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A year after the Beirut explosions: a UN Resident Coordinator blog

On August 4th, 2020, a devastating blast in a warehouse destroyed much of the centre of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Many neighbourhoods were destroyed, downtown Beirut looked like a war zone. Thousands were injured and some 200 people tragically lost their lives on that day and the days that followed. For many, their property and livelihoods were literally blown away.

Najat Rochdi the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon spoke to UN News about how the country has coped over the last 12 months and what the future holds.

Municipality of Beirut and UN-Habitat launch Mobile Health Clinic to support COVID-19 response

The Municipality of Beirut launched on Thursday the first municipal mobile health clinic, in partnership with UN-Habitat through the Mayors Migration Council’s Global Cities Fund for Inclusive Pandemic Response. The clinic will provide free and non-discriminatory COVID-19 testing and other basic medical services, to those unable to access these services, including migrants and refugees in marginalized neighbourhoods.

Human trafficking: UN chief calls for action as COVID leaves ‘many millions’ more vulnerable

UN Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday urged States to take action against human trafficking, where a third of all victims are children.

Highlighting how the COVID pandemic has pushed as many as 124 million more people into extreme poverty, the UN chief insisted that “many millions” have been left vulnerable to the scourge.

First Person: ‘I’m not old enough to be a woman’ says trafficked teen

A teenage girl who was sold for sex for the price of a few beers as a twelve-year-old, has told the United Nations how she was trafficked between Burundi and Tanzania in East Africa.

Some one thousand victims of human trafficking have been identified in Burundi since 2017, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

From electric dreams to supercharged reality: the road race to a clean energy future

The global Formula E electric race series, a partner with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),  has grown in popularity since it launched some seven years ago, attracting the attention of major car manufacturers, changing people’s perceptions of electric vehicles, and bringing the world one step closer to a sustainable transport future.