The World Health Organization reports that new measures to overcome challenges in the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are having a positive impact through the use of targeted, multidisciplinary teams to accelerate community engagement in North Kivu province.

The High Commissioner for Refugees is extremely concerned about the impacts of intensified conflict in Yemen’s Hodeidah Governorate on civilians and aid operations. In October alone, 94 civilians were killed and 95 injured.  The World Food Programme is dramatically scaling up to meet growing need throughout the country.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration announced today that the number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela around the world has reached 3 million.  A little more than a million are in Colombia and Peru is hosting half a million.

UNICEF has warned that many children traveling in Mexico with the migrant caravan are showing signs of anguish and psychosocial distress, with some expressing fear of violence or separation from their families.  Other children are finding it difficult to play and engage in recreational activities.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 2,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea this year — a sharp increase over 2014 death toll — in large part due to reduced search and rescue capacity in the area.  The agency called for action to address this situation.

The World Food Programme (WFP) entered into a partnership with global e‑commerce company Alibaba to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger).  Alibaba Cloud will support the creation of a digital World Hunger Map to monitor global hunger and enhance the efficiency of WFP operations.

Over the past month, more than 347,000 Congolese people have been forced to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Angola.  Most are staying with families or at temporary sites in Kamako, in the Kasai.  The United Nations and aid partners are providing health services, water, sanitation, shelter and food.

Briefing the Security Council yesterday, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said that there has been little progress in talks to end the fighting in Ukraine, with the conflict now in its fifth year.  She said that the Minsk Agreements form the only agreed framework for a negotiated peace in east Ukraine.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi must be investigated in an independent and impartial manner to ensure full examination of, and accountability for, human rights violations committed during what she called a “shockingly brazen crime”.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it is concerned about the resurgence of insecurity in the Lac region in the west of Chad.  The situation has forced some aid agencies to suspend operations leaving tens of thousands of people without food and health services.