Ukraine

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen said that negotiations held in Oman over the weekend led to a significant breakthrough, where the Yemeni parties reached an understanding on releasing Mohamed Qahtan, a prominent politician who has been held incommunicado by the Houthis since 2015.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that 311 weapons collected from former combatants were handed over to the Government on Tuesday as part of the National Programme for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Repatriation.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lázaro, met over the weekend with 13 mayors of the Al Qalaa Union representing communities in the south-west to discuss the situation due to the ongoing exchanges of fire along the Blue Line and its severe impact on the local population.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says its operations are being severely hindered by the escalation of fighting in south and central Gaza, as well as the limited flow of humanitarian assistance and the lack of public order and safety in the south. Despite this, WFP has reached more than 766,000 people in Gaza with food in June.

Following the completion of a technical assessment, the Secretariat of the United Nations has responded positively to a request of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to deploy a UN Panel of Electoral Experts for the July 2024 presidential elections there.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the Health Effects Institute, an independent United States-based nonprofit organization, today released a report that says air pollution is having an increasing impact on human health, becoming the second leading global risk factor for death.

Amid an unconscionable escalation of attacks impacting Ukrainian civilians, world leaders came together at the “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” — hosted by Switzerland on 15 and 16 June — a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as many delegates welcomed the summit’s common vision in several key areas, including nuclear safety, the exchange of prisoners of war and the return of deported and unlawfully displaced Ukrainian children.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is ramping up its food and nutrition assistance programme in West and Central Africa, targeting 7.3 million people during the ongoing June to August lean season.

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warns that the humanitarian nightmare in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, in Sudan, is worsening by the hour, stressing that civilians must be protected, aid must be able to reach them and the fighting must stop now.

As the United Nations’ disarmament chief urged just and lasting peace in Ukraine before the Security Council today, its members — meeting again, at the Russian Federation’s behest, on Western arms deliveries to that country — alternately reiterated Kyiv’s right to defend itself, pointed to Moscow’s procurement of arms from third States and called for dialogue ahead of a peace summit that will occur in Switzerland on 15-16 June.