Ukraine

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warns today that the pace of progress to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to treatment and end AIDS-related deaths is slowing down.  In 2018, for the first time, the global resources available for the AIDS response fell significantly by nearly $1 billion.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that the number of attacks on schools in eastern Ukraine increased four-fold during the first four months of 2019, versus the same period in 2018, with schools attacked 12 times between January and April.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it is deeply concerned about the fate of at least 21 Venezuelans missing after their boat sank yesterday morning on the way to Trinidad and Tobago.  It was carrying at least 25 people, and the Trinidad and Tobago authorities said four were rescued.

Amid flaring tensions in eastern Ukraine, delegates in the Security Council today urged all parties to the conflict — now in its fifth year — to avoid unilateral actions that could exacerbate tensions, and to uphold their commitments, under the Minsk Protocol agreements to bring peace to the region’s 3.5 million beleaguered people in need of humanitarian assistance.

A measles and rubella vaccination campaign in Yemen led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now reached nearly 12 million children, including in high-risk areas, marginalized communities and camps for internally displaced people.

There is no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the five-year conflict in Ukraine, with deployment of a United Nations-mandated peacekeeping operation there being an effective tool to bring peace, speakers told the General Assembly today.

While the 2015 Minsk agreements are the only agreed framework for a negotiated peace in eastern Ukraine, they remain largely unimplemented, senior United Nations and other officials told the Security Council today, urging all parties to the conflict to uphold their commitments to uphold a permanent ceasefire.

The United Nations refugee agency says it is seeing a surge in refugee arrivals from South Sudan into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  In the past few days, an estimated 5,000 refugees have arrived in several border villages near the town of Ingbokolo in north-eastern Ituri Province, according to local village chiefs.

At least 34 United Nations and associated personnel were killed in malicious attacks while on duty in 2018, according to the annual report of the UN Staff Union’s Standing Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service. It is among the lowest casualty rates of the last five years.

The UN mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is conducting an operation to restore order in Bambari, Ouaka Prefecture, in coordination with the country’s security forces.  The operation is in response to attacks by Union pour la paix en Centrafrique against the local population and peacekeepers.