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Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are due to meet Wednesday in Istanbul in an effort to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hindered Ukrainian exports, helping push up global prices on grain, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer. 

Turkey and the United Nations have been working to broker a deal to alleviate the crisis. 

Russia has expressed concerns about ships being used to bring weapons into Ukraine and called for ships to be searched. 

Ukraine has said an agreement cannot threaten the security of its territory along the Black Sea. 

Donbas fighting 

Britain’s defense ministry said Wednesday it expects Russian forces to focus on taking small towns near the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk as it tries to take control of the eastern Donbas region. 

“The urban areas of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk likely remain the principal objectives for this phase of the operation,” the ministry said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address late Tuesday that “Russian shelling does not stop for a single day.” 

“In the Donbas, offensive attempts do not stop, the situation there does not get easier, and the losses do not get smaller. We must remember this. We must see this, draw attention to this.” 

Ukraine said Tuesday 52 Russians were killed in a long-range missile attack on an ammunition dump in southern Ukraine. Moscow disputed the claim, saying seven civilians had been killed. 

Kyiv said the attack in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region came after the United States supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems, which Ukraine said its forces were using with greater accuracy. 

“Based on the results of our rocket and artillery units, the enemy lost 5️2 (people), a Msta-B howitzer, a mortar and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” Ukraine’s southern military command said in a statement. 

The region Ukraine hit is one that Russia seized after launching its invasion on February 24. With access to the Black Sea, the area is of strategic importance. 

A Russian-installed official in Kherson gave a different version of events, saying at least seven people had been killed and that civilians and civilian infrastructure had been hit. 

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russia-installed, Kakhovka district military-civilian administration, as saying at least seven people had been killed in the attack and about 60 wounded. 

“There are still many people under the rubble. The injured are being taken to the hospital, but many people are blocked in their apartments and houses,” Leontyev said in the TASS account. He was also quoted as saying that warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church had been hit. 

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of indiscriminately killing civilians in the war. The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 5,024 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, while adding that the actual toll was likely much higher. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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France’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday there were only a few weeks before the window of opportunity to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers would close. 

Speaking to lawmakers, Catherine Colonna said the situation was no longer tenable and accused Iran of using delaying tactics and going back on previously agreed positions during talks in Doha earlier this month, while forging ahead with its uranium enrichment program. 

“There is still a window of opportunity … for Iran to finally decide to accept an accord, which it worked to build. But time is passing,” Colonna said, warning that if Iran kept on its current trajectory, it would be a threshold nuclear-armed state. 

“Time is passing. Tehran must realize this,” she said, adding that the U.S. mid-term elections would make it even harder to seal a deal. 

“The window of opportunity will close in a few weeks. There will not be a better accord to the one which is on the table.” 

Last week, the U.S. envoy for the talks to reinstate the deal said Iran had added demands unrelated to discussions on its nuclear program during the latest talks and had made alarming progress on enriching uranium. 

Under the 2015 nuclear pact, Iran limited its uranium enrichment program, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, though Tehran says it seeks only civilian atomic energy, in return for a lifting of international sanctions. 

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, spurring Tehran to breach nuclear limits in the pact. 

Western officials have repeatedly said that the talks between world powers and Iran only had a few weeks to conclude a deal, with Colonna’s predecessor Jean-Yves Le Drian even saying in February it was just a question of days.
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More than 1.8 billion people worldwide are at risk of severe floods, new research shows. Most reside in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, and four out of 10 live in poverty.

The figures are substantially larger than previous estimates. They show that the risk is concentrated among those least able to withstand and recover from flooding.

“I thought it was a valuable paper, indeed. Because this link between poverty and flood risk is kind of overlooked,” said hydrologist Bruno Merz, of the German Research Center for Geosciences, who was not involved in the study.

