A humanitarian coordination team of 60 experts from United Nations agencies and aid partners is traveling to Guatemala today to assess the immediate humanitarian needs of more than 1.7 million people impacted by the eruption of volcano Fuego two days ago.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack today that killed and injured religious scholars gathered in Kabul who were there to promote peace in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a study that found nearly half of Afghan children are missing out on school.
Staff of the Human Rights Office say they are appalled at the ongoing violence in Nicaragua, where at least 16 people are reported to have been killed this week and more than 100 injured amid anti-Government protests. They are also concerned at the reported arrest and detention of six human rights defenders.
The unemployment rate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is now the highest in the world, peaking at 27.4 per cent in 2017, according to a report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO). It says women and young people are particularly affected, with almost half of women being unemployed.
In Syria, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is delivering United Nations humanitarian aid for more than 92,000 people to Talbiseh in northern rural Homs and Tlul Elhomor in southern Hama. This is the first convoy to northern rural Homs since a convoy reached Dar al‑Kabira and surrounding areas on 4 March.
The World Health Organization reports that they have deployed 39 staff members, with plans under way for an additional 15 personnel, to rapidly contain a confirmed outbreak of cholera in Nigeria’s Adamawa State. As of 26 May, 434 suspected cases, including 13 deaths, have been reported.
The United Nations mission in the Central African Republic says investigations are ongoing in Bria (in Haute Kotto prefecture), where United Nations police arrested an anti‑Balaka leader suspected of involvement in an attack on a Formed Police Unit patrol that resulted in the death of a peacekeeper last December.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator today released $30 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently scale up relief efforts in the Sahel, where an acute drought, combined with exceptionally high food prices and worsening insecurity, has escalated humanitarian needs.
Today marks International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, affecting an estimated 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab region, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Because this injury is almost entirely preventable, the Day seeks to raise awareness of the importance of obstetric care for women around the world.
In a report published today, the United Nations Human Rights Office and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya say violence continues to have a devastating impact on health care in the country with hospitals and other medical facilities bombed, shelled and looted; medical personnel targeted; and patients attacked.