Afghanistan

In Myanmar, the conflict now spans vast swathes of the country. More than 350,000 people are displaced in Rakhine. The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan seeks $994 million to support 5.3 million people in the country, but it is currently just 3 per cent funded.

In Ukraine, the Humanitarian Coordinator there denounced a new wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns that took place overnight. The attacks reportedly caused scores of civilian casualties in six regions of Ukraine and have massively disrupted essential services at the height of winter.

In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that attacks have continued in the country today, while since yesterday morning, humanitarian organizations have been providing emergency assistance to civilians affected by the latest attacks in the Kharkiv and Dnipro regions.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) today launched their Global Annual Appeal for 2024. They called for $7.9 billion to support their operations and help create a system that realizes migration’s promise as a force for good throughout the world.

The Commissioner General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reports that makeshift structures of plastic sheeting have mushroomed everywhere around Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, as people are displaced by the hostilities.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General informed that the first phase of the disengagement of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from South Kivu has begun, with a plan to complete its withdrawal from the area by June 2024.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed today its deep concern over the recent arbitrary arrests and detentions of women and girls by the country’s de facto authorities because of their alleged non-compliance with the hijab decree.

One in three Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from as communities brace for a harsh winter, the World Food Programme warns. The agency can only reach the most desperate families due to a huge funding shortfall and urgently needs $670 million to reach 15.2 million people.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs warned that nine months of war in Sudan has tipped the country into a downward spiral that only grows more ruinous by the day. Nearly 25 million people there will need assistance in 2024 — but escalating hostilities are putting most of them beyond reach.

The Security Council today adopted a resolution requesting the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Envoy for Afghanistan, provided with robust expertise on human rights and gender, as it also stressed the critical importance of a continued presence of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).