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DR Congo emergency: Next 24 hours are critical, warn UN agencies

·January 28, 2025·4 min read

Dead bodies lie in the streets, hospitals are overwhelmed and there has been an uptick in reports of sexual violence, rape and looting. “Roads are blocked, ports are closed and those crossing Lake Kivu risk their lives in makeshift boats,” said Shelley Thakral, spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme...

Guterres calls on US to exempt development and humanitarian funds from aid ‘pause’

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·January 28, 2025·1 min read

President Trump’s executive order a week ago called for all foreign aid to be re-evaluated to ensure that it complies which his new foreign policy priorities. The immediate scope of the order was not clear but on Friday, according to news reports, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued...

‘Hold fast to our common humanity’: UN marks 80 years since death camps were liberated

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·January 28, 2025·6 min read

More than 15 months on from the 7 October terror attacks by Hamas in Israel, António Guterres said the UN will continue doing its “utmost to ensure it leads to the release of all hostages – since the beginning we have asked for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages...

Syria: Rights probe reveals systematic torture and detention of Assad regime

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·January 27, 2025·3 min read

The findings from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria detail crimes against humanity and war crimes that left a legacy of trauma for countless Syrians, representing some of the worst violations of international law committed during more than a decade of brutal conflict. “We stand at a critical...

‘We have a duty to stand against intolerance’: UN human rights chief

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·January 27, 2025·1 min read

Marking Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said the essence of commemorations was to acknowledge the past but they “must also examine the present and look to the future”. ‘Hateful rhetoric’ reverberating Underlying the rise of hateful rhetoric, with rising antisemitism on the streets...

‘We must be there for them now,’ says UN relief chief, highlighting plight of Gaza’s children

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·January 27, 2025·3 min read

“Today marks one of the rare times we are able to highlight positive developments, albeit amid catastrophic humanitarian needs in Gaza,” Mr. Fletcher began. He noted that the recent ceasefire has provided a much-needed reprieve from relentless hostilities, allowing for a surge in life-saving humanitarian aid. Mr. Fletcher expressed gratitude...

Saints and liars: The story of American aid workers who helped Jewish refugees escape the Holocaust

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·January 27, 2025·5 min read

A new book on their work underlines the chaos of the time, and the difficult decisions they had to make, knowing that for every person they saved, many more would be killed. Saints and Liars, by Debórah Dwork, the Director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide,...

DR CONGO CRISIS: Updates as top UN official tells emergency Security Council meeting ‘we are trapped’

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·January 26, 2025·1 min read

Intensifying hostilities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo involving the non-state armed group M23 have caused further mass displacement in the mineral-rich region, with fears that the regional capital Goma could come under attack, UN agencies warned on Friday....

UN officials call for ceasefire compliance after 15 people killed in Lebanon

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·January 26, 2025·3 min read

The timelines envisaged in the November ceasefire agreement “have not been met”, according to a joint statement by UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and head of the UN peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, and force commander Aroldo Lázaro. The agreement between Israel and armed group Hezbollah had been reached after...

UN to strengthen cooperation with League of Arab States

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·January 26, 2025·1 min read

Briefing ambassadors, Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, highlighted the League’s vital role in promoting stability in a region marked by persistent conflicts, from the fragile ceasefire in Gaza to the crises in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. He commended the League for its longstanding partnership with...

UN relocates non-critical staff from North Kivu, DR Congo

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·January 26, 2025·1 min read

The UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, is relocating administrative staff and others in North Kivu that can continue performing their duties from elsewhere in response to the deteriorating security situation and intensifying hostilities involving the non-State armed group M23, a Rwandan-backed movement fighting against the Congolese Government. “This precautionary...

What’s UNDOF? Why UN peacekeepers patrol the Israel-Syria border

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·January 25, 2025·5 min read

One of the UN’s longest-standing peacekeeping missions – the UN Disengagement Observer Force, known by its acronym UNDOF – began more than a half century ago when the 1973 Middle East crisis erupted. The Agreement on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian forces was concluded which provided for an area of separation and for...