Africa

A mother and her child stand in the wreckage of their destroyed home in Toamasina, Madagascar, following a devastating cyclone. Credit: UNICEF/Tsiory Ny Aina Andriantsoarana

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2026 (IPS)

New figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) project that the impending 2026-2027 El Niño cycle could be one of the strongest on record. Marked by unusually wet and dry conditions, this cycle is forecast to trigger a host of extreme weather events, threatening the health, security, education, and development of over 347 million children worldwide.

“For children, El Niño is far more than a weather pattern. It can mean increased displacement, malnutrition, water shortages, and disease outbreaks. Children are also at risk of schools closing, while families could experience added financial hardship,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, emphasizing that anticipatory action is critical in protecting communities from climate shocks in the coming months.

Nearly half of the world’s children—roughly 1.1 billion—are already exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards, including droughts, extreme heat, and floods. The impending El Niño cycle could affect children and communities across nearly 100 countries and territories between October and December 2026.

Rohini Sampoornam Swaminathan, UNICEF Statistics and Monitoring Manager, tells IPS that children are uniquely vulnerable because of their early developmental stage and dependence on essential services and caregivers. This significantly limits their ability to withstand climate shocks, especially as basic services begin to disappear when extreme weather hits.

“Communities may not have fully recovered from one shock before another one strikes, causing the impacts to compound over time,” she said.

The Asia-Pacific region is projected to face the heaviest toll, with roughly 190 million children estimated to be at risk. Substantial populations are also critically vulnerable across East and Southern Africa, with 41 million children vulnerable to climate shocks, alongside another 41 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. Approximately 22 million children are similarly vulnerable in Europe and Central Asia, followed by 20 million in the Middle East and North Africa, and 20 million in West and Central Africa.

El Niño’s regional impacts are expected to vary significantly and could compound pre-existing humanitarian crises. Swaminathan underscored that climate shocks that are manageable in some areas can become pronounced humanitarian crises in others.

Tropical nations—such as Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Philippines—are forecast to face unusually dry conditions, driving weaker agricultural outputs and severe water scarcity. This, in turn, could elevate rates of acute malnutrition and adverse health outcomes among children.

Conversely, communities in the Greater Horn of Africa could face alarmingly high levels of rainfall, particularly in Somalia, where there is a greater risk of riverine and flash flooding. Children in this region are especially vulnerable to outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

Between 2016 and 2023, weather-related disasters displaced more than 20,000 children daily. Swaminathan stressed to IPS that regions facing wetter climates could experience exacerbated displacement as floods push more communities far from their homes and into crowded, temporary shelters, which amplifies protection risks.

In protracted conflict or crisis zones such as Chad and Afghanistan, El Niño poses a direct threat to survival for children. Already bearing the burdens of extreme hunger, displacement, and an overwhelming lack of access to essential services such as protection, these children have no safety net when climate shocks ravage their communities, as they are already on the brink of collapse.

Beyond physical hazards, UNICEF’s findings highlight that disruptions to schooling are among the most alarming consequences of the impending cycle. Severe droughts and floods threaten widespread school closures, declining attendance, and rising dropout rates. In 2025 alone, extreme weather patterns interrupted education for an estimated 171 million students globally.

Swaminathan warned that climate-induced disruptions to schooling carry profound risks for children’s safety, exposing them to heightened risks of violence, exploitation, and child marriage. Girls bear the brunt of these impacts, often taking on family caregiving roles that can lead to compromised health and nutrition, as well as limited access to essential services. “When girls leave school, they are often less likely than boys to return,” she noted.

UNICEF estimates show that every US $1 invested in disaster risk reduction and prevention efforts can yield up to $15 in saved recovery costs. Yet less than 1 percent of humanitarian funding is allocated for anticipatory action, even with months of warning and massive projected losses.

The agency continues to call on governments, donors, and partners to invest in lifesaving anticipatory intervention before peak impacts hit vulnerable communities. UNICEF highlights building climate resilience, securing essential services, and guaranteeing humanitarian access as key priorities in its response.

