Syria

More than 210,000 people in Chad have been affected by widespread flooding following heavy rains over the past few months and need food, shelter and non-food items, according to the Chadian Red Cross.  The United Nations and humanitarian partners plan to scale up the aid response, but have very limited resources.

More than eight years into Syria’s complex and evolving conflict and despite an uptick in air and ground strikes, a growing number of people — including millions in hard‑to‑reach areas — receive food, medicine and other aid through a closely monitored cross‑border assistance mechanism, whose mandate renewal remains crucial to ward off an even worse humanitarian crisis, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.

Pneumonia is preventable but this forgotten epidemic remains the leading killer of children under the age of five, claiming  more than 800,000 lives last year, or one child every 39 seconds, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today, which is World Pneumonia Day.

An estimated 60,000 young refugees and migrants, who arrived in Italy between 2014 and 2018 as unaccompanied children, still require support to ensure their successful transition into adulthood, a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the High Commissioner for Refugees finds.

Food prices rose in October for the first time in five months as international sugar and cereal quotations climbed significantly, FAO reports.  Wheat and maize export prices increased sharply due to reduced crop prospects as rice prices slipped, owing to subdued demand and prospects of an abundant basmati harvest, FAO said.

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: