South Sudan

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today said it is deeply saddened by reports of the deaths of at least 20 people during a stampede for food and cash in Niger’s Diffa region on Sunday.  The number of victims could rise as more information is received.

The United Nations is alarmed by reports of an artillery shell explosion that injured up to 17 children at a school in Myanmar’s Rakhine State last Thursday.  The incident is part of an escalation of hostilities between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military across much of Rakhine.

The United Nations human rights office said today it is very concerned about repeated attacks against indigenous peoples in Nicaragua, non-protection of their rights and impunity for crimes committed against them.  Some 40 indigenous people have been killed, 47 injured, 44 kidnapped and four disappeared since 2015.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Dang Dinh Quy (Viet Nam):

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has released $10 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help bolster the response to East Africa’s worst desert locust outbreak in decades, which is destroying crops in communities already facing food shortages.

On 18 November 2019, the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan briefed the members of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) concerning South Sudan in connection with the Panel’s interim report, which was submitted in pursuance of paragraph 3 of resolution 2471 (2019).

Essential tasks in forming a transitional Government to end the tragic conflict in South Sudan must be accomplished with urgency if the parties are to meet their latest extended 100-day timeline, the top United Nations official for the country told the Security Council today.

In a report on Chile published today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says that during the recent mass protests and state of emergency the police failed to adhere to international human rights norms and standards relating to management of assemblies and the use of force.

The United Nations and partner organizations today launched the Humanitarian Response Plan 2020 for South Sudan, requesting $1.5 billion to assist 5.6 million people, particularly women and children whose need for aid remains high despite a relative stable period since the Revitalized Peace Agreement was signed last year.

Today, the United Nations Development Programme released its 2019 Human Development Report on Inequality titled “Beyond Income, Beyond Averages, Beyond Today”, which identifies a new generation of inequalities that are driving the global protests sweeping the world, including the gap in basic living standards.