Thirty percent of all land is degraded, and has lost its true value. Land grabbing and a headlong rush for productive land signals a growing recognition that access to productive land will be crucial for future economic growth, peace and stability, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, UNCCD, speaking during COP23 in China in 2017
The World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD), to be marked worldwide on June 17, 2018, will focus on how consumers can regenerate economies, create jobs and revitalise livelihoods and communities by influencing the market to invest in sustainable land management through what we buy, says the UN organisation.
Unveiling the theme on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, Monique Barbut, Under-Secretary General of the UNCCD, said: “The campaign slogan, ‘Land has true value. Invest in it’, reminds us that land is a tangible asset with measurable value beyond just cash. That value is lost through degradation. But we can encourage land users to use land management practices that keep the land productive by the decisions we make every day in what we buy to eat, drink and wear.”
A mapping of the impacts of man’s individual decisions by the Global Land Outlook appears to show the real picture. An analysis of the food consumed in London found that around 80 per cent of the food is imported from other countries. The footprint for the Netherlands shows that the country needs four times its own land area to feed its people.
“Every coin a consumer spends determines where investments by the private sector and governments go – either to land degrading ventures or towards good land use practices. Let’s not underestimate how our small individual decisions transform the world, so let’s choose wisely with our purchases,” Ms Barbut said.
The sustainable development goal target to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030 is an important response to these challenges, UNCCD emphasises, adding that it will help to recover degraded lands, stop land grabbing, fight climate change, increase food production and provide clean water.
The global observance of the Day in 2018 will be hosted by the Government of Ecuador. Ecuador, it was gathered, promotes smart and healthy consumerism and supports the use of sustainable land use practices such as bioeconomy, which is an impact indicator of the National Development Plan (2017-2020).
The World Day to Combat Desertification was established by the UN General Assembly 23 years ago to be celebrated by every country in order to raise global awareness about the status of, and the priority actions taken at global and national levels to reverse desertification land degradation and strengthen responses to drought.
A maize specialist with Harvestplus Nigeria, Mr Dollah Yusuf, says that the company has developed vitamin A-fortified maize seeds which are disease-resistant and nutrient-rich.
A smallholder maize farmer in Uganda. Photo credit: Kelvin Owino
Yusuf said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 in Abuja.
He said that the vitamin A-fortified maize seeds would be distributed to maize farmers, adding that Harvestplus was working with some seed companies to facilitate the farmers’ access to the maize seeds.
He said that the improved variety of maize seed, which was developed through conventional techniques, was high yielding and disease resistant.
“We are using agriculture to now provide nutrients through conventional crop breeding techniques, so that everybody can have access to good nutrients in the simplest form and in the cheapest form.
“We have also tried as much as possible to create access to the improved maize seeds so that whoever wants to cultivate them can have hitch-free access to them.
“Last season, we worked with five seed companies and in this season, the number has increased to 10 seed companies,’’ he said.
Yusuf said that the maturity period of the maize variety was about 80 days, adding that farmers could, therefore, cultivate and harvest the maize within 110 days.
According to him, the consumption of vitamin A-fortified maize reduces the risk of experiencing “hidden hunger’’.
“Hidden hunger is a situation whereby you are eating food quite alright but your system is not getting the right nutrients it requires,’’ he said.
He said that the vitamin A-fortified maize was better than the white maize, which had only carbohydrates but lacked other essential nutrients.
“Vitamin A is for good eyesight, strengthening of your immune system and prevention of diarrhoea in children as well as good skin,’’ he added.
Yusuf said that Nigerian children could compete favourably with children from other parts of the world if they consumed nutritious foods like vitamin A-fortified maize.
He said that plans were underway by Harvestplus to make Nigerian staple foods more nutritious, adding that as part of the strategy, crops like rice; maize and cassava would be bio-fortified.
“Harvestplus Nigeria is leading a global effort in the fight against malnutrition with the goal of reaching 15 million farming households, 100 million people with bio-fortified foods by the year 2020,’’ he said.
Yusuf, however, underscored the need to promote the diversification of the citizens’ diet from white maize to vitamin A-fortified maize and other bio-fortified foods so as to boost their well-being.
Officials said kindergartens, schools and high schools in Iran’s capital Tehran remained closed for a third consecutive day on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 due to heavy air pollution.
