According to new data released by UNICEF, schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

UNICEF: 168 million students out of schools worldwide

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said on Thursday that it will make COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for India and UNICEF under a licensing deal. The Hyderabad based drugmaker also has non-exclusive rights to sell the vaccine. The COVAXX vaccine is currently undergoing early-stage trials.

COVAXX is a unit of United Biomedical Inc and it plans to carry out mid and late-stage trials for the vaccine in Asia, Latin America and the US. The trials will begin from early 2021. The company said that the vaccine requires ordinary refrigeration temperature and not freezing temperatures required for certain vaccines. This bit is considered beneficial for developing countries as storage at ultra-low temperatures needs setting up of specialist cold storage chains which may prove to be a challenge in developing world.

The licensing deal comes amid increasing COVID-19 cases in India.

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma rose as much as 2.3% and were trading up 1.4% as of 0403 GMT in an upbeat Mumbai market.

Aurobindo said it could currently produce 220 million doses, but is ramping up its facilities to reach a capacity of nearly 480 million by June 2021.

Its licensing deal comes as COVID-19 infections in India continue to rise after crossing 10 million last week. It's the second worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the United States.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the country is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week.

India, the world's biggest vaccine producing country, is also considering emergency use authorization applications for vaccines made by Pfizer and local company Bharat Biotech.

(With agency inputs)

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said on Thursday that it will make COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for India and UNICEF under a licensing deal. The Hyderabad based drugmaker also has non-exclusive rights to sell the vaccine.

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd said on Thursday that it will make COVAXX's COVID-19 vaccine candidate for India and UNICEF under a licensing deal. The Hyderabad based drugmaker also has non-exclusive rights to sell the vaccine. The COVAXX vaccine is currently undergoing early-stage trials. COVAXX is a unit of United Biomedical Inc and it plans to carry out mid and late-stage trials for the vaccine in Asia, Latin America and the US. The trials will begin from early 2021. The company said that the vaccine requires ordinary refrigeration temperature and not freezing temperatures required for certain vaccines. This bit is considered beneficial for developing countries as storage at ultra-low temperatures needs setting up of specialist cold storage chains which may prove to be a challenge in developing world. The licensing deal comes amid increasing COVID-19 cases in India. Shares of Aurobindo Pharma rose as much as 2.3% and were trading up 1.4% as of 0403 GMT in an upbeat Mumbai market. Aurobindo said it could currently produce 220 million doses, but is ramping up its facilities to reach a capacity of nearly 480 million by June 2021. Its licensing deal comes as COVID-19 infections in India continue to rise after crossing 10 million last week. It's the second worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the United States. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the country is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week. India, the world's biggest vaccine producing country, is also considering emergency use authorization applications for vaccines made by Pfizer and local company Bharat Biotech. (With agency inputs)

Aurobindo Pharma to make COVAXX vaccine for India and UNICEF

More than 371,500 babies were born worldwide on New Year's Day and India is estimated to have recorded the highest number of births at around 60,000, according to the UN's children's agency.

UNICEF said that an estimated 371,504 babies were born around the world on New Year's Day.

Fiji in the Pacific was projected to have welcomed 2021's first baby while the United States would welcome its last.

Globally, over half of these births are estimated to have taken place in 10 countries: India (59,995), China (35,615), Nigeria (21,439), Pakistan (14,161), Indonesia (12,336), Ethiopia (12,006), the United States (10,312), Egypt (9,455), Bangladesh (9,236) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640), it said.

In total, an estimated 140 million children will be born in 2021 and their average life expectancy is expected to be 84 years, the UN agency said.

"The children born today enter a world far different than even a year ago, and a New Year brings a new opportunity to reimagine it," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said, calling on nations to make 2021 the year they start to build a fairer, safer, healthier world for children.

The year 2021 will also mark the 75th anniversary of UNICEF.

Over the course of the year, UNICEF and its partners will be commemorating the anniversary with events and announcements celebrating three-quarters of a century of protecting children from conflict, disease and exclusion and championing their right to survival, health and education.

"Today, as the world faces a global pandemic, economic slowdown, rising poverty and deepening inequality, the need for UNICEF's work is as great as ever," said Fore.

"For the last 75 years, throughout conflicts, displacements, natural disasters and crises, UNICEF has been there for the world's children.

As a New Year dawns, we renew our commitment to protect children, to speak up for their rights, and to make sure their voices are heard, no matter where they live," Fore said.

In response to the global pandemic, UNICEF launched the Reimagine campaign, a global effort to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis for children.

Through the campaign, UNICEF is issuing an urgent appeal to governments, the public, donors and the private sector to join UNICEF as it seeks to respond, recover and reimagine a better, post-pandemic world.

For the estimates, UNICEF used vital registration and nationally representative household survey data to estimate the monthly and daily fractions of births in countries.

UNICEF used the annual live births numbers and period life expectancy from the latest revision of the UN's World Population Prospects (2019) to estimate the babies born on January 1, 2021 and their cohort life expectancy.

More than 371,500 babies were born worldwide on New Year's Day and India is estimated to have recorded the highest number of births at around 60,000, according to the UN's children's agency.

More than 371,500 babies were born worldwide on New Year's Day and India is estimated to have recorded the highest number of births at around 60,000, according to the UN's children's agency. UNICEF said that an estimated 371,504 babies were born around the world on New Year's Day. Fiji in the Pacific was projected to have welcomed 2021's first baby while the United States would welcome its last. Globally, over half of these births are estimated to have taken place in 10 countries: India (59,995), China (35,615), Nigeria (21,439), Pakistan (14,161), Indonesia (12,336), Ethiopia (12,006), the United States (10,312), Egypt (9,455), Bangladesh (9,236) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,640), it said. In total, an estimated 140 million children will be born in 2021 and their average life expectancy is expected to be 84 years, the UN agency said. "The children born today enter a world far different than even a year ago, and a New Year brings a new opportunity to reimagine it," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said, calling on nations to make 2021 the year they start to build a fairer, safer, healthier world for children. The year 2021 will also mark the 75th anniversary of UNICEF. Over the course of the year, UNICEF and its partners will be commemorating the anniversary with events and announcements celebrating three-quarters of a century of protecting children from conflict, disease and exclusion and championing their right to survival, health and education. "Today, as the world faces a global pandemic, economic slowdown, rising poverty and deepening inequality, the need for UNICEF's work is as great as ever," said Fore. "For the last 75 years, throughout conflicts, displacements, natural disasters and crises, UNICEF has been there for the world's children. As a New Year dawns, we renew our commitment to protect children, to speak up for their rights, and to make sure their voices are heard, no matter where they live," Fore said. In response to the global pandemic, UNICEF launched the Reimagine campaign, a global effort to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis for children. Through the campaign, UNICEF is issuing an urgent appeal to governments, the public, donors and the private sector to join UNICEF as it seeks to respond, recover and reimagine a better, post-pandemic world. For the estimates, UNICEF used vital registration and nationally representative household survey data to estimate the monthly and daily fractions of births in countries. UNICEF used the annual live births numbers and period life expectancy from the latest revision of the UN's World Population Prospects (2019) to estimate the babies born on January 1, 2021 and their cohort life expectancy.

At nearly 60,000, India records highest number of babies born on New Year's Day: UNICEF

Dec 11 in history: From recovery of Mona Lisa to establishment of UNICEF

The UN children’s agency - UNICEF on Monday said that it intends to ship 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries in 2021 in what it’s touting as a “mammoth operation”.

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The agency claimed that it is working with more than 350 airline and freight carriers to distribute vaccines and syringes to countries like Burundi, Afghanistan, and Yemen.&nbsp;

This move is part of COVAX - a global vaccine allocation programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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"This invaluable collaboration will go a long way to ensure that enough transport capacity is in place for this historic and mammoth operation," Etleva Kadilli, director of UNICEF's Supply Division, said in a statement.

The COVAX programme, co-led by GAVI, WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations intends to urge governments to not hoard COVID-19 vaccines, and to vaccinate people who remain at the highest risk.

At the&nbsp;G20 summit over the weekend, leaders from the top 20 global economies pledged to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are distributed fairly, so that poor countries are not left out.

According to WHO, the access to vaccines was unequal even before the pandemic hit. Over 20 million babies did not receive vaccines capable of saving them from serious illnesses, disability, and death.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-shows-70-efficacy-can-be-90-effective-trial-data-reveals-344807" hreflang="en">Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine shows 70% efficacy; can be 90% effective, trial data reveals</a>

UNICEF is the world’s largest single vaccine buyer. On behalf of 100 countries, the agency procures 2 billion doses of vaccines annually.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of 1.3 million people across the globe so far, with numbers rising fiercely in almost all countries and regions.

The UN children’s agency - UNICEF on Monday said that it intends to ship 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries in 2021 in what it’s touting as a “mammoth operation”.

The UN children’s agency - UNICEF on Monday said that it intends to ship 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries in 2021 in what it’s touting as a “mammoth operation”. The agency claimed that it is working with more than 350 airline and freight carriers to distribute vaccines and syringes to countries like Burundi, Afghanistan, and Yemen. This move is part of COVAX - a global vaccine allocation programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO). Also read: Intellectual property war: Hackers try to steal Covid vaccine secrets "This invaluable collaboration will go a long way to ensure that enough transport capacity is in place for this historic and mammoth operation," Etleva Kadilli, director of UNICEF's Supply Division, said in a statement. The COVAX programme, co-led by GAVI, WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations intends to urge governments to not hoard COVID-19 vaccines, and to vaccinate people who remain at the highest risk. At the G20 summit over the weekend, leaders from the top 20 global economies pledged to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are distributed fairly, so that poor countries are not left out. According to WHO, the access to vaccines was unequal even before the pandemic hit. Over 20 million babies did not receive vaccines capable of saving them from serious illnesses, disability, and death. Also read: Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine shows 70% efficacy; can be 90% effective, trial data reveals UNICEF is the world’s largest single vaccine buyer. On behalf of 100 countries, the agency procures 2 billion doses of vaccines annually. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of 1.3 million people across the globe so far, with numbers rising fiercely in almost all countries and regions.

UNICEF to ship 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries next year

The United Nations and World Bank called for school reopenings despite coronavirus risks in a new report on Wednesday, stressing children in poor countries are severely affected by pandemic due to an absence of the access to digital means to pursue learning.&nbsp;

The report said in impoverished nations, children have not able to go to schools for about four months since the beginning of the pandemic early this year.&nbsp;

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"Prioritising reopening schools and providing much-needed catch-up classes are critical," said Robert Jenkins, education head at the UN children's fund UNICEF, in a statement, as quoted by news agency AFP.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/united-nations-faces-crisis-of-confidence-pm-modi-in-unga-address-329308">United Nations faces 'crisis of confidence': PM Modi in UNGA address</a>

"We don't need to look far to see the devastation the pandemic has caused to children's learning across the world."&nbsp;

The crisis is worse in low and middle-income nations due to a frail system of distance learning, higher probability of a delay in reopening of schools and a lack of resources to tackle health risks.&nbsp;

UN cultural agency UNESCO and the World Bank also advised countries to spend money on education to reduce the broadening gap between the education provided in rich and poor nations due to Covid-19 pandemic.&nbsp;

The report from UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank was based on data accumulated from about 150 countries between June and October.

