The US and EU have issued an impassioned plea for greater international efforts to tackle an emerging famine in Ethiopia's Tigray and end the conflict wracking the region.
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Tools to protect civilians in conflict exist, but not will to apply them, Lowcock tells Security Council
The United Nations
The international legal framework and tools are all there to protect civilians caught up in conflict, and now it’s time for governments and armed groups to apply them, the UN relief chief told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock was briefing ambassadors on the Secretary-General’s recommendations for keeping more civilians safe from harm, noting that despite the UN chief’s call for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, deadly fighting had continued, and worsened in some areas.
The United Nations
Ensuring warring parties respect international humanitarian law is the first step towards protecting civilians and critical infrastructure during conflict, the UN’s top aid official told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Humanitarian Affairs chief Mark Lowcock briefed ambassadors who met virtually to examine how attacks on sites such as hospitals and water systems affect people during wartime, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency.
The world has a robust legal framework governing parties’ behaviour in war. We have a growing body of good practice to put it into motion.
What we need now is the political will to respect the rules and do the right thing. https://t.co/5s2LfatxCQ
UN warns sexual violence being used as weapon of war in Ethiopia s Tigray region
Issued on: Thousands have died in fighting in Ethiopia s northern Tigray region. EDUARDO SOTERAS AFP/File 4 min The United Nations aid chief has told the Security Council that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in Ethiopia s Tigray. The US ambassador to the UN said Washington was horrified by the reports of rape and other unspeakably cruel sexual violence in the region, adding that Eritrean forces must be removed from Ethiopia immediately . Advertising Read more
Mark Lowcock, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council that there was no evidence of a promised withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the region. He said people were dying of hunger in the northern Tigray area, where the humanitarian situation has deteriorated and sexual violence is still being used as a w