Air pollution blankets the skyline of Tehran
Tehran Province’s Air Pollution Exigency Committee decided in a meeting on Tuesday to keep kindergartens, primary schools and high schools shut on Wednesday.
The air pollution in Tehran, with over 12 million population, is more than three times the level considered safe.
The committee also extended restrictions on the movement of cars in Tehran, and people were advised not to participate in group exercises in parks and green spaces.
The pollution is expected to stay longer above Tehran unless rare winds and rains to move the stagnant air.
Other major cities including Tabriz, Qom, Arak, Isfahan and Karaj also experienced poor air quality this week that reached its critical level on Tuesday.
Schools in Tabriz and Karaj were also closed due to poor air quality.
In the past years, Iran’s government and parliament made several efforts to solve Tehran’s air pollution, including imposing restrictions on the city’s traffic flow, passing measures urging safer fuel and replacing old, inefficient cars with new ones.
DNA analysis suggests that the first modern Britons, who lived some 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin and blue eyes, scientists said on Wednesday, February 7, 2018.
Full facial reconstruction model of a head based on the skull of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton on display during a screening event of The First Brit: Secrets Of The 10,000 Year Old Man at The Natural History Museum, in London. Photo credit: PA
The scientists from London’s Natural History Museum analysed DNA from an almost complete Homo sapiens skeleton, known as Cheddar Man after it was found in a cave in Cheddar Gorge in south-western England in 1903.
“Cheddar Man was a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer – fully modern human – with dark skin and blue eyes,” the scientists said.
They said that he was about 166cm tall and had probably died in his 20s.
“Until recently it was always assumed that humans quickly adapted to have paler skin after entering Europe about 45,000 years ago,
“Pale skin is better at absorbing UV light and helps humans avoid vitamin D deficiency in climates with less sunlight,” said researcher Tom Booth.
The team found Cheddar Man had “genetic markers of skin pigmentation usually associated with sub-Saharan Africa,” adding that this was “consistent with a number of other Mesolithic human remains discovered throughout Europe.”
“Cheddar Man subverts people’s expectations of what kinds of genetic traits go together,” Booth said.
“It seems that pale eyes entered Europe long before pale skin or blond hair, which didn’t come along until after the arrival of farming.
“He reminds us that you can’t make assumptions about what people looked like in the past based on what people look like in the present.”
Frank Bainimarama, President of the UN Climate Conference COP23 and Prime Minster of Fiji, has called everyone to take part in the so-called “Talanoa Dialgoue”, an important international conversation in which countries will check progress and seek to increase global ambition to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
“It is vitally important that all members of the Grand Coalition we are building for decisive action take part in the Talanoa Dialogue – governments at every level, civil society, the private sector and ordinary men and women,” he said.
Speaking at media summit on climate change and disaster risk reduction in Fiji, the COP President pointed out that the Talanoa Dialogue is a process designed to raise the ambition of national climate action plans (Nationally Determined Contributions or “NDCs”) that each country is making to reduce its own carbon emissions and build resilience to climate change.
“As those of you from the Pacific will know, talanoa is the word we use in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to describe an inclusive process in our own countries of sharing stories and experiences and achieving best practice in the decisions we make. And now we have taken this process to the global level to encourage everyone to move closer to our goal of keeping the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of the pre-industrial age,” he said
Frank Bainimarama underscored the importance of the new internet portal launched by the United Nations to support the Talanoa Dialogue. “We hope that this inclusive, participatory process will deliver the greater ambition we need to save our planet,” he said.
Prime Minister of Fiji and Oresident of COP23, Voreqe Frank Bainimarama. Photo credit: Fijian Government
The threat that climate change poses to the entire world is undoubtedly the greatest collective challenge humanity has ever faced. The resulting natural disasters pose a particular threat to vulnerable nations everywhere, including those of us in the Asia Pacific.
Whether it is extreme weather like cyclones and droughts that pose an acute risk to our people and our development; rising seas swamping our arable land; acidity and bleaching destroying our coral reefs; or changes to agriculture threatening our food security.
It is an unprecedented crisis that we must face together – every single person on earth helping to reverse the damage to our planet that we have all inflicted with our lifestyles. And replacing the current culture of abuse with a culture of preservation and care.
As my team and I preside over the global negotiations to reduce net carbon emissions to zero as soon as possible, you in the media have a critical role to play. And I ask you all to focus your complete attention this week on what you can do – individually and collectively – to assist your own nations, our region and the world to confront this challenge head on. To tell the stories that need to be told. To generate the action that needs to be taken.
Friends, you have the power through the keyboard, the camera and the spoken word to make a genuine difference. To highlight the urgency of concerted action at every level to avert catastrophe. But also to highlight the wonderful opportunities that lie ahead if we have the courage and imagination to fully embrace the transition to clean economies.
There are plenty of stories out there about the negative effects of climate change. Of current or impending disaster. Of gloom about the prospects of change. Of doom about what will happen if we don’t. But I ask you all to think outside the box – as I’m fond of saying – and in your storytelling, fire people’s imaginations about the positive. Of what is possible if we alter our mindsets from doom and gloom to working together effectively as people and as nations to meet this challenge.
This is the message I am taking everywhere I go as COP President: that great things are happening in the global quest to make the transition from dirty energy such as fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy such as hydro, solar and wind.
The technology is already emerging – such as battery storage – to ensure adequate energy supply and still make the cuts in carbon emissions that are needed to meet the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement – to limit the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of the pre industrial age. The challenge the world faces is to scale up that technology with a lot more investment to make it more affordable and more widely available. And especially in developing countries such as our own.
It can be done, it must be done and in many cases, is already being done, though not nearly as fast as it should be. Here in Fiji – off the back of our COP Presidency – we are making it a priority with the assistance of our development partners to bring clean, renewable energy to as many Fijians as possible. One of those partners is the Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation of the United States, which is working with us on a plan to bring solar power to Fijian communities who because of their isolation cannot be connected to the National Grid in the medium and long term. I salute this great actor and humanitarian for his generosity and vision and call on other men and women of means to follow his example.
You all have a list of the COP23 outcomes achieved at the November session in Bonn under Fiji’s leadership and you can find a lot more on our website. But I continually make the point that I am determined as COP President to link the global with the local. To match the calls for action in global political forums with genuine action on the ground. Whether it is access to affordable, clean energy; access to affordable insurance; or all manner of resilience building that can be replicated throughout the world and benefit as many people as possible.
My team and I are totally focused on delivering these outcomes, not only for Fijians but vulnerable people everywhere. We are certainly not resting on our laurels after our success in Bonn. The Fijian-led negotiations will continue right up until we hand over the Presidency to Poland in December. And we intend to work closely with our Polish friends at COP24 to make sure we deliver maximum ambition and momentum.
We are doing this with our joint stewardship of what the world has agreed to call the Talanoa Dialogue. It is a process that I hope will urgently raise ambition in the Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs that each country is making to reduce its own carbon emissions. As those of you from the Pacific will know, talanoa is the word we use in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to describe an inclusive process in our own countries of sharing stories and experiences and achieving best practice in the decisions we make. And now we have taken this process to the global level to encourage everyone to move closer to our goal of keeping the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of the pre industrial age.
It is vitally important that all members of the Grand Coalition we are building for decisive action take part in the Talanoa Dialogue – governments at every level, civil society, the private sector and ordinary men and women. And to enable this global conversation to take place, I’m delighted to highlight the launch last week of a special UN Internet portal where all stakeholders can put forward their ideas.
It’s at talanoadialogue.com, where you will find all the information you need plus the deadlines for submissions. And as COP President, I urge everyone – no matter where you are in the world – to talanoa with us in the Talanoa Dialogue. Talanoa for ambition. Talanoa for action.
It is a great honour that this Pacific way of doing things has resonated so strongly with the global community as a whole. And we fervently hope that this inclusive, participatory process – devoid of finger pointing and blame – will deliver the greater ambition we need to save our planet.
Friends, I also ask you all as members of the media to scale up your own ambition in telling our collective stories. To motivate our governments and people into action and help get the message out. There are inspirational stories everywhere of ordinary people banding together to confront the climate challenge and build the resilience of their own communities. So let’s lead the way in the Asia Pacific and talanoa as much as we can about what needs to be done.
As I keep saying: We are all in the same drua – the same canoe. We are all vulnerable and we must all act. And we can best act by working together harder and with a lot more focus. Because it’s no exaggeration to say that our lives depend on it.
