Yemen

About 931 million tons of food — or 17 per cent of all food available to consumers in 2019 and roughly equal to 23 million fully loaded 40-ton trucks bumper-to-bumper, enough to circle the Earth seven times — were trashed by households, retailers, restaurants and other food services, a UNEP report says.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya today strongly encouraged the House of Representatives to consider the vote of confidence in the cabinet to be proposed by the Prime Minister-designate.  The Mission also said it is not in a position to comment on allegations of bribery during the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.

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

The Secretary-General regrets the use of violence and the subsequent loss of life reported at the residence of the presidential candidate Yaya Dillo in N’Djamena, Chad.  He deplores the use of force in the context of the electoral process and urges the authorities to foster an inclusive political process.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the high-level pledging event for Yemen, today:

United Nations Children’s Fund Representative (UNICEF) in Nigeria Peter Hawkins calls on those responsible for the mass abduction of girls from a State-run school in Zamfara to release them immediately and for the Government to take steps to ensure their safe release and the safety of other schoolchildren in the country.

The Security Council, in a videoconference meeting today, decided to renew for 12 months a travel ban and assets freeze previously imposed on specific individuals and entities threatening Yemen’s peace, security and stability, while also extending for 13 months the mandate of its Panel of Experts on Yemen.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration today began preparing asylum seekers in the Matamoros camp for entry to the United States as the country ends a policy that forced some 25,000 people to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings.

Cabo Verde is among the first African countries to receive the first allocation of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX facility, the United Nations team there reports. In the next few weeks, thanks to additional World Bank funding of $5 million, Cabo Verde will be able to buy vaccines for almost 35 per cent of the population.

While fresh violence and a worsening humanitarian situation continues to unfold in Yemen, international efforts to work towards peace are finding fragile inroads, briefers told the Security Council during a videoconference meeting today.