Syria

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that four incidents of unexploded ordnance injured eight children in Syria on 4 November.  The United Nations called on all parties to the conflict to allow clearance and education activities, given that 11.5 million people live in affected areas.

The first flight of humanitarian aid organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) arrived in Somalia today to help more than 20,000 people cut off by the worst flooding in years.

Heavy rains and flooding have affected 2.5 million people in South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda, forcing people to flee their homes and resulting in the loss of property, crops and livestock.  Higher-than-usual rainfall is expected to continue in eastern African this month and next.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria launched the Syrian-led, Syrian-owned inclusive Constitutional Committee in Geneva today, bringing together for the first time Government and opposition nominees, with women making up 30 per cent of the 150 participants, following a nearly nine-year-long conflict.

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

In Central America, subsistence farmers and some larger-scale farming operations in “the Dry Corridor” have lost 50 to 75 per cent of their crops due to irregular weather conditions, including high temperatures, below average rain and long dry spells.  The 2018 drought affected more than 2 million people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The Government of Zambia, the United Nations and partners launched a response plan after the poorest rainfall in decades is expected to leave 2.4 million severely food insecure.  Meanwhile, humanitarian partners in Somalia and South Sudan are scaling up responses to severe seasonal flooding that affected 1 million.

The recent escalation of hostilities in north‑east Syria — following a Turkish military operation launched on 9 October — has exacerbated the safety and well‑being of the area’s 3 million residents, a top United Nations humanitarian official warned the Security Council today, adding that nearly 180,000 people have fled that border region in just two weeks.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and “Education Cannot Wait”, the first global, multilateral fund for education in emergencies started a strategic partnership to ensure children and youth in emergencies have access to education opportunities.

Lack of funding threatens humanitarian programmes for millions of children in areas affected by conflict and disaster, UNICEF reports.  Executive Director Henrietta Fore said that while the agency needs additional donor support to meet children’s most basic needs in Pakistan, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Venezuela.