An unprecedented education crisis is unfolding in Syria, an expert from a major international aid agency warned the Security Council today, as she described how unaffordable food prices, chronic malnutrition and years of living in unsafe, unhygienic camps — now during a pandemic — likely means that many children will never return to school in their lifetimes.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration today began preparing asylum seekers in the Matamoros camp for entry to the United States as the country ends a policy that forced some 25,000 people to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings.
The number of civilians killed and injured in Afghanistan rose following the start of peace negotiations in September, according to report released today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Organization’s human rights office. The country remains among the deadliest for civilians.
Ten years into Syria’s crisis, humanitarian needs are deepening, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says, with an estimated 13.4 million people requiring protection and assistance, up more than 2 million people from 2020. Nearly 60 per cent of the population is food insecure.
In north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations vaccination teams are supporting the Ebola response by rehabilitating treatment centres and boosting contact-tracing capacity, and today began a four-day mission to Guinea to assess the situation in Nzérékoré, where the first Ebola case was reported.
Humanitarian officials are seriously concerned about the rapidly deteriorating food security situation in southern and eastern Madagascar, where more than 1.3 million people face severe hunger. The third drought in a row is compounding the effects of COVID-19 and the extremely limited access to essential services.
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 Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the third report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Mali (S/2020/1105), agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:
A report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan finds increasing reports of torture in that country’s detention facilities. Almost a third of those detained for security or terrorism-related offences reported torture or other ill-treatment.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Union have launched a programme to protect migrant children in Central America and Southern Africa. It will work with Governments and civil society groups to provide care alternatives to immigration detention.
