Syria

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian colleagues express concern about persistent forced displacement of indigenous people and farming communities in rural Colombia. Since 19 January, violence in Caceres has displaced at least 822 people; in Bajo Cauco murders have increased.

With Syrian civilians being killed on a horrific scale and displaced in large numbers, the United Nations top representative for Syria warned the Security Council today of the grave risks posed by the recent string of dangerous and worrying escalations of violence in the country.

Aid agencies launched the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali, seeking $263 million to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people.  Some 4.1 million people in the country require aid in 2018, versus 3.8 million in 2017.  More than 1 in 5 Malians are facing food insecurity this year.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has received four allegations of misconduct, including three allegations of sexual exploitation.  These allegations involve military peacekeepers.

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

The Food and Agriculture Organization launched a $1.06 billion appeal to help vulnerable communities in 26 countries fight hunger, seeking to reach 30 million people who rely on agriculture and have been affected by climate-related shocks, notably in Bangladesh, Somalia and Yemen.

Our humanitarian colleagues are concerned for the safety and protection of 2 million men, women and children living in Syria’s Idlib Governorate, where air strikes and shelling continue to be reported daily, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

Emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within 10 days, the acting United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned today.  Currently, the nearly 2 million Palestinian residents there receive electricity for no more than eight hours a day.

There was still work to be done before the international community could have shared confidence that the Government of Syria’s chemical weapons programme had been eliminated, the Security Council heard today, as it was briefed by the United Nations top disarmament official on recent events in the war-torn country.

Civilian returns to Iraq’s newly accessible areas continue to increase since the conclusion of major counter‑Daesh military operations late last year; 3.2 million previously displaced people have now returned home, surpassing the total number of displaced in the country for the first time since the crisis began four years ago.