Syria

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says more children and women were abducted for ransom between January and August 2021 than during the entire 2020.  UNICEF estimates based on official sources say 71 women and 30 children were abducted in the first eight months of 2021, and 59 women and 37 children in 2020.

Despite increased climate ambition and net-zero commitments, Governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Production Gap Report, released today.

In Afghanistan, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund today announced house-to-house polio vaccinations will resume 8 November across the country for the first time in three years, targeting more than 3.3 million children who were previously out of reach.

In Afghanistan, the World Health Organization reports that since 30 August, nine flights have arrived with health‑care supplies for 2.5 million people.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is also scaling up emergency aid due to the conflict, supporting nearly 4,500 internally displaced people.

In northern Syria, a reported 5 million people lack reliable access to and suffer from insufficient levels of safe water due to low water levels and disruptions to water systems.  The United Nations and aid partners have released a plan to target 3.4 million of those most affected by the water crisis in the next six months.

Almost eight years after the Security Council mandated the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, tasked with effectuating that goal, continues to face challenges, including unaddressed discrepancies and insufficient cooperation, the senior United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council today.

The United Nations team and its partners in Haiti are responding to the needs of some 500,000 people affected by the August earthquake.  Despite constraints, 13 emergency medical teams have been established, over 35 metric tons of supplies have been deployed and $330,000 in emergency cash has been transferred.

The humanitarian crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia is spiralling out of control, with 5.3 million people requiring food aid and 400,000 in famine-like conditions, according to United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.  In the past week, 79 trucks carrying aid arrived in Tigray, but 100 truckloads are needed daily.

With military front lines still largely frozen, the time is ripe to push for a political process that can help end the decade‑long war in Syria, the Secretary‑General’s Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today, as speakers hailed news that negotiations aimed at crafting a fresh constitution look set to resume after an eight‑month hiatus.

Marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, the Secretary-General told the General Assembly high-level event that the nuclear threat has reached its highest level in close to 40 years and urged States to support the goals of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.