UN says Somalia faces a ‘dire hunger emergency’ but aid has been cut to millions over lack of funding
UN says Somalia faces a ‘dire hunger emergency’ but aid has been cut to millions over lack of funding/node/2326586/world
UN says Somalia faces a ‘dire hunger emergency’ but aid has been cut to millions over lack of funding
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Malnourished toddlers are attended to at a malnutrition stabilization center run by Action against Hunger in Mogadishu, Somalia, on June 5, 2022. (AP file photo)
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Somalis displaced by drought wait in line to fill jerrycans with water distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, on the outskirts of Baidoa in Somalia on Oct. 29, 2022. (AP file photo)
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Somalis, who have been displaced due to drought, settle at a camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, on Sept. 19, 2022. (AP file photo)
UN says Somalia faces a ‘dire hunger emergency’ but aid has been cut to millions over lack of funding
Somalia’s longest drought on record, which killed millions of livestock and decimated crops, recently gave way to disastrous flash floods in the south
Updated 27 sec ago
AP
UNITED NATIONS: Somalia’s “dire hunger emergency” is spiraling upward with one-third of the population expected to face crisis or worse levels of food needs, but the UN has been forced to drastically cut food assistance because of a lack of funding, the head of the World Food Program said Thursday.
Cindy McCain told the UN Security Council the latest food security data show that over 6.6 million Somalis desperately need assistance including 40,000 “fighting for survival in famine-like conditions.”
But she said WFP was forced to cut monthly food assistance, which had reached a record 4.7 million people in December, to just 3 million people at the end of April – “and without an immediate cash injection, we’ll have to cut our distribution lists again in July to just 1.8 million per month.”
McCain, who visited Somalia last month, said she saw “how conflict and climate change are conspiring to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis.” She said the country’s longest drought on record, which killed millions of livestock and decimated crops, recently gave way to disastrous flash floods in the south.
Conflict and climate are conspiring to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis.
The world pulled #Somalia back from the brink of famine, but the crisis is not over.
Briefing the @UN Security Council today, I outlined a 5-point plan to address this emergency.
Urging donors to be as generous as they were and hauling Somalia “back from the abyss of famine in 2022,” McCain warned that the survival of millions of Somalis is at stake.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Somalia in April “to ring the alarm” and appealed for “massive international support” for Somalia.
But the results of a high-level donors’ conference for three Horn of Africa countries – Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya – on May 24 were very disappointing. It raised less than $1 billion of the more than $5 billion organizers were hoping for to help over 30 million people.
Only in the past few years has Somalia begun to find its footing after three decades of chaos from warlords to the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab extremist group and the emergence of Daesh-linked extremist groups. Last May, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who served as Somalia’s president between 2012 and 2017, was returned to the top office by legislators after a protracted contest.
Somalia has faced numerous attacks from Al-Shabab and recently the government embarked on what has been described as the most significant offensive against the extremist group in more than a decade.
Catriona Laing, the new UN special representative for Somalia, told the council that the government’s operations have degraded Al-Shabab militarily and dislodged its fighters from a number of areas which is “a notable achievement.”
But Laing said Al-Shabab remains a significant threat,” pointing to “a recent resurgence in the scale, tempo and geographic distribution” of its attacks including a June 9 attack on the Pearl Beach Hotel in the capital Mogadishu that killed nine people.
The African Union has a force in Somalia providing support to government forces battling Al-Shabab. Last year, the Security Council unanimously approved a new AU transition mission known as ATMIS, to support the Somalis until their forces take full responsibility for the country’s security at the end of 2024.
Laing said the drawdown of ATMIS and handover are proceeding, but her initial assessment “is that the complexity, the constraints, and pace of the transition process presents risks, (and) this will be challenging.”
Narendra Modi denies religious discrimination exists in India
US Senator Bernie Sanders said Modi’s “aggressive Hindu nationalism” has “left little space for India’s religious minorities”
Muslim women members of the US Congress and other progressive lawmakers boycotted Modi's address
Updated 26 min 50 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied that discrimination against minorities existed under his government during a press conference with US President Joe Biden on Thursday, despite rights groups and State Department reports of abuses.
