The Security Council today encouraged Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume negotiations, at the invitation of the African Union Chairperson, on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project, with a view to finalizing the text of a mutually acceptable agreement on filling and operating the dam “within a reasonable time frame”.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) announced today a decision by the Secretariat to repatriate all Gabonese military units, effective immediately, following credible reports of sexual abuse by Gabon’s contingent deployed to the Mission.
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.
Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ press conference, held in New York today:
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 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.
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.
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.
The unity of Ethiopia and regional stability beyond its borders are at stake, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned the Security Council today as it met to discuss the spread of the military confrontation in that country and the attendant humanitarian catastrophe.
