The UN said it would relocate about a quarter of the UN’s international staff in Pakistan, a response to the increasingly volatile security situation in the country.
At least 11 UN workers have been killed in Pakistan this year, and fears of attacks have increased over the past two and a half months. More than 500 people have died in bombings after the army’s offensive against militants in South Waziristan, the Pakistani Taliban’s main stronghold near the Afghan border.
Late on Thursday night, two intelligence officials said a suspected US drone missile strike in North Waziristan had killed three people. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.
The reported strike follows a deadly bombing on Monday of a Shiite Muslim religious procession in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 44 people.
Also on Thursday, police said they would seek terrorism charges and life sentences against five young Americans arrested in December after allegedly making contact with Taliban leaders.
UN security managers are seeking a reduction of up to 30 percent in the UN’s international staff working inside Pakistan, a UN official said on Thursday on condition of anonymity because security details and negotiations are confidential.
However, the actual number is likely to be lower and will depend on negotiations with the various UN agency heads who oversee those workers, the official said. The UN employs about 250 international and 2,500 national staff in Pakistan.
The official said an undetermined number of national staff will likely be moved out of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province along the border with Afghanistan, and from the western province of Baluchistan. The UN scaled back its operations in Baluchistan in July after a threat by separatists who kidnapped a US aid worker earlier in the year.
In Islamabad, spokeswoman Ishrat Rizvi said around 20 percent of the world body’s expatriate workers will either leave Pakistan for six months or be relocated to safer areas within the country. She declined to give specifics on what projects or employees would be affected.
“We are not closing down any programs or projects, we are not scaling back,” she said, adding that some long-term programs might be suspended and that the UN would reevaluate the security situation in six months.
The UN began to review its operations after an October attack on the World Food Program office in Islamabad killed five people.
The goal was to see how it could operate more effectively and safely in Pakistan without disrupting its humanitarian relief and development aid.
UN operations in Pakistan since early last year have grown to some US$1 billion for the nation’s “sustainable development” needs, officials said. Since spring they have also handed out some US$475 million in emergency humanitarian aid in northern Pakistan.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese