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News in Brief 25 March 2022

News in Brief 25 March 2022

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

UN alarm over mounting casualties in Ukraine, desperate scenes in Mariupol

Ongoing violence in Ukraine has left millions of people “in constant fear” of indiscriminate shelling, the UN warned on Friday, as efforts continued to push for access to the country’s most vulnerable populations.

One month since the Russian invasion, 13 million people are estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave Ukraine, including in the devastated port city of Mariupol.

Karolina Lindholm Billing, UN refugee agency Representative in Ukraine, said that civilians faced dangers including destroyed bridges and roads, as well as a lack of resources and information about where to find shelter:

“In eastern Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk oblast, as well as in the south, Kherson and Kiev…they are blocked in these areas that are encircled or where the roads are now inaccessible, due to mines and, for example, burnt-out vehicles. This has been one of the reasons why it's so difficult to get to Mariupol.”

Since February, the UN and partners have delivered over 2,700 tonnes of food and medical supplies to Ukraine, and more than 1,100 tonnes of water, sanitation and hygiene items.

All the while, the civilian death toll continues to rise, and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said that “the overwhelming damage and destruction” so far, has been caused by explosive weapons with wide impact areas which are being used “on a daily basis… in populated areas”.

Guterres welcomes Tigray humanitarian ceasefire

Addis Ababa’s announcement of a ceasefire in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Thursday has been welcomed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, amid deep concern for the five million people who need emergency food aid there.

The development came as Tigrayan forces on Friday said that they would respect the truce, urging unfettered aid deliveries to the northern region, which last received assistance in December.

Mr. Guterres said that he hoped the truce “will translate into an effective cessation of hostilities, respected by all parties in this conflict, to allow for effective humanitarian access for all who need it”, his spokesperson said.

Civil war erupted in Tigray in November 2020 between federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

All parties to the conflict are responsible for multiple grave rights abuses, according to UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

Libya: Civil society activists tortured, harassed and intimidated

To Libya finally, where civil rights defenders and others have been forced to confess to supposedly anti-Libyan values including supporting feminism and atheism, according to the UN rights office, OHCHR.

In an alert, on Friday, spokesperson Liz Throssell expressed concern at the deepening repression of civil society in Libya, involving torture and harassment, off and online.

She said that arbitrary arrests by internal security agents and state-affiliated armed groups had taken place, targeting human rights defenders and civil society actors, under the pretence of protecting “Libyan and Islamic values”:

“Seven men, aged between 19 and 29, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Internal Security Agency, in Tripoli between November 2021 and March 2022. The ISA has since posted videos of the seven men on Facebook, in which they seemingly confess to being “atheist, areligious, secular and feminist”, and to using social media to propagate atheism and contempt for religion.”

A series of Facebook videos have also sparked a wave of hate speech against human rights defenders, the UN rights office said, noting that the names of activists have been circulated online, with calls to prosecute them and put them to death if they are found guilty.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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  • Tigray truce welcomed but must lead to aid deliveries: Guterres
  • Ukraine war: UN aid teams push to reach most vulnerable
  • Libya's civil rights crackdown having 'chilling effect': OHCHR

 

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Daniel Johnson, UN News - Geneva
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3'29"
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© UNICEF/Esiey Leul