Haiti

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

The World Meteorological Organization reports that the recent heatwave in Canada and the United States had major impacts on people, animals and vegetation, and that so many records were broken in June regarding high temperatures worldwide that it was hard to keep track.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Nicolas de Rivière (France):

Amid deteriorating socioeconomic conditions and a lingering political impasse, political and civil society leaders in Haiti must ensure that parliamentary and presidential elections take place within the current calendar year to enable an orderly democratic transfer of power in February 2022, experts told the Security Council today.

Hanaa Singer, Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka – alongside the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Union — facilitated the rapid deployment today of experts to help with marine litter and environmental impact assessment work related to the sinking of the 'MV X-Press Pearl' cargo ship.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis shows that 350,000 people are facing catastrophic conditions of hunger in Tigray, Ethiopia — the highest number of people classified in a “phase 5 catastrophe” in a single country in the last decade.  WFP increased food distribution to reach 1.4 million people.

The Security Council expressed its deep concern today at the political and multiple other protracted crises in Haiti, urging stakeholders to set aside their differences and calling upon them to prepare for free, fair, transparent and credible presidential elections later in 2021.

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.

The number of civilians killed and injured in Afghanistan rose following the start of peace negotiations in September, according to report released today by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Organization’s human rights office.  The country remains among the deadliest for civilians.

A tense political crisis, shrinking civic space and chronic development deficits are exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions in Haiti, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council in a videoconference meeting today, while calling on international partners to support crucial elections scheduled for later in 2021.