World news in brief: Sand and dust storm disaster, humanitarian update in Mali, moving education online
Launch Annual report on sand and dust storms World Meteorological Organization (World Meteorological Organization) said poor environmental management had made the situation worse.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo calls for increased vigilance on climate change.
“Scientific evidence shows that human activities are impacting sand and dust storms,” she said.
She cited higher temperatures, droughts and higher evaporation rates leading to lower soil moisture – a condition that is exacerbated when combined with poor soil management.
Every year, 2,000 million tons of dust are released into the air, darkening the skies and air quality thousands of miles away, affecting economies, ecosystems, weather and climate.
Hotspot
2023 sees a slight decrease in global dust emissions but increased concentrations in Central Asia, northern and central China, and southern Mongolia.
While dust storms are a problem on land, their ability to travel long distances across the ocean is an advantage.
The WMO report found that Saharan dust in the Atlantic provided essential nutrients such as iron and phosphorus. These nutrients stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain and entire ecosystems, including economically important species such as skipjack tuna.
The report also stated that March to May 2023 saw 13 major dust storms in East Asia, including a major dust storm in March that hit Mongolia and northern China, as well as reaching the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
A typhoon passed over Mongolia and cold winds reduced visibility to less than 500 meters in some areas of Beijing.
In the Sahel and Gulf of Guinea, the Harmattan winds carried persistent dust from autumn 2023 to winter, affecting air quality and visibility, as well as the western Maghreb, Sahel and Gulf of Guinea in December.
UN to assist some 600,000 people in Mali in first quarter of 2024
The United Nations and humanitarian partners are continuing to support aid efforts led by the Government of Mali, which is estimated to reach some 600,000 people with much-needed assistance in the first quarter of 2024.
“However, the needs continue to increase, given the influx of refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from Burkina Faso,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said at a regular press briefing at noon on Friday in New York, adding that this is also the beginning of the so-called annual hunger season.
More than 1.3 million Malians are suffering from severe famine due to IPC Food Classification IndexOf these, more than 2,500 households are facing a catastrophic situation – IPC Phase 5.
Government figures show that as of the end of May, 330,000 people in Mali were internally displaced, and while overall displacement has eased slightly since the start of the year, it is still increasing in some areas, Mr. Dujarric added.
Insecurity is rampant
This includes areas affected by insecurity in northern and eastern Mali, including Bandiagara, Gao and Menaka, where more than 80 percent are women and children.
“Our humanitarian colleagues stressed that increased funding for the humanitarian response in Mali is of course vital – as is improved security which will allow aid organisations to access and deliver aid to people in hard-to-reach areas,” a UN spokesperson said.
After the first six months of the year, the $700 million humanitarian response plan for Mali is less than 19 percent funded.
Ambitious UN project aims to connect every school to the internet by 2030
And finally, around a third of humanity does not have access to the Internet but this is set to change thanks to a groundbreaking UN project to connect all schools to the Internet.
Giga Initiative aims to bring every school in the world online by 2030. Partnership between the UN digital technology agency International Telecommunication Unionand the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) currently operates in 34 countries; this number will expand to 50.
Connection Forum
At the Giga Connectivity Forum in Geneva this week, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said the United Nations wants “every young person to have a voice, a choice and an opportunity in today’s digital revolution”.
Schools without internet access are now being identified using satellite imagery, open source technology and artificial intelligence (AI).
The Giga project will then design connectivity solutions for them, secure funding, and work with authorities and private partners to build the necessary infrastructure to get children online.
So far, $6 billion has been raised to fund the initiative over the past three years.
To support existing and new national members, UN agencies ITU and UNICEF have established the Geneva Global Connectivity Hub and Learning Hub – designed to share Internet connectivity solutions and knowledge to help achieve the ambitious 2030 target.
