This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
UN humanitarian chief ends Ethiopian mission amidst ‘heart-breaking’ devastation
New Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths ended his mission in Ethiopia on Tuesday evening, with a new push to get more badly needed food and other supplies into Tigray.
The conflict, which erupted in the northern region nine months ago, has also spilled into neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, where humanitarian needs are also increasing.
“We need to change the circumstances that have led to the slow movement of aid – we need the conflict to stop”, said Mr. Griffiths, who met the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the dire humanitarian situation.
As part of his first official mission since he assumed office in mid-July, Mr. Griffiths also spent two days in the Tigray region, where he said, “the scale of devastation and families who, to this day, do not have a place to live or food to put on their table”, was ‘heart-breaking’ to see.
COVID-19 data shows global rise for more than a month
COVID-19 infections have continued to rise globally for more than a month now, with more than four million cases reported in the past week, the UN health agency, the WHO said on Wednesday.
In its latest update, the World Health Organization attributed the uptick to “substantial” increases in the Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean, where coronavirus fatalities were also up 48 and 31 per cent, respectively.
Overall, the number of total reported cases is around 197 million and there have been 4.2 million deaths worldwide.
By country, the highest numbers of new cases in the past week were reported in the United States, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Iran.
The Delta variant has been confirmed in three new countries, compared with last week, bringing the total to 135 nations, while Alpha variant infections have been reported in 182 countries.
UN report calls for urgent end to rights abuses in Central African Republic
A UN report covering the human rights situation over the past year in the Central African Republic has called for an urgent end to mounting abuses and violations.
The document, published on Wednesday, covers the period from July 2020 to June 2021, which includes the presidential poll in December 2020 and the legislative elections in December 2020 and March and May 2021.
During this time, armed groups carried out a violent bid to disrupt the elections and in response the country’s defense and security forces launched military operations to retake the territory from them.
The joint report by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) documented 526 incidents of abuses and violations of human rights.
This affected over 1,000 victims, including 144 civilians or those out of combat who were killed by the parties to the conflict.
The coalition of armed groups known as the CPC was responsible for over half of the documented incidents.
The Central African Armed Forces, Internal Security Forces (FSI) and other security personnel, including Russian military instructors, were responsible for 46 per cent of the confirmed incidents.
Katy Dartford, UN News.
