News stories by Kanya DAlmeida

NEW YORK, Apr 30 (IPS) - Kanya D'Almeida* is a Sri Lankan writer, journalist and editor. &nbsp This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.When Sri Lankan journalist Richard de Zoysa was abducted from his home in Colombo on the night of February 18th, 1990, his family knew there would be dark days ahead. The population was still reeling from one of the bloodiest episodes in the island nation's history – a government counterinsurgency campaign to crush a Marxist rebellion in southern Sri Lanka, which left between 30,000 and 60,000 people dead at the hands of government death squads.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 07 (IPS) - A group of independent investigators has roundly dismissed the Mexican government's claims that the 43 students who went missing in the southwestern city of Iguala last fall were burned to ashes in a garbage dump, reigniting an international outcry against the disappearance and heaping pressure on the government to provide answers to families of the victims.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 02 (IPS) - With 21 million Yemeni civilians caught in the grips of a conflict that has been escalating since March, the killing of two local aid workers Wednesday could worsen their misery, as a major humanitarian organisation considers the future of its operations in parts of the war-torn country.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 01 (IPS) - An outbreak of dengue fever in Yemen's most populated governorate has prompted urgent calls from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for a "humanitarian corridor" to facilitate the flow of medicines to over three million civilians trapped in the war-torn area.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (IPS) - New research released today by a leading human rights watchdog has found evidence of seven attacks involving cluster munitions in Yemen's northwestern Hajja governorate.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 (IPS) - Imagine having to venture out into a conflict zone in search of water because rebel groups and government forces have targeted the pipelines. Imagine walking miles in the blazing summer heat, then waiting hours at a public tap to fill up your containers. Now imagine realizing the jugs are too heavy to carry back home.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 (IPS) - With over 1.5 million displaced, 800,000 of whom are children, and continuously escalating violence in northeastern Nigeria, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the humanitarian situation as "particularly worrying" during a visit to the country.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 (IPS) - Of the 402 children killed in Yemen since the escalation of hostilities in March 2015, 73 percent were victims of Saudi coalition-led airstrikes, a United Nations official said Monday.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 (IPS) - In the hopes of better responding to the needs of over three million displaced Iraqis, United Nations aid agencies today launched a national hotline to provide information on emergency humanitarian services like food distribution, healthcare and shelter.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 (IPS) - With a staggering four in five Yemenis now in need of immediate humanitarian aid, 1.5 million people displaced and a death toll that has surpassed 4,000 in just five months, a United Nations official told the Security Council Wednesday that the scale of human suffering is "almost incomprehensible".