Swaminathan underscored that children with disabilities, who already face persistent barriers in education, healthcare, and nutrition, must be considered in disaster preparedness. She emphasized that inclusive planning is essential in addressing structural inequalities and ensuring every region is adequately prepared.

“Despite efforts to plan for disasters, most resources are mobilized only after the damage occurs, and the focus is often on the immediate response phase of a crisis,” said Swaminathan. “With forecasts providing months of warning, UNICEF is urging governments, donors, and partners to act before needs escalate by investing early and before impacts peak. Building resilience is not only about infrastructure and early warning systems, but also about strengthening the services and institutions children rely on and addressing the inequalities that make some communities far more vulnerable to climate shocks than others.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

 

 

 

Pillay is recognised for her "efforts to promote peace and international law", the Norwegian Nobel Committee says.

Der Rat hat gezielte Änderungen der Marktstabilitätsreserve (MSR) für das EU-Emissionshandelssystem für Gebäude, Straßenverkehr und weitere Sektoren (EHS2) angenommen.

The Council agreed its position on the market integration and supervision package (MISP), the centrepiece of the savings and investments union (SIU) and a key part of the EU’s ‘One Europe, One Market’ roadmap. The package aims to strengthen EU capital markets and the EU’s long-term competitiveness.

Ein Lastwagenfahrer verlor nach dem Passieren des Grenzübergangs Rheinfelden offenbar die Orientierung. Er ordnete sich falsch ein und landete als Geisterfahrer auf der A3. In einer spektakulären Aktion dirigierten Polizisten den Lastwagenfahrer wieder von der Fahrbahn.

The Africa Cup of Nations may continue to be held every two years, with discussions under way to reverse its proposed switch to a four-year cycle.

The Africa Cup of Nations may continue to be held every two years, with discussions under way to reverse its proposed switch to a four-year cycle.

BBC correspondent Joe Inwood explains how Pillay's childhood in South Africa led her to become a driving force in international law from Myanmar to Gaza.

BBC correspondent Joe Inwood explains how Pillay's childhood in South Africa led her to become a driving force in international law from Myanmar to Gaza.

Truckloads of Eritrean soldiers have been seen driving into Ethiopia, which has reportedly responded with drone strikes.

Giane Alves war auf den Laufstegen der Welt zu Hause. Im Alter von nur 32 Jahren wurde das brasilianische Topmodel nun überraschend aus dem Leben gerissen.

Slavisa Jokanovic (59) kommt am Sonntag in Vaduz zu seiner Pflichtspiel-Premiere als FCB-Coach. Doch kann er dabei auch von Anfang an auf Akpe Victory (20) zählen? Das FCB-Inside zur 10. Super-League-Runde.

Construction work on the new Jangwani bridge across the flood-prone Msimbazi valley in Dar es Salaam. The elevated road is designed to keep traffic moving when heavy rains inundate the area. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Oct 9 2026 (IPS)

Each morning on her way to Kariakoo, Clementina Nyangwine looks out of her commuter bus as it crawls through Jangwani and watches giant foundation piles rising above the muddy Msimbazi valley.

Workers in safety helmets and high-visibility vests move among towering reinforcement cages. Cranes swing over the site while excavators, concrete mixers and trucks rumble below. Deep foundations are being driven into the quagmire for a bridge that will carry one of Dar es Salaam’s busiest roads above the floodplain.

Nyangwine, a 37-year-old shopkeeper, remembers what travelling through Jangwani was like when the Msimbazi River burst its banks.

“I have spent hours here waiting for the water to go down,” she told IPS. “Sometimes we got out of the bus and walked because there was no other way to reach Kariakoo. You would arrive at work with your clothes soaked in muddy water.”

On the worst days, passengers waited on the edge of Morogoro Road as murky floodwater swept across the carriageway.

“You could not tell whether you would reach work in an hour or four hours,” Nyangwine said. “When I see this bridge coming up, I think perhaps those days are finally ending.”

The bridge is part of the Msimbazi Basin Development Project, an effort to reduce chronic flooding in Dar es Salaam as climate risks intensify.

