Syria

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned following the military escalation at the Brak al-Shati air base in southern Libya.  He calls on all parties to exercise restraint and restore calm, and said that the continued insecurity in the country is a reminder that there is no military solution.

Medical experts are racing the clock to contain the Ebola outbreak in the remote Likati Health Zone area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo bordering the Central African Republic, the World Health Organization said today.  The Zone is 1,400 kilometres from Kinshasa and 350 kilometres from Kisangani, the nearest major town.

The United Nations refugee agency reports from Yemen that continuing fighting in Taizz has displaced nearly 50,000 people since the beginning of 2017, in addition to the 3 million already uprooted since the conflict started, of whom 2 million remain displaced and 1 million have returned home to precarious conditions.

Intense violence in the city of Bangassou in south-eastern Central African Republic since Friday sparked by an assault by unidentified gunmen in Tokoyo district, home mainly to the Muslim population, has forced more than 3,000 people to flee their homes.  Two flights carrying emergency relief supplies are scheduled for Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are responding to an upsurge in cholera transmission in several parts of Yemen that has now claimed 51 lives. WHO has rapidly distributed medicines and medical supplies and 10 new treatment centres are being established in the most affected areas.

The United Nations refugee agency reports that some 245 people are feared dead or missing following two weekend shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean, which brings the total number of people believed to have died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Italy in 2017 to more than 1,300.

The United Nations welcomes the release of an additional 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgent group in April 2014.  The Organization appeals to all Nigerians to fully embrace the liberated girls and provide all necessary support to ensure their reintegration into society.

United Nations colleagues in Brazil expressed their grave concern following an attack against a group of indigenous persons from the Gamela ethnicity, earlier this week in the Maranhão region of northern Brazil.  More than 10 were injured — some of them severely and are still receiving treatment in hospital.

Nearly 75,000 refugees and migrants, including an estimated 24,600 children, are stranded in Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Western Balkans, and at risk of psychosocial distress from living in a protracted state of limbo, UNICEF warned today. The situation is particularly acute for single mothers and children.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres: