The Beirut port is temporarily operational, with nearly 9,000 containers unloaded between 11 and 18 August, including 1,000 tons of goods such as iron and wheat. The High Commissioner for Refugees is providing psychosocial support, emergency help cash and shelter kits, one of several United Nations agencies to offer emergency assistance.
Burkina Faso
There is a real danger that the global health crisis will create a COVID-19 generation who lose out on schooling and see their opportunities permanently damaged, warned Gordon Brown, Special Envoy on Global Education, noting that an estimated 30 million children may never return to school, according to UNESCO.
Exceptional and prolonged heat in Siberia has fuelled devastating Arctic fires, the World Meteorological Organization said today, noting that temperatures in Siberia again topped 30°C this week. The heat will influence weather and climate in lower latitudes, where hundreds of millions of people live, it warned.
In June, 921,000 people were forced to leave Burkina Faso, making it the site of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises. Increased insecurity has also made humanitarian access more difficult, with the number of people in need of assistance jumping to 2.9 million people, from 2.2 million in January.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has launched an $186 million appeal to provide lifesaving protection and assistance to refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and host communities in the Central Sahel, The number of displaced in Burkina Faso has more than quadrupled in the past year.
Some 50 people died in three attacks in Burkina Faso’s northern regions — the Sahel, North, Centre-North and East — marking the deadliest violence since March, when 43 civilians were killed during two attacks on northern villages. Rising insecurity is making it difficult to reach the 2.2 million people in need of aid throughout the country.
Today the World Food Programme announced that the United Arab Emirates will dedicate three aircraft until the end of 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic response, helping the World Health Organization and the global humanitarian community transport life-saving cargo and personnel to more than 100 countries in need.
A new report by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that as of 6 April, 96 per cent of all worldwide destinations have introduced travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of jobs could be lost in the sector.
The Secretary-General addressed the Group of 20 virtual summit on the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that transmission of the virus must be suppressed as quickly as possible through a coordinated response mechanism guided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
An estimated 14,000 people in Burkina Faso have fled their homes in the past 17 days due to recent violence, bringing the number of internally displaced to 780,000, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports. It is increasing emergency supplies and protection for affected populations.