A refugee from Sudan with a child she gave birth to herself, without medical care. Top news of the day | Tuesday: Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, UNCTAD UN
The main news of the day in the UN and the world: the war is depriving Ukrainian children of their childhood; severe food shortages in Gaza; violent clashes in Sudan; debt of the countries of Europe and Central Asia.
The situation in Gaza
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that it remains difficult to get aid into Gaza due to access restrictions and fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people remain without support. UNICEF reports that about three thousand children suffering from acute malnutrition may lose the opportunity to receive treatment, since the UN Children’s Fund is unable to send aid to them. In Rafah, where fighting continues, only one hospital operates. The World Health Organization warns that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get materials there. Meanwhile, according to the UN, families with children have to travel long distances in the heat to get water – desalination plants in Gaza are not working due to an acute shortage of fuel.
Sudan
The UN is sounding the alarm about the situation of the population of El Fasher in North Darfur, which is at the center of violent clashes. According to the International Organization for Migration, about 130,000 people have been forced to flee their homes over the past two months due to violence in El Fasher and its surrounding areas. As of March this year, an estimated 3.7 million children under five years of age and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women suffer from acute malnutrition. UNICEF warns that armed clashes over control of the Golo reservoir, located west of the city, could leave some 270,000 people without clean water. The UN calls for an end to attacks on critical civilian infrastructure.
The impact of war on the lives of Ukrainian children
More than 600 Ukrainian children have been killed since the Russian invasion escalated in February 2022, with another 1,420 injured. Denise Brown, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, stated this on the International Day of Innocent Child Victims of Aggression, which is celebrated on June 4. She stressed that the Russian invasion has been causing enormous physical, psychological and emotional harm to children for more than two years, destroying their lives and threatening their future. Brown said that due to the ongoing attacks, children in the front-line areas had to spend up to seven months in total in bomb shelters. “Childhood should not be spent underground,” she emphasized. In 2023, the Secretary-General officially included Russia in the list of countries violating the rights of children during the conflict, Brown recalled.
UNCTAD report on debt
Russia accounts for more than half of the Europe and Central Asia region’s total public debt, according to a new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The national debt of the Russian Federation in 2022 amounted to $434 billion, and the total regional debt was $789 billion. Between 2010 and 2022, the stock of public debt in Europe and Central Asia increased 2.5 times, growing at eight percent per year. At the same time, regional GDP grew over the same period by only 1.4 times. Of the subregions, debt grew fastest in the Caucasus and Western Balkans, and among countries – in Uzbekistan, but at the beginning of this period the country had a very low level of public debt.