A medical air bridge operation in Yemen coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and local authorities began today, bringing several Yemeni patients of an initial group of 30 from Sana’a to Amman, with more flights to follow.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The United Nations is increasingly concerned about the desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa, the worst to hit Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years and Kenya’s worst infestation in 70 years. The Secretary-General said in a tweet that the outbreak is making the dire food security situation in the region even worse.
Ghassan Salamé, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya, expressed deep concern to the Security Council today that the truce agreed earlier this month holds only in name. Fighting and military reinforcements on both sides raise the spectre of a full conflict engulfing the wider region.
The Government of Ethiopia, the United Nations and humanitarian partners today called for $1 billion to help 7 million of the 8.4 million people in the country identified as requiring humanitarian aid due to conflict, disease outbreaks, rain shortfalls and floods.
At least 810 people died in 2019 while crossing deserts, river and remote terrain on different migration routes across the Americas, making the year one of the deadliest on record, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported today.
Heavy rain and flooding caused by a recent tropical disturbance have affected more than 100,000 people in Madagascar and resulted in at least 31 deaths. The Government is leading the response with support from the United Nations and humanitarian partners.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) is not declaring the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern at this time, the outbreak is a very high risk in China, as well as regionally and globally, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced.
The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has released $10 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help bolster the response to East Africa’s worst desert locust outbreak in decades, which is destroying crops in communities already facing food shortages.
The United Nations, jointly with the Government of Somalia and humanitarian partners, launched the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan in Mogadishu, calling for $1 billion to provide life-saving assistance and livelihood support for 3 million people, nearly half of whom are internally displaced.
Today, the World Food Programme unveiled the “HungerMap LIVE”, a new tool that monitors food security in more than 90 countries and issues predictions for areas from which data is limited. The HungerMap presents data collected on a continuous basis, as well as metrics on conflict, climate shocks, population and weather.