Afghanistan

Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, called today for an immediate end to Australia’s off-shore processing of refugees, saying the harmful practice, carried out in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, denies access to asylum in Australia and has caused extensive, avoidable suffering for far too long.

The United Nations and the humanitarian community remain deeply concerned for the safety and protection of tens of thousands of men, women and children trapped in Raqqa City in Syria.  Heavy fighting continues to affect civilians, resulting in the displacement of thousands and scores of deaths and injuries.

In Afghanistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it will be able to provide food assistance to more than 577,000 people in need thanks to a $20 million contribution by the United States.  The money will be spent to buy local wheat flour, salt, yellow peas and cooking oil, among other supplies.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) condemns continuing ceasefire violations by two signatories of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement — the CMA and the Plateforme.  The Head of MINUSMA urged the leadership of both groups to put an end to the violations immediately.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres travelled on Wednesday, 14 June, to Kabul, Afghanistan, from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

The Secretariat has concluded a review of the deployment of uniformed personnel from the Republic of Congo in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA.  It found that the nature and extent of existing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse point to systemic problems in command and control.

A record 141 million people across 37 countries need humanitarian assistance, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2017 Status Report, released today.  Despite $6.2 billion in donations since the 2017 humanitarian appeal launch, requirements have risen to $23.5 billion, leaving the appeal 26 per cent funded.

Warning that the situation in Afghanistan was unusually tense and that a recent tide of violent terrorist attacks had brought underlying political tensions to the surface, the United Nations top official in the country urged all parties to exercise calm and the Government to take steps to improve public trust in its security sector in particular.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up emergency operations to help people urgently in need of help in Yemen, which is on the brink of famine.  In Syria, WFP delivered food this week to seven hard-to-reach areas in Raqqa and Deir, where regular aid service had been suspended for over three years due to conflict.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged Governments today to deliver a massive increase in places available for refugees in third countries, in line with last September’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, as the agency opened its annual resettlement consultations.