PRAY FOR UKRAINE: Children 'too terrified to learn’ amid spike in attacks on schools

Schoolchildren are bearing long-lasting mental and physical scars of eastern Ukraine’s conflict, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said as the agency warned of an “alarming” increase in attacks on schools during the first four months of 2019.


Since the start of eastern Ukraine’s five-year conflict, more than 750 educational facilities on both sides have been damaged or destroyed, UNICEF said, explaining that there has been a four-fold increase in attacks on schools during the first four months of the year, compared to the same period in 2018.

Between January and April, there were 12 attacks on schools, compared to three incidents during the same period last year. The alarming increase is reminiscent of the violence experienced by schoolchildren and teachers in 2017, when there were more than 40 attacks on education facilities.

“Daily life at school is disrupted by shelling and shootings, forcing children to take cover in school basements and underground bomb shelters. In many cases, children have become too terrified to learn,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

“Destroyed classrooms surrounded by sandbags to protect children from stray bullets are no place for a child to learn. All parties to the conflict must protect schools and keep children safe,” Ms. Fore said.

UNICEF called for an immediate end to the fighting and the protection of children at all times. The agency also urged all governments, including Ukraine, to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental political commitment to take concrete measures to protect students, educators and educational facilities from deliberate and indiscriminate attack during armed conflict.

Next week, the government of Spain will host the third International Conference on Safe Schools, an opportunity for states to highlight the progress they have made in implementing the Declaration.

UNICEF said it is working with partners across eastern Ukraine to provide much-needed counselling, psychosocial support, and information on the risks of mines to hundreds of thousands of children, youth and caregivers affected by the conflict.

The agency is also providing support to education facilities so that repairs to damaged schools and kindergartens can be made, and education supplies such as educational kits, furniture and sport equipment can be replaced.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038861

INTERFAITH Study: SUMARIAN Version On the Existence of Humanity

PRAY FOR SYRIA: Starvation of Children, Women & Men, Airstrikes & Retaliation Shelling Claimed Hundreds of Thousands of Lives & Displaced Millions

In Rukban camp, which is near the Jordanian border, UN humanitarians have repeatedly called for greater access since a second convoy last reached the site in February.

Echoing that message in Geneva, Najat Rochdi, Senior Humanitarian Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, said that more than 12,000 people had left the camp amid worsening conditions linked to shortages of basic services and supplies.


“The UN continues to advocate for a third humanitarian convoy and for food and fuel to continue to arrive to Rukban through commercial routes,” she said, adding that 29,000 remain there “and it will take time. It is simple math,” she added. “If they want to completely leave the camp - those people did not have any humanitarian assistance, any convoy, since February already, and starvation is already starting.”

Turning to the situation in Idlib, where violence has escalated in recent weeks despite a fragile ceasefire agreed last September, the UN official strongly condemned the targeting of civilians in schools and health centres – including some facilities that had moved to supposedly safer areas outside built-up areas after being targeted in previous attacks.

“Aerial bombardments including the reported use of barrel bombs causing severe damage to civilian infrastructures and civil casualties is a practice that goes against every single humanitarian principle,” she said. “Also alarming, is the reported shelling from the de-escalation zone into areas under government control.”

Latest displacement figures indicate that more than 180,000 people have likely fled their homes in Idlib, Ms. Rochdi said, explaining that for many, this was not the first time they had been forced to flee conflict from elsewhere in Syria.

Most had moved further to the north and east, she said, while others had gone to Aleppo.

“People fleeing because of fear and because of bombing is their cruel daily reality,” she said. “But now, if the bombing is continuing where do you want them to flee? They already fled there as the last resort…Where is it that they will be able to go?”

Speaking to journalists after chairing a meeting of the Humanitarian Task Force on Syria in Geneva, Ms. Rochdi reiterated the panel’s call for “an urgent de-escalation” of fighting in Idlib, and for the warring parties to recommit to the ceasefire agreement; in particular Russia and Turkey.

Of the approximately three million people living in Idlib, one million are children. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk because of the ongoing fighting, which has left tens of thousands of youngsters out of school and families sheltering under trees, the UN official explained.

“The insecurity there and the continuing airstrikes, is not something that is conducive really, to deliver humanitarian assistance,” she said. “And as you know, some NGOs, about 12, have suspended temporarily their assistance.”

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038591

PRAY FOR MALI as armed men dressed as hunters attacked and left 134 people dead including women and children with dozens wounded

Located in Mali’s central Mopti region, the village of Ogossou-Peulh was attacked on Saturday morning, reportedly by armed men dressed as traditional hunters.

Calling the attack an act of “unspeakable barbarity,” Kakou Houadja Leon Adom, the Ambassador of Côte d'Ivoire to the UN and co-organizer with France and Germany of the Council’s Mali visit, expressed condolences to the families of the victims , as well as to the people and the Government.

