Syria

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

Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths today announced an extra $25 million grant to boost aid efforts and address urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of people in the earthquake-stricken parts of Syria. Some 130 search and rescue teams are working in affected areas in Türkiye; another 57 teams are on their way.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that Africa is witnessing an exponential rise in cholera cases amid a global surge. They note that cases recorded on the continent in the first month of 2023 alone have already risen by more than 30 per cent of the total caseload that we witnessed in 2022.

According to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), one in three schools in the world still lack access to drinking water and basic sanitation facilities.

There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Government is responsible for the use of weaponized chlorine gas against residents of the city of Douma in April 2018, the head of the international body responsible for overseeing the global endeavour to eliminate chemical weapons told the Security Council today, as members split on the validity of the investigation on which that conclusion was based.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today released a report which says that to reduce superbugs, the world must cut down on pollution created by the pharmaceutical, agricultural and health-care sectors.

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

United Nations officials in Iraq condemned the abhorrent killing of 22-year-old Tiba al-Ali, whose death is a regretful reminder of the violence and injustice that still exists against women and girls in the country today.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today released a regional refugee and resilience plan, which is seeking $5.7 billion to reach 6.8 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million people in host communities with assistance in 2023.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR), together with 41 international and national partners, launched today the 2023 funding appeal for over $500 million to provide life-saving assistance to more than 900,000 refugees in Sudan, the second-largest asylum country in Africa.