Humanitarian Crisis

International Court to hear South Africa’s case against Israel

South Africa and Israel will face each other again at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. SA's government wants to ensure emergency orders are imposed on Israel to stop its Rafah offensive in the Gaza Strip. The court said in a statement lawyers from South Africa will argue on Thursday, followed by Israel's lawyers' response the next day. Meanwhile, large parts of the city of Rafah are now […]

15 May, 2024

Africa

Kenyan schools reopen after devastating floods

Schools in Kenya have reopened after flooding in the country killed more than 250 people. Kenya and other parts of East Africa have been battered by torrential rains, claiming lives and destroying property. Human Rights Watch says that Kenyan authorities have not responded adequately to flash floods resulting from heavy rains. The floods have left at least over 200, 000 people displaced, destroyed infrastructure, and livelihoods across the country; and […]

14 May, 2024

Africa

East Africa braces for more rains

Kenya remains on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Hidaya threatens to dump more torrential rains on East African countries, which recently emerged from three years of historic drought. The heavy rains have caused deadly flooding and landslides that have killed nearly 400 people across the region since March. The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Kenya, Stephen Jackson.

7 May, 2024

World

Is the UN Failing in Gaza?

In Gaza, access to water is so restricted that in Khan Younis, a city in the south of the enclave, 600 people are said to be sharing one toilet. The United Nations remains the main lifeline in the Palestinian territory since the Israeli-Hamas war began, but could the organization be doing more to end the war? UNRWA By Dawn Clancy As the war on Gaza enters its seventh […]

7 May, 2024

World

Haiti Can’t Survive Without the Kenyan-Led International Security Force

The humanitarian conditions in Haiti are “cataclysmic,” the UN’s human rights commissioner said recently. A new transitional presidential council and an interim prime minister have just been installed, but a third essential element for political stability, an international security force to root out the deadly gangs, has yet to arrive. UNOCHA/GILES CLARKE By Damilola Banjo It’s no secret that gang violence and political instability are threatening […]

2 May, 2024

World

Global hunger set to rise amid record displacement, warn FAO, UNHCR

Dangerous levels of acute hunger affected a staggering 281.6 million last year, the fifth year in a row that food security worsened. According to the latest global report on the food crisis, more than 1 in 5 people in 59 countries face acute insecurity in 2023. The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Dominique Burgeon meanwhile says conflict in Sudan has created a hunger crisis.

25 April, 2024

Africa

EU calls for resolution to Sudan crisis

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the Sudan conflict "has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world" and "we must put an end to this man-made disaster."

15 April, 2024

World

38 Migrants dead off the coast of Djibouti

At least 38 migrants, including women and children, have lost their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of Djibouti on Tuesday and although 22 people were saved by local fishermen, six others remain missing and are presumed dead. UN migration agency’s Yvonne Ndege says this was far from an isolated tragedy.

10 April, 2024

World

Gazans mark ‘saddest’ Eid with little to celebrate or eat

Gazans did their best to celebrate the end of Ramadan in the driving rain on Wednesday, as the war raged on with 14 killed, including children, in a strike on their home, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said. The Israeli military said it struck several targets on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, with a jet hitting a rocket launch site and troops killing a "terrorist […]

10 April, 2024