Nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide, about 121 million a year, are unintended, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, warning the Ukraine and other conflicts are expected to drive an increase through disruption of access to contraception and growing sexual violence.

The following statement was issued by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

After a volcanic eruption and tsunami caused significant infrastructure damage in Tonga, the World Food Programme said it is exploring ways to bring in aid and the United Nations Children’s Fund is ready to send emergency water, sanitation and other supplies from warehouses in Fiji and Brisbane.

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.

Today at the G20 environment and energy ministers meeting in Naples, Italy, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, called upon countries to provide the leadership needed to hold the global average temperature rise as close to 1.5°C as possible.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is warning today that, without urgent funding, the displacement crisis in the north of Mozambique could become a hunger emergency.  Displacement has left at least 730,000 people in Cabo Delgado without access to their land and no means of earning a living.

The United Nations country team in Myanmar calls for the immediate release of dozens of journalists who are detained more than three months after the military seized control of the Government.  To date, military authorities have revoked the operating licenses of six Myanmar media outlets; 82 journalists have been arrested, more than half of them are still detained.

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, today released $14 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to provide shelter and emergency services to over 45,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh displaced by a devastating fire which destroyed critical infrastructure in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar.

The World Food Programme said today it has begun providing emergency food aid to vulnerable people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and urgently needs $170 million to meet critical food and nutrition needs over the next six months.  The agency noted that the outbreak of conflict there coincided with the peak harvest period.

More than 119,000 people hit by Tropical Cyclone Amanda in El Salvador need assistance, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, which estimates that $2.2 million will be needed for critical sanitation, shelter and child‑protection support to over 35,000 people in shelters and impacted communities.