Unless donors step up, UNICEF will be out of money for South Sudan operations by the end of June. “The funds available to respond to the multiple and critical needs of children are running out this month. There are already critical gaps today in the provision of lifesaving services including water and sanitation, hygiene-education, treatment of malnutrition, support to separated and unaccompanied children as well as immunization. The needs are only increasing. In the recent weeks thousands of new refugees arrived, most of them children…The acute needs of children in Sudan are huge and go far beyond the impact of the South Sudan crisis. More than 3.2 million children require humanitarian assistance. To date UNICEF in Sudan has received generous support from a wide range of donors. Unfortunately, the funding received covers only 16% of the 117 million USD required. By the end of June, UNICEF will no longer have funding available to support children affected by the war in South Sudan.” (UNICEF http://bit.ly/1MGGm3d)
World Bank gets more transparent…The World Bank wants all corporate bidders on bank-funded projects to publicly reveal their true owners as a way of tackling fraud and cronyism in government contracts, a senior official said. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1QlyM3m)
Deny, deny, deny…India’s environment minister has dismissed claims of a crackdown on green charities, saying that the government valued the role of civil society groups working to protect the country’s people, wildlife and forests. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1MlmqC0)
Quote of the Day: Jim Yong Kim, at the launch of a new World Bank/WHO/USAID Roadmap for Health Measurement and Accountability… ““If we are going to ensure that people everywhere have access to quality health care, and that no one is impoverished paying for the health care they need, we need to invest in high-quality, timely, and accurate data and statistics so that countries can measure and monitor their progress.” (WHO http://bit.ly/1MGF8VB)
Africa
At least three people were killed when gunmen launched multiple attacks on a town in Western Equatoria, a South Sudanese state that, until recently, has escaped the conflict in other parts of the country. (VOA http://bit.ly/1QlyGJb)
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the deaths of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat to Europe. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1GoZUrN)
South Sudan’s negotiators are once again gathering in Ethiopia to try to solve the 18 month old conflict dividing the world’s youngest country. The warring factions only have one month left to form an internationally-mandated power-sharing government. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Gp016K)
Countries waging a regional fight against the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram will take significant steps towards establishing a joint task force when they meet on Thursday in Abuja, Benin’s president said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Gp0rtR)
Madagascan police smashed open the car windows of an opposition lawmaker late Monday and seized the equivalent of $74,000 in cash, reporters witnessed, two weeks after parliament voted to dismiss the president. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MlmLoi)
Somalia’s prime minister predicted that al-Shabab extremists will be defeated militarily by the end of the year but he said tackling the root causes that attract young people to the al-Qaida-linked group will take some time. (VOA http://bit.ly/1QlyERB)
South African power utility Eskom will cut 1,000 megawatts from the electricity grid in rolling blackouts on Tuesday, it said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1MEZsXt)
Burundi
Burundi’s government defied opposition demands Tuesday for President Pierre Nkurunziza to end a third-term bid for power, as the UN warned the country risked being “catapulted” back into civil war. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QlDqhU)
A spokesman for Burundi’s independent opposition coalition said the proposal by the electoral commission to change the dates for national elections has no standing because Burundi has no legally constituted electoral commission. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Gp01np)
Civic groups in Burundi on Tuesday rejected a U.N. facilitator of talks between the government and those opposed to a third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza, saying they feel he supports a third term doubt. (AP http://yhoo.it/1QlDm1O)
Increasing violence by a pro-government militia, including executions, abductions and torture, is threatening to destabilise crisis-wracked Burundi, the United Nations human rights chief warned Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QlDq1t)
MENA
Syria’s brutal conflict has left more than 230,000 people dead including almost 11,500 children since it broke out in 2011, a monitoring group said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QlDoqu)
In a major shift of strategy in Iraq, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send hundreds of additional American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi and repel the Islamic State. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1MGFE62)
Iraq faces its biggest humanitarian emergency in a generation with millions driven from their homes by intense fighting, but help is not reaching those still stranded in no-go zones for aid agencies, said Medecins Sans Frontieres. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1QlDtub)
