This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza: Worst famine fears realised as 10^th child reportedly ‘starves to death’

Another child has died from hunger and dehydration in Gaza – the tenth officially reported by the enclave’s health authority since war erupted almost five months ago.

Responding to the news on Friday, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that the actual number of people starving to death would likely rise.

The development followed media reports overnight that four children had died in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, in addition to six other youngsters who died on Wednesday at the same facility and at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

The deepening food insecurity crisis in Gaza has left one in four people facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

On Thursday, more than 100 Palestinians were apparently killed and hundreds were injured trying to get aid from a relief convoy stopped at a roundabout southwest of Gaza C ity.

Here’s WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier speaking in Geneva:

“People are so desperate for food, for fresh water, for any supplies, that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves…We need an urgent, urgent ceasefire now, if not now, then when?”

Myanmar: unbearable levels of suffering and cruelty, warns UN rights chief 

The crisis in Myanmar is a “never-ending nightmare” for the country’s people which is happening far away from the international spotlight, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Friday. 

In a scheduled update to the UN’s top rights forum, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights explained that the humanitarian crisis there linked to the 2021 coup had worsened in recent months. 

“Three years of military rule have inflicted – and continue to inflict – unbearable levels of suffering and cruelty on people in Myanmar,” Mr. Türk said, citing an escalation of armed conflict across the country which has included aerial attacks on towns and cities.

“Credible sources have verified over 4,603 civilians including 659 women and 290 children have been at the hands of the military since February 2021. The actual death toll is certainly much higher.”

The UN rights chief cited witness statements indicating that hundreds of civilians had been burnt alive or executed by the military, including women. 

This “chilling disregard for human life” had been accompanied by other “sweeping violations of fundamental rights and the rule of law” that continue across the country, Mr. Türk said.

He noted that today in Myanmar, more than 20,000 opponents of the military remain in detention, including nearly 4,000 women. 

Sudan’s displaced in desperate need of basics to survive: Refugee agency 

To Chad where there’s increasing concern at the country’s eastern border for people fleeing the war in neighbouring Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Friday.

In an alert, UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said that refugees from Sudan’s Darfur regions had endured abuse and violence trying to seek safety:

“There continues to be a shocking array of human rights violations for people who are on the move. That's conflict related sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery and early and forced marriage, as well as child recruitment. Refugees on the move also report  the extraction of fees to move freely within Darfur to allow them to get towards Chad.”

There are already 15 camps for Sudan’s displaced in eastern Chad but the new arrivals who come in their hundreds every day face a worrying lack of food and other essentials.

The UN refugee agency reported that it has managed to avoid a major disease epidemic so far and registered nearly 200,000 asylum-seekers.

But it appealed for international funding to sustain the humanitarian operation there, warning that the Chadian Government is not equipped to do more, after it declared a state of emergency for food and nutrition security. 

Daniel Johnson, UN News.