UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations-backed conference raised $2.4 billion Wednesday to prevent famine in the Horn of Africa, which is reeling from its worst drought in decades as global temperatures rise.
The money will provide life-saving assistance for nearly 32 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the world body’s humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement.
“Famine has been averted, thanks in part to the tremendous efforts of local communities, humanitarian organizations and authorities, as well as the support of donors,” OCHA said.
But the sum is considerably less than the $7 billion the United Nations says is needs to provide help to people affected by drought and conflict in the region.
“The emergency is far from over, and additional resources are urgently required to prevent a return to the worst-case scenario,” OCHA added.
Since late 2020, countries in the Horn of Africa — Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan — have been suffering the region’s worst drought in 40 years.
Five failed rainy seasons have left millions of people in need, decimated crops and killed millions of livestock.
More than 23.5 million people are enduring high levels of acute food insecurity in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, according to OCHA.
In Somalia alone, which is also in the throes of an Islamist insurgency, the number of people displaced from their homes by armed conflict, drought or floods now stands at 3.8 million, with 6.7 million people struggling to find food, according to figures from the UN and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
More than half a million children are severely malnourished, the two organizations added.
Deaths from hunger are on the rise in Africa because of droughts worsened by climate change and conflict, UN officials and scientists say.
The devastating drought in the Horn of Africa could not have occurred without the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the World Weather Attribution group, an international team of climate scientists, said in a report released in April.
“We can be anything but complacent,” said Andrew Mitchell, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for development and Africa. “The clear and present threat remains, and we must act now to prevent further suffering.
“Funding pledged today will help millions, but we must work together to break the cycle of crisis afflicting so many states.”
Earlier this week, a group of NGOs, including Islamic Relief Worldwide and Save the Children, called on donors to fully fund the humanitarian response required for “one of the biggest climate injustices of our time.”
Citing UN numbers, the organizations pointed out that despite funding mobilized to aid the region last year, an estimated 43,000 people died from the drought in Somalia alone in 2022.
At the opening of the donors’ conference — organized in conjunction with Italy, Qatar, the UK, and the United States — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for “an immediate and major injection of funding” to stop people from dying.
“We must act now to prevent crisis from turning into catastrophe,” he added, recalling that last year donor countries delivered vital help to 20 million people in the region and helped avert a famine.
Guterres said people in the region — which he described as “the epicenter of one of the world’s worst climate emergencies” — were “paying an unconscionable price for a climate crisis they did nothing to cause.”
“We owe them solidarity. We owe them assistance. And we owe them a measure of hope for the future. This means immediate action to secure their survival. And it means sustained action to help communities across the Horn adapt and build resilience to climate change,” he added.
OCHA said the funds pledged Wednesday would allow humanitarian agencies to sustain aid pipelines of food, water, health care, nutrition and protection services.
Joyce Msuya, the UN’s deputy emergency relief coordinator, welcomed the pledge but added: “We must persist in pushing for stepped-up investments, especially to bolster the resilience of people already bearing the brunt of climate change.”
UN conference pledges $2.4bn to head off Horn of Africa famine
https://arab.news/n8zqd
UN conference pledges $2.4bn to head off Horn of Africa famine
- The money will provide life-saving assistance for nearly 32 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia
- Deaths from hunger are on the rise in Africa because of droughts worsened by climate change and conflict said UN officials
After criticism, Spain museum alters name of Palestinian program
The museum, one of Spain’s most visited which is home to Pablo Picasso’s historic Guernica painting about the horrors of war, had controversially called the program “From The River To the Sea” — a rallying cry among Palestinians.
The term refers to the borders of the British Palestine mandate between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea before Israel’s establishment in 1948. Some Jewish groups see it as calling for the destruction of Israel.
In a statement, the museum said it had renamed the program “Critical Thinking Gatherings, International Solidarity With Palestine” since the original name was considered “offensive to certain communities.”
The program includes lectures, conversations and meetings with Palestinian artists as well as two art installations, all aimed at demanding “an end of the war and genocide,” according to the museum’s website.
Spain’s FCJE, an umbrella body representing the Jewish community, had denounced the original title of the program.
“This slogan, considered anti-Semitic by the US House of Representatives, implies the elimination of Israel and its inhabitants... it also appears on maps at various rallies where Israel is erased,” it said in a statement.
Spain has been one of Europe’s most critical voices about Israel’s Gaza offensive and is working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state.
The Gaza war began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel.
The unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, 128 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 36 the military says are dead.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a blistering retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Moroccan asylum-seeker gets life sentence for killing UK retiree in attack motivated by war in Gaza
- Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb sentenced Alid to life with no chance of parole for 45 years
- “The murder of Terence Carney was a terrorist act in which you hoped to influence the British government,” she said
LONDON: A Moroccan asylum-seeker who stabbed a British retiree to death in revenge for Israel’s war against Hamas was sentenced Friday to at least 45 years in prison for what the judge termed a terrorist act.
Ahmed Alid told police after his arrest that he’d killed 70-year-old Terence Carney in the northeast England town of Hartlepool because “Israel had killed innocent children.”
“They killed children and I killed an old man,” he said during questioning.
Prosecutors said that on Oct. 15 — eight days after the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza — Alid attacked his housemate, Iranian asylum-seeker Javed Nouri, with a knife as he slept. Nouri survived. Alid then ran outside, encountered Carney having a morning walk and stabbed him six times.
Prosecution lawyer Jonathan Sandiford said Alid had told police that “if he had had a machine gun and more weapons, he would have killed more victims.”
Alid, 45, had denied the charges against him. Although he acknowledged stabbing the men, he said he had no intent to kill or cause serious harm.
A jury at Teesside Crown Court last month found Alid guilty of one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and two counts of assaulting police officers during his post-arrest interview.
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb sentenced Alid to life with no chance of parole for 45 years, saying he had shown “no genuine remorse or pity” for his victims.
“The murder of Terence Carney was a terrorist act in which you hoped to influence the British government,” she said. “You hoped to frighten the British people and undermine the freedoms they enjoy.”
In a victim impact statement, the victim’s wife Patricia Carney said she could no longer go into town because it was “too painful” to be near the spot where her husband was murdered.
Nouri, a convert to Christianity, said the attack had destroyed his sense of safety.
“I would expect to be arrested and killed in my home country for converting to Christianity but I did not expect to be attacked in my sleep here,” his statement said. “How is it possible for someone to destroy someone’s life because of his religion?”
Slovak PM has new surgery, condition ‘still very serious’
- The Banska Bystrica hospital director said Fico remained “conscious” despite being in a “serious” condition
- “This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential election since he was dissatisfied with its outcome,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said
BRATISLAVA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s condition was on Friday “still very serious” two days after an attempted assassination, his deputy and close ally said, as police raided the suspect’s home.
Fico was hospitalized after the shooting on Wednesday, which happened as the 59-year-old leader was speaking to members of the public after a meeting in the central town of Handlova.
“He was operated on again, he had an almost two-hour-long operation,” deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak told reporters outside the hospital in Banska Bystrica.
Fico had previously undergone a five-hour-long surgery, shortly after being airlifted from the scene of the attack on Wednesday.
“His state is still very serious. I think it would take a couple of days to see the course of the development of his state,” Kalinak added on Friday.
The Banska Bystrica hospital director said Fico remained “conscious” despite being in a “serious” condition.
Earlier on Friday, local media reported that Slovak police had searched the home of the man charged with the shooting.
Officers brought along the alleged gunman, who was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, to the apartment he shared with his wife in the western town of Levice, Markiza TV footage showed.
“Police stayed in the apartment for several hours... They took the computer and documents out of the apartment,” the private broadcaster said.
Police, who told AFP they would not comment on an ongoing investigation, have not named the suspect but media have identified him as 71-year-old writer Juraj Cintula.
He was charged on Thursday with attempted murder with premeditation in what the authorities have called a politically motivated attack.
“This is a lone wolf whose actions were accelerated after the presidential election since he was dissatisfied with its outcome,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said.
The attack has stoked fears of further violence and instability in the politically polarized nation, just weeks before European Parliament elections.
Officials drew a link to the political situation in the country, with its political scene marred by disinformation and attacks on social media during recent election campaigns.
Slovak president-elect Peter Pellegrini, who won an election in April, on Wednesday urged the political parties to suspend or reduce campaigning before the EU vote.
The biggest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, and others announced that they had done so.
Fico, a four-time premier and political veteran, returned to office in October.
Since then, he has made a string of remarks that have soured ties between Slovakia and neighboring Ukraine after he questioned the country’s sovereignty.
After he was elected, Slovakia stopped sending weapons to Ukraine, invaded by Russia in 2022.
Ukraine braces for ‘heavy battles’ as Putin says Russia carving out Kharkiv buffer zone
- Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the attack had expanded the area of hostilities by around 70km
- “We understand there will be heavy battles and that the enemy is preparing for that,” the head of the Ukrainian armed forces wrote on Telegram
KYIV: Ukraine’s top commander warned on Friday of “heavy battles” looming on the war’s new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was carving out a “buffer zone” in the area.
