News headlines in June 2023, page 16

The UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) on Monday, launched a new initiative designed to provide a blueprint for enhancing the role of women in countering hate speech, and prevent incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes.

Greater efforts are needed to protect civilians in Somalia from unexploded weapons of war, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said on Monday in the wake of a recent deadly incident in the south of the country.

The head of the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO, announced on Monday that the United States has decided to rejoin the organization next month, after having stopped all funding in 2011, and announced its complete withdrawal from the agency, which also champions education and science, almost six years ago.

Around the world, some 160 million children work to earn a living, instead of going to school. That’s almost one in every 10 children.

Countries must address the “grave global harm” caused by the proliferation of hate and lies online, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, launching a key report designed to shore up information integrity on digital platforms.

A new UN report launched on Monday revealed no improvement in the level of prejudice shown against women over the past decade, with almost nine out of 10 men and women worldwide, still holding such biases.

BLANTYRE, Malawi, Jun 12 (IPS) - “Cyclone Freddy was a terrible experience, and now many women who lost their homes and their livelihoods are at increased risk of sexual exploitation and abuse,” warns Caleb Ng'ombo, Director of People Serving Girls at Risk (PSGR)a frontline NGO in Malawi that supports vulnerable women whose lives have been devastated by the record-breaking tropical storm.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday condemned in the strongest possible terms the deadly attack on the Pearl Beach Hotel and Restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia, that left 16 dead, including a staff member.

Fleeing armed conflict is frightening, forcing people to escape violent clashes and leave behind their homes, schools, and daily lives in a desperate search for safety.

Shoppers in Mali’s Gao, Timbuktu, and Ménaka regions can snap up AK-pattern assault rifles for $750 and cartridges for 70 cents apiece, from locally handcrafted pistols to smuggled French and Turkish machine guns, as a dizzying array of illegal weaponry dots market stalls across the Sahel, a 6,000-kilometre-wide belt in the middle of Africa.