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PRAY FOR NIGERIA as Civilians who flee their homes due to violence suffered deadly attacks in and around the camp where they are sheltering

UN urges more protection for Nigeria’s most vulnerable after deadly attack on camp

2 November 2018
Humanitarian Aid
Hundreds of people already forced to flee their homes by violence in Nigeria’s troubled north-east have been uprooted once again after deadly attacks in and around a camp where they were sheltering, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said on Friday.


“In the attacks the armed group killed at least eight and injured dozens more, kidnapped women and burned and looted homes, shelters and food stocks,” Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.

Mr. Laerke said the attack happened two days ago at a Government-run facility a few kilometres from Borno state capital Maiduguri, and on communities close to the village of Dalori.


The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s north-east that has spilled over into the Lake Chad region is one of the most severe in the world today, with 7.7 million people in need - Jens Laerke, OCHA

The camp is home to 12,600 people who fled clashes in recent months, the UN official said – a reference to fighting between Government forces and violent extremists that have claimed 29,000 lives since 2009 and contributed to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“This attack happened late Wednesday night,” Mr Laerke said. “We know, the information that I have, is that hundreds were displaced as a result. Where they are right now this morning I don’t have specific information about that.”

Reiterating condemnation of the incident by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, the OCHA spokesperson repeated his appeal for authorities to ensure the safety of vulnerable communities.

“It really is a blanket call to beef up security for civilians in Borno and also the other two states, but particularly Borno,” Mr Laerke said. “It’s really the epicentre of this displacement and humanitarian crisis.”

Dalori village, which is closest to the camp that was attacked earlier this week, was almost totally burned to the ground during an attack in January 2016 that killed more than 100 people.

There are another eight camps for internally displaced people nearby.

Construction began on them in 2015 and they are now home to more than 47,000. At least 20 aid organizations provide food, water, sanitation, medicine and shelter, but the needs remain massive throughout Nigeria’s north-east, OCHA said in a statement.

The number of civilians displaced in the region is estimated to be 1.8 million. More than sixty per cent of these vulnerable people live outside Government-run camps and most stay in Maiduguri.

“The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s North-East that has spilled over into the Lake Chad region is one of the most severe in the world today, with 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the worst affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe this year,” Mr Laerke said.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/11/1024742

PRAY FOR AFGHANISTAN: Suicide bomber killed & wounded civilians at a campaign rally. We pray for an immediate end to election-related violence

2 October 2018
Peace and Security


Denouncing attacks and intimidation in the week since formal campaigning began for Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections next month, the United Nations voiced outrage on Tuesday at the death of 14 civilians, killed by a suicide bomber at a campaign rally. A further 42 were wounded.


“I am outraged by attacks deliberately targeting civilians seeking to exercise their basic right to participate in elections,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, in a statement that called for an immediate end to election-related violence.

“This violence, including today’s reprehensible attack in Nangarhar, is an assault on the constitutional rights of the people of Afghanistan.”


The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed concern around the level of violence early in the campaigning period for the 20 October elections, including intimidation and attacks against candidates, their agents and supporters.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres added his voice in a statement on Tuesday, condemning the series of lethal attacks, and reiterated that "deliberate targeting of civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law."

"The Secretary-General urges all parties to ensure a peaceful and orderly electoral process by creating a safe environment for political candidates to campaign and for citizens to exercise their right to assemble and vote," said the statement from his Spokesperson.

Since campaigning formally commenced on 28 September, there have been several attacks resulting in the killing of a candidate and three security guards of another candidate, as well as the shooting of a further candidate’s agent and son. “UNAMA urges all actors to halt all violence and intimidation against candidates and voters”, said the statement from the Mission.

Tuesday’s suicide attack appears to have deliberately targeted a crowd gathered for a campaign event, the agency said, stressing that Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of election-related violence in 2018.

It recalled the “disturbing pattern of attacks” at election-related facilities following the start of voter registration earlier this year, with the greatest loss of civilian life in a single incident, occurring on 22 April when a suicide attacker targeted a crowd gathered outside a national identity card distribution centre, in the capital Kabul, resulting in 198 civilian casualties.


https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1022072

PRAY FOR PALESTINE and ISRAEL for “Children should never be the target of violence and must not be put at risk of violence, nor encouraged to participate in violence”

Children’s rights continue to be violated in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel, according to three leading UN officials in the region who called on all parties responsible to take concrete and immediate steps to “allow children to live free of fear and to realize all their rights”.

In a joint statement, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Jamie McGoldrick; the Head of the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) in the OPT, James Heenan; and the Special Representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the State of Palestine, Genevieve Boutin, said they were “deeply concerned” by continued reports of “children killed or seriously injured, some as young as 11” in Palestinian-administered areas.

They also denounced the fact that “children in Israel are exposed to fear, trauma, and grave injuries”.

“This month alone, seven Palestinian children were killed by live ammunition and shelling from Israel”, they said, adding that “two Israeli girls aged 14 and 15 also reportedly sustained injuries from rockets and mortar shells indiscriminately launched by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel”.

According to figures provided by UN agencies in the region, since the start of demonstrations at the border fence against Israel’s longstanding blockade and deteriorating living conditions in Gaza on 30 March, 26 Palestinian children have been killed.

21 were shot during the demonstrations, and five others were killed by Israeli shelling, or outside the context of demonstrations. In the same period, hundreds more children have been injured by live ammunition.

“A number of these children will suffer lifelong disabilities, including as a result of the amputation of limbs,” the UN officials said. “Thousands are in need of urgent psycho-social assistance, specialised medical care, and support for their rehabilitation.”

The statement stressed that “all over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but particularly in the Gaza Strip”, children are “robbed of every right.”

“Families cope with four hours of electricity per day in the sweltering heat, clean drinking water is expensive and hard to find. The start of the school year in one month will be very difficult for tens of thousands of families who cannot afford basic school supplies,” said the three UN officials.

In addition, they deplored the “too often cynical use of children in political rhetoric and propaganda on all sides,” citing last week's call by the organisers of the ‘Great March of Return’ for Palestinians to demonstrate under the banner of "the Friday of our Child Martyrs" and the reported exposure of children to violence. “Children should never be the target of violence and must not be put at risk of violence, nor encouraged to participate in violence,” the joint statement read.

“We call on Israel, as well as the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas authorities in Gaza to put children’s rights ahead of any other considerations and to take immediate steps to alleviate their suffering,” said Mr. McGoldrick, Mr. Heenan and Ms. Boutin. “Respecting the rights of children and refraining from instrumentalising their plight should be a priority for all”, they insisted, stressing that the Israeli-Palestinian context is “not an exception”.

On 23 July, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, briefed the UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, on the many human rights violations facing women, children and men living in the OPT.