The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a level not seen in 800,000 years, rising at record speed in 2016. The WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported that globally averaged carbon dioxide concentrations reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400 parts per million in 2015 due to human activities and a strong El Niño.
Myanmar
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the parties to the Syrian conflict to allow badly needed food and medical supplies to get into Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, where at least 350,000 civilians remain besieged.
Humanitarian colleagues in Syria are deeply concerned about the situation for civilians in East Ghouta where children are reportedly suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The last United Nations inter-agency convoy reached the besieged enclave on 23 September with assistance for 25,000 people.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is increasingly concerned by escalating displacement in several key regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 3.9 million people are internally displaced and the challenges of getting aid to people in need are growing fast.
It will take more than 100 years to end child marriage in West and Central Africa at current rates of reduction, UNICEF reported today. The new projections, released during a high-level meeting on ending child marriage in Dakar, Senegal, this week, aim to bring the spotlight on the region where girls face the highest risk of marrying in childhood.
Approximately 589,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since 25 August, with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) saying today that nearly 7,000 Rohingya refugees have been admitted to Bangladesh after being stranded at the border for up to four days.
Irina Bokova, Executive Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, condemned today the killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta yesterday. She welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge to ensure justice in the crime against the right of free expression.
The Secretary-General, expressing his solidarity with the people of Somalia after the brutal attacks in Mogadishu, said he was disgusted by the unprecedented violence. He urged all Somalis to unite in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism and work together in building a functional and inclusive federal State.
With today marking one year since the start of the military campaign to retake Mosul from Da’esh, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq said that of the 1 million people who fled the city, some 673,000 are still displaced. She noted that the number of people who fled exceeded the worst-case projections of aid workers.
Concluding a visit to the Central African Republic, Adama Dieng, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, told press in Bangui that those responsible for atrocities and those instrumental in inciting ethnic and religious hatred would be held responsible and would have to face justice.