Middle East

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) reports that following negotiations it dismantled a militia camp set up by the CODECO armed group in a school in Fataki, in Ituri Province. Nearly 450 students that had been forced to relocate can now return to school for the upcoming year.

In Zimbabwe, 7.6 million people are at risk of acute hunger due to a historic El Niño-induced drought that has destroyed over half of the harvest. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and aid partners are supporting Government efforts to help affected communities and build long-term resilience.

At least 53 Palestinian detainees are known to have died in Israeli military facilities and prisons since last October, according to a UN human rights office report published today on arbitrary, prolonged and incommunicado detentions, impacting thousands of Palestinians, including UN staff.

Alarmed by this morning’s killing of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which comes on the heels of several recent escalatory events in the Middle East, the UN top political affairs official called today for diplomatic efforts to change the region’s trajectory towards peace and stability.

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

Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya has allocated $5.3 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to support some 195,000 vulnerable Sudanese refugees and host communities in Libya. More than 15 months of conflict in Sudan has forced one fifth of the country’s population to flee.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 200,000 people — that is about 9 per cent of Gaza’s current population — have now been displaced over the last week in the wake of evacuation orders issued by the Israel Defense Forces.

Decrying legislative and physical attacks against the United Nations agency providing the backbone for the humanitarian response in Gaza, two senior UN officials urged the Security Council today to act in the face of flagrant violation of international humanitarian law in the Strip, as Council members discussed ways to address the catastrophe unfolding there.

In Ethiopia, since 23 July, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs have been on the ground in areas impacted by the landslide. The Organization, along with its partners, are already dispatching assistance, including food, nutrition, health and other critical supplies.

Following is the statement of the Bureau of the General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People: