In the past month, WFP supported more than 300,000 people there with food, including 40,000 in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
“We must be able to reach those who need us most in Sudan,” Executive Director Cindy McCain wrote in a post on social media.
Separately, UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that an escalation of hostilities there would be “catastrophic”.
Civilians in El Fasher are already struggling to survive hunger and deprivation, and they must be spared from violence, he wrote on social media.
El Fasher has more than 330,000 people facing acute food insecurity, and nearly half of its residents are internally displaced.
Over the weekend, the UN Security Council appealed for the warring parties in Sudan to immediately halt the military build-up and take steps to de-escalate the situation in El Fasher.
The call came amid reports of an imminent offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militia, which could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons currently sheltering in the city.
Iraq urged to shelve new law criminalising same-sex relations
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has urged Iraq to discard a new law that criminalises consensual same-sex relations and other forms of private consensual behaviour with heavy jail sentences.
“The law runs contrary to several human rights treaties and conventions ratified by Iraq, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and should be shelved,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Monday.
She added that “everyone, without distinction, is entitled to enjoy all human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to be treated as equal before the law and the right to protection from discrimination on various grounds that include sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Under the new law, those found guilty of “establishing a homosexual relationship” will face 10 to 15 years in jail, while anyone who “promotes homosexuality” will be imprisoned for at least seven years and fined at least 10 million Iraqi dinars (approximately $7,600).
Additionally, anyone accessing or performing gender-affirming medical treatments will face up to three years behind bars, and people who dress in clothing associated with the opposite gender will receive jail terms of up to three years or a fine of at least 5 million Iraqi dinars.
Chad: Guterres appeals for restraint ahead of presidential election
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged stakeholders in Chad to ensure a peaceful, inclusive, transparent and credible vote as the country prepares for the first round of presidential elections next week.
“The Secretary-General encourages all political leaders to refrain from any acts or discourse that could undermine a peaceful process, to overcome any disagreements through dialogue and to address complaints that may arise through established legal channels,” his spokesperson said on Monday.
Chadians go to the polls on 6 May. The elections are part of the transition back to democracy after three years of military rule following the death of President Idris Deby in April 2021.
The longtime leader died fighting rebels in the north and his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, was installed as head of the Transitional Military Council.
The younger Mr. Deby promised a return to civilian rule and elections within 18 months, but extended the transition by two years.
The Secretary-General reiterated UN commitment to continue to support efforts towards building a peaceful and prosperous future in Chad.
Since 22 March, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sustained four waves of attacks that killed six people, injured at least 45 and struck at least 20 facilities.
Just this past Saturday alone, missile attacks damaged four thermal power plants critical for electricity generation. Two of the plants are located in western Ukraine, far from the frontline.
Danielle Bell, Head of Mission at HRMMU, said, “These attacks have caused civilian deaths, and they also jeopardise essential services such as power generation and rail transport, further compounding the risks and harm affecting the civilian population of Ukraine.”
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s railway system have claimed the lives of at least 11 civilians and injured dozens in regions like Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Cherkasy.
Those killed in the attacks were railway and power station workers who were either in or near the vicinity.
“Attacks on the railway system threaten a key mode of transportation that people in Ukraine depend on for personal travel and transport of essential goods, particularly given the restriction on all air traffic and limited access to seaports,” Ms. Bell said.
Power and water supply affected
Within the last week, Ukrainian railway facilities saw three attacks, leaving civilians dead and injured. On 25 April, a missile strike killed three railway employees and injured four in Udachne in Donetsk.
That same day, several other employees were injured in a missile attack on a railway facility in Smila, located in the Cherkasy region.
In Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, 11 people were injured in a missile attack that caused damage to the railway station and a train that had just arrived. Eight more people also lost their lives due to railway attacks in Synelnykove and Dnipro.
HRMMU added that power outages frequently occurred in the immediate aftermath of attacks on energy infrastructure, affecting millions across the country and also leading to interruptions to the water supply.
Embark on a journey through the latest Alienware gaming setup, where cutting-edge technology meets sleek design. In this comprehensive article, we’ll delve into each component of the setup, from the monitor to the peripherals and the powerful gaming PC at its core.
Gaming set. Illustrative photo. Image credit: FOX via pexels.com
At the heart of the Alienware gaming setup lies the QD OLED monitor, a 32-inch marvel boasting 4K resolution and OLED technology. With vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a lightning-fast 240Hz refresh rate, this monitor delivers an unparalleled visual experience for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike.
Cutting-edge peripherals: pro wireless gaming mouse and keyboard
Accompanying the QD OLED monitor are Alienware’s latest peripherals: the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse and Keyboard. With features like customizable RGB lighting, magnetic force key plates, and optical switches, these peripherals offer precision and comfort for long gaming sessions.
Complete your gaming experience with the 720 Hz Dual Mode Wireless Gaming Headset, designed for immersive audio and crystal-clear communication. With high-res audio capabilities, noise-cancelling microphones, and lightweight construction, this headset ensures comfort and performance for extended gaming sessions.
Powering the experience: Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop
Driving the entire setup is the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC, equipped with top-tier components like the 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900F processor and NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070. With customizable configurations, including memory options up to 68 GB and storage options up to 4TB, this PC offers unparalleled performance for gaming and multitasking.
Unboxing and setup experience
Experience the excitement of unboxing the Alienware gaming setup, where every component is meticulously designed and carefully packaged. From the sleek design of the monitor stand to the integrated peripherals and compact form factor of the gaming PC, the setup offers a seamless blend of style and functionality.
Performance and noise levels
Explore the performance capabilities of the Alienware gaming setup, from smooth gameplay on the QD OLED monitor to responsive input from the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse and Keyboard. With liquid cooling and optimized airflow, the setup maintains quiet operation even under heavy load, ensuring an immersive gaming experience without distraction.
In conclusion, the Alienware gaming setup represents the pinnacle of gaming technology, offering a comprehensive solution for gamers seeking the ultimate immersive experience. With state-of-the-art components, customizable configurations, and sleek design, the setup delivers unparalleled performance and aesthetics, making it a must-have for any gaming enthusiast.
Paris, France, February 22, 2019: French Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) located in the Palais Royal - Paris, France
On April 15th, over sixty members of the National Assembly and over sixty Senators referred the newly adopted law “to reinforce the fight against sectarian abuses” to the Constitutional Council for an a priori control of constitutionality pursuant to Article 61-2 of the Constitution.
The law creates new articles in the penal code in order to criminalize the act of “psychological subjugation” and the promotion of therapeutic or preventative unconventional practices.
In support of the argumentation developed by the Members of Parliament in their referral, the External Contribution below has been filed at the Council on Friday 26 April.
EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTION
Patricia Duval, Attorney at the Paris Bar, temporarily non practicing.
1. On Article 3 which creates the specific offence of putting a person under a state of psychological or physical subjugation (former Article 2)
In support of the argumentation developed by the Senators of the Republican Party (LR), it is important to emphasise that the very concept of “psychological subjugation” has been invalidated by the European Court of Human Rights in its decision Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia (C-302/02, 10 June 2010) – this decision being referred to in their argumentation concerning Article 12 (choice of treatment and freedom to refuse blood transfusion).
In this case, the association Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow had referred to the European Court the decision of a Russian Court to dissolve their community.
The Court specifically reviewed the validity of the accusation by the Russian authorities that the right of citizens to freedom of conscience was violated because they were submitted to psychological pressure and “mind control” techniques.
After noting that members of this community testified before the Russian courts that they had made a free and voluntary choice of their religion and therefore followed its precepts of their own will, the Court found that there is no generally accepted and scientific definition of what constitutes “mind control” and that no definition of that term was given in the domestic judgments. (§ 128 et 129) [emphasis added]
Accordingly the Court ruled that “the findings of the Russian courts on this point were based on conjecture uncorroborated by fact” and found a violation by Russia of the right to freedom of religion or belief of the Jehovah’s Witnesses members.
Similarly, Article 3 of the law referred to the Constitutional Council criminalizes the fact of placing or maintaining a person under psychological subjugation (new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code) without providing any definition of this term and leaves it open to judges to conjecture on the definition, in violation of the Constitutional principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law.
In a report submitted to the Prime Minister in July 2008, Mr. George Fenech, former President of the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Sectarian Abuses (MIVILUDES), delineated the theory which underlies French policy on “sectarian abuses”. This stated that consenting adult members of movements characterized as “sectarian” should be considered victims under subjugation and their consent considered null and void, even though those followers are mentally competent under civil law. (Report La justice face aux dérives sectaires, page 42)
This conception constitutes an outright violation of the right to freedom of thought and conscience as protected both by the French Constitution and the case-law of the European Court.
