Syria’s rebels start forming government, restore order after Assad ouster as UN Security Council meets
With the mood in Damascus still celebratory, Assad’s prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, on Monday agreed to hand power to the rebel-led Salvation Government, an administration based in rebel-held territory in northwest Syria.
‘This is stupidity’: Centralising WHO, giving it control of global health amounts to giving Big Pharma free reign over our lives
The evidence (for example, here and here) points to the fact that regional approaches, grounded in local contexts and community empowerment, offer a much more promising path toward a healthier future for a lot more people.
Police officers in Haiti UN peacekeeping mission have been paid salaries, no resignations, says inspector-general
While some Haitians welcome them, others view the force with caution, given that the previous intervention – the UN’s 2004-2017 peacekeeping mission – was marred by allegations of sexual assault and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people.
Feeling cheated and abused by US and own government, Kenyan police in Haiti resign over pay delays
National police chief Douglas Kanja addressed reports in Kenyan media of pay delays at a news conference on Wednesday, saying the officers had been paid “up to the end of October”. The three officers disputed this, saying they were last paid in September.
Redesigned AU conflict intervention force suits African needs but requires funding
Inevitably money is the key issue. The last large AU missions, launched in Mali in 2013 and the Central African Republic in 2014, were quickly passed wholesale to the UN. The AU’s Peace Fund – moribund for years – only recently reached its $400 million target (actually surpassing it by $208 million following a pledge in July by the African Export-Import Bank). But to put that figure in perspective, AMISOM is estimated to have cost $1.2 billion a year.
Irony of UN missions: UN deploys where there’s peace to keep, while African-led PSOs deploy where there’s no peace at all
Eighteen years on, al-Shabab remains a potent presence in Somalia’s south-central countryside. AMISOM found itself hamstrung by inconsistent financing, shortages of equipment, poor coordination and the complexity of Somalia’s domestic politics.
UN: Violence against women is a global crisis with Africa topping world with over 21,700 murders in 2023
In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico’s political agenda. Keeping the issue of femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls.
‘While donor countries often respond sluggishly to warnings of food crisis, combatants close borders and make it difficult to deliver aid’
The first famine the IPC identified – in 2011 in Somalia – illustrates the devastating toll when aid arrives too late. Drought and armed conflict among militant groups fighting for control of the country’s south led to mass displacement and dire food shortages from 2010 through 2012. IPC analyses repeatedly warned of an imminent risk of famine.
Report: Governments or ruling factions manipulate data to exclude evidence of famine, delay famine warning
In Gaza, the conflict has imperilled the data collectors themselves, who often are aid workers. At least 337 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli operation began, the most ever in a single crisis, according to the UN.
Report: Famine catastrophes result from governments fear of international stigma and political blowback at home for failing to feed own people
Martin Griffiths, who stepped down as UN humanitarian relief chief in June, said shortages of data, money and access to areas where people are starving has created a situation in which “your hands are tied behind your back from the beginning.”
