Syria

The United Nations team in Madagascar is helping authorities to address record-high food insecurity and surging severe acute malnutrition caused by droughts, sandstorms and caterpillar plagues in the south of the island.  Authorities and the United Nations launched a flash appeal in January for nearly $76 million.

The Elsie Initiative, a United Nations Trust Fund that supports deployment of uniformed women to peace operations, announced this morning its first five recipients — Liberia, Mexico, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone — during a high-level virtual event.  The Fund also launched its second programming round.

A flare up of violence in Syria could trigger a rapid deterioration of the situation amid efforts to overcome a stalemate in constitutional talks ahead of general elections in May, the senior United Nations mediator warned the Security Council today during a videoconference meeting.

The Head of the mechanism established in 2016 to increase the prospects for justice in Syria called on representatives in the General Assembly today to set aside their political differences and instead work to ensure that the perpetrators of serious crimes committed during the decade-long conflict are held to account.

Eradicating the use of chemical weapons hinges on unity among Security Council members at a time when ending the Syrian conflict still remains a collective responsibility, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs said in a videoconference meeting today.

The United Nations Human Rights Office in South-East Asia reports that 500 peaceful protesters have been killed and 2,600 others detained by security forces in Myanmar since 1 February.  It is asking States in the region to protect people fleeing violence and ensure that refugees and migrants are not forcibly returned.

A report released today by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan says that community-based militias in the country were responsible for 78 per cent of the 2,421 civilians killed in 2020, more than double than in 2019, as well as for abductions, which tripled in 2020, and conflict-related sexual violence.

In Zimbabwe, 2.4 million people are struggling to meet their basic food needs due to the impact of COVID-19, the World Food Programme reports.  It is delivering monthly cash transfers to 326,000 people across 32 urban areas, and aims to reach 550,000 people in the 28 worst-affected, food-insecure urban areas in the country.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Brussels V Conference “Supporting the future of Syria and the region”, in Brussels today:

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ briefing to the General Assembly on the situation in Syria, today: