led health coverage could avert two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, reduce healthcare costs, and lead to more productive workforces. 

DR Congo crisis forces refugees to swim for their lives to Burundi

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“We’re pushed to our limits,” said Ayaki Ito, Director for Emergencies for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

One mother was so desperate to reach safety she crossed the 100-metre wide Rusizi river separating DRC and Burundi with her three small children and their belongings, Mr. Ito told journalists in Geneva:

“I saw this plastic sheeting ball – it’s one mother and three small children – she put her belongings and wrapped it with a plastic sheet, to make it float…It’s a very perilous journey and I was told it’s full of crocodile and hippos.”

Overstretched resources

Since January, more than 71,000 people have crossed into Burundi, fleeing ongoing violence in eastern DRC, UNHCR data shows. Since then, more than 12,300 have been relocated to Musenyi refugee site, while others live with host communities in border areas.

Living conditions in Musenyi – five hours’ drive from the DRC border – are becoming unsustainable.

The site today houses 16,000 people although it was designed for 3,000, adding to tensions. “Food rations are already cut to half of what they’re supposed to be,” Mr. Ito explained, warning that even these rations will run out by the end of June without additional funding.

Food is far from the only concern, however, as emergency tents set up on lowland farming areas have now flooded during the onset of the rainy season.

Aid teams are already bracing themselves for diseases to spike.

People who fled violence in DR Congo to Burundi use a water point at a refugee camp in Cibitoke Province.

“Schools, clinics, basic sanitation systems are either non-existent or overwhelmed” and the UN agency has no more dignity kits, leaving nearly 11,000 women and girls with access to basic hygiene items, Mr. Ito said.

Funding crisis cutbacks

UNHCR’s funding crisis has also “severely reduced” support for family tracing, making it increasingly difficult to identify, locate, and reunite separated children with their families.

There are currently no child-friendly or women-friendly spaces where groups can gather for services and peer support in key hosting areas, Mr. Ito added.

Confronted with the catastrophic living conditions in Burundi and ongoing violent clashes in eastern DRC between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and government forces, refugees often move back and forth between the two countries. “Nearly half of last week’s registered 700 arriving refugees have been previously registered in Burundi,” the UN official said, pointing out that Congolese refugees are among the most vulnerable in the world.

Citing reduced resources and operational challenges, the UN agency insisted that the delivery of lifesaving aid and protection services remains a priority. This includes additional support amid a 60 per cent increase in reported sexual violence cases, most involving rape in the DRC.

“This balancing act is becoming increasingly impossible, with teams on the ground running a full-scale emergency response, responding to the needs of existing refugees in the country and preparing for future arrivals while also facing pressure to reduce their operations because of funding shortages,” Mr. Ito said.

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