A new bout of violence in the Central African Republic that has killed nine peacekeepers this year risks derailing years of efforts to restore a fragile stability, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday. Guterres condemned the killing of two Moroccan peacekeepers who were ambushed in the southeast town of Bangassou on Tuesday, just two days … Read more
The UN aid chief on Wednesday blamed Yemen’s warring parties and their foreign backers for a ‘man-made’ cholera outbreak affecting 320,000 people in a country already reeling from war and severe food shortages. “This cholera scandal is entirely man-made by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemen’s borders who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating … Read more
Yemen is descending into total collapse, its people facing war, famine and a deadly outbreak of cholera, as the world watches, the UN aid chief said on Tuesday. Speaking to the UN Security Council, Stephen O’Brien said “the time is now” to end the world’s largest food emergency and put Yemen back on the path … Read more
As many as 200,000 Iraqis may try in the coming days to flee areas of Mosul under the control of the Islamic State group after the government asked civilians to seek safety across the frontline, the UN aid chief said Friday. Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul in October, advancing on the city … Read more
US Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the UN Security Council on Thursday to ratchet up pressure on Russia to end sieges in Syria and help advance peace talks. “All eyes and all pressure now need to go to Russia, because they are the ones who could stop this if they wanted to,” Haley told a council … Read more
Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday. Saturday’s blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of … Read more
Dozens of women staged a sit-in outside UN offices in Yemen’s capital Tuesday demanding an end to the country’s war that has left millions displaced and at risk of famine. Girls and women of all ages carried the red, white and black Yemeni flag as they sang the national anthem, some with their babies wrapped … Read more
UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien on Tuesday cancelled a visit to Yemen’s third city Taez when shelling and a rebel checkpoint blocked his route, several sources said. A UN source in Yemen told AFP that O’Brien, who was in a convoy travelling to the conflict zone, had been forced to cancel his visit to Taez … Read more
Seven million Yemenis are closer than ever to starvation, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country warned Tuesday, almost two years since a conflict escalated between the government and rebels. “Seven million Yemenis do not know where their next meal will come from and are ever closer to starvation” in a country of 27 million … Read more
Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday urged all warring parties in Yemen to allow aid deliveries, saying it had treated more than 55,000 people wounded during a Saudi-led intervention in the country. “Since the violence escalated in March 2015, MSF has treated… more than 55,000 war-wounded patients across the country,” said Djoen Besselink, using the French … Read more
A heartbroken United Nations chief on Sunday called for the “resurrection” of peace talks between Yemen’s warring sides to end the suffering of civilians. Thousands of people have died in Yemen and millions are struggling to feed themselves almost two years after a Saudi-led coalition intervened to support Yemen’s government and halt an advance by … Read more
The US government has expressed “outrage” over an attack on an aid convoy near the Syrian city of Aleppo that, a war monitor says, left 12 dead. The UN has confirmed that the convoy was hit near the town of Urm al-Kubra, without giving details. But activists say an air strike hit the trucks hours … Read more
A week-old truce in Syria brokered by the US and Russia appears close to unravelling, with alleged violations by government and rebel forces mounting. A US-backed rebel group in the divided northern city of Aleppo said the initiative had “practically failed”. Rebels also warned that the forced evacuation of some 300 fighters from a besieged … Read more