At the centre of the work is a 390-metre bridge about eight metres above the existing road level, allowing traffic to continue moving even when the Msimbazi swells during heavy rains.

The wider construction corridor stretches for about 1.2 kilometres and includes approach roads. The bridge will be approximately 41 metres wide and will accommodate vehicles as well as pedestrians, cyclists and the Bus Rapid Transit system.

In August, the Tanzania National Roads Agency, TANROADS, said construction had reached 41 percent.

Building Above the Flood

Project manager Leonard Ngayungi said the height of the new bridge is central to its design.

“The problem with the existing crossing is that the road sits within an active floodplain,” Ngayungi told IPS. “When the Msimbazi rises, water spreads across Jangwani, and the road becomes part of the flood area. We are changing that relationship by taking the transport infrastructure above the flood level.”

The bridge is being supported by hundreds of deep foundation piles driven between 35 and 42 metres underground, depending on soil conditions. Of the roughly 496 piles required, 404 had been completed, according to officials.

Ngayungi said the aim is not simply to build a stronger road but to let the river and floodplain carry water without cutting one of the city’s main transport links.

“The bridge is being designed so that the river can flow perpetually underneath while people, buses and other vehicles continue to move above.” Ngayungi said.

“We have to build for the rainfall we may face in the future, not simply the rainfall patterns people remember from 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.

A River That Can Stop a City

The Msimbazi is a relatively small river with an outsized impact on Dar es Salaam.

Its basin is home to approximately 1.6 million people and cuts through densely populated neighbourhoods.

Near Jangwani, two of Dar es Salaam’s major traffic arteries cross the lower floodplain, including the corridor used by the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit system.

When the river floods, therefore, the consequences spread far beyond households living beside its banks.

Roads close. Buses stop. Workers arrive late. Traders lose customers. Goods cannot move easily between the city centre and its western suburbs.

Issa Majega, 56, a BRT driver on the Kariakoo-Kimara route, said heavy rain can turn a routine journey into hours of uncertainty.

“Once Jangwani floods, everybody suffers,” Majega told IPS. “The buses cannot pass, passengers become stranded and traffic builds up on other roads because everyone is looking for another route.”

For drivers, he said, the danger is knowing when to stop.

“You cannot gamble with a bus full of people when water is crossing the road,” he said. “Even if passengers are in a hurry, you have to wait.”

Majega believes the elevated crossing could remove a persistent bottleneck in the city’s transport system.

“If this bridge works as designed, rain will no longer mean that the whole route has to stop because of Jangwani,” he said.

Climate Change Meets Urban Growth

Dar es Salaam’s flooding problem cannot be blamed on rainfall alone.

Rapid urban sprawl has pushed settlements into wetlands and floodplains, while buildings and roads have reduced the land available to absorb rainwater. Rubbish chokes drainage channels, while sediment has accumulated in parts of the Msimbazi.

About 70 percent of Dar es Salaam’s residents live in informal settlements, many with inadequate drainage. In 2018, a major flood in the Msimbazi basin caused an estimated US$100 million in damage — equivalent to roughly two percent of the city’s gross domestic product, according to World Bank figures.

Deusdedit Rwehumbiza, an urban planning professor at Mkwawa University in Iringa, says that is why the project should not be understood simply as a bridge-building exercise.

“The bridge is the most visible part because everybody can see the cranes and concrete,” Rwehumbiza said. “But the real issue is how you manage an entire urban watershed.”

“The strength of the Msimbazi approach is that it treats flooding as a land-use, environmental and transport problem at the same time,” Rwehumbiza said.

The project also includes river improvements, floodplain restoration, watershed management and better solid-waste management. Parts of the lower basin are intended to become flood detention areas that temporarily hold excess water.

“That is what climate adaptation should do,” Rwehumbiza said. “You give water somewhere safe to go instead of spending every rainy season trying to fight it after it has already entered people’s homes.”

