A new United Nations report released today says that, despite a drop in civilian casualties in Afghanistan, it remains one of the deadliest conflicts in the world for civilians. Meanwhile, a deteriorating humanitarian situation persists amid rising cases of COVID-19, with more than 36,000 confirmed cases and 1,269 deaths.
Exceptional and prolonged heat in Siberia has fuelled devastating Arctic fires, the World Meteorological Organization said today, noting that temperatures in Siberia again topped 30°C this week. The heat will influence weather and climate in lower latitudes, where hundreds of millions of people live, it warned.
The World Health Organization warned today of the threat that COVID-19 poses to health workers across Africa, with more than 10,000 in 40 countries having been infected with the virus so far. The warning comes as COVID-19 cases in Africa appear to be gathering pace, with more than 750,000 cases and over 15,000 deaths.
Officials at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) say locust swarms linked to climate change remain a serious threat to food security in parts of East Africa, India and Pakistan. United Nations agencies are helping affected areas by providing data on weather, climate and the desert locust life cycle.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s 2020 Multidimensional Poverty Index reveals progress in tackling poverty before the onset of COVID-19, with 65 out of 75 countries showing significant reductions. However, experts warn the pandemic now threatens to set back development gains by up to 10 years.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Christoph Heusgen (Germany):
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme today jointly warned that funding shortages, conflict and disasters — as well as supply chain challenges, rising food prices and loss of income due to COVID-19 — threaten to leave millions of refugees across Africa without food.
In June, 921,000 people were forced to leave Burkina Faso, making it the site of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises. Increased insecurity has also made humanitarian access more difficult, with the number of people in need of assistance jumping to 2.9 million people, from 2.2 million in January.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that it is providing tents, water, tanks and toilets to the more than 3,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that arrived in north-western Uganda last week during a temporary opening of two border crossing points.
For the Syria crisis response, the international community has pledged $5.5 billion to support humanitarian, resilience and development activities in 2020, plus $2.2 billion in 2021 and beyond, demonstrating a clear commitment to continue supporting those most affected and ensuring aid agencies are able to plan ahead.
In the biggest humanitarian undertaking in its history, the World Food Programme (WFP) plans to assist up to a record 138 million people. WFP estimates the number of hungry people in the countries where it operates could reach 270 million by year’s end, up 82 per cent from before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in a new report that millions of children in Yemen could be pushed to the brink of starvation due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, the COVID-19 response is only 10 per cent funded, as UNICEF appeals for $53 million.
Despite some recent positive developments on the political front, South Sudan is facing the twin threat of COVID-19 and escalating violence that can no longer be described as intercommunal, David Shearer, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in that country, told the Security Council during a 23 June videoconference meeting.
In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres. Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.
A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report finds that universal child benefits such as cash payments or tax transfers — crucial to fighting child poverty — are only available in 1 out of 10 countries. Officials say that they are needed now more than ever amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.
More than 55 million domestic workers — 37 million of whom are women — are at risk of losing their jobs and income amid COVID-19 lockdowns, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is warning. Only about 10 per cent of domestic workers globally have access to social security safety nets.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Major General Kefyalew Amde Tessema of Ethiopia as Force Commander for the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).
For the first time since 2018, the World Food Programme has been able to send a humanitarian convoy from Kenya directly into South Sudan through the Nadapal Border crossing. The nine-truck convoy carried 280 metric tons of food, enough to feed 20,000 people for a month. The route’s reopening cuts travel times in half.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide, but they are rising to the challenge in ways that align with their respective mandates and the unique situations that they each face on the ground, three Force Commanders said during a 4 June videoconference meeting of the Security Council.
The Security Council in a 29 May videoconference meeting decided unanimously to maintain current troop and police ceilings of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) until 3 June.
