The Food and Agriculture Organization said it is working to bolster the global response to the Fall Armyworm, considered one of the top 10 devastating plant pests, which places at risk up to 80 million metric tons of maize worth $18 billion per year in Africa, Asia and the Near East.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that if greenhouse gas emissions are not drastically reduced, all of the world’s coral reefs will bleach by the end of the century, and calls for even more urgent action to limit ocean temperature rise.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports it is providing supplies such as mosquito nets, solar lamps, and blankets for 36,000 people in Somalia’s Puntland region who have been affected by Cyclone Gati, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the country, which made landfall in November.
The head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan told the Security Council that Afghanistan and the Taliban made genuine progress in peace talks, agreeing to rules and procedures; forming a working committee to discuss the agenda; and presenting each other initial lists of topics for negotiations.
As Tropical Cyclone Yasa has intensified into a Category 5 storm and is expected to make landfall in Fiji on Friday morning, the United Nations office in Suva reports that it is liaising closely with the Government and stands ready to support national emergency response efforts.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayeh and Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Lucia Elmi launched a $417 million Humanitarian Response Plan to help 1.8 million people over the coming year. The latest assessment found that 2.45 million Palestinians - 47 per cent of the population - need aid.
Ethiopia is facing dire shortages of food, water, fuel, cash and electricity, as well as telecoms services in the Tigray region, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 63,000 people are recorded as internally displaced in Tigray, including some who fled towards Afar and Amhara.
Children make up nearly half the people who have fled Ethiopia’s Tigray region for Sudan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports. Their most urgent needs are clean water and sanitation, as well as child-protection and gender-based violence services for the most vulnerable and at-risk refugees, the agency says.
This morning, David Beasley, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Executive Director, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on his organization’s behalf. With 270 million people approaching starvation and only $5 billion needed to save 30 million from famine, he said, in the Nobel spirit of peace and brotherhood, let’s feed them all.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon reports that a contingent of the Mission’s Force Commander Reserve unit distributed 4,000 educational kits to 30 schools and started renovations to school buildings in southern Lebanon. Also delivered were 1 million masks, half a billion N95 masks with respirators and almost 50 ventilators, among other items.