Meanwhile, a UN spokesperson said Secretary-General António Guterres was “shocked and outraged” by reports that at least 134 civilians, including women and children, were killed and at least 55 had been injured in the attack.

“The Secretary-General condemns this act and calls on the Malian authorities to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice,” according to a statement, which added that the UN chief expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, the Malian people and Government, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

The Secretary-General called on the Malian authorities to “redouble their efforts to bring back peace and stability to central Mali.”

In a separate statement condemning the attack, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the Head of UN integrated mission, MINUSMA, called for an end to the spiral of violence in Mali and reported that as part of the mission’s civilian protection mandate, a rapid response force had been deployed to the scene. The mission was also working to ensure the wounded were evacuated to the nearby town of Sévaré, he added.

“This unspeakable tragedy…unfortunately reminds us that the challenges [in central Mali] are many,” he said, calling on the Malian authorities to launch an investigation “so that justice is done and the perpetrators of this atrocity answer for their actions.”

Deadly violence on the rise in Mopti region

The Mopti region has been the scene of deadly violence since the beginning of the year.

Last Sunday, the camp of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMAs) in the village of Dioura suffered an attack in which several of its soldiers were killed. On 26 February, 10 people from the Dogon community were killed in an attack on the village of Gondogourou. Further, on 1 January, 37 people were executed in the Fulani village of Kulogon by unidentified armed elements.

At the press conference, Ambassador Delattre recalled, in the context of a recent Security Council resolution extending MINUSMA until the end of June, that the question of central Mali was an integral part of the mandate of the UN peace operation.

“MINUSMA is to support the Malian State through the protection of civilians,” he said in response to a question from a journalist.

The situation in central Mali was at the heart of the various meetings that members of the Security Council had in Bamako. “The unanimous message [we received] is that it is essential to break this negative dynamic between the different communities, and to do everything to try and recreate a virtuous circle,” said Ambassador Delattre.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035341

Science Has Found Proof of the Existence of God!

PRAY for ROHINGYA: Escalating Violence in Myanmar’s Chin and Rakhine States Continues to Grow. Civilians Forced to Flee Internally And Across The Border

8 February 2019
Human Rights


Concern over escalating violence in Myanmar’s Chin and Rakhine states continues to grow, with civilians reportedly forced to flee both internally, and across the border into Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have already sought shelter.


Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed deep concern over the humanitarian impact of the continuing violence and the “potential for both further internal displacement and the outflow of refugees”.

“As part of inter-agency efforts, UNHCR stands ready to support the humanitarian response in the affected areas in Myanmar”, he stated, noting that more than 720,000 mostly-Muslim Rohingya had fled a 2017 military operation in Rakhine state, which was condemned at the time as being tantamount to genocide, by the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie visits Rohingya refugee camps in Chakmarkul camp, Cox's Bazar, south-east Bangladesh, while on mission with the UN Refugee Agency., by © UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

“The scale of it is very difficult to gauge”, said Mr. Mahecic. “We understand from some of the reports that say 200 people have sought shelter”, but “without effective access in Rakhine, and without effective access in other parts, we can’t assess the scope of the current internal displacement as a result of the violence which flared up some time in December last year.”

The refugee agency has called on the Government of Bangladesh to continue its policy of offering shelter and support and offered to assess and respond to the needs of civilians who have arrived in the past few weeks, seeking safety from violence in Myanmar.

Since August 2017, nearly 700,000 minority Muslim Rohingyas have fled violence in Myanmar across the border into Bangaldesh’s Cox’s Bazar, joining several hundred thousand more that were already settled there in overcrowded camps.

“UNHCR is grateful to the Government of Bangladesh for its generosity and the leadership it has shown”, Mr. Mahecic said.

During a visit early in the week to the world’s largest refugee camp, Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said that it was “deeply upsetting” to meet the families who “have only known persecution and statelessness their whole lives, who speak of being ‘treated like cattle’”.

She also met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in the capital of Dhaka, where she expressed UNHCR’s gratitude to the Government and the people of Bangladesh, for their kindness.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1032311

PRAY for LIBYA to stop unlawful killings, arbitrary detention, torture, gang rape, slavery, human trafficking, violations and abuses committed by a range of State officials, armed groups, smugglers and traffickers against migrants and refugees

Since armed conflict erupted in Libya in 2011, during the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, some 200,000 people have been internally displaced. 

ISIL, or Da’esh, terrorist fighters took over Derna in 2014, leading to a succession of battles for control of the city, involving the Shura Council of Mujahideen, a coalition of pro-sharia law Islamist militants, the Libyan national army and local militias.

Increasing hostilities in the oil-rich city of Derna are becoming an increasing source of concern said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya on Friday, following an intensification in fighting which has resulted in “substantial civilian casualties”.


“I am deeply concerned by the escalation of hostilities in the eastern city of Derna and the consequent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in parts of the city”, said Maria Ribeiro. In addition to substantial civilian casualties, Ms. Ribeiro said that recent intense fighting has reportedly resulted in deteriorating infrastructures and services, leaving some civilians without basic food, water and urgent lifesaving medical care for families and the wounded.


“I firmly call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to the affected civilians in the old city”, she underscored, urging all conflict parties to respect and protect civilians and civilian facilities, and to “strictly adhere to their obligations under International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law.”



Back in December, a trauma hospital in Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city, was hit and before that media reports said that Da’esh had claimed responsibility for attacking the Foreign Ministry in the capital, Tripoli.

In November, fighting between armed militia damaged a Tripoli hospital for Women and Childbirth, resulting in a doctor being shot and a three-day halt to non-emergency medical services.

Meanwhile, migrants and refugees are being subjected to "unimaginable horrors" from the moment they enter Libya in what Ghassan Salamé, the head of the UN political mission there (UNSMIL), told the Security Council last month was a “hidden human calamity”.


11 January 2019
Peace and Security
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1030312

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Migrants and refugees are being subjected to "unimaginable horrors" from the moment they enter Libya, throughout their stay in the country and – if they make it that far – during their attempts to cross the Mediterranean, according to a report released on Thursday, by the United Nations political mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office (OHCHR).


"There is a local and international failure to handle this hidden human calamity that continues to take place in Libya," said Ghassan Salamé, who heads UNSMIL.

From unlawful killings, arbitrary detention and torture, to gang rape, slavery, and human trafficking, the report covers a 20-month period up to August 2018, and details a terrible litany of violations and abuses committed by a range of State officials, armed groups, smugglers and traffickers against migrants and refugees.


Unidentified bodies of migrants and refugees bearing gunshot wounds, torture marks and burns are frequently uncovered in rubbish bins, dry river beds, farms and the desert - UN Libya report on migrants and refugees

The findings are based on 1,300 first-hand accounts gathered by UN human rights staff in Libya itself, as well from migrants who have returned to Nigeria, or managed to reach Italy, tracing the entire journey of migrants and refugees from Libya’s southern border, across the desert to the northern coast.

The climate of lawlessness in Libya provides fertile ground for illicit activities, leaving migrants and refugees "at the mercy of countless predators who view them as commodities to be exploited and extorted," the report says, noting that “the overwhelming majority of women and older teenage girls” report having been “gang raped by smugglers or traffickers."

Many people are sold from one criminal group to another and held in unofficial and illegal centres run directly by armed groups or criminal gangs. "Countless migrants and refugees lost their lives during captivity by smugglers, after being shot, tortured to death, or simply left to die from starvation or medical neglect," the report says. "Across Libya, unidentified bodies of migrants and refugees bearing gunshot wounds, torture marks and burns are frequently uncovered in rubbish bins, dry river beds, farms and the desert."

Those who manage to survive the abuse and exploitation, and attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing, are increasingly being intercepted – or “rescued” as some claim – by the Libyan Coast Guard. Since early 2017, the approximately 29,000 migrants returned to Libya by the Coast Guard were placed in detention centres where thousands remain indefinitely and arbitrarily, without due process or access to lawyers or consular services.


UN staff visiting 11 detention centres, where thousands of migrants and refugees are being held, documented torture, ill-treatment, forced labour, and rape by the guards. Migrants held in the centres are systematically subjected to starvation and severe beatings, burned with hot metal objects, electrocuted and subjected to other forms of ill-treatment with the aim of extorting money from their families through a complex system of money transfers.

The detention centres are characterized by severe overcrowding, lack of ventilation and lighting, and insufficient washing facilities and latrines. In addition to the abuses and violence committed against the people held there, many of them suffer from malnutrition, skin infections, acute diarrhoea, respiratory-tract infections and other ailments, as well as inadequate medical treatment. Children are held with adults in the same squalid conditions.

The report points to the apparent "complicity of some State actors, including local officials, members of armed groups formally integrated into State institutions, and representatives of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence, in the smuggling or trafficking of migrants and refugees."

The UN independent human rights expert on torture, Nils Melzer, estimates that, given the risks of facing human rights abuses in the country, transfers and returns to Libya can be considered a violation of the international legal principle of “non-refoulement”, which protects asylum seekers and migrants against returns to countries where they have reason to fear violence or persecution.

"The situation is utterly dreadful," said Michelle Bachelet on Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Tackling the rampant impunity would not only end the suffering of tens of thousands of migrant and refugee women, men and children seeking a better life, but also undercut the parallel illicit economy built on the abuse of these people and help establish the rule of law and national institutions."

The report calls on European States to reconsider the human costs of their policies and ensure that their cooperation and assistance to the Libyan authorities respectful of human rights, and in line with international human rights and refugee law, so they do not, directly or indirectly, result in men, women and children being trapped in abusive situations with little hope of protection and remedy.

20 December 2018
Migrants and Refugees

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/12/1029031