Moving People Out of Harm’s Way

Around 3,500 households living in the Msimbazi floodplain were targeted for resettlement, with US$30 million allocated for compensation. Among them was Teresia Katimba, a mother of four who moved to Madale in 2024 after years of enduring floods that repeatedly filled her Jangwani home with sewage and rubbish.

“A climate-resilient city cannot simply move risk from the river to people’s livelihoods,” Rwehumbiza said. “If families are safer from floods but cannot afford transport to work, you have solved one problem and created another.”

US$260 Million Bet on Resilience

The World Bank’s International Development Association is providing US$200 million in concessional financing, while Spain and the Netherlands are contributing additional financing that brings the package described by Tanzanian authorities to around US$260 million.

The project, scheduled to run through 2028, covers the lower Msimbazi basin and extends work farther upstream towards the Pugu Hills.

TANROADS is responsible for the Jangwani bridge works, while other government institutions are involved in the redevelopment of the wider valley.

Authorities also envisage markets, commercial development and improved public transport in the redeveloped valley.

But Rwehumbiza said the project’s success will also depend on controlling waste, sediment and development upstream.

“You can build a bridge to last many decades,” he said, “but the river is connected to everything happening upstream. Climate resilience requires maintaining the whole system.”

For commuters, the test will come on a rainy morning when the Msimbazi rises.

For years, Jangwani has represented a peculiar vulnerability in Dar es Salaam: a short stretch of road where a downpour could interrupt journeys across a metropolis of millions.

As climate change increases the risks facing fast-growing African cities, such weak points are becoming increasingly expensive.

It will not prevent heavy rain. Nor can one bridge make Dar es Salaam climate-proof.

Nyangwine still remembers stepping out of stalled buses, lifting her skirt and walking gingerly along Morogoro Road as filthy water splashed around her legs.

Occasionally she reached her Kariakoo shop hours late. Sometimes customers had already left. On the journey home, another downpour could begin the ordeal again.

Now, each time her bus passes Jangwani, she watches the workers.

“The river will still flood when the rain is heavy,” she said. “But if people can cross safely above it, then the rain does not have to stop our lives.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

 

 

 

Les automobilistes qui comptent rejoindre Tipaza depuis Alger ce samedi 10 octobre devront adapter leur trajet. Les services de la wilaya de Tipaza annoncent la […]

L’article Fermeture de l’autoroute Alger-Tipaza ce samedi 10 octobre : à quelles heures ? est apparu en premier sur .

Dr Vincent Brown was allegedly a "leader" or "supervisor" of violent acts carried out by others in the early days of the genocide.

Children in Gaza wait in the hope of receiving food. Credit: UN News

By UN Women
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2026 (IPS)

Since October 2023, 50,000 women and girls in Gaza have been killed or seriously injured.

• UN Women estimates that nearly 50,000 women and girls in Gaza have been killed or severely injured since the onset of war in October 2023 [1], amounting to one in 21 Gazan women and girls losing their life or living with lifelong disabilities [2].


• More than 38,000 women and girls have been killed and 11,700 severely injured, the result of Israeli airstrikes and land military operations.

• While most of the casualties recorded took place during the first two years of the war, women and girls continue to be targeted despite a ceasefire agreement entering into effect in October 2025. Two hundred seventy-seven women and girls are among those who have been killed in Gaza over the past year.

Nearly every woman and girl in Gaza is displaced.

• More than 150 evacuation and movement orders have been issued across Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces since October 2023, forcing nearly one million women and girls from their homes – nearly every woman and girl in Gaza.

• The majority of women and girls in Gaza live in tents or in the ruins, with no privacy. In conditions that are incompatible with survival and dignity, women and girls are caring for children, the sick, the injured, and for the elderly, cooking and cleaning without the basic means to carry out these responsibilities.

• Women are being forced to deliver babies in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, putting their lives at risk. At the same time, the number of miscarriages reached almost 4,000 in the first six months of 2026, triple the number recorded during the last six months of 2025.

The number of widows and those assuming the role of head of household in Gaza has doubled since October 2023.

• Nearly one in four households in Gaza – an estimated 86,290 households – is now reportedly headed by a woman, compared to the pre-October 2023 rate of one in nine.

