Libya

Exceptional and prolonged heat in Siberia has fuelled devastating Arctic fires, the World Meteorological Organization said today, noting that temperatures in Siberia again topped 30°C this week.  The heat will influence weather and climate in lower latitudes, where hundreds of millions of people live, it warned.

The local de facto authorities in Yemen have officially communicated to the United Nations their approval for a UN-led technical assessment and repair mission on board the oil tanker Safer off the coast of Ras Isa.  The experts will advise on any remaining measures that would be needed to avoid a catastrophic oil spill.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council open video-teleconference meeting on the situation in Libya, in New York today:

In June, 921,000 people were forced to leave Burkina Faso, making it the site of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises.  Increased insecurity has also made humanitarian access more difficult, with the number of people in need of assistance jumping to 2.9 million people, from 2.2 million in January.

With foreign interference surging, front lines between combatants shifting, tens of thousands fleeing their homes and the threat of COVID-19 looming large, a negotiated solution to the crisis in Libya — now in its tenth year — is more urgent than ever, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council in a 8 July videoconference meeting dedicated to the situation in the North African country.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that it is providing tents, water, tanks and toilets to the more than 3,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that arrived in north-western Uganda last week during a temporary opening of two border crossing points.

In Kenya, the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched cash transfers and nutrition support for nearly 280,000 people struggling to survive from the impact of the virus on informal settlements in Nairobi.

For the Syria crisis response, the international community has pledged $5.5 billion to support humanitarian, resilience and development activities in 2020, plus $2.2 billion in 2021 and beyond, demonstrating a clear commitment to continue supporting those most affected and ensuring aid agencies are able to plan ahead.

An estimated 4.1 million girls will be subjected to female genital mutilation this year and if programmes and services stay shut for six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that figure will reach 6.1 million by 2030, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s “State of World Population 2020” report issued today.

In Nepal, the United Nations team is helping the Government cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting the repatriation of Nepali migrants returning from the Gulf and Southeast Asia at entry and transit points, with quarantine sites and isolation centres.  Some 25,000 returnees are expected in this first phase.