The United Nations and World Bank called for school reopenings despite coronavirus risks in a new report on Wednesday, stressing children in poor countries are severely affected by pandemic due to an absence of the access to digital means to pursue learning.

The United Nations and World Bank called for school reopenings despite coronavirus risks in a new report on Wednesday, stressing children in poor countries are severely affected by pandemic due to an absence of the access to digital means to pursue learning. The report said in impoverished nations, children have not able to go to schools for about four months since the beginning of the pandemic early this year. Also read | 20 years witnessed rise in natural disasters, especially in Asia: United Nations "Prioritising reopening schools and providing much-needed catch-up classes are critical," said Robert Jenkins, education head at the UN children's fund UNICEF, in a statement, as quoted by news agency AFP. Also read | United Nations faces 'crisis of confidence': PM Modi in UNGA address "We don't need to look far to see the devastation the pandemic has caused to children's learning across the world." The crisis is worse in low and middle-income nations due to a frail system of distance learning, higher probability of a delay in reopening of schools and a lack of resources to tackle health risks. UN cultural agency UNESCO and the World Bank also advised countries to spend money on education to reduce the broadening gap between the education provided in rich and poor nations due to Covid-19 pandemic. The report from UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank was based on data accumulated from about 150 countries between June and October.

UN, World Bank call for reopening schools amid Covid-19 pandemic

UNICEF began laying the groundworkd months ago in Copenhagen, at the world's largest humanitarian aid warehouse.

Inside world's largest humanitarian warehouse situated in Copenhagen

South-Korean K-pop band BTS delivered a 'message of hope' in a prerecorded video posted by UNICEF on Wednesday (September 23) as part of the 75th United Nations General Assembly. In the video, the band members shared their own struggles with coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, and encouraged fans to stay positive.

BTS delivers 'message of hope' at 75th UN General Assembly

As many as 150 million more children have faced poverty since the coronavirus pandemic struck earlier this year, an analysis by Unicef published on Thursday said.&nbsp;

With this addition, 1.2 billion people worldwide are living in multi-dimensional poverty.&nbsp;

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The analysis, conducted by Unicef and child rights' organisation Save the Children, said there has been a 15 per cent increase in the multi-dimensional poverty faced by children since the start of Covid-19 outbreak.

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In its release, the UN body said that access to education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, sanitation and water are taken to work out multi-dimensional poverty and the data from over 70 countries has been included for the analysis.&nbsp;

The condition presented by Unicef already is grave and the organisation warned of a worsening condition in the future.&nbsp;

"COVID-19 and the lockdown measures imposed to prevent its spread have pushed millions of children deeper into poverty," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, reported news agency PTI.&nbsp;

"Families on the cusp of escaping poverty have been pulled back in, while others are experiencing levels of deprivation they have never seen before. Most concerningly, we are closer to the beginning of this crisis than its end."

Apart from making more children poor, the report also suggests that already poor children have become poorer after the arrival of the outbreak.

On average, the severe deprivation per child was nearly 0.7, which has not increased to about 0.85 after the pandemic began.&nbsp;

Unicef suggests social protection, inclusive fiscal policies, employment, labour market interventions, among others to help families facing extreme poverty.&nbsp;

It also said the expanding of health care services, providing the tools and technology for children so that education can be continued remotely and encouraging policies such as paid leave for child care as possible solutions.&nbsp;

As many as 150 million more children have faced poverty since the coronavirus pandemic struck earlier this year, an analysis by Unicef published on Thursday said.

As many as 150 million more children have faced poverty since the coronavirus pandemic struck earlier this year, an analysis by Unicef published on Thursday said. With this addition, 1.2 billion people worldwide are living in multi-dimensional poverty. Also read | Coronavirus pushes 37 million people into extreme poverty: Gates Foundation The analysis, conducted by Unicef and child rights' organisation Save the Children, said there has been a 15 per cent increase in the multi-dimensional poverty faced by children since the start of Covid-19 outbreak. Also read | Brazil hands out so much Covid cash that poverty nears historic low In its release, the UN body said that access to education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, sanitation and water are taken to work out multi-dimensional poverty and the data from over 70 countries has been included for the analysis. The condition presented by Unicef already is grave and the organisation warned of a worsening condition in the future. "COVID-19 and the lockdown measures imposed to prevent its spread have pushed millions of children deeper into poverty," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, reported news agency PTI. "Families on the cusp of escaping poverty have been pulled back in, while others are experiencing levels of deprivation they have never seen before. Most concerningly, we are closer to the beginning of this crisis than its end." Apart from making more children poor, the report also suggests that already poor children have become poorer after the arrival of the outbreak. On average, the severe deprivation per child was nearly 0.7, which has not increased to about 0.85 after the pandemic began. Unicef suggests social protection, inclusive fiscal policies, employment, labour market interventions, among others to help families facing extreme poverty. It also said the expanding of health care services, providing the tools and technology for children so that education can be continued remotely and encouraging policies such as paid leave for child care as possible solutions.

Coronavirus has dragged 150 million more children into poverty: Unicef

According to a UNICEF report, at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren were unable to access remote learning when COVID-19 shuttered their schools and nearly 1.5 billion schoolchildren were affected by school closures during the lockdown period.

UNICEF: Globally, 463 million schoolchildren unable to access online learning during school closures

In what is indicative of the greater impact of Beirut blast, Unicef released its estimate saying that tragedy has caused trauma to 600,000 children. Unicef representative to Lebanon Yukie Mokuo addressed the media on Friday and provided information.

She said that impact of the Beirut blast was not only in terms of physical injuries but also psychological. The blast, which claimed at least 180 lives and injured thousands has had an impact of thousands of families and children were caught in social, medical and other after-effects.

Mokuo said that it was necessary for us to ensure that children could speak out and play.

She said that Unicef had begun to provide psycho-social support to children and 2000 children had been brought under the folds of its outreach.

Latest on Beirut blast:

The tragedy completed a month on September 4. Authorities in the city organised programs to remember those who perished in Lebanon's largest peacetime tragedy.

Rescue and salvage workers are still working. They are trying to locate survivors who may still be buried under the debris but the chances of anyone surviving under the rubble are dimming with each passing moment.

On Friday, rescuers detected a 'heartbeat' on their sensors in Mar Mikhael area of the city. This gave rise to speculation that someone was trapped under the debris and was still alive. However, subsequent search has not yielded anything.

Residents of Beirut have been quoted by news agencies as being unhappy with the government efforts in the aftermath of the blast. 
&nbsp;

In what is indicative of the greater impact of Beirut blast, Unicef released its estimate saying that tragedy has caused trauma to 600,000 children. Unicef representative to Lebanon Yukie Mokuo addressed the media on Friday and provided information.

In what is indicative of the greater impact of Beirut blast, Unicef released its estimate saying that tragedy has caused trauma to 600,000 children. Unicef representative to Lebanon Yukie Mokuo addressed the media on Friday and provided information. She said that impact of the Beirut blast was not only in terms of physical injuries but also psychological. The blast, which claimed at least 180 lives and injured thousands has had an impact of thousands of families and children were caught in social, medical and other after-effects. Mokuo said that it was necessary for us to ensure that children could speak out and play. She said that Unicef had begun to provide psycho-social support to children and 2000 children had been brought under the folds of its outreach. Latest on Beirut blast: The tragedy completed a month on September 4. Authorities in the city organised programs to remember those who perished in Lebanon's largest peacetime tragedy. Rescue and salvage workers are still working. They are trying to locate survivors who may still be buried under the debris but the chances of anyone surviving under the rubble are dimming with each passing moment. On Friday, rescuers detected a 'heartbeat' on their sensors in Mar Mikhael area of the city. This gave rise to speculation that someone was trapped under the debris and was still alive. However, subsequent search has not yielded anything. Residents of Beirut have been quoted by news agencies as being unhappy with the government efforts in the aftermath of the blast.

Beirut blast has caused trauma to 600,000 children, says Unicef

The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach.

Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated Aug. 21.

Whether children between six and 11 should wear masks depends on a number of factors, including the intensity of transmission in the area, the child’s ability to use the mask, access to masks and adequate adult supervision, the two organisations said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/world-coronavirus-deaths-top-800000-as-nations-ramp-up-measures-322460">Also read:&nbsp;World coronavirus deaths top 800,000 as nations ramp up measures</a>

The potential impact on learning and psycho-social development, and the interactions the child has with people at high risk of developing serious illness, should also play a role.

Children aged five years and under should not be required to wear masks based on the safety and overall interest of the child, the WHO and UNICEF said.

Studies suggest older children potentially play a more active role in transmission of the new coronavirus than younger children, the WHO and UNICEF said, adding more data was needed to better understand the role of children and adolescents in the transmission of the virus, which causes COVID-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/indias-covid-tally-crosses-3-million-with-single-day-spike-of-69239-cases-322494">Also read: India's COVID tally crosses 3 million with single-day spike of 69,239 cases</a>

Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated Aug. 21.

Whether children between six and 11 should wear masks depends on a number of factors, including the intensity of transmission in the area, the child’s ability to use the mask, access to masks and adequate adult supervision, the two organisations said.

The potential impact on learning and psycho-social development, and the interactions the child has with people at high risk of developing serious illness, should also play a role.

Children aged five years and under should not be required to wear masks based on the safety and overall interest of the child, the WHO and UNICEF said.

Studies suggest older children potentially play a more active role in transmission of the new coronavirus than younger children, the WHO and UNICEF said, adding more data was needed to better understand the role of children and adolescents in the transmission of the virus, which causes COVID-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach. Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated Aug. 21. Whether children between six and 11 should wear masks depends on a number of factors, including the intensity of transmission in the area, the child’s ability to use the mask, access to masks and adequate adult supervision, the two organisations said. Also read: World coronavirus deaths top 800,000 as nations ramp up measures The potential impact on learning and psycho-social development, and the interactions the child has with people at high risk of developing serious illness, should also play a role. Children aged five years and under should not be required to wear masks based on the safety and overall interest of the child, the WHO and UNICEF said. Studies suggest older children potentially play a more active role in transmission of the new coronavirus than younger children, the WHO and UNICEF said, adding more data was needed to better understand the role of children and adolescents in the transmission of the virus, which causes COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) said children aged 12 and over should wear masks to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic under the same conditions as adults, while children between six and 11 should wear them on a risk-based approach. Also read: India's COVID tally crosses 3 million with single-day spike of 69,239 cases Children aged 12 and over should particularly wear a mask when a one-metre distance from others cannot be guaranteed and there is widespread transmission in the area, the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a document on the WHO website dated Aug. 21. Whether children between six and 11 should wear masks depends on a number of factors, including the intensity of transmission in the area, the child’s ability to use the mask, access to masks and adequate adult supervision, the two organisations said. The potential impact on learning and psycho-social development, and the interactions the child has with people at high risk of developing serious illness, should also play a role. Children aged five years and under should not be required to wear masks based on the safety and overall interest of the child, the WHO and UNICEF said. Studies suggest older children potentially play a more active role in transmission of the new coronavirus than younger children, the WHO and UNICEF said, adding more data was needed to better understand the role of children and adolescents in the transmission of the virus, which causes COVID-19.