Flood risk assessments typically consider risk in monetary terms, which is highest in rich countries where more wealth is at stake. The new study focused on how flood exposure and poverty overlap.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study combined a global flood risk database with information on population density and poverty. The research focused on places where floods 15 centimeters deep or deeper happen at least once every 100 years on average.

The study found that nearly 90% of people at risk of severe flooding live in poor countries, not rich ones. More than 780 million flood-exposed people live on less than $5.50 per day.

The substantial overlap between high flood risk and poverty feeds into a vicious cycle that further concentrates flood protections in rich countries that have more resources to deal with floods in the first place, said flood risk researcher Jeroen Aerts of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Aerts was not involved in the study.

“It’s doing a cost-benefit analysis,” Aerts said. “Less money is going to poorer countries, because, of course, if the country is poorer, there are less dollars exposed.” Aerts said that this also happens within countries, which tend to invest in pricey flood protections for wealthy urban centers rather than for poorer rural areas.

The new estimate for global flood exposure is higher than some earlier ones. For instance, one previous study predicted that 1.3 billion people would be exposed to severe floods by 2050 — 500 million fewer than are exposed today, according to the new estimate. The authors attribute their higher number to their use of better data covering more regions at higher resolution and combining the risks from coastal, river and surface water floods.

The study did not consider protections, such as levees or dikes, in its assessment of flood exposure. This “distorts the picture,” Merz said, since some flood-prone populations are well-protected, such as those in the Netherlands.

Rather than undermining the study’s findings, Merz thought that this could mean that an even greater proportion of the people threatened by floods lives in poor regions.

“In many low-income countries, there is no flood protection, so people will be flooded by a small flood … that occurs on average every five years. On the other hand, in Europe, in North America, many of the areas are protected (from floods that happen once every) 100 years, 200 years or even higher. And so, this is not included,” he said.

Unprotected, poorer regions could thus shoulder an even greater share of the actual risks from flood exposure than the paper suggests.

The new result offers a snapshot of flood risk around the world as it is today, not a projection of how it will develop in the future. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of floods in much of the world. And although early warning systems have decreased flood fatalities, including in resource-poor regions, population growth in flood-prone areas will also put more people at risk in the future, Aerts said.

“The exposure to natural hazards, exposure to flooding — it’s larger than previously investigated. And the majority of those exposed people live in a vulnerable, poor region,” Aerts said. “I think that’s the takeaway, I think, and maybe one sentence more: This means that investments in … flood adaptation should be targeted at those areas.”
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Eight British Conservative Party lawmakers have made the cut to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned earlier this month amid scandals. 

Each of the eight needed support from at least 20 fellow Conservative Party lawmakers before the Tuesday deadline.  

Runoff voting among fellow Conservative lawmakers, to narrow the field to two, is scheduled to begin Wednesday. 

Among the eight are former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Former health secretary Sajid Javid was not among the eight. 

Lawmakers aim to narrow the field to two by the summer break, which starts July 21. The two finalists will then campaign across the country, after which party members will vote on the winner. 

The new leader is due to be announced when the House of Commons returns on September 5. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
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As parts of Europe endure sweltering heat, fears are growing of a cold winter ahead after Russia’s Gazprom energy company cut off a key pipeline to Germany this week — ostensibly for routine maintenance. The move has sparked alarm and is intensifying European Union efforts to slash energy consumption and find alternatives.

Officially, Gazprom’s maintenance work on its Nord Stream I pipeline was long expected and unlikely to last very long. But German officials say anything is possible.

Moscow has already curbed gas deliveries to nearly a dozen European Union countries in recent months, as they pass ever-tougher sanctions over its war in Ukraine. The bloc has agreed to end Russian coal imports and phase out Russian oil this year.

Doing so with Russian gas is tougher, however. It accounts for 40 percent of the EU’s overall consumption — and even more when it comes to countries like Austria and Germany.

Here in France, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne says Gazprom’s latest cut should accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. The French government also plans to nationalize its EDF energy company — partly over fears of a looming power crisis.

