Israel

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

Despite steady progress against tuberculosis in many countries before the COVID-19 pandemic — with a 9 per cent reduction in incidence and a 14 per cent drop in deaths between 2015 and 2019 — a World Health Organization report released today warns that global prevention and treatment targets are likely to be missed.

There has been a dramatic rise in major storms, drought, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events over the last 20 years, which have claimed 1.23 million lives, impacted 4.2 billion people and caused almost $3 trillion in global economic losses, according to a report published today by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The United Nations human rights office called today for urgent action to address the dire situation of migrants attempting to cross the central Mediterranean Sea in search of safety in Europe, and to tackle the shocking conditions they face in Libya, at sea, and frequently, upon their reception in Europe.

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

A record 13.4 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger need humanitarian assistance and protection, as fast-growing crises spread across the Central Sahel region.  The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the number of internally displaced people has grown 20-fold to 1.4 million in less than two years.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are helping the Government of Cambodia with distance learning programmes for the more than 3 million students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following explosions in Beirut on 4 August, the United Nations is requesting $565 million to help Lebanon move towards recovery and reconstruction.  Peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are also donating blood and have joined the “#UN4Beirut” initiative to clean up devastated city streets.

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

The new Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, presented his credentials to the Secretariat today.