The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is warning that the displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa and Sahel is getting worse as the impact of climate change and conflict are forcing more people to flee in search of safety and humanitarian assistance.

Climate shocks like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense in Africa. Millions of people in Somalia and Ethiopia are struggling to find enough food, water and income to survive four consecutive years of drought.

Faced with this reality, the U.N. refugee agency says it is employing relief strategies to be better able to adapt to the new risks posed by climate change. The UNHCR representative in Somalia, Magatte Guisse, says Somalia is on the verge of a catastrophic famine.

He says that to help those most in need, his agency is setting up humanitarian hubs close to the most affected areas. He says helicopters will be used to transport staff and to deliver assistance.

"But other ideas also are to explore other options to link with community elders and any other actors in the community, which can help to reach the persons affected in those areas," Guisse said. "This is part of our strategy, and it is ongoing.”

The UNHCR representative in Ethiopia, Mamadou Dian Balde, says 8 million people out of 20 million needing humanitarian assistance are affected by the ravages of climate change and insecurity.

These are people "who are already vulnerable because of lack of food and water," Balde said. "And then even for accessing energy, you need to walk and move from one place to another. … For us, it is not only about lifesaving. Lifesaving is critical and we need that support now for immediate support. But we also need to help them build resilience, so that you can also get out of that perpetual request for support.”

Unlike the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, heavy rains have inundated Burkina Faso. Climate issues have brought new misery to a country that has one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises.

UNHCR's representative in Burkina Faso, Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, says attacks by armed groups have displaced 10 percent of the population, or 2 million people. He says the heavy rains have destroyed people's homes and property and sent even more people fleeing.

One response being provided "is to make sure that, at least in all these open centers, where most of them are living, to make sure that the shelter response that we are providing is somehow, you know, compatible with the climate conditions,” Gnon-Konde said.

The UNHCR is appealing for funds to finance the technological support needed to avert, mitigate and tackle the displacement related to the adverse effects of extreme weather events./agencies

Children with disabilities caught up in the Syrian war are at greater risk of harm and lack access to the health care, education, or humanitarian aid needed to protect their basic rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The United Nations, the Syrian government, and concerned governments should urgently ensure protection and assistance to meet the needs of children with disabilities in Syria.

The 71-page report, “‘It Was Really Hard to Protect Myself’: Impact of the Armed Conflict in Syria on Children with Disabilities,” details the abuses faced by children with disabilities, including a heightened risk during attacks and a lack of access to the basic support services they need. The absence of inclusive and universal programs – including in education, delivery of humanitarian aid, and mental health and psychosocial support services – compounds the difficulties children with disabilities in Syria already experience. 

“One of the world’s deadliest conflicts, entering its twelfth year, continues to have a devastating impact on children with disabilities,” said Emina Ćerimović, senior disability rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UN, Syrian authorities, and other governments should facilitate humanitarian access and ensure that support is available that meets the needs of children with disabilities and protects their rights.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 34 children and young adults with disabilities, and family members, as well as 20 UN, healthcare, and humanitarian workers. Human Rights Watch focused primarily on people living in northwest and northeast Syria as humanitarian needs in these areas are particularly high and infrastructure is lacking. 

According to the UN, approximately 28 percent of Syrians have a disability, nearly double the global average, including due to wartime injuries and lack of access to care and services. People in Syria with a disability, including children, often struggle to flee attacks, especially due to a lack of access to assistive devices or to effective and inclusive advance warnings.

“Many times, I refused to leave the house [during an attack] and try to escape; it was just too difficult for me to run with crutches,” said Thara J., 18, who lost a leg in an airstrike when she was 13 and has not had any way to get a prosthetic leg. “It would take several people to help me get into the car.” She expressed concern that her inability to flee would endanger her family.

The conflict has contributed to Syria’s economic crisis, affecting the ability of Syrians, especially children with disabilities and their families, to realize their basic rights and needs, including to food and shelter. Conflict-related poverty, coupled with the destruction of physical infrastructure and support systems, has affected the families of children with disabilities who need health care, therapies, assistive devices, and social services.

“When the war started, everything changed – I lost my job and my house,” said Ahmed, whose 11-year-old daughter has a hearing disability. “[Now] I cannot even afford to buy her hearing aids.”

Children with disabilities face increased obstacles in access to education due to inaccessibility of public schools and a lack of adequate training for teachers to teach children with disabilities and inclusive curricula, and stigma. The mother of 7- and 9-year-old girls with hearing disabilities said that a teacher told her that “they cannot teach [her] daughters because they do not have specialists.” Only one child included in the Human Rights Watch research attended school.

Despite billions of dollars in aid, humanitarian operations in Syria have failed to sufficiently identify and address the rights and needs of children with various types of disabilities. A humanitarian worker said, “We have not been trained to support people with disabilities and most humanitarians still think disability inclusion is about rehabilitation centers, building ramps, [and] providing wheelchairs.” 

