This is the NIB from the United Nations.
Thousands flee into Niger, following violent attacks in Nigeria
An upsurge in violence in areas of north-west Nigeria beyond the reach of humanitarians has forced thousands of people to flee to neighbouring Niger, UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
Warning that some 20,000 people have been uprooted from their homes since April in Nigeria’s Sokoto and Zamfara states, the agency’s Babar Baloch told journalists in Geneva that UNHCR is working with authorities in Niger to help the new arrivals.
He described clashes between farmers and herders of different ethnic groups, vigilantism, as well as kidnappings for ransom.
“People leaving Nigeria, and arriving in Niger’s north-eastern Maradi Region, speak of witnessing extreme violence unleashed against civilians, including machete attacks, kidnappings and sexual violence. The majority of the recent arrivals are women and children."
According to UNHCR, the development “is not linked” to ongoing insecurity and attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram that have spilled over into Niger’s southerly Diffa region since 2015, causing a record number of civilian casualties and “unprecedented” displacement.
Today, Niger hosts more than 380,000 refugees and asylum seekers from Mali and Nigeria, in addition to its own internally displaced population.
North Korea traps people in deprivation, corruption, repression and bribery – OHCHR
Bribery is the main way people in North Korea get food, healthcare, shelter and work, a UN human rights office report said on Tuesday.
Based on more than 200 first-hand accounts of escapees from the country, which is officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the report says that the State-run public distribution system collapsed in the mid-1990s, forcing people to work in informal markets, where they have to bribe officials to avoid arrest.
It also highlights “a ppalling” levels of hunger that affects around 10.9 million people – that’s more than 43 per cent of the population – with north-eastern and rural provinces worst-affected.
The report also details how huge resources have been diverted to increasing DPRK’s military capacity and maintaining a huge standing army, which has kept one million young men and women from the workplace.
Among the report’s suggested reforms are a review of the criminal code to end prosecutions for engaging in legitimate market activities, and respect for freedom of movement across the country’s borders - and even inside DPRK.
Anti-Semitism spread is not isolated, warns UN human rights office
And staying with the UN human rights office, it has condemned the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and the United States, and called on governments to “redouble their efforts” to protect people from incitement to hatred and violence.
The statement from OHCHR follows “a significant increase” of anti-Semitism in Germany, where Jews in some areas have been advised not to wear traditional dress, to avoid drawing attention to their race and religion.
In Austria, pictures of Holocaust survivors displayed in a street exhibition have also been vandalised “not once, but three times”, the human rights office said.
Initially, swastikas were daubed on the survivors’ faces, before large sections of the prints were then cut out at the weekend.
Most disturbing of all are acts of physical violence against Jews which have also increased in a number of countries in recent years, OHCHR said, noting a “particularly sharp” rise in Germany and France.
But it warns that the worst incidents have been in the United States, where 11 people were killed during an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, and where in April, a woman was killed and three others injured in another attack on a synagogue in California.
Under international law, people are entitled to legal protection from incitement to hatred and violence, OHCHR said, noting that freedom of expression restrictions were permissible “when abuse rises to the level of incitement”.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
