Africa

Consensus has been reached on a draft pandemic agreement after more than three years of intensive negotiations. By that, Member States of the World Health Organization took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics.

In Ecuador, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team reports at least 150,000 people have been impacted by the massive oil spill in Esmeraldas in March and need humanitarian assistance.

In Myanmar, two weeks after the country was hit by two earthquakes, pushing 2 million more people into critical need of support, the UN and partners have launched a $275 million appeal, which is an addendum to the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan to reach 1.1 million people with urgent assistance.

Preserving a regional framework for cooperation on peace and security remains critical in West Africa and the Sahel, where military takeovers, undemocratic governance, terrorism, poverty and climate change continue to pose serious challenges, speakers told the Security Council today.

The new Permanent Observer for the Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency for Water and Sanitation for Africa, Nabhit Kapur, presented his letter of appointment to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war. According to UNICEF, armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children, including infants as young as one, amid the nationwide conflict.

Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s message, as prepared for delivery, on the occasion of the Group of 20 (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Banks Meeting Session II: International Financial Architecture, held in Cape Town, South Africa, today:

In Somalia, some 3.4 million people are already experiencing crisis-levels of hunger. This figure is expected to rise to 4.4 million between April and June when below-average rains are forecast. However, the $1.42 billion humanitarian appeal is only 12 per cent funded.

The United Nations and its aid partners in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have launched this year’s Humanitarian Response Plans to assist 2.2 million people in need, seeking a total of $306 million.

In Sudan, the total number of newly displaced people in Shamal Jabal Marrah, in Central Darfur State, reached over 120,000, after hostilities over the past week in Zamzam in North Darfur state caused about 5,500 people to seek safety and shelter there, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports.