Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Abdou Dieng, speaking from Port Sudan, told reporters in the briefing room in New York that senior leadership would be returning to the Sudanese capital, as soon as the situation allows.
The needs are urgent, and widespread, he said, as the final few hours of a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire neared, with fighting continuing. Hundreds have been killed, and thousands wounded as the rival militia of the country’s top two generals continue to battle each other in civilian areas.
Dire needs, before fighting erupted
Before the fighting began nearly two weeks ago, one in three Sudanese was already in need of aid, and it’s proving “extremely difficult” to properly assess the level of need today, Mr. Dieng said.
The pre-conflict Humanitarian Response Plan called for $1.7 billion, of which only 15 per cent has been pledged, he said.
In reply to questions about an uptick in inter-communal violence in West Darfur and food shortages, he said the UN was extremely worried about food supplies, and the deteriorating situation across all of Darfur.
The UN and partners, are establishing a core team in Port Sudan itself, which will be responsible for overseeing humanitarian operations in the country, and negotiating humanitarian access with de facto authorities.
Emergency funding
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, announced on Thursday the allocation of $3 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to urgently respond to the arrival of Sudanese refugees and others in Chad.
In Khartoum, meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 60 per cent of health facilities are closed and only 16 per cent are operating as normal.
Briefing reporters in New York, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, said that according to UN partners who remain in the capital, the treatment of nearly 50,000 acutely malnourished children has been disrupted.
Mr. Haq said that shortages of food, water, medicines and food continue, especially in the capital and surrounding areas, where the military stand-off has been most intense, “while access to communications and electricity is limited in many parts of the country.”
Needs grow at Chad-Sudan border
As many as 20,000 people – among them Chadians, Sudanese, and foreign nationals – fleeing the violence in Sudan, have arrived so far in neighbouring Chad, said the UN migration agency, IOM, earlier on Thursday.
The vast border between the two countries extends for 1,400 kilometres.
“The majority of those arriving are in dire need of basic humanitarian aid, namely food, water and adequate shelter,” said Anne Kathrin Schaefer, IOM Chief of Mission in Chad.
“While registration is ongoing by humanitarian actors including IOM, we believe a considerable number of those arriving are Chadians as well as nationals from other countries, who lived in Sudan and will require immediate assistance to return to their communities of origin and reunite with their families,” she adds.
IOM teams have been deployed in Eastern Chad at the border with Sudan and are working around the clock in support of the national and humanitarian efforts to respond to the arrivals.
“We are at a potentially important juncture, with renewed attention on Syria – particularly from the region – that could assist our efforts in advancing a political solution to this conflict”, he said.
“But for this renewed attention to help unlock progress, many actors will need to take concrete steps – not just one set of actors.”
Diplomatic engagement continues
Mr. Pedersen said since the February earthquakes, diplomacy has continued involving the Syrian Government and the “Astana players”- a reference to the December 2019 meeting between Russia, Türkiye and Iran in the Kazakh capital – as well as “new openings of engagement” between Syria and Arab countries.
The envoy also continues his engagement towards facilitating a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political process. He stressed that “the UN cannot do this alone” and needs the support of all key players.
“No existing groups of players – not the Syrian parties, not the Astana players, not the Western players, not the Arab players – can alone bring about a political solution,” he said.
“Unlocking each of Syria’s myriad problems requires several keys – each held by a different stakeholder, who cannot be overlooked, and who can block if excluded.”
Seize the opportunity
Progress will require getting a wider group of players to work together, he said, who will all have to make contributions, in a coordinated, multilateral effort.
“I will continue to engage directly with the Syrian parties and to remind them, and in particular at this juncture the Government of Syria, that they should seize the opportunity with a readiness to move forward on substantive issues,” he said.
Mr. Pedersen also underlined his readiness to facilitate inter-Syrian dialogue, including reconvening the Constitutional Committee in Geneva, which has not met in nearly a year.
In the interim, he continues to convene a broad spectrum of Syrians in Geneva and the region, including women’s and civil society representatives. “These meetings show that Syrians still have much that they can agree upon, across many divides,” he said.
Violence on the rise
Mr. Pedersen also expressed concern that the brief calm that followed February’s deadly earthquakes has further eroded. Violent incidents have been increasing in the northwest involving pro-Government forces, armed opposition forces and the terrorist group HTS.
He said relative calm in the northeast has been punctuated by Turkish and armed opposition groups targeting positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia, reportedly in response to SDF shelling and rocket attacks, including on Turkish soldiers.
Israeli strikes are becoming increasingly more frequent, while southwest Syria remains turbulent. Sporadic ISIL attacks also appear to be on the rise in some areas, with increasing Government, Russian and US-led coalition strikes in response.
