Latest news with #SimaBahous
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
UN officials: Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's Sahel, endangering women and girls
UNITED NATIONS — Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's volatile Sahel region, making life more difficult and dangerous for women and girls, senior U.N. officials said Thursday. Over the past decade, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Three nations — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens. But the security situation has worsened. 'Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication,' U.N. special representative Leonardo Santos Simão told the Security Council. He pointed to the use of drones and increasing collusion with organized criminals working across borders. Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said no region is more affected by terrorism. 'Life for women and girls under terrorist control is one of erasure from public space,' she said. In the three countries, more than 1 million girls are out of school because of the violence, and 60% of those girls have never set foot in a classroom, she said. This has contributed to the region's high rates of child marriage, according to Bahous. 'As violence displaces families and shutters markets, women's livelihoods vanish and household resilience collapses,' she told the Security Council. And because of a drought, women and girls are walking longer distances to fetch water and firewood. 'Two-thirds report feeling unsafe on these journeys, in a region that already ranks among the highest globally for reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence,' Bahous said. Long battered by jihadi violence, the Sahel region has seen a spike in deadly attacks mainly by the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group , which has overrun major cities and military bases. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data showed that May was more deadly than the preceding eight months. In Niger, which recorded one of its deadliest months in June, fighters backed by the Islamic State group launched a major offensive across the Tillaberi and Dosso regions, killing more than 100 villagers, in a return to mass atrocities in rural areas. Ransom kidnappings targeting foreigners have also spiked in the country this year. Simão, who heads the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, cited ACLED data reporting over 400 terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger between April 1 and July 31, leading to 2,870 deaths. Young people are increasingly being recruited by violent extremist groups, and millions of people are fleeing across borders, he said. To confront the threat, Simão said Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have created a joint defense force, and broader regional efforts are also taking place. Bahous urged the international community not to abandon the Sahel and called for at least 15% of the funding to prevent violent extremism be allocated to help women and promote gender equality. —- Chinedu Asadu contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
UN officials: Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's Sahel, endangering women and girls
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Terrorist activity is surging in Africa's volatile Sahel region, making life more difficult and dangerous for women and girls, senior U.N. officials said Thursday. Over the past decade, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Three nations — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens. But the security situation has worsened. 'Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication,' U.N. special representative Leonardo Santos Simão told the Security Council. He pointed to the use of drones and increasing collusion with organized criminals working across borders. Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said no region is more affected by terrorism. 'Life for women and girls under terrorist control is one of erasure from public space,' she said. In the three countries, more than 1 million girls are out of school because of the violence, and 60% of those girls have never set foot in a classroom, she said. This has contributed to the region's high rates of child marriage, according to Bahous. 'As violence displaces families and shutters markets, women's livelihoods vanish and household resilience collapses,' she told the Security Council. And because of a drought, women and girls are walking longer distances to fetch water and firewood. 'Two-thirds report feeling unsafe on these journeys, in a region that already ranks among the highest globally for reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence,' Bahous said. Long battered by jihadi violence, the Sahel region has seen a spike in deadly attacks mainly by the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group, which has overrun major cities and military bases. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data showed that May was more deadly than the preceding eight months. In Niger, which recorded one of its deadliest months in June, fighters backed by the Islamic State group launched a major offensive across the Tillaberi and Dosso regions, killing more than 100 villagers, in a return to mass atrocities in rural areas. Ransom kidnappings targeting foreigners have also spiked in the country this year. Simão, who heads the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, cited ACLED data reporting over 400 terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger between April 1 and July 31, leading to 2,870 deaths. Young people are increasingly being recruited by violent extremist groups, and millions of people are fleeing across borders, he said. To confront the threat, Simão said Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have created a joint defense force, and broader regional efforts are also taking place. Bahous urged the international community not to abandon the Sahel and called for at least 15% of the funding to prevent violent extremism be allocated to help women and promote gender equality. —- Chinedu Asadu contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