United Nations negotiators handed Libya’s warring factions a draft proposal for forming a unity government in an attempt to end a conflict that threatens to push the North African country into becoming a failed state. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1MEZv5n)
Algeria must undertake “prudent” economic policies and launch “structural reforms” of its export sector for the energy-dependent state to cope with a sharp drop in global oil prices, an IMF official said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Mlj5Tx)
The Egyptian government on Tuesday dismissed a report that accused it of widespread human rights violations as politicized and lacking in objectivity and accuracy. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1MlmJwE)
Asia
South Korea reported its seventh death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome as the government — concerned about the economic impact — said it hoped to end the crisis this week. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MEYIBt)
A peek inside Korean hospitals may explain why MERS spread so quickly in health care settings. (NYT nyti.ms/1duHAlT)
The Indian government’s directive to allow children to work in “non-hazardous” businesses has triggered a raucous debate on the subject in India at a time when public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of a complete ban on all types of employment for children. (IPS http://bit.ly/1MEYZ7q)
Indigenous Australian women are being hospitalised for assault injuries at 31 times the rate of non-Indigenous women, a report has revealed. For Indigenous men the figure was 14 times the rate of non-Indigenous men. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1IBXGI3)
Child marriage in Bangladesh is an epidemic and requires the government to act on its promises to tackle the problem, according to Human Rights Watch. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1IBXOY3)
Malaysia will protest against what it said was the intrusion of a Chinese coast guard ship into its waters north of Borneo in another departure from the country’s soft approach to the South China Sea dispute. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1QlyNof)
Nepal’s notoriously divided political factions have reached an agreement that could lead to the drafting of a long-delayed constitution. (VOA http://bit.ly/1MliWiV)
Chinese leaders will woo Myanmar’s opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on her first visit to the country, a snub for the quasi-military government whose fighting with rebels along China’s border has angered Beijing. (VOA http://bit.ly/1MliWzA)
Authorities in the Indian capital said they would ban doctors from conducting an archaic and degrading test during the forensic examinations of rape victims, after campaigners criticized a memo which suggested it would be allowed. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1Mlj5D8)
The Americas
A major transport strike in Argentina has brought parts of the country to a standstill as unions protest against high taxes and inflation. The 24-hour walkout – the second in three months – affects bus, train, plane and underground services. (BBC http://bbc.in/1MEYKti)
Mexico’s government will restart a key component of an education reform aimed at improving standards that it had suspended in the run-up to the weekend’s mid-term election, the country’s education minister said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Mlj0iS)
…and the rest
The Metropolitan police are examining allegations that the Eritrean embassy in London is illegally using a controversial diaspora tax to “punish and control” Eritreans living in the UK, it has emerged. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1MEYNVT)
Modernising mud huts and other traditional housing could significantly cut the risk of malaria for people living in some of the highest risk areas of Africa, Asia and South America, according to new research. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Gp0upC)
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said her “feminist foreign policy” goals were aimed at obtaining better respect for human rights worldwide. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MliZv3)
New anti-immigration billboards put up by the Hungarian government have sparked political controversy, with the head of a small opposition party admitting on Monday that he had vandalised the state-funded posters. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1MliXnc)
Opinion/Blogs
Child marriage: we must urge action to stop girls’ initiation rites (Guardian http://bit.ly/1IBXZCy)
G7 climate vision requires gargantuan economic shift (AP http://yhoo.it/1QlyNV2)
On being transgender in Egypt (mada http://bit.ly/1BWtU95)
Why Innovation Is Key to Africa’s Growth. (The Star http://bit.ly/1MlmNwk)
Without leadership over development finance, talks in July cannot succeed (Guardian http://bit.ly/1IBX84X)
Fast-Tracking the AIDS response for young women and adolescent girls in Africa (UNAIDS http://bit.ly/1MlmZfj)
What do Turkish elections mean for Syrian refugees? (IRIN http://bit.ly/1BWvurx)
The SDG glass: Is it half full or half empty? (Devex http://bit.ly/1B3MEZe)
How NOT to respond to bad press: Thoughts for my fellow aid workers (and former colleagues) (How Matters http://bit.ly/1GatTT1)
Questions, anybody? How to cut aid without unduly arousing parliamentary curiosity (DevPolicy http://bit.ly/1dtPATW)
Why were Kenyans tweeting #52YearsofSufferinginNEP on this year’s Independence Day? (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/1dtPITs)