Interviews United Nations

Rescue efforts continue in Afghanistan following deadly flash floods in three northeastern provinces this past weekend.
The Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Stephen Rodriques, said that so far, 180 deaths have been confirmed and nearly 9,000 homes have been damaged or completely destroyed. 
The UN has deployed just over 20 teams to the region to conduct a joint assessment alongside partners and the de-facto authorities.
UN News’ Anshu Sharma asked him about challenges to the relief efforts and plans for longer-term support.   

Two arson attacks which followed weeks of protests forced UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA to temporarily close its compound in East Jerusalem on Thursday.
The developments are part of a wider campaign to undermine the agency, said Senior Communications Manager Jonathan Fowler.
UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri asked him about these incidents, intimidation of UNRWA staff, and their commitment to stay and deliver amid the war in Gaza and rising violence in the West Bank.

Amid intensified settlement building and the increased use of war tactics by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the number of casualties and injuries in the West Bank are now the highest on record, said the head of the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Wednesday.
Ajith Sunghay, told Anton Uspensky of UN News that “whatever happens in Gaza has a massive impact on the West Bank” while violations of Palestinians’ rights have intensified at the hands of “emboldened” settlers.

Despite the risk of new strikes in Rafah, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners continue to establish field hospitals and get services back online at the shattered Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis.
 Dr. Ahmed Dahir, Team Lead with the WHO office in Gaza, told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed that conditions have reached an “unprecedented emergency level”.
Dr. Dahir is currently in Rafah and has been describing the “crucial steps” being taken to prepare for any large-scale Israeli military operations in the coming hours.

Kenya remains on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Hidaya threatens to dump more torrential rains on East African countries, which recently emerged from three years of historic drought. 
The heavy rains have caused deadly flooding and landslides that have killed nearly 400 people across the region since March. 
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Kenya, Stephen Jackson, has been calling for a “push on resilience” as extreme weather events intensify due to climate change. 
UN News’s Thelma Nadzua began by asking him about the UN’s ongoing support to the Government as the rains continue. 

More than a year of fighting between Sudan’s rival militaries has the country’s people on the verge of famine and uprooted huge numbers caught up in the crossfire.
Now, there’s a new threat - unexploded weapons littering Sudan’s towns and cities, where people have received little training about the very real dangers of these lethal devices.
Mohammad Sediq Rashid, Chief of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the country, tells UN News’s Nancy Sarkis this deadly kind of warfare is new to Sudanese and with access to the capital getting easier, civilians are not waiting for crucial mine clearance to happen.