News in Brief 8 February 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gazans ‘stalked by hunger, disease and death’ warns UN’s top aid official 

Amid further fighting across Gaza on Thursday including reports of deadly airstrikes in Rafah governorate, the UN’s top aid official Martin Griffiths echoed widespread international fears about a further escalation of the conflict.

“As the war in Gaza encroaches further into Rafah, I am extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of families which have endured the unthinkable in search of safety,” Mr. Griffiths said.

The veteran humanitarian official’s comments came as media reports indicated that Israel’s airstrikes overnight into Thursday in Rafah left 14 dead including five children. 

At the same time, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported that the Israeli military on Wednesday had announced “a temporary and tactical suspension of military activities in the western neighbourhood of Rafah (city) between 10am and 2pm for humanitarian purposes”.

Condemning the spreading violence in Gaza which is now into its fifth month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that he was “especially alarmed by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on Rafah”.

In a speech to Member States outlining his priorities for the year, the UN chief said that “nothing justifies” Hamas’s “horrific terror attacks” against Israel on 7 October that sparked massive bombardment and a ground operation.

The UN chief insisted that only an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the unconditional release of all hostages could help to bring about peace, along with “irreversible actions towards a two-state solution”.

‘Debt caps’ needed to save developing countries from financial disaster: UNCTAD 

A looming financial crisis that threatens disaster for the world’s poorest countries can be avoided – but only if international lenders agree to radical reforms such as “debt caps” – the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said on Thursday.

About 3.3 billion people – almost half of humanity – now live in countries that spend more money paying interest on their debt than on education or health, the UN economists said in a new report.

In the wake of COVID-19, developing countries’ external sovereign debt – which are funds lent by another country– increased by 15.7 per cent to a staggering $11.4 trillion by the end of 2022. 

Developing countries that borrowed when interest rates were low are now spending up to 23 per cent of their export revenues to repay these debts.

Anastasia Nesvetailova, head of UNCTAD’s macroeconomic and development policies branch, noted that after World War II, West Germany was allowed to use no more than five per cent of its export revenues to service its debt, to help the country’s recovery.

This kind of reform is urgently needed to help developing countries, UNCTAD said, along with other measures including an overhaul of Special Drawing Rights. This is a mechanism that’s overseen by the International Monetary Fund which has historically favoured high-income countries by providing them with low-interest capital.  

 Rights committee focuses on Russian policy of taking Ukrainian children

Top rights experts meeting in Geneva called on Russia on Thursday to immediately stop taking children from Ukraine – a claim that Moscow has denied.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child cited reports from the Ukrainian authorities and civil society that around 20,000 youngsters had been forcibly removed since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years ago.

The panel of independent rights experts, who have just finished a review of several countries including Russia, highlighted measures taken by Russia since the invasion, including a presidential decree granting citizenship to forcibly transferred Ukrainian children under a simplified procedure. 

The experts also expressed concern about the impact that the war is having on children in Ukraine. Hundreds of youngsters had been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons, they said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News