Middle East

The United Nations team in Myanmar remains alarmed by deteriorating humanitarian conditions amid continued fighting, particularly in the country’s south-east and north-west.  Across Myanmar, more than 900,000 people are displaced, including more than 560,000 people who remain uprooted since the military takeover in February 2021.

As Ramadan begins, the soaring cost of food staples in import-dependent Middle Eastern and North African countries is creating ever greater challenges for millions of families already struggling to keep hunger at bay, the World Food Programme said, warning that millions will struggle to buy even basic foods.

Speakers in the Security Council today denounced Israel’s continued settlement activities, evictions and demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures, as the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process expressed regret that there had been “little progress” made by the sides in upholding obligations under the landmark resolution 2334 (2016).

Stephanie Williams, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Libya, welcomed in Tunis today members of the High Council of State, who will participate in determining the constitutional basis for national elections.  It is extremely important to respect the will of 2.8 million registered Libyan voters, she said.

Some 175,000 people in Ethiopia have been displaced from their homes due to the drought ravaging the Horn of Africa, and over 1.5 million cows and other livestock are estimated to have died, humanitarian affairs officials say.  The drought also displaced 670,000 men, women and children in neighbouring Somalia.

Some 14.6 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance in 2022, the Syria Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2022 says, 9 per cent more than in 2021.  More households are turning to negative ways of coping, including child labour, child marriage and the sale of productive assets.

In a Security Council meeting on the Middle East peace process today, delegates urged Israel to scrap its plan to evict Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, arguing that it would undercut prospects for a two-State solution.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the opening meeting of the 2022 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York today:

Intensified efforts are urgently needed to resolve the Israel-Palestine situation with a view to reaching the overall goal of two States living side by side in peace and security, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said today at the first formal meeting of the Palestinian Rights Committee in 2022.

In Tonga, following the volcanic eruption, humanitarian colleagues report that over 80 per cent of the population have been impacted by the disaster, with three confirmed fatalities to date.  Relief efforts are scaling up, including by the United Nations Children’s Fund, but it is difficult to reach remote areas.