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3m Ukrainians Already In Need Of Humanitarian Assistance – UN

Published

4 years ago

February 27, 2022

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said an eight-year-long conflict in Eastern Ukraine had already made three million people to be in need of humanitarian assistance “on both sides of the contact line”.

Griffiths, who also serves as the humanitarian affairs chief, told journalists that the UN and its partners had been responding to that need for many years.

Griffith spoke to journalists on Saturday at the UN headquarters in New York about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

“This year alone, for example, UN coordinated humanitarian convoys delivered over 150 tonnes of assistance to the most vulnerable people in the non-government controlled areas in the Donbas,” he said.

Women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, those living close to the contact line and those living in the non-government areas are currently the most in need.

“They continue to require food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation and protection,” the senior UN official said.

He painted a grim picture of shelling of urban centres across Ukraine and unconfirmed reports of human casualties and damage to residential infrastructure, expressing extreme concern over the impact of the ongoing escalation.

“We are concerned about reports of population movement…fleeing in search of safety and protection,” Griffiths said.

He said that hundreds of thousands of people were “on the move in Ukraine and out of Ukraine, as we speak.”

The UN emergency coordinator echoed the Secretary-General’s position in stressing that UN humanitarians were committed to expanding their presence.

“We have not left. We are not leaving Ukraine,” he said.

As people there are “bunkered down,” Griffiths said that the UN was scaling up its efforts to help meet the needs of those effected, “and we have been doing this for some weeks.”

At this alarming phase of escalation, he flagged that the safety and security of all UN staff and their dependents was a top priority.

“We are currently facilitating the temporary relocation of non-essential UN staff and eligible family member within Ukraine,” said the Emergency Coordinator.

In the meantime, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCHA) has set up an inter-agency operation centre in Geneva and will be launching an appeal.

It will bring together the needs of the region outside Ukraine, under the leadership of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, as well as for those within the country.

Turning to the UN chief’s announcement on Thursday that 20 million dollars would be released from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to increase an immediate response, Griffiths said that it was imperative for the scale of needs in these “very, very extraordinary circumstances.”

“In the coming days, we will launch two coordinated emergency appeals in response to Ukraine’s escalating humanitarian needs, including rising internal displacement, and the needs of people seeking refuge in countries neighbouring Ukraine.”

He explained that donors were needed to mobilise financial resources, which will be outlined in a few days.

The most important point Griffiths said was the safety of UN humanitarian workers and their humanitarian partners, saying that our humanitarian response is guided by humanity, neutrality, operational independence and impartiality.

The senior UN official reminded that 50 per cent of the wheat used by the World Food Programme’s (WFP) comes from Ukraine, which illustrates that the effects of the crisis are “spooling out before us, and we have yet to see where it will lead”.

(NAN/VANGUARD)

Related Topics:3m Ukrainian Russian-Ukraine crisis UN

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UK Police Arrest Asylum Seeker Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed

Published

1 day ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The UK police on Sunday arrested an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender, whose crimes had sparked anti-immigration protests, after he was accidentally released from prison in an embarrassing blunder by British authorities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested Hadush Kebatu in the north of the capital on Sunday morning, nearly 48 hours after he was mistakenly freed around 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.

Kebatu, 38, had served the first month of a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, but was reportedly due to be deported when the Prison Service error occurred on Friday.

His high-profile case earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, sparked demonstrations in various English towns and cities where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.

Commander James Conway, who oversaw the manhunt for him, said “information from the public” led officers to the Finsbury Park neighbourhood of London, where he was found.

“He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” he added.

Kebatu is now expected to be deported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday he was “appalled” by the “totally unacceptable” mistake that saw him freed rather than sent to an immigration detention centre.

The Telegraph newspaper said he was wrongly categorised for release on licence and handed a £76 ($101) discharge grant.

Police had appealed Saturday for Kebatu to turn himself in, after reports emerged that he had appeared confused and reluctant to leave the prison in Chelmsford, eastern England.

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver told Sky News he saw Kebatu outside the jail, asking, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

“He was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed,” the driver said.

The father of Kebatu’s anonymous teenage victim told the broadcaster that “the justice system has let us down.”

Police arrested the asylum seeker in July after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.

He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.

He was staying at the time at Epping’s Bell Hotel, where scores of other asylum seekers have been accommodated, and which became the target of repeated protests.

AFP

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Madagascar Revokes Ousted President’s Nationality

Published

1 day ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Madagascar’s new government has stripped ousted president Andry Rajoelina of his Malagasy nationality in a decree published Friday, 10 days after he was removed in a military takeover.

According to AFP, the decree means that Rajoelina, who was impeached on October 14 after fleeing the island nation in the wake of weeks of protests, would not be able to contest future election.

The decree published in the official gazette said Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality was revoked because he had acquired French nationality in 2014, local media reported, as photographs of the document were shared online.

French broadcaster RFI said it had confirmed the decree with the entourage of the new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, who signed the order.

The decree cited laws stipulating that a Malagasy who voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality.

Rajoelina’s French nationality caused a scandal when it was revealed ahead of the November 2023 elections, nearly 10 years after it was granted.

It triggered calls for him to be disqualified but he went on to win the contested polls, which were boycotted by opposition parties.

The 51-year-old politician fled Madagascar after army Colonel Michael Randrianirina said on October 11 his CAPSAT unit would refuse orders to put down the youth-led protest movement, which security forces had attempted to suppress with violence.

Rajoelina said later he was in hiding for his safety, but did not say where.

Randrianirina was sworn in as president on October 14, pledging elections within two years.

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Kamala Harris Hints At Running For President Again

Published

1 day ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Former US vice president Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed in Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.

Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.

But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.

“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.

“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.

The interview follows the release of her memoir last month, in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.

She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.

AFP