Bhutan

On 1 March, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Karla Robin Hershey of the United States as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bhutan, with the host Government’s approval.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a new project to improve emergency response to health crises.   The project, called INITIATE², will develop solutions such as disease-specific field facilities and kits and train logistics and health responders on their use.

Unrelenting drought in southern Madagascar is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.  At least 1.35 million people need emergency food and nutrition assistance.  Acute malnutrition in children under 5 has almost doubled over the last four months.

More than 47,000 Ethiopians have arrived in Sudan seeking safety, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.  A small number of Eritrean refugees also arrived from Tigray.  UNHCR and Sudanese authorities have now moved more than 11,000 refugees 70 kilometres from the Ethiopian border.

A flight carrying ventilators, protective masks and other essential medical supplies landed in Papua New Guinea today, marking the start of the World Food Programme’s humanitarian air service for the Pacific, which aims to help the region’s countries and territories bolster the Covid-19 pandemic response.

The new Permanent Representative of Bhutan to the United Nations, Doma Tshering, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Derk Segaar of the Netherlands as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in New Delhi, covering India and Bhutan.  Mr. Segaar assumes his duties on 20 January 2017.