Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, an al-Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Burkina Faso on August 24. The attacks in Pakistan, which took place on Wednesday, were claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Ben Saul, the UN Human Rights Council-appointed Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorismurged both countries to investigate the crimes and prosecute the perpetrators through fair trials.
“All counter-terrorism operations by the police, security services and military must comply with human rights law“and international humanitarian law as relevant, including the right to life, freedom from arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance, freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and civil and political rights,” he said.
Support victims
Mr Saul also urged the governments of Burkina Faso and Pakistan to support the victims of the attacks.
“I encourage the Government of Burkina Faso to re-engage with the international community… to restore security, address the conditions that give rise to insecurity and ensure that international humanitarian law is respected,” he said.
Mr Saul has advised the two governments on how to help victims and address terrorist violence.
Appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are mandated to monitor and report on country or thematic human rights situations. The experts work independently of governments and the United Nations, are not UN staff and receive no salary.
Emergency in Yemen grows as catastrophic flooding hits, UN agency warns
Moving on to war-torn Yemen, where the UN refugee agency, UN refugee agencywarned that catastrophic flooding has further worsened the situation for the millions of displaced people in the country.
The agency reported the floods, caused by the bursting of three dams due to heavy rainfall in Al Mahweet governorate in western Yemen, devastated entire communities.
At least 97 lives have been lost to flooding in the past month, and many more people have been injured, UNHCR said. More than 56,000 homes in 20 governorates have been damaged or destroyed, displacing more than 1,000 families.
The worst affected areas are Hudaydah, Hajjah, Al-Taweela and Marib.
“Impassable roads are isolating affected areas and hampering rescue efforts,” the UN agency said.
Basic needs not met
Recent UNHCR assessments show that 85 percent of families in displaced and host communities in Yemen are unable to meet their daily food needs.
“Many have resorted to extreme coping mechanisms, such as reducing meal sizes or skipping meals altogether.“, UNHCR stressed, noting that “entire families” go hungry every day in Yemen.
Nearly a decade of conflict between the government and opposition, mainly Houthi forces, has led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 18 million people, including 4.5 million displaced, in urgent need of aid.
This figure includes more than 60,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from the Horn of Africa.
Libya: Tarhuna mass graves in human rights spotlight
Mass killings, sexual violence and kidnappings in the Libyan city of Tarhuna dating back to 2013 continue to go unpunished, risking further instability and division in the country, the UN human rights office said. OHCHRhas warned.
A new report by UN human rights investigators has found that an armed group that emerged in 2011 after the overthrow of long-serving President Muammar Gaddafi has brutally controlled Tarhuna, a town of 150,000 people about 65 kilometres southeast of Tripoli.
Crimes committed by Al-Kaniyat fighters also included torture, ill-treatment and forced displacement between 2013 and 2022.
Failure to deliver justice
Speaking in Geneva on Friday, OHCHR spokesman Seif Magango stressed that the “failure to deliver justice” had led to renewed violence and serious rights violations in Tarhuna and surrounding areas. The findings echo an earlier report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.
“The Fact-Finding Mission’s 2022 report contained detailed evidence of the atrocities committed in Tarhuna, including the discovery of mass graves containing hundreds of human remains, most of them shackled, blindfolded and showing signs of torture.“, he said.
“The report also warned of the possibility that there could be as many as 100 more such mass graves.”
Mr Magango added that the integration of Al-Kaniyat into the former Government of National Accord (GNA) and later the Libyan National Army (LNA) has been “a significant obstacle” to accountability and justice.