UNICEF announced today it has signed a long-term agreement with Moderna to supply vaccine for the COVAX facility. Through the agreement, the agency and its partners will have access to up to 34 million doses for some 92 countries and territories in 2021. This is the fifth vaccine-supply agreement it has signed.
In progress at UNHQ
Central African Republic
The United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste have launched a $32 million joint appeal to provide food, shelter, water and sanitation to some 65,000 people impacted by flooding in April. Nearly 34,000 homes were destroyed amid a strict COVID-19 lockdown in the capital, Dili, which has seen a surge in cases.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near Gomas has caused 13 deaths and destroyed the homes of 5,000 people, humanitarian colleagues report. The United Nations is assisting with water, shelter, health and family reunification, and peacekeepers are set to clear the main roads into Goma.
Five years after the 2017 influx into Bangladesh of Rohingya refugees, food security in Cox’s Bazar remains a top priority, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports. A joint response plan calls for $943 million to help the refugees and their host communities; 25 per cent of the funds will go to fight hunger and malnutrition.
Humanitarian officials in Somalia say a “double climate disaster”, marked by drought followed by torrential rains, has killed at least 25 people in two weeks. Warning that 2.7 million people in the country are already food insecure, they note that the Humanitarian Response Plan is currently only 19 per cent funded.
United Nations officials in the Central African Republic report that 300 peacekeepers have been deployed to Bakouma, one of several places where security concerns prevented the holding of elections in 2020. They will protect the civilian population and help organize legislative elections later in May.
An annual report released by the Global Network against Food Crises warns that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life- and livelihood-saving assistance hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises.
The United Nations country team in Myanmar calls for the immediate release of dozens of journalists who are detained more than three months after the military seized control of the Government. To date, military authorities have revoked the operating licenses of six Myanmar media outlets; 82 journalists have been arrested, more than half of them are still detained.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, with support from the World Health Organization and other partners, has launched a yellow fever vaccination campaign targeting more than 16.3 million people in the country, the first such drive against the disease in Africa this year.
The first members of the International Organization for Migration’s emergency response team arrived in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines today to deliver essential shelter and emergency items to thousands of people forcibly displaced after the eruption of La Soufrière volcano.