The imprecision of the term “psychological subjugation” in the Article submitted to the Council would force judges, in order to characterize the offence, to determine whether the suspected individual belongs to any of the movements listed as “sectarian” by the government services, in order to determine if his/her acts are likely to constitute a subjugation. In this regard, Article 14 of the new law provides the possibility for magistrates to consult any relevant government agencies (for example MIVILUDES) to clarify the application of new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code.
In a contribution to the MIVILUDES Report for 2008 (page 59), the Ministry of Internal Affairs brings further clarification on which criteria should be retained in order to characterize mental subjugation:
“The specific context of mental subjugation is characteristic of sectarian abuses. Repression should be initiated by the State when a number of criteria are met: – One or more individuals start to adhere to ideas differing from those which are usually shared by social consensus. The individual who adopts them is led to change his/her references, relations and actions. His/her life gets out of hand, being thereafter directed and conditioned by the psycho-sectarian manipulator.” [emphasis added]
The second criterion being when financial contributions are deemed to be excessive.
Those guidelines evidence the role of thought censorship that the government intends to play and impose on the judges.
During the tenth anniversary celebration of the law called About-Picard which created the offence of “abuse of weakness of persons under psychological subjugation” (which unfortunately was never referred to the Constitutional Council for review), the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons admitted in her speech that “the process of mental subjugation is in itself difficult to characterize”. (2011-2012 Report of MIVILUDES page 58)
She added that directions circulated by the Ministry of Justice on 19 September 2011 urged the magistrates to determine whether the victims were under psychological subjugation by evaluating tangible factors such as “separation from family, professional and social environment, and refusal of conventional medical treatments”. (Report page 60)
Hence, refusal of conventional treatments constitutes a criterion for the government bodies to establish a state of subjugation and any group promoting natural health for example can be considered as liable of exerting mental subjugation.
The label of “sectarian abuse” is in itself totally improper as this category does not refer to excluding behaviour per the definition of the word “sectarian”, but to behaviour deemed undesirable by the Government and repressed as such.
It is thus clear that the element of psychological subjugation which is connected to it, and which was difficult to gauge according to the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons under the existing law (Article 223-15-2 of the penal code), will be more so under the new Article 223-15-3 referred to the Council, since the objective element of the state of weakness of the individual has been removed.
New Article 223-15-3 created by Article 3 of the law would allow government bodies to exert an improper influence on the magistrates as to the interpretation to be given to the term “psychological subjugation” when it is the very component of the offence.
The government tried to mitigate those effects by introducing the following two sentences: “The government bodies do not assess the facts that the individual is accused of. The elements provided by the State bodies are communicated to the defense.”
These supposed guarantees will be totally ineffective since belonging to a movement labeled as “sectarian” by the State services will create in itself a presumption of guilt against the prosecuted individual. This presumption is deemed to be compensated for by the fact that the elements provided by the government will be communicated to the defense. However, our law is based on presumption of innocence and equality of arms between the prosecution and the defense, and not on a presumption of guilt fueled by the State’s information services.
The whole apparatus created by new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code infringes the principle that offences and penalties should be provided for and defined in law, and the right to a fair trial; it constitutes an interference of the executive power in judicial matters in blatant violation of our Constitution, as well as an infringement of the right to freedom of thought and conscience of our citizens.
2. On Article 12 which creates the offence of incitement to refuse treatment or to adhere to non-conventional practices (former Article 4)
Here again, the invalidity of the concept of psychological subjugation used in this Article to criminalize the authors or defenders of unconventional therapeutic or preventive practices is emphasised, in support of the appeals filed by the MPs of the Republican and National Coalition parties (LR and RN).
Article 12 creates a new Article 223-1-2 of the penal code, which criminalises “the incitement, through repeated pressures and actions on sick individuals, to have them discontinue or abstain from following a therapeutic or preventive medical treatment when this discontinuance or abstention is presented as beneficial for them, when it is, in the current state of medical knowledge, manifestly liable to entail, due to their pathology, very serious consequences for their physical or mental health.”
When the circumstances under which a potential offence occurred with the free and informed consent of the individual, especially in the presence of clear and complete information on the consequences for that person’s health, the offence is not characterized, “except if it is established that the individual was placed or maintained in a state of psychological subjugation” in the meaning of Article 223-15-3.
