3 September 2017 – Following today’s reported nuclear bomb test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the head of the United Nations atomic agency has spoken against &#8220an extremely regrettable act&#8221 that completely disregarded the international community’s repeated demands.

&#8220Today’s nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is an extremely regrettable act,&#8221 said Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a statement.

&#8220This new test, which follows the two tests last year and is the sixth since 2006, is in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community,&#8221 he added.

In its resolutions, most recently in 2371, the Security Council has reaffirmed its decisions that the DPRK should not conduct any further nuclear tests and should abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

&#8220Once again, I strongly urge the DPRK to fully implement all relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA,&#8221 Mr. Amano said, noting that his agency continues to closely follow developments in the DPRK’s nuclear programme and remains ready to contribute to its peaceful resolution.

2 September 2017 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that an estimated 16 million children are in urgent need of life-saving support in the wake of torrential monsoon rains and catastrophic flooding in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

&#8220Millions of children have seen their lives swept away by these devastating floods,&#8221 said Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. &#8220Children have lost their homes, schools and even friends and loved ones. There is a danger the worst could still be to come as rains continue and flood waters move south,&#8221 she added.

UNICEF is on the ground working in close coordination with respective governments and humanitarian partners in the South Asian countries to scale up its responses and respond to immediate needs of affected children and their families.

Since mid-August, there have been at least 1,288 reported deaths, with over 45 million people estimated to be affected.

Many areas remain inaccessible due to damage to roads, bridges, railways and airports. The most urgent needs for children are clean water, hygiene supplies to prevent the spread of disease, food supplies and safe places in evacuation centres for children to play.

&#8220Massive damage to school infrastructure and supplies also mean hundreds of thousands of children may miss weeks or months of school,&#8221 said Gough. &#8220Getting children back into school is absolutely critical in establishing a sense of stability for children during times of crisis and provides a sense of normality when everything else is being turned upside down.&#8221

In Bangladesh alone, more than 8 million people have been affected by flooding, including around 3 million children. An estimated 696,169 houses have been damaged or destroyed and 2,292 primary and community schools have been damaged by high water. There have already been more than 13,035 cases of water-borne diseases in the country.

In Nepal, 1.7 million people, including 680,000 children, have been affected with 352,738 displaced from their homes. More than 185,126 homes have been damaged or destroyed in addition to 1,958 schools, affecting the education of 253,605 children.

In India, four states in northern India have been extensively affected by the flooding, affecting over 31 million people including 12.33 million children. Some 805,183 houses are either partially or fully damaged and 15,455 schools have been damaged, disrupting the education of nearly one million students. Further heavy rains in Mumbai resulted in at least five deaths by drowning and three people including two children died due to house collapse.

1 September 2017 – Iraq: ISIL targeting civilians to ‘avenge’ loss of Tal Afar, UN envoy says

Fighters from the Islamic State (ISIL) are indiscriminately targeting civilians to avenge for their loss of Tal Afar, the top United Nations political representative in Iraqi today said, condemning the latest attack in Baghdad.

&#8220Da’esh terrorists have shown absolute disregard for human life,&#8221 said Ján Kubiš, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

&#8220However, the patience and resilience of the Iraqi people have defeated the terrorists’ aim in breaking their unity,&#8221 he added.

At least 125 civilians were killed and another 188 injured in terrorist related acts in Iraq during the month of August, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). The casualty figures show that Baghdad was the worst affected area, and do not include casualty figures from ongoing fighting in Anbar province.

The overall casualty figures are lower than in previous months, where violence spiked above 2,000 in October 2016.

In a separate statement, Mr. Kubiš said that &#8220hopeful days lie ahead for Iraq,&#8221 noting military victories against terrorists, including in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar which Iraqi forces yesterday declared liberated from ISIL.

Mr. Kubiš said this Eid al-Adha, thoughts and prayers go to all the martyrs and fighters in the liberating forces, and to those who provide support and are affected &#8211 including the millions of displaced Iraqis.

