UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (IPS) - Africa is making progress on over two-thirds of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the pace remains far too slow to meet the 2030 targets, especially in areas like decent employment, gender equality, and access to social protection.

Ongoing violence has displaced more than 100,000 people in two regions of Somalia in the past two months, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.

With Gaza in ruins and the two-State solution in jeopardy, ministers convened at the United Nations this week to jumpstart political momentum toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a crisis Secretary-General António Guterres warned is “at a breaking point.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) raised the alarm on Wednesday over the rising toll of hunger, disease and displacement in various conflict-ridden parts of Sudan.

People in Haiti have expressed “despair” following the “abrupt suspension” of a wide range of humanitarian services, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, in the Caribbean country.

Despite daily “tactical pauses” declared by Israeli forces, humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain catastrophic, with children starving, aid workers overwhelmed, and fuel and water supplies critically low, UN humanitarians reported on Wednesday.

Early warning systems kicked in overnight across Pacific coastal communities after a massive earthquake in eastern Russia triggered a sea surge that reached the Japanese coastline around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away within about an hour, disaster relief experts said on Wednesday.

Some 80,000 children are estimated to be at high risk of cholera in West and Central Africa as the rainy season begins across the region, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

Welcome to our live coverage of the third day of high-level international conference at UN Headquarters, aimed at advancing practical steps toward achieving a two-State solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Mandated by the General Assembly meeting features plenaries, working groups and interventions from senior UN officials and Member States. UN News app users can follow here.

ATLANTA, USA, July 30 (IPS) - Why is a grinning Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, wildly cheered by both Democrats and Republicans whenever he addresses the US Congress, while at the same time in Gaza countless innocent civilians are being killed by American bombs and bullets—and now babies are starving?