News in Brief 17 January 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza crisis: Back two-State solution urges UN chief, ‘once and for all’

Unremitting conflict in Gaza has already sparked regional insecurity, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, as he urged the international community to support a two-State solution in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and end the enduring crisis “once and for all”.

Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the UN chief condemned the “barbaric” Hamas-led attacks on 7 October in which approximately 1,200 people were butchered in southern Israel and some 250 taken hostage.

A fully-fledged confrontation between Israel and Lebanon where exchanges of fire across the border have already claimed lives “would be a total disaster”, Mr. Guterres insisted. 

He said that  any escalation “needed to be avoided at all costs”, just as attacks by Houthi fighters in Yemen on ships in the Red Sea had shown spillover from Gaza is already a reality.

The UN chief’s comments came amid new reports of heavy Israeli bombardment which has left tens of thousands of civilians dead in Gaza and prompted repeated warnings from UN humanitarians of approaching famine and disease among the 1.9 million people displaced.

UN migration agency chief urges action to help Sudan’s displaced 

Nine months since conflict erupted in Sudan, civilians continue to bear the brunt of fighting and they must not be abandoned, UN migration agency chief Amy Pope said on Wednesday.

The displacement crisis in Sudan is the biggest in the world, Ms. Pope said, as she warned that some 7.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began on 15 April last year.

Six million of those displaced are still in Sudan, but 1.7 million more have fled into neighbouring South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Central African Republic and Libya. 

The International Organization for Migration has appealed for $307 million to reach 1.2 million people affected by the conflict and to help with their recovery and future.

They include internally displaced people, refugees, returnees and third country nationals.  Since the crisis erupted, the UN agency has provided assistance to over one million individuals in Sudan and surrounding countries.

Inflation rises hit international investment, warns UNCTAD

Foreign direct investment, or FDI, is a crucial part of the global economy – particularly for emerging economies – and last year they saw foreign funding shrink by no less than   nine per cent, to $841 billion, UN data released on Wednesday showed.

According to UN trade and development body UNCTAD, developing Asian economies took an even bigger hit, their FDI falling 12 per cent.

China also reported “a rare decline” of six per cent less investment from overseas partners.

African countries’ FDI fell one per cent in 2023 while Central America bucked the trend by maintaining stable foreign direct investment, UNCTAD’s latest Global Investment Trends Monitor showed.

Data also indicated a sharp upswing in foreign direct investment in Luxembourg and the Netherlands that contributed to a three per rise in global foreign direct investment last year, to $1.37 trillion.

But without Luxembourg and the Netherlands, investment in the other European Union countries was down by 23 per cent.

UNCTAD said that other developed countries saw foreign investment stagnate last year with “zero growth” in North America.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.