View previous stories
	The war in Gaza must end by OCHA, Save the Chidren, UNICEF, agencies   28 Mar. 2024   The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued new provisional measures for Israel as the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza continues to deteriorate. (UN News)   The ICJ provisional measures state that Israel, “in view of the worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, in particular the spread of famine and starvation”, shall take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza”.   The measures outline that the required aid includes food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care.   The fresh ICJ order also calls on Israel, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, to undertake those measures, “including by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary”.   UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reminded journalists at the daily news briefing that the ICJ operates independently. “We do believe as a matter of principle that all Member States abide by decisions of the court,” he said.   The ICJ was established by the UN Charter as the principal judicial organ of the UN.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1148096 http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148161   Mar. 2024   Children in Gaza need life-saving support. (UNICEF)   The escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip is having a catastrophic impact on children and families. Children are dying at an alarming rate – thousands have been killed and thousands more injured. Around 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip are estimated to have been internally displaced – half of them children. They do not have enough access to water, food, fuel and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed; their families torn apart.   Over 600,000 children – half of the displaced population – are trapped in Rafah. There is nowhere safe for them to go.   Even wars have rules. No child should be cut off from essential services, nor fall from the reach of humanitarian hands. No child should be held hostage or used by any means in armed conflict. Hospitals and schools must be protected from bombings, and they must not be used for military purposes, in accordance with international humanitarian law. The cost to children and their communities of this violence will be borne out for generations to come.   UNICEF continues to press world leaders on every occasion for humanitarian access to the whole of Gaza. To respond to the situation for children in Israel and the State of Palestine, UNICEF is calling for:   An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire. Safe and unrestricted humanitarian access to and within the Gaza Strip to reach affected populations wherever they are, including in the north. All access crossings must be opened including for sufficient fuel and materials needed to run and rehabilitate essential infrastructure and commercial supplies.   Safe movement for humanitarian workers and supplies across the Gaza Strip must be guaranteed and reliable telecommunications networks made available to coordinate response efforts.   The immediate, safe and unconditional release of all abducted children, and an end to any grave violations against all children, including killing and maiming of children.   Respect and protection for civilian infrastructure such as shelters and schools, and health, electric, water, sanitation and telecommunications facilities, to prevent loss of civilian and children’s lives, outbreaks of diseases, and to provide care to the sick and wounded.   All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law.   Urgent medical cases in Gaza to be able to safely access critical health services or be allowed to leave, and for injured or sick children evacuated to be accompanied by family members.   * 1.1 million people in Gaza are projected to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity between March and July 2024, up from 378,000 in December 2023, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis released on 18 March:   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/gazas-children-trapped-cycle-suffering http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-97/en/ http://www.who.int/news/item/18-03-2024-famine-in-gaza-is-imminent--with-immediate-and-long-term-health-consequences http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/gaza-halt-war-now-save-children-dying-imminent-famine-un-committee-warns http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/acute-malnutrition-has-doubled-one-month-north-gaza-strip-unicef   http://www.ochaopt.org/content/six-months-war-gaza-betrayal-humanity http://www.ifrc.org/press-release/gaza-six-months-inhumanity http://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-access-snapshot-gaza-strip-1-31-march-2024 http://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-occupied-palestinian-territory-mr-jamie-mcgoldrick-6-april http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unicef-state-palestine-humanitarian-situation-report-no-21-escalation-7-20-march-2024 http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147656 http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147916 http://reliefweb.int/country/pse   21 Feb. 2024   Gaza: WFP forced to pause food distributions in north as report warns of worsening crisis   Suspension comes as UN agencies join call for safe humanitarian access and new analysis confirms worst fears.   Hungry, thirsty and weak, more and more Gazans are falling sick, according to a report published this week.   At least 90 per cent of children aged under 5 are affected by one or more infectious diseases, with 70 percent having had diarrhoea in the past two weeks, according to analysis from the Global Nutrition Cluster.   “An immediate humanitarian ceasefire continues to provide the best chance to save lives and end suffering,” the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a statement.   “If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have intergenerational consequences,” said UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, Ted Chaiban.   High levels of disease, the severe shortage of food and clean water, and the almost total collapse of health services are compounding child wasting and making every day a struggle to survive for adults.   Nutrition screenings conducted at shelters and health centres found that 15.6 per cent of children under 2 are acutely malnourished.   Valerie Guarnieri, World Food Programme Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, has called for “decisive improvements on security and humanitarian access, and additional entry points for aid to enter Gaza.”   