This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Niger: IOM calls for humanitarian corridor to help stranded migrants

The UN migration agency (IOM) called on Friday for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor in Niger to enable voluntary returns of stranded migrants to their countries of origin, after the military takeover on 26 July triggered border closures and airspace restrictions.

IOM is hosting 4,800 migrants at seven transit centres in the country, which are 40 per cent over capacity.

Here’s IOM Regional Director Christopher Gascon with more on the vulnerable migrants and how to help them:

“The migrants in transit centres come from Mali, from Guinea-Conakry, from Senegal, some from Nigeria. The way the humanitarian corridor would work would be to have access to the airport and be able to organise charter flights in order to return people home.”

Niger hosts more than 710,000 forcibly displaced people including refugees, asylum seekers and those internally displaced, Mr. Gascon said. 

The UN’s humanitarian appeal for the country is only 30 per cent funded. Mr. Gascon said that continuing to provide assistance to people in the transit centres requires at least a million dollars a month.

DR Congo: Concerns over use of force as dozens killed, injured at anti-UN protest

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), at least 43 people were killed and 56 injured during demonstrations on Wednesday in Goma, prompting concerns from the UN rights office (OHCHR) about the use of force against protesters.

UN rights chief Volker Türk called on the DRC authorities on Friday to ensure that future law enforcement actions in the context of the policing of public assemblies “fully adhere to international human rights norms and standards”. 

The demonstrations were organised against the UN Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), the Regional Force of the East African Community, other UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations.

The Government’s investigation into the incident needs to be “thorough, effective, and impartial”, OHCHR said, underscoring the right to peaceful assembly “even if in protest at the United Nations”.

Haiti: deadly violence shows no sign of abating

Haiti continues to spiral into extreme violence, with rising numbers of people shot in their homes and burned alive by gangs and vigilantes, according to the latest report released by the UN office there on Thursday.

It shows that 1,860 people were killed, injured or kidnapped between April and June 2023 – that’s 14 per cent more than in the previous quarter. 

Frustrated residents were resorting to “popular justice” and at least 238 individuals allegedly linked to gangs were killed in lynchings over the course of the three months. The report notes that some victims were stoned or mutilated while others were “burned alive in the streets” as police looked on.

Sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery, continued to be used in gang-controlled areas as a weapon to “spread fear and punish the population”, the UN office said.

In a single incident in mid-April during an attack in Cité Soleil, at least 49 women were raped by gangs when trying to escape the armed violence and seven were killed.

The report reiterates calls to the international community to deploy a specialized international force alongside the Haitian National Police.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.