UN News Today 11 March 2025 |

Syria’s Alawite families summarily executed in ongoing clashes, warns UN rights office

Days of violence against Syria’s mainly ethnic Alawite communities have included the summary execution of entire families, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said that 111 people have been confirmed dead so far.

Media reports indicate the true death toll may be closer to 1,000 after security forces allied with Syria’s caretaker authorities allegedly targeted communities in coastal areas that represent the former regional powerbase of ousted President Bashar Al Assad.

Here’s Mr. Al-Kheetan now:

“Many of the cases documented were of summary executions. They appear to have been carried out on a sectarian basis, in Tartus, Latakia and Hama governorates – reportedly by unidentified armed individuals, members of armed groups allegedly supporting the caretaker authorities’ security forces, and by elements associated with the former government.”

According to many testimonies collected by the UN rights office, attackers raided houses, asking residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before either killing them or sparing them.

“Some survivors told us that many men were shot dead in front of their families,” Mr. Al-Kheetan said.

The OHCHR spokesperson said that hospitals had also come under attack with patients, doctors and medical students targeted.

Myanmar’s Rohingya facing worst levels of hunger in years: UNICEF

Malnutrition among children in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh is at its worst level since hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar arrived fleeing persecution in 2017.

The alert from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday comes after admissions for severe acute malnutrition surged by over 27 per cent last month, compared to February 2024.

Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, said that more than 38 children under five have been admitted for emergency care every day.

Ms. Flowers explained that the UN agency had received a United States humanitarian waiver for its nutrition programme that may allow it to continue to treat severely malnourished children, “but we need both waiver and the actual funding to maintain this work”, she insisted:

“Unless additional resources are secured, only half of the children in need will have access to treatment this year, and that’s going to leave about 7,000 children at risk, with the expectation of a rise in morbidity and mortality. That’s babies dying.”

The UN World Food Programme, WFP, says that food rations in the vast Cox’s Bazar camp complex have reached a critical point.

Without immediate funding, rations could soon be reduced to less than half – which is far short of basic nutritional needs.

Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, along with their infants, would be among the most vulnerable to the consequences, the UN agency warned.

UN rights office hails courage of relatives of Duterte’s ‘drug war’ victims

News from the Philippines now and reaction from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, following the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Mr. Duterte was taken into custody by the Manila authorities in line with a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

The ICC is not a UN organization but has a cooperation agreement with the United Nations.

It has been investigating the crackdown on drugs implemented by the former President, which the UN rights office repeatedly condemned while he was in office, from 2016 to 2022.

One OHCHR report found credible allegations of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings, carried out during the so-called “war on drugs”, along with arbitrary detention and almost total impunity for the violations.

Speaking in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that it was crucial to address such impunity and to protect victims and witnesses from reprisals and retributions.

She praised the “great courage” of the families of those killed in the war on drugs in seeking justice and noted that only four cases have so far resulted in convictions following appeals.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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