The situation in North Gaza is particularly alarming. WFP has been forced to pause operations there “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distributions”.   “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger,” WFP said in a statement.   WFP is deeply committed to urgently reaching desperate people across Gaza but the safety and security to deliver critical food aid – and for the people receiving it – must be ensured.   “Imagine being so hungry you are willing to run into gunfire to collect food. That’s a reflection of the level of desperation people of Gaza are facing today,” said Matthew Hollingworth, World Food Programme Country Director for Palestine.   In the whole month of January, WFP only managed to get four convoys into Gaza – that’s around 35 truckloads of food, enough for almost 130,000 people. “This is really not enough to prevent a famine, and we know levels of hunger in Gaza City are already at that level or getting to that level”.   “Gaza today looks entirely different than it did four months ago,” he said. “Half the buildings across the entirety of the Strip are rubble.. There’s no, or limited, clean water. It’s a public healthcare crisis as well as a hunger crisis. We desperately need significant amounts of aid to get into Gaza every single day.”   “We need the fighting to stop,” he added, speaking to the media. “If the warfare is over, we can get about the business of making sure that we can get sufficient assistance into all areas of the Strip.”   27 Feb. 2024   Update on Food Security Risks in Gaza by Mr. Ramesh Rajasingham, Director of OCHA Coordination Division, to UN Security Council. (OCHA)   Since the start of the current hostilities following the horrific Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, the UN has warned about the potentially deleterious impact on food insecurity in Gaza, particularly for a population already experiencing high levels of structural poverty after 16 years of blockade.   In December, it was projected that the entire population of 2.2 million people in Gaza would face high levels of acute food insecurity by February 2024 – the highest share of people facing this level of food insecurity ever recorded worldwide.   And here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza – one-quarter of the population – one step away from famine; with 1 in 6 children under 2 years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting; and practically the entire population of Gaza left to rely on woefully inadequate humanitarian food assistance to survive. Unfortunately, as grim as the picture we see today, there is every possibility for further deterioration.   Hunger and the risk of famine are exacerbated by factors that go beyond just the availability of food. Inadequate water, sanitation, and health services creates a cycle of vulnerability, where malnourished people – especially among the tens of thousands of people who are injured – become more susceptible to disease that further depletes the body’s nutritional reserves.   A steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip is a particularly grave concern. And add chronic overcrowding, exposure to the cold and an absence of adequate shelter to this lack of nutrition, and you have created the conditions for massive disease epidemics.   With people in Gaza unable to rely on usual sources of food, humanitarian food assistance is now nearly the sole source of subsistence. Yet as we have reported to the Council on numerous occasions, the humanitarian community is facing overwhelming obstacles just to get a bare minimum of supplies into Gaza, let alone mounting the multisectoral response that would be required to avert a famine.   Our efforts continue to be beset by crossing closures, serious movement restrictions, access denials, onerous vetting procedures, incidents involving desperate civilians, protests and a breakdown in law and order, restrictions on communications and protective equipment, and impassable supply routes due to damaged roads and unexploded ordnance..   The White Note submitted to this Council sets out a number of recommendations for action. It includes ensuring respect for international humanitarian law; the resumption of entry of essential food, electricity, fuel and cooking gas, including by the private sector; the protection and restoration of vital infrastructure and services, including cross-border water pipelines, the lifting of restrictions on fishing activity, access to farmland and the entry of agricultural goods; urgently facilitating greater humanitarian access into and within Gaza, including opening up additional crossing points and finally concerted efforts towards ending this conflict altogether.   But without a doubt, at this stage, very little will be possible while hostilities continue and while there is a risk that they will spread into the overcrowded areas of south of Gaza. We therefore reiterate our call for a ceasefire.   If nothing is done, we fear widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable, and the conflict, which since October has claimed the lives of almost 30,000 people, and injured more than 70,000, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, will have many more victims. We put this before the Council as a matter of urgency.   Fears over Gaza catastrophe as brutal conflict enters sixth month. (OHCHR)   We are entering the sixth month of a brutal conflict that has destroyed the lives and homes of countless Palestinians, as well as Israelis. We fear that this already catastrophic situation may slide deeper into the abyss as many Palestinians mark the holy month of Ramadan – a period that is meant to honour peace and tolerance – should Israel launch its threatened military offensive into Rafah, where 1.5 million people have been displaced in deplorable sub-human conditions.   Any ground assault on Rafah would incur massive loss of life and would heighten the risk of further atrocity crimes. This must not be allowed to happen.   The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights repeats that there must be an immediate end to this conflict, and that the killing and destruction must stop.   The hostages, who have now endured over 150 days of suffering and torment, must be released unconditionally and returned to their distraught families.   Israel, as the occupying power, must – we repeat - fully comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law to provide the increasingly desperate civilian population of Gaza with the necessary food and medical supplies, or, if it is unable to do so, ensure that the population has access to critical life-saving humanitarian assistance commensurate with their needs.   Border crossings and corridors must be fully opened and steps must be taken to ensure the free and secure movement of aid convoys to civilians wherever they are located within the Gaza strip if wider starvation and needless suffering are to be averted.   