United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock today approved the largest-ever allocation by the Central Emergency Response Fund — $50 million — to rapidly bolster aid for Yemen. The humanitarian situation there has deteriorated despite recent progress in opening key Red Sea ports to food and fuel shipments.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic has strongly condemned violence by armed group members on 31 December against Muslim neighbourhoods that has led to deaths and population displacement in the north-west city of Paoua. The Mission has sent reinforcements and multiplied patrols to better prevent attacks.
The International Organization for Migration has chartered its first flight of 2018 under the Voluntary Humanitarian Return programme, helping 142 returnees departing from Libya to Gambia. The organization has escorted almost 20,000 migrants home from Libya since the beginning of 2017.
The Secretary-General’s envoy in Somalia, Peter de Clercq, expressed deep concern yesterday over reports of the unannounced destruction of settlements housing over 4,000 internally displaced persons and humanitarian infrastructure in Mogadishu. An assessment was carried out today to establish their immediate needs.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is again calling urgently upon the Government of Australia to find humane solutions for the refugees and asylum-seekers abandoned on Manus Island, noting that about 800 people have remained in a precarious situation there since the “off-shore processing” facility was closed on 31 October.
The Secretary-General has established a Chief Executives Board Task Force to address sexual harassment in the United Nations. Led by Jan Beagle, Under-Secretary-General for Management, it will review policies to prevent such behaviour, capacities to investigate allegations, as well as the support and protection offered to victims.
The protection of civilians site in South Sudan, next to the United Nations base in Melut in the Upper Nile region, has been successfully closed in South Sudan after internally displaced families expressed the desire and confidence to return to their former homes.
Temperatures plummeted across Ukraine, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported, saying the distribution of aid, including clothing, fuel and cash to the most vulnerable people impacted by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The aid will reach some 15,300 people, mainly single parents, elderly, families with many children and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) reported that a patrol hit a suspected improvised explosive device in Kidal city, wounding one peacekeeper on 18 December. The incident follows four separate attacks against peacekeeping personnel and premises in Kidal on 15 December.
The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 74 refugees, mostly children and women, from Libya to Niger. In the Central African Republic, voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees has begun; since Tuesday, 230 refugees have arrived in Sudan. Agency-chartered flights will bring some 1,500 refugees home by the end of 2017.