The Secretary-General of the United Nations today urged the Security Council to extend the resolution that allows cross-border deliveries of lifesaving aid into north-west Syria for another 12 months, as speakers diverged over what form future assistance should take amidst unprecedented humanitarian need throughout the country.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, in New York today:
Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and this year’s theme is “Combating Elder Abuse”. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, one in six people aged 60 and older experience some form of abuse.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today awarded the Population Award for an individual to its youngest‑ever recipient, Emma Theofelus, a 25-year-old Parliamentarian from Namibia for her work advocating for women’s empowerment and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
Marking World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report highlighting the tobacco industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco, noting that it is equivalent to one fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year.
For the first time on record, the number of forcibly displaced people around the world had topped 100 million, propelled by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports.
The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) has, in what it calls a major breakthrough, brokered a peace accord between the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka communities, who agreed to dialogue to protect people, livestock and property, and to find a sustainable solution to the final status of Abyei.
Current funding is insufficient to meet increasing humanitarian needs in Syria, the senior United Nations official in that country said in a briefing to the Security Council today, as members diverged on the appropriate modalities for delivering existing aid to help the millions suffering across the country.
More than 1,000 migrants have died or disappeared since 2014 while trying to leave East Africa and the Horn of Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. Most were travelling to the Arabian Peninsula or South Africa. Migrants face violence, abandonment by smugglers, limited access to medical care and detention, among other dangers.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed its serious concern about armed clashes on Sunday involving indiscriminate fire and alleged use of heavy weapons in the Janzour area, a densely populated neighbourhood of Tripoli. The current mobilization of forces by different armed groups creates tensions and increases the risk of clashes.
