Israel-Palestine, Ethiopia, Kenya-Haiti.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jan 31, 2024

Israel-Palestine

I can hardly recall reading a more heartbreaking opening to a piece:

Born amid the horrors of the war in Gaza, the month-old baby girl lying in an incubator has never known a parent's embrace.
She was delivered by Caesarean section after her mother, Hanna, was crushed in an Israeli air strike. Hanna did not live to name her daughter.
"We just call her the daughter of Hanna Abu Amsha," says nurse Warda al-Awawda, who is caring for the tiny newborn at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

It is contained in a deeply disturbing BBC report on the thousands and thousands of children left orphaned by Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. The report includes a shocking statistic. According to the UN children’s agency, Unicef, 19,000 children in Gaza are now orphaned or have ended up alone with no adult to look after them.

Ethiopia

As mentioned in Proximities several times recently, the numbers are only trickling in, and difficult to confirm, but people are starving to death in Ethiopia. The country’s ombudsman today said that almost 400 people had died from hunger in recent months, mostly in the Tigray region which is still recovering from a war that officially ended 14 months ago. The ombudsman’s statement comes after several similar reports from regional authorities, who say they fear the region is teetering on the brink of a full-blown famine. The central government in Addis Ababa is denying that.

Kenya-Haiti

Kenya’s President William Ruto has signalled he intends to go ahead with a plan to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help its embattled government push back criminal gangs who now control up to 80% of the capital. Ruto’s comments came despite a court ruling in Kenya that said the government is only permitted to deploy the army, not the police force, overseas. "The mission is on course. The mission is a bigger calling to humanity," Ruto said, adding that paperwork would be provided to the court to satisfy its concerns. Ruto said the force could be deployed as soon as next week.