Lebanon

The United Nations continues to support countries in the Caribbean that have been impacted by Hurricane Beryl. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that most of the health facilities assessed in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are now operational, despite sustaining damage.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen said that negotiations held in Oman over the weekend led to a significant breakthrough, where the Yemeni parties reached an understanding on releasing Mohamed Qahtan, a prominent politician who has been held incommunicado by the Houthis since 2015.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lázaro, met over the weekend with 13 mayors of the Al Qalaa Union representing communities in the south-west to discuss the situation due to the ongoing exchanges of fire along the Blue Line and its severe impact on the local population.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today said it is stepping up support to assist some 8,000 Rohingya refugees who were affected on Wednesday by landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh.

Heavy flooding and landslides that hit Mexico and Central America earlier this week and 75 centimetres of rain is expected by week’s end, according to the UN’s humanitarian colleagues. More funding for the humanitarian response is needed, particularly as the 2024 response plans for region remain severely underfunded.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is ramping up its food and nutrition assistance programme in West and Central Africa, targeting 7.3 million people during the ongoing June to August lean season.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warns that the humanitarian nightmare in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, in Sudan, is worsening by the hour, stressing that civilians must be protected, aid must be able to reach them and the fighting must stop now.

In the Sahel, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that nearly 33 million men, women and children in the region need life-saving assistance and protection.

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

In Ukraine, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that attacks on Kharkiv, in the east of the country, continued over the weekend and today. Local authorities report civilian casualties, including among children, and damage to civilian infrastructure.