Since 7 October, parties to this conflict have paid little heed to international law that protects human rights and governs the conduct of hostilities. This has been a stain on the collective conscience of humanity. The laws of war are clear and must be respected at all times and in all circumstances. Those who violate them must be held to account.   The High Commissioner reminds all States parties that under Article 1, common to the four Geneva Conventions, they have the obligation to respect and ensure respect for the rules laid down by those Conventions. This obligation includes not only taking all available steps to ensure full compliance by the parties engaged in hostilities, but also means that States must not, through their own policies or actions, facilitate the commission of violations of humanitarian law.   http://actionaid.org/news/2024/gaza-airdrops-and-sea-routes-are-no-alternative-aid-delivery-land http://www.wfp.org/stories/gaza-wfp-forced-pause-food-distributions-north-report-warns-worsening-crisis http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/mr-ramesh-rajasingham-director-ocha-coordination-division-behalf-under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-mr-martin-griffiths-update-food-security-risks-gaza-27-february-2024 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/comment-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk-risk-famine-gaza http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-civilians-gaza-extreme-peril-while-world http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2024/03/fears-over-gaza-catastrophe-brutal-conflict-enters-sixth-month http://www.icrc.org/en/document/statement-gaza-and-israel-president-icrc http://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/starving-gaza   Feb. 2024   Children are bearing the brunt of the horrors in Gaza, by John Lyons. (ABC News)   The most dangerous place in the world to be a child. That devastating description is now being applied to Gaza by UNICEF as the true extent of the catastrophe of this war emerges.   That devastation is leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time – where, for example, a nurse has had to perform emergency caesarean operations on six dead pregnant women to try to save their babies.   The horrors of Gaza are almost unspeakable. As difficult as all this is to read and to watch, it's important the world does not look away.   Rarely, if ever, have so many children been killed, injured or orphaned as quickly as in Gaza right now.   "The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child," says UNICEF's James Elder. "And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced."   UNICEF has compiled a range of statistics from Gaza. It says that a Palestinian child is killed every 15 minutes. Thousands more are missing under rubble. One of every 10 children killed in Gaza did not make their first birthday. More than 1,000 children have lost one or both legs.   Save the Children estimates that more than 10 children a day are losing one or both legs — those having limbs amputated are having it done without anaesthetic.   According to UNICEF, there are now at least 19,000 orphans in Gaza and thousands who have lost one parent.   According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, at least 28,000 Palestinians have been killed — including 11,500 children.   Gaza has more children than almost anywhere else — 47.3 per cent of its population is under 18. The Health Ministry says there are at least 65,636 injured people in Gaza – of which 18,000 are children.   Israel's newspaper Haaretz ran the headline: "11,500 Children Have Been Killed in Gaza. Horror of This Scale Has No Explanation."   Entire neighbourhoods in Gaza have been destroyed. The City University of New York and Oregon State University have examined satellite images that show up to 175,000 of buildings have been destroyed or damaged. That's 61 per cent of all buildings.   The UN estimates that 80 per cent of the population — 1.75 million people — are now without anywhere to live.   Nobody can dispute Israel's right to respond to the October 7 atrocities. Any country would have responded had 1,200 people been tortured and murdered and 240 kidnapped.   But it's the dramatic lack of proportionality of the response that Israel will be asked to answer for in years to come.   News agencies report that between October 7 and December 15 Israel dropped 29,000 bombs on Gaza. Many of those 29,000 were 2,000-pound bombs – which can blow out windows as far as a kilometre way. That means, on average, 79 bombs per square kilometre.   When Vladimir Putin has dropped bombs as large as these on civilians in Ukraine the world branded this war crimes.   Israel insists it has tried to protect civilians by dropping leaflets from jets or sending text messages. But if Israel has tried to avoid civilian deaths then it has seriously failed.   UNICEF'S James Elder said there was now one toilet for every 700 people. In some places, people are defecating in the open.   "Diarrhoea cases in children are above 100,000. Acute respiratory illness cases in civilians are above 150,000. Both numbers will be gross under-counts of the woeful reality," said Elder.   "The Gaza strip has the worst level of malnutrition in the world. With malnutrition soaring among Gaza's children, diarrhoeal diseases are becoming deadly." Aid workers say that 135,000 children under two are now at risk of severe malnutrition. UNICEF says that 1.1 million children are unable to access humanitarian aid.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-rafah-gaza http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-deputy-executive-director-ted-chaiban-upon-conclusion-his-visit http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-risk-famine-gaza-strip http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/barely-drop-drink-children-gaza-strip-do-not-access-90-cent-their-normal-water-use http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1156749/   http://www.wfp.org/stories/gaza-wfp-forced-pause-food-distributions-north-report-warns-worsening-crisis http://www.wfp.org/stories/humanitarian-operations-risk-conflict-strangles-gaza http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/siege-and-starvation-how-israel-obstructs-aid-to-gaza/ http://gisha.org/en/hunger-in-north-gaza-english/ http://www.acaps.org/en/countries/archives/detail/palestine-risk-of-famine-in-pockets-of-the-gaza-strip   http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/catastrophic-hunger-crisis-declared-in-gaza-by-international-food-security-and-nutrition-experts/ http://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases/gaza-deaths-from-hunger http://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/lack-of-food-in-gaza-creating-risk-of-famine http://www.hi-us.org/en/gaza-humanitarian-agencies-respond-to-rafah-developments   12 Jan. 2024   Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator: The war in Gaza must end.   