UNICEF announced today it has signed a long-term agreement with Moderna to supply vaccine for the COVAX facility. Through the agreement, the agency and its partners will have access to up to 34 million doses for some 92 countries and territories in 2021. This is the fifth vaccine-supply agreement it has signed.
In progress at UNHQ
Yemen
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is calling for more international support for the people of Afghanistan amid continued violence that has internally displaced over 100,000 people so far this year. UNHCR’s $123.5 million humanitarian appeal for 2021 is only 24 per cent funded.
Despite a decline in the numbers of migrants arriving in Europe via the central Mediterranean route in recent years, hundreds — including at least 632 so far in 2021 — continue to die, finds a new report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office, which cites risks created by policy decisions.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near Gomas has caused 13 deaths and destroyed the homes of 5,000 people, humanitarian colleagues report. The United Nations is assisting with water, shelter, health and family reunification, and peacekeepers are set to clear the main roads into Goma.
Humanitarian officials in Somalia say a “double climate disaster”, marked by drought followed by torrential rains, has killed at least 25 people in two weeks. Warning that 2.7 million people in the country are already food insecure, they note that the Humanitarian Response Plan is currently only 19 per cent funded.
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Relentless military escalation by Ansar Allah in Yemen’s northern Marib region, along with import restrictions at Hudaydah, the closure of Sana’a International Airport and the absence of a political process are depriving people of hope that an end to the conflict is possible, the chief United Nations mediator told the Security Council today, calling on parties to make the concessions needed to conclude a peace deal.
The Organization released today $65 million for the humanitarian response in Ethiopia, comprising $45 million from the United Nations-managed Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund and $20 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund, as the security situation in Tigray remains volatile.
An annual report released by the Global Network against Food Crises warns that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life- and livelihood-saving assistance hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises.
The United Nations team in Madagascar is helping authorities to address record-high food insecurity and surging severe acute malnutrition caused by droughts, sandstorms and caterpillar plagues in the south of the island. Authorities and the United Nations launched a flash appeal in January for nearly $76 million.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, with support from the World Health Organization and other partners, has launched a yellow fever vaccination campaign targeting more than 16.3 million people in the country, the first such drive against the disease in Africa this year.