Libya

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees is gravely concerned by the rapidly increasing number of Sudanese refugees crossing into eastern Chad due to escalating violence in Sudan’s North Darfur region, with nearly 20,000 people — mostly women and children — arriving in the past two weeks alone.

In Sudan, a World Food Programme team successfully arrived today in greater Khartoum, where they are coordinating with local authorities to scale up assistance. WFP aims to expand aid deliveries to nearly 1 million people over the coming month, amid high risk of famine in many areas.

While Libya’s ceasefire agreement is holding, ongoing military build-up, fierce competition for territorial control among Western armed groups, recent armed mobilizations in and around Tripoli, coupled with a crippling economic crisis, have renewed fears about a potential outbreak of violence in the capital, the UN’s top official in the country told the Security Council today.

As the new school year starts today in Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that an additional 400,000 girls there are being deprived of their right to education, bringing the total number of girls without access to this essential right to 2.2 million.

The Advisory Committee established by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) concluded its second three-day meeting in Tripoli on 20 February. The Committee held discussions on the current electoral framework, focusing on the contentious aspects that have impeded the holding of national elections in Libya.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Food Programme has partially resumed food assistance in parts of Goma, delivering vital nutrition supplies to treat moderate acute malnutrition in children, and plans to resume operations fully as soon as it is safe to do so.

Libya’s leaders and security actors are prioritizing political and personal gain over national interests, the United Nations’ top political official told the Security Council today, as the country’s delegate blamed proxy wars for its instability.

The United Nations and its aid partners in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have launched this year’s Humanitarian Response Plans to assist 2.2 million people in need, seeking a total of $306 million.

In Somalia, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that drought conditions are looming in several areas of the country due to prolonged extreme dry conditions, with hundreds of thousands of families likely to be impacted.

In Sudan, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami, today condemned the relentless and intensifying shelling and air and drone strikes against civilians in Darfur, Kordofan and other conflict-affected areas as “a ruthless assault on human life”.