Japan, China allocate $2m to UNRWA

UNRWA Director of Partnerships Karim Amer and China’s Head of Office to Palestine, Zeng Jixin. (UNRWA)
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Updated 20 August 2023
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Japan, China allocate $2m to UNRWA

  • Funding to help rebuild health services, assist Palestinian refugee schoolchildren

LONDON: Japan and China have allocated a total of $2 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. 

Japan contributed $1 million on Friday to help rebuild health services in the wake of an Israeli Security Forces operation in Jenin refugee camp in July. 

The UNRWA health center, the primary healthcare facility in the camp, was badly damaged in the operation and is no longer operational.

The aid will enable the agency to develop and operate a temporary health center in and around the camp for refugees, as well as providing mental health and psychological support.

BACKGROUND

The aid will enable the agency to develop and operate a temporary health center in and around the Jenin camp for refugees, as well as providing mental health and psychological support.

“This emergency response is a gesture of Japan’s support for Palestinian refugees in Jenin camp in critical humanitarian need for sanitation, health and response to unexploded ordnance,” Japan’s Ambassador to Palestine, Nakashima Yoichi, said.

“I would like to express our deep sympathy and solidarity with the people who suffered from the recent Israeli Security Forces operation, and our wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured and affected, directly or indirectly, by the situation.”

Meanwhile, China donated $1 million to UNRWA on Wednesday, which will benefit 5,300 Palestine refugee children in five schools across the Gaza Strip.

China’s Ambassador to Palestine, Zeng Jixin, said: “For over 70 years, UNRWA has played an irreplaceable and vital role in alleviating the humanitarian plight of Palestinian refugees by providing them with critical relief and protection. 

“China fully recognizes and highly commends the work of UNRWA and has been providing assistance within our capacity to support UNRWA in fulfilling its mandate. 

“This year, China contributed $ 1 million to UNRWA, which is a concrete measure to implement President Xi Jinping’s three-point proposal for the settlement of the Palestinian question. 

“China is ready to work with the international community and make positive contributions to the early achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question and the realization of lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity in the Middle East.”
 


Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources

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Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources

KHARTOUM: Sudanese army forces broke Tuesday a paramilitary siege on the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, two army sources told AFP.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.