News in Brief 23 April 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza mass graves uncovered with victims’ hands tied: UN’s Türk

Disturbing reports continued to emerge on Tuesday about mass graves in Gaza in which Palestinian victims were found reportedly stripped naked with their hands tied.

Responding to these developments, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, expressed deep concern about possible war crimes, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

Citing the Gaza health authorities, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that hundreds of bodies were found “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north:

  “So, we feel the need to raise the alarm because clearly, there have been multiple bodies discovered, we don’t know how many. There are reports that some of them had their hands tied, which of course, indicates, serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. And these need to be subjected to further investigations. They can’t just be, you know, more reports in this horrific war that just pass under the radar.”

UN human rights chief Volker Türk also expressed his horror at the finding of mass graves in Gaza hospitals.

“The intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” Mr. Türk said, in a call for independent investigations into the deaths.

Ethiopia clashes displace 50,000, warn UN humanitarians

An alert now from northern Ethiopia, where more than 50,000 people have been displaced by fighting, 10 days since clashes erupted between armed groups from the Tigray and Amhara regions.

According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, people were uprooted as violence impacted Alamata town and the districts of Raya Alamata, Zata and Ofla.

“The humanitarian situation is dire, with thousands of women and children in need of broad humanitarian support to survive,” the UN office said in a statement.

The majority of those displaced are women, children and the elderly. 

Although most of them have sought refuge within the host community, the remainder are sheltering in an open area at an industrial site near Kobo Town which is exposed to the elements and rainy season.

Assistance has begun to arrive – mainly food and health services – but OCHA said that far more relief is needed urgently.

Asia, the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate shocks: WMO

Asian countries picked up an unwanted accolade for the second year running on Tuesday as the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water hazards. 

According to a new report from the UN World Meteorological Organization, (WMO), floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses in Asia in 2023.

The past year saw a total of 79 disasters associated with water-related incidents in Asia; of these, more than 80 per cent were related to flood and storm events which claimed over 2,000 lives and affected nine million more.

Heatwaves are becoming more severe, too, and WMO noted that particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central

Asia and from eastern China to Japan, with Japan and Kazakhstan each seeing record warm years.

The UN weather agency report noted with concern that key climate change indicators in Asia are accelerating, such as glacier retreat and sea level rise.

Sea-surface temperatures in the north west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record last year, WMO said, adding that even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave. 

Asia “is warming faster than the global average” the UN agency said, noting that this warming trend “has nearly doubled” compared with the period from 1961 to 1990.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.