UN Refugee Agency

• November 4, 2022

There’s a new sheriff in town! This week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed a new man to lead the Department of Peace Operations as the police adviser. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This …

Climate Change, General Assembly, Refugees, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending Sept. 30

Damilola Banjo

• September 30, 2022

This week, we are excited about Cuba’s historic moment as it legalizes same-sex marriage and protects other vulnerable groups. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we also look at the continued …

Peace and Security, Secretary-General, This Week @UN, Ukraine-Russia War

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Germany Is Ready to Cut Humanitarian Aid to UN Agencies and Elsewhere

Damilola Banjo

• September 7, 2022

Food prices may still be soaring in crisis-prone countries, but Germany is poised to slash its 2023 contribution to global humanitarian and crisis prevention by nearly $400 million. According to data compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food prices are 13.1 percent higher now than they were at this time …

Development, Humanitarian Aid, Refugees, UN Peacekeeping

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Fleeing Mariupol, a Ukrainian Refugee’s Life Is Pained by War and Uncertainty

Dawn Clancy

• August 8, 2022

WARSAW, Poland — Olena’s journey begins in the smoldering shadow of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, but whether her escape to safety will end in a suburb of Warsaw, Poland, or thousands of miles away in Dublin, Ireland, remains unknown and reflects the unsettling nature of life as a war refugee. Olena’s …

Humanitarian Aid, Peace and Security, Refugees, Women

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending July 22

Damilola Banjo

• July 22, 2022

This week, we focus on the signing of the UN-Turkish led grain deal as well as the Nelson Mandela memorial event, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a big statement with their appearance and his speech. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information …

Africa, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Diverting Donor Money From Other Global Crises, UN Expert Says

Damilola Banjo

• July 20, 2022

Russia’s war on Ukraine is not only increasing the cost of delivering aid to the world’s most vulnerable people, but European donors’ and American interests in the war are also reducing the ability of those countries to fund global development agencies that are facing food and fuel price hikes. The upheaval from the war …

Development, Humanitarian Aid, Migration, Refugees

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Stinting to Survive in the Sahel Region of West Africa

Damilola Banjo

• July 18, 2022

When Kimba Abdou went to a local store a year ago to buy a 100-kilogram bag of millet, a staple grain for Nigeriens, he parted with 20,000 West African francs, known as CFA, or about $31. The last time he checked, the price had gone up by more than 50 percent — with a …

Africa, Humanitarian Aid, Peace and Security, Poverty

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending July 1

Damilola Banjo

• July 1, 2022

This week, we focus on the progress in discussions about elections in Libya and the drastic call for help in Afghanistan after the recent earthquake. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, …

Africa, Libya, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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Britain Sets a Precedent That Worries the UN Refugee Agency

Damilola Banjo

• June 27, 2022

Britain’s new five-year asylum partnership arrangement with Rwanda is showing the rest of Europe how countries can possibly lock refugees out of their borders. And Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, is worried about this precedent. In the wake of the refugee crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in which …

Africa, Human Rights, Migration, Refugees

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In Russia’s War, Ukraine’s Cultural Strengths Are Now Targets

Barbara Crossette

• March 30, 2022

In Europe and around the world, the landmark drama theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will long be associated with crimes against humanity, whether or not a formal trial of the Russians who bombed it is ever held. At least 300 people, including many children — the final toll is not known — …

Peace and Security

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Counting Ukraine’s Dead, Wounded, Refugees and Displaced So Far

Dr. Catherine Mullaly

• March 1, 2022

Ukraine’s population data are rapidly changing as the war rages in its country since Russia began its aerial, ground and sea assaults late last week. Within 24 hours of issuing its first report, the UN Refugee Agency documented that 368,000 people had fled from Ukraine to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries and …

Health and Population, Humanitarian Aid, Peace and Security

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Congolese Refugees’ UN Grants Offer Grocery Lifelines for Poor Zimbabweans

Nyasha Bhobo

• February 21, 2022

HARARE, Zimbabwe — In Zimbabwe’s city townships, where high food prices exact a toll on poor households, grocery shops run by entrepreneurial Congolese refugees defend against hunger. “The Congolese shops, they feed my family!” said Sara Moyo, 27, a mother of two in Stoneridge Park, a suburb in the south of Harare, the capital …

Africa, Refugees

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COVID-19

Pandemic Relief: Beirut Test-Drives Mobile Medicine for Migrants

Maria Luisa Gambale

• March 10, 2021

Through the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beirut was spared the catastrophic caseloads that brought many cities around the world to their knees throughout the spring and early summer of 2020, but the port blast on Aug. 4 changed all that. The explosion itself killed at least 200 people, left 300,000 people homeless …

Cities, Covid-19, Health and Population

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THIS WEEK @UN

India’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels, Casting Light on UN Counterterrorism Ops, US Asylum Seekers Stuck in Mexico

Allison Lecce

• August 29, 2020

US asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico in unprecedented numbers amid Covid-19; an investigation into the mysterious work of the richly financed UN counterterrorism operations; chastising India for its support of fossil fuels; and a UN envoy’s assessment of the new United Arab Emirates-Israeli pact. Greetings from This Week @UN, our summary highlighting the most …

Climate Change, Middle East, Refugees, SDGs, Terrorism, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations

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COVID-19

In Mexico, the UN Refugee Agency Alleviates a Crisis Created by the Trump Administration

Maurizio Guerrero

• August 26, 2020

“Yes, there’s always the fear of being kidnapped,” said Óscar, a 30-year old asylum seeker who fled political persecution in Cuba in May 2019 and landed in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, where violent crime and gang activity are common. Óscar, who used a pseudonym to protect his privacy, knew of asylum …