XUNICEF News and Views

Article shared by Tom McDermott Click here for the article.   See AI update from  UNICEF  , UN and other sources below. Summary JNIM, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, is intensifying attacks across the Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger), making it the global epicenter of jihadi violence. Exploiting weak governance and instability exacerbated by recent coups, JNIM seeks to establish a Salafi-Islamist state and is expanding its threat towards coastal West African states. Quotes "The militant threat is progressively spreading southward towards coastal West African states like Benin and Togo, raising alarms about potential regional instability." "The Sahel region is now considered the global epicenter of jihadi violence, accounting for over half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024." The following update is composed with AI. It builds on the Washington Post article and statements by UNICEF, UN and Human Rights Watch sources. Click here for UNICEF and additional source...

"It is true that we are utterly failing some of the poorest, most neglected, and hardest-suffering communities on Earth. Why? Well, the aid has gone down while needs have grown. And that is in part because of the general lack of attention to the Sahel and because of the aid cuts to places beyond Ukraine and the Middle East." - Jan Egeland Click here for the article in the New Humanitarian

Giles Fagninou, RD WCARO "......cases of recruitment and use of children in armed groups along with killings and maiming increased by more than 130 per cent between the two time periods." .".....several hundred people were reported killed in Burkina Faso, with reports that more than 220 civilians, including 56 children, were killed in attacks reportedly carried out by the military in two villages on a single day in late February." "Between February and April, over 1,180 security incidents were reported, which claimed the lives nearly 3,400 people." Click here for Global Issues - UNICEF reports surge of violence "Ensuring the protection of children is critical, and the violent incidents in the central Sahel region must stop if children are to realise their basic rights to life under the international Convention on the Rights of the Child and the regional African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. “UNICEF calls on all involved in the ongoi...

Article shared by Tom McDermott

Statement comes after military government ordered senior United Nations official Barbara Manzi to leave Burkina Faso immediately. There have been two military takeovers in Burkina Faso this year [File: Anadolu] Read the original article Barbara Manzi UNRC The United Nations has said Burkina Faso had no grounds for ordering senior UN official Barbara Manzi to leave the country and that the doctrine of “persona non grata” could not be applied to her. Burkina Faso’s military government on Friday put out a statement instructing Manzi, an Italian national who was appointed UN resident coordinator last year, to leave the country with immediate effect. Foreign minister Olivia Rouamba later accused Manzi of painting a negative picture of the security situation in Burkina Faso, which has been grappling with a security crisis and escalating violence since 2015. Manzi “predicted chaos in Burkina Faso in the next few months”, Rouamba said on national television, alleging she had unilaterally reco...