Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Syria Confronts Bleak Anniversary of a War With No End in Sight
A statement from Ban Ki Moon, released to commemorate the start of the war three years ago this week “Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost or destroyed, with hundreds of people more killed every day; cities and villages have been reduced to rubble; extremists are imposing their radical ideologies; communities are threatened and attacked; millions have been forced to flee violence and deprivation; weapons are flowing in, adding fuel to the fire, and they are being used indiscriminately; acts of terrorism are a daily reality; grave crimes remain unpunished and thousands remain in captivity without due process; and the world’s cultural heritage is under grave threat. Over the past year, this conflict also saw the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century.” (UN http://bit.ly/1cU2mon)
Food Insecurity on the Rise in the Sahel Region
A dispatch from Senegal, which is on the front lines of a food security crisis that is expected to worsen this year. “The number of food insecure in the Sahel is expected to grow to more than 20 million in 2014, mainly due to an increase in cases in northern Nigeria, northern Cameroon and Senegal…OCHA estimates that across the Sahel, five million children under the age of five will suffer from malnutrition this year, and that 1.5 million of them will suffer severe acute malnutrition. This figure remains largely unchanged from 2013, when malnutrition surveying significantly improved, and was a jump from 2012 when one million children were estimated to be severely malnourished.” (IRIN http://bit.ly/1qx2ove)