Health

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on World AIDS Day, observed on 1 December:

United Nations officials in Myanmar report worsening humanitarian conditions due to conflict, political instability and COVID-19 since the military seized control of the Government in February.  More than 230,000 people have been displaced since then, with food running desperately short in some host communities.

In Belarus, an Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) team has been granted limited access to the Polish border, where it delivered aid with help from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).  The agencies are advocating to move people to safer locations away from the border.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 8.7 million people are at risk of facing famine-like conditions in Afghanistan, with an additional 14.1 million facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity.  Conflict has displaced more than 600,000 people and the country is experiencing drought following a poor rainy season.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore voiced deep concern over reports that child marriage in Afghanistan is on the rise, with families offering daughters as young as 20 days old for future marriage in return for a dowry.  Some 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15–49 were married before 18.

Mahamat Annadif, the Secretary‑General’s Special Representative for West Africa, and Foreign Minister of Guinea, Morissanda Kouyaté, launched a new initiative to facilitate an inclusive transition in Guinea by fostering reconciliation at national and community levels and increasing participation of women and all communities.

In Yemen, the United Nations and partners continue to provide life-saving aid to thousands of civilians on both sides of the front lines in Ma’rib, Al Bayda and Shabwah since fighting escalated in these governorates in September, amid calls by the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, for de-escalation.

The global level of undernourishment increased sharply last year, under the shadow of the COVID‑19 pandemic, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s annual Statistical Yearbook, released today.  Nearly 10 per cent of the world’s population suffered from hunger in 2020, up from 8.4 per cent in 2019.

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

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the situation in the northern part of Ethiopia is rapidly deteriorating, amid fighting in and around Dessie and Kombolcha in the Amhara region, which led to large-scale displacement and increasing humanitarian needs.  The two towns were already hosting a large number of displaced people from nearby areas.