Now the race is on to find solutions. The Paris-based International Energy Agency has released a 10-point plan on how the EU can reduce its reliance on Russian gas — and climate emissions.

“We need a very broad suite of low-emission technologies…,” IEA energy expert Brent Wanner says that suite should include nuclear power and other energy sources.

“Wind and solar are now two of the cheapest options for new electricity, new sources of electricity….ultimately we need to have multiple options in order for countries to choose their own path, within their own circumstances.”

The EU’s executive arm has also outlined 2030 energy savings targets of 13 percent, which a bloc of powerful European Parliament parties wants to make more ambitious.

But that doesn’t solve Europe’s immediate energy headaches, as prices soar and a potential wintertime heating crunch looms. Brussels research group Bruegel says Germany, for one, will have to cut its natural gas consumption by nearly one-third to ensure it will have enough supplies during the cold months…if Gazprom’s “temporary” cutoff becomes permanent.
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A U.N. aid operation from Turkey into opposition-held areas of northwest Syria may now resume for six months — with the possibility of six additional months — after its authorization expired Sunday due to disagreements within the U.N. Security Council.

“What is most important today is that the council, with this resolution, keeps the cross-border mechanism open and operating,” Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said. “That humanitarian assistance continues to reach those in need.”

Ireland and Norway hold the humanitarian file on Syria in the council and led the difficult negotiations.

“We recognize that a six-month renewal is shorter than we, as penholders, aimed for when we started this negotiation,” Byrne Nason added. “We recognize also that the vast majority of the council shared that view, and the view of humanitarian actors on the ground, that a 12-month mandate was needed.”

Although the border crossing will remain open for humanitarians for another six months, the outcome was essentially a diplomatic victory for Russia.

Moscow used its veto in the council on Friday to block the extension of the operation for one year, something 13 of the 15 council members voted for (China abstained). Russia then put forward its own text that called for six months, with the possibility for six more with a new resolution. Their envoy later told reporters that his delegation would veto any proposal that did not follow that formula.

Negotiations ran through the weekend and into Monday. The final compromise has the Russian 6+6 month formula, but also includes a demand from other council members that the U.N. secretary-general provide a “special report on the humanitarian needs in Syria” a month before the extension expires in January.

The United States, Britain and France abstained during Monday’s vote because they were not satisfied with the six-month extension.

“The vote we took this morning is what happens when one council member takes the entire Security Council hostage, with the lives of Syrian men, women and children hanging in the balance,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills told the council of Russia’s actions.

Russia has long sought to end the operation, which Damascus does not like. It has used its veto or the threat of it in recent years to shut down three other border crossings used by humanitarians to reach vulnerable Syrians.

The Assad regime prefers to control all relief supplies coming into the country and says the cross-border operation was a temporary and exceptional measure that is no longer needed. About 800 trucks each month carry relief supplies via Bab al-Hawa into the opposition-held northwest.

Russia’s deputy ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said Tuesday the six-month extension would give the council time to decide “the ultimate fate” of the cross-border operation, and by January it would have arrived at a “well-considered decision.” He also urged the expansion of aid deliveries across conflict front lines in Syria – known as crossline operations – and the lifting of western sanctions on the Assad regime.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had personally appealed to council members to renew the cross-border mechanism for another year. On his way into another meeting, he told reporters the relief operation is essential for the people living in northwest Syria.

“It is a matter of life and death for many of them,” he said, adding he hopes the resolution will be renewed again in January.

More than 4 million Syrians benefit from humanitarian assistance that comes through Turkey at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. The U.N. and its aid partners reach 2.4 million people each month in the northwest with food and other aid.

A year gives humanitarians planning and procuring space, and it would have gotten the people who rely on the aid through the coming winter. Now, they risk losing assistance during the harshest months when council members must repeat negotiations in January.

