Syria

The United Nations country team in El Salvador will meet tomorrow to develop a plan of action following the Government’s declaration of a red alert emergency due to the severe drought affecting some 77,000 farmers growing corn, one of the country’s main staple foods.  Eastern El Salvador has reported 33 consecutive days without rain, and record temperatures reaching 41°C.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep alarm today at persistent reports of human rights violations and abuses in Cameroon’s English‑speaking north‑west and south‑west regions, as well as in the extreme north.  He said it is regrettable that the Government failed to grant the Human Rights Office access to the two regions despite repeated requests.

At the Global Disability Summit in London, the Deputy Secretary-General said that Governments’ commitments often does not translate into major improvements for the 1.5 billion persons with disabilities across the world, adding that the United Nations has launched a review of its approach, institutionally and operationally, to disabilities.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the attack on its compound in South Sudan's north-western town of Bunj, in which two United Nations staff were injured when demonstrators forcefully entered the premises and looted offices and residences.  Peacekeepers were immediately deployed to re-establish order.

Increasing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to negatively affect the humanitarian situation there, forcing people to flee their homes, United Nations humanitarian affairs staff say.  Violence between Hema herders and Lendu farmers in Ituri has displaced some 420,000 people in 2018.

The United Nations Refugee Agency today welcomed recent actions taken by several European countries to collectively end a stand-off on the Mediterranean, where some 450 refugees and migrants had been stranded at sea amid a battle over disembarkation.  France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal have agreed to land the ships and share the processing of these people.

UNAIDS issued a stark wake‑up call today, saying time to reach the 2020 targets for HIV is running out.  New HIV infections are rising in some 50 countries, while AIDS-related deaths are not falling fast enough.  A new report has found that gains made for children are not being sustained, and new infections among them have declined only 8 per cent in the past two years.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says today that, three months after the violence started in Nicaragua, an estimated 280 people have died and 1,830 have been injured, in violence overwhelmingly perpetrated by the State and by pro-Government armed elements.  Those killed include at least 19 police officers.

The United Nations deployed needs assessments and inter‑agency convoys to areas in Syria that recently changed control.  Yesterday, a team from the Organization, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross delivered food assistance to 15,000 people in Nassib and Um Elmayathen in Dara’a Governorate.