Displaying items by tag: mediation

On 8 May Pakistan claimed it shot down twelve Indian drones overnight amid escalating tensions following Indian airstrikes which have killed 31 people across Pakistan. General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, describing India’s actions as a ‘blatant act of aggression’, said the drone incursions had targeted major cities including Rawalpindi, where Pakistan’s military has its headquarters. Flights have been suspended in major cities of both nations, and a state of emergency declared in Pakistan’s Sindh region. India has not responded to the drone accusations but claimed its earlier strikes targeted terrorist infrastructure connected with the deadly militant attack in Kashmir on 22 April (https://prayer-alert.net/en/pa-pray/regions/worldwide/item/53770-kashmir-26-killed-in-terrorist-attack), even though Pakistan has denied involvement in it. Pakistan's prime minister has vowed revenge, while pressure builds on its army chief to respond. Both sides have exchanged shellfire along the contested Kashmir border. Iran has offered to mediate, as global concern mounts over the risk of broader conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Save the Children (SCF), using UN data, have found that huge numbers of children under 5 perished from severe hunger. Some 84,701 children may have died between April 2015 and October 2018 because of a lack of food. Parents had to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it. Since the Saudi-Emirati military intervention in March 2015, commercial imports of food through the vital Hodeidah port have been reduced by more than 55,000 tonnes a month, enough to meet the needs of 4.4 million people, half of whom are children, SCF said. The World Food Programme says that up to 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation as fighting rages on in Hodeidah. 'Any further decline in imports could well lead directly to famine,' it warned. Multiple past attempts to hold negotiations between the government alliance and Houthis have failed.