• For women-headed households, the impact extends beyond the grief of losing a husband, father or other loved one. Many are now carrying sole responsibility for providing for, protecting, and holding their families together in increasingly devastating conditions.

Despite the ceasefire, women and girls in Gaza continue to face severely limited access to food, shelter, safe water, and hygiene supplies, alongside ongoing hostilities and insecurity.

• Intense and widespread bombing has leveled homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, and shops, making it extremely hard for women and girls to access essential services and basic goods.

• Restrictions on humanitarian access and bombardment continue to cause immense suffering. Between July and December 2026, an estimated 702,000 women and girls are projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3+, crisis or worse), with devastating effects on their health, including the risk of malnutrition [3].

The steepest recorded decline in aid is threatening a lifeline to women and girls in Gaza: women’s organizations.

• UN Women surveyed women’s organizations working on the frontlines of the response in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Thirteen of the 14 organizations surveyed reported that the level of need among women and girls has increased since 2025. All organizations surveyed had seen an increase in gender-based violence, poverty, and mental health distress since 2025. Thirteen of the 14 organizations had seen an increase in child marriage.

• At the same time, 13 of the 14 organizations surveyed by UN Women reported that they do not have the capacity to meet the growing needs of women and girls. To cope with the lack of funding, nearly two thirds of the organizations told UN Women they had been forced to put women and girls on waiting lists or turn them away.

UN Women is on the ground in Gaza. We work with women-led and women’s rights organizations to provide lifesaving and critical support to women and girls, including protection services and gender-based violence case management, legal aid, mental health and psychosocial support, and emergency cash and livelihoods assistance.

From fitting women and girls with prosthetics and offering counselling to survivors, to ensuring that the humanitarian response is shaped by the experiences and perspectives of women and girls, our support is helping them to stay afloat. But women and girls in Gaza need peace.

UN Women calls for the ceasefire in Gaza to be fully implemented. We call for international law to be upheld, accountability for violations, and the protection of women and girls and all civilians. Humanitarian assistance must reach those in need – at scale and without obstruction. Women and girls must be placed at the centre of response and recovery efforts.

[1] The proportion was calculated by combining women and girls killed or injured (38,000 and 11,700, respectively).

[2] The proportion was calculated by dividing the combined figure of 49,700 women and girls killed or injured (38,000 and 11,700, respectively) by PCBS’s estimated female population of Gaza at the end of 2025 (approximately 1.06 million). This gives 4.69 per cent, equivalent to approximately one in 21 women and girls. The calculation assumes no overlap between the reported deaths and injuries. Population source: PCBS, 8 March 2026.

[3] UN Women estimate based on the IPC Gaza Strip Special Brief, published 13 August 2026. The estimated 702,000 women and girls facing acute food insecurity at crisis-level or worse (IPC Phase 3+) during July–December 2026 is calculated by applying PCBS’s 2025 female population share (49.7 per cent) to the IPC projected caseload of 1,412,421 people. The calculation assumes proportional representation of women and girls across IPC phases and is rounded to the nearest thousand.

IPS UN Bureau

 

 

 

 

South Africa has experienced recurrent outbreaks of violence, often targeting migrants from neighbouring countries.

By Madhu Rao and Tyson Miller
SINGAPORE, Oct 9 2026 (IPS)

When governments gather in Yerevan this month for the 17th UN Convention on Biological Diversity, they will weigh a promise nearly 200 countries adopted six years ago: to effectively conserve at least 30 percent of land, inland waters, and sea by 2030. Achieving the ambitious 30×30 target is essential to sustaining the systems humanity relies on for survival—including crop pollination, purification of water and air, and climate regulation—as well as the biodiversity that underpins food production, fisheries, and tourism.

Unfortunately, the world is not on track to achieve this target. Moreover, the emphasis on the quantitative dimension of the 30×30 target has often overshadowed its more critical objective: ensuring that areas of high biodiversity value are protected, conserved, and connected through effective and equitable management.

