Sahel suffers poverty, climate change and violent extremism: UN

The Sahel region of Africa suffers “terrible” poverty compounded by climate change and further “ravaged” by violent extremism. That’s according to Toby Lanzer, the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel. He was at UN Headquarters in New York for a meeting organized by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to call for more solidarity and funding to meet growing humanitarian needs. Across the region, over 23.5 million people face food insecurity, almost six million children are malnourished and at least 4.5 million are displaced by conflict. Speaking to Jocelyne Sambira about the needs on the ground, Toby Lanzer began by sharing his message to the international community.

Dadaab returnees will leave camps voluntarily, says UNHCR

In Kenya, moves are continuing to encourage about 320,000 Somali nationals to leave Dadaab, one of the biggest camp complexes in the world for displaced people. The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, which was present at talks with government representatives from Kenya and Somalia, says that the target for 2016 is to see around half of those people return home voluntarily. All of them are to be offered a safe return, in the light of continuing military operations against Al-Shabaab terrorists in the Horn of Africa country, as the agency’s Raouf Mazou told Daniel Johnson.

“Alarming” drought in Zimbabwe threatens 4 million people

A drought in Zimbabwe is threatening the well-being of around four million people according to the UN Resident Coordinator in the southern African country. The situation caused by the el Nino weather system has been described by the UN’s Bishow Parajuli as “alarming.” International donors are being urged to provide more money to counter what is fast becoming a humanitarian crisis. I’ve been been speaking to Mr Parajuli.

Presenter: Daniel Dickinson

Assistant: Sandra Guy

Duration: 10’00″