United Nations personnel in the Central African Republic say they have stepped up security patrols following the arrest of former Séléka commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani. Mr. Kani, who is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity, was surrendered to the International Criminal Court on 24 January.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says the number of people displaced by violence in Africa’s Sahel region has reached 2 million. Officials warn that needs continue to surge, with multiple crises converging and the humanitarian response dangerously overstretched.
From Madagascar, the United Nations is issuing a flash appeal for $76 million to support more than 1 million people in the south who face a potentially life-threatening lack of food, nutrition, water and sanitation, and health assistance due to the region’s worst drought in 10 years coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Food Programme today raised extreme concern that escalating violence and displacement in north Mozambique has led to more than 900,000 people facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity. Plans are in place to reach 750,000 in the area, but $117 million is needed over the next year to meet needs.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that 250,000 children have been displaced by the crisis in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. UNICEF is concerned that safe water, sanitation and hygiene services are insufficient to meet the growing needs in overcrowded temporary accommodation centres and host communities.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports it is providing supplies such as mosquito nets, solar lamps, and blankets for 36,000 people in Somalia’s Puntland region who have been affected by Cyclone Gati, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the country, which made landfall in November.
The new Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations, Pedro Comissário Afonso, paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.
Pedro Comissário Afonso, the new Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations, presented his credentials to the Secretariat today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that the eleventh Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ended. WHO thanked partners for their support and congratulated responders and all those who tirelessly tracked cases, provided treatment, engaged communities and vaccinated more than 40,000 people at risk.
A series of tropical cyclones have devastated areas in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic since early October, United Nations humanitarian officials report, noting that the Organization and partners are seeking $95 million to help nearly 675,000 displaced people.
In Somalia, flash floods have affected nearly 73,000 people, displacing more than 13,000 and causing four deaths, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. The United Nations and partners have mobilized pre-positioned supplies to help those affected and provided shelter to at least 6,000 people.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary‑General António Guterres:
Honduras deposited the fiftieth instrument of ratification to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, resulting in it being entered into force in January 2021. The Secretary-General said the Treaty is a commitment towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, which is the Organization’s highest disarmament priority.
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.
In Bangladesh, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed today that a 71-year-old Rohingya man is the first refugee in the Cox’s Bazar camp to die from COVID-19 and some 30 other people have tested positive so far, yet the numbers are likely higher as testing is ramping up.
Today on International Nurses Day, the World Health Organization remind us that as the world struggles to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent shortage of nurses worldwide. Almost 6 million more are needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
COVID-19 is has pushed nearly 4 million Haitians – about 1 in 3 people – into acute food insecurity, with 1 million people now in a situation of severe hunger, a Government study found. In the first four months of 2020, the World Food Programme reached 200,000 people, and restarted emergency food and cash distributions.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with Ted-Ed, today launched an online “Earth School” offering free educational content for students, parents and teachers who are currently at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Its videos, reading materials and activities will be translated into 10 languages.
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, has condemned continued attacks against health facilities in Taizz, which are threatening services for hundreds of thousands of people. Preliminary reports indicate that two buildings at the Al-Thawra General Hospital were hit by missiles on 13 March.
The desert locust situation in the Horn of Africa remains extremely alarming, as new swarms form, causing an unprecedented threat to food security, humanitarian colleagues report. The Food and Agriculture Organization has increased its appeal to $138 million to support regional aerial and ground control operations.
