Syria: Humanitarian crisis is looming over shattered country
Aid workers in Syria warned on Friday that a humanitarian crisis is looming there, with more than one in two children under five dangerously malnourished.
In an alert, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) also warned that funding cuts have closed over half the maternity hospitals in Syria’s northwest since last September.
It’s just the latest blow for the 16.5 million people in Syria who face staggering needs following the overthrow of the Assad regime last December which ended more than a decade of civil war.
The danger from unexploded ordnance known as “UXO” for short, left over from the fighting is another lethal threat to ordinary civilians trying to rebuild their lives.
Since December 2024, there have been more than 900 UXO injuries or deaths, said Dr. Altaf Musani, Director of Health Emergencies at WHO:
“Children and women, going about their daily life, trying to get water, trying to get food, trying to rebuild, are walking through agricultural lands, roads, potentially rivers where, you know, we will not have an idea of where the UXOs will be present.”
Latest UN data indicates that one million internally displaced people have returned home and another half a million refugees have now crossed the border back into Syria.
A $2 billion appeal for Syria has been launched to reach eight million people until June but it is only 10 per cent funded.
UN rights chief’s peace call to South Sudan’s warring parties
To South Sudan, where the UN’s human rights chief Volker Türk has appealed to warring parties to stop fighting, after a sharp increase in hostilities.
Dozens of civilians have been killed since the violence erupted in Upper Nile state in February, between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in opposition – in addition to their armed allies.
Mr. Türk also expressed concern about the reported arbitrary detention of at least 55 high-ranking officials linked to the opposition armed forces, among them the country’s first vice-president Riek Machar.
Here’s spokesperson for Mr. Türk’s office, Seif Magango:
“High Commissioner Volker Türk is urging all parties to urgently pull back from the brink and to uphold the 2018 peace agreement. He is also calling on all parties to protect civilians and civilian objects and to facilitate humanitarian access – in line with their obligations under international law.”
Thousands of people have been displaced by the violence, the UN human rights chief said, before appealing to the authorities to take prompt and meaningful steps to halt hate speech.
Real cost of disasters is 10 times higher than previously thought, says UN
The true cost of natural disasters and hazards is actually 10 times higher than previously thought, the UN’s disaster risk reduction agency said on Friday.
Current estimates suggest the global economic impact of natural emergencies such as earthquakes, landslides and flooding likely amount to $200 billion a year.
But these are “only a fraction of the real costs” which are closer to $2.3 trillion, explained Jenty Kirsch-Wood, the UN disaster risk reduction agency’s head of Global Risk Analysis and Reporting Section.
She said that new data indicated that the world has been “chronically underestimating and undermeasuring the impact of disasters” on progress towards sustainable development.
“The tragedy is most of those costs are preventable. And so what the report digs into is how we can better align our financing systems, how we can better use public and private investment to make sure that we’re optimally reducing the burden on governments. We’re enabling facilities for sustainable, long-term investments that can help prevent elements of displacement and humanitarian need.”
Healthcare, education and work are increasingly affected by emergencies, which is resulting in growing national debt burdens and slower recovery times in already vulnerable countries, the UN official insisted.
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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