This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Northeastern Nigeria: malnourished children fighting for their lives

Millions are facing hunger and children’s lives are on the line in northeastern Nigeria amid a protracted conflict, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in the country Matthias Schmale said that severe hunger affects 4.3 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The number of children under five at risk of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition has doubled in one year to reach 700,000.

Here’s Mr. Schmale describing what he saw in the region:

“I have been to Borno and the other two states several times, I’ve seen mothers fighting for lives of their malnourished children in nutrition stabilization centres. I’ve spoken to children who have been talking about being hungry for days. Those of us who are parents must imagine what it’s like when you cannot ensure your children have enough to eat.”

The “catastrophic” situation is primarily the result of more than a decade of insecurity linked to non-state armed groups, which prevents people from farming and earning income from the land, Mr. Schmale said.

Climate change and soaring prices of food, fuel and fertilizers have exacerbated the crisis, and the response remains severely underfunded. The UN official said that out of the $1.3 billion in humanitarian funding needed for the region, only 25 per cent has been secured so far. 

Top rights expert proposes legal status for millions displaced by climate change

The number of people who’ve had to flee their homes because of the effects of climate change is rapidly increasing – but those who cross borders do not benefit from any legal protection.

That’s the message from the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, Ian Fry, who told the Human Rights Council on Tuesday that in 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events, mainly drought. He warned that those people suffer from violations of their rights to food, water, sanitation, housing, health, education and, for some, their right to life. 

Here he is talking to UN News about possible legal remedies:

“These people fall through the cracks as far as current protection is concerned. I’m suggesting that we think about an international legal approach to deal with these people. And I’m suggesting that perhaps we could look at an optional protocol under the refugee convention to give legal protection to people displaced by climate change.”

Mr. Fry also urged all countries to provide humanitarian visas for people displaced across international borders due to climate change, “as an interim measure”. 

Limiting asylum access leads to rise in trafficking risks: rights expert

Staying with the dangers of displacement: countries’ lack of compliance with international refugee law heightens risks of trafficking in persons, an independent UN-appointed rights expert said on Wednesday.

Siobhán Mullally, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, warned that limiting access to asylum and other forms of international protection is “likely to increase” trafficking and exploitation risks by forcing people into precarious situations.

She said that “the increasing use of accelerated refugee status determination procedures, transfer of refugee status determination procedures to third countries, and the phenomenon of ‘push-backs’ following interceptions at sea or land borders, undermine States’ ability to comply with their obligations to identify, assist and protect victims of trafficking, and to respect the principle of non-refoulement”.

The Special Rapporteur also noted that many of the countries hosting the highest numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons have “limited capacity” to prevent trafficking and to protect victims. 

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.