WHO says children aged 12 and over should wear masks like adults

An estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in India, the UNICEF said on Thursday, calling for immediate support, more resources and innovative programmes to address the challenges faced.

In a statement, UNICEF said though flooding at this period of the year is common, this widespread scale of floods during mid-July is unusual.

"In India, over 6 million people across Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have been affected by the floods, including an estimated 2.4 million children," it said.

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UNICEF said it is working with the government and partners to respond quickly and effectively.

It said it is also supporting the Assam government to implement the COVID-19 adapted relief camp management guidelines and child friendly spaces in select districts, in addition to its focused support for maternal and child health service continuity and COVID-19 response in many states, the statement said.

Weeks of torrential monsoon rains, widespread flooding and deadly landslides in Bangladesh, India and Nepal have affected millions of children and families, UNICEF said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/assam-floods-over-45000-people-displaced-89-killed-2-million-people-affected-315420">Also watch|&nbsp;Assam Floods: Over 45,000+ people displaced, 89 killed, 2 Million people affected</a>

"Even for a region that is all-too-familiar with the devastating impact of extreme weather, the recent heavy monsoon rains, rising floods and continued landslides are creating a perfect storm for children and families affected," said Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and containment and prevention measures add an additional complication to the mix, as COVID-19 cases are accelerating in some of the affected areas," she added.

Gough said the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic is being compounded by climate change and extreme weather events and are arguably the biggest issues affecting children in South Asia right now.

Immediate support, more resources and innovative programmes are urgently needed to address the challenges that these threats represent to the region's children, she said.

An estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in India, the UNICEF said on Thursday, calling for immediate support, more resources and innovative programmes to address the challenges faced.

An estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in India, the UNICEF said on Thursday, calling for immediate support, more resources and innovative programmes to address the challenges faced. In a statement, UNICEF said though flooding at this period of the year is common, this widespread scale of floods during mid-July is unusual. "In India, over 6 million people across Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have been affected by the floods, including an estimated 2.4 million children," it said. Also read| BTS 'Army' gather more than $8,000 for Assam flood relief funds UNICEF said it is working with the government and partners to respond quickly and effectively. It said it is also supporting the Assam government to implement the COVID-19 adapted relief camp management guidelines and child friendly spaces in select districts, in addition to its focused support for maternal and child health service continuity and COVID-19 response in many states, the statement said. Weeks of torrential monsoon rains, widespread flooding and deadly landslides in Bangladesh, India and Nepal have affected millions of children and families, UNICEF said. Also watch| Assam Floods: Over 45,000+ people displaced, 89 killed, 2 Million people affected "Even for a region that is all-too-familiar with the devastating impact of extreme weather, the recent heavy monsoon rains, rising floods and continued landslides are creating a perfect storm for children and families affected," said Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. "The COVID-19 pandemic and containment and prevention measures add an additional complication to the mix, as COVID-19 cases are accelerating in some of the affected areas," she added. Gough said the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic is being compounded by climate change and extreme weather events and are arguably the biggest issues affecting children in South Asia right now. Immediate support, more resources and innovative programmes are urgently needed to address the challenges that these threats represent to the region's children, she said.

2.4 million children affected by recent floods in India: UNICEF

The number of malnourished children in Yemen could rise to 2.4 million by the end of the year due to a big shortfall in humanitarian funding, the United Nations children`s agency UNICEF said on Friday.

A UNICEF report warned of a rise of 20 per cent in the number of malnourished children under the age of five - almost half of all of that age in the country.

"If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die," said UNICEF Yemen representative Sara Beysolow Nyanti. "We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/a-half-year-into-coronavirus-pandemic-and-these-migrants-have-not-heard-about-covid-19-308551">Also read:&nbsp;A half-year into coronavirus pandemic, and these migrants have not heard about COVID-19</a>

Yemen has been wracked for more than five years by a war pitting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement which controls much of the country and a Saudi-led coalition which supports the internationally-recognised government based in the south.

Tens of thousands of people have died, many of them civilians, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has been called the worst in the world.

The United Nations has said it does not have enough funding to maintain the aid response, the world`s largest. A pledging event this month raised half of what was needed and aid programmes impacting millions are set to close in coming weeks.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/theres-a-country-where-thousands-havent-even-heard-of-coronavirus-308208">Also read: There's a country where thousands haven't even heard of coronavirus!</a>

UNICEF is appealing for $461 million for its humanitarian response, which is currently only 39% funded, and $53 million for its COVID-19 response which is only 10% funded.

Sanitation, immunisation and malnutrition programmes risk reduction and closure.

Yemen`s health system is already on the brink of collapse, kept going through aid. Cholera, malaria and dengue were rife amid a malnourished population even before the coronavirus outbreak.

About 7.8 million children are now out of school, putting them at risk of child labour, recruitment into armed groups and child marriage, UNICEF said.

"UNICEF has previously said, and again repeats, that Yemen is the worst place in the world to be a child and it is not getting any better," Nyanti said.

Cases of coronavirus infection reported by Yemeni authorities surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday, but the United Nations says the virus is spreading unmitigated in a country with shattered health systems and infections are likely much higher.

The number of malnourished children in Yemen could rise to 2.4 million by the end of the year due to a big shortfall in humanitarian funding, the United Nations children`s agency UNICEF said on Friday.

The number of malnourished children in Yemen could rise to 2.4 million by the end of the year due to a big shortfall in humanitarian funding, the United Nations children`s agency UNICEF said on Friday. A UNICEF report warned of a rise of 20 per cent in the number of malnourished children under the age of five - almost half of all of that age in the country. "If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die," said UNICEF Yemen representative Sara Beysolow Nyanti. "We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency." Also read: A half-year into coronavirus pandemic, and these migrants have not heard about COVID-19 Yemen has been wracked for more than five years by a war pitting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement which controls much of the country and a Saudi-led coalition which supports the internationally-recognised government based in the south. Tens of thousands of people have died, many of them civilians, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has been called the worst in the world. The United Nations has said it does not have enough funding to maintain the aid response, the world`s largest. A pledging event this month raised half of what was needed and aid programmes impacting millions are set to close in coming weeks. Also read: There's a country where thousands haven't even heard of coronavirus! UNICEF is appealing for $461 million for its humanitarian response, which is currently only 39% funded, and $53 million for its COVID-19 response which is only 10% funded. Sanitation, immunisation and malnutrition programmes risk reduction and closure. Yemen`s health system is already on the brink of collapse, kept going through aid. Cholera, malaria and dengue were rife amid a malnourished population even before the coronavirus outbreak. About 7.8 million children are now out of school, putting them at risk of child labour, recruitment into armed groups and child marriage, UNICEF said. "UNICEF has previously said, and again repeats, that Yemen is the worst place in the world to be a child and it is not getting any better," Nyanti said. Cases of coronavirus infection reported by Yemeni authorities surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday, but the United Nations says the virus is spreading unmitigated in a country with shattered health systems and infections are likely much higher.

More Yemeni children face malnourishment amid aid shortage, coronavirus - UNICEF

A UNICEF report has revealed that coronavirus lockdown in India has impacted the education of 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education, besides 28 million children in pre-school education in Anganwadi centres.

A UNICEF report has revealed that coronavirus lockdown in India has impacted the education of 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education, besides 28 million children in pre-school education in Anganwadi centres. The report said at least 600 million South Asian children have been threatened by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Pointing out the revelations in India`s perspective on education and learning of a child, the UN report said, "In India, school closures have impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education. It has impacted about 28 million children who were attending pre-school education in Anganwadi centres. This is in addition to more than six million girls and boys who were already out of school prior to the COVID-19 crisis." However, the report has highlighted the efforts taken by the central and state government to continue education for children through multiple e-platforms like web portals, mobile apps, TV channels, radio and podcasts to reach children, Diksha platform, Swayam Prabha TV channels, e-Pathshala and the National Repository of Open Educational Resources. Importantly, UNICEF report has indicated that approximately only a quarter of households (24 per cent) in India have access to the internet and there is a large rural-urban and gender divide. A large number of children are likely to miss out on distant learning opportunities, the report said. On issues related to child protection, Child Protection -- `CHILDLINE`, a service of the Ministry of Women and Child Development had received 460,000 calls in 21 days from March 20 to April 10, a 50 per cent increase from their regular call volumes. "Nearly 10,000 of these were intervention cases which required CHILDLINE staff to reach the children in need of support. Of these 30 per cent were related escalation in violence, child sexual abuse, child marriage and child labour," said the report. Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative in India said, "The pandemic has exposed the fragility of children, less by the virus itself but much more by the indirect and long-term fallout. Millions of vulnerable children are losing out on their development and learning opportunities and their right to survive. The most vulnerable families need to be protected by social protection schemes that can help them access healthcare, schooling for children, afford nutrition etc. This can only be ensured by a firm commitment from the governments and all stakeholders."The secondary impact of the COVID-19 crisis has aggravated the access to affordable and nutritious food for children." (With inputs from ANI)

Coronavirus lockdown in India has impacted education of over 247 million school children: UNICEF report

The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic&nbsp;Republic of Congo has claimed five lives according the&nbsp;the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

"Four additional people who contracted the virus, all contacts of the deceased and including the child of one of the fatal cases, are being treated in an isolation unit at the Wangata Hospital in Mbandaka,"&nbsp;UNICEF said&nbsp;in a statement.

Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/congo-reports-fresh-ebola-outbreak-three-weeks-before-plans-to-proclaim-the-country-disease-free-302415">Congo reports fresh Ebola outbreak three weeks before plans to proclaim the country disease-free</a>

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"The deaths occurred between the 18th and 30th of May but they were only confirmed as Ebola-related yesterday."

Previously, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus&nbsp;tweeted&nbsp;news that six cases had been reported in Mbandaka, in the country's northwest Equateur province.

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A new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ebola?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ebola</a> outbreak detected in western <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DRC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DRC</a>, near Mbandaka, Équateur province. <a href="https://twitter.com/MinSanteRDC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MinSanteRDC</a> has identified 6 cases, of which 4 people have died. The country is also in final phase of battling Ebola in eastern DRC, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> &amp; the world’s largest measles outbreak.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1267446244793888769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Mbandaka is the capital of Congo’s Equateur province, which serves as a transport hub alongside the Congo river and houses over a million people.&nbsp;Ebola had hit the same province in the summer months of May and July in 2018, which claimed the lives of 33 people.

Since surfacing, the Ebola epidemic has killed 2,280 people in the country’s eastern region. The government was planning to announce the country Ebola free on June 25, but with new cases resurfacing, the country has to continue fighting it.&nbsp;A similar situation had&nbsp;come up in April this year when the country was three days away from declaring itself free of Ebola.

It's the country's 11th outbreak of the potentially deadly virus, which is passed by bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of anywhere between 25 per cent&nbsp;and 90 per cent, depending on the outbreak.&nbsp;

The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed five lives according the the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). "Four additional people who contracted the virus, all contacts of the deceased and including the child of one of the fatal cases, are being treated in an isolation unit at the Wangata Hospital in Mbandaka," UNICEF said in a statement.

