More than 50 million people are affected by conflict in urban areas from Afghanistan to Libya, Syria, Yemen and beyond, where they face a much higher risk of being killed or injured, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
In some cases, civilians might be mistaken for combatants and attacked, while in others, fighters do not try to minimize harm and use explosive weapons in crowded areas that lead to devastating suffering for ordinary people who face life-long disabilities and grave psychological trauma, Guterres told a UN Security Council meeting on the protection of civilians in urban settings during wars.
During last year’s fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, dozens of schools and healthcare facilities were damaged, and nearly 800,000 people were left without piped water, he said.
Photo: Reuters
In Afghanistan, an explosive attack outside a high school in the capital, Kabul, in May last year killed 90 students, mainly girls, and injured an additional 240 people, he said.
The risk of harm to civilians “rises when combatants move among them, and put military facilities and equipment near civilian infrastructure,” he said.
However, conflict in urban areas “goes far beyond its immediate impact on civilians,” he said.
Urban warfare also put civilians at risk of sieges and blockades that have led to starvation, he said.
It also forces millions of people from their homes, “contributing to record numbers of refugees and internally displaced people,” and it creates millions of tonnes of debris that affect the environment and people’s health, he said.
“Four years after the destruction of 80 percent of housing in Mosul, Iraq, an estimated 300,000 people were still displaced,” he said.
“The frightening human cost of waging war in cities is not inevitable; it is a choice,” Guterres said.
He urged combatants to respect international humanitarian law that prohibits attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure, and also bars indiscriminate attacks and using civilians as human shields.
He also urged fighters not to use explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas and to “gauge the impact of their operations and find ways to minimize harm.”
International Committee of the Red Cross president Peter Maurer told the council there is “mounting evidence of the unacceptable harm of warfare in urban areas to civilians.”
Repeated calls for action have not resulted in major improvements and the urbanization of conflicts “is having massively negative impacts on populations in urban areas,” he said.
Ghanian Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia said that “the rise of terror and violent extremist groups,” including Boko Haram, al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, al-Shabaab in Somalia and the Islamic State, “have revealed the true threat posed to civilian lives.”
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS