In progress at UNHQ

Humanitarian issues


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The Security Council today failed to reauthorize use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria, unable to pass either of two competing resolutions that would have kept open a critical lifeline to more than 4.1 million people in the country’s north-west, many of whom were forcibly displaced by violence during the 11-year war.

In South Africa, Acting Resident Coordinator, Ayodele Odusola and her team are focused on rebuilding the KwaZulu-Natal province and, in response to the pandemic, providing more than $750,000 in assistance and technical support and working with authorities through the district development model to improve social services.

In Afghanistan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement to provide funds for housing and infrastructure in Khost and Paktika Province.  The programme will assist families impacted by the earthquake there.

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With humanitarian needs worsening and hostilities escalating in Syria, the Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today that renewing the resolution authorizing cross-border humanitarian aid into Syria was absolutely essential to saving lives and would support efforts towards a political solution to the conflict.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations today addressed the 2022 Ocean Conference opening ceremony, along with the leaders of the two co-hosting nations, Portugal and Kenya, warning that the world’s failure to care for the ocean will have ripple effects across the entire 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs allocated $4 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to respond to the crisis in Mali’s Ménaka region, where armed clashes since March have killed hundreds of people and triggered the displacement of an estimated 56,000 people, nearly two‑thirds of them women and children.