The World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it will be forced to suspend food aid delivery to more than 100,000 displaced people in parts of South Sudan, beginning in October, due to funding shortfalls. It warned that further cuts may be inevitable if an additional $154 million is not raised in the next four months.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Food insecurity in Somalia is set to increase until the end of 2021 due to the impacts of poor rainfall and continued insecurity, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today. FAO said approximately 1.2 million children under the age of five are likely to be acutely malnourished during that period.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has declared an outbreak of meningitis in Tshopo Province, in the country’s north-east, with some 261 suspected cases, including 129 deaths. National health authorities have deployed an initial emergency team and efforts are under way to quickly ramp up the response.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said that, in September, it started delivering emergency relief food assistance to communities in regions bordering war-torn Tigray. According to WFP, across Ethiopia, more than 13.6 million people are estimated to be food insecure due to a number of factors.
About 540,000 children in the area impacted by last month’s earthquake in Haiti now face the possibility that water-borne diseases will re-emerge, UNICEF warns. The agency is working with Haitian authorities and civil society partners to improve access to water and sanitation, with the aim of reaching 500,000 people.
The Office for Children and Armed Conflict says the United Nations and the Plateforme coalition of armed movements in Mali signed new action plans by which the latter committed to release all child recruits, end military use of schools, and guarantee unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to all children.
Weather-related disasters have risen five-fold since 1970, killing $2 million people, mostly in developing countries, and causing $3.64 trillion in losses, the World Meteorological Organization reported today. However, the number of deaths fell significantly thanks to better early warning systems and disaster management.
The United Nations observed the first International Day of People of African Descent on 31 August. The Secretary-General said the Day is a long overdue recognition of the profound injustices and systemic discrimination that people of African descent have endured for centuries, and celebrates their contributions to every field of human endeavour.
At least 527 civilians were killed, injured, abducted or just disappeared, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) says in its quarterly report on trends in human rights violations and abuses, an overall increase of more than 25 per cent from the first quarter.
A devastating combination of a severe drought – the worst in 40 years – sandstorms and pest infestations have led to crop losses of up to 60 per cent in Madagascar, where the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Grand Sud. People have resorted to eating locusts, raw red cactus fruits or wild leaves.