In this case, the state of “psychological subjugation” would make the free and informed consent of the patient invalid. This provision violates the right of patients to consent to the treatment of their choice or to refuse a proposed treatment, protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which in Article 3 (right to the integrity of the person) provides that in the field of medicine, “the free and informed consent of the person concerned, according to the procedures laid down by law” must be respected, as well as the 2002 Kouchner Law on the rights of patients.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in the above mentioned decision Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia:
135. The very essence of the Convention is respect for human dignity and human freedom and the notions of self-determination and personal autonomy are important principles underlying the interpretation of its guarantees (see Pretty, cited above, §§ 61 and 65). The ability to conduct one’s life in a manner of one’s own choosing includes the opportunity to pursue activities perceived to be of a physically harmful or dangerous nature for the individual concerned. In the sphere of medical assistance, even where the refusal to accept a particular treatment might lead to a fatal outcome, the imposition of medical treatment without the consent of a mentally competent adult patient would interfere with his or her right to physical integrity and impinge on the rights protected under Article 8 of the Convention (see Pretty, cited above, §§ 62 and 63, and Acmanne and Others v. Belgium, no. 10435/83, Commission decision of 10 December 1984).
136. The freedom to accept or refuse specific medical treatment, or to select an alternative form of treatment, is vital to the principles of self-determination and personal autonomy. A competent adult patient is free to decide, for instance, whether or not to undergo surgery or treatment or, by the same token, to have a blood transfusion. However, for this freedom to be meaningful, patients must have the right to make choices that accord with their own views and values, regardless of how irrational, unwise or imprudent such choices may appear to others.
Article 223-1-2 which has been referred to the Council directly infringes these principles of self-determination and personal autonomy by creating criminal prosecution of the detractors of certain official medical treatments. It violates the right of patients to refuse treatment, by invalidating their choice under the imprecise and arbitrary concept of “psychological subjugation”, which is only established by the very choice of refusal of conventional treatments (abstract from the 2011 Circular cited above).
And the “incitement, through repeated pressures and actions” stated in the Article does not concern only individual relations between a practitioner and his patient for example, since paragraph 6 of the same Article provides that this offence can be “committed” through written press or audiovisual media”.
Additionally, the second paragraph of new Article 223-1-2 criminalizes “the incitement to adhere to practices presented as therapeutic or preventive when it is manifest, in the state of medical knowledge, that those practices entail a risk of immediate death or injuries leading to a mutilation or permanent disability.”
This represents a prohibition of any promotion of practices other than official medicine, even though they could be complementary, such as naturopathy or Chinese medicine for example, if the medical authorities approved by the Government have decided that their validity has not been sufficiently proven.
The infringement of the free choice of patients is flagrant, as well as of freedom of speech and opinion. These measures represent an interference which is disproportionate and not necessary for the purpose of health protection it is alleged to justify, as the existing legal provisions are by far sufficient to repress abuses, as stated in the various MPs appeals (repression of illegal practice of medicine, pharmacy, misleading commercial practices, etc.).
The actual purpose of these provisions is rather to prohibit any dissenting opinion concerning health by labeling it “sectarian” and prosecuting their author, as if democracy that prevails in France, does not apply to the area of health where the voice of the people should be muzzled.
The Government attempt to silence the critics by introducing a paragraph mentioning the protection of whistleblowers (Article 6 of the law of 9 December 2016) is ineffective. This restrictive provision concerns only the exposure of crimes and offences, or serious threats or risks to public interest.
But the detractors of certain treatments of conventional medicine, when they call into question a not sufficiently tested vaccine, do not expose any crime or offence established under penal law and the defenders of alternative practices, when they promote natural remedies, do not expose any serious threat or risk to public interest. They cannot therefore benefit from this protection.
Lastly, it should be underlined that the law referred to the Council has been passed by force at the National Assembly in spite of the opposition of the Senate and the Council of State. And this, two days after the French government voted for a Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to the member States on countering the use of abusive lawsuits intended to limit public participation, in French poursuites-bâillons, meaning “muzzling lawsuits” – Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) adopted on 5 April 2024.
In this Recommendation, it is requested that the Member States “pay specific attention to SLAPPs [muzzling lawsuits] in the context of their reviews of relevant domestic laws, policies and practices, including in accordance with Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors, to ensure full conformity with member States’ obligations under the Convention”.
It would be logical that the Constitutional Council be the first to apply this Recommendation by censoring Article 12 of the law creating “muzzling lawsuits” which violate the rights protected by our Constitution.
For all the above reasons, as maintained by LR senators in their application, it is the entire apparatus created by the law which is liable to censure by the Council.
Between 6 and 9 June 2024, more than 370 million people across 27 Member States are called to vote in the European elections. To further inform EU citizens and encourage them to vote, the European Parliament is embarking on the second phase of its institutional communication strategy.
With “Use Your Vote. Or others will decide for you” as its tagline, this second phase highlights the importance of democracy. It encompasses a multifaceted approach, including media events, digital outreach, public and private partners’ involvement, community engagement initiatives and educational programmes tailored to resonate with citizens across the EU.
Among the outreach efforts used, the 4-minute film “Use your vote” features testimonies of senior citizens from different EU countries passing on their stories about democracy to the next generations and underlining that this democratic right cannot be taken for granted.
“European Union democracy is more important today than ever. Everyone’s vote matters. It will decide the direction our Union will take for the five coming years. It will decide what Europe we want to live in”, says European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “In order not to let someone else choose for us, we should vote on 6-9 June 2024”.
Collective responsibility
As the European Union faces evolving challenges and with the June 2024 elections approaching, the European Parliament reaffirms its commitment to fostering dialogue, unity and active citizenship. “Use your vote. Or others will decide for you” serves as a powerful reminder that democracy is a precious legacy that must be nurtured and defended by all.
“Democracy is a collective responsibility – not towards a political idea or a specific cause – but towards each other”, says the European Parliament’s spokesperson Jaume Duch. “We are more united in European democracy than we might think: across nations, political sensitivities and across generations. In our polarised times, this is easy to forget and our campaign is made to remind us of what unites us.”
More specifically, the campaign’s central video further explores the chequered history of many European countries that have experienced armed conflict or limits on individual freedom and the precarious nature of democracy if not actively sustained.
Interest in EU elections on the rise
In 2019, more than half of eligible voters in Europe turned out to vote (50.6%). The EP’s Spring 2024 Eurobarometer survey with more than 26 000 respondents in all EU Member States has shown that 60% of Europeans are interested in the 6-9 June 2024 elections, eleven points more than in spring 2019 (three months prior to the previous European elections). Additionally, 71% say that it is likely that they will vote, again 10 more points than last time.
Findings also suggest that four in five Europeans agree that “Voting is important to keep democracy strong” (81%) and that “Voting is important to ensure a better future for the next generations” (84%). More than eight in ten Europeans (81%) believe voting is even more important given the current geopolitical situation.
The film ‘Use your vote’ and nine other versions for TV, cinema, radio and social media will be released in all Member States from 29 April 2024.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider - Protesters demonstrate outside the Columbia University campus in New York City.
“The Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression,” said Ms. Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “This is going to have huge repercussions for a long time to come.”
Demonstrations around the world have been roundly calling for an end to the war, which began in October following Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and 250 taken hostage, 133 of who remain captive in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli military operations have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which now faces a man-made famine UN agencies have said stems from Israel’s restrictions on aid deliveries.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday, she told UN News the way academic freedom in the United States is being restricted is infringing on people’s rights to protest over the on-going war and occupation, including on campuses of such elite Ivy League schools as Columbia, Harvard and Yale universities.
“One after the other, the Ivy League heads of colleges and universities, their heads are rolling, they’ve been chopped off,” she said. “That clearly polarises even further the political climate on this issue between ‘them’ and ‘us’.”
Pointing to a troubling rise in hate speech on both sides of the protests, she said that at the same time, people must be allowed to express their political views.
In many of these protests, she said there is a confusion between what is hate speech or incitement to violence and what is basically a different view of the situation in Israel and the occupied territories – or criticism of the way Israel is conducting the conflict.
“Legitimate speech must be protected,” she said, “but, unfortunately, there is a hysteria that is taking hold in the US.”
Criticising Israel is ‘perfectly legitimate’
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia must be prohibited, and hate speech violates international law, she said.
Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion.
“But, we must not mix that up with criticism of Israel as a political entity, as a State,” she said. “Criticising Israel is perfectly legitimate under international law.”
She said special rapporteurs have already detected a bias against pro-Palestinian supporters on social media.
“We need freedom of expression,” she said, adding that it is a fundamental right that is important for democracy, development, conflict resolution and building peace.
