Yemen

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

In Katowice, Poland, today the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a report which says that meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about a million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone.

A peacekeeper from Malawi was found alive in the Beni area of North Kivu Province on Friday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reports.  He went missing on 14 November after the launch of the mission’s joint operation with Congolese forces to neutralize rebel fighters.

Yesterday I was asked about money and percentages.  As of yesterday, the amount received for the regular budget in 2018 represents 97.8 per cent of the amount assessed.  While credit is given publicly to those Member [States] that have paid their budget dues in full, many others pay in tranches of varying sizes.

The first-ever International Jaguar Day, 29 November, aims to boost conservation efforts to guarantee the survival of the largest feline in the Americas.  Half of the original range of the species has been lost and its population is declining due to poaching, conflict with humans and disintegration of their habitat.

Noting that 2019 will mark 40 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the United Nations Children’s Fund says 2018 has been especially challenging.  A spike in violence, unprecedented drought and poverty has taken a disproportionate toll on children:  5,000 were killed or maimed in the first three quarters, compared to all of 2017.

The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced today that the first ever multi-drug trial for the treatment of Ebola has begun.  World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it an important step to finding a treatment that will save lives.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, telling students at Tsinghua University in China that the Paris Agreement on climate change was a great start for countries to commit to lowering emissions, said she was counting on young people to hold leaders accountable to ensure a secure future for themselves and future generations.

The World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report reveals that in 2017, there were about 219 million cases, compared with 217 million in 2016.  About 70 per cent of all cases occurred in 10 African countries and India.  To boost prevention and treatment, WHO and partners launched a new country-led response.

Delivering impassioned pleas on behalf of 14 million civilians teetering on the edge of famine in Yemen, senior United Nations and civil society leaders today briefed a largely unified Security Council on political and humanitarian steps forward, emphasizing that a new “window of hope” has now opened in that country’s devastating and overlooked war.