Asia Pacific

Typhoons in South and South-East Asia have had a devastating impact on children’s education. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that since late November, more than 4.1 million children in Viet Nam, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have had their education disrupted due to climate-related disasters.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

In Mozambique, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is gravely concerned about intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spillover into districts considered safe, with nearly 100,000 people displaced in the past fortnight alone. The violence, which began in Cabo Delgado in 2017, has displaced over 1.3 million people.

A new report from the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), titled “At Risk and Underfunded”, warns that sweeping aid cuts are jeopardizing the organizations essential to ending violence against women and girls.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the fifteenth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-United Nations Summit, held in Kuala Lumpur today:

A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report notes that Asia is currently warming twice as fast as the global average. This is fuelling more extreme weather and taking a heavy toll on the region’s economies, ecosystems and societies.

The Special Committee on Decolonization will hold the Pacific Regional Seminar in Dili, Timor-Leste, from 21 to 23 May within the framework of the Fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2021-2030).

In response to the earthquake in Myanmar, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees rushed emergency supplies from Yangon to some 25,000 earthquake survivors in the Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw areas. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have also begun delivering emergency supplies.

In the Central African Republic, nearly 20,000 Central African refugees returned to their homeland voluntarily in 2024. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says this was the highest annual number of people returning to the country since the voluntary repatriation programme began in 2017.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today published a report which says air pollution in East Asia and the Pacific is linked to nearly one in four deaths of children under the age of five and can impact every stage of a child’s life.