Ukraine

The Security Council expressed grave concern about the recent deterioration of the security situation in eastern Ukraine and its severe impact on civilians.

Staff of the Human Rights Office say they are appalled at the ongoing violence in Nicaragua, where at least 16 people are reported to have been killed this week and more than 100 injured amid anti-Government protests.  They are also concerned at the reported arrest and detention of six human rights defenders.

In Syria, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is delivering United Nations humanitarian aid for more than 92,000 people to Talbiseh in northern rural Homs and Tlul Elhomor in southern Hama.  This is the first convoy to northern rural Homs since a convoy reached Dar al‑Kabira and surrounding areas on 4 March.

The World Health Organization reports that they have deployed 39 staff members, with plans under way for an additional 15 personnel, to rapidly contain a confirmed outbreak of cholera in Nigeria’s Adamawa State.  As of 26 May, 434 suspected cases, including 13 deaths, have been reported.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine was not only alive — with 1.6 million people displaced and escalating violence — but it embodied a broader threat to the global rules‑based order, with tens of thousands ceasefire violations recorded in 2018, the Security Council heard today, as it considered the situation for the first time in 15 months.

In a report published today, the United Nations Human Rights Office and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya say violence continues to have a devastating impact on health care in the country with hospitals and other medical facilities bombed, shelled and looted; medical personnel targeted; and patients attacked.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq commended Kurdistan Region political parties and blocs for signing the Electoral Charter of Honour on 18 April in Erbil.  He said that the Charter is essential to conducting the elections in a free, fair, impartial, transparent and credible manner.

The Secretary-General was shocked at reports of remarks attributed to Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.  He urges all leaders in Myanmar to take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote communal harmony.

The United Nations Children’s Fund expressed deep sadness over the killing of its colleague, along with five other education workers, on 25 February in the north-western region of the Central African Republic, near Markounda, a remote area close to the Chadian border.

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