The figure is equivalent to about 11 children dying each week, “far beyond what we hear in news headlines,” Vera Knaus, the agency’s Global Lead on Migration and Displacement, told journalists attending the biweekly UN humanitarian briefing in Geneva. “We cannot continue to ignore what is happening – stand by...
Increasingly grim accident statistics provided the impetus for action, including two bus crashes in Senegal that claimed 62 lives in January. In nearby Côte d’Ivoire, the daily number of fatal road accidents has risen to 46, from just 12 in 2012. In the world’s region most affected by road crashes,...
Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s Director of International Protection said their first request was that countries allow civilians fleeing Sudan on “a non-discriminatory manner to access their territory”. She said this applied to Sudanese nationals, foreign nationals, and refugees who are being hosted in Sudan, “stateless persons, as well as those who...
The guidance provides a joined-up approach for responding to the threat or arrival of any respiratory pathogen such as flu or the range of coronaviruses, that have the ability to rapidly mutate into different variants. The new Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative, or PRET, incorporates the latest tools and approaches for...
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 deaths during this period, though the true toll is likely to be higher. Investigations continue into several reports of so-called invisible shipwrecks – cases where boats are reported missing but there are no records of survivors or search and rescue (SAR) operations. The...
Keenan Anderson died in Los Angeles after being repeatedly tased by police following a chase resulting from a traffic stop, according to news reports, and Tyre Nichols in Memphis, died after being severely beaten as he lay on the ground, by five officers in Memphis, Tennessee, who have since been...
Tor Wennesland described the deaths – during an intense gun battle at a refugee camp in the city of Jenin – which included militants and reportedly, an elderly woman, as another “stark example” of the escalation in violence. The Israeli military said that troops were involved in an operation at...
“We are very concerned at the rising violence in Peru, which on Monday 9 January saw one of the deadliest days since unrest erupted in early December,” Spokesperson Marta Hurtado said in a statement. The protests were sparked after the former President, Pedro Castillo, attempted to dissolve Congress and rule...
The blast in Boksburg severely damaged the roof of the emergency department at the Tambo Memorial hospital there, killing and injuring dozens while also reportedly destroying houses and cars. Initial reports estimated around 27 deaths, but that figure had risen to 34 by the past weekend, according to regional health...
In a statement issued on Friday, Stéphane Dujarric said that in addition to the deaths of the male and female peacekeepers in Timbuktu town earlier in the day, four other blue helmets from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) were injured. Possible war crime Attacks targeting UN...
Floods in the capital, Kinshasa, and some provinces have destroyed homes and farmland, as well as schools and other public infrastructure. “The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the Government and people”, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement, also wishing a...
risks, building resilience and accelerating research, there is every reason to dream of a malaria-free future”. Lifesaving bednets In 2020, more insecticide treated bednets (ITNs) – the primary defense in most malaria-endemic countries – were distributed than in any year on record. And distributions in 2021 were strong overall, similar...