Yemen

Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy for Yemen, will visit that country and Saudi Arabia, starting 5 January.  In Sana’a, he is to meet with the Ansarallah leadership, General Patrick Cammaert and Humanitarian Coordinator Lise Grande.  In Riyadh, he expects to meet with President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.  

Calling on the parties in Yemen to implement their new agreement to halt combat in zones critical for delivery of life-saving aid, the Security Council today authorized the immediate deployment of an advance team to monitor compliance.

The new Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations, Abdullah Ali Fadhel al-Saadi, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

In Afghanistan, humanitarian organizations in Herat City have started distributing food and non-food items to displaced people who have been affected by drought.  As part of the ongoing full-scale drought response, WFP and its partners reached nearly 287,000 affected people from 6 to 12 December with food and cash assistance.

On the eve of the second round of the presidential election in Madagascar, the electoral observer missions and the members of the international community issued a statement calling on the two candidates to show restraint and to exhort their supporters to avoid any action that could compromise the electoral process.

Reporting on the newly reached agreement to demilitarize ports in Yemen, United Nations officials urged the Security Council today to take swift action to ensure full implementation of the accord in order to relieve the dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.

The High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration launched their regional refugee and migrant response plan for Venezuela, the first of its kind in the Americas.  The plan will respond to the needs of Venezuelans on the move, and for next year require $378 million.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the closing of the intra-Yemeni consultations, in Rimbo, Sweden, today:

Special projects funded by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan are improving the lives of communities countrywide by providing access to clean water, education and health care as well as safe houses for vulnerable women, and by strengthening the justice system to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account.

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