Needs are highest now than at any other time during the conflict. The U.N. says 14.6 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance, of which 12 million are food insecure. The U.N. has appealed for a staggering $10 billion this year to assist people both inside the country and those who have sought safety in neighboring countries. The U.N. says nothing short of a permanent cease-fire will end the suffering.
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Ukrainian and Russian officials gave differing accounts Tuesday of a Ukrainian attack in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian side, a long-range rocket struck a Russian ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka, killing 52 Russian troops.

Russia said the Ukrainian strike instead hit civilian infrastructure.

Also Tuesday, Britain’s defense ministry said Russian forces continued to make “incremental territorial gains” in Donetsk province, the area of eastern Ukraine where it has focused its efforts.

The British statement said Russia is likely maintaining pressure on Ukrainian forces while “regrouping and reconstituting for further offensives in the near future.

Officials in the Donetsk town of Chasiv Yar said the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building rose to 34, with nine people having been safely rescued from the rubble.

The five-story apartment building was demolished by a rocket attack Saturday.

Chasiv Yar is about 20 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they push farther westward into Donetsk province after claiming victory a week ago in the adjoining Luhansk province.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Olympic champion Mo Farah revealed in an article published Monday that he was brought to Britain illegally under the name of another child to work as a domestic servant. 

Farah told the BBC that he was given the name Mohamed Farah by a woman who flew him to the UK from the East African country Djibouti when he was 9. 

The 39-year-old, whose father was killed in Somalia when he was 4, said his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and claimed he was made to look after another family’s children in Britain. 

“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” he said as part of a documentary to be aired Wednesday. 

“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name, or it’s not the reality. 

“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK. 

“When I was 4 my dad was killed in the civil war, you know, as a family we were torn apart. 

“I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.” 

Farah, who became the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals, said his children have motivated him to be truthful about his past. 

“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it, and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that,” he said. 

“That’s the main reason in telling my story because I want to feel normal and don’t feel like you’re holding on to something.” 

‘Just being honest’ 

Farah’s wife, Tania, said in the year leading up to their 2010 wedding she realized “there was lots of missing pieces to his story” but she eventually “wore him down with the questioning” and he told the truth. 

During the television program, Farah said he thought he was going to Europe to live with relatives and recalled going through a UK passport check under the guise of Mohamed at the age of 9. 

“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and right in front of me ripped them up and put it in the bin and at that moment I knew I was in trouble,” he said. 

Farah eventually told his physical education teacher Alan Watkinson the truth and moved to live with his friend’s mother, Kinsi, who “really took great care” of him, and stayed seven years. 

It was Watkinson who applied for Farah’s British citizenship, which he described as a “long process” and on July 25, 2000, Farah was recognized as a British citizen. 

Farah, who named his son Hussein after his real name, said: “I often think about the other Mohamed Farah, the boy whose place I took on that plane, and I really hope he’s OK. 

“Wherever he is, I carry his name and that could cause problems now for me and my family. 

“The important thing is for me to just be able to look, this is what’s happened and just being honest, really.”
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Spain and Portugal were sweltering in their second heat wave in a month Monday, with scorching temperatures also expected in France and Britain in the coming days.

People in Spain baked with the temperature in the central town of Candeleda hitting a stifling 43.3 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) shortly after 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), according to Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET.

The mercury meanwhile hit 42.4C in the southern city of Seville.

The southwestern cities of Badajoz and Merida also saw temperatures of 42C.

AEMET forecast 46C in Badajoz on Thursday and Friday with Seville predicted to swelter in 45C on Wednesday and Thursday.

“This heat wave really has the potential to be exceptional,” said AEMET representative Ruben del Campo.

The current temperature surge began Sunday and could “last nine or 10 days, which would make it one of the three longest heat waves Spain has seen since 1975,” he told AFP.

Heat waves have become more frequent due to climate change, scientists say. As global temperatures rise over time, heat waves are expected to become more intense.

June had already seen Spain grapple with temperatures above 40C in swathes of the country.

The previous month was Spain’s hottest May since the beginning of the century.