Biden said he discussed human rights and other democratic values with Modi during their talks in the White House.
Asked at the press conference what steps he was willing to take to “improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech,” Modi suggested they did not need to be improved.
“Our Constitution and our government, and we have proved democracy can deliver. When I say deliver — caste, creed, religion, gender, there is no space for any discrimination (in my government),” Modi told reporters.
In reports on human rights and religious freedom, the State Department raised concerns over treatment of Muslims, Hindu Dalits, Christians and other religious minorities in India while also listing a crackdown on journalists.
Rights advocates and dozens of lawmakers from Biden’s Democratic Party urged him to raise the issue publicly with Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has held power since 2014.
Dozens of protesters gathered near the White House on Thursday.
“Modi should think why that was the first question asked to him in the press briefing. It’s obvious to all there is rights abuse in India,” said Ajit Sahi, a protester and advocacy director at the Indian American Muslim Council.
“Modi’s comments (that there is no religious discrimination by his government) is a complete lie. India has become a black-hole for religious minorities,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of Hindutva Watch, a group that monitors reports of attacks on Indian minorities.
Activists protest against the state visit of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
India’s importance for the US to counter China and the economic ties between the countries make it difficult for Washington to criticize human rights in the world’s largest democracy, political analysts said. Biden rolled out the red carpet for Modi on Thursday.
The only two Muslim women members of the US Congress — Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — along with some other progressive lawmakers like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, boycotted Modi’s address to the Congress on Thursday, citing allegations of abuse of Indian dissidents and minorities, especially Muslims.
US Senator Bernie Sanders said Modi’s “aggressive Hindu nationalism” has “left little space for India’s religious minorities.”
The benefits of the Indian government’s policies are accessible to everyone, Modi said. Rights groups have asserted, however, that dissidents, minorities and journalists have come under attack since Modi took office.
India has slid from 140th in the World Press Freedom Index in 2014 to 161st this year, its lowest point, while also leading the list for the highest number of Internet shutdowns globally for five consecutive years.
Activists protest against the state visit of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
The UN human rights office described a 2019 citizenship law as “fundamentally discriminatory” for excluding Muslim migrants. Critics have pointed to anti-conversion legislation that challenged the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief and the revoking of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s special status in 2019 as well.
There has also been demolition of properties owned by Muslims in the name of removing illegal construction; and a ban on wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka when the BJP was in power in that state.
“The protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India, that is something worth mentioning,” former US President Barack Obama, whom Modi calls a close friend, told CNN in an interview aired on Thursday.
“If you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, then there is a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart,” Obama said of what he would have told Modi now.
Amnesty accuses Spain and Morocco of cover-up over Melilla enclave migrant deaths
At least 37 died and 76 went missing when around 2,000 Sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees attempted to enter Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco on June 24, 2022
Updated 23 June 2023
Reuters
BARCELONA, Spain: Amnesty International on Friday accused Spain and Morocco of a cover-up for failing to properly investigate events at the border of the Spanish enclave of Melilla last year, when tens of migrants and refugees died during a mass attempted crossing.
On June 24 2002, around 2,000 Sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees attempted to enter Spain’s North African enclave from Morocco. At least 37 died and at least 76 are still missing, the NGO said.
Morocco said 23 people died in a crush when migrants fell from the fence, and Spain has said no deaths occurred on its soil.
“One year on from the carnage at Melilla, Spanish and Moroccan authorities not only continue to deny any responsibility but are preventing attempts to find the truth,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnes Callamard.
Amnesty said authorities had failed to make any attempt to repatriate victims’ remains and had not provided a full list of names and causes of death, as well as CCTV footage which could inform an investigation.
“The lessons of Melilla must be learned or – as the shipwreck off the Greek coast shows – arbitrary loss of life, violence and impunity at borders will continue,” Callamard added.
A fishing boat packed with hundreds of migrants sank off Greece’s south-west coast earlier this month, on a journey that started from Libya and was supposed to end in Italy. At least 82 were killed and hundreds are still missing.