Al Jazeera
29-07-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Death toll in Israel's war on Gaza surpasses 60,000
At least 60,034 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the war on Gaza erupted in October 2023, according to the enclave's Ministry of Health. The grim milestone was reached on Tuesday, with medical sources telling Al Jazeera that at least 62 Palestinians, including 19 aid seekers, have been killed since dawn, despite 'pauses' in fighting to deliver essential humanitarian aid. Local accounts indicate that Israel used booby-trapped robots, as well as tanks and drones, in what residents describe as one of the bloodiest nights in recent weeks, said Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. 'This is a sign of a possible imminent Israeli ground manoeuvre, although Israel has not yet confirmed the objectives of the attack,' he said. The latest attacks come as the 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza, according to a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring system. 'Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City,' it said in the report. 'Amid relentless conflict, mass displacement, severely restricted humanitarian access, and the collapse of essential services, including healthcare, the crisis has reached an alarming and deadly turning point,' the IPC document added. Food consumption has sharply deteriorated, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time, it said. Malnutrition rose rapidly in the first half of July, with more than 20,000 children being admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. More than 3,000 of them are severely malnourished. The IPC alert comes against the backdrop of its latest analysis released in May, which projected that by September, the entire population of Gaza would face high levels of acute food shortages, with more than 500,000 people expected to be in a state of extreme food deprivation, starvation, and destitution, unless Israel lifts its blockade and stops its military campaign. Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and humanitarian blockade, which it lifted partially in March, continues to plunge the Palestinian territory into an increasingly dire malnutrition crisis as at least 147 people, including 88 children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the war, the Health Ministry said on Monday. Starvation is affecting all sectors of the population, with Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, saying one million women and girls in Gaza face the 'unthinkable choice' of starving or risking their lives while searching for food. 'This horror must end,' Bahous said in a social media post, calling for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the Strip, the release of captives and a permanent ceasefire. Babies particularly affected Medical staff at Gaza's hospitals are seeing babies severely malnourished 'without muscles and fat tissue, just the skin over the bone', the director of paediatrics and maternity at Nasser Hospital, Ahmed al-Farra, told Al Jazeera. The long-term consequences of malnutrition for babies, infants and children are severe as they are still developing their central nervous system during the first three years of their lives, said al-Farra. Babies who have been malnourished will not have the required folic acid, B1 complex and polyunsaturated fatty acids that are essential for the composition of the central nervous system. Al-Farrah said malnutrition can affect cognitive development in the future, make it hard for a child to read and write, and lead to depression and anxiety. Tanya Haj Hassan, a doctor with the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), explains that serious health risks remain even after food becomes available again. 'The reality is the problem doesn't end when the food arrives … malnutrition impacts all aspects of the body's function,' Hassan told Al Jazeera. 'All of the cells in your body are altered by this. In the intestines, the cells die. That results in issues with absorption, with bacteria. Your pancreas struggles; absorbing fats is difficult. 'Your heart cells become weak and thinned. The connections are impacted, the heart rate slows. These children often die of heart failure, even when they're being refed,' she added. 'They also have life-threatening shifts in salts; these can also lead to fatal heart rhythms. They're more prone to sepsis and shock,' the doctor said, in reference to oral rehydration salt solutions, which are usually administered to people suffering from malnutrition. '[Patients can face] low blood pressure, skin lesions, hypothermia, fluid overload, infection, vitamin deficiencies that can affect vision and bone.'
