Just how many people are still trapped in the Sudanese city of El Fasher? That’s the burning question for relatives of the many thousands of people believed to still be there, since paramilitary fighters overran the regional capital of North Darfur last month, after a 500-day siege.

PARWAN, Afghanistan, November 13 (IPS) - When Roya, a former police officer under Afghanistan’s Republic government, left the country with her family, she felt a great sense of relief, having escaped from the horrors of Taliban rule. She never imagined that less than three years later she would be forced back into the same conditions, only worse.

BELÉM, Brazil, November 13 (IPS) - At the UN Climate Conference venue in Belém, young activist João Vitor da Costa da Silva is trying to make his case heard by negotiators. The 16-year-old Da Silva has a specific request for the parties: the needs of young people with disabilities should be addressed through the lens of climate justice.

BELÉM, Brazil, November 13 (IPS) - Binaifer Nowrojee, a human rights lawyer and the president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), has lauded the Brazilian government “for significant steps taken to breathe life into the climate commitments.”

BELÉM, Brazil, November 13 (IPS) - Least Developed Countries have hailed the debut call for proposals for the Loss and Damage Fund, which was launched on 11 November at the United Nations climate summit known as COP30 in Belem, Brazil.

Violence against women is a human rights emergency in every country. One in three women worldwide experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

BANGKOK, Thailand, November 13 (IPS) - The 183 Parties to the global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will convene in Geneva from 17 – 22 November with one objective – to strengthen their efforts to arrest the No.1 preventable cause of disease and 7 million deaths annually – tobacco use.

Floods, heatwaves, droughts and storms are forcing millions from their homes every year. Most never cross a border; they remain internally displaced yet uprooted all the same. But experts warn that in the not-so-distant future, entire nations could disappear beneath rising seas or become uninhabitable through drought.

The strongest typhoon to make landfall this year in the Philippines has impacted a staggering 1.7 million children – and more than five million people overall.

Lack of sufficient funds is jeopardizing the ability of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) to operate, the head of the agency said on Thursday.