(Al Jazeera) – Between 90 and 100 refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their rubber dinghy sank off the coast of Libya. The inflatable boat was carrying more than 100 people when it went down off the eastern city of Khoms on Tuesday, said Ayub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya’s coastguard. Link
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(Theirworld) – On a classroom whiteboard in the battered city of Mosul the words “rediscovering how to smile” outline the heartbreaking task of Iraqi teachers striving to heal their students’ mental scars after brutal Islamic State group rule. Dozens of Iraqi teachers – many battling trauma themselves – have gathered at a university, where instructor Nazem […]
(NRC) – NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said: “Threatening to cut aid for political purposes to millions of civilians who need it is what we’ve come to expect of undemocratic regimes, not the world’s biggest humanitarian donor. Cutting funds to UNRWA will achieve nothing except push millions of Palestinians further into poverty and despair, taking food from […]
(CNN) – ISIS has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a Shia cultural center in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, that left 41 people dead and dozens injured. Two children were among the dead and 84 people were injured in the blast, according to a Health Ministry spokesman. Link
(The Guardian) – Ours is a world overflowing with suffering. It is a world desperately in need of solutions. Many of its crises require political leadership and courage – something which in 2017 was often in short supply. So instead of suggesting that 2018 should be a year of solutions, my new year wishlist is […]
(UNICEF) – “I spent 6 December through 3 January in Myanmar, almost half of that time in Rakhine State. I traveled to the northern part of the state – where the violence broke out last August, driving 655,000 people, the vast majority of them Rohingya, across the border into Bangladesh. I also went to central Rakhine, […]
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Two-year-old Emir al-Bash’s blood still showed on his mother’s hand as she sat in a medical centre in Syria’s besieged eastern Ghouta where his body was taken after he died from a shellblast. His family had left their home in the village of Kafr Batna on Monday for a market in a […]
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nearly seven years into Syria’s civil war, Syrian refugees in neighbouring Lebanon are becoming poorer, leaving children at risk of child labour and early marriage, aid organisations said on Tuesday. A recent survey by the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, U.N.’s World Food Programme, and refugee agency, UNHCR showed that Syrian refugees […]
(Project Syndicate) – Amina Begum is a case study in the power of hope. Three months ago, armed vigilantes attacked the six-year-old’s village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Amina saw neighbors killed, an uncle wounded by gunfire, and her home razed. Link
(Newsdeeply) – Queen Alphonsine wants to go back to school. She does not have many years to go to complete her secondary education, she says, but her parents won’t pay. Since she returned home from “the bush,” Queen is not their priority any more. Link