The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed five lives according the the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). "Four additional people who contracted the virus, all contacts of the deceased and including the child of one of the fatal cases, are being treated in an isolation unit at the Wangata Hospital in Mbandaka," UNICEF said in a statement. Also read: Congo reports fresh Ebola outbreak three weeks before plans to proclaim the country disease-free "The deaths occurred between the 18th and 30th of May but they were only confirmed as Ebola-related yesterday." Previously, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted news that six cases had been reported in Mbandaka, in the country's northwest Equateur province. A new #Ebola outbreak detected in western #DRC, near Mbandaka, Équateur province. @MinSanteRDC has identified 6 cases, of which 4 people have died. The country is also in final phase of battling Ebola in eastern DRC, #COVID19 & the world’s largest measles outbreak. — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) June 1, 2020 × Mbandaka is the capital of Congo’s Equateur province, which serves as a transport hub alongside the Congo river and houses over a million people. Ebola had hit the same province in the summer months of May and July in 2018, which claimed the lives of 33 people. Since surfacing, the Ebola epidemic has killed 2,280 people in the country’s eastern region. The government was planning to announce the country Ebola free on June 25, but with new cases resurfacing, the country has to continue fighting it. A similar situation had come up in April this year when the country was three days away from declaring itself free of Ebola. It's the country's 11th outbreak of the potentially deadly virus, which is passed by bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of anywhere between 25 per cent and 90 per cent, depending on the outbreak.

Fresh Ebola outbreak in Congo kills 5 people, says UNICEF

UNICEF published a report on Tuesday saying an additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services.

The report from the UN&nbsp;children's agency is based on an analysis by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, newly published in the Lancet global health journal.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/children-face-greater-risk-from-coronavirus-than-previously-expected-says-study-298204" hreflang="en">Children face greater risk from coronavirus than previously expected, says study</a>

Global disruption of essential maternal and child health interventions, such as&nbsp;family planning, childbirth and postnatal care, child delivery and vaccinations, could lead to an additional 1.2 million deaths of children under five in just six months.

The analysis, which looks at three modelled scenarios in low- and middle-income countries, warns that in the most optimistic scenario, where health services are reduced by about 15 per cent, there would be a 9.8&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;increase in under-five child deaths, an estimated 1,400 a day, and a jump of 8.3&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;in maternal deaths.

In the worst-case scenario, where health services are reduced by about 45 per cent, there could be as much as a 44.7&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;increase in under-five child deaths and a 38.6&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;increase in maternal deaths per month.

This projected figure is in addition to the 2.5 million children who die globally every six months before their fifth birthday, and threatens to reverse nearly a decade of progress on ending preventable child deaths according to UNICEF.

UNICEF published a report on Tuesday saying an additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services.

UNICEF published a report on Tuesday saying an additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services. The report from the UN children's agency is based on an analysis by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, newly published in the Lancet global health journal. Also read: Children face greater risk from coronavirus than previously expected, says study Global disruption of essential maternal and child health interventions, such as family planning, childbirth and postnatal care, child delivery and vaccinations, could lead to an additional 1.2 million deaths of children under five in just six months. The analysis, which looks at three modelled scenarios in low- and middle-income countries, warns that in the most optimistic scenario, where health services are reduced by about 15 per cent, there would be a 9.8 per cent increase in under-five child deaths, an estimated 1,400 a day, and a jump of 8.3 per cent in maternal deaths. In the worst-case scenario, where health services are reduced by about 45 per cent, there could be as much as a 44.7 per cent increase in under-five child deaths and a 38.6 per cent increase in maternal deaths per month. This projected figure is in addition to the 2.5 million children who die globally every six months before their fifth birthday, and threatens to reverse nearly a decade of progress on ending preventable child deaths according to UNICEF.

Coronavirus can lead to death of 6,000 children everyday: UNICEF

Children have always had a unique way of expressing themselves and UNICEF Brazil came up with the "Feelings on Paper" program to get children to use their creativity to help them deal with the stress and worry over lockdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Happiness, sadness, boredom: Brazilian children channel emotions through art during lockdown

Children are at a higher risk of not only being infected with coronavirus but also being victim of online crime. Watch this video to know more.

UNICEF's note to keep children safe from cyber crime

For many social-distancing and washing hands with soap and water is a privilege that they do not have. The coronavirus outbreak has led to financial strain on several families and the underprivileged are perhaps the most affected. 
 
Singer-songwriter Dua Lipa on Thursday through a series of tweets urged people to donate generously to the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) and help underprivileged children sail through the hard times of coronavirus pandemic. 
 
The singer said that the only possible precaution against coronavirus is self-isolation, which is not practically possible for children living in crowded refugee camps and they also lack the first line of defence, which is soap and water. 
"+++ V IMPORTANT - Please donate to @unicef because there is no option to self-isolate against COVID-19 for children living in crowded refugee camps. Many don`t even have access to soap and water, the first line of defence against this virus," she tweeted.

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+++ V IMPORTANT - Please donate to <a href="https://twitter.com/UNICEF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@unicef</a> because there is no option to self-isolate against COVID-19 for children living in crowded refugee camps. Many don't even have access to soap and water, the first line of defence against this virus.
— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/DUALIPA/status/1248214181024849920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In another tweet, she said that donations made to the UNICEF will help the children in the countries that have relatively weaker healthcare facilities. "Donating to UNICEF will help support children in countries with weaker healthcare systems; give more children access to soap and water; and provide communities with info on how to protect themselves from the virus," the 24-year-old singer tweeted.

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Donating to UNICEF will help support children in countries with weaker healthcare systems; give more children access to soap and water; and provide communities with info on how to protect themselves from the virus.<a href="https://t.co/em7fG1l7A2">https://t.co/em7fG1l7A2</a> 
 
THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️
— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/DUALIPA/status/1248214182509633536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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According to the World Health Organisation, as many as 14,38,994 people have been affected by the highly contagious virus globally and 85,586 people have lost their lives to it so far.

(With inputs from ANI)

For many social-distancing and washing hands with soap and water is a privilege that they do not have. The coronavirus outbreak has led to financial strain on several families and the underprivileged are perhaps the most affected.

For many social-distancing and washing hands with soap and water is a privilege that they do not have. The coronavirus outbreak has led to financial strain on several families and the underprivileged are perhaps the most affected. Singer-songwriter Dua Lipa on Thursday through a series of tweets urged people to donate generously to the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) and help underprivileged children sail through the hard times of coronavirus pandemic. The singer said that the only possible precaution against coronavirus is self-isolation, which is not practically possible for children living in crowded refugee camps and they also lack the first line of defence, which is soap and water. "+++ V IMPORTANT - Please donate to @unicef because there is no option to self-isolate against COVID-19 for children living in crowded refugee camps. Many don`t even have access to soap and water, the first line of defence against this virus," she tweeted. +++ V IMPORTANT - Please donate to @unicef because there is no option to self-isolate against COVID-19 for children living in crowded refugee camps. Many don't even have access to soap and water, the first line of defence against this virus. — DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) April 9, 2020 × In another tweet, she said that donations made to the UNICEF will help the children in the countries that have relatively weaker healthcare facilities. "Donating to UNICEF will help support children in countries with weaker healthcare systems; give more children access to soap and water; and provide communities with info on how to protect themselves from the virus," the 24-year-old singer tweeted. Donating to UNICEF will help support children in countries with weaker healthcare systems; give more children access to soap and water; and provide communities with info on how to protect themselves from the virus.https://t.co/em7fG1l7A2 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️ — DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) April 9, 2020 × According to the World Health Organisation, as many as 14,38,994 people have been affected by the highly contagious virus globally and 85,586 people have lost their lives to it so far. (With inputs from ANI)

Dua Lipa urges fans to donate to UNICEF to help underprivileged children combat COVID-19

Known for her work with UNICEF, Priyanka Chopra pledged support to the organisation to tackle hunger and poverty in times of coronavirus. The actress and her husband Nick Jonas on Tuesday announced that they have donated to several organisations including PM CARES Fund to help fight the outbreak of coronavirus. 
 
Other organisations to which the couple donated include Feeding America, Goonj, Doctors Without Borders, No Kid Hungry and Give India. 
 
The actress also urged fans to contribute even if it is a small amount. 
 
"The world needs our help more than ever. These organizations are doing amazing work by helping those impacted by #Covid19. They are feeding the hungry (including children out of school), supporting doctors and first responders, helping low income and homeless communities, and supporting our colleagues in the entertainment industry," read Priyanka`s post on Twitter.

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These organizations are doing amazing work by helping those impacted by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Covid19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Covid19</a>. They are feeding the hungry, supporting doctors and first responders, helping low income and homeless communities, and supporting our colleagues in the entertainment industry. <a href="https://t.co/Za12mrjboG">pic.twitter.com/Za12mrjboG</a>
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) <a href="https://twitter.com/priyankachopra/status/1244839175574056960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
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"Nick and I have already donated to these charities: @unicef, @feedingamerica, @goonj, @doctorswithoutborders, @nokidhungry, @give_india, and @sagaftra, #IAHV, @friends_of_aseema, and #PMCares Fund. Thank you for everything you are doing. "They need your support too, and we would implore you to donate as well. I have linked to each org with a swipe up in my stories...no donation is too small. Together we can help the world beat this.@nickjonas."

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Thank you for everything you are doing. They need your support too, and we would implore you to donate as well. I have linked to each org with a swipe up in my stories...no donation is too small. Together we can help the world beat this. ❤️
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) <a href="https://twitter.com/priyankachopra/status/1244839180129075200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
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A similar post was also shared by Nick on his social media profiles. According to the World Health Organisation, COVID-19 has affected over seven lakh people globally.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/from-akshay-kumar-to-hrithik-roshan-indian-celebs-come-forward-to-help-daily-wage-earners-amid-lockdown-289290">From Akshay Kumar to Hrithik Roshan, Indian celebs come forward to help daily wage earners amid lockdown</a> 
 
Priyanka and Nick join a <a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/initiatives-taken-by-global-icons-to-combat-coronavirus-pandemic-287487">long list of celebrities</a> who have donated to various charitable organisation amid the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

Known for her work with UNICEF, Priyanka Chopra pledged support to the organisation to tackle hunger and poverty in times of coronavirus. The actress and her husband Nick Jonas on Tuesday announced that they have donated to several organisations including PM CARES Fund to help fight the outbreak of coronavirus.