‘Unprecedented’ needs
The current scale of humanitarian need in Syria is “unprecedented, even in the long and brutal history of the Syria crisis”, said Lisa Doughten, Resource Mobilization Director for UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, speaking on behalf of relief chief Martin Griffiths.
Referring to the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria almost three months ago, she said the UN was continuing to support recovery in the battered northwest of Syria.
More than three million have received hot meals and rations, while 1.1 million have received some form of healthcare.
A child sleeps on relief items at a reception centre in Jandairis town in northern Syria.
Rubble removal
Over 470,000 cubic metres of rubble have been removed, but although progress has been made, “so much more needs to be done”, she told ambassadors. She said the devastation underscored the “dire reality” facing millions of Syrians:
“That 12 years of armed conflict, growing macroeconomic pressures, dwindling public services and decaying critical infrastructure, have left the population of Syria acutely vulnerable to shocks and stresses, let alone those as devastating as the recent earthquakes.”
Nearly seven million are internally displaced nationwide, many multiple times, she reminded. Around 80 per cent have been displaced “for at least five years”.
“Durable solutions are needed for this crisis, starting with an end to the conflict.”
She said the three available border crossings in the northwest, on the Turkish border, continued to be an essential aid corridor, with “near daily” interagency convoys reaching millions each month.
She told ambassadors that sustained support from donors, authorities on the ground, Member States “and this Council”, was essential “to keep pace with the humanitarian needs of today, and even more so, those of tomorrow.”
The resolution passed unanimously by the 15-member body in New York, calls for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”, and urges all countries and organisations with influence on the fundamentalist rulers of the country, “to promote an urgent reversal” of policies which have in effect erased women from public life.
Since the Taliban takeover of July 2021, when its forces toppled the democratically-elected Government, it has rolled back a wide range of human rights of women and girls, including a ban on attending high school and university, restrictions on movement and work, and in December, a decree banning female nationals from working from most NGOs.
Earlier this month the Taliban extended their ban to women working for the United Nations.
IOM/Robert Kovacs
Afghan girls arrive in Rwanda to continue their education.
The UN underlined its “unequivocal condemnation” of the move in early April, noting that it contravenes international law, including the UN Charter. All UN staff have been told not to report to the office, except for some critical tasks, while an operational review is carried out, concluding on 5 May.
A record 28.3 million people in Afghanistan are in need of assistance this year, making Afghanistan the world’s largest aid operation, with the UN asking for $4.6 billion to fully fund relief efforts this year. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator warned this month that Afghanistan was also the world’s least well-funded operation, with less than five per cent funding pledged so far.
‘Deep concern’
The Security Council resolution lays out ambassadors’ “deep concern” over the ban on women working at the UN, saying that – along with the other erosions of basic rights – “will negatively and severely impact” the UN aid operations throughout the country, “including the delivery of life-saving assistance and basic services to the most vulnerable”.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
Security Council Meets on Situation in Afghanistan
It stresses that the UN Assistance Mission in the country, UNAMA, will also be unable to implement its humanitarian mandate until the ban ends. The resolution emphasizes that the ban “is unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”
‘Dire’ economic and humanitarian conditions
The resolution also stresses the urgent need to keep addressing Afghanistan’s “dire economic and humanitarian situation” and help the country restore self-reliance, recognizing the importance of allowing the Central Bank to use assets which are currently frozen outside the country, “for the benefit of the Afghan people.”
The Council backed the continued work of UNAMA reiterating its “full support”, and called on all with a stake in Afghanistan, including Taliban authorities, “to ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of the United Nations and associated personnel throughout the country.”
The 2023 UN SDG Action Awards will be presented in Rome, Italy, in July, and the deadline for applications and nominations has been extended to 7 May.
“We are calling on all activists, mobilizers, and changemakers to submit their application today for a chance to become an awards finalist and to join us in Rome for a celebration of their global sustainability actions and ongoing efforts in confronting global challenges and holding decision-makers to account,” said Marina Ponti, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign.
Flipping the script
Ms. Ponti noted that 2022 was a seminal year for the Campaign, an initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General to galvanize people everywhere around the 17 SDGs, which include ending extreme poverty, reducing inequalities, and combatting climate change by 2030.
“We defied all expectations and mobilized nearly 150 million people around the world to take action for the Sustainable Development Goals,” she said.
“Now, we want to acknowledge and celebrate those very same people who made a difference on the ground flipping the script on the climate crisis, gender inequality, and food insecurity and laying the foundations for a more sustainable and equitable future for all.”
Making a mark
Last year’s awards ceremony was held in Bonn, Germany, receiving over 3,000 applications from 150 countries.
This year’s event will be held on 24 July in Rome on the margins of the UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment, where countries will review progress towards transforming food systems worldwide.