&#8220On this Eid, the Feast of Sacrifice that Muslims celebrate worldwide, the Iraqi people who have sacrificed dearly deserve to live in peace, dignity and prosperity,&#8221 he said.

The senior UN official added that sustainable peace in the country can only be secured through inclusive solutions, addressing grievances, needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people.

1 September 2017 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today urged restraint and calm in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, cautioning that the situation may otherwise lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.

In a statement from his spokesperson, the Secretary-General expressed deep concern about reported violence since 25 August attacks on police posts.

&#8220The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the reports of excesses during the security operations conducted by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine State,&#8221 according to the statement.

Mr. Guterres stressed the responsibility of Myanmar authorities to provide security and assistance to all those in need and allow the UN and its partners to extend humanitarian support, in country and in Bangladesh, where some people are fleeing. He encouraged authorities to ensure that people seeking aid have access to the UN and other partners.

&#8220The current situation underlines the urgency of seeking holistic approaches to addressing the complex root causes of violence,&#8221 the spokesperson said, reiterating the need to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Released earlier this week, the report outlines recommendations for how to overcome political, socio-economic and humanitarian challenges in that area of western Myanmar.

1 September 2017 – Even as countries continue to ratify and implement the international treaty prohibiting the use of cluster munitions, casualties from these notorious weapons doubled in the past year, with civilians accounting for nearly all the victims, according to a United Nations-backed civil society report.

The annual monitoring report released yesterday at the UN Office at Geneva by the Cluster Munition Coalition revealed that the use of cluster munitions in war-torn Syria and Yemen has caused even more civilian casualties. Moreover, in those two countries, conflict and insecurity are hampering clearance of the deadly weapons.

Of nearly 1,000 victims identified in 10 countries, almost all were from Syria, according to the Cluster Munition Monitor 2017.

&#8220The humanitarian devastation caused by cluster munitions is particularly acute in Syria, where use has continued unabated since mid-2012,&#8221 the report’s main editor and coordinator of the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor initiative Jeff Abramson told journalists in Geneva, warning that the real figure is therefore much higher.

Fellow report editor Loren Persi explained: &#8220The vast majority of those casualties occurred in Syria and mostly during attacks, there was really unrelenting use of cluster munitions in Syria and Syria has been the reason for the majority of cluster munition casualties since 2013, definitely. Actually in 2016, almost 90 per cent of the casualties occurred in Syria.&#8221

Mr. Abramson stressed that the only sure way to end this insidious menace &#8220is to have all States embrace and adhere to the international ban on these weapons.&#8221

The threat from cluster munitions is rarely short-lived, according to the report, which records casualties in places where the weapons have not been used for decades.

More than 100 people were known to have been killed or injured by previously unexploded cluster munition submunitions, the deadly landmine-like remnants left over from earlier attacks, including in South-East Asian countries such as Lao People’s Democratic Republic. There, all of the 51 new casualties in 2016 were the result of remnants from cluster munitions used in the 1960s and 1970s.

Number of casualties in 2016 more than double the previously recorded high

Overall, the report identified at least 971 new cluster munition casualties globally in 2016, with 860 of these in Syria. This global number is certainly less than the actual total. Disturbingly, the number of casualties in 2016 is more than double the number recorded in 2015 (417), making it the second-highest annual figure since Cluster Munition Monitor reporting began in 2009 (the highest was in 2013).

Since August 2016, two countries have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Benin and Madagascar), bringing the total number of States Parties to 102. Another 17 States have signed but not yet ratified the convention. Last December, 141 states, including 32 non-signatories to the convention, adopted a key UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

&#8220Efforts to grow the Convention’s membership continue to be central to stigmatize the use of these weapons and to bring an end to the threat they pose. Convention members have a better understanding of the location and scale of contamination, and will more readily share information about it, compared with states outside the convention,&#8221 said Amelie Chayer, acting Director of the Cluster Munition Coalition.