News in Brief 23 February 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Children on Ukraine’s frontlines suffer mental trauma: UNICEF  

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has taken a devastating toll on the mental health of the youngest citizens in the country, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday as the war enters a third year.

UNICEF said boys and girls in frontline areas in Ukraine have been forced to spend between 3,000 and 5,000 hours – equivalent to between four to seven months – sheltering in basements, bunkers, or a hole in the ground.

Here’s the agency’s James Elder, who is in the city of Kharkiv, where he has been speaking to families and child psychologists.

“Around three-quarters of young people have recently reported needing some sort of psychological or emotional support; a fraction of those are getting it. So, the ongoing shelling, the increased use of drones – all this is building into an awareness that children continue to be killed, and so it’s hindering families’ capacity to overcome the deep stress and trauma inflicted by this war.”

UNICEF has a network of psychologists supporting children and their parents, helping them overcome distress and trauma and find some relief, some joy.

This is just part of its operations in Ukraine, which also includes supporting the rebuilding of critical infrastructure such as schools and water systems, thousands of which have been damaged or destroyed in attacks.

Sudan: UN rights office details horrific violations 

A new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, details horrific violations and abuses by both sides in the war in Sudan, where fighting continues to spread.

The Sudanese Armed Forces and a rival paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling since April 2023.

The report found that both sides have carried out multiple indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people – particularly in the capital, Khartoum, as well as in Kordorfan and Darfur.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the report “underlines once more the dire need to end the fighting and to break the cycle of impunity that gave rise to the conflict in the first place.” 

The report is based on interviews with more than 300 victims and witnesses, including dozens conducted in Ethiopia and eastern Chad, as well as analysis of photographs, videos, and satellite imagery, as well as other open source information.

It said that both warring parties used explosive weapons with wide area effects, such as missiles fired from fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, and anti-aircraft weapons and artillery shells, in densely populated areas.

Rights experts call for arms embargo on Israel 

More than 30 UN independent human rights experts issued a statement on Friday calling for an end to arms exports to Israel.

They said any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law.

They noted that “all States must ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law by parties to an armed conflict”, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.

The experts have welcomed the recent decision of an appeals court in the Netherlands which ordered the Government to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing a “clear risk” of serious violations of international humanitarian law.

They added that the need for an arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s ruling last month that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza.

The group of experts who issued the statement were all appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and serve in their individual capacity, independent of the United Nations and national governments. 

They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work.

Dianne Penn, UN News.