Middle East

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.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over continuing arrests and apparently arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders and activists in Saudi Arabia.  Since 15 May, at least 15 Government critics have been detained, their whereabouts unknown, in some cases, amid a serious lack of transparency.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep alarm today at persistent reports of human rights violations and abuses in Cameroon’s English‑speaking north‑west and south‑west regions, as well as in the extreme north.  He said it is regrettable that the Government failed to grant the Human Rights Office access to the two regions despite repeated requests.

The outbreak of a new conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is “almost a certainty” unless the international community gets to work immediately to ease tensions on the ground, without losing sight of the broader aim of a sustainable peace, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today.

At the Global Disability Summit in London, the Deputy Secretary-General said that Governments’ commitments often does not translate into major improvements for the 1.5 billion persons with disabilities across the world, adding that the United Nations has launched a review of its approach, institutionally and operationally, to disabilities.