9 May 2017 – As a new front opens in the fight between Iraqi forces and the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in north-western Mosul city, United Nations humanitarian staff are raising concern about hundreds of thousands of civilians still living in the area.

Speaking to reporters in New York, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said that some 360,000 people are believed to be caught between the fighters.

“Families continue to arrive at the newly established mustering point at Badoush, northeast of Mosul, along the Syrian highway, where emergency assistance and basic services are being provided by humanitarian partners,” Stéphane Dujarric said, citing information from UN humanitarian authorities.

Aid workers are responding to these and families still trapped inside “wherever access allows.”

They are providing emergency response packages with basic food, water and hygiene items. Some 2.6 million people have received aid since October.

The UN and partners is trucking 3.1 million litres of water per day into eastern Mosul to meet water shortages. That figure was about 2.3 million litres at the end of April.

In addition to aid, the UN is concerned about the high trauma and casualty rates.

Since 17 October, health care partners report over 12,000 people have been referred to hospitals in Mosul and neighbouring governorates, and nearly half of these reported cases were from west Mosul only, Mr. Dujarric said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that new field hospitals have also been created, one for emergency reproductive and obstetric healthcare.

9 May 2017 – About 6,600 migrants and refugees were rescued in the past few days trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, United Nations authorities have said, as rescuers are on the lookout for up to 245 people missing after two shipwrecks this weekend.

“Rescue at sea operations, including by the Italian Coast Guard, in coordination with Frontex, and by [non-governmental organizations] are of crucial importance,” Cécile Pouilly, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), today told journalists in Geneva.

A rubber dinghy sank on Friday night with an estimated 132 people on board. Ms. Pouilly said some 50 people were rescued and disembarked in Sicily on Sunday, but more than 80 people are feared dead.

More recently, seven people out of an estimated 170 were rescued from a shipwreck that took place on Sunday off the coast of Libya.

This brings the number of migrants and refugees killed while trying to cross the straits to at least 1,309 this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Meanwhile, some 49,310 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea so far this year, IOM reported.The figure is lower than the 187,569 arrivals between 1 January and 7 May 2016.

The reason, according to IOM spokesperson Joel Millman, is the “strong drop” in traffic on the Turkey to Greece route following the Turkey-European Union deal reached in March.

Fleeing Libya

Most of the activity so far this year is from the Libya to Italy route, as well as to Spain.

Addressing the Security Council yesterday, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICCC), said that the country lacks a rule of law and has become “a marketplace for the trafficking of human beings.” She warned of possible human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

Speaking from Rome today, IOM’s Flavia Di Giacomo suggested that political prisoners were among those fleeing the country.

“Our field colleagues providing direct assistance at the harbours reported that many migrants bore signs of torture,” Ms. Di Giacomo said.

More shipwrecks expected

The two latest shipwrecks came amid favourable weather over the weekend and improved sea conditions. As the weather warms, more people are expected to launch.

The likelihood of shipwreck is increasing as smugglers put more and more people on boats, Ms. Pouilly said, and the quality of vessels is decreasing.

In cases of shipwrecks, finding survivors has become more difficult. People on smuggler boats are increasingly less likely to have a satellite phone – a trend that Ms. Pouilly said is confirmed by the Italian coast guard.

“Between 2015 and 2016 the availability of those phones had decreased by half, so people were much more difficult to locate when problems occurred and could not call for help,” she said. There are confirmed reports of armed gangs attacking migrants on the high seas between Libya and Italy to steal their mobile phones and boat engines.

Mr. Millman said the development is an indication that smugglers’ networks are starting to unravel: “The components that smugglers feel they need to conduct this business are getting harder and harder to come by in a place like Libya, and so that would account for some of the violence and some of the robbery.”

9 May 2017 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) has strongly condemned yesterday’s attack on one of its convoys in the country’s south that killed one Cambodian peacekeeper.

“MINUSCA vigorously denounces this odious attack on peacekeepers whose presence on Central African soil has no other objective than to help the country to protect its population and to allow the Central African Republic to emerge from the cycle of violence caused by armed groups,” said a press release, referring to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR by its French acronym.

Eight peacekeepers were also injured, including one Cambodian and seven Moroccan, near Bangassou, about 474 km east of the nation’s capital, Bangui, with four peacekeepers missing in action, according to MINUSCA.

The Mission said it has sent a helicopter and peacekeepers to secure the site and search for those missing in action. A medevac plane evacuated the injured peacekeepers, who have arrived in Bangui and are receiving medical care.

The Mission said it will do everything possible to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack –who fled into the bush – are arrested so that they can be brought to justice.

MINUSCA recalled that “harming the life of a peacekeeper can be considered a war crime and subject to prosecution.”

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of MINUSCA, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, extended condolences to the family of the victim, his contingent and his country, while expressing his gratitude for the work and sacrifices of the peacekeepers in protecting the population in the country.