Yemen

About the response to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, medicines procured by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the treatment of 30,000 patients have been airlifted to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, for transfer across the Red Sea to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

As of 25 September, two days ago, there were nearly 740,000 suspected cholera cases in Yemen and more than 2,100 associated deaths recorded, with children accounting for more than half, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  Aid workers have set up 250 diarrhoea treatment centres.

An estimated 370,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh since 25 August.  A flight chartered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees carrying emergency aid has landed in that country.  A second flight, donated by the United Arab Emirates, was carrying 2,000 tents.  The supplies will help 25,000 refugees.

The United Nations Human Rights Office confirmed that 33 civilians in Yemen were killed and 25 injured in the 23 August air strike by coalition forces that hit a hotel in Sana’a Governorate, one of several coalition air strikes that day, which resulted in deaths.  Witnesses said there had been no warnings of an attack.

The “deplorable, avoidable and completely man-made catastrophe” in Yemen continued to worsen and ravage the lives of millions of people facing famine, the world’s largest ever single-year cholera outbreak, daily deprivation and injustice, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief told the Security Council today.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council he was aggrieved that despite his team’s best efforts over two years, the deplorable and avoidable man-made catastrophe ravaging Yemen has seen no significant improvement.  On the contrary, the suffering has intensified relentlessly.

Filippo Grandi paid his first official visit to Sudan as High Commissioner this week, with refugees continuing to flee the brutal conflict in South Sudan.  Sudan has hosted more than 416,000 South Sudanese since 2013, including some 170,000 new arrivals in 2017, as well as refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Yemen and Chad.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partners have begun relocating more than 33,000 Congolese refugees from over-crowded reception centres in northern Angola to a newly established settlement in Lóvua, some 100 kilometres further inland, where they will all receive a plot of land on which to build shelters and grow food.

The Government and the United Nations held an event in Mogadishu to celebrate Somalia’s polio-free status of the last three years.  The World Health Organization applauded Somalia’s efforts to ward off the highly infectious virus while urging continued caution and vigilance.

The International Organization for Migration has released a report profiling migrants passing through its West Africa transit centres.  It reveals wide-spread misinformation about what awaits migrants on their journeys and in countries of temporary residence, particularly Algeria and Libya, where migrants reported abusive treatment, physical violence, and/or threats.