Cyprus

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus announced today the clearance of nine suspected hazardous areas on both sides of the island, amounting to a total area of 210 square meters.  This confidence-building measure was agreed upon by both leaders on 26 February as part of their commitment towards a mine-free Cyprus.

A World Health Organization study shows that more than one third of women in four lower-income countries — Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Nigeria — experience mistreatment during childbirth in health facilities:  42 per cent of women who participated experienced physical or verbal abuse, stigma or discrimination.

The World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed what it called important and positive steps by authorities in Yemen to ensure food aid reaches the most vulnerable in Government-controlled areas.  WFP will resume food distributions after the Eid Al-Adha festival for 850,000 people in Sana’a City.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is working with the Government of Bangladesh to help more than 275,000 people affected by flooding in the country’s north-west. Some 5,000 households have received cash transfers as part of an innovative project which uses weather forecasts to trigger early action.

Around 1 million species are threatened with extinction as nature declines at unprecedented rates, a global assessment launched today by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warns, listing amphibians, corals and marine mammals as among the most threatened.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that $148 million is urgently needed to continue the response to the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or risk backsliding.  Less than $10 million of the required funds have been pledged so far.

Following a sea tragedy on Tuesday off Djibouti’s Red Sea coast, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that 16 survivors have been recovered, as well as the remains of 43 victims.  IOM staff have been helping the Djibouti authorities patrolling the shorelines in search of other survivors.

The Security Council authorized a six‑month mandate renewal for the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) today, and called upon the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities as well as all parties involved to commit fully to a settlement process, using United Nations consultations to restart negotiations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partners have begun relocating more than 33,000 Congolese refugees from over-crowded reception centres in northern Angola to a newly established settlement in Lóvua, some 100 kilometres further inland, where they will all receive a plot of land on which to build shelters and grow food.