In Gaza, daily food intake set to fall well below ‘survival’ level
The lack of food entering Gaza caused by ongoing Israeli aid restrictions is leaving increasing numbers of Palestinians eating well below what each of us needs to survive, the UN warned on Thursday.
Latest assessments from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicate that the average Gazan ingests just 1,400 calories per day; that’s just 67 per cent of what a human body needs to survive.
Families without cash to buy food are among the most vulnerable, as well as children, pregnant and lactating women, person with disabilities and the elderly, FAO explained.
Without an improvement in the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza for distribution by established agencies, FAO warned that the already dire humanitarian situation could deteriorate even further.
33 million children suffer from ‘wasting’ in 15 countries: WFP
Wasting is a life-threatening condition caused by malnutrition and it affects 33 million children in 15 countries, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, said on Thursday.
In an alert, WFP said that children who survive wasting can still suffer “long-term and devastating impacts”.
The only solution to this is to act fast and early, the UN agency said.
But this isn’t easy in places where families have been uprooted by violence or extreme weather; such as South Sudan’s Unity state – where 25-year-old mother-of-three Nyanene Gatdoor lives in a displacement camp.
“When the baby is crying in front of you, and you have nothing to give him, you feel pain in your heart,” she said, referring to her two-year-old son, Tuach, who cries with hunger.
More than three million South Sudanese mothers and children are at risk of malnutrition this year – that’s more than one-quarter of the country’s total population.
To help those most in need, WFP has joined forces with the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to eradicate wasting in South Sudan and 14 other countries.
The objective includes delivering nutritious food to communities and sharing key messages on healthy eating and cleanliness, to avoid getting sick.
Belarus: Trade unionists repressed by ‘climate of fear’, rights experts say
Trade unions in Belarus continue to face State repression and detention, top independent rights experts said on Thursday.
In a call for their immediate release and for urgent medical attention to be given to those in prison, the rights experts insisted that freedom of association at work is “absent” in Belarus.
The rights experts, who include Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, allege that trades unions have been disbanded after being labelled “extremist”.
Their leaders and members have also been imprisoned, forced into exile and prosecuted while outside Belarus, Ms. Romero said.
Many unionists have been left without legal protections, their assets confiscated, and their voices silenced, insisted the rights experts, who report to the Human Rights Council.
The development comes amid growing concerns over prison conditions in Belarus for opponents of the Government.
The rights experts who are not UN staff highlighted the human impact of detaining union leaders and called for them to be granted access to independent doctors.
They also called for international missions to be allowed to visit those held in prison.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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