In 15 day’s time, here in Fiji, we will mark the second anniversary of the deaths of 44 of our loved ones in Tropical Cyclone Winston – the biggest storm ever to make landfall in the southern hemisphere. Two years on, we still mourn the loss of our people and we are still in the process of recovering. Still rebuilding our schools and other public infrastructure. Only this time, we’re determined to build them to a much higher standard to withstand the more frequent and more destructive cyclones that we know are coming because of climate change.
Much of the rebuilding has been completed and it has required a great deal of planning, perseverance and patience. But our young people who’ve waited so patiently for their new classrooms know that we just couldn’t do what we used to do – a quick-fix that doesn’t meet proper building standards and will only blow away in the next cyclone.
In Fiji – and the same applies to all vulnerable nations – we have had to rethink the way we do things. To reject the quick fix and invest in infrastructure that is strong enough to meet the challenge we face.
We need better cooperation with each other and our development partners to build our resilience across the board. And as you are doing here in Nadi this week, we need to bring our best minds together to swap stories and swap ideas. To learn from our collective experiences and chart a way forward together that is smarter, more adaptable and more sustainable.
So friends, I wish you the very best in your deliberations on the challenges the media faces in dealing with climate change and natural disasters.
I also have the great pleasure to use this event to launch a set of new Fijian postage stamps to commemorate our Presidency of COP23. You won’t be surprised to learn that they include a stamp depicting a drua – the ocean-going Fijian canoe that is the symbol of our presidency. We had a drua in the foyer in Bonn to remind the whole world of the urgent need to fill its sail with a collective determination to move the climate agenda forward. And we’ll be taking a smaller version to present to the people of Poland in December as we continue to work together for greater ambition at COP24.
Above all, I hope they’ll be a reminder of our collective obligation to each other, to our region and the world to do whatever we can to advance the cause of climate action.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned that about 70 million girls face Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) between 2015 and 2030 across the world.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director
The new figures, according to a statement by the UNFPA on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 in Abuja, project that the current estimates of 3.9 million girls mutilated each year will rise to 4.6 million by 2030.
This calls for urgent and massive scale-up efforts to prevent that from happening, the organisation said.
“The increase is due to projected population growth in communities that practice mutilation.
“More than 200 million women live with FGM today.
“The new figures show just how far we have to go to eliminate female genital mutilation,” said UNFPA Executive Director, Dr Natalia Kanem.
“The good news is we know what works. Greater political will, community engagement, and targeted investments are changing social norms, practices and lives.
“We need to quickly step up these efforts to make good on our collective pledge to end female genital mutilation by 2030.”
The new numbers come from a more robust method to generate age-specific risk data for mutilations.
“The data were then combined with United Nations world population estimates to project overall risk.
“The new figures now also include data from Indonesia, where the revised method captured the approximately 1 million girls facing mutilation in their first year of life.
“Although the risk of a girl being mutilated is about one-third lower than it was three decades ago, more of them will face mutilation as girls’ populations increase,’’ said Kanem.
The world marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM every Feb. 6.
UNFPA, along with UNICEF, leads the largest global programme to speed-up the elimination of FGM.
“UNFPA remains committed to supporting communities in fighting to end this harmful practice, which has no place in the 21st century,” the executive director said.
FGM comprises all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons and is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls. The practice also violates their rights to health, security and physical integrity, their right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and their right to life when the procedure results in death.
To promote the abandonment of FGM, coordinated and systematic efforts are needed, and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights and gender equality. These efforts, according to the UN, should emphasise societal dialogue and the empowerment of communities to act collectively to end the practice. They must also address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences.
UNFPA, jointly with UNICEF, leads the largest global programme to accelerate the abandonment of FGM. The programme currently focuses on 17 African countries and also supports regional and global initiatives.
The Day also falls under the ongoing Spotlight Initiative, a joint project of the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. One of the specific threads of the Spotlight Initiative targets sexual and gender-based violence, and harmful practices in sub-Saharan Africa, which include female genital mutilation.
Key Facts
Globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
Girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania 54 per cent and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice.
Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 per cent, Guinea 97 per cent and Djibouti 93 per cent.
FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.
FGM cause severe bleeding and health issues including cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth increased risk of newborn deaths.
FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
The Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 calls for an end to FGM by 2030 under Goal 5 on Gender Equality, Target 5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
The elimination of FGM has been called for by numerous inter-governmental organisations, including the African Union, the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, as well as in three resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly.