Russian forces attacked the Kharkiv region’s north last Friday, making inroads of up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) and unbalancing Kyiv’s outnumbered troops who are trying to hold the line over a sprawling front nearly 27 months since the full-scale invasion.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the attack had expanded the area of hostilities by around 70km and that Russia had launched its incursion ahead of schedule when “it noticed the deployment of our forces.”
“We understand there will be heavy battles and that the enemy is preparing for that,” the head of the Ukrainian armed forces wrote in a statement on the Telegram app.
Speaking during a state visit to China, Putin said Moscow’s forces were creating a “buffer zone” to protect Russian border regions, but that capturing the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, was not part of the current plan.
The Russian leader told a news conference the assault was a response to Kyiv’s shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod.
“Civilians are dying there. It’s obvious. They are shooting directly at the city center, at residential areas. And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. That is what we are doing,” Putin said.
Russian forces were able to advance 10 kilometers in one place, but Ukrainian forces have “stabilized” the front, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainian media outlets in comments published on Friday.
HEAVIEST ASSAULTS IN EAST
Moscow’s forces are mounting their heaviest assaults in the eastern Donetsk region, according to data compiled by the Ukrainian General Staff, which said the eastern Pokrovsk front had faced the most regular assaults in recent days.
In his comments, Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were preparing their defensive lines for a possible new Russian assault on the Sumy region, which would mark another front more than a hundred kilometers to the north of Kharkiv.
Kyiv has warned that Russia has small units of forces near the Sumy region.
Volodymyr Artiukh, head of the Sumy region’s military administration, said Russian military activity along the northern Ukrainian region was at a high level.
“We note that the actions (of Russian forces) are systematic. Shelling continues, in fact, along the entire border, with an intensity of 200-400 explosions per day... The intensity of enemy sabotage groups has increased,” he said.
Indian UN peacekeeper killed by Israeli forces in Gaza repatriated for burial
- Col. Waibhav Anil Kale was hit by Israeli fire while in UN-marked vehicle
- Indian veterans condemn Israel for indiscriminate killing, ‘barbaric’ use of force
NEW DELHI: Indian veterans joined in condemning Israel’s killing of a former army officer and UN staffer Col. Waibhav Anil Kale, whose body was returned to India for burial on Friday.
Kale was on duty with the UN Department of Safety and Security when he was targeted in his UN-marked vehicle in southern Gaza on Monday.
A former peacekeeper, he was hit by what the UN said it had no doubt was Israeli tank fire.
The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv shared a photo on Friday morning showing UN officials paying their last respects to Kale, before his remains were flown to Delhi.
While the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying it was “deeply saddened by the death,” civil society has urged the government to hold Israel accountable. Former servicemen also joined the call.
“Israel must be held accountable. Killing a veteran officer engaged in the UN is a serious issue,” said Indian Army Maj. Gen. (retd.) Yashpal Mor.
A former UN staffer himself, Mor told Arab News that Kale had a “brilliant career” and was known in the army circles.
“When you work with the UN, you are in an international environment, but you have the ethos and ethics of the Indian army. It was very sad and very shocking. He actually died in the line of duty,” he said.
“Israelis have been doing this since the beginning. They are not worried about anyone. They are going berserk.”
Israel’s deadly siege and bombardment of Gaza has since October killed over 35,300 people, wounded 70,000, and left most of the enclave’s population starving and with no access to food, water, and medical supplies.
“Israelis will lose sympathy by doing this indiscriminate firing,” Col. Anil Bhat (retd.), former spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense, said. “In the Indian army, we are so attentive to civilian casualties that we lose more men by not doing indiscriminate firing … Indiscriminate killing is not good. Israelis will lose sympathy.”
The UN estimates that more than 190 of its staff members have also been killed in the ongoing onslaught. Kale was the first international UN employee to be killed.
New Delhi had always been sensitive to assaults on UN personnel given that it is one of the largest contributors of the organization’s peacekeepers.
But the government’s statement did not contain condemnation of Kale’s killing, unlike in July 2022, when two Indian peacekeepers were killed in an attack on a UN Organization Stabilization Mission base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
At that time, India’s foreign minister said the perpetrators “must be held accountable and brought to justice” and convened a special meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the attack.
“India has good bilateral relations with Israel, but that shouldn’t prevent it from strongly condemning the latter,” said Air Marshal (retd.) Kapil Kak of the Indian Air Force.
“One is deeply pained and distressed at Israel’s barbaric force in Gaza, which has led to the death and maiming of thousands of children and monumental human suffering. This is in sharp contrast to past India-Pakistan wars. I took part in two of these, which were far more civilized in character and caused no collateral damage, despite the absence of precision-guided munition.”
