Libya

In strife-torn Sabratha, Libya, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and World Food Programme are delivering urgently humanitarian aid in and around the city.  Fierce fighting in recent weeks has left 3,000 Libyan families displaced and more than 10,000 refugees stranded.

Concluding a visit to the Central African Republic, Adama Dieng, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, told press in Bangui that those responsible for atrocities and those instrumental in inciting ethnic and religious hatred would be held responsible and would have to face justice.

The Security Council this morning endorsed a new Action Plan for the resumption of an inclusive Libyan-owned political process under the facilitation and leadership of the United Nations.

The number of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar and arrived in Bangladesh in the past month has reached 436,000.  Aid agencies have reached more than 80 per cent of these people with food aid and are scaling up their support.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks on the launch of the United Nations strategy on Libya at the high-level event on Libya, in New York today:

The Security Council decided unanimously today to extend the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) until 15 September 2018 as an integrated special political mission.

Amid a host of security, economic and governance challenges, a “window of opportunity” had emerged in Libya — home to the United Nations largest diplomatic mission — and it was up to its people to seize it, stressed the Organization’s top official in the country as he briefed the Security Council today.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is delivering emergency supplies to some 200,000 people in northwest Bangladesh after massive floods inundated more than half the country.  Many survivors have lost everything.  Nearly 7 million people have been affected by the floods; more than 580,000 hectares of crop land has been destroyed.

Welcoming a $1 million contribution from the United States in support of Western Sahara refugees in Algeria, the World Food Programme said today it will use the funds to provide staple food items as part of monthly food rations for thousands of refugee families living in extremely harsh conditions for more than 40 years.

Aid workers in Iraq are preparing to bring water, hygiene, sanitation, food and emergency medical care to those in need ahead of the anticipated military campaign to retake the Da’esh-held town of Telafar, some 60 kilometres west of Mosul.  Some 60,000 people are believed to remain trapped in the city and its environs.