Africa

United Nations teams in Brazil, Colombia and Peru issued a joint statement calling for increased COVID-19 pandemic-related support and response efforts in the Amazon region.  The pandemic is impacting hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, including 170,000 people living in remote areas along the Amazon River.

The Security Council, expressing concern about security and humanitarian challenges in West Africa — as well as the potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to exacerbate existing fragilities — today adopted a presidential statement calling for national, regional and international support for countries of the region.

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. 

Severe flooding in Bangladesh is currently affecting some 1.4 million people, with United Nations agencies providing $5.2 million in early funding.  In China, heavy rains have impacted more than 38 million people, while floods and landslides in Nepal have led to more than 100 deaths.

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.

Intercommunal violence and persistent attacks by extremists continue to undermine peace and security across West Africa, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the region warned the Security Council in a 9 July videoconference meeting, as delegates called for sustained engagement with all partners to advance a holistic approach to peace.

United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Cristina Duarte of Cabo Verde as Special Adviser on Africa.

The text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the Group of Five for the Sahel Summit, held in Nouakchott today, is not available in English.

An estimated 4.1 million girls will be subjected to female genital mutilation this year and if programmes and services stay shut for six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that figure will reach 6.1 million by 2030, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s “State of World Population 2020” report issued today.