Category: Pacific

Speaking in Geneva, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said that $4.4 billion was needed for the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan alone, “to pay direct” to health workers and others, not the de facto authorities. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for $623 million, to support refugees and host communities in five neighbouring countries, for the Afghanistan Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan. “Today… Read More

The blaze was first reported just before 5 pm local time and caused considerable damage to sections of the largest camp of its kind in the world, affecting both refugees and members of the host community.  Response teams were deployed to protect refugees and bring the situation back under control, in coordination with the local authorities and fire brigade.  Coordinating… Read More

The limited research lab worked on almost 250 criminal cases last year, representing hundreds of individual samples from high-profile cases related to rhino horns, pangolin scales, elephant ivory, big cats, fish, bear parts, turtles and lion bones.  Lab upgrade  The facility is based at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), located in the capital, Hanoi, and has undergone… Read More

According to the agency, the rise is driven by the ongoing political crisis, poverty, displacement, and the economic fallout from COVID-19.  Needs are now widespread, from areas affected by conflict in border regions where humanitarian action has been focused for years, to impoverished urban areas where families have seen jobs vanish, incomes dry up, and destitution.  Assistance  In this context, WFP… Read More

Communities are still reeling from the effects of the typhoon, which made landfall in no less than nine places across an area the size of Austria, killing some 500 people. Relief teams have compared Rai to Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed more than 6,000 people and left four million homeless. “It just ripped across an area that is enormous,… Read More

Speaking to journalists on Thursday in New York, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, said the Organization continues to follow the situation “very closely.”  Mr. Dujarric confirmed several contacts between the UN and the authorities in the country, including a call on Thursday morning between Special Representative Natalia Gherman and the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mukhtar Tileuberdi.   During these exchanges, appeals… Read More

Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General, denounced the killing of Sai Win Aung, also known as A Sai K, who died on 25 December in Lay Kay Kaw, a town located near the border with Thailand.  The reporter was covering the plight of refugees in Kayin state for the Federal News Journal when he was fatally shot in an artillery attack… Read More

Most of the strikers were women and many of the arrests were conducted in “a violent way”, the experts added. The arrests appeared to contravene the right to freedom of association, assembly and expression.  “We also strongly condemn the manner in which the first arrests took place, after dark, on a day where multiple other events diverted public attention”, the experts said.   For them, this could be seen as “an underhanded way to clamp down… Read More

In a tweet, IOM said that no-one was hurt at the health facility, part of the vast Cox’s Bazar camp complex, after the blaze began suddenly on Sunday evening.   Parts of the hospital were badly damaged, but health services are expected to “resume soon”, the agency said.   Response  Field teams have been working around the clock to save the hospital… Read More

In a tweet, IOM said that no-one was hurt at the health facility, part of the vast Cox’s Bazar camp complex, after the blaze began suddenly on Sunday evening.   Parts of the hospital were badly damaged, but health services are expected to “resume soon”, the agency said.   Response  Field teams have been working around the clock to save the hospital… Read More