Known for her work with UNICEF, Priyanka Chopra pledged support to the organisation to tackle hunger and poverty in times of coronavirus. The actress and her husband Nick Jonas on Tuesday announced that they have donated to several organisations including PM CARES Fund to help fight the outbreak of coronavirus. Other organisations to which the couple donated include Feeding America, Goonj, Doctors Without Borders, No Kid Hungry and Give India. The actress also urged fans to contribute even if it is a small amount. "The world needs our help more than ever. These organizations are doing amazing work by helping those impacted by #Covid19. They are feeding the hungry (including children out of school), supporting doctors and first responders, helping low income and homeless communities, and supporting our colleagues in the entertainment industry," read Priyanka`s post on Twitter. These organizations are doing amazing work by helping those impacted by #Covid19. They are feeding the hungry, supporting doctors and first responders, helping low income and homeless communities, and supporting our colleagues in the entertainment industry. pic.twitter.com/Za12mrjboG — PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) March 31, 2020 × "Nick and I have already donated to these charities: @unicef, @feedingamerica, @goonj, @doctorswithoutborders, @nokidhungry, @give_india, and @sagaftra, #IAHV, @friends_of_aseema, and #PMCares Fund. Thank you for everything you are doing. "They need your support too, and we would implore you to donate as well. I have linked to each org with a swipe up in my stories...no donation is too small. Together we can help the world beat this.@nickjonas." Thank you for everything you are doing. They need your support too, and we would implore you to donate as well. I have linked to each org with a swipe up in my stories...no donation is too small. Together we can help the world beat this. ❤️ — PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) March 31, 2020 × A similar post was also shared by Nick on his social media profiles. According to the World Health Organisation, COVID-19 has affected over seven lakh people globally. From Akshay Kumar to Hrithik Roshan, Indian celebs come forward to help daily wage earners amid lockdown Priyanka and Nick join a long list of celebrities who have donated to various charitable organisation amid the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas contribute to PM CARES Fund, UNICEF; urge fans to donate

The World Health Organization (WHO) has now confirmed that the mortality rate due to coronavirus is 3.4 per cent. Also read: 15 Italian tourists test positive for coronavirus; total number rises to 28 in India The earlier estimates were projecting the death rate at just about 2 per cent.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has now confirmed that the mortality rate due to coronavirus is 3.4 per cent. Also read: 15 Italian tourists test positive for coronavirus; total number rises to 28 in India The earlier estimates were projecting the death rate at just about 2 per cent. The mortality rate for coronavirus is very low. Also read: Coronavirus live updates: One Intel employee potentially exposed to coronavirus, under quarantine Fatality rate depends upon many factors like where a patient is being treated, their age, the severity of the disease and any pre-existing health conditions that they might have. Experts have predicted that the fatality rate of the disease will decrease as the number of confirmed cases rise. A study conducted by the Chinese centre for disease control and prevention shows that the virus mostly affects old people with pre-existing health problems. It shows that the disease impacts people above 50 years of age much more than other age groups. Mortality rate by age: 10 to 19 years - 0.2 per cent 20 to 29 years - 0.2 per cent 30 to 39 years - 0.2 per cent 40 to 49 years - 0.4 per cent 50 to 59 years - 1.3 per cent 60 to 69 years - 3.6 per cent 70 to 79 years - 8 per cent 80+ years - 14.8 per cent

WHO confirms mortality rate due to coronavirus at 3.4%, higher than previous estimate

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and was placed 131st on a ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.

The report was released on Wednesday by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world.

It was commissioned by the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/world-health-organisation-warns-overseas-virus-spread-may-be-tip-of-the-iceberg-279719">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), UN Children's Fund (<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/unicef-deputy-director-justin-forsyth-steps-down-33748">UNICEF</a>) and the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/walk-to-work-clean-your-house-live-longer-lancet-20535/amp">Lancet medical journal</a>.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/wef-ranks-india-at-62nd-place-on-inclusive-development-index-30347">WEF ranks India at 62nd place on Inclusive Development Index behind Pakistan</a>

In the report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, India ranks 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131 on the Flourishing Index, it said.

Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving.

For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.

For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.

Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today's national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children's ability to flourish.

The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target. This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country's contribution to sustainability in future.

The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 397 gigatonnes&nbsp;to 228 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chance of keeping global warming below 15C.

It said that the world's survival depended on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-landmark-assessment-un-body-suggests-ways-to-avoid-food-insecurity-worst-impacts-of-climate-change-241492">In landmark assessment, UN body suggests ways to avoid food insecurity, worst impacts of climate change</a>

"No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future," said Anthony Costello, Professor of Global Health and Sustainability at University College London, one of the lead authors of the report.

"Especially, they're under immediate threat from climate change and from commercial marketing, which has grown hugely in the last decade," said Costello&nbsp;former <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/world-health-organisation-warns-overseas-virus-spread-may-be-tip-of-the-iceberg-279719">WHO</a> Director of Mother, Child and Adolescent health.

Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.

However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.

Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters. The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/climate-change-will-affect-half-of-south-asia-reduce-economic-growth-world-bank-147749">Climate change will affect half of South Asia, India to be worst-hit: World Bank</a>

According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly ? within the top 70 ? on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.

"More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change," said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the commission.

The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.

Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 per cent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.

Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US&nbsp;among many others&nbsp;have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.

Children's exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity, it said.

The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 ? an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.

To protect children, the authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children.

Specific recommendations include stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the centre of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, the report said.

New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said.

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and was placed 131st on a ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and was placed 131st on a ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report. The report was released on Wednesday by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Lancet medical journal. Also read: WEF ranks India at 62nd place on Inclusive Development Index behind Pakistan In the report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, India ranks 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131 on the Flourishing Index, it said. Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving. For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty. For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence. Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today's national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children's ability to flourish. The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target. This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country's contribution to sustainability in future. The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 397 gigatonnes to 228 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chance of keeping global warming below 15C. It said that the world's survival depended on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future. Also read: In landmark assessment, UN body suggests ways to avoid food insecurity, worst impacts of climate change "No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future," said Anthony Costello, Professor of Global Health and Sustainability at University College London, one of the lead authors of the report. "Especially, they're under immediate threat from climate change and from commercial marketing, which has grown hugely in the last decade," said Costello former WHO Director of Mother, Child and Adolescent health. Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom. However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th. Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters. The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia. Also read: Climate change will affect half of South Asia, India to be worst-hit: World Bank According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly ? within the top 70 ? on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam. "More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change," said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the commission. The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing. Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 per cent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people. Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US among many others have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children. Children's exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity, it said. The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 ? an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said. To protect children, the authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children. Specific recommendations include stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the centre of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, the report said. New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said.

India ranks 77th on sustainability, 131st in child flourishing index rankings: UN report

Nearly three million people in Niger, over half of whom are children, are suffering at the hands of various natural and man-made crises and are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

In a statement, UNICEF cited "the risks posed by insecurity, malnutrition, recurrent disease epidemics and outbreaks, cyclical floods, droughts and displacement" as the causes behind a crisis threatening 2.9 million people, including 1.6 million children.

"Insecurity is spreading at a rapid pace in the central Sahel region," said Felicite Tchibindat, UNICEF's regional nutrition advisor, following a visit to the conflict-affected region of Diffa.

"Women and children are bearing the brunt of the violence.&nbsp;

"In already fragile host communities, the burden of forced displacement increases the vulnerability of children and communities and significantly affects their health, protection, nutrition and education."

Since 2015, Niger has struggled against a wave of jihadist attacks near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso in the west, exacerbating needs in Tillaberi and Tahoua regions, where nearly 78,000 people have been displaced.

"Attacks against civilians in the Lake Chad region prevented 263,000 people in Diffa from returning to their homes," said the statement, adding that deteriorating security on the border with Nigeria has also resulted in the movement of tens of thousands of people.

Niger is home to nearly 450,000 refugees &nbsp;-- Nigerians, Malians and Burkinabe -- and internally displaced people, trying to escape jihadist violence or armed gangs, according to the UN.&nbsp;

Some refugees and displaced persons live in the midst of an already very poor population.

"In a context of constrained resources and limited social services, the communities that host displaced populations are showing extraordinary resilience and sharing the little they have," said Tchibindat.

"This truly is a great example that Nigeriens are showing to world."

On Monday, 15 women and five children were trampled to death in a stampede for food and money for refugees in the southeast of the country.

According to UN figures, jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left around 4,000 dead last year.

Nearly three million people in Niger, over half of whom are children, are suffering at the hands of various natural and man-made crises and are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Nearly three million people in Niger, over half of whom are children, are suffering at the hands of various natural and man-made crises and are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Wednesday. In a statement, UNICEF cited "the risks posed by insecurity, malnutrition, recurrent disease epidemics and outbreaks, cyclical floods, droughts and displacement" as the causes behind a crisis threatening 2.9 million people, including 1.6 million children. "Insecurity is spreading at a rapid pace in the central Sahel region," said Felicite Tchibindat, UNICEF's regional nutrition advisor, following a visit to the conflict-affected region of Diffa. "Women and children are bearing the brunt of the violence. "In already fragile host communities, the burden of forced displacement increases the vulnerability of children and communities and significantly affects their health, protection, nutrition and education." Since 2015, Niger has struggled against a wave of jihadist attacks near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso in the west, exacerbating needs in Tillaberi and Tahoua regions, where nearly 78,000 people have been displaced. "Attacks against civilians in the Lake Chad region prevented 263,000 people in Diffa from returning to their homes," said the statement, adding that deteriorating security on the border with Nigeria has also resulted in the movement of tens of thousands of people. Niger is home to nearly 450,000 refugees -- Nigerians, Malians and Burkinabe -- and internally displaced people, trying to escape jihadist violence or armed gangs, according to the UN. Some refugees and displaced persons live in the midst of an already very poor population. "In a context of constrained resources and limited social services, the communities that host displaced populations are showing extraordinary resilience and sharing the little they have," said Tchibindat. "This truly is a great example that Nigeriens are showing to world." On Monday, 15 women and five children were trampled to death in a stampede for food and money for refugees in the southeast of the country. According to UN figures, jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left around 4,000 dead last year.

Nearly three million in need of aid in Niger, UN says

As the world rings in the New Year, UNICEF has released a report on the number of newborns on the New Year's day in India.

According to the report, over 67,000 babies will be born in India on the New Year's day in India which would account for 17 per cent per cent of the estimated 392,078 babies to be born across the globe on today.

For the year 2020, the UNICEF's focus is to get nations to invest in health workers "with the know-how and equipment to save every newborn," the official release stated.&nbsp;

As per the report, Fiji would be the first country to bring 2020's first newborns in the world while the United States will be the last such nation.&nbsp;

While around 67,385 babies are expected to be born on the first day of the year in India, China will see around 46,299 newborns on the New Year's day followed by Nigeria (26,039), Pakistan (16,787), Indonesia (13,020) and the US (10,452).&nbsp;

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) celebrates the New Year's Day each year and marks it as an auspicious day for childbirth.&nbsp;

This year's list looks somewhat similar to the one that came out last year.&nbsp;

As per the report released on December 31, 2018, <a href="wionews.com/india-news/tiny-revellers-over-3-lakh-babies-to-be-born-on-new-years-day-across-globe-around-70000-in-india-alone-187655">India topped the list on newborns on New Year's day</a>&nbsp;last year with the highest number of births on January 1, 2018 at 69,944 babies.&nbsp;

The list had China at the second spot with 44,940 babies, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and the United States.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

As the world rings in the New Year, UNICEF has released a report on the number of newborns on the New Year's day in India. According to the report, over 67,000 babies will be born in India on the New Year's day in India which would account for 17 per cent per cent of the estimated 392,078 babies to be born across the globe on today.