“If we sacrifice all that, politicising the issue and undermining the right to protest and the right to freedom of expression, then I believe we are doing a disservice for which we will pay a price,” she said. “It will be harder to negotiate if you shut down one side.”
Special Rapporteurs and other Human Rights Council-appointed experts are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and receive no salary for their work.
“In order to realize the full potential of these electric fliers, you need an intelligent control system that improves their robustness and especially their resilience against a variety of faults,” says Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems at Caltech and Senior Research Scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. “We have developed such a fault-tolerant system crucial for safety-critical autonomous systems, and it introduces the idea of virtual sensors for the detection of any failure using machine learning and adaptive control methods.”
Multiple Rotors Mean Many Possible Points of Failure
Engineers are building these hybrid electric aircraft with multiple propellers, or rotors, in part for redundancy: If one rotor fails, enough functional motors remain to stay airborne. However, to reduce the energy required to make flights between urban locations—say, 10 or 20 miles—the craft also need fixed wings. Having both rotors and wings, though, creates many points of possible failure in each aircraft. And that leaves engineers with the question of how best to detect when something has gone wrong with any part of the vehicle.
Engineers could include sensors for each rotor, but even that would not be enough, says Chung. For example, an aircraft with nine rotors would need more than nine sensors, since each rotor might need one sensor to detect a failure in the rotor structure, another to notice if its motor stops running, and still another to alert when a signal wiring problem occurs. “You could eventually have a highly redundant distributed system of sensors,” says Chung, but that would be expensive, difficult to manage, and would increase the weight of the aircraft. The sensors themselves could also fail.
With NFFT, Chung’s group has proposed an alternative, novel approach. Building on previous efforts, the team has developed a deep-learning method that can not only respond to strong winds but also detect, on the fly, when the aircraft has suffered an onboard failure. The system includes a neural network that is pre-trained on real-life flight data and then learns and adapts in real time based on a limited number of changing parameters, including an estimation of how effective each rotor on the aircraft is functioning at any given time.
“This doesn’t require any additional sensors or hardware for fault detection and identification,” says Chung. “We just observe the behaviors of the aircraft—its attitude and position as a function of time. If the aircraft is deviating from its desired position from point A to point B, NFFT can detect that something is wrong and use the information it has to compensate for that error.”
And the correction happens extremely quickly—in less than a second. “Flying the aircraft, you can really feel the difference NFFT makes in maintaining controllability of the aircraft when a motor fails,” says Staff Scientist Matthew Anderson, an author on the paper and pilot who helped conduct the flight tests. “The real-time control redesign makes it feel as though nothing has changed, even though you’ve just had one of your motors stop working.”
Introducing Virtual Sensors
The NFFT method relies on real-time control signals and algorithms to detect where a failure is, so Chung says it can give any type of vehicle essentially free virtual sensors to detect problems. The team has primarily tested the control method on the aerial vehicles they are developing, including the Autonomous Flying Ambulance, a hybrid electric vehicle designed to transport injured or ill people to hospitals quickly. But Chung’s group has tested a similar fault-tolerant control method on ground vehicles and has plans to apply NFFT to boats.
Almost 55 million people are facing further food and nutrition insecurity in West and Central Africa during the region’s three-month lean season from June through August, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
This is a four million increase in the number of people currently dealing with food insecurity in that region.
Mali is facing the worst situation – around 2,600 people there are presumed to be experiencing catastrophic hunger – IPC food classification index phase 5 (read our explainer on the IPC system here).
“The time to act is now. We need all partners to step up, engage, adopt and implement innovative programs to prevent the situation from getting out of control while ensuring no one is left behind,” said Margot Vandervelden, WFP’s Acting Regional Director for Western Africa.
The most recent data shows that economic turmoil including stagnated production, currency devaluation, increasing inflation and trade barriers have exacerbated the food crisis in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali.
These economic challenges as well as fuel and transport costs, regional body ECOWAS sanctions and restrictions on agropastoral product flows, have contributed to a sharp increase in staple grain prices across the region – a more than 100 per cent increase over the past 5 years.
To date, cereal production for the 2023-2024 agricultural season has seen a 12 million tonne deficit while the availability for cereals per person is down two per cent compared with the region’s last agricultural season.
Currently, West and Central Africa are reliant on imports to satisfy the population’s food requirements, but economic hardship has increased the cost of imports.
WFP’s Ms. Vandervelden said these issues call for a stronger investment in “resilience-building and longer-term solutions for the future of West Africa.”
