Ukraine

Nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide, about 121 million a year, are unintended, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, warning the Ukraine and other conflicts are expected to drive an increase through disruption of access to contraception and growing sexual violence.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has created not only an immediate humanitarian crisis, but also a threat to future global food security in the form of rising prices and decreased production capabilities, speakers told the Security Council today, underscoring the need to urgently address these issues against the backdrop of Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting for negotiations in Istanbul.

The United Nations remains concerned about reports of continued tensions in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.  All efforts must be made to ensure full respect for the ceasefire and full implementation of agreed commitments.

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

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today said the number of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers in Costa Rica has doubled in the last eight months, reaching more than 150,000 people.  This represents 3 per cent of Costa Rica’s total population of 5 million.

In Tajikistan, the United Nations is mobilizing $40 million to help authorities address the needs of over 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers, nearly all of them from Afghanistan.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is coordinating the effort, with over 30 humanitarian and development partners.

Continuing its emergency special session today, the General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing that the Russian Federation’s military offensive inside Ukraine — and its humanitarian consequences — are on a scale that the international community has not seen in Europe in many decades.

The General Assembly resumed its emergency special session today to discuss two competing draft resolutions on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine — one that implicates the Russian Federation’s military offensive in the unfolding humanitarian crisis and the other that makes no mention of Moscow’s aggression against its neighbour.

On the heels of International Water Day, which was yesterday, humanitarian staff in the Horn of Africa say millions of people face severe water shortages and are going hungry due to the devastating drought in that region, which risks becoming one of the Horn’s worst climate-induced emergencies in the last 40 years.

The Security Council failed today to adopt a draft resolution that would have demanded civilian protection in Ukraine and called for unhindered access for humanitarian assistance, as several delegates rejected the text as an attempt by the Russian Federation to justify its aggression against its neighbour.