Libya

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.

Marking International Day of the Girl, Zimbabwe Resident Coordinator Maria Ribeiro called for the protection of girls who are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 compared to boys. Girls in Zimbabwe also face myriad challenges, including fewer opportunities in education and, for females under 24, a third of maternal deaths.

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 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today said that they remain deeply concerned about the ongoing hostilities along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, calling on all sides to immediately end the fighting and respect international human rights and humanitarian law.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the high-level event on Libya, in New York today:

Condemning all migrant smuggling and human trafficking off the coast of Libya today, the Security Council renewed for another year its authorization for Member States to inspect vessels outside that country’s territorial waters, when there are reasonable grounds to believe they are participating in those illicit activities.

Without aid, more than 5 million people in Somalia could face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020 due to the combined effects of flooding, the desert locust infestation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, among other challenges, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A planetary emergency is upon us, driven by the dual threats of the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse, the Secretary-General said in a video message today, to leaders who took part in the virtual Pledge for Nature.  He added that we have failed to meet any of the biodiversity targets set in Japan 10 years ago.

Devastating flooding along the White Nile River has affected some 625,000 people in South Sudan since July, United Nations humanitarian officials in that country report.  The United Nations and partners are providing food, temporary shelter, fishing kits, water purification tablets, medicine and other supplies.

The Human Rights Council held an urgent debate on conditions in Belarus, with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement, noting the continuation of mass demonstrations and expressing alarm over hundreds of claims of torture and ill treatment while in police custody.  She urged authorities to facilitate independent, prompt and impartial investigations.