UN News Today 08 October 2024 |

Fears grow that Lebanon may become another Gaza

UN humanitarians in Lebanon on Tuesday described the massive challenge of trying to reach some 1.2 million people who have fled heavy Israeli bombardment and evacuation orders.

From the UN World Food Programme, WFP, Lebanon Country Director Matthew Hollingworth said that it was going to be “impossible to meet the needs of more than a million people who have been suddenly uprooted, displaced and dispossessed without additional resources coming in.”

One week since the UN launched a $426 million appeal to help those affected by the Lebanon crisis, contributions stand at just over 12 per cent, or $51.4 million.

Here’s Matthew Hollingworth now:

“Many of the families that I’ve met and I was in the south earlier last week talk about the fact that they are moving just because of fear of destruction of land and their homes and their neighbourhoods, but also because they have lost people, they’ve lost family and friends and communities and they are extraordinarily fearful of what comes next.”

In a fresh appeal to halt the violence in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond, Jeremy Laurence from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said that the devastation was “beyond belief for all people in Lebanon as it is in Gaza, urging “we can’t let this happen again.”

More than 200,000 people now live in the 973 formal shelters located inside Beirut and the north of country, 773 of them “are absolutely choc-a-block full”, WFP said.

The aid agency update comes amid reported renewed rocket fire at the northern Israeli city of Haifa by Hezbollah on Tuesday. The armed group has been firing rockets at northern Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.   

DR Congo remains in grip of violence and increasing sexual slavery, warns UN’s Türk

The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, called on Tuesday for greater international solidarity with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, where decades of conflict have had a devastating impact on the country’s people, especially in the war-torn east.

In an update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk said that between 1 June  2023 and 31 May 2024, 85 per cent of violations and attacks in DRC took place in eastern provinces that have been affected by fighting.

Armed groups who continue to fight for control of the DRC’s vast natural resources that include gold mines were responsible for more than 60 per cent of these reported incidents, which have included deadly raids against civilians, schools and hospitals.

The UN human rights chief warned that sexual violence is a growing threat, with 700 new victims identified in a new report by his Office.

Armed groups abduct women and girls, keep them in captivity and subject them to sexual slavery, rape and murder, Mr. Türk said.

Humanitarian agencies have indicated that 940,000 people have been uprooted from their homes this year in DRC, bringing the total number displaced within the country to more than 6.4 million.

To end the desperate situation in eastern DRC, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged countries with influence over the DRC’s armed groups “to do everything in their power” to ensure that the fighting stops.

Mr. Türk also insisted that “any role played by Rwanda in supporting the M23 (fighters) in North Kivu…must end” and that any other country that supported armed groups should do the same.

Hurricane Milton gathers off Florida coastline – WMO

As communities in west and central Florida braced for the arrival of Hurricane Milton which is expected to make landfall late Wednesday, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that maximum sustained winds were likely to reach or surpass 250 kilometres an hour, or 155 miles per hour.

WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said that the new hurricane had intensified “at an explosive rate”. This phenomenon is increasingly common and linked to our warming planet and oceans.

“The deeper the warmer water, the more energy a storm can draw,” Ms. Nullis said, adding that weather forecasters had predicted a life-threatening storm surge along the west coast of Florida:

“In the Tampa Bay area, which is quite a built up area, the National Weather Service is predicting a storm surge of about 10 to 15ft. That’s huge. If you if you look at the illustrations, you know, you compare that to a to a house size, you know, it gets it in proportion, the danger and the risks of this of this hurricane.”

WMO said that the hurricane “poses an extremely serious threat” to Florida which is still recovering from deadly hurricane Helene that killed more than 160 people barely two weeks ago.

A state of emergency has been declared for affected areas and media reports showed highways packed with departing Floridians in their cars.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved.

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