United Nations - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Top UN officials call on UK to reconsider plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda

TWO United Nations top officials called on the UK to reconsider its plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda, warning the move would have a harmful impact on human rights and refugee protection. In a joint statement, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the UK to instead take practical measures to address irregular flows of migrants and refugees. "The new legislation marks a further step away from the UK's long tradition of providing refuge to those in need, in breach of the Refugee Convention," said Grandi.…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

Sudan needs ‘immediate action’ on hunger to avert widespread death

NEWS

IMMEDIATE action is needed to "prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods and avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan," a United Nations-backed global authority on food security warned. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) had been due to issue an update to its December analysis that found nearly 5 million were on the verge of catastrophic hunger. However, it was unable to do so due to the war. Instead, the IPC said it reviewed the latest evidence available and published the alert on Friday "to express major concern" about the deteriorating situation and to push for immediate…

Mar

2024

By MATT SPETALNICK

Biden, Netanyahu on collision course after Gaza UN vote

WORLD

RELATIONS between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low with the U.S. allowing passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations and drawing a sharp rebuke from the Israeli leader. Netanyahu abruptly scrapped a visit to Washington this week by a senior delegation to discuss Israel’s threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after the U.S. abstained in a Security Council vote that demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of all hostages held by the Palestinian militants. The suspension of that meeting puts a major…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Israeli offensive in Gaza’s Rafah ‘must not be allowed to happen’, UN says

WORLD

THE United Nations human rights office said that an Israeli offensive in Gaza's border town of Rafah could not be allowed to happen because it would cause massive loss of Palestinian lives. "Should Israel launch its threatened military offensive into Rafah, where 1.5 million people have been displaced in deplorable, subhuman conditions, any ground assault on Rafah would incur massive loss of life and would heighten the risk of further atrocity crimes," said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office. "This must not be allowed to happen." Defying international calls to halt its military operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

UN earmarks $100 mln for poorly funded humanitarian crises

NEWS

THE United Nations said that it was allocating $100 million to support poorly funded humanitarian crises in seven countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan and Syria. The funding, drawn from the United Nations' Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), is among the smallest in recent years as aid organisations are grappling to attract donations amid a flurry of humanitarian crises. "This reflects the reduced funding that CERF received in 2023, its lowest since 2018, and the dire reality that donor funding is failing to keep up with soaring humanitarian needs," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of…

Feb

2024

By GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER

UN says war-torn Sudan must not be forgotten, calls for aid funding

NEWS

THE United Nations urged countries not to forget the civilians caught up in the war in Sudan, appealing for $4.1 billion to meet their humanitarian needs and support those who have fled to neighbouring countries. A ten-month war in Sudan between its armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country's infrastructure, prompted warnings of famine and displaced millions of people inside and outside the country. Half of Sudan's population - around 25 million people - need humanitarian assistance and protection, while more than 1.5 million people have fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan,…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

UN genocide ruling won’t change Israel’s behaviour: three reasons why

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the latter’s military operation in Gaza, which South Africa calls acts of genocide. The excessive bombing campaign and wilful destruction of property, life and limb is hardly in dispute. Israel calls it legitimate acts of self-defence, following Hamas’s murderous incursion from Gaza on Israeli terrain on 7 October 2023. Hamas, shorthand for the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military organisation founded in 1987. It has governed the Gaza Strip of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories since 2007. ANTHONI VAN NIEUWKERK, Professor of International and…

Jan

2024

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Davos: Global economists see bright spots in Africa growth prospects

NEWS

TOP economists agree that Africa's economic prospects for 2024 are positive, as small countries sparkle in the face of sluggish global growth projections. Chief economists from the World Economic Forum, World Bank and United Nations project Africa’s economy will defy the impacts of weak investments, debt crises, inflation, tight financial conditions and extreme weather patterns to record an improvement over 2023. A strong majority (65%) of World Economic Forum Chief Economists expect most of the continent to record at least moderate growth, according to the World Economic Forum Chief Economists Outlook 2024. This comes against a background in which 56%…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

In rare African split, South Africa battling Morocco to lead UN rights body

NEWS

SOUTH Africa and Morocco are at loggerheads over the presidency of the United Nations' top human rights body ahead of a vote, with the former saying Rabat has committed violations in Western Sahara and has no credibility to lead the body. For only the second time in the U.N. Human Rights Council's 17-year history, it has been left without a president at the start of the year and it will select one in a secret ballot. It is a rare public dispute in the African group whose turn it is to lead the 47-member council. It normally strives to make…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

UN peacekeeping mission in Mali completes its withdrawal

NEWS

THE U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, is poised to complete its withdrawal from the country, the United Nations said in a statement. Security experts warn the area could now become the focus of a struggle in the north as rebel groups and the army seek to take areas that the U.N. has left, further destabilising Mali, where Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State also roam. Violence in Mali has spiked since June when the military junta which took power in a 2021 coup ordered the U.N.'s decade-old peacekeeping mission to leave. The U.N. said only a small team will…