United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock today approved the largest-ever allocation by the Central Emergency Response Fund — $50 million — to rapidly bolster aid for Yemen. The humanitarian situation there has deteriorated despite recent progress in opening key Red Sea ports to food and fuel shipments.
In progress at UNHQ
Yemen
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is again calling urgently upon the Government of Australia to find humane solutions for the refugees and asylum-seekers abandoned on Manus Island, noting that about 800 people have remained in a precarious situation there since the “off-shore processing” facility was closed on 31 October.
The Secretary-General has established a Chief Executives Board Task Force to address sexual harassment in the United Nations. Led by Jan Beagle, Under-Secretary-General for Management, it will review policies to prevent such behaviour, capacities to investigate allegations, as well as the support and protection offered to victims.
Temperatures plummeted across Ukraine, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported, saying the distribution of aid, including clothing, fuel and cash to the most vulnerable people impacted by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The aid will reach some 15,300 people, mainly single parents, elderly, families with many children and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) reported that a patrol hit a suspected improvised explosive device in Kidal city, wounding one peacekeeper on 18 December. The incident follows four separate attacks against peacekeeping personnel and premises in Kidal on 15 December.
The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 74 refugees, mostly children and women, from Libya to Niger. In the Central African Republic, voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees has begun; since Tuesday, 230 refugees have arrived in Sudan. Agency-chartered flights will bring some 1,500 refugees home by the end of 2017.
A growing number of districts in Yemen are at risk of famine as the situation rapidly deteriorates, aggravated by protracted conflict, limited imports of essential commodities necessary for basic survival, lack of salaries and collapsing health, water and sanitation services, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.
Today in Geneva, the 2018-2019 Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan concerning Syria was launched - an interagency, $4.4 billion plan designed to support over five million refugees from Syria and the vulnerable communities hosting them in the neighbouring countries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan dispatched a patrol to Abier, Cuei-Cok and Abiriu, in the northwest of Lakes region, on 9 December following an attack by armed youth last week in which more than 60 people were killed and 70 injured. During the patrol, the Mission interviewed witnesses, visited the wounded and cautioned against retaliatory attacks.
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen briefed the Security Council, warning of alarming levels of violence affecting civilians and emphasizing an acute need for a negotiated settlement and inclusive peace process at a time of sharply shifting political dynamics following the killing of the former President.