The World Food Program talks of a famine of Biblical proportions.

The WFP says the coronavirus crisis will push more than  a quarter of a billion people living in conflict zones to the brink of starvation.

That’s twice the number of people suffering acute food shortage last year.

The WFP’s chief economist Dr Harif Husain tells the UN Security Council  COVID 19 is catastrophic for people already hanging on by a thread.

It’s a hammer blow for millions who can only eat if they earn a wage.

Lockdowns and the economic recession has decimated their nest eggs. COVID 19 will drive them over the edge

More than 20 million people  are driven to starvation by the desert locust infestation in East Africa and the Horn.

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He says he’s extending his call for peace in war zones to include safety in people zones.

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The COVID 19 pandemic is daily presenting shocking statistics.

UN boss Antonio Guterres says another involves women and children facing the largest threat where they should be safest: at home.

“During the last week, when social and economic pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence. In some countries the number of women calling domestic support services has doubled,” he said

Guterres says government must increase investment in online and civil society support for threatened women, Judicial systems must continue to prosecute abusers.

Emergency warnings must be placed at pharmacies and grocery stores and

Women should have safe ways of seeking support without alerting their abusers.

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A Chinese-sponsored Presidential statement unanimously adopted by all 15 members calls for more predicable resources and expertise to counter terrorism and violent extremism in Africa.

The Presidential statement from the United Nations power house calls on the international community to address all drivers of violent extremism conducive to terrorism.

It says providing quality education, employment opportunities and vocational training to young people are keys to address the problem.

Including young people in all levels of decision making also contributes to  countering recruitment for terrorism.

The UN political chief Rosemary Di Carlo expressed concern that terrorism and violent extremism continued to grow in Africa despite efforts to  prevent and counter it.

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The meeting precedes the United Nations General Assembly kicking off this week.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urges world leaders to  leave their beautiful speeches at home and come to the climate change summit in New York with concrete plans.

The UN boss’ remarks follow disturbing scientific findings that the signs and impacts of global warming are speeding up.

The World Meteorological Organization says the past five years have been the warmest on record.

Sea level rises have accelerated significantly over the same period from 2014 – which is perhaps the most worrying data – and carbon dioxide emissions  have hit new highs.

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He tells the climate summit in New York that mankind has the tools and technology  to win the contest.

The UN chief urged world leaders to leave their beautiful speeches at home and come to the climate summit in New York with concrete plans.

Antonio Guterres says his generation has failed in its obligation to protect the planet.

However he does not  despair.

Young people,  above all young people, are here providing solutions and insisting on accountability and demanding urgent action. They are right,” he says

Guterres says the climate crisis is caused by us and the solution must come from us.

Irrefutable science teaches us that it is not too late to limit warming but it will require fundamental transformation in all aspects of society.

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They’re looking for a government that will help them overcome the effects of a debilitating civil war, a horrible Ebola outbreak and a deadly mudslide.

President Ernest Bai Koroma’s standing down after completed two five year terms.

But with 16 candidates vying for his job, there’s no certainty about who takes up the reins.

Despite having abundant natural resources, including diamonds, bauxite and gold, Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world, with one of the world’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates.

The population of seven-and-a-half million have only 150 doctors.

Their frustration caused some violence during the election campaign.

It is hope voting will be peaceful.

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They’ll certainly have a new president replacing Ernest Bai Koroma who’s constitutional term has expired.

And they’ll probably have a more diversified parliament.

There are sixteen presidential candidates contest this election, with the ruling All People’s Congress that run Sierra Leone since independence from Britain in 1961 under threat.

Violence during political rallies has forced former Ghanaian President John Mahama, who is heading the Commonwealth observer team, to play a mediation role.

Poverty, corruption and poor health services are the main issues in this election.

Sierra Leone, which has 150 doctors tending to the population of seven-and-a-half million is still recovering from the devastating Ebola outbreak and a killer mudslide.

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The 709 carat stone dubbed the peace diamond was found by  Christian pastor in the West African country.

So-called blood diamonds funded the civil war in Sierra Leone in the nineties.

Money raised from the sale of what is one of the world’s largest diamonds will go towards healing some of the lingering misery.

The public auction of the gem is a blow to smugglers and will fly in the face of corruption that stops the people befitting from the country’s wealth.

More than half the proceeds will go towards funding clean water, electricity, schools, health centres and roads.

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Local mortuaries have been totally overwhelmed by the more than 400 bodies recovered so far.  A further 1 500 people are missing.

After the Ebola outbreak three years ago, Sierra Leoneans have become accustomed to burying large numbers of their people who died tragically.

They’re saying the victims of the mudslide eclipse those who died of the deadly virus.

Today’s mass burials are necessitated to free up space in the mortuaries.

A special reception area has been set at Regency, 25kms east of Freetown, which was hardest hit by the collapsing hill overlooking it.

Hospitals are also inundated with badly injured survivors.

The international help that President Ernest Bai Koroma has called for cannot come soon enough.

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The disaster that killed more than 300, with the toll certain to increase, eclipses even the ebola outbreak of three years ago.

Rescue operations after heavy rains caused sugarloaf hill to collapse on a residential area outside Freetown have become a grizzly recovery operation.

None of the hundreds buried in their sleep could possibly have survived the suffocating wall of mud that engulfed them.

The UN warns that waterborne diseases will inevitably follow what President Ernest Bai Koroma calls a national disaster.

The world organization is waiting for the flood to subside.

It says is cannot allow its workers to put themselves as risk.

The rainy season has just started and further mudslides are inevitable.

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