Spain’s Attorney General investigated the Melilla incident but declined to charge Spanish officers who he said had been unaware of the fatal crush. Spanish lawmakers rejected calls for a parliamentary inquiry.
The handling of the event by authorities on both sides of the border was criticized however by rights groups and independent investigators.
Spain’s ombudsman said Spain had returned those who jumped the fence without processing their cases and the UN’s Commissioner for Human Rights said they found “no genuine and effective access to asylum at the border.”
A spokesman for Spain’s Interior Ministry said the investigation by Spain’s Attorney General had been carried out “with full guarantees and in full depth.”
Authorities in Morocco declined a request for comment.
Paris conference urges global financial system overhaul to combat poverty and climate change
Summit for a New Global Financial Pact aims to improve lending system for developing countries
Without equitable access to finance, poor nations could remain mired in poverty, world leaders warn
Updated 23 June 2023
Hakima Bedouani
PARIS: Without an overhaul of the global financial system, the international community will fail to address the twin challenges of poverty and climate change, world leaders heard on the opening day of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris on Thursday.
The two-day conference, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was organized to find ways to improve the lending system for developing countries mired in poverty and threatened by climate disaster.
In his opening remarks, Macron told delegates that the world needs a “public finance shock” — a global surge of financing — to fight these challenges, adding the current system was not well suited to address them.
French President Emmanuel Macron opening the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris on Wednesday. (Photo by Ammar Abd Rabbo)
“Policymakers and countries shouldn’t ever have to choose between reducing poverty and protecting the planet,” Macron told the summit.
Indeed, those nations that are most vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change are often the least equipped to respond to protect their populations or to implement emissions-cutting policies of their own.
Without some form of debt relief for developing countries to address environmental challenges, or new methods of financing that take into account their poverty-reduction priorities, experts believe the fight against climate change and hardship is already lost.
During a roundtable on day one of the summit, titled “A new method: green growth partnerships,” moderated by Catherine Colonna, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs, world leaders discussed the potential for multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (2nd right) attending the New Global Financing Pact in Paris, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his left and Tunisian President Kais Saied on his right. (AN Photo by Ammar Abd Rabbo)
Questioned by Colonna about the collective challenges posed by rising temperatures, panelist Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian president, said: “Climate change threatens all countries worldwide and requires states to work together to face these challenges.”
Recalling the UN Climate Change Conference, COP27, held in Egypt’s Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh last November, El-Sisi said: “We have heard many commitments during COP27, but the major problem that persists concerns access to financing both at the national and international levels.”
El-Sisi called for the implementation of a fair financing system in all sectors that promote sustainable development, highlighting access to vital resources such as water, food and energy.
“These development programs require the establishment of partnerships,” he said. “We must continue to finance projects that align with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. We must continue to develop multilateral partnerships with defined programs centered on sustainable development.”
El-Sisi further emphasized the need to find solutions and recommendations to curb or erase the debts of poor countries and to suspend or cancel taxes to enable banks to meet current requirements.
“In Egypt, we have implemented a renewable energy development plan. We need the assistance of our partners and international financial institutions to support us in project implementation,” he added.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during the panel discussion. (Photo by Ammar Abd Rabbo)
During her own intervention, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called for the creation of an “environment conducive to private capital and to encourage investors to be more involved in energy transition projects.”
She said access to capital markets is crucial.
“At the European Commission, we are interested in the most attractive sectors in green growth, particularly in emerging and developing countries that face limited financing, lack of training, and an increase in interest rates practiced by banks,” she said.
“We must share our expertise and limit risks for investors.”
Another way to even out the burden of climate costs is the implementation of carbon pricing. One method is to make polluters such as transport and logistics companies pay a tax on their emissions, thereby incentivising more sustainable practices.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attending the Global Climate Finance summit in Paris on June 22, 2023. (Pool via REUTERS)
“They will have the choice to either adopt more environmentally friendly methods or pay a tax that will finance sustainable and environment conscious projects,” von der Leyen told the roundtable.
