There has been a dramatic rise in major storms, drought, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events over the last 20 years, which have claimed 1.23 million lives, impacted 4.2 billion people and caused almost $3 trillion in global economic losses, according to a report published today by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The Human Rights Council held an urgent debate on conditions in Belarus, with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement, noting the continuation of mass demonstrations and expressing alarm over hundreds of claims of torture and ill treatment while in police custody. She urged authorities to facilitate independent, prompt and impartial investigations.
In Sudan, nearly 720,000 people have been affected by floods, with more than 100 deaths reported, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. While the United Nations and its partners have reached 200,000 with health, food and other assistance, the $1.6 billion Humanitarian Response Plan is less than half funded.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
The United Nations and humanitarian partners today released a tri-national action plan seeking $10.4 million to support Government responses over the next year to urgent needs in the border area between Colombia, Peru and Brazil, which currently has the world’s highest COVID-19 mortality rates per 100,000 people.
Africa Amnesty Month begins today. Linked to the Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020 initiative, the disarmament effort is designed to reduce the flows of illicit small arms and light weapons, allowing anyone to hand in illegal weapons throughout the month of September.
In a note issued on Friday, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Bolivia, Jean Arnault, welcomed the agreement reached among the Executive Branch, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and the Plurinational Electoral Organ regarding the 2020 general elections.
Following explosions in Beirut on 4 August, the United Nations is requesting $565 million to help Lebanon move towards recovery and reconstruction. Peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are also donating blood and have joined the “#UN4Beirut” initiative to clean up devastated city streets.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
Polio immunization campaigns have resumed in Afghanistan and Pakistan, months after COVID-19 left 50 million children without their polio vaccines, UNICEF said today. There is concern that up to 1 million children in Afghanistan could miss out as door-to-door vaccinations are not possible in some areas.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan reported today that its engineering troops, together with local youth, are repairing flood-damaged levees in Jonglei state, already saving Bor’s main market and hospital from being submerged by flooding, which has so far displaced an estimated 135,000 people in the area.
In Sudan’s Khartoum state — where food security has deteriorated due to inflation and economic decline — the World Food Programme (WFP) launched its first programme providing nutritional support to 175,000 pregnant and nursing women and children under five. Precautions are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In Bangladesh, the United Nations and partners have bolstered the response to COVID-19 in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar following the first confirmed case there, amid serious concerns that the virus could severely impact the densely populated settlements, which shelter some 860,000 refugees.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian colleagues express concern about persistent forced displacement of indigenous people and farming communities in rural Colombia. Since 19 January, violence in Caceres has displaced at least 822 people; in Bajo Cauco murders have increased.
The new Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations, Valentin Rybakov, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.
