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Edited News | UNHCR
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing Resurging Violence in DRC - Kasai UNHCR 04SEP2020
A resurgence in violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could trigger another wave of mass displacement in the country – the UN Refugee Agency warned
Inter-ethnic confrontation and a tussle for land, mineral and timber in the DRC’s Kasai region could spark a mass displacement, said the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at a press briefing today at the United Nations in Geneva.
“In recent days, UNHCR has received reports of conflict linked with militia trying to replace a traditional community leader with one of its members in the Nteenda village in Kasai Central province”, said UNHCR’s spokesperson Babar Baloch.
He added that “in the past month, more than 24,000 people have fled three separate conflicts related to land disputes, clashes over resources, and confrontation between different ethnic groups, authorities and militias”.
UNHCR is calling for renewed focus on the Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to restore peace and defuse tensions.
In 2017, violence in the Kasai region led to the internal displacement of 1.4 million people within the DRC and some 35,000 refugees seeking safety in neighboring Angola.
“The newly displaced report killings, rape, torture, looting and burning of the homes in the recent weeks. Dozens of people have arrived with injuries. There are many children, women and elderly among the newly displaced”, according to UNHCR’s spokesperson.
UNHCR is currently registering displaced people as well as host community members, whose capacity to help and host the displaced is often limited due to the extreme poverty and high levels of malnutrition in the area. The UN Refugee Agency is helping the survivors of sexual violence and referring them for medical care and psycho-social support.
“In an ongoing relief effort, UNHCR has so far distributed items including plastic sheeting, blankets, soap, cooking kits to more than 4,000 people. Thousands have also received shelter kits and cash assistance to buy food to meet their most urgent needs”, Babar Baloch said.
UNHCR is appealing for the allocation of resources to respond to the needs of displaced Congolese.
- Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations flag alley, nations’ flags flying
- Wide shot, Press briefing, Palais des Nations
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “In recent days, UNHCR has received reports of conflict linked with militia trying to replace a traditional community leader with one of its members in the Nteenda village in Kasai Central province”.
- Wide shot, podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “In the past month, more than 24,000 people have fled three separate conflicts related to land disputes, clashes over resources, and confrontation between different ethnic groups, authorities and militias”.
- Close-up, cameraman
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “The newly displaced report killings, rape, torture, looting and burning of the homes in the recent weeks. Dozens of people have arrived with injuries. There are many children, women and elderly among the newly displaced”.
- Medium shot, journalists in Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “In an ongoing relief effort, UNHCR has so far distributed items including plastic sheeting, blankets, soap, cooking kits to more than 4,000 people. Thousands have also received shelter kits and cash assistance to buy food to meet their most urgent needs”.
- Medium shot, journalists in Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Close up, hands with sanitizer bottle
- Wide shot, journalists in Press Room
- Medium shot, journalists in Press Room
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
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“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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