News headlines in April 2022, page 11

NEW DELHI, Apr 20 (IPS) - Oxfam’s report ‘Inequality Kills 2022’ and its India supplement (hereafter referred to as the report) revealed some shocking facts about the growing gap between the rich and poor. India, which has the third highest number of billionaires in the world, endured one of the longest-lasting COVID-induced lockdowns in 2020. Yet, the same year, the top 10 percent of India held close to 45 percent of the country’s total national wealth.

The top UN humanitarian official in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday underlined the need for safe access to vulnerable people following two recent attacks against aid organizations operating in the south of the country. 

Bihać, Bosnia, Apr 19 (IPS) - Supported by the European Journalism Centre*Responding to several shouts Viraj emerges from the ruins of his shelter in northwest Bosnia. He is originally from India but is now squatting near Bihać in what remains of a house abandoned since the 1990s Balkans war.

As five million people have already fled Ukraine and another seven million are displaced internally, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T. Clements urged the Security Council on Tuesday to ‘put aside’ its divisions and find a way to end the “horrific and senseless war”, now in its eighth week.  

Youth activism has been “pushing the world forward,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told Day 1 of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)’s annual Youth Forum on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, Apr 19 (IPS) - “The war in Ukraine is a European …and a Christian… matter... It does not require the involvement of a colourful array of religions or people”. These words were uttered and affirmed by some European Protestant men, working in interfaith circles in Europe. The ‘colourful’ encompassed other than European, mostly Christian - and likely mostly male.

The United Nations has condemned the deadly bomb blasts at two educational institutions in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Wednesday, which killed at least six people and wounded nearly 20 others. 

This year, Orthodox Holy Week is being observed under a “cloud of a war” that totally negates the Easter message of unity, the UN chief said on Tuesday, calling for a four-day humanitarian pause in Ukraine.  

Up to 20 million people could go hungry this year as delayed rains worsen extreme drought in the Horn of Africa region amid a shortfall in humanitarian aid, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. 

Amidst devastating Russian shelling and attacks on health care facilities and personnel, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday that they continue to mobilize inside Ukraine in an effort to help the country’s most vulnerable people.