Ukraine

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today said that world food commodity prices dipped for a fifth month in a row. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 138 points in August, down 1.9 per cent from July although remaining 7.9 per cent above its value a year before.

In Thailand, the United Nations is helping authorities improve green technologies. The Organization is partnering with nearly 300 companies to cut food waste by up to 10 per cent.

In Ukraine, a convoy, organized by the United Nations and its partners, recently reached Toretsk in eastern Donetsk Oblast on 26 August. The convoy delivered 56 tons of food and other items for 2,000 people living close to the front line and who are under shelling.

In Afghanistan, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing a programme to protect rural livelihoods amid continuing drought and extreme economic crisis and will support more than 9 million people across 34 provinces in 2022.

Despite positive progress in exporting grain and other food products from Ukraine’s ports, the people of that country and beyond urgently need peace, the Secretary-General of the United Nations told the Security Council today, as Council members took stock of the now six-month-old conflict on the thirty-first anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council on Ukraine, in New York today:

In Algeria, the United Nations team on the ground sent out an appeal for increased support from the international community to boost lifesaving assistance to some 90,000 Sahrawi refugees risking food insecurity and malnutrition.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted that this week marks five years since more than 700,000 Rohingya women, men and children fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.

The United Nations remains gravely concerned about the dangerous situation in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council today in a meeting requested by the Russian Federation and marked by emphatic calls to cease all military activities at the site.

​​​​​​​United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Lviv in the evening of Wednesday, 17 August, having travelled from New York via Warsaw, Poland.  He was greeted by Denise Brown, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ukraine.