News in Brief 21 December 2023 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Injured patients ‘waiting to die’ in northern Gaza as last hospital shuts down: WHO

There are no functioning hospitals in the north of Gaza and injured patients who need surgery and cannot be moved are “waiting to die”, the UN health agency said on Thursday.

In a new plea for a ceasefire to allow more aid into the shattered enclave, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that a UN relief mission had reached Al Ahli Arab hospital on Wednesday to find patients crying out in pain – and for water and food.

Here’s the UN health agency’s Emergency Medical Teams coordinator Sean Casey, who took part in that mission:

“Everywhere we go, people are asking us for food even in the hospital, I walked around in the emergency department, somebody with an open bleeding wound, an open fracture; they asked for food. If that’s not an indicator of the desperation and I mean, I don’t know what is.” 

Highlighting the need to relieve the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that intense fighting, a lack of electricity, limited fuel and disrupted telecommunications” had severely restricted the UN’s efforts to provide life-saving aid to people in the enclave.

The development comes amid reports of intensifying ground operations by Israeli Defense Forces and continuing airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, in response to Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks. 

Sudan: Up to 300,000 displaced by latest surge in fighting

Up to 300,000 people in Sudan have now been displaced by the latest surge in fighting.

That alert from the UN migration agency, IOM, came as fighting spread to Sudan’s second largest city, Wad Madani.

The development means more misery for more than half a million men, women and children who had taken refuge in Aj Jazirah state since war erupted between rival Sudanese militaries in April. 

The UN agency said that thousands of people were again “on the move, many in panic, fleeing fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF)” that broke out on the outskirts of Wad Madani city on 15 December.

According to reports, many of those fleeing the violence did so on foot. 

They are now “sheltering in open areas, improvised shelters, schools and with host communities” .

IOM has provided help since the crisis began, delivering essential life-saving aid to nearly 660,000 people in Sudan and neighbouring countries hosting refugees.  

New hope in fight against malaria as WHO recommends second jab

A potentially huge medical milestone now with the news that a second malaria vaccine has been recommended for use by the UN health agency.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has now added the malaria vaccine – called R21/Matrix-M – to a list of prequalified vaccines.

Prequalification ensures countries larger access to vaccines which can prevent the disease in youngsters, with the help of the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF and Gavi, the vaccine alliance. 

The first malaria vaccine to get WHO prequalification was the RTS,S vaccine in July 2022.

Both malaria vaccines were safe and effective in trials at preventing the killer disease in children and they should have a “high” and positive impact on public health when used alongside other recommended prevention measures.

Eradicating malaria is hugely important because in 2022, more than 608,000 people died from it in 85 countries.

The mosquito-borne disease places a particularly high burden on children in Africa, where nearly half a million of them die from the disease each year.