In August 2021, Spain recorded its highest ever temperature when the mercury reached 47.4C (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in the small southern town of Montoro.

Meteorologists did not rule out the prospect of that record being broken in the coming days.

The heightened temperatures have been accompanied by a lack of rainfall.

Reservoirs in Spain stood at 45.3% of capacity Monday, well below the average of 65.7% recorded during the same period over the past decade.

In neighboring Portugal temperatures topped 44C over the weekend, fueling wildfires and vast smoke clouds which were visible in the capital Lisbon.

Firefighters brought the largest blaze under control Monday after it had burned through swathes of the central municipality of Ourem, local officials said.

‘Maximum risk’

While temperatures eased somewhat in Portugal on Monday, they were expected to soar again in the coming days with 44C forecast for the southeastern city of Evora.

“In the coming days we will experience conditions of maximum risk,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

“The slightest lapse in vigilance could result in a fire of significant proportions.”

A front of hot air began pushing into France Monday, with the mercury rising above 30C across much of the country, according to national weather forecaster Meteo-France.

Temperatures could hit 39C in some parts of France Tuesday, Meteo-France added. The heat wave should reach its peak between Saturday and next Tuesday, said Sebastien Leas of Meteo-France.

Britain on Monday issued an extreme heat warning, with temperatures predicted to hit more than 30C across large parts of England and Wales.

The extreme heat warning was classified as “amber,” the second-highest alert level, indicating a “high impact” on daily life and people.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Sherwin said the U.K. highs would continue into early next week.

“From Sunday and into Monday, temperatures are likely to be in excess of 35C in the southeast (of England), although the details still remain uncertain,” she said.
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The red on beige sign outside La Torre shop advertises the kind of underwear earlier generations might have worn, mostly knickerbockers and girdles.

The shop — known as The Tower in English — has been a standard in Barcelona for more than 120 years, preserving a glimpse into the city’s past.

La Torre has withstood the relentless march of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and other international corporate chains which, critics say, have eaten up the souls of downtowns. Other period shops, cinemas or libraries have not been so fortunate and have been forced to close.

Campaigners in Spain are determined to safeguard a form of heritage which they say is increasingly under threat: the shop signs which advertise small businesses often run by families.

Described as the “Indiana Jones of the Lost Shop Signs” by the Spanish newspaper ABC, they advocate for everything from the Art Deco cinema signs, old-fashioned flashing Buy Easy signs and the ornate golden shoe shop signs.

The commercial signs outside shops that have long shaped the identity of cities, towns and villages are a part of our past, said volunteers from the Iberian Network in Defense of Graphic Heritage, a collective of about 50 projects across Spain.

Heritage

To most people, heritage sums up the idea of castles, priceless paintings, and royal jewels. But these campaigners contend that the urban landscape which most people inhabit every day is as much a part of our treasured past too.

Heritage legislation in Spain protects everything from cathedrals to castles to bullfighting but not shop signs – so far. So, campaigners must first convince local councils to protect these symbols of everyday life.

“We are against nostalgia because it says that the past is better than the present or the future. We want to preserve these shop signs because they represent something from the past that we can use to learn about for the future,” Alberto Nanclares, of the Iberian Network, told VOA in an interview.

Nanclares said the organization began in 2014 after the then government abolished a law which guaranteed cheap rents to companies, driving many small shops out of business. He said they plan to open a museum to show off the signs they have saved.

“It should be very popular because it will attract designers, architects, elderly people who want to see the past and people who want to take their grandparents to see the place where they grew up,” he added.

Laura Asensio is a graphic designer who has been working for an organization called Valladolid with Character. They hope to stop Valladolid, a northern Spanish, from becoming a bland version of many other cities across Europe.

Volunteers are mapping out the old shop signs which have been saved or at risk from being lost.

Asensio said she hopes to convince the city council to change local laws to preserve this part of the city’s heritage. A book will be published with photographs in December detailing this part of the city life for future generations.

