This morning, David Beasley, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Executive Director, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his organization’s behalf. With 270 million people approaching starvation and only $5 billion needed to save 30 million from famine, he said, in the Nobel spirit of peace and brotherhood, let’s feed them all.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon reports that a contingent of the Mission’s Force Commander Reserve unit distributed 4,000 educational kits to 30 schools and started renovations to school buildings in southern Lebanon. Also delivered were 1 million masks, half a billion N95 masks with respirators and almost 50 ventilators, among other items.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today launched its largest ever humanitarian appeal, $818 million, to fund critical assistance for 54 million women, girls and young people in 68 countries, including for sexual and reproductive health care as well as services to prevent gender-based violence.
More than 47,000 Ethiopians have arrived in Sudan seeking safety, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today. A small number of Eritrean refugees also arrived from Tigray. UNHCR and Sudanese authorities have now moved more than 11,000 refugees 70 kilometres from the Ethiopian border.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today issued its largest ever emergency funding appeal, seeking $6.4 billion to reach 300 million people, including more than 190 million children. An estimated 36 million children, more than ever before, are living in displacement due to conflict, violence and disaster.
The Federal Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations present in the country have signed an agreement to enable unimpeded, sustained and secure access for humanitarian personnel and services in areas under the control of the Federal Government in Tigray, along with the bordering areas of Amhara and Afar regions.
The Mission in South Sudan deployed a Nepalese Quick Reaction Force Team to Cueibet to support local police protecting civilians from a potential conflict between armed groups, following the killing of a young man. The peacekeepers intercepted the groups and remained in the area until the situation was stable.
In Mali, camps shared by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and France’s Force Barkhane, located in Menaka and Kidal, came under indirect mortar attack on 30 November, following an earlier attack on the Barkhane Forces in Gao. There are no reports of casualties.
A new United Nations Children’s Fund report shows that 320,000 children and young people under the age of 20 were infected with HIV in 2019 – about one every 100 seconds, bringing the total number of children living with HIV to 2.8 million. About half of children worldwide had access to life-saving treatment; nearly 100,000 children died of AIDS.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) still desperately needs $70 million in contributions to avoid painful measures in the coming weeks and to limit the amount of liabilities carried over into 2021, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini has told the Agency’s Advisory Board.