United Nations humanitarian partners in Somalia have reported an early start to the country’s annual rainy season, which has brought flash floods, killing 14 people, destroying property and displacing thousands. The rains also come amid several disease outbreaks, including cholera, which are now likely to increase.

The World Health Organization’s new report on the effect of COVID-19 on people living with non-communicable disease said such people had difficulty accessing routine medicines and experienced disrupted treatments, thus underlining the importance of including such treatment and care into national preparedness plans responses.

A joint operation between the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and the country’s internal security forces has led to the arrest of Hussein Damboucha, regional commander of the armed group Front populaire pour la renaissance de la Centrafrique and member of the Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement.

A report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Somalia’s Federal Ministry of Health and Human Services suggests that an estimated 43,000 excess deaths may have occurred in the country in 2022 due to the deepening drought.

Agreements facilitating the export of food and fertilizer from two of the world’s top exporters of these commodities must continue, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as members considered the international ramifications of the year-long war in Ukraine on the eve of the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s expiry.

In Afghanistan, due to lack of funds, the World Food Programme (WFP) today said that it has been forced to drastically reduce critical lifesaving assistance in March to millions of vulnerable Afghanis. In March, at least 4 million people will receive just half of what they need to get by.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime today released its first-ever Global Report on Cocaine, noting that the global supply of cocaine has reached record levels, with coca cultivation soaring 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021. Demand for cocaine has also swelled with many regions showing a steady rise in cocaine users.

The Security Council heard today dissenting assertions from three briefers — two calling attention to Russophobia in Ukraine and one countering that claim as a colonial endeavour to justify war crimes — in a meeting requested by the Russian Federation, as delegates weighed in with their own prescriptions.

United Nations humanitarian partners are providing water, hygiene and sanitation services, and shelter materials to temporary displacement sites in Malawi, and food and water treatment chemicals to Mozambique, following the destruction wrought by Tropical Cyclone Freddy. Heavy rain and wind continue to hamper those operations.

Secretary-General António Guterres departed New York on Monday, 6 March, en route to Ukraine via Poland.  He arrived in Kyiv very early on Wednesday morning to begin his third visit to Ukraine in the past year.