Articles

A Tongan family’s trip to visit relatives on Mango island earlier this month turned into a nightmare, when the country was devastated by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano, and subsequent tsunami. Pauline Vaiangina, her husband, and their four young children, who live in Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island, were visiting their grandmother on the tiny remote island, when Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai erupted. Sudden explosions “It was a Saturday like any other”, says...

Scenes of relatives desperately trying to find oxygen supplies for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in India last year, alerted the world to an acute, deadly problem. Yet that was not this first time the country’s hospitals have been hit by a shortage of the life-saving gas, prompting the question of whether there will be enough supplies, when the next major health crisis hits. In May 2021, India’s hospitals were at breaking point. The country found itself at the epicentre of the global...

The UN human rights office OHCHR, has said it is very alarmed over the continued disappearance of six people who were abducted in the Afghan capital Kabul, in connection with recent women’s rights protests. “We are gravely concerned for their well-being and safety”, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told journalists at a regular press briefing in Geneva. Despite the de facto authorities’ announcement on Saturday of an investigation into the...

Humanitarians are scaling up assistance in the Philippines to assist hundreds of thousands still impacted by Typhoon Rai which struck the islands seven weeks ago, the UN said on Wednesday, launching a $169 million revised appeal to meet the urgent and growing needs. The revised Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan (HNP) targets 840,000 people over six months, up from 530,000 in the initial $107 million HNP, released on 24 December. A new understanding “The revised HNP reflects our...

Jolina, 23, is eight months pregnant and lives in Burgos on the island of Siargao, which suffered some of the worst fallout of the typhoon. Her nearest health centre was completely destroyed and she will likely have to travel some 50 kilometres to give birth, she told the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, which is busy providing service on the ground. The situation is no better for Adelina, 43, from Dinagat, who is pregnant with her sixth child and has yet to have her...

The many families on the island nation of Tonga who rely solely on the ocean for their food and income, are struggling to recover from last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami. The natural disasters were a major blow to 74-year-old Fangupō Lātū, from the village of Pātangata. His fishing boat was sunk and destroyed during the tsunami, leaving him unable to make a living. However, he is also worried about how the crisis is affecting his community. “My village’s main source of income and...

“A decade after the killing of the two journalists, there is still no justice as a result of an appalling and pervasive culture of impunity in Bangladesh,” the five UN Special Rapporteurs said in a statement. Mr.Sarowar and Ms. Runi, who were married, were stabbed to death in their home in the capital, Dhaka, in front of their five-year-old son on 12 February 2012. The experts said it is widely believed they were targeted because of their investigative reporting on corruption in...

Although child marriage and “bride kidnapping” are illegal in Kyrgyzstan, both practices still exist in parts of the country. An initiative from a UN-backed programme is finally leading to a change in attitudes, and a decline in these harmful practices. Every year, according to official government figures, between seven and nine thousand very young girls get married in Kyrgyzstan, and about 500 girls aged 13 to 17 become mothers. Girls still run the risk of falling prey to such practices...

UN-appointed independent rights experts issued a statement on Monday calling on India to end relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks against an investigative journalist. The appeal from Special Rapporteurs on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan and situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor follows what they have called “relentless misogynistic and sectarian attacks” against Rana Ayyub – including death and rape threats. Rana Ayyub, independent...

The United Nations has condemned the killing of eight polio vaccination workers in four locations in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, the first such attacks since nationwide campaigns resumed last November. One member of the vaccination transit team was killed in Taloqan district in Takhar province, while four members of house-to-house teams were murdered in two separate incidents in Kunduz city, according to a statement from the UN Country Team in Afghanistan. Two vaccinators and a...