Today, two inter-agency convoys, facilitated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, delivered medicine, emergency shelter kits, blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene kits and solar lamps to 5,000 residents in two towns in the southern Khersonska oblast that had been heavily impacted by fighting.
In progress at UNHQ
Middle East
Leaders on all sides of the Palestinian question must help lower the flames of tension and maintain the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, the Organization’s senior peace official appealed during his address to the Security Council today.
The Security Council today decided to renew the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan for six months, until 30 June 2023, while requesting the Secretary-General to ensure that it has the capacity and resources needed to fulfil its mandate in a safe and secure manner.
The United Nations country team in South Africa is working with authorities to respond to the recent measles outbreak, including 245 confirmed cases, almost 75 per cent of them children under the age of nine. With funding from Germany and Japan, UNICEF is procuring equipment that will benefit approximately 2,000 health facilities.
The deepening occupation, increase in violence and absence of a political horizon have empowered extremists and are eroding hope, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process told the Security Council today as he called on all parties to undertake concrete steps that will change the negative trajectory on the ground.
Against a background of increasing violence, shrinking civil society space and creeping annexation, speakers at a special meeting of the Palestinian Rights Committee to observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People stressed the need to mobilize efforts to hold Israel accountable, including through the International Court of Justice.
Warning that current trends could worsen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, briefing the Security Council today, called on all parties to rein in violence and incitement and, together with the international community, take urgent steps towards achieving the two-State solution.
In Ethiopia, the Government, United Nations and non-governmental organizations aid deliveries have been begun arriving in Tigray, with more than 450 trucks carrying food aid, medical supplies and agricultural supplies. As well, humanitarian flights for staff have also resumed for Mekelle and have started for Shire.
The World Food Programme’s Executive Director went to Venezuela, where he met with President Nicolas Maduro and visited the Araya peninsula in Sucre state, where the Programme has been providing school meals since July and where over 430,000 children and their families receive food rations delivered to schools in eight states.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed on 29 November: