UN News Interviews - 2024

This is the News in Brief, with the following top stories on Tuesday, 29 March 2022:

- Ukraine war could create widespread food insecurity, warns FAO
- UN’s atomic watchdog chief in Ukraine to support nuclear power plants
- Dire impact from floods in South Sudan as new wet season looms

Audio: Daniel Johnson, UN News - Geneva
Photo: Canoes have become the only means of transport for residents of Old Fangak, South Sudan. © UNHCR/Samuel Otieno

News in Brief - 29 March 2022 - Ukraine war, food insecurity, and South Sudan flooding

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Wednesday condemned Israel’s military escalation in the occupied West Bank, calling for attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to stop, along with settler violence and the forcible transfer of Palestinians.

Ajith Sunghay, Head of OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told UN News that as the situation deteriorates even further - against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza - people live in fear”.

He told Abdelmonem Makki a large number of settlers are entering Palestinian communities in the West Bank to attack herders or farmers, and “we’re seeing more and more backing of the IDF of settlers”.

Audio Credit: Abdelmonem Makki, UN News
Photo: Tulkarm in the northern West Bank was bombed in April 2024. (file) © UNRWA

West Bank: ‘Constant fear’ amid soaring Israeli settler violence

Some 4.5 million children are not attending school in Yemen, where Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and Houthi rebels have been at war for a decade. 

Peter Hawkins, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Yemen, said the “catastrophic situation” is a “time bomb” as the country could possibly have a generation of citizens who are unable to read and write.

He told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed that UNICEF has been working to rehabilitate damaged schools and to support teachers and children in returning to the classroom, especially girls, though he acknowledged it is not enough.

 But first, Mr. Hawkins refuted recent “baseless” Houthi allegations that UN agencies and partners have been colluding to destroy Yemen’s education system.

Audio credit: Khaled Mohamed, UN News
Audio duration: 8'16"
Photo caption: Children in Amran, Yemen, enter a UNICEF-supported child protection centre.
Photo credit: © UNICEF/Ali Alsunaidar
Photo caption:

UNICEF working to avert education ‘time bomb’ in Yemen

Amid the brutal war in Gaza and fears of famine, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is providing Palestinian livestock holders with veterinary kits to keep their animals healthy and disease-free.

This is just one example of the UN agency’s work to ensure food security and economic stability in conflict zones, including the West Bank, Ukraine and Sudan.

To find out more about these efforts, UN News’s Nancy Sarkis in Geneva spoke to FAO Deputy Director Beth Bechdol. 

Audio Credit: Nancy Sarkis, UN News
Photo Credit: UN Geneva/Srdan Slavkovic

Agricultural assistance is key to feed hungry people in war zones: FAO

A series of crises is making it difficult for Haiti’s most vulnerable farming households to work their land, recover from natural weather events and build their livelihoods according to a senior representative of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Extreme weather, including hurricanes, as well as the effects of climate change and now rampant insecurity have dramatically impacted successive growing seasons leaving around five million Haitians hungry.

The Caribbean island nation of 11 million people is largely rural and agriculture employs about half of the workforce.

FAO’s director of emergencies, Rein Paulsen, has visited Haiti and spoke from the capital Port-au-Prince to UN News’ Daniel Dickinson at about a farming community he visited in Grande Anse in the southwest of the country.

Audio Credit: Daniel Dickinson, UN News
Photo Credit: WFP Haiti/Theresa Piorr

Haiti: Successive crises limit time for recovery of vulnerable farming households

Amid intensifying strikes either side of the Israel-Lebanon border linked to the war in Gaza, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that some 1,500 people are still in hospital from this week’s extraordinary attack on mobile communication devices, reportedly targeting the Hezbollah armed group. 

Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, the UN health agency’s Representative in Lebanon, said that almost 3,000 injured people were rushed to hospitals after the pager and walkie-talkie explosions. Medical teams struggled to handle the massive influx of patients in the country where the “tension is increasing every day”, said the WHO official.

He spoke to UN News’s Nancy Sarkis.

Audio Credit: Nancy Sarkis, UN News

Lebanon crisis: UN health agency ‘committed’ to offering support

Haiti is facing a “catastrophic and cataclysmic” human rights situation according to the UN’s designated expert on rights issues in the Caribbean island nation, William O’Neill.

Attacks by gangs, executions, kidnappings for ransom, violence against women – including  rape – as well as corruption, inmates dying in jail and a paralyzed judicial system, are just some of the rights challenges the country is facing. 

And now Haitians are becoming frustrated at the slow pace of international efforts, particularly the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, to help the country to combat these problems, according to Mr. O’Neill. 

The human rights expert has just finished a 12-day mission to Haiti.
Daniel Dickinson spoke to him from the capital Port-au-Prince and began by asking how ordinary Haitians are coping. 

Audio credit: Daniel Dickinson, UN News
Photo credit: OHCHR/William O'Neill

Haiti facing ‘cataclysmic’ human rights situation

UN News audio products range from daily interviews to our flagship podcast series, ‘The Lid Is On’.  On our Sound Cloud account we  provide also audio clips of statements. 

For other audio products such as our Monday-Friday 'News in Brief', please visit our UN News website - Audio Hub where you can download the full range of bulletins, packages, podcasts and interviews, in easy-to-use mp3 format. 

All our products can be downloaded and used free of charge and without attribution by broadcasters in their programmes or as a source of information and materials for individual reporters.

https://news.un.org/en/audio-hub

West Bank: ‘Constant fear’ amid soaring Israeli settler violence

United Nations News

Related tracks