As the world rings in the New Year, UNICEF has released a report on the number of newborns on the New Year's day in India. According to the report, over 67,000 babies will be born in India on the New Year's day in India which would account for 17 per cent per cent of the estimated 392,078 babies to be born across the globe on today. For the year 2020, the UNICEF's focus is to get nations to invest in health workers "with the know-how and equipment to save every newborn," the official release stated. As per the report, Fiji would be the first country to bring 2020's first newborns in the world while the United States will be the last such nation. While around 67,385 babies are expected to be born on the first day of the year in India, China will see around 46,299 newborns on the New Year's day followed by Nigeria (26,039), Pakistan (16,787), Indonesia (13,020) and the US (10,452). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) celebrates the New Year's Day each year and marks it as an auspicious day for childbirth. This year's list looks somewhat similar to the one that came out last year. As per the report released on December 31, 2018, India topped the list on newborns on New Year's day last year with the highest number of births on January 1, 2018 at 69,944 babies. The list had China at the second spot with 44,940 babies, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and the United States.

Tiny revellers: Over 67,000 babies to be born on New Year’s day in India 

One award at a time, one feat at a time -- this is what Priyanka Chopra’s motto must be from what we can say by looking at her professional trajectory. At the 18th Marrakech International Film Festival, Priyanka Chopra was honoured on Thursday night.&nbsp;

Priyanka Chopra stunned at the red carpet welcome in a saree as she looked nothing short of the diva that she is! She shared some pictures from the event as she wrote on her Instagram: "To think that my career started nearly 20 years ago is surreal. I am honored and proud to be recognized tonight at the Marrakesh Film Festival. Thank you, truly, to everyone who came out to Jemaa el Fna square. #Gratitude. Thank you @melitatoscan @festivaldufilmdemarrakech."&nbsp;

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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5tbS7oJRFn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">To think that my career started nearly 20 years ago is surreal. I am honored and proud to be recognized tonight at the Marrakesh Film Festival. Thank you, truly, to everyone who came out to Jemaa el Fna square. #Gratitude. Thank you @melitatoscan @festivaldufilmdemarrakech ❤️</a>

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The award comes merely days after Priyanka was honoured by the UNICEF for being a part of their legacy and carrying out philanthropic work.&nbsp;

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What a night! The Jemaa Elfna square held one of its most iconic tributes and welcomed the one and only Priyanka Chopra Jonas!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIFM2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIFM2019</a> <a href="https://t.co/qOq7lFT9e2">pic.twitter.com/qOq7lFT9e2</a>
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She was also just yesterday <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/priyanka-chopra-tops-imdb-2019-list-of-indian-stars-disha-patani-ranked-second-266456">enlisted on the top</a> of&nbsp;Indian cinema and television series in 2019 curated by movie website IMDb.&nbsp;

One award at a time, one feat at a time -- this is what Priyanka Chopra’s motto must be from what we can say by looking at her professional trajectory. At the 18th Marrakech International Film Festival, Priyanka Chopra was honoured on Thursday night.

One award at a time, one feat at a time -- this is what Priyanka Chopra’s motto must be from what we can say by looking at her professional trajectory. At the 18th Marrakech International Film Festival, Priyanka Chopra was honoured on Thursday night. Priyanka Chopra stunned at the red carpet welcome in a saree as she looked nothing short of the diva that she is! She shared some pictures from the event as she wrote on her Instagram: "To think that my career started nearly 20 years ago is surreal. I am honored and proud to be recognized tonight at the Marrakesh Film Festival. Thank you, truly, to everyone who came out to Jemaa el Fna square. #Gratitude. Thank you @melitatoscan @festivaldufilmdemarrakech." See the post here: View this post on Instagram To think that my career started nearly 20 years ago is surreal. I am honored and proud to be recognized tonight at the Marrakesh Film Festival. Thank you, truly, to everyone who came out to Jemaa el Fna square. #Gratitude. Thank you @melitatoscan @festivaldufilmdemarrakech ❤️ A post shared by Priyanka Chopra Jonas (@priyankachopra) on Dec 5, 2019 at 3:50pm PST × The award comes merely days after Priyanka was honoured by the UNICEF for being a part of their legacy and carrying out philanthropic work. What a night! The Jemaa Elfna square held one of its most iconic tributes and welcomed the one and only Priyanka Chopra Jonas!#FIFM2019 pic.twitter.com/qOq7lFT9e2 — Festival International du Film de Marrakech (@FIFM2019) December 6, 2019 × She was also just yesterday enlisted on the top of Indian cinema and television series in 2019 curated by movie website IMDb.

Priyanka Chopra: Honored and proud to be recognised at the Marrakesh Film Festival

Social media giants must crackdown on anti-vaccination posts that are fuelling <a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../samoa-measles-outbreak-death-toll-rises-to-62- 266337">Samoa's deadly measles epidemic</a> from afar, UNICEF's Pacific islands chief said Thursday.

Sheldon Yett, the regional representative for the U.N. children's agency, said "incredibly irresponsible" online material on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram had exacerbated the Samoa measles outbreak, which has claimed 62 lives since mid-October,&nbsp;by discouraging immunisation.&nbsp;

"It's quite clear that they have a corporate responsibility to step up to the plate and make sure that populations, particularly vulnerable populations, get accurate information that's going to keep children alive," Yett said.

Immunisation rates in Samoa dropped to just over 30 percent before the outbreak, well below accepted best practice of around 90 percent, making the island nation extremely vulnerable to infection.

The <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/climate-change-has-ill-effects-on-health-but -not-enough-funding-world-health-organisation-265954">World Health Organisation</a> blamed an anti-vaccine messaging campaign, which Yett said was carried out largely online by overseas-based activists.

"It's quite obvious that there are very loud people on social media making very false claims about vaccines," he said.

"Unfortunately it's found a ready audience in Samoa, where some people are suspicious about the quality of healthcare and may have issues with local (vaccine) providers."

He said activists posting anti-vaccine material from wealthy developed countries such as the United States and Australia needed to realise the impact of their actions in developing nations.&nbsp;

"It's devastating, it can be a death sentence for a child here where there's low immunisation and possibly other health issues going on in the background," he said from the capital Apia.

'No easy fix'&nbsp;

Yett said suspicion of vaccines in Samoa stemmed from a case last year when two babies died after receiving measles shots, leading to an eight-month suspension of the country's immunisation programme.

Subsequent investigations found there was no problem with the vaccine itself, but the nurses administering it accidentally mixed it with anaesthetic, instead of water.

However, trust in the immunisation programme was dented and anti-vaxxers stepped up efforts to push their agenda online, creating what Yett described as "a perfect formula" for an uncontrollable epidemic.

The activists have also hindered efforts to control the outbreak, with one prominent Australian-based blogger last week comparing compulsory vaccinations to Nazi Germany and saying "fascism is well and truly alive in Samoa".

Others have promoted quick remedies such as "Kangen water", alkaline water which supporters say can cure measles, despite no scientific evidence.

Yett said health authorities' focus at the moment was containing an epidemic that was still raging, resulting in fresh infections and child deaths every day.

But he said once it was over there had to be a discussion with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about their approach to anti-vaccine material.

He said the informed debate was important but it was wrong to allow online activists to question the effectiveness of vaccines, which the WHO estimates have saved the lives of 21 million children over the past 20 years.

"It's not easy, nobody wants to be a censor," he said.

"Companies have a responsibility to do it, but we also have to be honest and say there's no easy fix where they can flick a switch."

He conceded the clicks generated by heated online debate about vaccines could prevent the platforms from wanting to take swift action on the issue.

"We shouldn't be naive, there are many counter incentives here for social media giants as well," he said.

Social media giants must crackdown on anti-vaccination posts that are fuelling Samoa's deadly measles epidemic from afar, UNICEF's Pacific islands chief said Thursday.

Social media giants must crackdown on anti-vaccination posts that are fuelling Samoa's deadly measles epidemic from afar, UNICEF's Pacific islands chief said Thursday. Sheldon Yett, the regional representative for the U.N. children's agency, said "incredibly irresponsible" online material on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram had exacerbated the Samoa measles outbreak, which has claimed 62 lives since mid-October, by discouraging immunisation. "It's quite clear that they have a corporate responsibility to step up to the plate and make sure that populations, particularly vulnerable populations, get accurate information that's going to keep children alive," Yett said. Immunisation rates in Samoa dropped to just over 30 percent before the outbreak, well below accepted best practice of around 90 percent, making the island nation extremely vulnerable to infection. The World Health Organisation blamed an anti-vaccine messaging campaign, which Yett said was carried out largely online by overseas-based activists. "It's quite obvious that there are very loud people on social media making very false claims about vaccines," he said. "Unfortunately it's found a ready audience in Samoa, where some people are suspicious about the quality of healthcare and may have issues with local (vaccine) providers." He said activists posting anti-vaccine material from wealthy developed countries such as the United States and Australia needed to realise the impact of their actions in developing nations. "It's devastating, it can be a death sentence for a child here where there's low immunisation and possibly other health issues going on in the background," he said from the capital Apia. 'No easy fix' Yett said suspicion of vaccines in Samoa stemmed from a case last year when two babies died after receiving measles shots, leading to an eight-month suspension of the country's immunisation programme. Subsequent investigations found there was no problem with the vaccine itself, but the nurses administering it accidentally mixed it with anaesthetic, instead of water. However, trust in the immunisation programme was dented and anti-vaxxers stepped up efforts to push their agenda online, creating what Yett described as "a perfect formula" for an uncontrollable epidemic. The activists have also hindered efforts to control the outbreak, with one prominent Australian-based blogger last week comparing compulsory vaccinations to Nazi Germany and saying "fascism is well and truly alive in Samoa". Others have promoted quick remedies such as "Kangen water", alkaline water which supporters say can cure measles, despite no scientific evidence. Yett said health authorities' focus at the moment was containing an epidemic that was still raging, resulting in fresh infections and child deaths every day. But he said once it was over there had to be a discussion with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about their approach to anti-vaccine material. He said the informed debate was important but it was wrong to allow online activists to question the effectiveness of vaccines, which the WHO estimates have saved the lives of 21 million children over the past 20 years. "It's not easy, nobody wants to be a censor," he said. "Companies have a responsibility to do it, but we also have to be honest and say there's no easy fix where they can flick a switch." He conceded the clicks generated by heated online debate about vaccines could prevent the platforms from wanting to take swift action on the issue. "We shouldn't be naive, there are many counter incentives here for social media giants as well," he said.

U.N. says online anti-vaxxers fuelling Samoa measles deaths

The <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/children-ready-to-lead-fight-against-pollution-as-climate-crisis-claims-over-9-lakh-lives-since-2016-262150">World Health Organization (WHO) </a>and the UN&nbsp;Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday evacuated dozens of their staff working on the<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/un-chief-expresses-solidarity-with-ebola-hit-dr-congo-247054"> Ebola </a>epidemic from the town of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the worsening security situation.

Rebels believed to belong to the<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/un-says-peacekeeper-killed-in-attack-on-dr-congo-base-21157"> Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)</a> killed eight people in an overnight raid on Sunday.

Residents angry at the perceived inaction of both the government and a UN&nbsp;peacekeeping mission then set fire to the mayor's office and several UN&nbsp;buildings on Monday. At least two people were killed in clashes with police.

WHO&nbsp;spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a news briefing in Geneva that 49 non-essential staff were flown on Tuesday morning to the eastern city of Goma, where they will continue working,

"Seventy-one remains on the spot at this point to ensure as good as possible or at least the minimum support to the Ebola response," Lindmeier said.

"The frustration, the anger of the population on the ground is very much understandable. But we need law and order restored in order to carry out vital operations," he said.