Past winners include Hamzat B. Lawal, Founder of the Nigeria-based anti-corruption organisation Follow the Money, which works to influence social change and disrupt the status quo by setting up social accountability models tracking government spending and international aid, exposing corruption, and revealing to the public how effective local social development projects are.
Hamzat B. Lawal, Founder of the Nigeria-based anti-corruption organisation Follow the Money, addresses the 2022 UN SDG Action Awards.
“Winning a UN SDG Action Award has been a life changing moment for the initiative and team,” Mr. Lawal said. “Not only has it empowered us to strengthen our internal governance structure, but most importantly the Award has enhanced our credibility in holding governments to account and fostering transparency.”
Since winning in 2019, Follow the Money has grown its presence across Africa, expanding from four countries to a total of nine while also attracting interest from the Americas and Asia.
Other finalists have also continued to leave their mark on local and global communities, including Srishti Bakshi, a marketer-turned-women’s-rights-activist, who embarked on a pilgrimage of 3,800 kilometres through 12 Indian states to put a spotlight on the root causes of violence against women.
Opinion by Bibbi Abruzzini, Clarisse Sih – Forus (brussels)
Inter Press Service
BRUSSELS, Apr 27 (IPS) – In today’s world, human rights defenders face immense challenges, with threats, attacks, and repression being rampant in many countries. According to the latest report by Front Line Defenders, killings of rights defenders increased in 2022, with a total of 401 deaths across 26 different countries. Despite the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders 25 years ago, the threats faced by defenders persist globally.
One striking example of the dire situation is in Bolivia, where violations of freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the right to defend rights have been recorded by the Observatory of Rights Defenders of UNITAS, with the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of Bolivia (APDHB) being a longstanding victim of attacks and delegitimization. A total of 725 violations of the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, democratic institutions and the right to defend rights have been recorded by the Observatory of Rights Defenders.
Gladys Sandova, a human rights and environmental defender in the Tariquía Flora and Fauna National Reserve in Bolivia, reveals how the state often aligns with oil businesses instead of protecting communities. “Tariquía is the lung of Tarija,” Gladys explains, yet this vital source of water for southern Bolivia and home to over 3,000 people, is at risk due to the state-owned Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) seeking to revive oil exploration in the reserve.
“Oil companies are here, we are going to lose our natural richness, they are going to affect the lives of families, and contaminate our water and our air,” says Gladys, reflecting the urgent need to defend human rights and the environment.
Stories from human rights defenders from across the globe are also featured in the #AlternativeNarratives campaign, which seeks to amplify the voices of civil society organizations and grassroots movements that work towards social justice, human rights, and sustainable development. The campaign encourages the use of storytelling, multimedia tools, and creative expression to highlight alternative perspectives, challenge stereotypes, and advocate for positive chang while fostering a more inclusive and equitable narrative space that reflects the diversity of human experiences and promotes solidarity, empathy, and mutual understanding.
Human rights defenders, including women defenders, continue to mobilize against repressive regimes and occupying forces in countries like Afghanistan, the DRC, El Salvador, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, and Ukraine. Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, highlights the underreporting of human rights violations against defenders, particularly women, and outlines “disturbing trends” in relation to civic space worldwide.
Repongac, representing over 1,200 NGOs in Central Africa, states that “human rights in Central Africa are no longer guaranteed,” with civil society actors, journalists, and defenders facing repression, prosecution, and arrests. Recent campaigns organized by Repongac in Central Africa and Repaoc in West Africa, supported by Forus and the French Development Agency, brought together diverse stakeholders, including human rights defenders, political parties, parliamentarians, journalists, and security personnel, to initiate a dialogue and protect civic space amnd fundametnal freedoms in the region.
To support activists and defenders globally, the Danish Institute for Human Rights has launched a monitoring tool that assesses whether an enabling environment for human rights defenders exists across five critical areas. Developed in collaboration with 24 institutions and organizations, including the United Nations and civil society networks, the tool not only tracks the number of killings of human rights defenders but also analyzes the presence of appropriate legislation and practices to protect defenders.
As Carol Rask, a representative of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, explains, defending human rights is a crime in some countries and a deadly activity in others. It is a call to action for change, urging individuals, organizations, and governments to prioritize and protect the crucial work of human rights defenders worldwide.
Griselda Sillerico, human rights defender in Bolivia for over 30 years, quotes Ana María Romero and says “human rights are seeds that we continue to plant and that over the years we harvest.” Griselda Sillerico’s quote echoes the enduring spirit of human rights advocacy, where the work of human rights defenders like her is a constant effort to sow the seeds of justice, equality, and dignity for all. Despite the challenges and setbacks, human rights defenders across the world continue to plant these seeds, often at great personal risk, with the hope of reaping a future where human rights are universally respected and protected.
