Mexico

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Allegra Maria del Pilar Baiocchi of Italy as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Mexico, with the host Government’s approval. She took up her post on 15 February.

In Colombia, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with its partners and the Government, launched the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan. Nearly 7 million people need aid this year — roughly one in every eight Colombians — amid conflict between non-State armed groups, which is present in 60 per cent of Colombia’s municipalities.

Nearly 15 million people in Afghanistan — one in every three — will experience high levels of acute food insecurity during the first quarter of 2025. UN humanitarian partners warn that aid funding cuts will cost both lives and livelihoods and undermine development gains.

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.

In Zimbabwe, humanitarian officials say they are concerned over the impact of the drought brought about by El Niño, which last week prompted the country to declare a state of emergency. Authorities in Zimbabwe say that more than 2.7 million people there are facing food insecurity as a result.

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

The new Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations, Héctor Enrique Vasconcelos y Cruz, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

A convoy of five trucks today reached the front-line community of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine where repeated shelling has destroyed or damaged many homes, and delivered shelter materials, solar lamps, medicines and other medical and hygiene supplies to the town’s remaining 3,000 people, one sixth of the population.

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

A new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) finds the cholera outbreak impacting 11 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa is an “emergency for children”. The agency is mobilizing health supplies, safe water and technical support in the region, and is calling for $171 million to protect those in need.