Syrians will confront additional hardship due to the Ukraine crisis, the head of a UN commission said Friday.

Paulo Pinheiro, who chairs the International Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, presented a report to the 49th UN Human Rights Council session being held until April 1 in Geneva, as Syria entered the 11th year of its conflict.

He said the country faces the fight against coronavirus with "very weak medical facilities to face a pandemic."

He said more than 90% of the remaining population in Syria is living in poverty, with 12 million food insecure and an unprecedented 14.6 million in need of humanitarian access.

"Syrians will be confronting additional hardship as a result of the Ukraine crisis. Inflation is already skyrocketing,” he said. "The government has begun rationing essential commodities, including fuel. Prices of imports have shot up and there are concerns in Syria as well elsewhere in the region about the availability of wheat to import."

Pinheiro said civilians' lives continue to be endangered by the regime.
His speech came as the UN special envoy on Syria was on Monday to begin a new round of talks involving the Constitutional Committee seeking a solution to the ongoing war.

"Target killings by unknown individuals on the ground or by state parties to the conflict. operating aircraft, including drones, were carried out across the country, further endangering civilian lives," said Pinheiro. "Idlib and West Aleppo in the northwest are continuously being shelled by Syrian and Russian forces, killing at least 64 children in the second half of 2021.”

He said as living conditions continue to deteriorate, his commission has called for a review of the impact of "unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria.”

"Despite humanitarian exemptions, much more is required to mitigate consequences on the daily lives of civilians, brought about by over compliance, causing shortages."

After his speech, the Syrian regime said it "renews its rejection of the mandate of this commission, and its reports as a platform for shaming and circulating unacceptable and unfounded allegations."/agencies

The UN said on Friday it does not have any mandate to probe the Russian allegations that Ukraine has biological weapons program, as Moscow's war continues on its third week.

Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu reiterated that the UN is not aware of any such biological weapons programs.

"I would also like to note that the United Nations currently has neither the mandate nor the technical or operational capacity to investigate this information," said Nakamitsu.

On March 10, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it had obtained documents indicating that US-sponsored biological laboratories in Ukraine conducted experiments with bat coronavirus samples.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, for her part, denied the claims, saying there are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories.

"Not near Russia's border, not anywhere. They're only public health facilities proudly supported and recognized by the US government, the World Health Organization, and other governments and international institutions," said the US envoy.

She repeated her accusation against Russia and went on: "In fact, it is Russia that has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law. It is Russia that has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons."

The Russia-Ukraine war, which started on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial restrictions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 816 civilians have been killed and 1,333 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the UN said, while noting that figure is probably higher.

More than 3.27 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, said the UN refugee agency./aa

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community on Friday to unite against the "persistent" challenge of racism.

Addressing the General Assembly, Guterres appealed to all member states to take "concrete actions" to combat racism, including through legislation, policies, and more thorough collection of tracking data.

"Racism continues to poison institutions, social structures, and everyday life in every society. It continues to be a driver of persistent inequality. And it continues to deny people their fundamental human rights," he said.

"It destabilizes societies, undermines democracies, erodes the legitimacy of governments, and stymies an inclusive and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Racism is also a catalyst of coarsening public discourse that normalizes hate, denies dignity, and spurs violence," he added./aa

Ukraine's civilian death toll since Russia's war began reached 816 Friday, while 1,333 have been wounded, the UN Human Rights Office said amid warnings the country's food supply chain is falling apart and is affecting other global hunger spots.

The Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that most of the civilian casualties were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes.

"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed," said the Human Rights Office.

The UN Refugee Agency said the number of people fleeing Ukraine stood at 3,270,662, with almost 1.98 million of them going to neighboring Poland, nearly 509,000 to Romania, more than 355,000 to Moldova, and over 234,000 to Slovakia.

Nearly 185,000 refugees have also gone to Russia, according to UN records.

Jakob Kern, World Food Program coordinator for the Ukraine crisis, told a UN press conference in Geneva that the WFP is deeply concerned for families affected by the rapidly evolving humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

As the world's largest and fourth-largest exporters of wheat, Russia and Ukraine are critical players to ensure the food security of numerous countries around the world.

29% of global wheat trade

Combined, the two countries are responsible for 29% of the global wheat trade, said Poland's WFP official near the Ukraine border.

"The ongoing conflict has not only forced millions of people to flee their homes and brought many more to the brink of hunger, but it is also threatening food security globally, especially in hunger hotspots.

"The consequences of this conflict are radiating outwards, triggering a wave of collateral hunger across the globe."

He said that WFP has mobilized enough food supplies to provide food assistance to 3 million women, children, and men inside Ukraine for one month.

"The country's food supply chain is falling apart: trucks and trains are being destroyed, airports bombed, many bridges have fallen, supermarkets emptied, and warehouses drained," said Kern.

"Inside Ukraine, WFP's job is, in effect, to replace broken commercial food supply chains."

He said that given the complexity on the ground and the security challenges, "this is a mammoth task that takes time."

With global food prices at an all-time high, WFP is also concerned about the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food security globally, especially hunger hotspots.

"The consequences of the conflict in Ukraine are radiating outwards, triggering a wave of collateral hunger across the globe," said Kern./aa

Algeria's president on Friday pledged not to cede his country's rights over French colonialist crimes against Algeria, stressing such that such rights "are not subject to the statute of limitations."

In a statement addressing the Algerian people on the 60th anniversary of the 1962 Evian peace accords between France and Algeria, which ended the eight-year war of Algerian independence, Abdelmajid Tebboune vowed to continue efforts to restore his country's heritage from France and to receive clarification from France on the fate of Algerians missing from the battle for Algeria's independence.

"We will demand compensation for the victims of the (French) nuclear testing and for other cases linked to these testing from France,” he added.

Approximately 1.5 million Algerians were killed and millions more displaced in an eight-year struggle for independence that started in 1954 and ended on March 18, 1962.

France has also committed cultural genocide against Algeria since 1830, wiping out significant pats of Algeria’s three centuries of Ottoman heritage and local identity.

Paris has never officially apologized to Algeria as a state for its colonial policies.

For years, Algeria has negotiated with France over four historic issues, starting with restoration of the Algerian archive, which France still refuses to hand over to Algeria, along with the retrieval of skulls belonging to leaders of the Algerian resistance who were beheaded by French colonial forces.

The last two issues involve compensation to the Algerian victims of the French nuclear experiments in Algeria (1960-1966), and clarification from France over Algerians missing from the war of independence, estimated by Algerian authorities at 2,200 missing persons./aa

The Ministry of Interior stated that will commence issuing of visit visas with validity of 3 months period starting from 20th Mar 2020.

The department stated that it is necessary to carry the needed documents and follow the procedures to ease and complete all transactions./ arabtimesonline