NEW YORK, Apr 26 (IPS) – For the last five years, the United Nations Development Programme has worked with some of the world’s biggest producers of commodities like beef, soy, palm oil, and cocoa to protect livelihoods and the planet.In 2015, just over 30 cocoa farmers from Padre Abad in Ucayali, a province in the lush and ecologically diverse Peruvian Amazon, formed an alliance to tackle long-standing concerns such as soil quality, access to markets, fair prices for their produce and a growing number of illegal plantations. The result was the Colpa de Loros Cooperative, and from the start, the goal was to produce the finest quality, export-ready cocoa.
Membership would grow to over 500 partners covering 200 hectares of land today.
For almost four years, the cooperative’s small producers worked tirelessly on the transition of the area from traditional but environmentally taxing cocoa harvesting to growing premium cocoa that could meet export demand in the chocolate industry. This was no easy feat, as fine-flavor cocoa production demanded significant investment in technical training for members, initiatives to monitor deforestation, and data systems to ensure cocoa traceability, production, and sales. On the education side, it demanded a change from centuries-long cocoa farming practices to the principles of agroecology.
Then in 2022, as the farmers worked to meet demanding international certifications, the European Parliament passed a new law that is introducing rigorous, wide-ranging requirements on commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef and cocoa. Now the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is researching how it should step up its assistance to producers to meet the new criteria.
New EU Requirements
Colpa de Loros sells 100 percent of its cocoa to a European buyer, the French company Kaoka. When word of the new European regulations hit, the cooperative had already achieved organic production and fair-trade certification. It had also attained ‘fair for life’ certification, a Kaoka-led initiative.
Attaining these credentials meant that members had been working on a blueprint for environmentally friendly agriculture systems. However, for Peru, the world’s third largest cocoa supplier to Europe, the new regulations triggered frenetic action to maintain contracts with buyers and protect the almost 100,000 small producers who depend on cocoa exports to sustain their households.
“The law affects not only Colpa de Loros, but all producers,’ said Ernesto Parra, Manager of Colpa de Loros Cooperative.
“We already have laws which require analysis of pesticides, which makes costs higher. To ensure compliance with this rule, they implement measures like regular audits. Every grain must be free of contamination. There are organizations bigger than Colpa that are experiencing difficulties to respond, and no actions have been taken by the government to support them,” he said.
The European Commission has now also introduced new forest conservation and restoration rules. The Commission said the deforestation regulation would promote EU consumption of deforestation-free supply chain products, encourage international cooperation to tackle forest degradation, reroute finance to aid sustainable land-use practices, and support the collection and availability of quality data on forests and commodity supply chains.
Parra says this commitment to the environment complements the Cooperative’s core values.
“The cooperative aligns with this green pact signed by all actors in Europe to not buy chocolate from deforested areas or involving child or forced work. They not only promote the protection of the environment, but reforestation, land protection, recycling programmes, and biogas from cacao liquid. We agree that cocoa can’t come from deforested areas or make new plantations in protected areas.”
While the cooperative is firm in its environmental consciousness, Parra says the investment is needed in educational activities and technical support for rural farmers who are struggling to accept the realities of land degradation and climate change.
“Some of them are still burning forests. Organizations need to convince the base of producers and farmers to change. Not only their partners but all people in the communities. Incentives can help. For example, I can be carbon neutral, but I’m going to have a higher cost, and if the market does not recognize it, if I don’t have an incentive, the standard will be difficult to maintain. Our cooperative gives its own incentives: those who commit to the organic certification receive fertilizer produced by Colpa de Loros to increase production.
“It is a start, but this is not enough. The state or the market needs to offer incentives as well.”
UNDP Support – and Good Growth Partnership Scoping
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been working with the world’s commodity-producing countries to put sustainability at the center of supply chains.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the GGP has embraced an Integrated Approach, working with producers, traders, policymakers, financial institutions, and multinational corporations to build sustainability in soy, beef, and palm oil supply chains.
Peru has so far not been covered by GGP but is being scoped for possible assistance under a next phase of the programme.
In the meantime, the UN agency has been supporting Peru to achieve sustainable commodity production- a target that remains crucial in the face of the new EU regulation.
“The control and monitoring of all production processes had to be doubled, and UNDP is vital here. With its finance, the technical department was strengthened, agricultural technology was incorporated, and members received capacity building in sustainability and food security,” said Parra.
Each member of Colpa de Loros is responsible for 3-4 hectares of land. The GEF-financed Sustainable Productive Landscapes (SPL) in the Peruvian Amazon project, led by the Ministry of Environment with technical assistance from UNDP, has been supporting projects that enhance food production while protecting water and land resources.