“The reason we started this organization is to stop shop signs from being lost to globalization. All over Europe, city centers are being dominated by McDonalds, Zara, or Burger King,” she told VOA.

Laura Aseguradade, an interior designer, and member of the Iberian Network, said younger people may not appreciate the value of the architectural heritage of their own cities.

“But if you don’t value traditions and distinctiveness of your cities then Madrid ends up looking much like Barcelona or London with the same chains springing up due to globalization,” she told VOA from her home in Madrid.

“We are not against globalization, but the architectural heritage brings value to your city because it makes it different to other places which is important for tourism and the quality of life.”
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The United Nations said Monday that thousands of children in war zones suffered grave abuses including rape, maiming and death last year, and that concerns are growing for children in new regions of conflict, including Ukraine.

“The fact remains that hundreds, if not thousands, of children are victims of violence in armed conflict every day of every week of every month of every year in conflict-affected states and regions,” Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, told reporters at the launch of the annual report.

The most dangerous places to be a child last year were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia and Yemen.

Gamba’s office, working with U.N. teams on the ground, verified nearly 24,000 grave violations against children. More than 8,000 were killed or maimed due to conflict, 6,310 were recruited and used in combat; and nearly 3,500 children were abducted.

Among worrying trends the report uncovered is the significant increase in abductions and sexual violence against children. Both were up 20% from 2020.

Gamba said many of the girls abducted are then trafficked, and that armed groups such as Boko Haram and West Africa’s branch of the Islamic State group target girls specifically for this purpose; it is not a random act of violence in a conflict. Ninety-eight percent of sexual violence documented in the report targeted girls.

While the vast majority of monitored violations were against boys — some 70% — overall the number of abuses against them has decreased, while girls suffered an increase in killing and maiming, abduction and rape.

“By 2020, one out of four children victims of grave violations were girls, but by 2021, one out of three are girls,” Gamba said. “The Lake Chad Basin region, which was included in children and armed conflict agenda last year, showed the most significant increase of girls affected by grave violations among all situations on the agenda.”

Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger and Nigeria are all part of the Lake Chad Basin region and have suffered variations of instability, intercommunal violence, terrorism and conflict.

Naming and shaming

The annual report is known for “naming and shaming” governments that mistreat children. But the 2021 report had no surprise listings.

Fifty-seven parties to conflict, seven of which are government-related actors, are mentioned, while the rest are nonstate groups.

Among the state offenders are Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, which was listed for maiming, killing and raping children. Congo’s army, the FARDC, for raping children. Syria’s government forces and pro-government militias for recruiting, killing and maiming, raping and attacking schools and/or hospitals.

A lengthy list of nonstate groups, including terrorists and rebel groups such as Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and al-Shabab were also cited for multiple violations.

Afghanistan’s Taliban was listed for recruiting, maiming, killing and abducting children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals. Gamba said monitoring in Afghanistan in 2021 ended on Aug. 15, when the Taliban seized power after the government collapsed and the U.N. switched its focus to the humanitarian emergency. But in those first 7 1/2 months, there were nearly 3,000 verified violations against children.

“It still is one of the low points in my life to look at what is happening in Afghanistan,” Gamba said.

She said monitors have resumed their work there “however we can.”

New conflicts

The special representative’s office has now been mandated by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to immediately begin monitoring four new situations of concern: Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ukraine and the Central Sahel.

On Ukraine, she is most concerned about attacks on schools and hospitals and the killing and maiming of children. Her Ukraine mandate starts immediately and includes both the protection of children and the prevention of abuses against them.

Good news

There were some positive developments in the report. Some countries that have been listed have seen improvement after signing action plans with Gamba’s office and engaging with them.

She pointed to South Sudan, which in 2018 was the second-highest offender with more than 4,000 violations against children each year.

“Today there is less than 300 a year,” Gamba said. “Why? The action plans put in place, measures put in place, laws, training, capacity that has been put in place.”
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