UN Interviews

A breakthrough in Libya cannot be achieved if leaders continue to monopolise the political process, the outgoing head of the UN mission in the country, UNSMIL, has said.

Libya has remained mired in deep crisis since the postponement of national elections, originally planned for December 2021.

UN Special Representative Abdoulaye Bathily called on leaders to “have a sense of history” and “think about the future of their country”, pointing to their long-standing impasse.

Before leaving office, he sat down with UN News’s Khaled Mohammed to discuss the stalemate, the dire situation of citizens and renewed geopolitical interest in Libya, including due to the wars in Ukraine and Sudan.

Rescue efforts continue in Afghanistan following deadly flash floods in three northeastern provinces this past weekend.

The Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Stephen Rodriques, said that so far, 180 deaths have been confirmed and nearly 9,000 homes have been damaged or completely destroyed. 

The UN has deployed just over 20 teams to the region to conduct a joint assessment alongside partners and the de-facto authorities.

UN News’ Anshu Sharma asked him about challenges to the relief efforts and plans for longer-term support.   

Two arson attacks which followed weeks of protests forced UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA to temporarily close its compound in East Jerusalem on Thursday.

The developments are part of a wider campaign to undermine the agency, said Senior Communications Manager Jonathan Fowler.

UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri asked him about these incidents, intimidation of UNRWA staff, and their commitment to stay and deliver amid the war in Gaza and rising violence in the West Bank.

Amid intensified settlement building and the increased use of war tactics by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the number of casualties and injuries in the West Bank are now the highest on record, said the head of the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Wednesday.

Ajith Sunghay, told Anton Uspensky of UN News that “whatever happens in Gaza has a massive impact on the West Bank” while violations of Palestinians’ rights have intensified at the hands of “emboldened” settlers.

Despite the risk of new strikes in Rafah, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners continue to establish field hospitals and get services back online at the shattered Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis.

 Dr. Ahmed Dahir, Team Lead with the WHO office in Gaza, told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed that conditions have reached an “unprecedented emergency level”.

Dr. Dahir is currently in Rafah and has been describing the “crucial steps” being taken to prepare for any large-scale Israeli military operations in the coming hours.

Kenya remains on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Hidaya threatens to dump more torrential rains on East African countries, which recently emerged from three years of historic drought. 

The heavy rains have caused deadly flooding and landslides that have killed nearly 400 people across the region since March. 

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Kenya, Stephen Jackson, has been calling for a “push on resilience” as extreme weather events intensify due to climate change. 

UN News’s Thelma Nadzua began by asking him about the UN’s ongoing support to the Government as the rains continue. 

More than a year of fighting between Sudan’s rival militaries has the country’s people on the verge of famine and uprooted huge numbers caught up in the crossfire.

Now, there’s a new threat - unexploded weapons littering Sudan’s towns and cities, where people have received little training about the very real dangers of these lethal devices.

Mohammad Sediq Rashid, Chief of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the country, tells UN News’s Nancy Sarkis this deadly kind of warfare is new to Sudanese and with access to the capital getting easier, civilians are not waiting for crucial mine clearance to happen.

After more than a year of brutal fighting between rival militaries across Sudan, the last Government-held stronghold in Darfur of El Fasher is in danger of slipping into famine unless rebel fighters end their siege.

That’s according to the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Harward who told UN News that if the fighting for control continues it will trigger revenge attacks across Darfur and a slide into the atrocities that unfolded there two decades ago.

Abdelmonem Makki began by asking him to describe the latest situation in El Fasher.

Since the 1950s, 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced, seven billion tonnes of which have become potentially toxic waste. If no action is taken, plastic pollution could triple by 2060. 

It’s in our oceans, our rivers and overall plastic pollution represents “a huge problem” says Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the international negotiating committee secretariat (INC) focused on curbing the scourge, which met earlier this week on the road to what it is hoped will be an historic treaty next year.

Following the latest round of talks in Ottawa, Canada, “we are exactly where we need to be,” Ms. Mathur-Filipp told UN News’ Anton Uspensky, reflecting on the latest negotiations, and important steps that lie ahead. 

More than two years since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine, the harrowing human cost of the conflict couldn’t be clearer, with thousands killed and many of the injured requiring triple or quadruple amputations, mine action experts said on Wednesday.

The wider economic cost of the ongoing fighting in one of the world’s main cereal and commodity-producing regions is enormous too, currently valued at many billions of dollars, amid rising food and fuel prices.

With more, here’s Paul Heslop, Programme Manager for Mine Action at the UN Development Programme in Ukraine; he’s been speaking to UN News’s Nancy Sarkis  on the sidelines of the Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and UN Advisers in Geneva.