The <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/one-in-three-young-children-undernourished-or-overweight-unicef-255958">UN&nbsp;Children's Fund (UNICEF)</a> has temporarily relocated 27 staff, leaving 12 in Beni, spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said.

Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;Health Emergencies Programme, said on Friday that about 360 people were at potential risk of Ebola after contact with an infected person in eastern Congo, yet many of them were out of reach due to clashes and insecurity.

"The violence has to stop, we have enough areas where we cannot go due to violence, military violence or rebel violence going on. So this is very bad for the Ebola response," Lindmeier told the briefing.

There have been 3,303 cases of Ebola, including 2,199 deaths, in the outbreak that was declared in August 2018. The&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;declared it an international emergency in July 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday evacuated dozens of their staff working on the Ebola epidemic from the town of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the worsening security situation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday evacuated dozens of their staff working on the Ebola epidemic from the town of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the worsening security situation. Rebels believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed eight people in an overnight raid on Sunday. Residents angry at the perceived inaction of both the government and a UN peacekeeping mission then set fire to the mayor's office and several UN buildings on Monday. At least two people were killed in clashes with police. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a news briefing in Geneva that 49 non-essential staff were flown on Tuesday morning to the eastern city of Goma, where they will continue working, "Seventy-one remains on the spot at this point to ensure as good as possible or at least the minimum support to the Ebola response," Lindmeier said. "The frustration, the anger of the population on the ground is very much understandable. But we need law and order restored in order to carry out vital operations," he said. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has temporarily relocated 27 staff, leaving 12 in Beni, spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said. Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said on Friday that about 360 people were at potential risk of Ebola after contact with an infected person in eastern Congo, yet many of them were out of reach due to clashes and insecurity. "The violence has to stop, we have enough areas where we cannot go due to violence, military violence or rebel violence going on. So this is very bad for the Ebola response," Lindmeier told the briefing. There have been 3,303 cases of Ebola, including 2,199 deaths, in the outbreak that was declared in August 2018. The WHO declared it an international emergency in July 2019.

WHO, UNICEF evacuate 76 staff from Ebola teams in Congo due to insecurity

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/global-measles-cases-three-times-higher-than-last-year-who-246324">Deaths related to measles</a>, mostly among small children, have more than tripled to 20 in the past week on the Pacific island of Samoa, the government has said eight days after declaring a state of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/samoa-measles-vaccine-now-mandatory-to-limit-deadly-outbreak-262803">emergency over the outbreak</a>.

The island state of just 200,000, located south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths.

The government has identified 1,644 suspected cases of measles, more than doubling over the past week, with deaths rising to 20 from six, it said on Friday. Children younger than five accounted for all but one of the deaths.

Staff of U.N. agency UNICEF have delivered 110,500 doses of measles containing vaccines this week as they fanned out across Samoa to boost its mandatory immunisation effort, the agency said in a statement.

It has also worked with governments of other tiny Pacific nations to run immunisation campaigns and develop preparedness plans to combat a regional outbreak, it added.

Australia is sending a specialist team of doctors, nurses and public health experts to Samoa, along with equipment and supplies, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Deaths related to measles, mostly among small children, have more than tripled to 20 in the past week on the Pacific island of Samoa, the government has said eight days after declaring a state of emergency over the outbreak.

Deaths related to measles, mostly among small children, have more than tripled to 20 in the past week on the Pacific island of Samoa, the government has said eight days after declaring a state of emergency over the outbreak. The island state of just 200,000, located south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths. The government has identified 1,644 suspected cases of measles, more than doubling over the past week, with deaths rising to 20 from six, it said on Friday. Children younger than five accounted for all but one of the deaths. Staff of U.N. agency UNICEF have delivered 110,500 doses of measles containing vaccines this week as they fanned out across Samoa to boost its mandatory immunisation effort, the agency said in a statement. It has also worked with governments of other tiny Pacific nations to run immunisation campaigns and develop preparedness plans to combat a regional outbreak, it added. Australia is sending a specialist team of doctors, nurses and public health experts to Samoa, along with equipment and supplies, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Samoa measles outbreak kills 20, mostly children

A total of 657 children have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the year, UNICEF said on Thursday (November 21), making 2019 another bleak year for Syrian children after more 8 years of conflict.

Nearly 700 children killed in Syria since beginning of 2019 - UNICEF

When an Islamist preacher took up the fight in Burkina Faso's northern borderlands almost a decade ago, his only weapon was a radio station. The words he spoke kindled the anger of a frustrated population and helped turn their homes into a breeding ground for jihad.

Residents of this parched region in the Sahel - a vast band of thorny scrub beneath the Sahara Desert - remember applauding Ibrahim "Malam" Dicko as he denounced his country's Western-backed government and racketeering police over the airwaves.

"We cheered," said Adama Kone, a 32-year-old teacher from the town of Djibo near the frontier with Mali, who was one of those thrilled by Dicko's words. "He understood our anger. He gave the Fulani youth new confidence."

Mostly herders, young men like Kone from the Fulani people were feeling hemmed in by more prosperous farmers, whom they felt the government in Ouagadougou favoured.

The preacher successfully exploited their conflicts over dwindling land and water resources, and the frustrations of people angered by corrupt and ineffective government, to launch the country's first indigenous jihadi movement. That cleared a path for groups affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Since Dicko's first broadcasts, Burkina Faso has become the focus of a determined jihadi campaign by three of West Africa's most dangerous armed groups who have carved out influence in nearly a third of the country, while much of the world was focused on the crisis in neighbouring Mali.

Militant Islamist fighters close schools, gun down Christians in their places of worship and booby-trap corpses to blow up first responders. At least <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/37-killed-in-burkina-fasos-deadliest-attack-in-five-years-260419">39 people died</a> last week in an ambush on a convoy ferrying workers from a Canadian-owned mine in the country. There has been no claim for that ambush, but the modus operandi – a bomb attack on military escorts followed by gunmen unleashing bullets – was characteristic of Islamist groups.

Since 2016, the violence has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced nearly 500,000 – most of them this year.

In 2019, at least 755 people had died through October in violence involving jihadist groups across Burkina Faso, according to Reuters' analysis of political violence events recorded by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an NGO. Actual numbers are likely higher - researchers aren't always able to identify who is involved in the violence.

The teacher Kone is one of many of Dicko's former supporters who regret their earlier enthusiasm.

"We handed them the microphones in our mosques," he said. "By the time we realised what they were up to, it was too late."

He fled to Ouagadougou two years ago, after armed Islamists showed up at his school. More than 2,000 schools have closed due to the violence, the U.N. children's fund UNICEF said in August.

A lean, bespectacled Fulani from the north, Malam Dicko broadcast a message of equality and modesty. He reportedly died of an illness in late 2017, but his sermons channelled deep grievances in Burkina Faso's north where impoverished people have long been frustrated by corrupt officials.

The province of northern Burkina Faso where Dicko lived scores 2.7 on the United Nations Human Development Index, compared with 6 for the area around the capital, Ouagadougou. About 40 per cent&nbsp;of its children are stunted by malnutrition, against only 6 per cent&nbsp;in the capital, according to US&nbsp;AID.

From Ouagadougou to Djibo is a four-hour drive on a road which peters out into a sandy track. Sparse villages dot a landscape of sand and withered trees. Goats devour scrappy patches of grass.

Residents complain that their few interactions with the state tend to be predatory: Bureaucrats demand money to issue title deeds for houses, then never provide the papers; gendarmes charge up to $40 to take down a complaint; there are mysterious taxes and extortion at police roadblocks.

Lieutenant Colonel Kanou Coulibaly, a military police squadron commander and head of training for Burkina Faso's armed forces, acknowledged that northerners "feel marginalized and abandoned by the central government."

In about 2010 preacher Dicko, who had studied in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, began tapping this discontent, recalled Kone and other former Djibo residents. He denounced corruption by traditional religious leaders and practices that he deemed un-Islamic, including lavish wedding and naming ceremonies.

The movement he created, Ansarul Islam (Defenders of Islam), opened a path to militants from outside Burkina Faso — particularly Mali.

Early in 2013, French forces were pounding northern Mali to wrest control from al Qaeda-linked fighters who had seized the region the previous year. Dicko slipped over the border to join the militants, said Oumarou Ibrahim, a Sufi preacher who knew Dicko and was close to the No. 2 in his movement, Amadou Boly.

In Mali, Ibrahim said, Dicko linked up with Amadou Koufa, a fellow Fulani whose forces have unleashed turmoil on central Mali in recent years. French forces detained the pair near the border with Algeria; Dicko was released in 2015.

He set up his own training camp in a forest along the Mali-Burkina border, Kone, the teacher, and Ibrahim, the Sufi preacher, told Reuters.

Dicko forged ties with a group of Malian armed bandits who controlled drug and livestock trade routes.

On the radio that year, he urged youths to back him, "even at the cost of spilling blood."

For some years Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaore, had managed to keep good relations with Mali's Islamists. But in 2014, he tried to change the constitution to extend his 27-year-rule. Residents of the capital drove him from office.

Without Compaore, Burkina Faso became a target. Barely two weeks into a new presidency, in January 2016, an attack on the Splendid Hotel and a restaurant in Ouagadougou killed 30 people. It was claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants based in northern Mali.

Dicko became even more radical after that: He fell out with associates including his No. 2, Boly.

Ibrahim, the Sufi preacher, said Boly came to his house in Belhoro village in November 2016, agitated because Dicko had ordered him to raise cash to pay for AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers from Mali.

Boly refused. Dicko threatened him, Ibrahim said. Boly was either with him, "or with the whites and the colonisers."

Two weeks later, gunmen assassinated Boly outside his Djibo home. Ibrahim said he fled his own village the next day.

The teacher Kone, whose house was down the street, said he heard the gunshots that day. A wave of killings followed. The militants assassinated civil servants, blew up security posts, executed school teachers.

One day in May 2017, Kone was running late for school when he got a phone call from a colleague. Armed men from Dicko's movement had come and asked after him.

He shuttered the school and sped to Ouagadougou.

Now headed by Dicko's brother Jafar, Ansarul Islam was sanctioned by the United States in February 2018. None of its leaders could be reached.

It still controls much of Burkina Faso's northern border areas but two other groups have also built a presence on the country's borders, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. Islamic State in the Greater Sahara dominates along the eastern frontier with Niger. And Koufa's Macina Liberation Front, which is closely aligned to al Qaeda, is active on the western border with Mali.

These spheres of influence can be loose: Fighters for all three are believed to cooperate with each other and with bandit groups.

Their attacks - including the kidnap and killing of a Canadian citizen in January claimed by Islamic State - are becoming more brutal. In one instance in March, a Burkinabe security official told Reuters, militants stitched a bomb inside a corpse and dressed it up in an army uniform, killing two medics - a technique used by Malian fighters.

Recent attacks on churches have killed about 20 people, and a priest was kidnapped in March.

The European Union and member states have committed 8 billion euros ($9 billion) over six years to tackling poverty in the region but so far, responses from Ouagadougou and the West have been predominantly military.

The United Nations has spent a billion dollars a year since 2014 on a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force in Mali. Almost 200 members have been killed - its deadliest mission ever.

