Syria

The WFP reached 5 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018, double the number reached last year.  WFP significantly expanded its operations there due to widening violence and displacement, poor harvest and endemic poverty, with scaled up interventions in Ituri, Tanganyika and North and South Kivu.

On the eve of the second round of the presidential election in Madagascar, the electoral observer missions and the members of the international community issued a statement calling on the two candidates to show restraint and to exhort their supporters to avoid any action that could compromise the electoral process.

The High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration launched their regional refugee and migrant response plan for Venezuela, the first of its kind in the Americas.  The plan will respond to the needs of Venezuelans on the move, and for next year require $378 million.

Ahead of a briefing later in December on assistance to civilians in Syria, the Security Council today renewed its authorization of the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the devastated country across borders and lines of conflict for a further 12 months, until 10 January 2020.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today it had evacuated 133 refugees from Libya to Niger, most of them women and children who were previously detained in Libya.

In Katowice, Poland, today the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a report which says that meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about a million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone.

UNESCO today launched its Atlas on the retreat of Andean glaciers and reduction of glacial waters.  The atlas shows that if trends continue, some of the lower-altitude glaciers of the tropical Andes could lose 78 to 97 per cent of their volume by the end of the century, reducing the region’s freshwater resources.

A peacekeeper from Malawi was found alive in the Beni area of North Kivu Province on Friday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reports.  He went missing on 14 November after the launch of the mission’s joint operation with Congolese forces to neutralize rebel fighters.

Yesterday I was asked about money and percentages.  As of yesterday, the amount received for the regular budget in 2018 represents 97.8 per cent of the amount assessed.  While credit is given publicly to those Member [States] that have paid their budget dues in full, many others pay in tranches of varying sizes.

Although the United Nations and partners completed an epic aid operation in Syria this month, persistent violence and gaps in humanitarian access underline the critical need to renew the cross-border aid authorization set to expire in December, a senior humanitarian affairs official told the Security Council today.