Narratives from the frontlines of human suffering

In the last Inside Geneva of 2023, UN correspondents look back at the year..and what a year it’s been.

Emma Farge, Reuters: ‘This year has felt like lurching from one catastrophe to another.’

Earthquakes, climate change, or war –the UN is always expected to step in.

Nick Cumming-Bruce, contributor, New York Times: ‘This is a multilateral system that is absolutely falling apart under the strain of all the extreme events it’s having to deal with.’

Aid agencies have struggled to cope.

Imogen Foulkes, host, Inside Geneva: ‘You feel like they’re being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed between the warring parties, and the Security Council which will just never agree.’

And now, war, again, in the middle east.

Dorian Burkhalter, Swissinfo: ‘The UN has never lost that many humanitarian workers, and just seeing their helplessness you can really tell that they’ve lost their protection, and they’re totally desperate.’

Emma Farge: ‘It’s been personal for everyone, and it;s been difficult for journalists to navigate this information war and to really navigate it with your composure.’

What will 2024 bring?

Nick Cumming-Bruce: ‘We still have potentially months of conflict, and we then have the whole issue of post conflict. Well, 2024 is really going to be where we see where the rubber hits the road on that one.’

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