“The organization’s cocoa is not conventional cocoa. It is a fine aroma cocoa. So, producers needed equipment for special analysis. Then all information needed to be organized in a digital platform. UNDP helped in these areas,’ he added.
“The GEF-financed SPL project provided US$150,000 to complement the work of the organization with maps, digital platforms, and traceability. As there is no global system of traceability, Colpa is using its own, which is expensive.”
Action Plans
The UN organization, working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, has also been assisting the Government and industry partners to develop and implement national action plans for the cocoa and coffee sectors. The Peruvian National Plan for Cocoa and Chocolate was unveiled in November 2022. It breaks down divisions between production, demand, and finance issues in agriculture. It also contains clear strategies to increase sustainability based on science, technology, and tradition.
The plan complements the values of UNDP and represents a win for both farmers and the environment.
“It is important to recognize that many Peruvian farmers’ cooperatives and companies, regardless of the EU regulation, are concerned about the potential impacts of their production systems on the environment, and they are increasingly conscious of the impacts that climate change is having on their production systems,” said James Leslie, Technical Advisor Ecosystems and Climate Change at UNDP Peru.
“Now, the concern is the feasibility of complying with the EU regulation and in the timeframe required. This concern is directly related to the fact that the EU markets are important for Peruvian agricultural products, particularly coffee, and cocoa. There is a concern that with the new EU regulation, there can be restricted or more challenging access to the market.”
The UNDP official says meeting stringent sustainable production requirements comes at a hefty cost to owners of small and medium-sized farms.
“There is not necessarily a price premium for their products due to certification,” he said. Incentives are a key factor in GGP’s work in encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable practices.
“It’s important also to recognize that there is a difference within the farmer population. Some farmers are organized and are part of cooperatives. For example, roughly 20 percent of cocoa and coffee farmers are organized in some way, which means that 80 per cent are not. Those unorganized farmers are less likely to be certified, and they are less likely to be accessing stable markets that provide some price guarantee.”
According to the UNDP, Peru ranks 9 in the world’s top ten cocoa producers and tops the world in organic cocoa production. The majority of farmers are small-scale and medium scale. Leslie says many of these farmers are either living in poverty or vulnerable to falling below the poverty line.
“Add to that additional restrictions and costs in order to access markets, and it poses a risk for these farmers—for their wellbeing and livelihoods,” he said.
The Future of Sustainable Agriculture
Looking ahead, Leslie says access to traceability systems is important. The farmers will need to prove that their production has met the EU requirements.
He says the Government will also need to expand technical assistance, increase investment in science and technology, including the purchase of climate change-resistant crop varieties, and ensure that farmers can receive finance aligned with the EU regulation’s sustainability criteria.
Clear land use policies will also be needed to delineate land that is appropriate for agriculture and particular types of crops. Areas that must be regenerated should be clearly marked, along with those that should be conserved, such as watersheds and zones of high biodiversity value.
For Colpa de Loros, Parra says the goal must be to strike a balance between sustainable land use and livelihoods.
“For deforestation, there is a big relation to poverty. The majority of the time a producer cuts down a tree, it’s because of need.”
He says the challenge is to create a supply chain that is sustainable, competitive, and inclusive – a goal that is attainable with adequate support and buy-in from every link in the value chain.
The guidance provides a joined-up approach for responding to the threat or arrival of any respiratory pathogen such as flu or the range of coronaviruses, that have the ability to rapidly mutate into different variants.
The new Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative, or PRET, incorporates the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other recent public health emergencies, said WHO.
In his regular weekly briefing in Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that next week, the agency would launch its fourth Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) issued by the UN health agency, since the first at the start of the COVID-19 emergency, in February 2020.
This update outlines how countries can “transition from an emergency response, to long-term, sustained management of COVID-19”, he said, over a two year period.
Hundreds of millions will need care
“We’re very encouraged by the sustained decline in reported deaths from COVID-19, which have dropped 95 per cent since the beginning of this year.”
However, some countries are seeing increases, Tedros cautioned, and over the past four weeks, 14,000 people lost their lives to COVID.
He said an estimated one in 10 infections now results in what’s commonly known as “long COVID”, “suggesting that hundreds of millions of people will need longer-term care” moving forward.
As the emergence of the new XBB.1.16 variant shows, the virus is still changing, and is still capable of causing new waves of disease and death, Tedros said.
Virus ‘is here to stay’
“We remain hopeful that sometime this year, we will be able to declare an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. But this virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases.”
The UN health chief joked that the acronym for the new PRET initiative, was deliberate: “prêt” means “ready” in French.
“Rather than focusing on specific pathogens or diseases, PRET takes an integrated approach to pandemic planning, by focussing on groups of pathogens and the systems they affect.
