This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine; food and energy crisis: Countries must resist hoarding, says UN’s Guterres

As the war in Ukraine continues to impact on global food and energy costs, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued an appeal on Wednesday to countries to “resist hoarding”.

The UN chief’s call comes nearly seven weeks since the Russian invasion, which has pushed up the cost of food imports for countries in the most vulnerable regions of the world.

“One point seven billion people…are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger,” the Secretary-General said, at the launch of the first report by the UN’s Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance.

Oil prices have risen by more than 60 per cent in the past year, natural gas prices have shot up by 50 per cent in recent months, and the cost of fertilizer has more than doubled, said Mr. Guterres, who also warned that rising inflation has contributed to many developing countries “drowning in debt”.

Solutions to this crisis include lifting all unnecessary import restrictions on food and energy, directing surpluses to countries who need them most and stopping food price volatility, the UN chief said.

On the energy crisis, Mr. Guterres urged countries to release strategic reserves, but also phases out fossil fuels and focus on a just transition to renewable energy.

Developing countries must also be helped back from the brink, he insisted, in an appeal to the international financial system to make funds available to them, ahead of meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Banditry in north-central Nigeria blamed for killings, displacement

Attacks on villages in Nigeria’s central Plateau state that reportedly left more than 150 people dead have contributed to widespread displacement in the region, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.

According to the UN migration agency, IOM, “armed clashes and banditry” in north-central and northwest zones lasting several days earlier this month have caused “new waves” of people forced to flee their homes.

Field staff have conducted rapid needs assessments and a targeted response is under way, said IOM, these latest attacks coming after outlaws attacked a train late last month, kidnapping passengers.

Egypt in spotlight for ‘ongoing collective expulsions of Eritrean asylum seekers

To Egypt where top rights experts have spoken out against collective expulsions of Eritrean asylum seekers, including children.

“Several of those deported have not been seen or heard from since their return to Eritrea, and are believed to be held in incommunicado detention,” the UN-appointed independent experts said.

In an appeal to the authorities to immediately halt any further forced returns, the rights experts said that such deportations violate Egypt’s obligations under international law.

“Collective expulsion is prohibited under international human rights law,” they said, adding that Eritreans who have been forcibly returned to Asmara faced torture and enforced disappearance, among other rights abuses that “have been well documented by UN human rights mechanisms”.

Such expulsions also violate the legal principle of non-refoulement of vulnerable people from one country to another, the experts continued.

Since October 2021, at least 68 Eritrean nationals have been deported from Egypt, it is believed.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.