Bosnia and Herzegovina

Children make up nearly half the people who have fled Ethiopia’s Tigray region for Sudan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports.  Their most urgent needs are clean water and sanitation, as well as child-protection and gender-based violence services for the most vulnerable and at-risk refugees, the agency says.

The Security Council decided to extend for one year its authorization to States working as part of the multinational stabilization force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and heard a briefing by the high representative in that country, with voting results announced virtually in accordance with the temporary silence procedure adopted for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Food Coalition, a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral alliance that aims to ensure global food access and increase the resilience of agri-food systems.  The pandemic could add 132 million more people to the world's undernourished in 2020, FAO says, on top of the 690 million hungry people in 2019.

In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres.  Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.

Anti-coronavirus measures are exposing victims of human trafficking to further exploitation and limiting their access to essential services, a new analysis released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said today, noting also the emergence of new opportunities for organized crime to profit from the crisis.

Corruption and political stalemate still hamper post-war progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 25 years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, but the international community must not lose sight of what is at stake in the Western Balkan country, High Representative Valentin Inzko said during a 6 May videoconference meeting of the Security Council.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Ingrid Macdonald of Australia as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the host Government’s approval.

Following earthquakes that struck Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina this morning, two United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination technical support members will be deployed to Albania.  The United Nations stands ready to provide assistance if required, and is in contact with local authorities.

The Security Council today renewed its authorization of the European-led multinational stabilization force (EUFOR-Althea) in Bosnia and Herzegovina for another year, while urging parties there to proceed with forming a Government and to refrain from any polarizing unconstructive policy, action or rhetoric.

The new Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations, Sven Alkalaj, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.