“To begin with, PRET will focus on respiratory pathogens, including influenza, coronaviruses, RSV, and as-yet-unknown pathogens”, but he added that pandemics by definition, were global events, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration.
Schools, prayer halls, town halls
“But it’s also designed to promote collaboration between sectors. As COVID-19 demonstrated, a pandemic is not just a health crisis. It affects economies, education, trade, travel, food supply systems and more.”
PRET therefore, will engage as many sectors of human activity as possible, including civil society, religious groups and young people.
He said PRET answers the call for technical guidance, and support for promoting and strengthening integrated preparedness and response, as outlined in World Health Assembly resolutions.
Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and outside the city, with a shocking increase in criminality and abuses, and a police force that is unable to handle the situation.
At the same time, almost half the population, 5.2 million people, needs humanitarian aid, amid an ongoing cholera epidemic that has generated nearly 40,000 suspected cases since October.
Act now
She warned that any further delay in addressing the “unprecedented insecurity” in Haiti could lead to a spill-over in the region.
“Time is of the essence, and the Haitian people deserve your urgent action. If not supported, the vicious circle of violence, political, social, and economic crisis, in which the people struggle every day, will continue to turn,” she said.
Ms. Salvador was appointed in March and took up her post this month. She spent the first week meeting with civil society representatives, particularly women’s groups, national authorities and senior government officials.
“During my initial exchanges and interactions, I observed that a path for Haitians to engage in dialogue towards restoring democratic institutions in the country has been charted. However, the general sentiment is that it will be difficult to move forward without effectively addressing rampant insecurity,” she said.
Gangs terrorize citizens
The envoy also managed to circulate through some of the streets of the capital in the early days of her arrival, saying “I felt the tension and recognized the fear Haitians experience every day.”
She told ambassadors that the horrific violence in gang-ridden areas, including sexual violence particularly targeting women and girls, is emblematic of the terror afflicting much of the population.
During the first quarter of the year, 1,647 criminal incidents – homicides, rapes, kidnappings and lynching – were recorded, according to data from the Haitian National Police and the UN mission in the country, BINUH, which she heads.
The figure is more than double the number recorded during the same period in 2022, and last month saw the highest incident rates in nearly two decades.
Police force ill-equipped
In the face of limited or no police presence, some residents in the capital have begun to take matters into their own hands. This week, 13 suspected gang members were beaten and burned to death by a group of civilians.
Although the Government continues to invest in the Haitian National Police, the force is severely understaffed and ill-equipped to address the violence and criminality, she said.
The number of officers in the ranks is supposed to be nearly 14,800 but when taking into account deaths, dismissal or an increasing number of resignations, the current strength stands at 13,200, with only around 9,000 performing police tasks.
Furthermore, barely 3,500 officers are on public safety duty at any given time nationwide, and recruitment has been halted due to deteriorating security and logistical constraints.
“I would like to emphasize the urgent need for the deployment, authorized by the Security Council, of an international specialized force, as articulated by the Secretary-General in his letter dated 8 October 2022. We need to find innovative ways to define the force to support the Haitian National Police,” she said.
A man walks through Cité Soleil, one of the neighbourhoods of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, most affected by gang violence.
Sexual violence, kidnappings and killings
Haitians have also continued to suffer one of the worst human rights crises in decades, with people living in areas under gang control exposed to the highest rate of abuses.
Gangs continue to use sexual violence, including gang rape, to terrorize and inflict pain on populations living in areas controlled by their rivals. They have also inflicted other forms of sexual violence and exploitation against women and girls living in communities under their influence.
Ms. Salvador said children are among the victims of the most heinous crimes, including killings, kidnappings and rape. They have been struck by stray bullets while in class or when being dropped off at school.
Furthermore, many schools were forced to close last year due to the violence and extortion by gangs. Although most have reopened, many students have not returned, either because of insecurity or inability to pay.
Weapons and drugs trafficking
The Council also was also briefed by Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), who said the flows of illicit firearms and drugs into Haiti are compounding insecurity and violence.
An agency assessment, published last month, revealed that increasingly sophisticated and high-calibre firearms and ammunition are being trafficked by land, air and sea, into a country with limited maritime control and a lack of border surveillance.
“Heavily armed criminal gangs are targeting critical infrastructure such as ports, grain storage, customs offices, police stations, court houses, prisons, businesses and neighbourhoods. They have also gained control of major highways and roads providing access to the capital,” she said.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s law enforcement and border control challenges make it an attractive hub for drug traffickers shipping mainly cocaine and cannabis to the United States, the Dominican Republic and Western Europe.
Stop illicit flows
“The international community and invested partners need to urgently develop and support large-scale comprehensive actions to assist law enforcement and border management, to prevent illicit flows and help stabilize the situation,” she said.
