Emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within 10 days, the acting United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned today. Currently, the nearly 2 million Palestinian residents there receive electricity for no more than eight hours a day.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Civilian returns to Iraq’s newly accessible areas continue to increase since the conclusion of major counter‑Daesh military operations late last year; 3.2 million previously displaced people have now returned home, surpassing the total number of displaced in the country for the first time since the crisis began four years ago.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that the 2017/2018 season should end with a record global cereal output. The forecast had been raised 13.5 million tons since December 2017, due largely to higher maize output expected in China, Mexico and the European Union. FAO's Food Price Index in January was down almost 3 per cent year-on-year.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partners have launched a funding appeal for $157 million to help 250,000 people impacted by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin region. Since it began in 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced 2.4 million people.
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and United Nations Development Programme Head Achim Steiner are in Somalia to bring attention to the recently launched $1.5 billion aid appeal to avert famine and build resilience in the country. Some 5.4 million people need life-saving humanitarian assistance.
The World Health Organization’s first release of surveillance data on antibiotic resistance reveals high levels of resistance to several common, serious bacterial infections in both high- and low-income countries.
The Governments of Brazil and Nigeria launched mass immunization campaigns to protect people against yellow fever. With support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners, an estimated 23.8 million people in Brazil, and 25 million people in Nigeria, are expected to be vaccinated.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya launched the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan to support the humanitarian needs of 940,000 people living in the country. The Plan seeks $313 million in donor funding to implement 71 projects by 21 humanitarian organizations.
The International Civil Service Commission of the United Nations reported that at least 71 United Nations and associated personnel — 53 peacekeepers and 18 civilians — were killed in malicious attacks in the line of duty during 2017. The casualties in 2017 are the highest number ever recorded by the Commission.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that ongoing violence in the Central African Republic has pushed forced displacement to the highest levels since the start of the crisis in 2013. Data as of the end of December show that 688,700 people were displaced internally.