Three months since the horrific 7 October attacks in Israel, Gaza has become a place of death and despair.   Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured. Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.   A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.   For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out.   Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on.   The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent.   Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the specter of further regional spillover of the war is looming dangerously close.   Hope has never been more elusive. Gaza has shown us the worst of humanity, as well as moments of great heroism. We have seen how violence cannot resolve differences, but only inflame passions and build new generations of danger and insecurity.   We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbors, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity.   It is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately.   It is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen. This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end.   http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-tells-security-council-take-urgent-action-end-war-gaza http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-war-gaza-must-end http://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/statement-adele-khodr-unicef-regional-director-middle-east-and-north-africa-1 http://plan-international.org/news/2024/01/24/call-to-stop-arms-transfers-to-israel-palestinian-armed-groups/ http://www.hi-us.org/en/gaza-geneva-conventions-should-be-respected-and-applied http://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-10000-children-killed-nearly-100-days-war http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-we-cannot-abandon-people-gaza http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-funding-cuts-threaten-palestinian-lives-gaza-and-region-say-ngos http://www.icrc.org/en/unga78-annual-statement-ihl   http://www.ohchr.org/en/media-centre/statements-grave-situation-occupied-palestinian-territory-and-israel http://www.btselem.org/press_releses/20240207_israel_based_civil_society_and_human_rights_organizations_call_for_a_ceasefire http://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-kc-ramallah-situation-state-palestine-and-israel http://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-kc-cairo-situation-state-palestine-and-israel http://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule139 http://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1   http://www.ibanet.org/Middle-East-test-for-effectiveness-of-international-law-as-death-toll-mounts http://www.justsecurity.org/90789/israels-rewriting-of-the-law-of-war/ http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/atrocities-present-past-and-future-escalating-crimes-and-consequences-in-israel-and-occupied-palestine/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/09/questions-and-answers-october-2023-hostilities-between-israel-and-palestinian-armed http://www.icct.nl/publication/interview-ben-saul-international-humanitarian-law-context-israel-gaza-crisis   http://www.who.int/europe/news/item/23-10-2023-shock-grief-and-the-challenge-of-healing-israel-health-system-responds-to-the-october-attacks http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142082 http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142012 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67053011 http://www.icrc.org/en/document/israel-and-occupied-territories-icrc-calls-immediate-protection-civilians-after-horrific http://theelders.org/news/2024-we-must-see-long-view-leadership http://www.crisisgroup.org/global/10-conflicts-watch-2024 http://www.un.org/en/situation-in-occupied-palestine-and-israel   Apr. 2024   Shocking increase in children denied aid in conflicts. (UN News)   All warring parties must allow safe, swift and unfettered humanitarian access and protect civilian infrastructure, top UN officials told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.   Painting a grim landscape of the world’s war zones, Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, briefed ambassadors, citing grave concerns, from war-torn Gaza to gang-ravaged Haiti, where famine looms amid rampant violence and displacement.   “Let me be very clear,” she said. “The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain key provisions requiring the facilitation of humanitarian relief to children in need.   “The denial of humanitarian access to children and attacks against humanitarian workers assisting children are also prohibited under international humanitarian law.”   The UN’s engagement with combatants to end and prevent violations against children is critical, she said.   Data gathered for her forthcoming 2024 report shows “we are on target to witness a shocking increase of the incidents of the denial of humanitarian access globally,” she said, adding that “the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law continues to increase.”   “Without compliance by parties to conflict to allow safe, full and unhindered access for the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance, children’s survival, wellbeing and development are in jeopardy, and our calls are mere echoes in this Chamber,” she told the Council.   “We cannot prevent denial of humanitarian access to children unless we understand it and reinforce our capacity to monitor and prevent its occurrence. We must get on with the job.”   Also briefing the Council, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban, said that as conflicts proliferate around the world, grave violations against children continue, including in Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar.   “The denial of humanitarian access is a particularly pervasive, multifaceted and complex grave violation,” he said. “These actions have devastating humanitarian consequences for children.”   Recalling his visit to Gaza in January, he said he witnessed a “staggering decline in conditions of children” amid widespread destruction, a “quasi blockage on the north of Gaza” and repeated denials for or delays in granted access of humanitarian convoys.   “Attacks on humanitarian workers have also gravely affected humanitarian access with the highest UN staff death toll in our history, our UNRWA colleagues in particular, and new attacks this week with the death of our World Central Kitchen colleagues, killing humanitarian workers trying to feed starving people,” Mr. Chaiban said.   