International
9,000 women killed in Gaza since October 2023: UN
New York, March 2 (IANS) The UN has said that an estimated 9,000 women have been reportedly killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in the last five months of the war.
Every day the war in Gaza continues, at the current rate, an average of 63 women will continue to be killed.
An estimated 37 mothers are killed every day, leaving their families devastated and their children with diminished protection.
More than four out of five women (84 per cent) report that their family eats half or less of the food they used to before the war began, with mothers and adult women being those tasked with sourcing food, yet eating last, less, and least than everyone else.
Four in five women (84 per cent) in Gaza indicate that at least one of their family members had to skip meals during the past week. In 95 per cent of those cases, mothers are the ones going without food, skipping at least one meal to feed their children.
Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million people will be facing acute levels of food insecurity within weeks — the highest ever recorded as Gaza is on the verge of starvation.
Nearly nine in 10 women (87 per cent) report finding it harder to access food than men. Some women are now resorting to extreme coping mechanisms, such as scavenging for food under rubble or in dumpsters.
Ten out of 12 women’s organisations surveyed in Gaza reported being partly operational, providing essential emergency response services. Despite their extraordinary efforts, less than one per cent of funding raised through the 2023 Flash Appeal has gone to national or local women’s rights organisations.
Channelling funding to these organisations is crucial to meet the overwhelming needs of women and their families and communities, and to ensure that the voices of Gazan women do not go unheard.
Unless there is an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, many more will die in the coming days and weeks. The killing, bombing, and destruction of essential infrastructure in Gaza must stop. Humanitarian aid must get into and across Gaza immediately.
–IANS
vg/dan
International
Water level of major rivers in Myanmar exceeds warning mark amid heavy rains
Yangon, July 26 (IANS) Water level of major rivers in Myanmar has exceeded the warning mark in 12 towns across the country, Myanmar’s weather agency reported on Friday.
Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said that the water level of the rivers, including Ayeyarwady river, Sittaung river and Ngawun river, has risen above the warning mark.
The weather agency has urged residents living near riverbanks and in low-lying areas to take precautionary measures, Xinhua news agency reported.
Heavy rains have been hitting parts of the Southeast Asian country in recent days, causing floods in many areas.
July and August are the middle of the rainy season in Myanmar, and heavy rains are typical during the period.
–IANS
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International
Guinean presidency says political transition will not end on December 31
Conakry, July 26 (IANS) The date of December 31, 2024, will not mark the end of the transition that began in Guinea after the army seized power on September 5, 2021, Amara Camara, secretary general of the Guinean presidency, said Thursday.
Camara told a press conference here that the “dynamic compromise” reached with the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) consists of “readjusting the transition schedule at each stage.”
“At each stage reached, we will sit down with ECOWAS to reassess and make readjustments,” Camara said, Xinhua news agency reported.
He noted that the elections that are supposed to end the transition must be organized in peace, social tranquility, and harmony. “We will compete to ensure that this peace is guaranteed so that today’s transition process is not interrupted.”
Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, the government spokesperson, said the Guinean government intends to organize a referendum “before the end of this year to provide the country with a constitution” as a prelude to organizing the elections.
In an interview on March 12, Prime Minister Bah Oury estimated that there was still “a lot to do” to complete the transition schedule, and he thought that 2025 was “a good time to crown the whole process.”
The National Committee of Reconciliation and Development, the ruling military junta of Guinea, announced as soon as it took office on September 5, 2021, that it would hand over power on December 31, 2024.
–IANS
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International
Burundi reports three cases of monkeypox
Bujumbura, July 26 (IANS) Three cases of monkeypox have been reported in three health facilities in western Burundi, according to Burundian health authorities.
“On July 22, 2024, three new alerts of suspected monkeypox virus cases were reported to the health ministry,” said Lydwine Baradahana, minister of public health and fight against AIDS, in a press release issued in Bujumbura, the economic hub of Burundi, Thursday evening.
“They are clinically characterized by a fever, joint pains, and generalized skin eruptions,” she said, adding that a multidisciplinary team made up of the urgency operations center from the health ministry, the National Reference Laboratory and the World Health Organization was deployed to the ground to conduct investigations and do the necessary screening.
“After laboratory analyses, the three samples turned positive for the monkeypox virus,” said Baradahana, Xinhua news agency reported.
Monkeypox is a viral disease that affects both humans and animals. Symptoms include an unexplained acute rash and back pain, swollen lymph nodes, acute onset of fever, headache, muscle and body aches, and low energy.
“The disease is highly contagious and causes death if it is not treated quickly. That’s why we recommend hygiene measures like handwashing and avoiding contact with people having symptoms of the monkeypox virus,” said Baradahana.
She reassured the population that adequate measures have been taken, noting that the three cases are under treatment in health facilities and that contact cases are being closely monitored.
On July 16, a child with symptoms similar to monkeypox died at a health facility in Mugamba, in Burundi’s southern province of Bururi. The deadly disease has been reported in neighboring eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
–IANS
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International
France's TGV train services resume after arson attack disruptions
Paris, July 26 (IANS) France’s TGV high-speed train services are gradually resuming after severe disruptions caused by arson attacks, with one-third of the trains expected to be operational by Friday afternoon, announced the resigning Minister for Transport, Patrice Vergriete.
France’s TGV high-speed train traffic on the Atlantic, Northern, and Eastern routes was severely disrupted due to arson attacks targeting installations, the French national rail company SNCF reported on its X social media account Friday morning.
According to the SNCF, 800,000 passengers were affected by the attacks, with some trains diverted and many canceled.
International travel through the English Channel and to neighbouring Belgium has also been disrupted, Xinhua news agency reported.
Despite the attacks, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on Friday evening will proceed unaffected, as the incidents have no impact on the transport network in the Paris region, confirmed Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, quoted by BFMTV.
“All the evidence indicates that these acts were deliberate,” Vergriete told BFMTV on Friday. The resigning Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, stated on X, “Our intelligence services and law enforcement agencies are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”
–IANS
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International
Two Hezbollah members killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon
Beirut, July 26 (IANS) Two Hezbollah members were killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on a Lebanese village in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.
The sources, who spoke anonymously, said that an Israeli warplane fired two air-to-ground missiles targeting the vicinity of the southeast village of Markaba in southern Lebanon, killing two Hezbollah members. The two killed men were Abbas Hussein Hammoud and Fadl Nour al-Din.
They added that a civil defense ambulance transported their bodies to a hospital in the border area, and several houses adjacent to the targeted point were damaged.
Military sources said that Israeli warplanes and drones carried out on Friday four raids on four towns and villages in the eastern sector of the border area, and Israeli artillery shelled nine towns and villages with about 45 shells, causing material damage and the outbreak of several fires that the Civil Defense worked to extinguish.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced in separate statements that air defense units fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes inside Lebanese airspace in the southern region, forcing them to retreat and withdraw behind the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine, Xinhua news agency.
In this context, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon spokesman Andrea Tenenti expressed on Friday concern over the increasing intensity of the conflict across the borderline and the potential risks of a sudden, wider conflict that is difficult to control.
He called on all concerned parties to cease fire and return to the full implementation of Resolution 1701, which is ultimately the path to stability and peace.
He called on Lebanon and Israel to commit to UN Resolution 1701, which remains the most effective framework for addressing the current situation and working towards a long-term settlement of the conflict.
–IANS
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