Ms. Waly noted that the Council has repeatedly stressed the importance of building up the capacity of the Haitian National Police, including its specialized units on borders, drugs and firearms.
She also underlined the need for greater investment in community policing and criminal justice reform to combat corruption and money-laundering.
“Black markets are relying on corruption and patronage networks to thrive, with a complex web of public and private actors implicated in trafficking, while corruption in the criminal justice sector leads to impunity,” she said.
“The conditions for a political process leading to peace can only be achieved when Haiti has the institutions and capacities capable of meeting these challenges.”
Volker Perthes, who is also head of UN Transition Assistance Mission UNITAMS, welcomed the lull in fighting in some parts of the country between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitaries from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), noting that “it is not being fully respected”.
He called on both sides to stick to the final day of the agreed ceasefire, “and facilitate humanitarian access” to the UN and partners, who are continuing to provide lifesaving aid as far as conditions allow.
Mr. Perthes, who is remaining in Sudan together with senior UN personnel, said in a statement he was “deeply concerned by recent reports of violence in El Geneina (West Darfur), which increasingly appears to also be taking on inter-communal dimensions with attacks on civilians and looting and distribution of weapons among local communities.”
UN premises looted
He said attacks had also resulted in “other mass looting, including of UN premises.”
He once again called for an immediate end to the conflict between the two factions, who are unable to agree on integrating their forces ahead of a long-awaited transition to civilian rule, before the violence and destruction escalates.
Calling for all humanitarians – their facilities and assets – to be protected, the UNITAMS chief told the generals that it was “crucial” for civilians to be able to safely leave areas of active fighting and have access to “essential supplies.”
He welcomed ongoing efforts by local authorities in the region to de-escalate tensions, and vowed to work with all parties, “towards a sustained ceasefire with a monitoring mechanism, political negotiations, and to alleviate human suffering.”
Speaking in Geneva, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the violence wracking Sudan had “taken a terrible toll on health”.
More deaths due to disease
“On top of the number of deaths and injuries caused by the conflict itself, WHO expects there will be many more deaths due to outbreaks, lack of access to food and water, and disruptions to essential health services, including immunization”, he said.
WHO estimates that one in four of the lives lost so far could have been saved with access to basic emergency medical treatment for the wounded.
“But paramedics, nurses and doctors are unable to access injured civilians, and civilians are unable to access services. In the capital Khartoum, 61 per cent of health facilities are closed, and only 16 per cent are operating as normal.”
24,000 births, no hospital care
Many patients with chronic diseases, like kidney disease, diabetes and cancer, are unable to access the health facilities or medicines they need and in the coming weeks, around 24,000 women will give birth in the capital, “but they are currently unable to access maternal care”, said Tedros.
The risk of diarrhoeal diseases is high, as the water supply is disrupted and people are drinking river water to survive, noted the WHO chief.
“With nutrition programmes suspended, 50,000 children are at real risk; and the movement of civilians seeking safety threatens the fragile health system throughout the country.”
Since the conflict began, WHO has verified 16 attacks on health, resulting in at least eight deaths so far.
Thousands fleeing the fighting
As the fighting continues, the UN is preparing for a mass influx of refugees into countries across the region bordering Sudan, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told correspondents in New York on Wednesday.
The refugee agency UNHCR, estimates that some 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone.
“In South Sudan, our humanitarian partners are scaling up their presence in key response areas to help the most vulnerable people”, said Mr. Haq. “In Chad, UNHCR is working with the Government to assess the needs of people arriving in the country.”
UNHCR is calling on all countries neighbouring Sudan to keep their borders open to those fleeing the violence, in fear of their lives.
Pity the children: lives must take precedence
In a joint statement, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, and the Special Representative on Violence against Children, Najat Maalla M’jid, said they were alarmed at the reported numbers of civilian deaths, including children.
“The lives, protection and well-being of children must take precedence over combat operations, and we call on all parties to halt hostilities and to ensure full protection of all children.
“Parties should further refrain from attacking civilian infrastructures in accordance with international humanitarian law, especially those impacting children – this includes schools and medical facilities as well as water and sanitation systems”, said the two officials.
They also reminded military officers engaged in the fighting that “regardless of their roles, under no circumstances should children below 18 years be involved in armed conflict as the recruitment and use of children is prohibited under international law.”
Looking back on two of the most difficult periods since the plant opened in 1977, Chernobyl employees shared their personal stories with UN News on the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.
Ground zero
Evgeny Yashin was a 40-year-old chemist at the Chernobyl plant when the nuclear power reactor accident unfolded in April 1986, resulting in massive evacuations, the deaths of 31 people, and long-term illness for thousands of others.
