Acute hunger could soar in more than 20 countries over the coming months without urgent, scaled-up assistance, a report issued today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme warns. Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria top the list, according to the “Hunger Hotspots” report.
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The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has received its first shipment of more than 130,000 doses from the global COVAX Facility — the first batch of a total of 480,000 doses to arrive in the country this year to vaccinate approximately 20 per cent of the population.
More than 3 billion people globally are at risk of disease because the quality of their rivers, lakes and groundwater is unknown due to a lack of data, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. UNEP’s survey of over 75,000 bodies of water in 89 countries found more than 40 per cent severely polluted.
The global economy is set to grow by 4.7 per cent in 2021, faster than the 4.3 per cent predicted in September, says a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report released today. It sees a misguided return to austerity, after a destructive recession, as the main risk to the global outlook.
The 2021 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan seeks $3.85 billion to provide urgent lifesaving help to 16 million people. Some 20.7 million people need some kind of humanitarian assistance, including 12.1 million people in acute need, as Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and largest aid operation.
At least 14 civilians were killed in an attack by suspected combatants of the ADF on Sunday night in Bulongo village, east of Beni, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported. The Mission’s Force Intervention Brigade deployed to the area yesterday.
In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports. The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.
Cabo Verde has received 24,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the global COVAX facility – the first of 100,000 doses expected by May – according to United Nations staff in the country, who called the shipment a source of hope and a testimony to global solidarity.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released new data today saying that nearly 12 million women lost access to contraception due to pandemic-related disruptions, leading to some 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. However, health systems in many of the 115 countries adapted and continue to provide services.
The United Nations and the Government of Iraq today released the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan which seeks $607.2 million in humanitarian aid to assist 1.5 million of the most vulnerable internally displaced people in Iraq and returnees. According to the overview, 4.1 million Iraqis need humanitarian assistance.