UN surge teams mobilise as Vanuatu hit by second earthquake
A state of emergency remains in effect across the island nation, and a seven-day dusk-to-dawn curfew in parts of Port Vila was scheduled to end on 24 December. Access road to the seaport is also reportedly blocked. The second earthquake…
Gaza is now a graveyard and there’s no escape, say UN aid teams
“The world is not seeing what’s going on with these people, it’s impossible for families to shelter in these conditions,” said Louise Wateridge, from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Speaking from Nuseirat in central Gaza after heavy winter rains…
Syria: Rights investigators call for protection of evidence, including mass grave sites
A team from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria visited former prisons and detention centres, including the notorious Sednaya and the Military Intelligence Branch 235 prisons. It is the first time the team has been able to…
Sudan’s El Fasher siege: UN humanitarians killed as refugee crisis intensifies
In a new report, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has detailed the catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state. The city has been under siege for seven months by fighters from the…
Security and economic woes plague West Africa, as key elections loom
Leonardo Santos Simão, highlighted upcoming presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau, and the adoption of constitutional reforms amid a strained political environment in Gambia. He also commended recent successful elections in Ghana and Senegal, noting the signing of a…
Syria transition may fail if support lifeline is delayed, says IOM chief
“We are not promoting large-scale returns; the communities frankly are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come home…it will overwhelm the country,” said Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)….
Reconstruction and vital repairs underway in Syria, as ‘security conditions’ permit
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at the daily briefing on Thursday that bakeries in Aleppo are at near full capacity – “but partners report that they have seen long queues and crowding.” The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reports that the rehabilitation…
‘Dying hungry and in pain’: An increasingly likely outcome in Gaza
Speaking to correspondents via video link on Thursday, the senior OCHA official underscored the grim reality facing over two million people trapped in Gaza, where basic necessities like food, shelter, and safety have become scarce. “Dying hungry and in pain”…
Syria’s new ‘flame of hope’ must not be extinguished: Guterres
That’s the warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking to reporters in New York on Thursday morning. He said there is “a real risk that progress could unravel,” without an “inclusive, credible and peaceful” political transition that is Syrian led, on…
Staggering scale of Sudan crisis ‘demands sustained and urgent attention’
Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the situation as a “crisis of staggering scale and cruelty”. “It demands sustained and urgent attention,” she emphasized….