“Everyone was talking about the explosion of the reactor’s emergency cooling system,” he told UN News, recalling a fateful bus ride to work on the day of the accident. “But, passing by the fourth power unit, it became clear to us that it was much more serious than expected; the wall of the reactor had completely fallen out and a glow could be seen, resembling a steel foundry oven. We took action immediately.”
Mass evacuations
At that point, the scale of the accident was neither expected nor assessed, he said, adding that protocols were not in place because it had been inconceivable that this could happen to the reactors. As a shift supervisor of 300 employees at Chernobyl’s chemical workshop, his team’s main task was to prepare demineralized water, receive radioactive liquid waste, store it, and process it.
“We prepared the water to extinguish the reactor, walked knee-deep in water, and organized pumping,” he said. “Water appeared to be flowing endlessly, the system was launched at full capacity, and more and more water was required.”
On 27 April, Pripyat inhabitants were evacuated along with some of the plant’s staff, he said, remembering buses driving across the city, stopping in front of houses to collect evacuees. Relatives could neither call, warn them nor discuss the evacuation route, he said, recalling that he found his family had moved out of the area.
‘Very few of my colleagues are still alive’
In early May, the remaining staff were experiencing serious side-effects, as doctors monitored their health via frequent blood tests, he said, adding that some were taken “out of the zone” to rest.
“I feel the consequences on my health even now,” said Mr. Yashin, who has cancer. “Very few of my colleagues are still alive. I am surprised that I myself am still alive.”
Meanwhile, disputes remain about who is to blame, he said.
“I am 100 per cent sure that the designers could not have foreseen such a development,” he said. “The station personnel took all measures to localize the accident’s consequences, but could not prevent it.”
Since then, each year, on 26 April, residents of the city of Slavutych gather at a monument to the Chernobyl victims, lighting candles and remembering those tragic events, Mr. Yashin said. While he no longer works at the plant, his granddaughter, Tatiana, is an engineer who handles spent nuclear fuel at the facility, where it is stored alongside thousands of tons of radioactive waste.
New threat
Like all nuclear power facilities, Chernobyl enjoys special protection under international humanitarian law. But, the 2022 Russian occupation raised grave safety concerns. It also brought employees back to 1986 working conditions, requiring compulsory rotational shifts.
“We are now working as in 1986,” Alexander Novikov, the plant’s deputy chief engineer for technical safety, said. “I have just arrived on duty and will be here until next Monday. We converted our offices into rest stations, installing showers and washing machines. Radiation control has been significantly strengthened; we carry it out every day because people live close to the station.”
One year after the Russian occupation, employees can no longer take a simple bus ride. Most live in Slavutych, but railway lines were bombed on the first day the Russia’s invasion, on 24 February 2022. Workers now travel by bus from 350 kilometres away, work for a whole week, staying in the exclusion zone for the entire period, and then return home, he said.
New roommates
Until 2022, nuclear facilities had never been captured in the context of conflict, Mr. Novikov said. The unique situation has called for tailored measures.
“The IAEA made an unconventional decision to organize ‘permanent missions’,” he said, adding that power plant employees and IAEA inspectors alike are constantly present at the facility. “Inspectors used to come and conduct an inspection for several days or weeks and then leave. Now, IAEA representatives live with our staff, carrying out inspection activities without leaving the plant.”
When a country loses control over such facilities and is unable to conduct inspections, it must turn to the international community for support, he said.
‘The time has come’
“The time has come to respond to crises,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
While the agency’s main task, since its inception at the height of the cold war in 1957, is to ensure safety at nuclear facilities, it has never encountered the need to operate in the epicenter of intense armed fighting.
Following the onset of the war in Ukraine, the agency invited stakeholders to discussions at its headquarters in Vienna. Representing the Chernobyl plant as part of a Ukrainian delegation, Mr. Novikov said not one of the many reports he had read had mentioned the Russian war against Ukraine.
Demilitarize nuclear facilities
“The question arose of how to ensure security in such situations that are happening now in our country,” he recalled, pointing out that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is also operating in the middle of a warzone. “After all, any incident can lead to consequences that will be felt throughout Europe.”
Indeed, Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
“You can’t capture nuclear facilities,” he stressed. “The area around nuclear power plants must be demilitarized.”
Protect cleanest energy source
Despite the challenges of accidents and war, nuclear energy represents the future, as electricity consumption in the world is growing, he said. For example, 80 per cent of electricity in France comes from nuclear power sources.
“No matter how paradoxical these words sounded after Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power plants are one of the safest electricity producers,” he said. “Under normal operations, absent accidents and incidents, it is also the cleanest source.”
New types of reactors are reliable and controllable, he explained, adding that the development of nuclear energy is “the most promising way” forward.
“All we need now is a new approach to security,” he said.
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