Jordan

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres flew from Cairo to Jordan on Sunday, 24 March. He arrived in Amman in the evening.

The United Nations Development Programme, launching their policy brief, “The Human Cost of Inaction: Poverty, Social Protection and Debt Servicing, 2020–2023”, and noting that an 165 million additional people fell into poverty as a result of the cumulative crisis, proposed a “debt-poverty pause” for developing economies.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Sheri Ritsema-Anderson of the United States as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Jordan, with the host Government’s approval.

Before leaving Kyiv today, the Secretary-General said that, while he would keep pushing for a full-scale ceasefire, the United Nations would also keep striving for immediate practical steps to save lives and reduce human suffering, including through local cessation of hostilities and safe passage for civilian and supply routes.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said that, in September, it started delivering emergency relief food assistance to communities in regions bordering war-torn Tigray.  According to WFP, across Ethiopia, more than 13.6 million people are estimated to be food insecure due to a number of factors.

The new Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The Federal Government of Somalia, in consultation with the United Nations, declared a drought on 25 April, with moderate to severe drought conditions impacting 80 per cent of the country.  Seasonal rains then began in late April and early May, triggering flash flooding that impacted 400,000 people, of whom 101,300 were displaced.

In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports.  The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.

The World Health Organization warned today of the threat that COVID-19 poses to health workers across Africa, with more than 10,000 in 40 countries having been infected with the virus so far.  The warning comes as COVID-19 cases in Africa appear to be gathering pace, with more than 750,000 cases and over 15,000 deaths.

Without mitigation efforts, COVID-19-related service disruptions could result in more than 500,000 extra deaths from tuberculosis, HIV and other AIDS-related illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa from 2020 to 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said today.