Despite emergency support from dozens of partners, the United Nations agency charged with providing health care, education and other basic services to some 5 million Palestine refugees will soon lose its ability to carry out much of its critical work, the director of the agency’s New York office told the Palestinian Rights Committee today.
In Gaza, Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick informed donors that the United Nations emergency fuel programme has run out of money. New funds are needed immediately to prevent a potentially catastrophic breakdown in service delivery at health centres, sewage treatment plants, water and sanitation facilities.
Warning that fuel and medicine are in “dangerously short supply” in the Gaza Strip, the senior United Nations political affairs official urged international donors today to boost their aid deliveries, while calling on Israelis and Palestinians to exercise maximum restraint amid the recent spate of violence.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory called on donors to immediately provide funding for emergency fuel to prevent emergency services in the Gaza Strip from shutting down. To ensure that a minimum level of essential services continues through the end of the year, $4.5 million is required.
The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is providing logistical support and the World Health Organization is sending medical supplies and expertise to the Ministry of Health and its partners to facilitate ground operations in response to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu Province.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary‑General António Guterres:
Leading the response to the regional refugee crisis related to the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration have launched regional appeals of $46 million and $32 million respectively to help Governments and host communities.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it is gravely concerned about reports of Zambia’s forced return of a Zimbabwean asylum-seeker to his home country. A senior Zimbabwean politician expressed his intention to seek asylum at the border yesterday, but Zambia reportedly handed him over to Zimbabwe authorities today despite a court order to the contrary.
Emergency fuel stocks at a number of critical health, water and sanitation facilities in the Gaza Strip have almost run out, creating enormous risks for the population, according to United Nations humanitarian personnel. The immediate lack of fuel is due to Israeli restrictions on imports, which also apply to United Nations‑procured emergency fuel.
The Food and Agriculture Organization appealed today for $120 million to reach 3.6 million people urgently requiring humanitarian and agricultural aid. A new FAO report identifies the world’s most underfunded crises, including Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria — all hit by drought — monsoon‑affected Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, as well as Iraq, Myanmar and the Sahel.