Two major tobacco control groups, the Nigeria Tobacco Control Research Group (NTCRG) and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), have commended the Senate for passing a resolution seeking total ban of the sale of tobacco products around schools.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu
The groups, in a statement issued by ERA/FoEN’s Head of Campaigns, Philip Jakpor, also hailed Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who sponsored the Resolution, saying she has “demonstrated uncommon courage at this point that tobacco addiction is becoming an endemic problem among the youth.”
The Resolution, which was adopted at the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 urged the Federal Ministries of Health, Education and Information to harmonise efforts at banning the advertisement and sales of tobacco within 100 metres of all schools in Nigeria.
It also requested the Federal Ministry of Health and other relevant enforcement agencies to ensure the “comprehensive prohibition of Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorship; work with other agencies to ban advertisement and location of Point of Sales (POS) of tobacco products within 100m of all schools; create a framework for the monitoring of the implementation of the ban on single sticks and cigarette packs with less than 20 sticks as detailed in the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015.”
The Coordinator NTCRG, Dr Akindele Adebiyi, said: “We particularly applaud the the bold effort of the Senate, Senator Tinubu and other co-sponsors of this resolution. It is a giant step towards protecting our children from the deliberate marketing tactics of the tobacco companies aimed at luring our children to smoking. We want to plead with relevant agencies to put in place necessary mechanisms to ensure that this Resolution is given immediate attention and enforcement.”
The Deputy Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “This is a call to action by Senator Remi Tinubu and we expect local governments, state governments and all relevant government agencies to wake up from their slumber and begin full enforcement of the National Tobacco Act and this Resolution.”
The co-sponsors of the motion along with Senator Tinubu are: Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East), Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central), Senator Olanrewaju Tejuoso (Ogun Central), Senator Binta Masi Garba (Adamawa North), and Sentor Aliyu M Wamakko (Sokoto North).
While presenting the resolution, Senator Tinubu expressed worries that there is deliberate ploy by tobacco companies to position tobacco products, tobacco adverts and signs within 100m perimetre of schools to stimulate the interest of children and youth in the use of tobacco products.
She cited a recent survey carried out by NTCRG and ERA/FoEN across four geo-political zones. The survey, titled: “Big Tobacco, Tiny Targets: Tobacco Companies Targeting of School Children in Nigeria” and supported by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), was published in October 2017. It documented how tobacco products are sold at very close proximity to schools.
The Senator, in her motion, noted that tobacco consumption is associated with lung cancer, myocardial infraction, chronic bronchitis, and cardiovascular diseases, among others. She reminded the Nigeria Senate that marketing tobacco around schools is a clear violation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and also a violation of the National Tobacco Control Act, 2015.
The Nigeria Country Director of World Health Organisaton (WHO), Dr Wondi Alemu, has commended the Federal Government over improved response to outbreak of diseases in the country.
Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole. He will chair the National Council on Health
The country director made the commendation during the Emergency National Council of Health Meeting organised by Federal Ministry of Health on Monday, February 5, 2018 in Abuja.
Alemu said he observed a lot of changes in the last 14 months when he assumed office as country representative of WHO.
According to him, the changes are in terms of quick response and sharing of information with international communities and development partners within the country.
He said: “This is another laudable gesture by Federal Ministry of Health.
“I will also communicate to my colleagues that Nigeria is responding much better to disease outbreaks than it used to be in the past.”
He said that Lassa fever was not new but it was more tragic recently, adding that what made it more tragic was the passing away of health workers while attending to patients.
He noted that “this is something that should not happen, hence the need to increase awareness on the diseases, particularly on protecting health workers while delivering services.
“As health workers, you may be obliged not to observe the basic protective measures but that is risking our lives.
“Ultimately, it is about having basic equipment available at all times at the facility level. It should be part and parcel of the operations in healthcare delivery.
“We believe that next time this could be avoided particularly sacrificing our health workers due to the lack of basic equipment and protective kits.”
Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said the meeting was summoned to discuss the state of public health challenges in Nigeria with focus on some challenges facing the nation in the past few weeks.
Adewole added that Lassa fever had been a current outbreak in the country, stressing that Nigeria had battled with series of outbreaks in the past few months.
He also urged state governments and other key stakeholders to work with Nigeria Centre of Disease Control to address outbreak of diseases.
The Niger State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mustapha Jibril, commended the Minister of Health for the timely meeting.
Jibril said the Niger State Government was able to do a lot to curtail disease outbreak ravaging the nation.
The commissioner added: “I am happy that Niger State is not among the states that have this challenge.
“In 2016, we had a challenge from Lassa fever where 16 people died and Niger was among the state’s worst hit by the outbreak then.”
However Niger State Government set up isolation centres, procured Hilux vehicles for the state’s epidemiological team and emergency operation centres with the entire gadget required to do the job.
According to him, the state has been collaborating with WHO to enhance the funding of disease surveillance and notification.
He, therefore, advised the state government to provide funding to district disease surveillance and notification officers to reduce the outbreak.
The commissioner said Niger had not recorded Lassa fever outbreak in 2017 and the state did not have any outbreak or any epidemic prone disease.
Dr Babatunde Ipaye, the Commissioner for Health in Ogun State, said Nigeria was at the receiving end because response to outbreak required collective efforts.
He said trading the blame was not the best way to go, and that public health response everywhere in Nigeria was important and equal.
He said Ogun did not record any case of Lassa fever in 2018 but that, in 2017, the state had three cases with one death.
According to Ipaye, Ogun State was in 2017 awarded the best state in Nigeria in terms of integrated disease surveillance and response by WHO and Federal Ministry of Health.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described January as “a dark month” in crisis-torn Middle East and North Africa.
Child soldiers. Photo credit: Gabriel Galwak/IRIN
UNICEF also said the violence has had a devastating toll on children, who were being killed in ongoing conflicts or suicide attacks, or freezing to death as they fled active warzones.
“It is simply unacceptable that children continue being killed and injured every single day,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
In the month of January alone, UNICEF said escalating violence in Iraq, Libya, the Palestine, Syria and Yemen has claimed the lives of at least 83 children.
“These children have paid the highest price for wars that they have absolutely no responsibility for. Their lives have been cut short, their families forever broken in grief,” he added.
Cappelaere said that as the Syrian conflict entered its eighth year, intensifying fighting had reportedly killed 59 children in the past four weeks.
Moreover, across Yemen the UN has verified the killing of 16 children in attacks and continues to receive daily reports of more killed and injured children amidst escalating fighting.
Additionally, a suicide attack took the lives of three children in Libya’s Benghazi while three others died playing near unexploded ordnance – a fourth child remains in critical condition after the blast.
Turning to the old city of Mosul in Iraq, a child was killed in a booby-trapped house, and in Palestine, a boy was shot dead in a village near Ramallah.
Furthermore, 16 refugees, including four children, froze to death in a harsh winter storm in Lebanon – fleeing the war in Syria – where many more children were hospitalised with frost bite.
“We collectively continue failing to stop the war on children,” Cappelaere stressed.
“Not hundreds, not thousands but millions more children in the Middle East and North Africa region have their childhoods stolen, maimed for life, traumatised, arrested and detained, exploited.
“Also prevented from going to school and from getting the most essential health services; denied even the basic right to play,” he emphasised.
Cappelaere maintained that we have no justification, no reason to accept this as a new normal adding: “Children may have been silenced. But their voices will continue to be heard.
“Their message is our message: The protection of children is paramount under all circumstances, in line with the law of war.
“Breaching that law is a most heinous crime and jeopardises the future – and not just for children,” the UNICEF Regional Director warned .
Nepal will ban from the roads vehicles older than 20 years across the country in a bid to control worsening air quality and to ease traffic congestion, officials said on Tuesday, February 6, 2018.
Air pollution and traffic congestion in Nepal
The government decision, which followed a similar campaign in the capital Kathmandu a year ago, will throw out around 5,000 ageing vehicles, including buses, trucks and pickups.
“After mid-March, vehicles that are older than 20 years will not be allowed to drive on the roads,” said Birendra Swar, a spokesman of the Department of Transport Management.
The rule exempts taxis.
“We will check the vehicles and if they are 20 years old, then they won’t be allowed to drive. We hope this will help reduce pollution and ease traffic across the country,” he said.
Authorities have also banned cars from core parts of Kathmandu to reduce congestion.
The global Environmental Performance Index released early in January ranked Nepal’s air quality as one of the worst in the world.
