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.
In progress at UNHQ
Syria
To assist 2.3 million people in Mali, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners today launched the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan requesting $296 million. The situation there has deteriorated in recent years due to increased conflict and intercommunal clashes, as well as a high level of food insecurity.
Gravely concerned about serious suffering among civilians in Syria, exacerbated by severe weather, flooding and a spike in fighting, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator briefed the Security Council today, underlining the urgency of facilitating aid deliveries and preventing a humanitarian catastrophe.
More civilians were killed in the conflict in Afghanistan in 2018 than at any other time since records have been kept, according to a new report by the United Nations, which documented 3,804 deaths. The report attributed nearly two thirds of the casualties to anti-Government elements.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a new report today which presents mounting evidence that the biodiversity underpinning global food systems is disappearing, putting the future of food, livelihoods, health and environment under severe threat, according to information from 91 reporting countries.
A measles and rubella vaccination campaign in Yemen led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now reached nearly 12 million children, including in high-risk areas, marginalized communities and camps for internally displaced people.
The United Nations and humanitarian partners today appealed for $4.2 billion to help up to 19 million people in need in Yemen, including 10 million on the brink of famine. Mark Lowcock, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, said he expects current aid funding to run out by the end of March.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that heavy rains and cyclones have caused an outbreak of desert locusts in Sudan and Eritrea that is rapidly spreading to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, potentially causing a major threat to agricultural production and food security.
The United Nations refugee agency, International Migration Agency (IOM) and their partners today launched the 2019 response plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. It seeks to raise $920 million to meet the needs of over 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities.
The United Nations refugee agency and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called upon European countries and regional organizations today to take urgent action to ensure no child is born, or remains, stateless in Europe. In 2017, some 2,100 children were registered as “stateless”, a four-fold increase over 2010.