Express Tribune
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Gaza bleeds, humanity fails
The writer is an educationist based in Larkana. She can be reached at sairasamo88@ Listen to article If anyone kills a person, it is as if he has killed all of mankind; and whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of mankind. Qur'an [5:32] Considering the second line of the above verse, it feels that we, as humans, are also the killers of humanity. In Islam, there is no difference between committing and witnessing cruelty. One becomes an accomplice when he does not take action against the oppressors; hence, he is also called an oppressor if wrongdoing occurs in his presence. Fifty-seven Muslim countries are not too few to unite for justice. As a Muslim Ummah, it is an obligation to protect humanity from the perspective of justice and rights. Among all Muslim countries, one is bleeding while the rest are watching videos, clips and news about how many have been killed. Yes, it is Gaza. We have been watching and reading news of genocide. Is it Gaza, or a forgotten piece of land of humanity that absorbs blood like water and plants fingers, hands, feet, and arms, amputated limbs, in the rubble? On humanitarian grounds, this cruelty must be condemned. As human beings, we can play a role by standing with the truth, but today, that truth remains hidden in our hearts — like a sorrowful episode that feels inescapable. For the past 20 months, Gaza has become an experimental laboratory for shedding blood and killing humanity, a genocide on a large scale, with the death toll surpassing 54,000, including children, men and women. Thousands have been killed, their limbs left lifeless, broken easily by the Israeli military. Now, their only shelter is the earth, and the sky their roof. An acute shortage of basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing has made survival nearly impossible. Even serving them with food has faced barriers. Trucks filled with aid have been blocked at the border. According to Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, tons of food is blocked at the border while people are starving in Gaza. Tragically, women and children have suffered the most in this long and brutal war. Their very survival is threatened by relentless starvation and forced displacement. Due to malnutrition, babies are now being born with abnormalities, and premature births have become common. UN reports state that one in ten babies is underweight or premature. Miscarriages, stillbirths and abnormalities are increasing rapidly due to a lack of medical supplies — including painkillers and basic hygiene products -— caused by the ongoing blockade. According to the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, "Violence leaves scars not on the body but on the mind. Mental health is not a luxury. It is life-saving." She adds, "In Gaza, 75% of women suffer from depression. Girls say they wish they were dead." This endless war has snatched away loved ones from these girls and women, many of them killed in bombings or dragged roughly by soldiers, leaving deep scars on their mental and physical health. "I was torn into a thousand pieces to the extent that I wanted to scream to the whole world, saying: 'Save my daughter from death, save her!'" says Aya, a victim of Gaza. Although the war shows no signs of ceasing, real solutions will only come if the superpowers, the UN and the OIC take serious and honest action. Instead, the US continues to defend Israel in the name of regional security, while the situation on the ground tells a different story. Post-Iran attack, Israel has witnessed retaliatory actions aimed at rebalancing power. Resilient in its response, Iran launched missiles in defence. Statements alone will never solve the ongoing genocide. True commitment to the cause of Palestine matters now more than ever. To prevent further mental and physical suffering, the Muslim Ummah must assemble and stand firm for Gaza. Now, it must be humanity first.
Kuwait Times
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Kuwait, UN Women discuss women's role in peace negotiations
NEW YORK: Ambassador Sheikha Jawaher Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah meets with Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women. — KUNA NEW YORK: Kuwait's Assistant Foreign Minister for Human Rights Affairs, Ambassador Sheikha Jawaher Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah, met Friday with Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, to discuss strengthening cooperation in promoting gender equality. Held on the sidelines of the 18th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the meeting emphasized the critical need for women's inclusion in peace negotiations and decision-making processes. Both sides underscored the urgent need for women to be active participants at the negotiating table, particularly in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and humanitarian aid distribution. Their remarks echoed recent appeals at the UN Security Council's open debate on women, peace and security, where global leaders, including UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, warned of the continued underrepresentation of women in peace processes. Between 1992 and 2019, women made up only 13 percent of negotiators and 6 percent of mediators in major peace efforts, despite evidence that their participation leads to more sustainable and inclusive agreements. Sheikha Jawaher reaffirmed Kuwait's commitment to international efforts that push for women's full, equal, and meaningful participation in political and public life. Bahous welcomed Kuwait's continued progress in women's empowerment, highlighting the country's advanced legislative reforms and describing Kuwait as a regional leader in promoting women's rights. — Agencies
