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

The United Nations team in Myanmar remains alarmed by deteriorating humanitarian conditions amid continued fighting, particularly in the country’s south-east and north-west.  Across Myanmar, more than 900,000 people are displaced, including more than 560,000 people who remain uprooted since the military takeover in February 2021.

Humanitarian officials in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said the entry of goods into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing remains limited, and some 250,000 people are still without regular access to piped water.  They called for a return to the predictable entry of goods and the easing of movement restrictions.

Humanitarian workers in Sudan report that the security situation in the town of Ag Geneina in western Darfur is stable but remains tense and unpredictable.  More than 230,000 people were displaced by the conflict in Darfur since the beginning of 2021, more than four times the 53,000 displaced in all of 2020.

The global economy is set to grow by 4.7 per cent in 2021, faster than the 4.3 per cent predicted in September, says a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report released today.  It sees a misguided return to austerity, after a destructive recession, as the main risk to the global outlook. 

In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports.  The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.

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

Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ramesh Rajasingham is in Burkina Faso, where, with Government and donor representatives, he launched the country’s 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks $607 million to help 2.9 million people.  The appeal targets 61 per cent more people than in January 2020.

The new Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the United Nations, Diego Pary Rodríguez, paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new permanent representative of Bolivia to the United Nations, Diego Pary Rodríguez, presented his credentials to the Secretariat today.