Syria

The Global Report on Food Crises, published today, sounded an alarm regarding surging levels of acute hunger.  Some 124 million people in 51 countries were affected by acute food insecurity in 2017 — 11 million more than in 2016.

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

Since 11 March, the United Nations estimates that more than 50,000 people have left eastern Ghouta, Syria.  Amid visits from United Nations teams in recent days, most of the existing shelters do not have the capacity or infrastructure to accommodate the large number of people arriving in rural areas near Damascus.

The situation in the Central African Republic was deteriorating, with violence spreading fast and record numbers of people displaced, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told Member States after a recent visit, emphasizing that existing urgent and critical needs were deepening.

The Security Council today failed to hold a public meeting on the human rights situation in Syria — which would have featured a briefing by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein — following a procedural vote on the matter called by the Russian Federation.

Humanitarian needs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have doubled over the last year, with 13 million people in need of assistance, in a context of persistent insecurity and bureaucratic impediments, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today after a visiting mission.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is increasingly alarmed at the plight of thousands of Central African refugees who have fled to southern Chad since late 2017.  The influx is the biggest since 2014, and is overwhelming the ability of humanitarian agencies to respond.

The top United Nations official in Syria briefed the Security Council today on the implementation of its recent resolution demanding a ceasefire in that country, noting that, while progress had been made in Duma, more remained to be done to ease the humanitarian crisis and find a political solution to the conflict.

The following statement by UN Secretary‑General António Guterres was issued today:

A United Nations human rights office report issued today states there are strong grounds to believe that some of the people detained in Mexico in the early stages of the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students were arbitrarily detained and tortured and those serious violations were covered up.