Articles

Visceral leishmaniasis – a parasitic disease spread by sandflies – has been wiped out in Bangladesh, along with rubella in the Democratic Republic of Korea (more commonly known as North Korea) said WHO in a statement. Bangladesh has become the first country to be validated for the elimination of visceral leishmaniasis (also known as kala azar), which is a life-threatening neglected tropical disease that is common in the region. The country achieved the elimination target of less than one...

Water is crucial to rice farmers and when it is lacking, they tend to rely on groundwater. Globally, water taken from underground reservoirs supports 40 per cent of agriculture, but if groundwater levels fall, it becomes harder to reach over time. In Punjab known by some as India’s breadbasket, groundwater is being depleted faster than it is being replenished. Three farmers from Punjab explain how they experience water scarcity and how they deal with it. Amandeep Singh, landowner and...

20 October 2023Humanitarian Aid Families in western Afghanistan, who have lost everything to a series of devastating earthquakes, need urgent assistance to withstand the harsh winter, the UN relief wing reported on Friday. Temperatures have already started to drop into single figures. With about two-thirds of the affected areas assessed, more than 21,500 homes are confirmed destroyed and a further 17,000 severely damaged, according to the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office...

The experts were alarmed that hundreds of escapees – the vast majority of whom are women – have been sent back, despite repeated appeals by multiple international human rights bodies. Hundreds more reportedly are in detention awaiting the same fate. There are long-standing and credible reports that people returned to the DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea, would face serious human rights violations such as torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, they said in a...

16 October 2023Humanitarian Aid A powerful earthquake struck western Afghanistan again on Sunday, making it the third to hit the impoverished region since 7 October, causing more suffering for families left with little to survive on as the hard winter approaches, UN agencies have reported. The latest, 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck areas northeast of Herat city Sunday morning local time. According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of Monday evening...

13 October 2023Humanitarian Aid UN agencies are appealing for urgent funds to assist the hundreds of thousands affected by deadly earthquakes in western Afghanistan. The region was struck by two massive earthquakes on Saturday, followed a series of aftershocks, including a major one on Wednesday that flattened several homes spared by the original quake. Women and children make up over 90 per cent of the victims, according to UN agencies. Disasters compounded Making matters worse, on...

12 October 2023Human Rights The United Nations premier human rights body on Thursday extended the mandate of the independent expert on the situation of human rights in Russia for a further year. The UN Human Rights Council also “strongly urged” Russian authorities to comply with all the State’s obligations under international human rights law. It also called for upholding fundamental freedoms, including those of thought, opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly, “in particular by...

11 October 2023Humanitarian Aid UN teams have stepped up their response after another strong earthquake struck western Afghanistan early on Wednesday, just days after powerful earthquakes killed over 2,000 people in the same region. The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the city of Herat at 5:10 AM (00:40 AM GMT) local time, injuring over 100 people, many of whom were taken to hospitals, according to media reports. UN response UN agencies have stepped up support, deploying teams...

Narges Mohammadi winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. 11 October 2023Human Rights UN independent human rights experts on Wednesday called for the immediate release of Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her unwavering commitment to women’s rights in the country. Ms. Mohammadi has been arrested multiple times, the first arrest being in 2011 for her advocacy for incarcerated human rights activists and their...

10 October 2023Humanitarian Aid Nearly 500 people are still missing from the worst-affected area of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that rocked Herat province in western Afghanistan on Saturday, UN aid coordinators said on Tuesday. At the epicentre of the earthquake in Zindajan district, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) recorded nearly 1,300 deaths and 1,700 injuries. In some places, entire villages have been destroyed, according to teams on the ground. Over 12,000 affected An...