Intense violence in the city of Bangassou in south-eastern Central African Republic since Friday sparked by an assault by unidentified gunmen in Tokoyo district, home mainly to the Muslim population, has forced more than 3,000 people to flee their homes. Two flights carrying emergency relief supplies are scheduled for Tuesday.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix is expected shortly in Bangui, Central African Republic, where he will participate in a memorial ceremony for the five peacekeepers killed during the attack in Bangassou this week, joining the President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister and Cabinet members.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are responding to an upsurge in cholera transmission in several parts of Yemen that has now claimed 51 lives. WHO has rapidly distributed medicines and medical supplies and 10 new treatment centres are being established in the most affected areas.
The search for the peacekeeper missing since Tuesday’s attack on a peacekeeping convoy continues, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic reports. Besides the four peacekeepers killed, there are now 10 wounded, including nine Moroccans and one Cambodian.
The United Nations refugee agency reports that some 245 people are feared dead or missing following two weekend shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean, which brings the total number of people believed to have died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Italy in 2017 to more than 1,300.
The United Nations welcomes the release of an additional 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgent group in April 2014. The Organization appeals to all Nigerians to fully embrace the liberated girls and provide all necessary support to ensure their reintegration into society.
United Nations colleagues in Brazil expressed their grave concern following an attack against a group of indigenous persons from the Gamela ethnicity, earlier this week in the Maranhão region of northern Brazil. More than 10 were injured — some of them severely and are still receiving treatment in hospital.
Nearly 75,000 refugees and migrants, including an estimated 24,600 children, are stranded in Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Western Balkans, and at risk of psychosocial distress from living in a protracted state of limbo, UNICEF warned today. The situation is particularly acute for single mothers and children.
Staffan de Mistura, the Special Envoy for Syria, told reporters today that the United Nations is very concerned at reports of escalation, including alleged air strikes, at a delicate moment in the Astana discussions, where proposals to de-escalate the conflict are under very serious consideration.
The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the Central African Republic counts among the world’s most forgotten crises, receiving ever-shrinking humanitarian funding. With half its people needing humanitarian aid and more than 2 million hungry, WFP’s humanitarian response plan for 2017 is only 7 per cent financed.