Nicaragua

In Burkina Faso, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator today has allocated $5.9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to address the most urgent needs of displaced people in the country. The new funding will be used to scale up life-saving assistance including food and shelter.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, an elementary school was demolished days before the start of the new school year. It served pupils from the few Palestinian families remaining in the herding community of Ein Samiya, following the displacement of most amid settler violence and diminishing grazing land.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths today announced an extra $25 million grant to boost aid efforts and address urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of people in the earthquake-stricken parts of Syria. Some 130 search and rescue teams are working in affected areas in Türkiye; another 57 teams are on their way.

After back-to-back droughts in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) is expanding its assistance as levels of hunger soar. Since the start of the year, 9 million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today said the number of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers in Costa Rica has doubled in the last eight months, reaching more than 150,000 people.  This represents 3 per cent of Costa Rica’s total population of 5 million.

Amid the continued humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it provided food to nearly 150,000 people and cash assistance to 6,000 on 14 December.  Some 100 food shops and other businesses have closed in Jalalabad city due to currency devaluation and high food and commodity prices.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regained access to two refugee camps previously cut off by clashes in Ethiopia’s Tigray Province.  It is calling for urgent support amid rising displacement, as well as safe passage to transfer refugees to a safer site, 135 kilometres away.

The onset of winter — compounded by the devastating effects of the coronavirus — poses a direct threat to the health and livelihoods of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, nearly 2 million of whom have settled in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.

In Nicaragua, UNICEF and its partners have prepositioned emergency supplies and developed a joint response plan to address the needs of families impacted by Hurricane Eta, including 10,000 people evacuated from the northern coast, while the World Food Programme has positioned 80 metric tons of food assistance in the region.