This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Hottest summer on record: UN chief calls for ‘surge in action’ 

This year’s northern hemisphere summer has been the hottest on record – a sign that our climate is “imploding faster than we can cope” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.

Mr. Guterres recalled that scientists had long warned about “what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash” and said that “surging temperatures demand a surge in action” from global leaders. 

The UN chief’s comments coincided with an alert from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) about heatwaves exacerbating pollution and degrading air quality.

Heatwave-triggered wildfires which brought death and devastation to Canada, Hawaii and the Mediterranean region also caused “dangerous air quality levels” for millions of people and sent “plumes of smoke” across the Atlantic and into the Arctic, WMO said. 

The UN agency warned that climate change was increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves - a worrying trend for human health, ecosystems and crops.

Sudan displacement tops five million: IOM

More than five million people have fled their homes amid ongoing fighting in Sudan between the country’s military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since 15 April.

According to the UN migration agency (IOM), more than four million people, or some 814,000 families, have been internally displaced. River Nile, South Darfur and North Darfur states have the highest proportion of uprooted people.

IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix indicates that the vast majority of those fleeing, almost 70 per cent, have come from Khartoum state, an epicentre of the fighting.

Another 1.1 million people have fled to neighbouring countries. Over 464,000 have sought safety in Chad while some 285,000 crossed the border to Egypt.

The human rights situation in Sudan, aggravated by the ongoing displacement and soaring humanitarian needs, will feature prominently on the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council’s 54^th session which opens in Geneva next Monday. 

People of African descent face ‘immense challenges’ in public sphere: OHCHR

Members of the African diaspora continue to suffer from barriers to their participation in public life in many countries, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has said in a new report.

The publication details how systemic racism, marginalization and exclusion, rooted in the legacies of slavery and colonialism, continue to have an all-pervasive effect.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged countries to take targeted action to change the status quo; he advocated for evidence-based legal, policy and institutional approaches to dismantle systemic racism, including in law enforcement.

The UN rights chief also warned that deaths of people of African descent continue to be reported during or after interactions with law enforcement, with “insufficient progress” towards accountability and redress.

OHCHR said that the death of 24-year-old Adama Traoré in police custody in France in 2016 was “one of seven illustrative cases” in the report, demonstrating the “challenges that families of African descent face in seeking truth and justice promptly”.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.