Libya

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

The United Nations mission in the Central African Republic says investigations are ongoing in Bria (in Haute Kotto prefecture), where United Nations police arrested an anti‑Balaka leader suspected of involvement in an attack on a Formed Police Unit patrol that resulted in the death of a peacekeeper last December.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator today released $30 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently scale up relief efforts in the Sahel, where an acute drought, combined with exceptionally high food prices and worsening insecurity, has escalated humanitarian needs.

In a report published today, the United Nations Human Rights Office and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya say violence continues to have a devastating impact on health care in the country with hospitals and other medical facilities bombed, shelled and looted; medical personnel targeted; and patients attacked.

Briefing the Security Council on Libya’s complex security and political situation today, the senior United Nations official in that country emphasized that beneath both its challenges and emerging bright spots lay the population’s urgent desire to leave nearly a decade of violence and instability behind.

The World Health Organization and partners are supporting the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in preparing to vaccinate high‑risk populations against Ebola.  Health workers operating in affected areas are being vaccinated today and community outreach has started to prepare for the ring vaccination.

The Central Emergency Response Fund allocated $1.26 million for Gaza today to support the rapid procurement of essential medical supplies and their distribution to critical hospitals providing trauma care.

Despite significant progress in the International Criminal Court’s investigation of crimes committed within Libya in 2011 — including its first visit to the country in five years, in March 2018 — the cause of criminal justice would be undermined unless accused perpetrators were handed over, the Chief Prosecutor told the Security Council today.

Due to continuing hostilities and military operations in Syria’s Afrin District, some 126,000 men, women and children remain displaced, from Afrin to Tall Refaat, Nabul, Zahraa, Fafin and other areas.  Also, an estimated 150,000 people continue to be in Afrin District, where access to people in need remains extremely limited.

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