“Carbon pricing will generate revenue that will be allocated to financing a greener economy,” she added.
Speaking on the same panel, Gustavo Petro Urrego, president of Colombia, said nations should change production methods in industry and agriculture, and cooperate on water conservation.
“We must reorganize territories and change methods, but these strategies require the mobilization of billions of dollars,” he said. “We all know that capital is essential in achieving the goals of ecological transition and sustainable development.”
To make access to financing more just and equitable, Petro called for a global Marshall Plan — in reference to the post-war reconstruction fund provided to Europe by the US — to address global challenges related to climate change and sustainable development.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the New Global Financial summit in Paris onJune 22, 2023. (Pool via AP)
He also called for debt cancelation for poor countries in exchange for concrete commitments to sustainable development.
A separate roundtable on Thursday focused on ways to enable environments for the private sector to implement sustainable infrastructure and financing for small- and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs.
According to Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s minister of foreign affairs, achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will be challenging due to the post-pandemic global context.
Nevertheless, asked about the contribution of the private sector to sustainable development and the green economy, Hayashi said Tokyo had incentivised firms to make private capital contributions to the development of green economy programs.
“We encourage the private sector to get involved in achieving our objectives in terms of sustainable development and respect for human rights,” he said.
Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi stressed the need for the public and private sectors to work together to invest in infrastructure construction. (Pool photo via AFP)
Hayashi said the public and private sectors must work together to invest in infrastructure construction, citing Japan’s support for programs launched by companies involving the ecological transition.
Speaking on the same roundtable, Khadem Khadem Al-Remeithi, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a UAE sovereign wealth fund, recommended working “with various organizations such as the French Development Agency to identify concrete solutions, particularly in terms of building infrastructure.”
In the course of his work, Al-Remeithi said he ensures the actions carried out by the investment fund are committed to implementing regulatory rules and operational platforms to organize selected projects and programs.
“We ensure that our actions yield results,” he said, citing successful projects carried out by the African Development Bank in many countries.
“The financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises engaged in sustainable development and the investments necessary for the construction of basic infrastructure require the support of capital from international financial institutions.”
Al-Remeithi, who called for the establishment of regulatory mechanisms that effectively combat “the hesitations of banks and potential investors regarding risks,” said such measures would encourage dialogue between public and private operators to enhance their contributions to sustainable development programs.
Beyond policy shifts at the nation and boardroom level, however, the world’s developing countries need to see tangible change in the rules-based order of finance if they are to reap any benefits in the short-to-medium term.
Speaking during the summit’s opening session on Thursday, Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, called for a reimagining of the role of the World Bank and IMF in an era of climate crisis.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. Supplied)
Mottley, whose Caribbean island nation is threatened by rising sea levels and tropical storms, said: “What is required of us now is absolute transformation and not reform of our institutions. We come to Paris to identify the common humanity that we share and the absolute moral imperative to save our planet and to make it livable.”
Outlining the challenges facing developing countries, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said more than 50 nations were now in or near debt default, while many African countries are spending more on debt repayments than on health care.
Guterres said the post-Second World War global financial system was failing to rise to modern challenges and now “perpetuates and even worsens inequalities.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (R) is received by French President Emmanuel Macron (C) for an official dinner at the Elysee Palace on the sidelines of the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris on June 22, 2023. (AFP)
“We can take steps right now and take a giant leap toward global justice,” he said, adding that he has proposed a stimulus of $500 billion a year for investments in sustainable development and climate action.
In a nod to those looking for tangible progress from the summit, IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva announced that a key pledge to rechannel $100 billion of liquidity boosting “special drawing rights” into a climate and poverty fund had been met.
Macron said he was hopeful that a 2009 pledge to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations by 2020 would finally be fulfilled this year, although actual confirmation the money has been delivered will take months, if not years.
