Humanitarian issues

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered, at the Horn of Africa Pledging event, in New York today:

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ high-level pledging event on the Horn of Africa today raised $2.4 billion. The Secretary-General said action is urgently needed to prevent crises in the region — which are threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people — from turning into catastrophe.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that at least 573,000 children under the age of five are at risk of suffering from malnutrition in Malawi. UNICEF noted that the country is still grappling with the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Freddy, with over 650,000 people internally displaced.

In Sudan, the World Food Programme says it has now reached over 300,000 people since restarting emergency food distributions there two weeks ago. Two cargo planes from the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service carrying critical supplies for United Nations agencies and aid partners have arrived in Port Sudan.

Amidst a steady influx of people to Vakaga prefecture from Sudan, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is maintaining a temporary presence in the village of Tiringoulou following recent attacks against Central African defence forces.

While intensive discussions are ongoing to secure an extension and improvements to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, rising attacks on civilians are impacting humanitarian aid, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as speakers took stock of the ongoing fallout of the war on Ukraine which is inching past the fifteenth month mark.

Two months after Tropical Cyclone Freddy devastated Malawi, United Nations agencies continue to support the Government-led response. While humanitarian assistance has reached 1.4 million people, more funding is needed to continue this work and the flash appeal — only 21 per cent funded — is asking for $116 million.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today issued a fact-finding report on Mali which concluded that there are strong indications that more than 500 people were killed in March 2022 by Malian troops and foreign military personnel in the village of Moura in the Mopti region of central Mali.

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

In Somalia, the United Nations and the Government have just unveiled a revamped multi-donor trust fund in support of the country’s development priorities. The Somalia Joint Fund will provide flexible funding to address key challenges facing the country and its people.