Month: October 2023

These are the grim findings of an assessment published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday, which calls for both immediate and long-term remediation measures.

Hundreds of square kilometres were flooded in the disaster, and thousands of square kilometres of reservoir and wetlands were desiccated.

UNEP’s preliminary assessment carried out at the request of the Ukrainian Government concluded that consequences of the dam breach will be felt “for decades”, reaching far beyond Ukraine’s borders. The report reviewed environmental impacts both upstream and downstream, such as chemical contamination and ecological damage to protected areas.

The authors of the report wrote that “a detailed estimation of the full impacts on irrigation, drinking water and supply of water to industry, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and associated human health impacts, fall outside the scope of this rapid assessment but pose a substantial concern.”

They concluded that more assessments will be needed to address the full scale of the disaster’s environmental impacts and that financial and technical support is “urgent and indispensable” for a sustainable reconstruction, restoration of damaged habitats and disaster waste management.

Sudan: Civilian attacks continue

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, says she is deeply concerned by continued reports of attacks against civilian infrastructure, noting that “even hospital wards full of sick and wounded children are not safe’ from conflict.”  

Since the start of the war between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces militia in April, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 58 attacks on healthcare, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Thursday.

Healthcare devastated

More than 70 per cent of health facilities in conflict areas in Sudan are now out of service.

Over the weekend, the water supply in Omdurman in the state of Khartoum was temporarily suspended after a water treatment centre came under fire. 

“Our colleagues on the ground say that this is extremely worrying, given the ongoing cholera outbreak in Khartoum State and other parts of the country”, said Mr. Dujarric.

More than 1,600 suspected cholera cases – including about 67 deaths – have been reported so far, “and we and our partners are scaling up our response to the outbreak”, he added. 

Closing childcare policy gaps offers high return on investment: ILO

Providing continuous childcare to parents from the birth of their child to the start of mandatory schooling could bring a more than threefold return on investment, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

“Such investments could also lead to reductions in gender and other inequalities, generation of decent jobs, improvements in health and wellbeing, and help create a path to social justice,” ILO said.

ILO’s research covering 82 countries found that each US dollar invested in closing the gap in childcare between the end of parental leave and the first day of school, would bring a $3.76 rise in global Gross Domestic Product by 2035, as parents – mainly women – exchange unpaid care work for paid and formal employment. Currently, only 26 countries have childcare laws which allow to bridge this gap.

The agency projects that the measure would create 300 million jobs worldwide and reduce the global gender gap in monthly earnings from 20 per cent in 2019 to eight per cent in 2035.

ILO said that providing “universal, high-quality childcare services staffed by trained and valued early childhood education personnel” would require additional spending equivalent to 1.5 per cent of global GDP.

Reports of an overnight Israeli military incursion using tanks in northern Gaza followed another series of calls by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for civilians in Gaza City to evacuate – warnings which “make no difference” because “people have nowhere to go or are unable to move”, according to the UN’s top humanitarian official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings.

‘Nowhere is safe’

“When the evacuation routes are bombed, when people north as well as south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are lacking, and when there are no assurances for return, people are left with nothing but impossible choices”, she said, insisting that “nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

Ms. Hastings appealed for the protection of civilians in armed conflict and reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the more than 220 people held captive by Hamas since the group’s deadly incursion into Israel on 7 October.

That terror attack left more than 1,400 dead, drawing widespread and immediate condemnation from top UN officials including UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Medical support for hostages: Tedros

Little is known about the status of the captives, and after meeting with some of their families on Wednesday UN health agency WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “there is an urgent need for the captors of the hostages to provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care and the immediate release, on humanitarian and health grounds, of all those abducted”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should be granted immediate access to the hostages to understand their health status, and WHO stands ready to provide the ICRC with health support for the hostages, he said.

“I committed, on behalf of WHO, to do all we can to support the health and humanitarian needs of those being held captive,” Tedros insisted.

Record death toll

Meanwhile the heaviest death toll yet from Gaza was reported on Wednesday by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which said that 756 were killed, including 344 children, bringing total fatalities in the territory to 6,547 since the start of Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ attacks on 7 October.

With bombardments continuing, according to Gaza’s de facto authorities, some 1,600 people including 900 children have been reported missing and may be under the rubble.

Bodies in tents

UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said that while visiting a hospital in Gaza, UN personnel saw hundreds of wounded men, women and children.

“Many of them were unconscious, with open wounds – lying on beds, stretchers and on the floor – with limited medical attendance,” while tens of dead bodies were being kept in a tent in the yard because morgues are full, the UN office said.

The ongoing fuel blockade and lack of water, medical supplies and personnel are forcing hospitals to wind down operations, OCHA said. Humanitarians also warned that people were resorting to drinking saltwater which posed “immediate health risks”.

As of Wednesday the UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that “current supplies of essential food in Gaza are sufficient for about 12 days”.

Inaction on Security Council

On Wednesday night in New York, the Security Council failed once again to find consensus over even a unified call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

The head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, whose agency has now lost at least 35 staff members during the ongoing Israeli bombardment, said in an opinion piece published on Thursday morning that “history will ask why the world did not have the courage to act decisively and stop this hell on Earth.”

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi tweeted that the work aid workers are doing in Gaza “is nothing short of heroic”, calling for UNRWA to get the resources it needs “because not only is it a lifeline for thousands but it also represents one of the last shreds of humanity amidst the devastation.” 

More to come…

An alert from Gaza’s main hospital in the south of the enclave that lifesaving operations would stop on Wednesday evening because of fuel shortages followed an appeal from UN chief António Guterres for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

A truce was needed, he told the Security Council on Tuesday, “to ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer and facilitate the release of hostages”.

He said although nothing could justify the appalling attacks by Hamas of 7 October, it was important to recognize they “did not happen in a vacuum” and did not justify the collective punishment of Palestinians.

Following the Secretary-General’s comments, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan announced that visas would be denied to UN officials, arguing that Mr. Guterres’s speech sought to justify Hamas’s brutal assault which left some 1,400 dead.

An Israeli visa has already been refused for UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths, Mr. Erdan said in a media interview.

Israel in deep trauma

The trauma of survivors and the “collective psychological burden” brought on by the hostage crisis in which over 220 Israelis and foreign nationals were still being held captive in Gaza has sent mental health needs soaring, UN health agency WHO’s Special Representative in Israel Dr. Michel Thieren said.

When visiting a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon which is treating many of the 4,600 people wounded in the attacks, Dr. Thieren said that “almost every one of those survivors had seen someone else die before they themselves were injured”.

‘Ghost towns’ in the south

The WHO official underscored that the mental health of doctors and nurses he met in Israel had been strongly affected by survivors’ accounts and the wounds they were treating.

He also visited military bases where the mutilated bodies of many of the 1,400 victims of the Hamas attacks are stored in refrigerated containers and spoke about the impact on the doctors and forensic experts struggling to identify them.

“I have visited ghost towns in the south whose populations have been evacuated. There is still the terrible stench of death. […] The shadow of national shock and grief has plunged this country into night. When mental health perishes, so does physical health,” Dr Thieren said.

Fuel critically low

Meanwhile in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, which is the largest humanitarian provider in the enclave, warned that unless fuel is allowed in, it will be forced to halt all operations as of Wednesday night.

Gaza has been under a full electricity blackout since 11 October and fuel shortages have compromised essential services from ambulances to bakeries and water facilities.

According to media reports, a fourth humanitarian aid convoy arrived in the enclave through the Rafah border crossing late on Tuesday, consisting of eight trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent.

Tuesday also saw the highest fatality toll reported in a single day in Gaza during this round of hostilities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said.

Some 704 Palestinians including 305 children were killed, bringing the total death toll in the territory to 5,791 according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.

Plight of women and girls

Joining its voice to the UN chief’s calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, UN Women has highlighted the plight of women and girls in the Gaza Strip amid the escalation.

Speaking to UN News, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Sarah Hendriks stressed the urgent need for women and girls in Gaza to access safe shelter, protection and maternal healthcare. She said that according to UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, some 50,000 women in Gaza are currently pregnant and over 5,500 are expected to give birth just in the next month.

Access to healthcare is tightening by the hour in Gaza. WHO said on Tuesday that a third of hospitals and nearly two thirds of primary health care clinics in the territory have shut down.

Ms. Hendriks also said that “the violence has produced close to 900 new female headed households” and highlighted the struggle of widows to provide for their families. She warned about the ever-present threat of gender-based violence compounded by mass displacement and conditions in overcrowded shelters.

“We will continue to remain on the ground listening to the voices of women and girls, hearing their perspectives and translating those to the international community so that their needs can be prioritized even as the solutions to the overall conflict are being addressed,” Ms. Hendriks said.