Marking Nelson Mandela International Day today, the Secretary-General urged everyone to do more to build a peaceful, sustainable and equitable world for all. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and United Nations Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder attended a General Assembly commemorative event.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has expressed concern over further restrictions by Hungary leading to push-backs of people seeking asylum, as well as reports of the use of violence and abuse against them.
The World Health Organization today officially declared the elimination of yaws, as well as maternal and neonatal tetanus in India, the first country under the 2012 WHO neglected tropical diseases road map to eliminate yaws. Indonesia and Timor-Leste are now the only countries in the region with yaws transmission.
As violence escalates in and around Aleppo city, Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, say 200,000 to 300,000 people are now closer to the line of fire and at risk of besiegement since 7 July.
The United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) welcomes the ceasefire agreement announced yesterday. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan, Ellen Margrethe Løj, urges security forces in Juba to allow unhindered access to UNMISS patrols to protect the civilian population.
The Secretary-General calls on South Sudanese leaders to do everything possible to de-escalate current hostilities immediately. Urging the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the country, he condemns the killings of two Chinese United Nations peacekeepers and one of the Organization’s national staff members.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is extremely concerned at the unfolding situation in Aleppo, Syria, where an estimated 300,000 people are trapped due to heavy clashes that are putting civilians at risk of death and injury while cutting off humanitarian access to people in need.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan reports that heavy mortar shelling and machine gunfire to the south of its compound in Wau earlier today prompted an additional 200 to 250 people to flee to the protection area adjacent to Mission’s base, where an estimated 19,000 internally displaced people continue to shelter.
UNHCR says more than 15,500 asylum seekers were pre-registered on mainland Greece in an effort by the Greek Asylum Service, with the agency’s assistance. Asylum seekers in open temporary accommodation structures have received cards allowing them to reside legally in Greece for a year, with the right to access services.
Some 3.6 million children in Iraq - one in five in the country - are at serious risk of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into armed groups, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reflecting an increase of 1.3 million at-risk children in 18 months.