Children

After back-to-back droughts in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) is expanding its assistance as levels of hunger soar. Since the start of the year, 9 million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that three consecutive years of severe drought in the Grand Sud of Madagascar have led to the country’s worst food crisis in 20 years, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of already poor populations.

On 10 June, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2140 (2014) was briefed by Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba on the situation of children and armed conflict in Yemen, upon invitation by the Committee.

In Haiti, United Nations humanitarian colleagues have started delivering humanitarian assistance to help people in the commune of Cité Soleil, as well as in other Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods. Enough food to feed 7,000 people for a week has been distributed, along with drinking water and kits of basic relief items.

The hybrid third Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development concluded in Tokyo, with over 2,000 participants considering potential win-win solutions to tackle the climate emergency and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the fifth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Colombia (S/2021/1022), agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has funded a renovation of a radio station in Bentiu. The network, which previously reached 35 kilometres, has been upgraded to cover a 200-kilometre radius. The station will help people better understand the peace agreement and how it is being implemented.

In a harrowing account of his own abduction in South Sudan, where an armed group had tortured him and had killed his father in front of his eyes, the founder of the Similar Ground organization called on the Security Council today to enforce the myriad resolutions it has passed to secure the safety of children around the world who are at the mercy of wars and conflicts they did not start nor should ever be forced to endure.

In Botswana, the United Nations team led by Resident Coordinator Zia Choudhury reports that the country is set to become the first in Africa to achieve the “95-95-95” AIDS targets set out by the United Nations General Assembly, eight years before the 2030 target.

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide is in Bosnia and Herzegovina on an official visit to participate in events to commemorate the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide