In this week’s UN Catch-Up from Geneva, we’ll find out why we should all be concerned about the container ship that’s been making waves in the Suez Canal.  

Also – the Sahel attack on civilians that’s prompted a protection call from the UN refugee agency…the latest on the Myanmar crisis and help for child victims of the insurgency in northern Mozambique.  

With Daniel Johnson and Solange Behoteguy-Cortes from UN Geneva. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

Horrific events have been unfolding in northern Mozambique in recent days, where thousands of people have fled gunmen who’ve attacked the town of Palma, located in Cabo Delgado province, reportedly killing dozens. 

According to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF),  youngsters have been separated from their parents, and every single one desperately needs help. 

UNICEF’s head of communications in Mozambique, Daniel Timme, spoke to UN News’s Daniel Johnson from an aid hub in the provincial capital, Pemba.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

The gigantic cargo ship that ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal last week is afloat once again after a herculean salvage operation, but the damage to global trade will take months to fix.

That’s the assessment of maritime expert Jan Hoffman at UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, who also explains why the cost of sending freight around the world has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here he is, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

When COVID-19 locked down Cambodia last year, people with HIV were afraid that they would lose lifesaving access to regular supplies of anti-retroviral drugs.

Fortunately, that never happened, thanks to a successful new medicines distribution scheme – and a little bit of help from social media platforms too – as UNAIDS country director Vladanka Andreeva told UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

In this week’s show, we’re getting the latest expert advice from the UN health agency on what to make of clotting concerns surrounding COVID vaccines. We’ll also hear about a mounting death toll among protesters in Myanmar and calls from UN rights chief for targeted sanctions… and we’ll be highlighting a good news story from Cambodia, thanks to UNAIDS, where the agency has had to innovate to respond to the challenges facing people with HIV during the pandemic. 

With Daniel Johnson and Solange Behoteguy-Cortes, from UN Geneva. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

In this week’s show, we’re covering the disastrous impact of COVID-19 in DPR Korea (widely known as North Korea) as told to the Human Rights Council; violence in South Sudan that’s the worst since the onset of the civil war in December 2013 – and, we’ll hear about war photographer Giles Clarke’s moving portrait campaign showing some of Yemen’s displaced millions, in partnership with OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

With Daniel Johnson, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo from UN Geneva.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

After 10 years of war in Syria, there are likely tens of thousands of detainees across the country, held by the Government and opposition groups – a traumatic waiting game for the families unsure of their fate. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, rights investigator Hanny Megally from the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, explains what steps the international community is taking to try to resolve the situation – and what obstacles it still faces. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

Attacks on schools in northeast Nigeria and elsewhere are “a way of life” and their impact is “devastating” on children’s mental health. 

Despite the dangers, boys and girls are returning in their thousands to places that were previously in the grip of Boko Haram extremists, according to UN Children’s Fund UNICEF. 

UN News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to the agency’s representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins.  

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

This week we cover the top stories from across the UN, including: an update on COVID-19 variants from the World Health Organization (WHO), an alert over a new Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a the first-ever woman chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO) who hails from Africa – another groundbreaker. 

Stay with us too for an interview with top rights expert Fionnuala Ni Alouain, who throws light on the miserable situation for thousands of mainly women and children with links to ISIL extremists who are stuck in camps in Syria’s northeast … and not forgetting a very welcome appearance from regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo.  

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

Some cancer patients are at higher risk from COVID-related illness or even death, but the World Health Organization’s (WHO) advice is clear: do not stay away from going to see your doctor if you need treatment or a professional diagnosis.

In an interview with Daniel Johnson, the UN health agency’s Dr André Ilbawi from WHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, explains how the coronavirus has had a “profound” impact on cancer care everywhere.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

The work of the UN and its partners never stops against human traffickers in West and Central Africa, who force people to risk their lives on dangerous journeys across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea. In this interview, UNHCR Special Envoy Vincent Cochetel tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson about the many ways the agency helps vulnerable people in the Sahel. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.

The equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs were lost in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery next year is likely to be slow – but it’s not all bad news, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, ILO’s Dorothea Schmidt-Klau maintains there is hope that the crisis will lead to new opportunities in the green economy, which is where young jobseekers in particular, should seek work. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.