Ukraine

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.

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.

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.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria strongly condemned the “shocking” ambush and killings of more than 30 civilians — fisherman, farmers and displaced persons — in Borno state, a reminder of the toll of more than 13 years of conflict in the region.

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.

In Vienna, Jagjit Pavadia, President of the International Narcotics Control Board launched its Annual Report for 2022, which focuses on the trend towards legalizing the non-medical use of cannabis and analyses the various policy approaches from the perspective of the drug control conventions.

On International Women’s Day, the Secretary-General, celebrating all women and girls around the world, called for gender equality in innovation and technology, as well as for the digital gender divide to be closed and women and girls’ representation in science and technology be increased.

In Mongolia, the United Nations and humanitarian partners are appealing for an additional $3.5 million for a humanitarian response plan to reach 53,000 people in communities affected by Dzud — a severe winter weather event that follows a summer drought, freezing or starving large numbers of livestock to death.

Six months after devastating floods struck Pakistan, the United Nations and its partners have reached more than 7 million people with food and other essential services, including life-saving interventions for children. Yet only 30 per cent of the Floods Response Plan has been funded so far.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, through the Resident Coordinator in Fiji, offered support to Vanuatu amid a state of emergency sparked by Tropical Cyclone Judy. A second storm system is now bearing down on the country, and may impact 95 per cent of the population.