Yemen

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that volcanic activity on Vanuatu’s Ambae Island, which has a population of more than 10,000 people, has intensified in the last few weeks.  The Vanuatu Council of Ministers has called for the immediate compulsory evacuation of Ambae residents to the neighbouring island of Maewo.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Yemen told the Security Council today that he plans to invite parties to the conflict in that country to Geneva on 6 September for consultations on a potential framework for talks, confidence‑building measures and plans for moving the peace process forward.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has found that children make up nearly 30 per cent of all identified victims of human trafficking.  In regions such as sub‑Saharan Africa and Central America and the Caribbean, the proportion is more than 60 per cent.

At the Global Disability Summit in London, the Deputy Secretary-General said that Governments’ commitments often does not translate into major improvements for the 1.5 billion persons with disabilities across the world, adding that the United Nations has launched a review of its approach, institutionally and operationally, to disabilities.

The United Nations migration agency said today that it assisted more than 72,000 migrants to return home voluntarily in 2017.  This represents a 27 per cent decrease compared to 2016, when some 98,000 migrants were provided with return and reintegration support.

Thousands of Rohingya people continue fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine State and describe continued violence and human rights abuses, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, told the Human Rights Council yesterday, warning that the international community will not forget the outrages committed.

Today is the International Day of the Tropics.  As you know, the Tropics are the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and host approximately 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and much of its language and cultural diversity.

The number of children affected by armed conflict and the severity of grave violations affecting them increased in the past year, according to the Secretary‑General’s annual report on the issue, which was presented today by the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, says cholera tops the list of concerns over Hodeidah, an epicentre of the 2017 outbreak, among the worst in modern history.  Meanwhile, 25 per cent of children in the city are suffering from acute malnutrition, and without nutritional support, 100,000 will be at risk.

A concert to benefit Rohingya refugees will be performed at the Baruch Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. on Monday, 25 June.  Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and Ninette Kelley, Director of the High Commissioner for Refugees New York Office, will attend.