Ukraine

Today on International Nurses Day, the World Health Organization remind us that as the world struggles to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent shortage of nurses worldwide. Almost 6 million more are needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

In South Africa, the United Nations has launched a $136 million emergency appeal to help up to 10 million people in vulnerable communities facing COVID-19-related risks in health, water, sanitation, food security and gender-based violence.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released new guidance on COVID-19 and the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, stressing that they must not fear retribution for seeking health care amid the pandemic.

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

The Education Cannot Wait Fund, which promotes education in emergencies, announced $23 million in grants to support vulnerable girls and boys facing the COVID-19 pandemic in 26 crisis-affected countries.  The funding will support children’s continued learning while their schools are closed, including by scaling up distance education.

A lasting and peaceful solution to the six-year conflict in the Ukraine can only be achieved through the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, delegates told the General Assembly today, as they discussed ongoing aggression and human rights violations by the occupying Power in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the new Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The coming months will be crucial to settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine through renewed political will, despite the average daily occurrence of more than 500 ceasefire violations and violent flare-ups, senior international officials told the Security Council today.

The Government of Ethiopia, the United Nations and humanitarian partners today called for $1 billion to help 7 million of the 8.4 million people in the country identified as requiring humanitarian aid due to conflict, disease outbreaks, rain shortfalls and floods.

In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, more than 4,000 people have died as a result of terrorist attacks in 2019, the head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel told members of the Security Council today.  The number of displaced people has increased 10-fold to about half a million, he added.