A full decade into the conflict which plunged Syria into a spiral of grotesque violence, hunger and economic decay, the Security Council must stand firm in defence of the country’s last authorized border crossing, through which aid to millions of civilians flows each month, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told members during a high-level videoconference meeting today.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in Myanmar strongly condemns attacks on health-care providers and sites since the military takeover on 1 February. WHO says 32 attacks on health-care facilities and staff resulted in two deaths and six injuries between 1 February and 24 March.
The World Food Programme said today it has begun providing emergency food aid to vulnerable people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and urgently needs $170 million to meet critical food and nutrition needs over the next six months. The agency noted that the outbreak of conflict there coincided with the peak harvest period.
Acute hunger could soar in more than 20 countries over the coming months without urgent, scaled-up assistance, a report issued today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme warns. Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria top the list, according to the “Hunger Hotspots” report.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has received its first shipment of more than 130,000 doses from the global COVAX Facility — the first batch of a total of 480,000 doses to arrive in the country this year to vaccinate approximately 20 per cent of the population.
More than 3 billion people globally are at risk of disease because the quality of their rivers, lakes and groundwater is unknown due to a lack of data, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. UNEP’s survey of over 75,000 bodies of water in 89 countries found more than 40 per cent severely polluted.
On the tenth anniversary of the start of conflict in Syria, the senior United Nations official for that country expressed his profound regret that the world body has not yet been able to broker an end to the crisis, while calling for new, creative international diplomacy, during a Security Council videoconference meeting today.
In Myanmar, at least 138 peaceful protestors, including 56 over the weekend, among them women and children, have been killed in violence since 1 February, the United Nations Human Rights Office reports. The Secretary-General and his Special Envoy on the country, Christine Schraner Burgener, strongly condemn the violence.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released new data today saying that nearly 12 million women lost access to contraception due to pandemic-related disruptions, leading to some 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. However, health systems in many of the 115 countries adapted and continue to provide services.
