News headlines in 2022, page 107

On the International Day for victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief, commemorated on Monday, the UN chief reiterated his staunch support for those who have suffered.

MINNESOTA, USA, Aug 22 (IPS) - Once again, Kenya finds itself at a crossroads. The current events in Kenya illustrate how and why electoral malpractices and not democracy and human rights are the leading form of governance in Africa.

Nearly 1,000 boys and girls have been killed or injured in the war in Ukraine, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Monday, underscoring the urgent need for peace. 

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (IPS) - The ominous warnings keep coming non-stop: some of the world’s developing nations, mostly in Africa and Asia, are heading towards mass hunger and starvation.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned last week that as many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night while the number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared -- from 135 million to 345 million -- since 2019. A total of 50 million people in 45 countries are teetering on the edge of famine.

On Sunday, UN Secretary-General António paid tribute to victims of terrorism, marking the international day established to ensure that “victims and survivors are always heard and never forgotten.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of letting up, but the UN continues to bring humanitarian supplies to the country, including solar lamps, which bring some respite from the darkness of windowless basement shelters, in regions where electricity infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged by shelling.

Completing his trip to Europe on Saturday, UN chief António Guterres oversaw the departure of two ships involved in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-brokered operation to bring urgently needed hunger relief to the Horn of Africa.

As extreme weather events grow in intensity and frequency, nowhere is guaranteed to be safe from danger, as New Yorkers discovered on 1 September 2021, when Hurricane Ida struck, causing floods that led to some 29 deaths, and shutting down much of the subway system. Amrita Bhagwandin was at her home in the New York Borough of Queens on that traumatic day.

As the threat of famine looms in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that it is scaling up operations to support millions going hungry who “cannot wait” for assistance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for countries to improve access to two lifesaving Ebola medicines, in its first guidelines on the viral disease, published on Friday.