The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has received its first shipment of more than 130,000 doses from the global COVAX Facility — the first batch of a total of 480,000 doses to arrive in the country this year to vaccinate approximately 20 per cent of the population.
In progress at UNHQ
Ethiopia
In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports. The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.
Cabo Verde has received 24,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the global COVAX facility – the first of 100,000 doses expected by May – according to United Nations staff in the country, who called the shipment a source of hope and a testimony to global solidarity.
The United Nations and the Government of Iraq today released the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan which seeks $607.2 million in humanitarian aid to assist 1.5 million of the most vulnerable internally displaced people in Iraq and returnees. According to the overview, 4.1 million Iraqis need humanitarian assistance.
Food systems caused more than one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new Food and Agriculture Organization/European Commission study, which says food system emissions are estimated at 34 per cent of the total. Top emitters are China, Indonesia, United States, Brazil, European Union and India.
About 931 million tons of food — or 17 per cent of all food available to consumers in 2019 and roughly equal to 23 million fully loaded 40-ton trucks bumper-to-bumper, enough to circle the Earth seven times — were trashed by households, retailers, restaurants and other food services, a UNEP report says.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya today strongly encouraged the House of Representatives to consider the vote of confidence in the cabinet to be proposed by the Prime Minister-designate. The Mission also said it is not in a position to comment on allegations of bribery during the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.
The United Nations team, led by Resident Coordinator Stefan Priesner, is helping authorities in Malaysia launch a national COVID-19 vaccination programme. More than 500,000 people have registered to receive the vaccine, which aims to reach 80 per cent of the population, 24 million people, by March 2022.
Cabo Verde is among the first African countries to receive the first allocation of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX facility, the United Nations team there reports. In the next few weeks, thanks to additional World Bank funding of $5 million, Cabo Verde will be able to buy vaccines for almost 35 per cent of the population.
The period following the start of Afghanistan’s peace negotiations in September 2020 has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of human rights defenders and media professionals killed in the country, a new report issued today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says.