As a result of these constraints, children cannot access age-appropriate nutritious food or medical services and have less than two to three litres of water per day, he said.   “The consequences have been clear,” he warned. “In March, we reported that one in three children under two years of age in the northern Gaza Strip suffer from acute malnutrition, a figure that has more than doubled in the last two months.”   Dozens of children in the northern Gaza Strip have reportedly died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks and half the population is facing catastrophic food insecurity, he stressed.   In Sudan, the world’s worst child displacement crisis, the violence and blatant disregard for permission to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance essential to protect children from the impact of conflict in Darfur, in Kordofan, in Khartoum and beyond has greatly intensified their suffering, he said.   “We are seeing record levels of admissions for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) – the deadliest form of malnutrition,” the UN deputy chief explained, “but insecurity is preventing patients and health workers from reaching hospitals and other health facilities.”   Assets and staff are still being attacked, and the health system remains overwhelmed resulting in severe shortage of medicines and supplies, including lifesaving items, due to the severe interruption of the supply management system.   “Our inability to consistently access vulnerable children means protection by presence is simply not possible and that risks of other grave violations may escalate without an attendant rise in our ability to monitor or respond,” he said.   He called on the Security Council to use its influence to prevent and end the denial of humanitarian access to children, protect humanitarian workers and allow aid agencies to safely reach those in most need, across frontlines and across borders.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148221   * UN WebTV: Children and Armed Conflict - Coverage of UN Security Council meeting: Addressing the consequences of the denial of humanitarian access for children: http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1ho967mpv   Feb. 2024   The world is waging war on its children, in an obscene mockery of international law. (Agencies)   Callous disregard for civilian lives and safety is a disturbing feature of modern armed conflict. From Ukraine and Gaza to Sudan and Myanmar, respect for the “laws of war” is being eroded or is non-existent. Non-combatants are deliberately targeted. Most shocking, and unforgivable, is the wanton harm – the UN term is “grave violations” – done to children.   In his latest report on children and conflict, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warned that children “continued to be gravely affected” by war-related violence and abuses. By this, he meant killing and maiming, rape, sexual violence, abductions, school attacks and recruitment of child soldiers. All were on the rise, he said.   Some examples: Myanmar’s civil war brought a 140% increase in grave violations in 2022. In South Sudan, intercommunal violence played havoc with children’s lives. Countries with the highest UN-recorded totals of abuses were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel-Palestine, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen. Guterres’s report was compiled before the Gaza war erupted.   The tsunami of misery makes a mockery of international law, specifically the Geneva conventions. “In all wars, it’s children who suffer first and suffer most,” Unicef says. “Even wars have rules. No child should be cut off from essential services... No child should be held hostage... Hospitals and schools must be protected from bombings… The cost to children will be borne by generations to come.”   In 2022 alone, the United Nations verified 27,180 violations affecting children which were committed in 24 situations and one regional arrangement. The most prevalent violation of 2022 was the killing and maiming of children, while the number of attacks on schools and hospitals showed an unprecedented increase of 112% compared to the previous year. As sobering as the 2022 figures were, they felt pale when contrasted with the dramatic increase in violations against children during 2023.   Armed violence has worryingly increased in many ongoing conflicts including in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, and most recently in Israel and the State of Palestine.   In Sudan, children have been facing intense hostilities since April, and are subjected to raids, and airstrikes by parties to conflict, resulting in shocking accounts of widespread killing and maiming of children and sexual violence against girls, including rape.   Thousands of children in and around Khartoum, the Darfur states, the Blue Nile, and the Kordofan regions are disproportionately affected by the actions of armed forces and armed groups. Parties to conflict in Sudan must prioritize a cessation of hostilities and a return to peace if children are to be spared further suffering.   Children in the Sahel and Lake Chad basin continue to be victims of armed conflict. Children are raped, abducted, and recruited by armed forces and armed groups, particularly girls, while schools and hospitals are attacked and destroyed. In Haiti, armed groups and gangs are increasingly targeting children and committing all six grave violations against children in doing so.   The use of explosive ordnance, including improvised explosive devices, landmines, and explosive remnants of war, continues to be one of the main causes of child casualties, particularly when used in densely populated areas. Those weapons fiercely and indiscriminately target children in many countries around the world. The situation for children remains very dire particularly due to the impact of explosive ordnance, in Colombia, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Ukraine.   Russia’s illegal abduction of thousands of children after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine is another way of waging war on the most vulnerable. Kyiv has documented almost 20,000 cases out of a possible 200,000. They form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, by the international criminal court.   “Russia is actively erasing their Ukrainian identity and inflicting unbelievable emotional and psychological damage,” Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkevics, told a conference devoted to “Russia’s war on children” in Riga this month.   