South Sudan

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, raised concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic’s adverse impact on children in conflict zones.  In her annual report to the Human Rights Council, she urged States to incorporate child rights in virus containment plans and ensure that protection services continue to operate.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports rising hunger and malnutrition in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where months of conflict have worsened a dire situation caused by COVID-19 and locusts.  Nearly 80 per cent of hospitals in Tigray are not functional, according to the World Health Organization.

From Madagascar, the United Nations is issuing a flash appeal for $76 million to support more than 1 million people in the south who face a potentially life-threatening lack of food, nutrition, water and sanitation, and health assistance due to the region’s worst drought in 10 years coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Nicholas Haysom of South Africa as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Despite a significant drop in violations against children since the 2018 peace agreement was signed in South Sudan, continuing grave violations are mostly attributed to opposition and Government troops, including the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, the latest report on children and armed conflict says.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports it is providing supplies such as mosquito nets, solar lamps, and blankets for 36,000 people in Somalia’s Puntland region who have been affected by Cyclone Gati, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the country, which made landfall in November.

As Tropical Cyclone Yasa has intensified into a Category 5 storm and is expected to make landfall in Fiji on Friday morning, the United Nations office in Suva reports that it is liaising closely with the Government and stands ready to support national emergency response efforts.

After much progress in the peace process in South Sudan earlier in 2020, implementation is now lagging and needs urgent attention from the international community, the United Nations top official in that country told the Security Council today.

In Mali, camps shared by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and France’s Force Barkhane, located in Menaka and Kidal, came under indirect mortar attack on 30 November, following an earlier attack on the Barkhane Forces in Gao.  There are no reports of casualties.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that the eleventh Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ended.  WHO thanked partners for their support and congratulated responders and all those who tirelessly tracked cases, provided treatment, engaged communities and vaccinated more than 40,000 people at risk.