February 04, 2023 No comments
From the Field: Earning a crust from bread
INTERNATIONAL, 4 February 2023, Humanitarian Aid - A UN-supported refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was left for dead after being attacked by armed men, has baked his way back to a new life off the breadline, in Burundi. © UNHCR/Samuel Otieno | Kavugwa Shebulike Cadet (right) prepares dough with his employees and trainees at his bakery in Nyankanda refugee camp. Kavugwa Shebulike Cadet, fled with his wife and seven children to the Nyankanda refugee camp, in eastern Burundi, where he set up a bakery providing what he calls the best bread “for miles around.” Some 12,000 Congolese refugees live in the camp having fled the insecurity and uncertainty of life in the eastern DR Congo. Read more here about how his baking business - which...
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February 04, 2023 No comments
Moldova: The long and winding road to safety
INTERNATIONAL, 4 February 2023, Migrants and Refugees - Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some 700,000 fleeing people have passed through neighbouring Moldova, putting a huge strain on the country’s resources. The UN’s migration agency (IOM) is helping the most vulnerable, and the authorities, to navigate this unprecedented situation. Tucked away in the southeastern corner of Europe, Moldova’s winters may be drab and harsh, but the road from Ukraine’s border spools out through bare, brown hills like a ribbon of hope. To Larysa, who came from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the silent heath means safety. It means a pause in the constant barrage of artillery, the whine of sirens and drones, the rush for the bunker, the dark, the cold, the smell, and the grime...
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February 03, 2023 No comments
UN child rights committee lauds Swiss asylum offer to Kurdish family
INTERNATIONAL, 3 February 2023, Migrants and Refugees - The UN child rights committee on Friday commended Switzerland for swiftly granting asylum to four Kurdish children and their mother, who faced deportation after fleeing Syria, adding that it showed how controversial decisions could be effectively appealed. “We welcome the timely action taken by Switzerland to suspend the children’s return to Bulgaria, in compliance with the Committee’s request for interim measures,” said Ann Skelton, a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). “We also welcome the decision to reassess these children’s situation and their risk of being exposed to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments if returned to Bulgaria, showcasing the country’s commitment to compliance and cooperation with the Committee,” she added. Fleeing war-torn Syria The children, now 10...
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February 03, 2023 No comments
WHO launches bid to tackle inequalities behind global breast cancer threat
INTERNATIONAL, 3 February 2023, Health - A UN-led global initiative to tackle breast cancer could save 2.5 million lives by 2040, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, just ahead of World Cancer Day. Each year, more than 2.3 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer, making it the most common cancer in the world affecting all adults, according to WHO. Although a limited number of high-income countries have been able to reduce breast cancer mortality by 40 per cent since 1990, for women in poorer countries, one of the main challenges is to receive a timely diagnosis. “Breast cancer survival is 50 per cent or less in many low and middle-income countries,” WHO’s Dr. Bente Mikkelsen told journalists in Geneva. But the rate is “greater than 90 per...
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February 03, 2023 No comments
UN rights chief appeals for Israelis and Palestinians to end ‘illogic of escalation’
INTERNATIONAL, 3 February 2023, Human Rights - As violence mounts between Israelis and Palestinians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday called for an end to the “illogic of escalation”, appealing for leaders to urgently work to resolve their decades-long conflict. “Rather than doubling down on failed approaches of violence and coercion that have singularly failed in the past, I urge everyone involved to step out of the illogic of escalation that has only ended in dead bodies, shattered lives and utter despair,” he said in a statement. Record killings in 2022 Mr. Türk reported that record numbers of Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2022, which also saw the highest number of Israeli fatalities inside Israel and the occupied...
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