Although some UN agencies, donors, and aid groups have started to pay closer attention to the needs of people with disabilities in Syria, UN action to help children affected by armed conflict is still largely neglecting children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch found. In 2019, the Security Council adopted a resolution on the protection of people with disabilities and specifically asked the secretary-general to include information on issues relevant to people with disabilities in armed conflicts. Yet none of the UN secretary-general’s reports on the humanitarian situation in Syria address the needs of children with disabilities.

Careful UN monitoring and reporting on the abuses and exclusion experienced by children with disabilities, including from an intersectional approach that takes into account all facets of the abuses they face, is urgently needed to ensure that protection and assistance is effective for children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said.

On July 12, 2022, the UN Security Council reauthorized cross-border aid deliveries for only six more months. The mandate will expire during the winter and its renewal will again be subjected to political pressures, making access to necessary support even more difficult. The Security Council, UN agencies, and donor countries should work together with civil society organizations to improve coordination and assistance to ensure that children with disabilities have equal, adequate access to nutrition, health care, education, assistive devices, and mental health and psychosocial support.

The rights of children with disabilities in armed conflict are protected by international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. International humanitarian law prohibits direct, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and requires the facilitation of humanitarian assistance for civilians in need. Human rights law protects the rights of children with disabilities to health, education, and an adequate standard of living, and to be free of discrimination and abuse.

All parties to the conflict in Syria should respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law and facilitate prompt and unhindered humanitarian access to UN agencies and humanitarian organizations to deliver impartial assistance to civilians in need across Syria, including to children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said.

“Most of the children included in this report were born just before or as the war started in 2011 and have not known a time without conflict, displacement, or difficulties in getting the services they need to grow and thrive,” Ćerimović said. “Many Syrian children with disabilities and their families depend on UN agencies and humanitarian organizations as well as authorities in Syria to provide the support they need to protect their rights, including access to assistive devices, inclusive education, and mental health services.”

 Four journalists from one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets were charged with criminal offenses on Wednesday, in the government’s latest attempt to intimidate and punish the publication for its reporting.

The charges — publishing fake news, misusing social media and insulting members of Parliament — stemmed from an article that the outlet, Mada Masr, published last week on a corruption inquiry and impending leadership shake-up in the political party that dominates Parliament, the Nation’s Future Party. The party is closely associated with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Under Mr. el-Sisi, who came to power after a military takeover in 2013, Egypt has stamped out even minor forms of dissent and has muzzled the news media, jailing dozens of journalists, using the security services to buy up outlets and blocking uncooperative news sites.

The sites blocked in Egypt include Mada Masr, an online outlet that is published in English and Arabic and that continued to offer hard-hitting reporting on Egypt when most of the rest of the country’s news media fell prey to government repression.

After the article was published last week, the Nation’s Future Party filed a series of legal complaints against several Mada Masr journalists, including the four charged on Wednesday: Rana Mamdouh, Beesan Kassab, Sara Seif Eddin and Lina Attalah. The complaints accused the journalists of “insult, slander and defamation,” according to Mada Masr, and asserted that the news outlet had broken Egyptian media laws.

They were summoned to the public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday, where each faced four prosecutors and underwent hours of questioning about the article before being released on bail, one of their lawyers, Ragia Omran, said.

Though Mada Masr said in a statement that none of the four had worked on the article in question, Ms. Mamdouh, Ms. Ramadan and Ms. Seif Eddin were credited with writing a daily news bulletin last week that included the article. Ms. Attalah, Mada Masr’s founder and editor, faced an additional charge of establishing a news website without a license, according to Mada Masr.

It is not clear whether prosecutors will pursue the case and bring it to trial.

The article, citing four anonymous sources from within the leadership of the Nation’s Future Party, described a government-led “purge” of top officials who had been implicated in corruption and other abuses.

“Mada Masr affirms the integrity of its reporting and its commitment to professional journalistic standards,” the publication said in reporting the original complaint last Thursday. “It considers the publication of news in relation to the party which holds a majority in Parliament and possesses close ties to the government to be in the public interest.”

The site added that, rather than denying the claims in the article, the party had instead resorted to “the threat of security measures against journalists doing their work in some of the hardest conditions possible,” including constant harassment by security officials and the possibility of imprisonment.

Political and labor activists, rights advocates, rights lawyers and others seen by the government as opponents also face heavy scrutiny and, often, imprisonment. Egypt holds thousands of such detainees.

Since its founding, in 2013, Mada Masr has been a prominent target. The authorities raided its offices and arrested four reporters and editors in November 2019, ultimately releasing them amid international pressure. Ms. Attalah was also arrested in May 2020 while reporting outside a prison. She was released the same day.

Nytimes 

Former speaker of the National Assembly since 2013 Marzouq Al-Ghanem announced on Tuesday he will not run in the Sept 29 snap elections, adding the move is temporary, as he plans to come back at a later stage. He said in a statement on Twitter that after consultations, “I have decided not to run in the current parliamentary elections”.

Ghanem thanked the large numbers of supporters throughout Kuwait who had urged him to contest the polls, adding that he will let coming developments to expose a number of “hidden” facts. The US-educated Ghanem is one of the leading politicians in the country. The 53-year-old ex-parliamentarian had become a strong voice in the National Assembly.

