The most recent report by the agency to document civilian casualties in conflicts considers that the damage and suffering caused in 2023 ‘points to an alarming lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law’.

For UN deputy aid coordinator Joyce Msuya, the reality faced by populations caught up in wars further confirms that Security Council resolutions on the matter over the past 25 years continue to be largely ignored.

In the two-day debate held within the world’s main peacekeeping body, experts and representatives of member states found the cases of Sudan, Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Nigeria alarming.

The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, warned in particular about Sudan, where ‘signs of the risk of genocide are clear, with strong allegations that a crime has already been committed’.

Civilians are far from being protected.

Civilian populations are targeted on the basis of identity.

In Darfur and El Fasher, civilians have been targeted and killed because of the color of their skin, because of their ethnicity, because of who they are, he added.

Meanwhile, about 75 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population was forcibly displaced as a man-made famine looms.

‘Thousands of children have been killed and injured in what colleagues at Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) have called a war on children,’ Msuya said in this regard.

The death toll recorded by the UN in 2023 represents an appalling 72 percent increase compared to the previous year.

The Security Council session, held May 21-22, coincided with the 25th anniversary of the body’s resolution calling for strategies to strengthen these safeguards.

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