Less watched conflicts and emergencies are equally destructive of children’s lives. Last week saw belated focus on the crisis gripping drought-stricken northern Ethiopia following the war in Tigray. More than 3 million people there face acute hunger. Younger children and babies are most at risk in a country where 45% of the 126m-strong population is aged under 15   “Veterans of relief operations are comparing the crisis to the situation in 1984, when a combination of drought and war caused a famine that killed up to a million people,” wrote regional expert Alex de Waal. “The UN estimates that more than 20 million Ethiopians are in need of food aid.”   The forcible recruitment of children by armed groups, terrorists and criminal gangs is another global growth area. The UN says more than 105,000 children, boys and girls, were involved in violent conflicts between 2005 and 2022, although the actual figure is probably much higher. Child soldiers are not only made to fight. They are also used as guards, lookouts and couriers, and are exploited sexually.   In Myanmar, Burkina Faso and Mali, attacks on schools and hospitals are increasing, the UN says. Denial of humanitarian access is another lethal problem. And so it goes on. A world war on children? How did it come to this?   http://www.unicef.org/children-under-attack http://www.unicef.org/topics/humanitarian-action-and-emergencies http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/stop-the-war-on-children-let-children-live-in-peace/ http://data.stopwaronchildren.org http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2023/11/nothing-to-celebrate-on-worlds-childrens-day http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/11/end-killing-children-armed-conflict-un-committee-urges http://alliancecpha.org/en/TheUnprotected2023 http://blogs.prio.org/2023/12/more-and-more-children-at-risk-of-conflict/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/02/imperative-protect-children-war/ http://watchlist.org/resources/advocacy-resources/   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/grave-violations-against-children-must-stop-statement-save-children-ceo-inger-ashing http://medvind.arkon.no/1824624/9065535.html http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/children-and-armed-conflict-report-secretary-general-a77895-s2023363-enarruzh http://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/protected-persons/civilians http://www.icrc.org/en/document/we-can-elevate-protection-of-children-in-armed-conflict-as-political-priority http://www.msf.org/war-and-conflict http://www.msf.org/war-and-conflict-depth http://protectingeducation.org/ http://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/ongoing-emergencies http://www.acaps.org/en/thematics/all-topics/humanitarian-access http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/en/ Visit the related web page
	For Sudan’s people, 2023 was a year of suffering by OCHA, UNICEF, WFP, agencies   19 Feb. 2024   In the deafening silence of global indifference, the war in Sudan recently entered its 10-month mark.   Since April 2023, close to 8 million people have fled their homes, of whom more than 1.6 million have sought refuge in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic – countries already grappling with immense difficulties.   Close to 25 million people need humanitarian assistance, including around 5 million people on the brink of famine and nearly 7 million children who are severely undernourished. Mass graves conceal evidence of widespread, systematic, and targeted mass atrocities that could be repeated at any moment as the conflict further expands.   Yet despite all of this, Sudan remains seemingly invisible to the global community.   The UN Security Council, other key multilateral institutions like the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and states with influence over the warring parties have failed to stop the violence.   And while the UN Security Council does little beyond condemn attacks on civilians and call for access to humanitarian assistance, regional efforts to resolve the crisis have been grindingly slow and too tepid.   As a result, commitments from the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance remain unfulfilled. Those with influence over the warring parties have echoed hollow calls for ceasefires and looked away as cumbersome bureaucratic requirements hinder our aid efforts.   A worsening crisis   Their lives turned upside down, Sudanese civilians have shown extraordinary strength. They have forged local mutual aid networks, channelling tireless efforts into collecting food, cash, and medicine to aid those in dire need. They have demonstrated that assisting Sudan's most impacted regions is difficult but far from impossible. Yet despite these efforts, the humanitarian situation is still worsening.   Sudan now has the grim honour of being the world’s largest child displacement crisis, with more than 3 million children – from a population of about 23 million children – displaced by violence since mid-April last year.   Today, fighting has engulfed more than half of the country. The capital Khartoum is now a ghost city, haunted by the smell of decaying bodies left in the streets. The normally quiet neighbourhoods have become battlefields, where homes, hospitals, schools, and markets have been bombed, looted, and occupied. In southern Sudan, the towns of Kordofan are strangled as fighting has cut supply lines and roads.   In December, Al-Jazirah state, once the country’s breadbasket, witnessed intense fighting leading to a new wave of displacement, as more than half of a million people fled their homes in search of safety. The state had recently become a hub for humanitarian operations, including our own, and fighting has forced us to relocate our staff and pause our operations in the state.   Further west, in Darfur, ethnicity has determined life or death. The generation born during the 2003-2005 genocide has followed their parents' desperate exodus. More than 600,000 people have now fled into neighbouring Chad; thousands never made it, having been executed in their homes or on the way.   At the end of February, the UN Security Council will close its political mission to Sudan, at a time when its responsibility to the country’s population is greater than ever.   To allow humanitarian organisations to reach the Sudanese people, we need the UN Security Council to demand unfettered humanitarian access across Sudan. The Council should act to pass a Resolution calling for all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, including the duty to protect civilians and the critical infrastructure they rely upon. This includes taking all feasible precautions to prevent grave violations against children and any forms of sexual and gender-based violence. The UN Security Council cannot continue to ignore its responsibility to protect civilians.   