Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that the damage occurred after a water treatment plant was attacked, citing a statement from the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office, OCHA.
The city's population was 220,000 before the war, but it has now fallen to 90,000.
The attack left civilians dead and injured on both sides of the front line and damaged civilian infrastructure, according to both the Ukrainian government and authorities set up by Russia in the occupied region east of Kramatorsk.
“In terms of humanitarian response, aid organizations immediately delivered supplies, including emergency repair materials, to front-line Ukrainian communities,” Dujarric said.
Aid to Krahov
Humanitarians then provided aid to the frontline town of Krahov, which has been affected by a decade of hostilities after Russia first annexed the territory in 2014.
The aid includes 13 tons of medical and sanitary supplies, including for people with disabilities, and other supplies to support civilians whose access to basic services is severely hampered, the spokesperson said. added.
Afghanistan: More than $400 million needed to rebuild after earthquake
A staggering $402.9 million will be needed to support recovery and reconstruction efforts in western Afghanistan after last year's devastating earthquake, according to a United Nations-backed report released Wednesday.
A series of earthquakes struck Herat province on October 7, 11, and 15, 2023, leaving more than 1,500 people dead and 2,600 injured.
People living in Afghanistan's Herat province are coming to terms with the damage to their property caused by the earthquake.
The Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report, released by the United Nations in collaboration with the World Bank, European Union and Asian Development Bank, surveyed approximately 2.2 million people in nine districts.
This highlights the scale of the disaster, which resulted in direct physical damage of up to $217 million and losses reaching nearly $80 million.
The most severely affected sector was housing, accounting for 41% of total reconstruction demand, or $164.4 million. The earthquake damaged nearly 50,000 homes and completely destroyed 13,516.
Education comes in second place, with the report noting that 180,000 students and 4,390 teachers are currently facing disruption. Meanwhile, the agricultural sector, which accounts for the majority of employment and income in the affected areas, has been hit hard.
Investigations revealed that more than 275,000 people were affected, including pregnant women, infants, and people with severe disabilities.
The earthquake struck vulnerable communities with limited resilience to cope with multiple shocks. Herat province is one of the provinces hosting the highest number of internally displaced Afghans due to conflict and drought, resulting in severe impacts on access to services, land and shelter. It's getting worse.
The report highlights the need to move from immediate humanitarian assistance to long-term recovery, building community resilience, restoring services, earthquake-resilient housing, social protection and access to basic services. Priority was given to strategies such as
U.S. companies dump 'forever chemicals' with impunity: UN expert
In the United States, chemical companies DuPont and Chemours are dumping toxic so-called “forever chemicals” into the local environment, with complete disregard for the rights and well-being of the residents of the lower Cape Fear River Valley in North Carolina.
This is according to a group of nine independent United Nations human rights experts, who issued a statement on Wednesday warning of the dangerous effects of chemicals commonly referred to as PFAs (polyfluoroalkyl substances). Members of affected communities reportedly said they were being denied access to the chemicals. Clean and safe water for decades.
PFA comes from products such as shampoo, nail polish, and synthetic coatings on carpets and fabrics.
These are known as eternal chemicals because they do not break down easily in nature and can cause harm for decades or even centuries.
Experts say companies continue to emit PFAs despite being aware of their harmful effects.
They also raised alarm over the export of PFA and hazardous waste from the Netherlands to the United States, a clear violation of international law.
insufficient and inadequate
Experts said there would be insufficient enforcement or remedial action if legal action were taken against the companies.
“U.S. health and environmental regulators are committed to providing the public, particularly North Carolina’s affected communities, with the type and amount of information necessary to prevent harm and pursue human rights violations.” “They have failed in their duty to protect against human rights violations. Reparations,” the expert said.
Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have raised these concerns with the US government, but the government has not yet responded.
Special Rapporteurs and other experts work on a voluntary basis, do not receive a salary and act entirely in their individual capacity.
Multilingual education, a useful tool to deal with the learning crisis
Finally, Wednesday is International Mother Language Day, and UNESCO, the Education, Scientific and Cultural Affairs Agency, is calling on all countries to promote multilingual education policies.
Because it has had positive results in the past and is key to combating the current global learning crisis.
According to a recent government study, children are more likely to start reading earlier if they are taught in their native language during early childhood.
Lessons from Africa
Evidence of this can be found across Africa. Although this continent has the most linguistic diversity in the world, she is only one in five children taught their mother tongue.
To change this situation, Mozambique has expanded bilingual learning to a quarter of its schools, and children's performance in basic reading and mathematics has already improved by about 15 percent, UNESCO said.
People communicate in more than 6,700 languages around the world, 40% of which are at risk of extinction in the long term because the number of speakers is decreasing.