UNRWA: Financial Crisis May Affect Employee Salaries, Operational Projects

Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (Reuters)
Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (Reuters)
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UNRWA: Financial Crisis May Affect Employee Salaries, Operational Projects

Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (Reuters)
Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (Reuters)

Media Advisor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza Adnan Abu Hasna has warned against the effect of the financial shortfall on the agency’s operations.

Abu Hasna said that the agency’s financial crisis may impact its operational projects and employee salaries in November and December if it fails to mobilize the necessary fund during the UNRWA Pledging conference, which will be held on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly on September 22.

He told reporters on Saturday that the Arab financial support to the UN agency reached $200 million in 2018.

“In 2021, the Arab financial aid to the agency declined to $20 million,” he noted, adding that the financial support in 2022 will be much less than the expected.

He voiced concern over repeating 2021’s scenario, especially in light of the financial deficit and the decline in support provided by Arab states.

Political changes in the region greatly affect the support provided to UNRWA, Abu Hasna affirmed, noting that donors are currently focusing on the Ukrainian crisis, in addition to the hike in prices of raw materials and the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis.

He expressed hope that the agency would be able to mobilize the required and enough financial support that would cover its financial deficit, which amounted to $100 million.

According to UNRWA, this deficit is exacerbating in the Gaza Strip, in light of the siege, the consequences of the political division, and the continuous wars, which raise unemployment rates.

The agency spends about 38% of its budget in the enclave, especially that the refugees there constitute about 20% of the population.

The UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that the financial challenges could lead to the slow erosion of the quality of the agency’s services or to their interruption.

The agency has recently stated that it is facing the most threatening financial situation of its recent history.

“This financial crisis happens amidst global attention shifting elsewhere, and general fatigue from what is seen by some as an irritatingly long and unresolved conflict.”

UNRWA has been suffering financially for several years. The United States halted its support for the agency under former President Donald Trump before the current administration signed a framework agreement with it to restore US assistance programs.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.