Shocking highs
Malnutrition in West and Central Africa has risen to a shockingly high rate with 16.7 million children under five experiencing acute malnutrition.
More than two thirds of households are struggling to afford healthy diets and eight out of 10 children, ranging from six to 23 months lack the consumption of foods essential to their optimal growth and development.
“For children in the region to reach their full potential, we need to ensure that each girl and boy receives good nutrition and care, lives in a healthy and safe environment, and is given the right learning opportunities,” said Gilles Fagninou UNICEF Regional Director.
Parts of northern Nigeria are also experiencing many cases of acute malnutrition in about 31 per cent of women aged 15 to 49.
Ms. Fagninou explained that strengthening “education, health, water and sanitation, food, and social protection systems,” can result in lasting differences in children’s lives.
Sustainable solutions
UN agencies the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Children’s Fund UNICEF and WFP, are calling on national governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, to establish sustainable solutions to strengthen and support food security and increase agricultural productivity.
These solutions should also alleviate the adverse effects of economic volatility, they said.
There is also an expectation that governments and private sectors should join forces to guarantee the human right to food for all.
UNICEF and WFP plan to extend national social protection programs to Chad and Burkina Faso, as millions of people in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger have benefitted from such programmes.
Additionally, FAO, agricultural development fund IFAD, and WFP have collaborated across the Sahel to expand “productivity, and access to nutritious food through resilience-building programmes.”
Dr. Robert Guei, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for West Africa and the Sahel, said that when responding to these cases of food and nutrition insecurity, it is essential to promote and support policies that will encourage the “diversification of plant, animal, and aquatic production and the processing of local foods”.
He said this was “crucial not only to ensure healthy, affordable diets all year round, but also and above all to protect biodiversity, with the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, and above all to counter high food prices and protect the livelihood of the affected population”.
According to media reports, over 220 civilians, including 56 children, were killed in attacks reportedly carried out by the military in two villages on a single day in late February.
Furthermore, at least two international media outlets – the BBC and Voice of America – have been “temporarily suspended” in the past few days following their reporting of the deadly attacks.
OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado called for an immediate end to restrictions on media freedom and civic space.
“Freedom of expression, including the right of access to information, is crucial in any society and even more so in the context of the transition in Burkina Faso,” she said in a statement.
Burkina Faso has been under military rule since early 2022 amid an insurgency by extremist militants which triggered a series of coups and counter coups.
Capt. Ibrahim Traoré was named transitional president in September 2022, and the transitional government has continued to battle insurgents and further reported counter-coup attempts.
Ms. Hurtado added that while OHCHR has not been able to independently verify reports of the alleged massacre due to lack of access, it is crucial that allegations of such serious violations and abuses by various actors are brought to light and that the transitional authorities promptly undertake thorough, impartial and effective investigations.
“Perpetrators need to be held accountable and victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations must be upheld. Fighting impunity and pursuing accountability is paramount to ensure people’s trust in the rule of law and social cohesion,” she stressed.
Multifaceted challenges
Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited the country in late March, where he highlighted the multifaceted challenges Burkinabè have been facing since the overthrow of the democratically-elected government in January 2022.
In all, about 6.3 million out of a population of 20 million people need humanitarian assistance, and in 2023, OHCHR had documented 1,335 violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian laws involving at least 3,800 civilian victims.
“Armed groups were responsible for the vast majority of violations against civilians in incidents involving more than 86 per cent of the victims,” Mr. Türk said, emphasising that “protection of civilians is paramount. Such wanton violence must stop and the perpetrators held accountable.”
Suffering is growing too and is likely to get worse, Justin Brady, head of the UN humanitarian relief office, OCHA, in Sudan, warned UN News.
“Without more resources, not only will we not be able to stop a famine, we’re not going to be help able to help basically anybody,” he said.
“Most of the rations that people receive from the likes of the World Food Programme (WFP) are cut in half already, so we can’t strip more off the bone to try and make this operation work.”
The grim conditions on the ground hit an emergency level soon after the rival Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces launched air and ground attacks in mid-April 2023, he said, as a tsunami of violence continues to surge across the country today, from the capital, Khartoum, and spiralling outwards.
“Our biggest concerns are around the conflict areas in Khartoum itself and the Darfur states,” he said from Port Sudan, where humanitarian efforts are continuing to get lifesaving aid to those most in need.
