Ukraine

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

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.

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 Sudan, the total number of newly displaced people in Shamal Jabal Marrah, in Central Darfur State, reached over 120,000, after hostilities over the past week in Zamzam in North Darfur state caused about 5,500 people to seek safety and shelter there, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports.

The Minsk Agreements show that the signing of a peace pact alone does not ensure a durable end to conflict, the Security Council heard today as it met a decade after the adoption of Council resolution 2202 (2015), which called for the full implementation of those accords.

In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today facilitated its eighth interagency aid convoy this year to deliver humanitarian assistance to 800 residents of a front-line community in the Kharkiv region, where mostly older people remain amid worsening security conditions.

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”.

In Colombia, the Emergency Relief Coordinator released $3.8 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help more than 42,000 people in the north-east of the country. The new funding will support displaced people and host communities in the region of Catatumbo.

In Ukraine, local authorities and humanitarians on the ground report that an attack in the residential area of Sumy City overnight resulted in a number of fatalities. Humanitarian partners mobilized an emergency response, complementing the efforts of first responders and the authorities.