UN Interviews

The more peace becomes enduring, the less protection civilians need: that’s been one of the key measures by which the UN mission chief in South Sudan – who left the UN’s top job in the country last Thursday - David Shearer, has judged his four-plus years in charge of the 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, UNMISS.

The New Zealander has needed all his political and humanitarian skills to leave behind a record of “positive change” in a country where a fragile peace is finally holding, following years of instability and brutal civil conflict.

UN News’s Matt Wells, began by asking him to describe the state of the world’s youngest country, when he first arrived in the capital Juba.

 An intimate encounter with the “kissing bug” might sound cute, but Chagas disease – to give it its official name - is a nightmare for the millions who are infected every year, says UNITAID. 

For this year’s World Chagas Day on Wednesday 14 April, the UN agency has high hopes that a tracing and treatment initiative involving several Latin American countries, will help protect hundreds of thousands of pregnant women and their unborn babies. 

With the details, here’s UNITAID’s Mauricio Cysne, director of external relations, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

In this week’s UN Catch-Up, we’re checking in with the World Health Organization for the latest key COVID-19 developments, including an equitable vaccine distribution milestone.

By 2030, two billion people are expected to rely on so-called “assistive” technology aids in their daily lives to eat, see, hear and even get dressed, according to UN patent experts at WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.

It will also be possible to flag when anyone suffering from severe depression or other degenerative brain conditions might need help from a relative or carer, as Irene Kitsara from WIPO tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

In this week’s UN Catch-Up from Geneva, we’ll find out why we should all be concerned about the container ship that’s been making waves in the Suez Canal.  

Also – the Sahel attack on civilians that’s prompted a protection call from the UN refugee agency…the latest on the Myanmar crisis and help for child victims of the insurgency in northern Mozambique.  

With Daniel Johnson and Solange Behoteguy-Cortes from UN Geneva. 

Horrific events have been unfolding in northern Mozambique in recent days, where thousands of people have fled gunmen who’ve attacked the town of Palma, located in Cabo Delgado province, reportedly killing dozens. 

According to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), youngsters have been separated from their parents, and every single one desperately needs help. 

UNICEF’s head of communications in Mozambique, Daniel Timme, spoke to UN News’s Daniel Johnson from an aid hub in the provincial capital, Pemba.

The gigantic cargo ship that ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal last week is afloat once again after a Herculean salvage operation, but the damage to global trade will take months to fix.

That’s the assessment of maritime expert Jan Hoffman at UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, who also explains why the cost of sending freight around the world has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here he is, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Nearly 700,000 people have fled “a cocktail of crisis” in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, where a three-year brutal insurgency has intensified amid grinding poverty, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Despite having some of the largest reserves of natural gas in Africa, Cabo Delgado is among the poorest regions in the country, and is plagued by lack of basic services and high unemployment. 

Monica Grayley spoke to Aboubacar Koulibaly, leader of an expert team from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) that is currently in Mozambique to increase support to people battered by the complex, multilayered crisis.

In this week’s show, we’re celebrating seven years without polio in India and finding out how it was done. Could the lessons learned help to overcome COVID vaccine hesitancy?  

Also - the UN’s human rights office OHCHR announces a probe into grave rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Tigray region; a call for solidarity for the tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees who’ve lost everything in a huge camp fire in Bangladesh; a call for an emergency summit to stop the violence in Myanmar and the latest global COVID data from the UN World Health Organization. 

With Daniel Johnson and Solange Behoteguy-Cortes from UN Geneva. 

Reasonable progress has been made so far drawing down the UN’s former peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, and cooperation on the part of the Sudanese Government has been “excellent”. 

That’s according to the head of the UN Department of Operational Support, Atul Khare, who recently returned from a visit to Sudan, where despite the presence of a new political mission, UNITAMS, the transitional Government is ready to assume full responsibility for civilian protection across the restive region.  

Nearly half of the team sites formerly run by the UN have been handed over so far, and by the end of June, the only uniformed presence will be a formed police unit, as Mr. Khare told UN News’s Liz Scaffidi.