Tag: peak food

Palestine
Gaza

Gaza: demand ‘reckoning’ over ‘horrific violations’

The UN Human Rights Office released a report detailing six months of war in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024, denouncing the “horrific” suffering inflicted by Israel as well as Palestinian armed groups, and warning of potential crimes against humanity. In an accompanying release, the UN rights chief Volker Türk urged Israel to comply with international law. He warned that there would be a “due reckoning with respect to allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies…” (Photo: WAFA via Jurist)

The Caribbean
Port-au-Prince

Killings continue to escalate in Haiti

New UN data shows that more than 1,200 people were killed and 522 wounded in Haiti between July and September. This represents a 27% increase in casualties compared to the second quarter. Figures could get even worse, as a new wave of coordinated gang attacks isterrorizing areas that had previously been spared. About 10,000 people were forced to flee parts of Port-au-Prince, while nearly 22,000 more were displaced in Arcahaie, north of the capital. Gangs also fired at a UN helicopter used by the World Food Program to deliver aid, while a Catholic charity’s hospital clinic was vandalized and set on fire. A new UN report projects that 5.4 million Haitians—nearly half the population—will face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity by February 2025. Despite the ever-rising violence, the US government continues its deportation flights. (Photo: El Soberano)

Africa
Gezira

New atrocities by RSF reported in Sudan’s Gezira

Brutal attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on villages and towns in Sudan’s Gezira state, south of Khartoum, have displaced around 120,000 people over the past two weeks, resembling the kind of violence used by the paramilitary group in the Darfur region beginning last year. The attacks were triggered by the defection to the army of the RSF’s top commander in Gezira, Abu Aqla Kayka; villages under his control were reportedly targeted. The UN said the attacks left at least 124 people dead and resulted in more than 27 women and girls being raped, though these numbers are likely a massive undercount given survivor testimonies, activist reports, and videos that show rows of bodies wrapped in shrouds. The attacks are among the worst to take place in Gezira since the RSF took over the state in December 2023. The state is considered the country’s breadbasket, but farmers have been forced to flee and cropland has been deliberately burnt. (Map: Sudan War Monitor)

The Caribbean
Cuba

Power outages persist in storm-wracked Cuba

The collapse of the electrical grid plunged the entire island of Cuba into darkness last week—a situation worsened by the arrival of Hurricane Oscar. The national blackout, which caused many families to lose most of the little food they had, sparked rare protests amid a broader economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and widespread shortages of medicine, food, and water. Power has now been restored in the capital, Havana, but many rural areas remain in the dark, while schools and workplaces across the country remain closed due to ongoing energy-saving measures. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Palestine
Mawasi

UN: Israeli attacks on medical facilities are war crimes

A UN report documented Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical personnel in the Gaza Strip in violation of international human rights law, calling the attacks war crimes and crimes against humanity. Citing the World Health Organization, the report states that between October 7, 2023 and July 30, 2024, Israel engaged in “498 attacks on health care facilities in the Gaza Strip,” with 747 people killed, 969 injured, and 110 facilities affected. The report—written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel—also condemned Israeli treatment of detainees, citing instances of abuse, torture, sexual assault, and arbitrary detention. (Photo: Mohamed Solaimane/TNH)

The Caribbean
Martinique

France deploys anti-riot police to Martinique

The French government deployed the special anti-riot police, the Republican Security Companies (CRS), to Martinique in response to ongoing protests over the rising cost of living on the French-ruled Caribbean island. The deployment marks the first time CRS units have been sent to Martinique since they were banned from the territory in December 1959, following violent protests in departmental capital Fort-de-France that drew widespread criticism over heavy-handed police intervention. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Sudan

Calls mount for Sudan intervention force

A UN fact-finding mission for Sudan called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed “without delay” to protect civilians. Its case is bolstered by reports of a new set of grave human rights violations in the country. In southeastern Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were accused of killing 40 people in artillery strikes on local markets and residential areas, while in Darfur’s famine-stricken Zam Zam displacement site, the RSF reportedly tightened a siege and arrested traders trying to supply the camp. The war that began in April 2023 has produced the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. Recent mediation efforts have failed, with the army refusing to turn up and the RSF using its attendance to try to launder its terrible image. (Map: PCL)

Palestine
Gaza

Israeli strikes hit aid convoy in Gaza

An Israeli air-strike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza, killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). Israel says it was attacking “armed assailants” who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a “humanitarian deconfliction” program intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to the World Food Program, which said it was pausing staff operations in Gaza until further notice. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Africa
Sudan

Sudan peace talks no-show

US-sponsored talks to halt the 16-month conflict in Sudan kicked off in Geneva, but there was a no-show from the army despite all the fanfare. There had been hope that the new venue and buy-in from regional powers supporting the warring factions—including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates—would give the process a better chance of succeeding than prior, disjointed mediation attempts. But the army’s command remains internally divided on the issue of dialogue—especially while it is on the back foot militarily—and is wary of the US. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the army’s rival, is meanwhile being accused of attending talks only to launder its image and bolster its international legitimacy. Grassroots civilian groups also remain deeply wary of another potential power-sharing accord that strengthens the military generals at their expense. (Map: PCL)

Greater Middle East
Yemen

Yemen: Houthis obstruct aid amid deepening disaster

Flooding in Yemen’s coastal Hodeidah province has killed at least 30 people, while floods in the inland district of Taizz killed 15. The World Health Organization reports severe damage to homes and infrastructure, with contaminated water worsening the cholera outbreak in the country. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said in a new report that authorities across Yemen have “obstructed aid” to stricken areas, and “failed to take adequate preventative measures to mitigate the spread of cholera.” The report especially criticizes such obstruction by the Houthi forces, who have for years maintained a siege of Taizz. (Map via PCL)

Greater Middle East
syria

Regional war looms closer after Golan rocket strike

Israeli warplanes hit several targets in southern Lebanon, as diplomats worked frantically to prevent a regional war after a rocket strike that killed 12 youths in the Golan Heights. Israel is blaming Hezbollah for the rocket, which struck a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Hezbollah has denied responsibility, asserting that a projectile from Israel’s own Iron Dome missile defense system hit the village amid strikes on military targets elsewhere in the area by the Iran-backed Lebanese armed organization. Israel and Hezbollah have been trading strikes over the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, a day after the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has killed 527 people in Lebanon since then, according to an AFP tally, including at least 104 civilians. Israel says 23 of its civilians and 17 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah rocket-fire over this period. (Image: Pixabay)

Africa
west africa

West Africa: dissidents detained, disappeared

Amnesty International urged Malian authorities to immediately release dissident Youssouf Daba Diawara and 11 other arbitrarily detained opposition politicians. According to the statement, Mali’s junta has been arbitrarily holding these political figures solely for exercising their civil rights. Diawara was forced from his car by armed men in Bamako and taken to the Gendarmerie’s Criminal Investigations Brigade. He was charged with “opposition to legitimate authority” for participating in a protest against power cuts and inflation. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also expressed concern over the “disappearance” of activists in neighboring Guinea. Both Mali and Guinea have been led by military juntas since coups d’etat in 2020 and 2021, respectively. (Map: World Sites Atlas)