UN global migration pact to avert suffering, chaos - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations (UN) has commended the global adoption of migration pact, saying it will avert suffering, chaos, especially in developing countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Secretary General of UN, Mr. António Guterres, said this in reaction to the adoption of the pact in Marrakesh, Morocco on Monday, describing it as a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”.

Addressing the opening intergovernmental session at the event, Mr. Guterres, said that the compact provides a platform for “humane, sensible, mutually beneficial action” resting on two “simple ideas”.

“Firstly, that migration has always been with us but should be managed and safe; second, that national policies are far more likely to succeed with international cooperation.”

The UN chief said that in recent months there had been “many falsehoods” uttered about the agreement and “the overall issue of migration”. In order to dispel the “myths”, he said that the Compact did not allow the UN to impose migration policies on the Member States, and neither was the pact a formal treaty.

“Moreover, it is not legally binding. It is a framework for international cooperation, rooted in an inter-governmental process of negotiation in good faith,” he told delegates in Marrakech.

The pact would not give migrants rights to go anywhere, reaffirming only the fundamental human rights, he said.

Acknowledging that some States decided not to take part in the conference, or adopt the Compact, the UN Chief expressed his wish that they will come to recognize its value for their societies and join in “this common venture.”

The United States did not endorse the Compact, and more than a dozen other countries either chose not to sign the accord or are still undecided.

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Pix: Secretary General of UN, Mr. António Guterres

Bama IDP camp: 323 children suffering Severe Acute Malnutrition

NaijaAgroNet:

Out of the estimated 15,000 children at the Internally Displaced suburb in Bama, Borno State, 323 of them suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Confirming this, the Chief, Communication at UNICEF Nigeria, Doune Porter, said though these children are now receiving assistance after being admitted.

She also said that the worrisome situation here is that the figure reflected an average of 6 new cases per day within 34 days, across April 3 and May 31, 2016.

Just as out of the 15,000 children in the camp, they have also identified three thousand children who have become separated from their families and efforts are ongoing to register them with the aim of tracing their families and reunited them.

Porter reassured that these children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) are receiving treatment to change their situation as UNICEF is collaborating with the Borno State government to provide additionally some social amenities.

These, she said, include repairing and upgrading five boreholes in Bama, providing some 10 to 12 litres of water per day in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.

UNICEF Nigeria, the spokeswoman said, would in the coming days construct 150 latrines among others to further improve the living situation in the camp.

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10.6 million Yemenis face food insecurity as conflict escalates

NaijaAgroNet 

    

About 10.6 million Yemenis are now severely food insecure, of which 4.8 million are facing "emergency" conditions, suffering from severe lack of food access, very high and increasing malnutrition, and irreversible destruction of livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNET also gathered that escalating conflict at a crucial time in the country’s cropping season, almost 11 million people in Yemen are severely food insecure and millions more are at risk of not meeting their basic food needs, FAO said today, 15^th March, 2015.

According to FAO Representative for Yemen, Salah Hajj Hassan “We are entering a crucial period for crop production in Yemen and now, more than ever, agriculture cannot be an afterthought if we want to prevent more people from becoming food insecure amidst this crisis,”

NaijaAgroNet was also reliably informed that in the organization's latest assessment, increasing conflict in nearly all major towns across the country is disrupting markets and trade, driving up local food prices and hampering agricultural production, including land preparation and planting for the 2015 maize and sorghum harvests.

More than half of Yemen’s population – some 16 million out of a total of 26 million— is in need of some form of humanitarian aid and has no access to safe water.

The latest escalation of conflicts is expected to further increase food insecurity in the poverty-stricken country. Paradoxically, some 2.5 million food producers, including farmers, pastoralists, fishermen and agricultural wage labourers, are among those identified as food insecure, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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