UN News Today 01 April 2025 |

Gaza aid worker killings: One humanitarian still missing

UN humanitarians and partners on Tuesday expressed deep shock at the killing by Israeli forces of 15 colleagues on duty in southern Gaza whose remains were recovered from a shallow grave after a week-long search operation. They said that one worker is still missing.

Video footage taken near Tal-As-Sultan by a UN rescue team showed a crushed UN vehicle, ambulances and a fire truck that had been flattened and buried in the sand by the Israeli military over a week ago.

One survivor said that Israeli forces had killed both of the crew in his ambulance, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. It said that the body of a civil defence worker was recovered after hours of digging.

Here’s OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke:

“It has been a very difficult weekend I think, for all of us. You have seen the videos that we put out, that…normally we are not at a loss for words, and we are spokespeople, but sometimes we have difficulty finding them. This is one of those cases. These people were shot.”

According to UNRWA, 408 aid workers including more than 280 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since the war began on 7 October 2023.

UN teams say whole communities have been flattened in Myanmar quake

UN aid teams working to help those affected by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar say that the window is narrowing to rescue survivors.

As the death toll continues to rise to more than 2,000, according to the authorities, UN humanitarians have been rushing to support severely deprived and traumatized victims.

Speaking to journalists from Yangon on Tuesday, Julia Rees, Deputy Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the country, described massive needs.

“What I saw was devastating. Entire communities have been flattened. Children and families are sleeping out in the open with no homes to return to. I met children who were in shock after witnessing their homes collapsed or the death of a family member, and some have been separated from their parents and others are unaccounted for.”

Local search and rescue teams, supported by international rescue units from a number of countries including China, India, Russia, Thailand and Bangladesh, have been “intensifying their efforts” particularly in central Myanmar, which has continued to experience aftershocks.

DR Congo crisis: more than 600 people killed by all parties to conflict since January

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, where civilians continue to be killed, maimed and abducted by several armed groups operating in eastern provinces with almost total impunity.

That’s according to the UN’s Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, who warned on Tuesday that her Office has documented 602 victims of of extrajudicial and summary execution “committed by all parties to the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces alone”.

The senior UN official told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that DRC forces and their allies have also attacked civilians, that conflict-related sexual violence runs rampant “and is being committed by all parties” – with reported cases up by more than 270 per cent from January to February.

The development comes as Rwanda-backed M23 fighters continue to consolidate gains in mineral-rich eastern DRC.

They have already taken the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, causing mass displacement and killings, making the already dire humanitarian emergency there worse.

Here’s Nada Al-Nashif now:

“Any plans for a sustainable peace must tackle the root causes of the conflict, including the illegal exploitation of the national wealth that lies in natural resources. The DRC authorities must also take a firm and consistent stand against corruption, impunity, and hate speech, by whomever committed.”

Close to 26 million people in DRC, nearly a quarter of the population – now experience emergency and crisis levels of food insecurity.

In total, nearly 7.8 million people are displaced across the country, including 3.8 million in the Kivu provinces alone.

Thousands of schools have been closed, destroyed, turned into emergency shelters or occupied by armed groups, and more than 1.6 million children in eastern provinces are unable to receive any education.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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