Greece

In Greece, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration are calling for urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea following the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, the worst in several years.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement, noted that by the end of 2022, the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights abuses stood at a record 108 million people, up 19.1 million people from 2021, the biggest increase ever.

The new Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, Evangelos C. Sekeris, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary‑General António Guterres:

We are devastated by the sudden passing of our long-time friend and colleague Reynaldo Naval of the Media Documents Centre.  Rey proudly served the United Nations for 39 years, and we always appreciated his kindness, sunny disposition, dedication and pride in belonging to the Organization.

A record 13.4 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger need humanitarian assistance and protection, as fast-growing crises spread across the Central Sahel region.  The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the number of internally displaced people has grown 20-fold to 1.4 million in less than two years.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are helping the Government of Cambodia with distance learning programmes for the more than 3 million students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners today released a tri-national action plan seeking $10.4 million to support Government responses over the next year to urgent needs in the border area between Colombia, Peru and Brazil, which currently has the world’s highest COVID-19 mortality rates per 100,000 people.

Three new Ebola cases were confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 10 April, with more expected to be identified, as the World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee concluded that the outbreak still constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

The United Nations is following with concern the latest developments in Guyana, particularly allegations that the tabulation of votes from Region 4 was not done according to proper legal procedures, and takes note of statements of concern issued by international observers and ambassadors accredited to Georgetown.