UNITED NATIONS, New York
The world is failing to
protect civilians as the number of people caught up in conflicts and their humanitarian
aftershocks skyrocketed last year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
Tuesday.Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia (L), sits beside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during a UN security council at the UN headquarters in New York on May 23, 2023.
In 2022, the United
Nations tallied a 53 percent increase in civilian deaths compared to
the year prior, with nearly 17,000 civilian deaths recorded across 12 conflicts.
Citing civilian deaths in
Ukraine and Sudan, schools destroyed in Ethiopia and damage to water
infrastructure in Syria, Guterres warned the UN
Security Council that "the world is failing to live up to its
commitments to protect civilians; commitments enshrined in international
humanitarian law."
Guterres,
sitting next to Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, said UN research into the
treatment of civilians of war zones showed 94 percent of victims of
"explosive weapons" in populated areas were civilians last year,
while more than 117 million people faced acute hunger primarily because of war
and insecurity.
In Ukraine alone, which has
been battling Russia's invasion for over year, the UN recorded nearly 8,000
civilian deaths and over 12,500 injuries, though it added that the actual
figures are likely higher.
Worldwide, the number of
refugees forced from their homes "due to conflict, violence, human rights violations
and persecution" has reached 100 million, the UN chief added.
Also speaking in front of the
Security Council on Tuesday was Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, who told members that "as we
meet, countless civilians in conflicts around the world are experiencing a
living hell."
"Any minute, the next
missile can obliterate their home, their school, their clinic and everyone in
it," she said. "Any week, they might run out of food or
medicine."
Alain Berset, president of
Switzerland -- which took up the rotating presidency of the council in May --
said that all parties to a conflict must abide by international humanitarian
law.
"Conflicts are the main
drivers of hunger," he said. "More and more people are facing
acute food
insecurity," with most concentrated in conflict zones like the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Sahel, "or in other contexts
where violence is endemic, such as Haiti."
French ambassador to the UN
Nicolas de Riviere singled out alleged rights violations committed by Russia in
Ukraine and by the Russian mercenary Wagner group in the Central African
Republic and Mali.
The rise in civilians killed
in armed conflicts last year is "very troubling," he added.
"Civilians have suffered
the deadly effects of armed conflict for too long," Guterres said.
"It is time we live up to our promise to protect them."
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