Noon Briefings

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen said that negotiations held in Oman over the weekend led to a significant breakthrough, where the Yemeni parties reached an understanding on releasing Mohamed Qahtan, a prominent politician who has been held incommunicado by the Houthis since 2015.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that 311 weapons collected from former combatants were handed over to the Government on Tuesday as part of the National Programme for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Repatriation.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has started a joint operation with the Congolese Armed Forces to protect civilians in the Madombo and Itendey areas of Ituri Province, respectively controlled by the Zaire and CODECO armed groups.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lázaro, met over the weekend with 13 mayors of the Al Qalaa Union representing communities in the south-west to discuss the situation due to the ongoing exchanges of fire along the Blue Line and its severe impact on the local population.

Burkina Faso is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with 6.3 million people in need of support and protection, but the $935 million Humanitarian Response Plan for 2024 is only 17 per cent funded. The UN and its partners are working supporting Government efforts to meet immediate needs.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says its operations are being severely hindered by the escalation of fighting in south and central Gaza, as well as the limited flow of humanitarian assistance and the lack of public order and safety in the south. Despite this, WFP has reached more than 766,000 people in Gaza with food in June.

Just 18 per cent of the $48.7 billion needed to humanitarian aid worldwide this year has been received, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. The consequences are particularly acute in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Honduras, Mali, Myanmar and Sudan.

Following the completion of a technical assessment, the Secretariat of the United Nations has responded positively to a request of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to deploy a UN Panel of Electoral Experts for the July 2024 presidential elections there.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today said it is stepping up support to assist some 8,000 Rohingya refugees who were affected on Wednesday by landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh.

Heavy flooding and landslides that hit Mexico and Central America earlier this week and 75 centimetres of rain is expected by week’s end, according to the UN’s humanitarian colleagues. More funding for the humanitarian response is needed, particularly as the 2024 response plans for region remain severely underfunded.