One truck carrying humanitarian assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund crossed into north-west Syria from Türkiye through the Bab al-Salam crossing, making it a total of 18 trucks this week delivering life-saving relief items from United Nations agencies via that crossing.
Syria
In Malawi, the World Food Programme faces a critical funding shortage of $6.3 million, forcing it to implement cuts in food rations for 51,000 refugees living in the Dzaleka camp. The new cash allowance will be $5.90 per person per month — down from $8.50 — barely enough to meet monthly food requirements.
The United Nations led two monitoring and assessment missions from Türkiye into North-West Syria. Staff from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs arrived on a monitoring mission via the al-Ra’ee crossing and the World Health Organization entered via Bab al-Salam to conduct a routine assessment.
Debating the Russian Federation’s 11 July veto of a Security Council draft resolution that would have authorized a nine-month renewal of cross-border aid‑delivery to northern Syria, speakers took stock of its consequences for millions of Syrians in increasingly desperate need of humanitarian aid.
The United Nations Development Programme, launching their policy brief, “The Human Cost of Inaction: Poverty, Social Protection and Debt Servicing, 2020–2023”, and noting that an 165 million additional people fell into poverty as a result of the cumulative crisis, proposed a “debt-poverty pause” for developing economies.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed marked the tenth anniversary of Malala Yousafzai’s iconic speech at the United Nations with a special event on Malala Day at the UN House in Nigeria. Introducing Malala, she said despite progress, the world remains far from ensuring all girls have access to equal, quality education.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
The Security Council today failed to reauthorize the cross-border mechanism for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria, unable to reach consensus on either of two resolutions that would have kept open the critical lifeline to millions of people following the expiry of its mandate on 10 July.
The United States has officially accepted the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Director General Audrey Azoulay said the United States’ return as a full member and the additional resources that come with that will help UNESCO provide better support worldwide.
All efforts by the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to organize the next round of consultations with Syria continue to be unsuccessful, a senior official of the United Nations for disarmament affairs informed the Security Council today, underscoring yet again the urgent need for full cooperation by Damascus.