This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: increasing food security threats from Kakhovka dam disaster

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine will likely impact food security severely, as thousands of hectares of agricultural land have now been flooded.

Recently planted crops have been destroyed, and authorities said that the disaster has decimated irrigation systems in the Dnipro, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. 

According to FAO, already before the disaster, one rural household in every four in the country had reduced or stopped agricultural production altogether due to the war. That number rose to more than one in three in the districts along the frontline.

The agency says that while agriculture is a key source of income for some 30 per cent of the country’s population, around 90 per cent of agricultural businesses have lost revenue since Russia’s full-scale invasion and 12 per cent reported farmland contaminated with mines. Threats from landmines are particularly significant in the Kherson region, now hard hit by the floodwaters.

Meanwhile, the UN and partners have been working non-stop to provide assistance to affected communities, distributing ready-to-eat food, 12,000 bottles of water, over 1,700 kits with essential supplies for children on the move and 10,000 water purification tablets to five municipalities in Kherson and in the city of Mykolaiv, which hosts many of the displaced. 

Bangladesh must suspend plans to return Rohingya refugees to Myanmar

Bangladesh must “immediately suspend” a pilot repatriation project for Rohingya refugees to return to Myanmar, where they face “serious risks” to their lives and freedom, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Thursday.

Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, insisted that current conditions there were “anything but conducive” for the return of Rohingya refugees.

He stressed that the very generals who had launched “genocidal” attacks against the Rohingya, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the country, were now in power and “attacking civilian populations while denying the Rohingya citizenship and other basic rights”.

According to Mr. Andrews’ statement, Bangladesh officials have been planning to send back to Myanmar, potentially very soon, an initial group of 1,140 Rohingya refugees, using a combination of threats and financial rewards.

The returnees would reportedly pass through “transit” centres in Rakhine state before being resettled in a “designated area of 15 newly constructed villages” which they will “not be allowed to leave freely”.

“The return of Rohingya refugees under these conditions would likely violate Bangladesh’s obligations under international law and expose Rohingya to gross human rights violations and, potentially, future atrocity crimes,” Mr. Andrews said.

Haiti: Gang violence displaced 165,000 people

More than 165,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti due to gang violence, just as the country’s population faces extreme hardship because of flooding and an earthquake earlier in the week, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Thursday.

People are fleeing their homes because of gang attacks, lynchings by vigilantes, kidnappings and gender-based violence, IOM said. According to the UN office in Haiti, more than 1,630 people were killed, wounded or kidnapped during the first three months of 2023, a 30 per cent increase compared to the previous quarter. 

Despite the challenges, IOM and its partners continue to deliver humanitarian assistance, including shelter, personal hygiene items, solar lamps, kitchen sets and other essential articles, as well as protection measures for the displaced.

The agency also warned that with the start of the cyclone season at the beginning of June, over 46,000 people were affected by torrential rains and flooding, which displaced over 13,000 others. A 4.9 magnitude earthquake on 6 June further compounded the humanitarian situation. 

Nearly half of Haiti’s population, or some 5.2 million people, need aid, while the Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti is only 20 per cent funded. 

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.