The struggle to deliver on international commitments reflects a fundamental challenge. The Global Biodiversity Framework requires countries to halt and reverse biodiversity loss while pursuing economic growth, and businesses are increasingly expected to mitigate nature-related impacts. The ongoing expansion in infrastructure, mining, and the energy transition places additional pressure on biodiversity-rich ecosystems, creating difficult trade-offs that must be carefully managed.

The fundamental question remains: how do we reconcile economic development with meeting biodiversity commitments?

A new analysis of tropical countries contains insights vital to answering that question. Most importantly, it found that oil and gas concessions overlap nearly 61 million hectares—roughly two and a half times the size of the United Kingdom—of protected and conserved areas. Mining concessions overlap another 43 million hectares. Such conditions can turn protected and conserved areas into ‘paper parks’: places protected in law but vulnerable to extractive industries in practice.

What the Maps Reveal

The analysis examined a wide range of some of the world’s most vital ecosystems and the industrial pressures closing in on them—oil and gas, mining, industrial logging, and large-scale agriculture—across the Amazon, Central America, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, with further examples from the Global North. The report focused on the tropical forests and marine ecosystems that not only harbor irreplaceable biodiversity but also remain at the center of conflicts between extraction and conservation.

Senegal, for example, is close on paper to protecting 30 percent of its territory, yet oil and gas blocks cover 99 percent of both the country’s protected areas and identified Key Biodiversity Areas. The remaining undisturbed forest in Cambodia largely lies inside protected areas, yet a fifth of those areas face mining concessions and most contain land of interest to oil and gas companies. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, nearly three-quarters of the ambitious new Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor overlaps with oil and gas blocks included in a recent licensing round.

This contradiction between conservation in policy and extraction in practice can also be seen in high income countries. The United States has opened Bears Ears National Monument to mining and is threatening new oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the UK also allows fossil-fuel companies to drill in protected areas.

There is further tension. Some of the mining pushing into protected areas is for minerals fueling the energy transition. Securing a stable climate and securing nature are both essential, and one should not be pursued by quietly sacrificing the other.

We need to consider not only how much additional territory must be brought under protection by 2030, but whether areas already counted as protected and conserved are genuinely conserved, effectively managed, and delivering meaningful biodiversity outcomes.

The Path Forward

High-integrity implementation of 30×30 means prioritizing places that matter most for biodiversity and ensuring they remain ecologically intact, connected, effectively conserved, and equitably governed. It means upholding Indigenous Peoples’ and local community rights and protecting these places from incompatible extractive and large-scale industrial activities.

There are four critical components. The first is the mitigation hierarchy, which calls for avoiding harm whenever possible before considering other measures. Areas of highest biodiversity value, including strictly protected areas, should be no-go zones for extractive industry.

The second is policy coherence. A protected area sits with a ministry of environment while a mining concession sits with a ministry of mines or energy, and unless biodiversity is built into the decisions of every economic sector, the two will keep colliding.

The third is biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning, which enables governments to clearly recognize where nature is protected and where development can proceed. Protect here, develop there.

Finally, effective and equitable governance, including rights-based approaches, is essential. Indigenous peoples and local communities steward some of the world’s most intact and biodiverse lands, including many areas of global importance for biodiversity. Their rights, knowledge and leadership are central to effective conservation.

With only four years left, the commitment worth making in Yerevan is durable protection for the areas that matter most, so they remain intact, connected, and free of the industries that would undermine them. We must make sure that 30×30 is not a promise that only exists on a map, but is a pathway to true biodiversity protection for our collective survival.

Madhu Rao, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and Tyson Miller, Executive Director of Earth Insight

IPS UN Bureau

 

 

 

 

Remarks by Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis on global energy markets, the effectiveness of public finances and fiscal challenges, progress on the capital markets union, and international economic developments.

European Council President António Costa invited leaders to the meeting of 15 and 16 October 2026 in Brussels, during which they will discuss competitiveness, Ukraine, the next Multiannual Financial Framework, Middle East, defence and security, migration, and enlargement and reforms.