Health

In Chad, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Thomas Fletcher has allocated $2.5 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to urgently respond to the massive influx of refugees and returnees in the east of the country from Sudan. This brings CERF's total allocation to Chad this year to $16 million.

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, yesterday and today, Israeli authorities granted access to Kerem Shalom so that UN teams could reach additional humanitarian supplies that crossed into the Strip on Monday and Tuesday.

Today in Geneva, Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) formally adopted by consensus the world’s first Pandemic Agreement. The landmark decision culminates more than three years of intensive negotiations launched by Governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the seventy-eighth World Health Assembly, in Geneva, Switzerland, today:

Israeli authorities have temporarily allowed the UN to resume limited aid delivery into Gaza following 11 weeks of complete blockade, and amid a spike in the military offensive, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said today.

In Syria, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 670,000 people have been displaced since November 2024, while over 1 million people have returned to their areas of origin. Meanwhile, the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid across the country despite reduced funding.

In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that air strikes on 6 May and today resulted in further civilian casualties across the country. The attacks, in the cities of Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, killed 6 civilians and injured nearly 30 others, including 10 children, and damaged homes.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees is gravely concerned by the rapidly increasing number of Sudanese refugees crossing into eastern Chad due to escalating violence in Sudan’s North Darfur region, with nearly 20,000 people — mostly women and children — arriving in the past two weeks alone.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that there’s been an increase in the number of vulnerable individuals among those deported from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, particularly women — including pregnant and lactating women.

In Somalia, flash floods have impacted nearly 30,000 people in different parts of the country. Authorities say at least four people have been killed in the past week. Humanitarian officials note that the rains come after months of dry conditions that decimated water sources and grazing land.