Fighting in Sudan continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that many will die due to lack of essential services and disease outbreaks. Amidst critically low medical supplies and an increasing number of refugees, United Nations agencies are providing relief.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the Day of Vesak, observed on 5 May:

The 2023 edition of the online Africa Dialogue Series begins today. Titled “Market and Scale: Unlocking Industrialization through Intra-African Trade”, the series will focus on how the African Continental Free-Trade Area could accelerate sustainable development.

In Peru, the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration are concerned about the situation in Tacna, in the southern part of the country, where refugees and migrants have been stranded, in many cases without food, without water, without shelter or health care for three months now.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths has allocated $3 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently respond to the arrival of Sudanese refugees and others in Chad. In Khartoum, the World Health Organization reports that over 60 per cent of health facilities are closed.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Press Freedom Day, observed on 3 May:

In Zambia, the United Nations team, led by Resident Coordinator Beatrice Mutali, reports it is helping authorities to tackle the droughts and floods which have affected over 373,000 people. Various United Nations agencies are providing cash transfers, health services and other relief to more than 1 million households.

A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization says that more than one in two preschool-aged children – approximately 372 million children, three quarters who live in South and East Asia, the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa - suffer from the lack of at least one of three micronutrients; iron, vitamin A or zinc.

The United Nations team in Botswana, following a polio outbreak, supported authorities with two immunization campaigns targeting children under the age of seven, with nearly 30 districts targeted with house-to-house visits and immunization efforts in health centres, and over 700,000 children reached.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on International Mother Earth Day, observed on 22 April: