Today the World Food Programme announced that the United Arab Emirates will dedicate three aircraft until the end of 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic response, helping the World Health Organization and the global humanitarian community transport life-saving cargo and personnel to more than 100 countries in need.

The World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund are urging Governments to prevent devastating nutrition and health consequences for the 370 million children missing out on school meals as a result of school closures.  The daily lunch at school is the only food for millions of children around the world.

The border area of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has become the epicentre of a fast-growing crisis marked by unprecedented levels of armed violence, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.  Armed assailants have forced more than 3,600 schools and 241 health centres in those countries to close.

Today, a Commission convened by the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund and The Lancet said that no single country is adequately protecting children’s health or their environment to ensure a healthy future, warning that climate change and processed food intake are set to reverse child health gains.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today said it is deeply saddened by reports of the deaths of at least 20 people during a stampede for food and cash in Niger’s Diffa region on Sunday.  The number of victims could rise as more information is received.

Ghassan Salamé, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya,  expressed deep concern to the Security Council today that the truce agreed earlier this month holds only in name.  Fighting and military reinforcements on both sides raise the spectre of a full conflict engulfing the wider region.

The Qatar Fund for Development and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees signed an agreement yesterday under which Qatar will contribute $20.7 million to support Palestine refugees’ access to basic services in Syria.  This contribution brings the Qatar Fund’s total support to the Agency to $40 million.

The United Nations and partner organizations today launched the Humanitarian Response Plan 2020 for South Sudan, requesting $1.5 billion to assist 5.6 million people, particularly women and children whose need for aid remains high despite a relative stable period since the Revitalized Peace Agreement was signed last year.

Today, the United Nations Development Programme released its 2019 Human Development Report on Inequality titled “Beyond Income, Beyond Averages, Beyond Today”, which identifies a new generation of inequalities that are driving the global protests sweeping the world, including the gap in basic living standards.

A group of 66 vulnerable refugees was evacuated from Libya to Rwanda yesterday evening on a flight chartered by the Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the first group to be moved under the Emergency Transit Mechanism established by the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR and the African Union.