News in Brief 10 June 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Almost all women in Gaza say families struggling to survive

Eighty per cent of women in Gaza depend on food assistance to survive, UN humanitarians said on Monday, as they warned that basic survival conditions in the enclave continue to worsen.

Data collected by UN Women in April also highlighted that more than 80 per cent of women surveyed in Gaza receive insufficient supplies – such as food and water – to meet their family’s basic needs.

To date, more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last eight months of war with Israel, according to Gazan health authorities, cited by the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. 

The UN agency also said that some 270 Palestinians were killed over the weekend, which saw reported intense bombardment of Nuseirat in central Gaza as Israeli special forces rescued four hostages.

The development came as top diplomats mulled a potential new Security Council meeting on Gaza at the UN. 

It followed a request from the United States for a vote from the 15-Member forum on its draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages – now believed to number around 120.

Sudan crisis: UN health agency condemns attacks on Al Fasher hospital

Further deadly violence in Sudan’s besieged Al Fasher city has forced a major hospital to shut over the weekend after soldiers stormed the facility, prompting alarm on Monday from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) about the serious impact on sick and injured patients.

“WHO is appalled by the recent attack on South Hospital, the only facility with surgical capacity in Al Fasher, Darfur,” the UN agency said in a post on X, adding that the closure left the two other hospitals in the city stretched beyond capacity.

According to reports Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soldiers entered the hospital and opened fire. The NGO which helps to run the hospital, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), reported that the armed fighters stole equipment and an ambulance.

In a related social media post, the WHO condemned “another attack” on a health facility in Wad Al-Nura in Al-Jazirah state south of Khartoum, that caused the death of a nurse who was on duty and caring for patients at the time.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), 18 million people in Sudan are acutely food insecure including nearly five million who are now in the grip of emergency levels of hunger.

“This is the highest number ever recorded during the harvest season” and around 90 per cent of the most deprived live in areas where access is limited due to fighting and other restrictions, WFP said, in an appeal for urgent funding. 

Rights abuses against civilians still rampant in eastern DR Congo 

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rights abuses linked to conflict are still rampant in the east of the country.

That’s the worrying finding of a new report from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, which said on Monday that children have been killed, abducted, sexually abused and exploited by armed groups in North Kivu province.

During May, the UN agency recorded 164 alerts involving children; almost 90 per cent took place in combat zones, including Goma-Nyiragongo, in particular.

UNHCR noted that an intensification of clashes in Masisi and Rutshuru, along with attacks against civilians in Beni have forced more than 250,000 people from their homes and shelters.

Those displaced and returning to their homes are the most common victims of rights abuses, with Masisi, Beni and Rutshuru territories the worst affected.

The UN agency said that the increase in abuses since April was likely attributable to fighting between the M23 armed group and rival Allied Democratic Forces, in southeast Masisi and northern Rutshuru.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.