France has 4,500 troops stationed across the region. The United States has set up drone bases, held annual training exercises and sent 800 troops to the deserts of Niger. Led by France, Western powers have provided funding and training to a regional counter-terrorism force known as G5 Sahel made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania.

Despite all this, Islamist violence has spread to places previously untouched by it, as tensions like those that first kindled support for Dicko intensify.

"You have a solution that is absolutely militarised to a problem that is absolutely political," said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director at International Crisis Group, an independent think tank. "The security response is not addressing these problems."

The fact that a large number of recruits are Fulani has triggered a backlash by other ethnic groups, and those who have fled northern Burkina Faso say they had scant protection.

One woman said gunmen on motorbikes attacked her village, Biguelel, last December. The gunmen accused her family of colluding with "terrorists" simply because they were Fulani. They torched her home and shot her husband and dozens of others dead, but she escaped.

The next day the woman, Mariam Dicko, and about 40 others went to a military police post in the nearby town of Yirgou. "They said it was over now, so they couldn't help us," said Dicko - a common surname in the country.

Kanou, the military police commander, acknowledged that troops were sometimes not present when needed. "But when patrols are being attacked, it's more difficult," he added. "We have to take measures to protect ourselves."

As Western forces rely increasingly on their Sahel partners, rights groups and residents say they sometimes overlook abuses by locals.

Four witnesses described to Reuters summary executions of suspected insurgents during search operations. These included an incident in the village of Belhoro on February&nbsp;3, in which security forces ordered nine men out of their homes and shot them dead, according to two women who saw the killings.

New York-based Human Rights Watch documented 19 such incidents in a report in March, during which it says 116 men and boys were captured and killed by security forces.

The government said the army is committed to human rights and is investigating the allegations. "In our struggle there will necessarily be innocent victims, not because we want to, but because we are in a tough zone," Kanou said. U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young said America takes up any "mistakes" with the government.

In November 2018, Burkinabe forces raided the village home of a lab technician at a clinic in Djibo, accusing his 60-year-old father of being a terrorist, two friends of his told Reuters.

They killed the father in front of his son.

The following week, the technician, Jibril Dicko, didn't show up for work. His phone went dead.

Neighbours said he had gone to join the jihad.

When an Islamist preacher took up the fight in Burkina Faso's northern borderlands almost a decade ago, his only weapon was a radio station. The words he spoke kindled the anger of a frustrated population and helped turn their homes into a breeding ground for jihad.

When an Islamist preacher took up the fight in Burkina Faso's northern borderlands almost a decade ago, his only weapon was a radio station. The words he spoke kindled the anger of a frustrated population and helped turn their homes into a breeding ground for jihad. Residents of this parched region in the Sahel - a vast band of thorny scrub beneath the Sahara Desert - remember applauding Ibrahim "Malam" Dicko as he denounced his country's Western-backed government and racketeering police over the airwaves. "We cheered," said Adama Kone, a 32-year-old teacher from the town of Djibo near the frontier with Mali, who was one of those thrilled by Dicko's words. "He understood our anger. He gave the Fulani youth new confidence." Mostly herders, young men like Kone from the Fulani people were feeling hemmed in by more prosperous farmers, whom they felt the government in Ouagadougou favoured. The preacher successfully exploited their conflicts over dwindling land and water resources, and the frustrations of people angered by corrupt and ineffective government, to launch the country's first indigenous jihadi movement. That cleared a path for groups affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State. Since Dicko's first broadcasts, Burkina Faso has become the focus of a determined jihadi campaign by three of West Africa's most dangerous armed groups who have carved out influence in nearly a third of the country, while much of the world was focused on the crisis in neighbouring Mali. Militant Islamist fighters close schools, gun down Christians in their places of worship and booby-trap corpses to blow up first responders. At least 39 people died last week in an ambush on a convoy ferrying workers from a Canadian-owned mine in the country. There has been no claim for that ambush, but the modus operandi – a bomb attack on military escorts followed by gunmen unleashing bullets – was characteristic of Islamist groups. Since 2016, the violence has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced nearly 500,000 – most of them this year. In 2019, at least 755 people had died through October in violence involving jihadist groups across Burkina Faso, according to Reuters' analysis of political violence events recorded by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an NGO. Actual numbers are likely higher - researchers aren't always able to identify who is involved in the violence. The teacher Kone is one of many of Dicko's former supporters who regret their earlier enthusiasm. "We handed them the microphones in our mosques," he said. "By the time we realised what they were up to, it was too late." He fled to Ouagadougou two years ago, after armed Islamists showed up at his school. More than 2,000 schools have closed due to the violence, the U.N. children's fund UNICEF said in August. A lean, bespectacled Fulani from the north, Malam Dicko broadcast a message of equality and modesty. He reportedly died of an illness in late 2017, but his sermons channelled deep grievances in Burkina Faso's north where impoverished people have long been frustrated by corrupt officials. The province of northern Burkina Faso where Dicko lived scores 2.7 on the United Nations Human Development Index, compared with 6 for the area around the capital, Ouagadougou. About 40 per cent of its children are stunted by malnutrition, against only 6 per cent in the capital, according to US AID. From Ouagadougou to Djibo is a four-hour drive on a road which peters out into a sandy track. Sparse villages dot a landscape of sand and withered trees. Goats devour scrappy patches of grass. Residents complain that their few interactions with the state tend to be predatory: Bureaucrats demand money to issue title deeds for houses, then never provide the papers; gendarmes charge up to $40 to take down a complaint; there are mysterious taxes and extortion at police roadblocks. Lieutenant Colonel Kanou Coulibaly, a military police squadron commander and head of training for Burkina Faso's armed forces, acknowledged that northerners "feel marginalized and abandoned by the central government." In about 2010 preacher Dicko, who had studied in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, began tapping this discontent, recalled Kone and other former Djibo residents. He denounced corruption by traditional religious leaders and practices that he deemed un-Islamic, including lavish wedding and naming ceremonies. The movement he created, Ansarul Islam (Defenders of Islam), opened a path to militants from outside Burkina Faso — particularly Mali. Early in 2013, French forces were pounding northern Mali to wrest control from al Qaeda-linked fighters who had seized the region the previous year. Dicko slipped over the border to join the militants, said Oumarou Ibrahim, a Sufi preacher who knew Dicko and was close to the No. 2 in his movement, Amadou Boly. In Mali, Ibrahim said, Dicko linked up with Amadou Koufa, a fellow Fulani whose forces have unleashed turmoil on central Mali in recent years. French forces detained the pair near the border with Algeria; Dicko was released in 2015. He set up his own training camp in a forest along the Mali-Burkina border, Kone, the teacher, and Ibrahim, the Sufi preacher, told Reuters. Dicko forged ties with a group of Malian armed bandits who controlled drug and livestock trade routes. On the radio that year, he urged youths to back him, "even at the cost of spilling blood." For some years Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaore, had managed to keep good relations with Mali's Islamists. But in 2014, he tried to change the constitution to extend his 27-year-rule. Residents of the capital drove him from office. Without Compaore, Burkina Faso became a target. Barely two weeks into a new presidency, in January 2016, an attack on the Splendid Hotel and a restaurant in Ouagadougou killed 30 people. It was claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants based in northern Mali. Dicko became even more radical after that: He fell out with associates including his No. 2, Boly. Ibrahim, the Sufi preacher, said Boly came to his house in Belhoro village in November 2016, agitated because Dicko had ordered him to raise cash to pay for AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers from Mali. Boly refused. Dicko threatened him, Ibrahim said. Boly was either with him, "or with the whites and the colonisers." Two weeks later, gunmen assassinated Boly outside his Djibo home. Ibrahim said he fled his own village the next day. The teacher Kone, whose house was down the street, said he heard the gunshots that day. A wave of killings followed. The militants assassinated civil servants, blew up security posts, executed school teachers. One day in May 2017, Kone was running late for school when he got a phone call from a colleague. Armed men from Dicko's movement had come and asked after him. He shuttered the school and sped to Ouagadougou. Now headed by Dicko's brother Jafar, Ansarul Islam was sanctioned by the United States in February 2018. None of its leaders could be reached. It still controls much of Burkina Faso's northern border areas but two other groups have also built a presence on the country's borders, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. Islamic State in the Greater Sahara dominates along the eastern frontier with Niger. And Koufa's Macina Liberation Front, which is closely aligned to al Qaeda, is active on the western border with Mali. These spheres of influence can be loose: Fighters for all three are believed to cooperate with each other and with bandit groups. Their attacks - including the kidnap and killing of a Canadian citizen in January claimed by Islamic State - are becoming more brutal. In one instance in March, a Burkinabe security official told Reuters, militants stitched a bomb inside a corpse and dressed it up in an army uniform, killing two medics - a technique used by Malian fighters. Recent attacks on churches have killed about 20 people, and a priest was kidnapped in March. The European Union and member states have committed 8 billion euros ($9 billion) over six years to tackling poverty in the region but so far, responses from Ouagadougou and the West have been predominantly military. The United Nations has spent a billion dollars a year since 2014 on a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force in Mali. Almost 200 members have been killed - its deadliest mission ever. France has 4,500 troops stationed across the region. The United States has set up drone bases, held annual training exercises and sent 800 troops to the deserts of Niger. Led by France, Western powers have provided funding and training to a regional counter-terrorism force known as G5 Sahel made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania. Despite all this, Islamist violence has spread to places previously untouched by it, as tensions like those that first kindled support for Dicko intensify. "You have a solution that is absolutely militarised to a problem that is absolutely political," said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director at International Crisis Group, an independent think tank. "The security response is not addressing these problems." The fact that a large number of recruits are Fulani has triggered a backlash by other ethnic groups, and those who have fled northern Burkina Faso say they had scant protection. One woman said gunmen on motorbikes attacked her village, Biguelel, last December. The gunmen accused her family of colluding with "terrorists" simply because they were Fulani. They torched her home and shot her husband and dozens of others dead, but she escaped. The next day the woman, Mariam Dicko, and about 40 others went to a military police post in the nearby town of Yirgou. "They said it was over now, so they couldn't help us," said Dicko - a common surname in the country. Kanou, the military police commander, acknowledged that troops were sometimes not present when needed. "But when patrols are being attacked, it's more difficult," he added. "We have to take measures to protect ourselves." As Western forces rely increasingly on their Sahel partners, rights groups and residents say they sometimes overlook abuses by locals. Four witnesses described to Reuters summary executions of suspected insurgents during search operations. These included an incident in the village of Belhoro on February 3, in which security forces ordered nine men out of their homes and shot them dead, according to two women who saw the killings. New York-based Human Rights Watch documented 19 such incidents in a report in March, during which it says 116 men and boys were captured and killed by security forces. The government said the army is committed to human rights and is investigating the allegations. "In our struggle there will necessarily be innocent victims, not because we want to, but because we are in a tough zone," Kanou said. U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young said America takes up any "mistakes" with the government. In November 2018, Burkinabe forces raided the village home of a lab technician at a clinic in Djibo, accusing his 60-year-old father of being a terrorist, two friends of his told Reuters. They killed the father in front of his son. The following week, the technician, Jibril Dicko, didn't show up for work. His phone went dead. Neighbours said he had gone to join the jihad.

How a preacher sent gunmen into Burkina Faso's schools

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