The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the arrival of migrants in Italy — the most active route for those leaving North Africa for Europe — hit a five-year low: 5,247 for the first two months of 2018, versus some 13,000 for the same period last year. IOM attributed the drop, in part, to voluntary humanitarian returns from detention centres in Libya.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index for February found that rising world prices for staple grains and dairy products more than offset lower prices for vegetable oils, leading global food commodity prices up 1.1 per cent. FAO also lowered projections for global wheat harvests this year.
The United Nations Children’s Fund expressed deep sadness over the killing of its colleague, along with five other education workers, on 25 February in the north-western region of the Central African Republic, near Markounda, a remote area close to the Chadian border.
United Nations humanitarian organizations and partners in Libya say they are deeply concerned about the situation faced by Tawergha men, women and children who are unable to return home and are currently living in makeshift-tented settlements in precarious conditions in Qararat al-Qataf and Hwara.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said it had recalled a unit of police officers from Wau and confined them to barracks after a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation.
The United Nations takes note of the recent decision by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign, to “allow further political reforms to take place in the country aimed at widening democratic space”.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is calling for calm and restraint after reports of a refugee protest turning violent in Rwanda’s Kiziba refugee camp. The camp hosts over 17,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, around 77 per cent of which are women and children.
The Secretary-General said that he was deeply saddened by the terrible suffering of the civilian population in eastern Ghouta in Syria, noting 400,000 people lived in hell on earth. He appealed to all those involved for an immediate suspension of all war activities in the region.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned today that a extraordinary humanitarian disaster is about to hit south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the Province of Tanganyika plunges further into violence, triggering spiralling displacement and human rights abuses.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian colleagues express concern about persistent forced displacement of indigenous people and farming communities in rural Colombia. Since 19 January, violence in Caceres has displaced at least 822 people; in Bajo Cauco murders have increased.