• Energy grid attacks, torture in Ukraine by Russian military could be crimes against humanity
• Cocaine trafficking surges following COVID-19-related slowdown
• UN human rights chief calls for further progress in Uzbekistan

The illegal cocaine trade has bounced back following COVID-19 lockdowns, with coca cultivation up by more than a third from 2020 to 2021, according to a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Speaking to UN News, UNODC’s chief analyst for the Global Report on Cocaine 2023, said new routes and networks had emerged, with global supply now at record levels.

Brazil has emerged as a major hub, and there’s concern demand is rising fast in West Africa and Asia, as Ms. Me told Pauline Batista.

• Investment needed to improve working conditions for essential workers - ILO
• Humanitarian needs soar in Syria soars as conflict enters 13th year
• Countries must stop undermining the work of human rights’ defenders: rights expert

• More than one in two Syrians now food insecure – WFP
• 55 countries face unsustainable health worker crunch linked to COVID-19
• UNHCR launches new appeal for displaced Afghans and host countries

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough for people facing starvation in the Greater Horn of Africa region, now UN humanitarians have warned that they’re in the grip of surging disease, linked to malnutrition.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, have been particularly affected.

All seven countries are battling measles outbreaks, four have reported cholera outbreaks and malaria is a serious threat in Sudan.

With more on the human impact of this ongoing emergency, here’s Liesbeth Aelbrecht, WHO Incident Manager, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

• Syria rights investigators back calls for earthquake ‘failures’ probe
• Disability support under threat from workforce crisis, Human Rights Council hears
• Myanmar: Social media companies must stand up to junta’s online terror campaign say rights experts

• Cyclone Freddy: Mozambique, Malawi brace for more rain
• Horn of Africa hunger emergency: ‘129,000 looking death in the eyes’
• 300,000 flee ongoing violence in DR Congo in February alone

• Stricken Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant latest: IAEA
• Vanuatu emergency: UN aid team deploys after cyclones, earthquake
• Cannabis legalization fails to address health risks: UN-backed drugs control board

• Afghanistan: Experts urge Taliban to end ‘harmful annihilation’ of women’s freedoms
• Cholera vaccination campaign begins in quake-hit northwest Syria
• United Kingdom: UN refugee agency concerned about new asylum bill

As South Sudan prepares for elections in 2024, the world’s youngest nation sits at a fork in the road.

Progress towards a lasting peace include the need to hold fair elections, open civic spaces, and improved security. It also means having an inclusive constitution built for all.

But, right now, stark choices must be made, and 2023 is a “make or break” year, as Nicholas Haysom, who heads the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), tells UN News’s Eileen Travers.