More than 2,000 people may have died of famine this year in parts of northeast Nigeria which cannot be reached by aid agencies due to an insurgency by Islamic militant group Boko Haram, hunger experts said on Tuesday. The deaths occurred in the town of Bama in Nigeria’s Borno state, the jihadists’ former stronghold, a report by the U.S.-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network said. “The risk of famine in inaccessible areas of Borno State will remain high over the coming year,” the report said. “In a worst-case scenario, where conflict cuts off areas that are currently accessible and dependent on assistance, the likelihood of famine in these areas would be high,” it added. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2hsaENR)
Award winners of the day: Two Yazidi women who were abducted by Islamic State militants in 2014 and used as sex slaves have accepted the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought and expression. (VOA http://bit.ly/2hs00qG)
Quote of the Day…“We have agreed globally to end child labor and to end trafficking and all forms of modern slavery, but we have to do it now. We need very practical steps to break the criminal trafficking rings, to support poor communities by giving kids a real chance through proper healthcare and schools and to ensure legislation and its enforcement is strengthened.” — Jeff Sachs (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2gX83uV)
Syria in focus
France called for an immediate U.N. Security Council resolution to discuss alleged atrocities being carried out in eastern Aleppo, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2hs07lV)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stands ready to act as a neutral intermediary in an evacuation from eastern Aleppo being negotiated by various parties, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2hqk3bB)
The European Union will not pay towards rebuilding post-war Syria if Moscow and Damascus leave no space in the future for opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, according to a draft joint statement from the EU’s 28 leaders. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2gIp4es)
Top Stories
Nearly 2.2 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, victims of the near-collapse of the health care system during two years of escalating conflict, UNICEF said on Tuesday. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2gXgLcy)
Burundi opposition groups demanded an international mediator resign just days after he arrived, casting a shadow over already troubled efforts to resolve months of political violence. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2gXgo1z)
The government and military of Myanmar are responsible for burning down hundreds of buildings in the Rakhine State during the past three months as retribution for militant attacks on security forces, according to a report from Human Rights Watch. (VOA http://bit.ly/2hs34TJ)
Colombia’s government can move laws needed to carry out the country’s peace deal with the Marxist FARC rebels through Congress more quickly than usual, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2gXk3MI)
Austria said on Tuesday its contentious cap on asylum seekers would not be breached, as the number of new arrivals had dropped dramatically since last year, letting it sidestep a confrontation with the European Union. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2hKslaP)
A recent outbreak of measles in Kismayo, Somalia has put additional strain on an already overwhelmed hospital. (UNICEF http://bit.ly/2gF5121)
Africa will be able to grow enough cereals to feed its growing population by 2050, but only if it breaks a culture of complacency and starts now to invest more in agriculture, scientists said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2gXjnac)
A Myanmar government official says a journalist has been killed while reporting on illegal logging in the northwest of the country. The local police say they are investigating the death. (VOA http://bit.ly/2gXeRbR)
The U.N.’s $120 million aid appeal is only 40 percent funded, causing ‘unnecessary suffering’ for the 750,000 Haitians in dire need of support. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2gF4SeZ)
Venezuelans are taking a break from lining up to buy food and medicine to wait with hundreds of others to deposit bank notes that are about to be considered worthless. (AP https://yhoo.it/2hKtjDX)
More journalists have been jailed this year by governments around the world than at any time in nearly three decades, primarily because of the crackdown in Turkey after a failed coup in July, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. (AP https://yhoo.it/2hs8VIj)
Opinion/Blogs
Rex Tillerson, Davos Man (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2hsfnPJ)
For South Asian Policy-Makers, Climate Migrants Still Invisible (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/2hq1yE5)
The silent epidemic: Drowning is a top 5 cause of child death globally (WhyDev http://bit.ly/2hspggb)
Why Did Trump’s Anticorruption Rhetoric Resonate? Three Hypotheses (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/2hsgFds)
How Facebook statuses informed the Zika response in Brazil (Devex http://bit.ly/2hsjriU)
How can we help smallholder farmers seize opportunities in Africa? (Africa can end poverty http://bit.ly/2hshIKG)
What’s next for #allmalepanel? (Aidnography http://bit.ly/2hsj5IW)
HIV-test kits given to women boost testing in men (SciDevNet http://bit.ly/2hsi9oi)
Finding the world’s unknown viruses — before they find us (Stat News http://bit.ly/2hsjNWK)
