The worsening security situation across Afghanistan in the wake of foreign troop withdrawal and Taliban advances, has forced an estimated 270,000 from their homes since January, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday, bringing the total internally displaced to more than 3.5 million.
The number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution, and human rights violations, rose last year to nearly 82.4 million people, a further four percent increase on top of the already record-high of 79.5 million, recorded at the end of 2019.
The Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique has been plagued by insecurity since 2017, but this year has seen “multiple crises” impact the population there, after militant extremists overran the area around Pemba, killing dozens and displacing a third of the population.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is one of the UN agencies providing relief on the ground, and in an interview with UN News while he’s assessing conditions there this week, Regional Director, Mohamed Malick Fall, said he’s most concerned about nearly 2,000 unaccompanied or separated children, whose survival is on the line. He spoke to Alexandre Soares, of our Portuguese team.
A new UN report finds that some 19 million children were displaced within their own countries due to conflict and violence in 2019, more than in any other year, making them among the most vulnerable to the global spread of COVID-19.
Urgently-needed aid deliveries to embattled civilians in north-west Syria have started again after a day-long break in distributions caused by escalating hostilities, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