Greece saves 145 migrants on border with Turkiye: report
According to a unit of the Greek branch of the Red Cross present at the operation, the migrants, including 45 women and 30 children, "are in good condition"
The migrants, whose identities were not revealed, were abandoned on the island by traffickers coming from Turkiye
Updated 22 June 2023
AFP
ATHENS: Greek authorities on Thursday rescued 145 migrants stranded on an island in the Evros River marking the border with Turkey, a common route for people fleeing war and poverty to reach Europe.
According to a unit of the Greek branch of the Red Cross present at the operation, the migrants, including 45 women and 30 children, "are in good condition," the Greek news agency ANA said.
The migrants, whose identities were not revealed, were abandoned on the island by traffickers coming from Turkey, according to a Greek police statement.
"It is not the first time that smugglers have pushed migrants towards Greek territory," Panayiotis Harelas, head of the Greek border guard federation, told AFP.
Athens often accuses Ankara of allowing migrants to cross into Greece.
In June, Greek authorities rescued 91 people in the same area, including many Yazidis -- a Kurdish-speaking minority living mainly in Iraq.
Thousands of migrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have entered Greece in recent years from the sea and land borders with Turkey.
Following a strict migration policy, Greece has stepped up patrols in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey with the help of the European Border Surveillance Agency, Frontex.
On the Evros land border, the outgoing conservative government, forecast to win the June 25 election, has promised to extend a 15-foot (five metres) high metal fence already built 38 kilometres (24 miles) along the river.
Despite the security clampdown, migrant tragedies continue in the eastern Mediterranean region.
On June 14, a dilapidated boat capsized and sank off Pylos in the Peloponnese, drowning 82 people, while "hundreds" were reported missing, according to some of the 104 survivors.
Ukraine progresses on reforms to unlock membership talks, EU says
The assessment, by the EU's executive body, the European Commission, offered Kyiv hope that it could achieve its aim of getting the green light for membership talks in December
"They are on track, they are working hard. After all, the country is under attack," said Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for relations with the EU's neighbours
Updated 22 June 2023
Reuters
BRUSSELS: Senior EU officials said on Thursday that Ukraine is making progress on political reforms to open the way for European Union membership talks but still needs to progress in five important areas.
The assessment, by the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, offered Kyiv hope that it could achieve its aim of getting the green light for membership talks in December even it fights to repel Russia’s invasion.
But it also made clear that Ukraine has a way to go just to complete the seven steps that the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership.
“They are on track, they are working hard. After all, the country is under attack,” said Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for relations with the EU’s neighbors. “Compared to that, I think that they are delivering.”
In an update for the EU’s member countries, Varhelyi said Kyiv had completed two of the seven steps, as reported by Reuters on Monday — reform of two judicial bodies and the adoption of media legislation in line with EU standards.
He said Ukraine had made progress but had more work to do on constitutional court reform, on measures to fight corruption, money laundering and curb the influence of oligarchs, and on the treatment of minorities.
He also stressed the European Commission would look at a broader range of factors in a full report in October on Ukraine’s suitability for membership talks.
“We are just in the middle of the work so it’s too early to tell you where they are going to be,” he told reporters after presenting his assessment to European affairs ministers from the bloc’s 27 member countries in Stockholm.
Jessika Roswall, Sweden’s European affairs minister, said Ukraine’s reform efforts had been “impressive” in the face of “extraordinary circumstances.”
“Ukraine has taken substantial steps forward,” she said.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European integration, said the assessment held no surprises.
She told Ukrainian TV the government would now focus on the steps necessary to get a positive verdict in October and it was cautiously optimistic that it would achieve one.
A decision on whether and when to start accession talks rests with the EU’s member governments.
Varhelyi also said Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova had completed three of the nine steps outlined by the EU when it was granted membership candidate status at the same time as Kyiv last year.
He said Georgia had completed three of 12 steps outlined by the EU on its bid to be a membership candidate.
To join the EU, a country has to align its laws with many e EU standards ranging from climate to labor. That process usually takes many years.
Ukraine’s neighbors on the EU’s eastern flank, Poland and the Baltic states, generally support a fast track for Kyiv, while western, older member states including France, Germany and the Netherlands are cooler on the idea.
