Syria

The flooding caused by Tropical Cyclone Idai has caused at least 122 deaths and affected more than a million people in both Mozambique and Malawi, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  Close to 83,000 people are displaced in Malawi and more than 17,000 in Mozambique, OCHA says.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Khawla Matar of Bahrain as the Deputy Special Envoy for Syria.

UNAIDS is concerned that new HIV infections are not declining among people who inject drugs, despite a decline in new infections globally.  A new report also shows that 99 per cent of them live in countries lacking adequate needle and syringe programmes, drug-dependency treatment, and HIV testing and treatment.

A measles outbreak continues to surge in the Philippines, where the Government is conducting a mass immunization campaign with assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).  At least 280 deaths have been reported since the beginning of the year.

Since 11 March, 30 deaths have been recorded and more than 93,000 households have been impacted by heavy rains and flooding in Malawi, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which stands ready to support Malawi authorities as they respond to humanitarian needs.

A new ILO report finds that women in 2018 were 26 percentage points less likely to be employed than men, despite 70 per cent of women saying they would rather be employed than stay at home.  This marks an improvement of only two percentage points in closing the work-gender gap over nearly three decades.

Helsinki, Finland, hosted the inaugural International Symposium on Youth Participation in Peace Processes today, with the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth in attendance.  It aims to boost young people ’s participation in efforts to build and sustain peace, even as their contributions remain undervalued.

Humanitarian officials are concerned by reports of civilian casualties in Syria due to both continued hostilities and unexploded ordinance left behind in the country’s north-west.  At least four civilians were reported killed and many more hurt by shelling in Idleb, Hama and Aleppo in the first three days of March.

An estimated 30,000 refugees have returned to the north-eastern Nigerian town of Rann from Cameroon since Wednesday and are in dire need of aid, according to humanitarian colleagues.  International and national humanitarian organizations have not returned to Rann since 17 January due to ongoing insecurity.

Opening a door to peace in Syria hinges on creating a constitutional committee that can forge ways to advance the political process with a view to ending the eight-year-long conflict, the new Special Envoy of the Secretary‑General for that country told the Security Council today.