The United Nations learned with deep sadness that Edward Mortimer, Head Speechwriter and Director of Communications for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, died at the weekend. During a tumultuous period in world affairs, Mr. Mortimer made an imprint on many of the Secretary-General’s signature achievements and initiatives.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Humanitarian officials say the security and access situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region remains complex and extremely fluid, with active hostilities impeding people’s access to assistance and the movement of aid workers. They say more than 500 cases of gender-based violence, including rape, were reported in May.
Hanaa Singer, Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka – alongside the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Union — facilitated the rapid deployment today of experts to help with marine litter and environmental impact assessment work related to the sinking of the 'MV X-Press Pearl' cargo ship.
A new World Health Organization (WHO) report calls for immediate, binding action to protect children, adolescents and expectant mothers at risk from exposure to toxins in discarded electrical or electronic devices, or e-waste. As many as 12.9 million women and some 18 million young people work in the informal waste sector.
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.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned today that a further escalation in violence is unfolding across Myanmar, saying there appear to be no efforts towards de-escalation, but rather a build-up of troops in key areas, contrary to commitments the military made to end the violence.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis shows that 350,000 people are facing catastrophic conditions of hunger in Tigray, Ethiopia — the highest number of people classified in a “phase 5 catastrophe” in a single country in the last decade. WFP increased food distribution to reach 1.4 million people.
The onset of winter — compounded by the devastating effects of the coronavirus — poses a direct threat to the health and livelihoods of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, nearly 2 million of whom have settled in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.
Democratic Republic of Congo authorities noted the end of the lava flow from the eruption of Nyiragongo, as well as a significant decrease in tremors in the area. Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge announced yesterday that people could return to Goma and the territory around the volcano.
More than 271,000 people have been impacted and over 26,000 displaced by monsoon-related flash floods and landslides in south-western Sri Lanka, humanitarian affairs officials say. The impacts of the south-west monsoon come as Sri Lanka works to mitigate the environmental impact of a sinking cargo ship near Colombo.