Shownotes Transcript
This is UN News Today with me, Daniel Johnson. The headlines. As war in Gaza intensifies, the aid community rejects what it calls Israel's attempt to weaponise humanitarian relief. In Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency reports that thousands of exhausted Sudanese are fleeing into Chad and the bombing of a hospital in South Sudan could amount to a war crime, say human rights investigators.
The Israeli proposal to deliver aid supplies through hubs controlled by the military would be a breach of core humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, the UN said on Tuesday. In Geneva, Yenslaker from the UN Aid Coordination Office, OCHA, noted that a verbal brief had been presented to the aid community by Israeli authorities on Monday.
It proposed delivering supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the military once the government reopens crossings into Gaza, Mr Lack has said. It appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponise the aid. And we have warned against that for a very long time, that aid should be...
The proposal comes as Israel plans to expand its military offensive against Hamas, which includes the capture of the Gaza Strip and a reported comment by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that Palestinian territory will be entirely destroyed.
Thousands of exhausted Sudanese refugees continue arriving in neighbouring Chad seeking shelter from war, a team said on Tuesday. The development comes as drone strikes ripped into the city of Port Sudan on the opposite side of the country for the third day running. Nearly 20,000 people, mainly traumatised women and children, have reached Chad in the past two weeks, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Magat Ghis, UNHCR representative in Chad, said that most of those arriving have no food, money or identification. Many of the newly arrived refugees report experiencing grave violence and human rights violations that force them to flee. They describe men being killed, women exiled.
Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world and already hosts 1.3 million refugees. This includes nearly 800,000 people from Sudan since war erupted between the Sudanese armed forces
and the paramilitary rapid support forces in April 2023 after a breakdown in transition to civilian rule. Top human rights investigators have condemned the bombing of a hospital in South Sudan as a potential war crime. The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, which reports to the Human Rights Council, insisted that Saturday's deadly strike on the facility in eastern Jonglae state was a calculated unlawful attack on a protected medical facility.
The incident killed seven civilians and injured another 20, while the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs the hospital, said that it had been completely destroyed, including its pharmacy and emergency care units. Further aerial bombardments were also reported, following public threats by South Sudanese military forces against newer majority communities. This policy is deeply irresponsible and may amount to collective punishment, the commission warned.
Condemning the hospital attack, the UN Health Agency said that medical facilities have been targeted eight times since January. The World Health Organization warned that more attacks may lead to half the health facilities along the Nile closing at a time of escalating violence that's impacted civilians since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Daniel Johnson, UN News.