Asia

12 December 2023Law and Crime Prevention Myanmar is now the world’s largest opium producer, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported on Tuesday, as the economic and political crisis following the 2021 coup and widening conflict between the military and armed groups continues to drive farmers towards illicit opium poppy production. The southeast Asian country’s opium output has surpassed that of Afghanistan, where the Taliban imposed a ban on its production in April last year –...

21 November 2023Migrants and Refugees The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) and humanitarian partners are providing critical aid at border crossing points between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the face of a surge in forced returns of Afghan nationals. According to IOM, in the past two months alone, nearly 375,000 Afghans left Pakistan, primarily utilizing the Torkham and Spin Boldak border crossings, near Kabul and Kandahar, respectively. The number of daily border...

6 November 2023Humanitarian Aid UN agencies in Nepal continue their response to the deadly earthquake that struck western parts of the country over the weekend, claiming 153 lives, injuring over 330 and forcing thousands to spend nights in the open amid freezing temperatures. According to agencies on the ground, more than 380 aftershocks have been reported since the 6.4 magnitude quake struck shortly before midnight of Friday into Saturday, local time. Initial findings suggest over...

5 November 2023Law and Crime Prevention Opium poppy production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the de facto authorities imposed a drug ban last year, new UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data reveals. According to the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2023, released by the agency on Sunday, the supply of opium declined by an estimated 95 per cent, falling from 6,200 tons in 2022 to 333 tons in 2023, corresponding to a fall in the area under cultivation, from 233,000 hectares to just...

4 November 2023Humanitarian Aid United Nations teams in Nepal are responding to the devastating earthquake in the west of the country, amid reports that over 150 people have been killed and hundreds more injured. The powerful 6.4M earthquake struck the remote and rural districts of Rukum (West) and Jajarkot shortly before midnight on Friday (local time) as families slept in their mostly mud-brick homes, trapping many under the rubble. Several aftershocks have since been reported. The...

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...