Helsinki, Finland, hosted the inaugural International Symposium on Youth Participation in Peace Processes today, with the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth in attendance. It aims to boost young people ’s participation in efforts to build and sustain peace, even as their contributions remain undervalued.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Humanitarian officials are concerned by reports of civilian casualties in Syria due to both continued hostilities and unexploded ordinance left behind in the country’s north-west. At least four civilians were reported killed and many more hurt by shelling in Idleb, Hama and Aleppo in the first three days of March.
An estimated 30,000 refugees have returned to the north-eastern Nigerian town of Rann from Cameroon since Wednesday and are in dire need of aid, according to humanitarian colleagues. International and national humanitarian organizations have not returned to Rann since 17 January due to ongoing insecurity.
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, Mamadou Diallo, and Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant have launched the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti. It seeks $126 million to provide critical humanitarian assistance and protection services for 1.3 million Haitians.
To assist 2.3 million people in Mali, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners today launched the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan requesting $296 million. The situation there has deteriorated in recent years due to increased conflict and intercommunal clashes, as well as a high level of food insecurity.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that $148 million is urgently needed to continue the response to the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or risk backsliding. Less than $10 million of the required funds have been pledged so far.
More civilians were killed in the conflict in Afghanistan in 2018 than at any other time since records have been kept, according to a new report by the United Nations, which documented 3,804 deaths. The report attributed nearly two thirds of the casualties to anti-Government elements.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a new report today which presents mounting evidence that the biodiversity underpinning global food systems is disappearing, putting the future of food, livelihoods, health and environment under severe threat, according to information from 91 reporting countries.
A measles and rubella vaccination campaign in Yemen led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now reached nearly 12 million children, including in high-risk areas, marginalized communities and camps for internally displaced people.
Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra issued two decrees related to the recently signed Global Peace Agreement between the Government and armed groups, establishing follow-up mechanisms, as well as committees in each prefecture to supervise implementation of temporary security arrangements.