To those who have been left wounded, homeless, starving, bereft and robbed of their future, the UN Security Council, the African Union, IGAD, and regional partners must stand together and show that they will no longer stand idly by while rampant and egregious violations of international law are committed. It is time for disparate and at times competing diplomatic initiatives to become more coordinated and coherent.   Parties to the conflict must be held accountable for their commitments, and all actors must call out any continued targeting of civilians and arbitrary denials of humanitarian access. Perpetrators of all violations cannot be allowed to operate with impunity. The people of Sudan have been left to suffer in silence. More than 10 months on, it is past time that the bravery of the Sudanese people is matched by the concrete actions of the international community.   * David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee; Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International; Jan Egeland, Secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council; Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council; Michelle Nunn, President and CEO – CARE USA; Stephen Omollo, CEO of Plan International   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/sudan-nearly-230000-children-and-new-mothers-likely-die-hunger-without-critical-action-save http://www.wfp.org/news/sudans-war-risks-creating-worlds-largest-hunger-crisis-warns-wfp-chief http://www.care-international.org/news/ten-months-turmoil-sudan-children-battling-malnutrition-conflict-rages http://www.wfp.org/stories/sudans-war-rages-fallout-spreads-nearby-countries http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/sudan-un-committee-urges-end-ethnic-violence-and-hate-speech-calls-immediate http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/03/high-commissioner-outlines-insidious-disregard-human-life-sudan http://www.msf.org/after-year-war-sudan-rapid-scale-response-needed http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2024/04/15/mutual-aid-mass-displacement-how-we-chronicled-year-conflict-sudan   2 Feb. 2024   WFP calls for urgent, safe access to feed millions in Sudan as fighting rages across the country   The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) urgently calls on Sudan’s warring parties to provide immediate guarantees for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian food assistance to conflict-hit parts of Sudan, especially across conflict lines where hungry displaced civilians are trapped and cut-off from life-saving humanitarian assistance.   The situation in Sudan is dire. Despite WFP's efforts to provide food assistance to millions of people across the country since the war broke out, almost 18 million individuals across the country are currently facing acute hunger (IPC3+).   WFP has repeatedly warned of a looming hunger catastrophe in Sudan and people must be able to access aid immediately to prevent a crisis from becoming a catastrophe.   Shockingly, the number of hungry has more than doubled from a year ago, and an estimated five million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC phase 4) due to conflict in areas such as Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan.   WFP is the logistics backbone of the humanitarian response in Sudan and has ramped up lifesaving assistance in response to the deepening crisis, assisting over 6.5 million people since the war broke out. To reach families in Darfur, WFP established a cross-border route from Chad, through which over 1 million people have received food assistance. Other agencies have also used the route to deliver other much needed support.   However, WFP is currently only able to regularly deliver food assistance to 1 in 10 people facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC phase 4) in Sudan. These people are trapped in conflict hotspots, including Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, and Gezira, and for assistance to reach them humanitarian convoys must be allowed to cross the frontlines.   Yet it is becoming nearly impossible for aid agencies to cross due to security threats, enforced roadblocks, and demands for fees and taxation.   “The situation in Sudan today is nothing short of catastrophic. Millions of people are impacted by the conflict. WFP has food in Sudan, but lack of humanitarian access and other unnecessary hurdles are slowing operations and preventing us from getting vital aid to the people who most urgently need our support,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP Sudan Representative and Country Director in Sudan.   A vital humanitarian hub in Gezira state – which previously supported over 800,000 people a month - was engulfed by fighting in December. WFP needs to obtain security guarantees to resume operations in the area to reach vulnerable families who are trapped and in urgent need of food assistance.   Over half a million people fled Gezira in December. For many it was the second or third time they have been displaced in this conflict, which has sparked the world's largest displacement crisis. But just 40,000 of the newly displaced have so far received WFP assistance because 70 trucks - carrying enough food to feed half a million people for one month – were stuck in Port Sudan for over two weeks in January waiting for clearances, which were only secured last week.   Another 31 WFP trucks, which should have been making regular aid deliveries to the Kordofans, Kosti and Wad Madani, have been parked empty and have been unable to leave El Obeid for over three months.   “Every single one our trucks need to be on the road each and every day delivering food to the Sudanese people, who are traumatised and overwhelmed after over nine months of horrifying conflict. Yet life-saving assistance is not reaching those who need it the most, and we are already receiving reports of people dying of starvation,” said Rowe.   “Both parties to this gruesome conflict must look beyond the battlefield and allow aid organisations operate. For that, we need the uninhibited freedom of movement, including across conflict lines, to help people who so desperately need it right now, regardless of where they are,” he warned.   http://www.wfp.org/news/sudan-crisis-sends-shockwaves-around-region-displacement-hunger-and-malnutrition-soar http://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/numbers-children-seek-life-saving-care-sudan-war-drives-worlds-worst-displacement-crisis http://www.emro.who.int/sdn/sudan-news/urgent-action-needed-to-reach-the-most-vulnerable-in-sudan-with-life-saving-health-services.html http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/sudan-25-million-people-dire-humanitarian-need-say-un-experts http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/sudan-internet-shutdown-threatens-delivery-of-humanitarian-and-emergency-services/   4 Jan. 2023   For Sudan’s people, 2023 was a year of suffering, by Martin Griffiths - UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA)   Nearly nine months of war have tipped Sudan into a downward spiral that only grows more ruinous by the day. As the conflict spreads, human suffering is deepening, humanitarian access is shrinking, and hope is dwindling. This cannot continue.   