United Nations humanitarian staff in Nigeria continue to receive alarming reports of clashes between insurgent groups and the armed forces in the town of Damasak in Borno State. Recently, they say, non-State armed groups have been searching house to house, reportedly looking for civilians identified as aid workers.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says 71 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar, with more than half of them still detained since the beginning of February. Some 24 people have been charged for allegedly spreading fake news.
Nearly half of women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek health care, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2021 flagship “State of World Population” report, released today.
The United Nations Children’s Fund warned today that Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province is facing a large and likely long-lasting humanitarian situation. The agency said it is concerned about the rising rate of malnutrition, and about cholera, which is not yet under control and is spreading to other provinces.
The United Nations team in Timor-Leste, led by Roy Trivedy, the Resident Coordinator, is supporting local authorities following floods that have impacted Díli and other parts of the country. The Government says there have been more than 30 deaths and over 13,500 people are living in evacuation sites.
After La Soufriere volcano erupted today in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the United Nations Emergency Technical Team for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries met to discuss the pre-positioning of relief items. The World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund are also readying supplies.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said today that, due to significant funding gaps, it is cutting food rations for refugees and internally displaced people in South Sudan. The cuts will affect nearly 700,000 of them and they will now receive 50 per cent of a full ration, down from 70 per cent.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that shelling yesterday damaged a power line near a main lift pumping station of the South Donbas Waterway in eastern Ukraine. It interrupted safe water supply for 1.1 million people in 50 nearby settlements on both sides of the “contact line”.
At least 11,000 people have fled their homes following an attack by insurgents on the town of Palma, Mozambique, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Officials are working around the clock to provide assistance, including blankets and sleeping mats, but warn that hunger is rising.
In Timor-Leste, the United Nations is helping the Government amid the worst flash flooding and landslides in recent years that have damaged homes, road and bridges, affecting at least 10,000 people in eight municipalities. The Organization has delivered sanitary and dignity kits, plastic mats and blankets to those in need.
The United Nations Human Rights Office in South-East Asia reports that 500 peaceful protesters have been killed and 2,600 others detained by security forces in Myanmar since 1 February. It is asking States in the region to protect people fleeing violence and ensure that refugees and migrants are not forcibly returned.
A report released today by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan says that community-based militias in the country were responsible for 78 per cent of the 2,421 civilians killed in 2020, more than double than in 2019, as well as for abductions, which tripled in 2020, and conflict-related sexual violence.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Brussels V Conference “Supporting the future of Syria and the region”, in Brussels today:
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ briefing to the General Assembly on the situation in Syria, today:
In Zimbabwe, 2.4 million people are struggling to meet their basic food needs due to the impact of COVID-19, the World Food Programme reports. It is delivering monthly cash transfers to 326,000 people across 32 urban areas, and aims to reach 550,000 people in the 28 worst-affected, food-insecure urban areas in the country.
A full decade into the conflict which plunged Syria into a spiral of grotesque violence, hunger and economic decay, the Security Council must stand firm in defence of the country’s last authorized border crossing, through which aid to millions of civilians flows each month, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told members during a high-level videoconference meeting today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in Myanmar strongly condemns attacks on health-care providers and sites since the military takeover on 1 February. WHO says 32 attacks on health-care facilities and staff resulted in two deaths and six injuries between 1 February and 24 March.
The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, today released $14 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to provide shelter and emergency services to over 45,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh displaced by a devastating fire which destroyed critical infrastructure in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar.
The World Food Programme said today it has begun providing emergency food aid to vulnerable people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and urgently needs $170 million to meet critical food and nutrition needs over the next six months. The agency noted that the outbreak of conflict there coincided with the peak harvest period.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has received its first shipment of more than 130,000 doses from the global COVAX Facility — the first batch of a total of 480,000 doses to arrive in the country this year to vaccinate approximately 20 per cent of the population.