He was elected as speaker of the house in 2013, 2016 and 2020, but has been at loggerheads with opposition MPs, allying with the former prime minister HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah. “The decision not to run in elections is a temporary decision, which will be followed – God willing – with a stronger return to complete the march of safeguarding the interests of the nation,” Ghanem said.

He added the temporary decision does not mean abandoning the political scene or shunning national duties. Ghanem said that this stage requires all of us to stand united before the political leadership and stay away from personal disputes and political quarrels that are harmful to Kuwait’s democratic experience. Ghanem is the fifth member of the dissolved house who have announced they will not run in the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, the number of candidates who registered to contest the Sept 29 snap polls rose to 350 on Tuesday with just one day remaining for the registration process. Of the hopefuls who filed their nomination papers to contest for the 50-seat National Assembly, there are 44 members of the dissolved house. Of the remaining six, five have said they are not running.

Twenty-four female candidates and 326 men have registered, while three candidates withdrew from the race yesterday, raising those who have withdrawn to six. The registration of candidates ends on Wednesday, while the door for withdrawal will remain open until Sept 22. Among those who registered on Tuesday were former leading opposition MP Mohammad Al-Mutair, former opposition MP Musaed Al-Mutairi and former MP and minister Hamad Rouh El-din.

Mutair said if the elections produce a majority of reformists, the next speaker will be elected by consensus from among the reformists. Former MP Mutairi called on the new Prime Minister HH Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah to start fighting corruption. Rouh El-din, who left the opposition camp to join the Cabinet several months ago, said he adopted a reformist policy in the Cabinet.

Fresh candidate Saudi Al-Asfour called on opposition candidates to end infighting and unify ranks. Former MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa called on the government in a statement to help pass legislation that allows Kuwaiti courts to look at issues related to Kuwaiti citizenship. Under current law, courts are barred from hearing citizenship cases, claiming they are “sovereign” matters.

In a televised speech to the nation in June, HH the Amir pledged the government will not interfere in the parliamentary elections nor the election of the Assembly speaker. The Assembly was dissolved last month over continued disputes between the government and opposition MPs. Snap polls have been set for Sept 29.

AT

Today, the Ministry of Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a group of charity societies launched a joint campaign for Pakistan relief, reports Al-Qabas daily. During the first hours of the campaign, more than 6,397 citizens and residents came forward, and made serious donations for the support and relief of those afflicted in Pakistan. They were able to collect 148,000 dinars in less than an hour, from the start of the donation campaign. In the campaign, only financial electronic donations were allowed, whether through Knet or Visa and MasterCard, which allowed the participation of donors from outside Kuwait.

The Acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Community Development, Musallam Al-Subaie, affirmed that Kuwait has an honorable history in the field of charity work which made the State of Kuwait a station of good and peace and a home for humanity. Al-Subaie said in a press statement on the occasion of the International Charitable Day, which falls on September 5 of each year, that Kuwait contributed to alleviate the suffering of the poor and afflicted in various parts of the world, pointing out that charity work is rooted in Kuwait and means a lot to it and is an integral part of its fragrant journey. He pointed out that the Ministry of Social Affairs urges charity work as a means of permanent support to the needy and downtrodden and those afflicted by man-made and natural calamities, and to build bridges of human communication to achieve this noble goal.

Meanwhile, according to reliable sources in the Ministry of Social Affairs, the ministry, represented by the Charitable Societies Department, has completed handing over “usernames” and “passwords” to about 64 charitable societies to enter the automated system for collecting donations, something that the ministry is working on launching soon following the completion of the phase of collecting and entering data for each charitable society separately, reports Al-Anba daily.

The sources explained that the ministry will later upload charitable projects on the special platform in accordance with the rules and conditions in force for the requests to implement annual charitable projects inside and outside Kuwait. It falls within six models – construction (internal and external), social development (internal and external), and sponsorships (internal and external), various projects (internal and external), external relief campaigns, and seasonal (internal and external) campaigns. They affirmed that the approved electronic mechanism for collecting donations enjoys a high degree of confidentiality in preserving the data and information of the charitable societies by up to 100 percent. The sources indicated that the automated system is expected to be launched before the beginning of next year.

The Minister of Health Dr. Khaled Al- Saeed issued a decision to allow Kuwaiti pharmacists, who have a license to practice the profession of pharmacy in the private sector, to practice the profession only in 1 other entity in the same sector based on a number of conditions, reports Aljarida daily.

Those conditions are as follows:-

1. The pharmacist licensed to practice the profession must be a Kuwaiti.
2. He must submit to the Medicine Inspection Department an approved letter from the entity in which he works, agreeing to him working for another entity in the same sector, and specifying the working days and hours in the entity in which he wants to work.
3. The applicant has to submit a letter of approval to obtain a work permit for pharmacists, and that the permit form should mention the working days and hours.
4. In case of any violation of the aforementioned, the permit will be canceled, and he is not entitled to apply for another permit until after six months from the date of canceling the previous permit.
5. The permit’s validity period is two years, subject to renewal upon a written request from the permit holder and the entity he works for.
6. In the event that the permit expires without renewal, the permit is considered null

Source: KT