2024 demands that the international community – particularly those with influence on the parties to the conflict in Sudan – take decisive and immediate action to stop the fighting and safeguard humanitarian operations meant to help millions of civilians.   Now that hostilities have reached the country’s breadbasket in Aj Jazirah State, there is even more at stake. More than 500,000 people have fled fighting in and around the state capital Wad Medani, long a place of refuge for those uprooted by clashes elsewhere. Ongoing mass displacement could also fuel the rapid spread of a cholera outbreak in the state, with more than 1,800 suspected cases reported there so far.   The same horrific abuses that have defined this war in other hotspots – Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan – are now being reported in Wad Medani. Accounts of widespread human rights violations, including sexual violence, remind us that the parties to this conflict are still failing to uphold their commitments to protect civilians.   There are also serious concerns about the parties’ compliance with international humanitarian law. Given Wad Medani’s significance as a hub for relief operations, the fighting there – and looting of humanitarian warehouses and supplies – is a body blow to our efforts to deliver food, water, health care and other critical aid. Once again, I strongly condemn the looting of humanitarian supplies, which undermines our ability to save lives.   Across Sudan, nearly 25 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2024. But the bleak reality is that intensifying hostilities are putting most of them beyond our reach. Deliveries across conflict lines have ground to a halt. And though the cross-border aid operation from Chad continues to serve as a lifeline for people in Darfur, efforts to deliver elsewhere are increasingly under threat.   The escalating violence in Sudan is also imperiling regional stability. The war has unleashed the world’s largest displacement crisis, uprootng the lives of more than 7 million people, some 1.4 million of whom have crossed into neighbouring countries already housing large refugee populations.   For Sudan’s people, 2023 was a year of suffering. In 2024, the parties to the conflict must do three things to end it: Protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian access, and stop the fighting – immediately.   21 Dec. 2023   Almost 3 million children in Sudan’s Al Jazirah state at risk as violence escalates. (UNICEF)   The escalation in fighting in Sudan’s Al Jazirah state has reportedly forced at least 150,000 children from their homes in less than a week, UNICEF warned today. The eruption of fighting in Al Jazirah means that more than half of states in Sudan – 10 out of 18 – are experiencing active conflict.   An estimated 5.9 million people live in Al Jazirah State, with approximately half of the population being children.   Since the escalation of the conflict in Sudan on April 15, nearly 500,000 people fled violence elsewhere in the country to Al Jazirah State, with almost 90,000 of those seeking refuge in the state capital Wad Madani.   “Tens of thousands of vulnerable children in Al Jazirah state have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety as fighting erupts into areas that were previously considered relatively safe,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This new wave of violence could leave children and families trapped between fighting lines or caught in the crossfire, with fatal consequences. With reports of renewed fighting elsewhere in the country, millions of children in Sudan are once again at grave risk.”   Across Sudan, over 14 million children are in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support, the highest number ever recorded in the country. The war in Sudan has resulted in the largest child displacement crisis in the World. Close to 3.5 million children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the fighting.   The impact of escalating violence - more than half of states in Sudan, 10 out of 18, are now experiencing active conflict - continues to threaten the lives and futures of families and children, leaving basic health and nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, and protection services cut off with frontline workers going without pay and many facilities closed, damaged, or destroyed.   UNICEF continues to call for an immediate ceasefire across Sudan, and reiterates its call for all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian and human rights law – including ensuring that children are protected – and that rapid, safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to children and families in affected areas is facilitated. Without such access, critical lifesaving humanitarian support will be out of reach for millions of vulnerable children.   http://reliefweb.int/country/sdn http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2024/01/89755/sudan-war-living-nightmare-children-unicef-representative http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/almost-3-million-children-sudans-al-jazirah-state-risk-violence-escalates http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-humanitarian-response-crippled-wad-madani-aid-hub-and-home-700000-people-overtaken http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-warns-hunger-catastrophe-looms-conflict-hit-sudan-without-urgent-food-assistance http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-92/en/   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/least-5-million-children-brink-darfur-unchecked-conflict-worsens http://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/over-200-days-war-leaves-generation-children-sudan-brink http://www.savethechildren.net/news/sudan-about-7600-children-fleeing-homes-daily-world-s-largest-child-displacement-crisis http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unimaginable-humanitarian-crisis-unfolding-sudan http://www.iom.int/news/iom-chief-international-community-must-not-turn-its-back-worlds-largest-displacement-sudan http://www.msf.org/sudan-urgent-response-needed-amid-high-death-rates-and-malnutrition-crisis-north-darfur http://www.msf.org/conflict-sudan http://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases/sudan-breadbasket-to-battlefield http://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/publications/score-report-sudan-2023 http://reports.unocha.org/en/country/sudan/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories