A United Nations disaster assessment and coordination team has arrived in Haiti to monitor hurricane Matthew, and pre-positioning of relief supplies and emergency resources has begun. The Category 4 hurricane is expected to affect 20 per cent of the population – some 2 million people.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
UNHCR today expressed concern that restrictions on the movement of people in eastern Ukraine have led to increased hardships and limited the access of thousands to heath care and social payments. The agency called on authorities to ease the plight of 26,000 people crossing the dividing line in eastern Ukraine.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today that the last seven days had seen an intensification of attacks across Syria. He said that nowhere had the fighting been more intense than in besieged east Aleppo, where estimates are that more than 320 civilians were killed and 765 injured in the first days.
For the first time since 2014, the World Food Programme has distributed urgently needed food for people in and around Shirqat, Iraq, who had been living under siege and cut off from humanitarian aid. Through local partner Muslim Aid, it distributed a one-month supply of food to families.
In Mali, the United Nations Mission in the country (MINUSMA) today welcomed the International Criminal Court’s ruling recognizing Ahmad Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi as guilty of war crimes for the destruction of religious and historical monuments in Timbuktu. MINUSMA called the judgment a step forward in the fight against impunity and a strong signal against the destruction of cultural goods.
The Secretary-General said his meeting in Cyprus on Sunday with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders was productive and that he had agreed to their request to step up personal engagement to help them achieve a comprehensive settlement this year.
The Secretary-General has urged all parties in Gabon, particularly the political leaders and their followers, to exercise maximum restraint, refrain from any form of violence and remain calm ahead of and after the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the presidential elections, which is expected today.
The United Nations has resumed aid deliveries to Syria. A convoy has entered the besieged town of Moadamiyeh in rural Damascus with food, medical, education, water, sanitation and other supplies for 35,000 people. Deliveries will be carried out on a case-by-case basis depending on conditions on the ground.
The number of refugees fleeing violence in South Sudan has reached 1 million, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which says it needs $701 million in donations to sustain basic assistance to the needy.
The Secretary-General today told the Security Council that the two-State solution for the Israelis and Palestinians is at risk of being replaced by a one-State reality of perpetual violence and occupation. The reporting period, he said, saw the continuation of statements by both sides that only perpetuate an environment of mistrust.