Peacekeeping

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that access to North Gaza Governorate is still extremely limited. It is worried about the fate of Palestinians remaining there, as the siege continues, and calls on Israel to open up the area to humanitarian operations at the scale needed.

As the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its debate today on peacekeeping, speakers stressed the need to revise the current model, seeking stronger engagement between peacekeepers and communities, deeper understanding of local contexts and cultures, and a greater focus on addressing conflicts’ root causes, with some calling on the Security Council to adapt non-military approaches and increase cooperation with regional organizations.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that in Gaza City, along with UN partners, mental health and psychosocial support services are being provided to tens of thousands of people and solid waste that has piled up along Tareq bin Zeyad Street is being picked up.

From the deserts of the Middle East to the forests of Africa, blue helmets are protecting civilians and stabilizing the most dangerous zones of the world, speakers from some of the largest troop-contributing countries told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today as it continued its debate on peacekeeping.

The just released UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report says that nations must dramatically increase climate adaptation efforts and urgently close the $187-359 billion per year gap that exists between adaptation finance needs and current international public adaptation finance flows.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today began its general debate on United Nations peacekeeping operations, with senior UN officials emphasizing the importance of accountability to maintain trust in peacekeepers and calling for increased gender parity in missions.

The war in Sudan and political uncertainty in South Sudan have stalled progress in political dialogue on the final status of Abyei and border issues, a senior UN official told the Security Council today, as Security Council members urged greater support to be lent to the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in fulfilling its mandate, ahead of its expiration on 14 November.

In Lebanon, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health opened a new Trauma and Burn Management Unit at the Turkish Trauma and Emergency Hospital in Sidon and a humanitarian convoy successfully delivered one month of medical supplies, medicine and hygiene kits to the Primary Healthcare Centre in Labweh.

In West and Central Africa, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the region continues to experience catastrophic flooding, with more than 7 million people impacted across 16 countries. Chad, Niger, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been the most affected.

The UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which brings together leaders of 15 UN humanitarian agencies and large international humanitarian non-governmental organizations, issued a joint statement describing the situation in North Gaza as apocalyptic, with reports of civilians being targeted while seeking safety.