In the photo: the destroyed neighborhoods of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. Top news of the day | Wednesday: Ukraine, Gaza, USA, Mother Language Day UN
The main news of the day in the UN and in the world: new shelling in Ukraine, the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, environmental pollution in North Carolina, International Mother Language Day.
New shelling in Ukraine
As a result of shelling in the Donetsk region, a filtration station in Kramatorsk was damaged, which led to a disruption in the supply of clean water. The UN press service reported this with reference to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs. Now 90 thousand people live in the city, and before the war the population of the city was 220 thousand people. The strikes also resulted in civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure on both sides of the front line in the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian government and Russian-appointed authorities on the other side of the front. Humanitarian organizations immediately delivered aid to the victims, including materials to repair destroyed houses on the Ukrainian side. Also in the Donetsk region, humanitarian partners provided assistance to the front-line town of Kurakhovo.
The situation in Gaza
The Gaza Strip faces an unacceptable sanitary, epidemiological and humanitarian situation, and conditions continue to deteriorate, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Wednesday. “The Gaza Strip has become a death zone,” he told reporters at a briefing in Geneva. According to the WHO Director-General, more than 29 thousand people have died as a result of the war in the enclave, with many more missing and presumed dead. More Palestinians were injured, he added. Across the sector, acute malnutrition has risen sharply since October 7, from less than one percent of the population hungry to more than 15 percent in some areas. This figure will rise, Dr. Tedros warned.
US Pollution
US chemical companies DuPont and Chemours are releasing toxic substances into the environment with complete disregard for the rights of residents of the lower Cape Fear River region in North Carolina, independent UN experts said on Wednesday. They noted that for decades, local communities have been deprived of access to clean and safe water. These are a class of toxic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” – they do not break down easily in nature and can cause harm for decades or even centuries. UN experts have expressed alarm over the import of hazardous waste from the Netherlands into the United States, which they say is a clear violation of international law.
International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day, proclaimed by UNESCO and approved by the UN General Assembly, is celebrated annually on February 21 . This year the theme of the Day is “Multilingual education – the basis for learning and knowledge transfer between generations.” According to the UN, 40 percent of the world’s population does not have access to education in a language they speak or understand, and in some regions the figure is as high as 90 percent. There are about 7,000 languages in the world today, and 45 percent of them are endangered. However, only a few hundred languages are prominent in education systems and the public sector, and less than a hundred languages are used in the digital sphere.