Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary‑General Amina J. Mohammed’s video message to the Ministerial Performance Review retreat, in Nigeria, on 4 October:

In Nigeria, the World Food Programme today warned that it might cut food aid as early as next month to more than 500,000 people in the north‑east unless it receives at least $55 million in urgent funding.  The cuts come as severe hunger reaches a five-year high due to years of conflict and worsened by COVID-19.

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.

Humanitarian officials warn that, without sustained funding, millions of people in in north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states will struggle to feed themselves during the lean season due to conflict, COVID-19, high food prices and the effects of climate change.

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to Osun State University panel on “Social cohesion, equity and sustainability:  Time for unity in action”, in Nigeria on 14 July:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is warning today that, without urgent funding, the displacement crisis in the north of Mozambique could become a hunger emergency.  Displacement has left at least 730,000 people in Cabo Delgado without access to their land and no means of earning a living.

Clashes in northern Mozambique are driving one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), says with the number of people who have fled their homes in Cabo Delgado having surged by nearly 650 per cent in 2020, and more than 732,000 people currently displaced.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it has received alarming reports of clashes between insurgent groups and Nigeria’s Armed Forces in Dikwa in Borno state, as well as those involving armed groups and military personnel attacking and harassing internally displaced people living in camps.

The United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste have launched a $32 million joint appeal to provide food, shelter, water and sanitation to some 65,000 people impacted by flooding in April.  Nearly 34,000 homes were destroyed amid a strict COVID-19 lockdown in the capital, Dili, which has seen a surge in cases.   

Secretary-General António Guterres praised the impactful first decade of the “Every Woman Every Child” campaign, which mobilized more than $180 billion in investments.  While maternal and child deaths have declined significantly in that time, he cautioned that COVID-19 has revealed the fragility of those advances.