Interviews

In 2010 a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, reportedly killing up to  220’000 people, including 102 UN personnel. One of those who survived was Sophie Boutaud de la Combe: head of Communications for the UN Mission for Justice in Haiti (MINUJUSTH).

Saturday marks 9 years since the earthquake, a chance for Ms. Boutaud de la Combe to share with UN News her memories of 12 January 2010, and reflect on Haiti’s current ability to withstand disasters.

In Lebanon, the plight of Syria’s 900,000  registered refugees just got a little worse, with the arrival of Storm Norma, which brought heavy winds and snow across the country last weekend.  In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Philippe Lazzarini, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, explained what the organization is doing to help.

Securing access to thousands of people affected by fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state is a priority for the United Nations, the organization’s top relief official in the country told UN News on Wednesday.

Amid clashes between Arakan Army separatists and the Myanmar military - which is sending more troops to the area - Acting Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar, Knut Ostby, told Daniel Johnson that there could be a “quite immediate escalation” of the situation, before calling for all sides “to find a peaceful solution” to the crisis.

“The longer we wait for the substantial reduction of emissions, the more carbon dioxide we need to remove from the atmosphere, said Jonas Pasztor, Executive Director for the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2), adding that if the world doesn’t act fast, the process will be not only “more challenging, but also more expensive”.

Mr. Pasztor highlighted the fact that the world reached a point where the reduction of emissions is no longer sufficient.

“Agriculture is the backbone of the African economy”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and combined with the challenges of a growing population, the organization is now joining forces with the African Union to develop a way of mechanizing farming throughout the continent in a sustainable way.

More than 75 percent of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use only hand tools, and with “zero hunger” the target by 2025, the UN African Union has pledged to banish the hand hoe.

It’s a little-known fact that soldiers from every African country took part in the First World War, which ended exactly 100 years ago last month.

To remember them – and those from even further afield who also made a major contribution – an exhibition at the UN in Geneva hosted by the Mission of Belgium has provided a fascinating insight into their experiences on the front line in Northern Europe from 1914-18.

Since late August 2017, more than 725,000 mainly-Muslim Rohingya have left Rakhine state, across the border into southern Bangladesh, fleeing widespread and systematic ethnic violence.

But they left behind at home a ‘vast land not being cultivated’, with an estimated 70% reduction in agricultural production just in Maungdaw District alone, said the UN Development Programme’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Haoliang Xu, in a recent interview with UN News.

2018 has been “terrifying” for Yemenis, who have suffered from a conflict characterised by indiscriminate military attacks, and the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Food insecurity has become a major issue in Gaza and the West Bank, not because food is hard to find, but because hard-pressed families cannot afford to buy it.

That’s according to Stephen Kearney, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Representative and WFP Country Director in Palestine.

The message is simple: better data saves lives.

At the highest levels of the UN, it is understood that digital tools play a crucial role in ensuring that aid gets to the people who need it most.