News headlines in March 2022, page 14

Bangui, Central African Republic, Mar 17 (IPS) - Nine-year-old Marguerite Doumkel sits among other children in a classroom in Paoua, a sub-prefecture of Ouham Pende, in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Seven months after Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban, the Security Council on Thursday renewed the mandate of the UN special political mission in the country, charging it with a robust set of priorities, ranging from coordinating humanitarian aid delivery to human rights monitoring and facilitating dialogue.   

The vulnerabilities of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) may be different today than they were 50 years ago – when the UN created the category – but left unaddressed, the results are the same, the UN chief told a dedicated meeting on Thursday.

UN Refugee Agency chief Filippo Grandi called on Thursday for sustained international support for Afghanistan’s people, where the country’s humanitarian crisis is worsening.

KABUL, Mar 17 (IPS) - While all eyes are on Ukraine, Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has been forgotten. But only with international aid can Afghans build a future.

The UN’s top rights official  urged the United Kingdom on Friday to reconsider proposed changes to its border policy, warning that suggested reforms would criminalize vulnerable people for entering the country irregularly. 

Amid a political impasse that threatens to see Libya fractured again by two parallel governments, the priority must be maintaining hard-won gains and fulfilling the electoral aspirations of nearly three million registered voters, the UN political affairs chief told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Gender equality is essentially “a question of power” that for millennia, has, “to the detriment of all”, been mostly in the hands of men, the UN chief told a town hall meeting on Wednesday, devoted to the issue.

KAMPALA, Mar 16 (IPS) - When schools reopened in Uganda in January, Atim’s baby was 3 months old. The 17-year-old wished to go back to classes but she faced a dilemma—whether to disclose to her teachers that she was a lactating mother.

Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 16 (IPS) - Travelling in northern Nigeria, Peace Umanah noticed teenage girls with multiple children – they would be walking with one strapped to their back, holding another by hand and with a protruding belly.