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Martin Griffiths

UN News/Nancy Sarkis

Gaza-Israel crisis: Hospitals should not be a war zone, says UN’s emergency relief chief

Five weeks into the Gaza-Israel crisis, the UN’s top emergency relief official on Wednesday reiterated growing international calls for the warring parties to de-escalate, while expressing solidarity with hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by bombardment and an order from the Israeli military to leave the north of the enclave.

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5'40"
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Environmental, economic consequences of Ukraine dam disaster ‘an awful shock’: UN relief chief

In an interview with UN News, Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, said the world stands by Ukraine in the wake of this latest disaster stemming from the Russian invasion, but with agricultural land swamped, food security is bound to be hit. Nargiz Shekinskaya began by asking him in the wake of initial criticism from President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, if the UN could have acted sooner with aid, once disaster struck.
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OCHA/Amadou Cissé

UN aid chief: Humanitarians can’t help everyone, without more funding

Fifty-one point five billion dollars: that’s the staggering amount that UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has asked donors for, to help 230 million extremely vulnerable people in nearly 70 countries next year.

Although relief needs are growing, Mr. Griffiths is under no illusion that less than half of what he’s requested will be provided.

Which is why he’s convinced that the money should come from other sources, including non-earmarked development funding, and even a windfall tax on energy companies, as he explains to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

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5'35"
UN Geneva/Srdan Slavkovic

INTERVIEW: UN aid chief on humanitarian relief for Afghanistan, women’s rights and the Taliban

A major funding appeal for Afghanistan is due to take place on Monday, 13 September. Ahead of the launch, Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, took part in an interview with UN News, in which he reiterated his belief that the country’s new Taliban leaders understand the significance placed by the international community on upholding women’s rights, and on providing guarantees so that aid agencies can function. 

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9'40"