( Nairobi, September 03). Diplomats and survivors gathered in Nairobi this week to mark 35 years since the closure of Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, at a commemorative event led by United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) Director-General Zainab Hawa Bangura for the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.
"Behind every number of explosions are people who suffered from nuclear tests, families, communities, children yet to be born," said Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Barlybay Sadykov, setting the tone for a discussion built around this year's theme: the humanitarian and ecological consequences of nuclear weapons use and testing.
The gathering fell at the intersection of three milestones: the 35th anniversary of Semipalatinsk's closure, the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the 20th anniversary of the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia.
Japan's Ambassador to Kenya, Hiroshi Matsuura, renewed his country's commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons, calling Semipalatinsk's closure "an act of extraordinary courage" that helped halt the global spread of nuclear testing.
Japan remains the only country against which nuclear weapons have been used in war. Even the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ¡ª small by today's standards ¡ª killed an estimated 200,000 people by the end of 1945; more than half a million have died as a result since, and close to 100,000 people still live with their lingering effects.
Matsuura called on nations to exhaust diplomacy before resorting to nuclear weapons, and said Nairobi was the right place to continue that conversation.
Inger Andersen, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), described local environments as badly damaged, with cancers reported among survivors for decades afterward ¡ª and now into subsequent generations. She paid tribute to the hibakusha who have dedicated their lives to ensuring the tragedy is never repeated.
She warned against forgetting the dangers of the more than 2,000 nuclear tests conducted by eight countries since 1945, which have left lasting harm to marine life and ecosystems through nuclear waste.
As of June 2026, Andersen said, the world holds 9,745 nuclear warheads ¡ª an increase of almost 500 since 2018 ¡ª and cautioned that even a small fraction of these weapons, if used, would cause devastating harm to human life and the ozone layer. She called for a framework toward a nuclear-weapon-free world built around the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
"We cannot reverse the harm done," Andersen reflected. "But we can listen to the testimonies of those who suffered."
