Myanmar

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the joint response plan for the Rohingya refugee crisis, in Geneva today:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is increasingly alarmed at the plight of thousands of Central African refugees who have fled to southern Chad since late 2017.  The influx is the biggest since 2014, and is overwhelming the ability of humanitarian agencies to respond.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued protection guidance encouraging States to ensure that Venezuelans seeking asylum had access to territory and refugee procedures. Given the situation in Venezuela, the High Commissioner said it was crucial that people were not deported or forcibly returned.

Humanitarian operations in Iraq are contracting in 2018 versus last year, when 6.2 million people were targeted with assistance.  The 2018 humanitarian response plan, launched on 6 March, seeks $569 million to assist 3.4 million highly vulnerable people struggling in the aftermath of the conflict with Da’esh.

The Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index for February found that rising world prices for staple grains and dairy products more than offset lower prices for vegetable oils, leading global food commodity prices up 1.1 per cent.  FAO also lowered projections for global wheat harvests this year.

The United Nations takes note of the recent decision by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign, to “allow further political reforms to take place in the country aimed at widening democratic space”.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have agreed with the United Nations on the modalities to transfer, by the end of March, $930 million in support of the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, according to Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock.

More than five months since the start of the violence that forced 688,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar into Bangladesh, a dangerous new crisis loomed, while restrictions on humanitarian access to the conflict areas posed a serious concern, the Security Council heard today, as it was briefed on the most recent developments in the region.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that ongoing violence in the Central African Republic has pushed forced displacement to the highest levels since the start of the crisis in 2013.  Data as of the end of December show that 688,700 people were displaced internally.

The United Nations in Myanmar is following with concern the reports of violent clashes between the police and protesters in Rakhine State.  The United Nations Office urges respect for the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and calls for the security forces and demonstrators to act with restraint.