Category: Pacific

One recent Thursday, Ali Madad Ibrahimi accompanied an elderly man from Afghanistan to a registration desk under a big red and white tent in Jakarta’s central district. He translated instructions into the Afghan Dari language, and the pair entered a spacious hall where blue-uniformed officers sat behind rows of desks. He stayed by the man’s side until a COVID-19 vaccine… Read More

Nicholas Koumjian of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar was updating journalists on its work to collect, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations committed in the country.  The mechanism was created two years ago and prepares files that can facilitate criminal prosecutions in national, regional and international tribunals.    New challenges  While its mandate covers the period from 2011, “our work has faced new challenges and opportunities… Read More

“We are indeed in a race against time, as emphasized by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to help these people prepare for winter,” said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director-General. People are “broke and broken”, he insisted, after returning from a two-day visit to the country. “More than half the population is struggling to eat, malnutrition is reaching dramatic levels, especially… Read More

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 10,000 children have been killed or maimed since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015, between a pro-Government Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels; the equivalent of four children every day.  These are just the incidents that the United Nations has been able to verify, so the true figure is “likely far higher”, said the agency in a statement released… Read More

Farhan Haq was briefing journalists in New York, after two explosions detonated near the entrance of the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital in Kabul, leaving at least 19 dead and dozens more injured, according to news reports. There was no claim of responsibility, but Taliban officials reportedly laid blame on an affiliate group of the ISIL terrorist network. “We express condolences to… Read More

A mother of four from Zaradnay Village, she visited the district hospital just before her due date on 17 August, to check on the progress of her pregnancy. An ultrasound revealed that the fetus was in a transverse position, meaning it was lying horizontally rather than head-down, a dangerous complication. Concerns over Caesarean The doctor told her she needed a… Read More

Foreign Ministers from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan participated in the meeting held in Tehran, with their Russian and Chinese counterparts joining by video, according to media reports.   Stability through unity  “Afghanistan is confronting an epic humanitarian crisis and is on the verge of a development catastrophe”, the UN chief told the gathering.  He urged countries to speak with one voice.  “We can only achieve more stability with… Read More

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), revealed that the lives, livelihoods and access to food for 22.8 million people will be severely impacted.  “It is urgent that we act efficiently and effectively to speed up and scale up our delivery in Afghanistan before winter cuts off a large part of the country, with millions of… Read More

António Guterres commended the country’s decision to end financing of coal-fired power plants abroad, and direct support for green and low carbon energy production, stating that the world “must do everything possible to keep the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement alive.”  Mr. Guterres also said the UN also fully supports the Chinese presidency of the COP15 Biodiversity Conference, happening in Kunming 25 April-8 May of next year. For him, “ambition on biodiversity… Read More

To help ordinary Afghans, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has announced the launch of a “people’s economy” fund, to provide desperately needed access to cash. The fund will tap into donations frozen since the Taliban takeover in August. Germany has already pledged $58 million of the more than $660 million required over the next 12 months, UNDP chief, Achim Steiner, told journalists… Read More