The entire aid community was forced to relocate from the capital just a few weeks into the fighting due to the dire security situation.
While a recent famine alert shows that almost 18 million Sudanese are facing acute hunger, the $2.7 billion response plan for 2024 is only six per cent funded, Mr. Brady said.
“It’s very bad, but I don’t think we’re at the bottom,” he said.
Conditions were bad even before the war, stemming back to the coup of 2021, with a drowning economy amid startling waves of ethnic-based violence, he explained.
Except today, although humanitarian supplies are available in Port Sudan, the key challenge is securing safe access to affected populations, currently stymied by looted aid warehouses and crippling bureaucratic impediments, insecurity and total communications shutdowns.
Khadija, a Sudanese internally displaced person in Wad Madani.
“Sudan is often referred to as a forgotten crisis,” he said, “but I question how many knew about it to be able to forget about it.”
As hunger washes over the country, news outlets have reported that one child is dying every two hours from malnutrition in the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur.
Indeed, 24 million children have been exposed to conflict and a staggering 730,000 children are severely acutely malnourished, Jill Lawler, chief of field operations in Sudan for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told UN News.
“Children should not have to be experiencing this, hearing bombs go off or being displaced multiple times” in a “conflict that just needs to end”, she said, describing the first UN aid mission to Omdurman, Sudan’s second largest city.
More than 19 million children have been out of school, and many young people can also be seen carrying arms, reflecting reports that children continued to face forced recruitment by armed groups.
Too weak to breastfeed
Meanwhile, women and girls who have been raped in the first months of the war are now delivering babies, the UNICEF operations chief said. Some are too weak to nurse their infants.
“One mother in particular was treating her three-month-old little son, and she unfortunately did not have the resources to provide milk for her little son, so had resorted to goat milk, which led to a case of diarrhoea,” Ms. Lawler said.
The infant was one of the “lucky few” able to get treatment as millions of others lack access to care, she said.
People fleeing violence pass through a transit centre in Renk in the north of South Sudan.
Death, destruction and targeted killings
On the ground, Sudanese who had fled to other countries, those who are internally displaced and some who are recording the ongoing suffering shared their perspectives.
“I have lost everything I ever owned,” said Fatima*, a former UN staff member toldUN News. “The militias looted our house and took everything, even the doors.”
For 57 days, she and her family were trapped inside their home in El Geneina in West Darfur while militias systematically targeted and killed people based on their ethnicity, she said.
“There were so many bodies in the streets it was hard to walk,” she said, describing their escape.
‘No sign of a solution in sight’
Photographer Ala Kheir has been covering the war since violent clashes erupted in Khartoum one year ago, saying the “scale of disaster” is must greater than the media portrays.
“This war is very strange because both sides hate the public and they hate journalists,” he told UN News in an exclusive interview, stressing that civilians are suffering the brunt of the ongoing deadly clashes.
“A year later, the war in Sudan is still going very strong and the lives of millions of Sudanese have completely stalled and stopped,” he said, “with no sign of a solution in sight.”
Women and children collect water in eastern Sudan.
‘Get off the sidelines’
While the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan, which ended last week, the fighting continues, OCHA’s Mr. Brady said.
“We need the international community to get off the sidelines and to engage the two parties and to bring them to the table because this conflict is a nightmare for the Sudanese people,” he said, explaining that a famine prevention plan is in the works leading up to a pledging conference for sorely needed funds, to be held in Paris on Monday, the day the war will enter its second year.
Echoing the call of many aid agencies, for the Sudanese people caught in the crossfire, the nightmare needs to end now.
* Name changed to protect her identity
WFP and its partner World Relief provide emergency food supplies in West Darfur.
Sudanese youth call for help to fill aid vacuum
Youth-led mutual aid groups are helping fill the aid gap in war-torn Sudan. (file)
Community groups led by young Sudanese men and women are trying to fill the aid vacuum left after the war began one year ago.
Called “emergency response rooms”, these youth-led initiatives are assessing needs and taking action, from medical help to providing corridors to safety, Hanin Ahmed told UN News.
“We in emergency rooms cannot cover all the needs in conflict areas,” said Ms. Ahmed, a young activist with a master’s degree in gender and specialising in peace and conflict, who founded an emergency room in the Omdurman area.
“Therefore, we ask the international community and international organisations to shed light on the Sudanese issue and to put pressure to silence the sound of guns, protect civilians and provide more support to help those affected by the war.”
