Yemen

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.

The cholera outbreak in Yemen has spread to all but 1 of its 22 governorates, with more than 480,000 suspected cases and nearly 2,000 associated deaths from diarrhoea-related diseases, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.  There are concerns the numbers could rise as Yemen heads into its rainy season.

Calling upon all parties in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and north-east Nigeria to urgently take steps that would enable a more effective humanitarian response, the Security Council today expressed its grave concern about the unprecedented level of global humanitarian needs and the threat of famine currently facing more than 20 million people in those countries.

Welcoming a $1 million contribution from the United States in support of Western Sahara refugees in Algeria, the World Food Programme said today it will use the funds to provide staple food items as part of monthly food rations for thousands of refugee families living in extremely harsh conditions for more than 40 years.

Aid workers in Iraq are preparing to bring water, hygiene, sanitation, food and emergency medical care to those in need ahead of the anticipated military campaign to retake the Da’esh-held town of Telafar, some 60 kilometres west of Mosul.  Some 60,000 people are believed to remain trapped in the city and its environs.

The United Nations Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic says it started an operation this week to remove armed fighters from Bangassou, epicentre of recent interethnic violence that resulted in the displacement of more than 2,000 civilians and the killing of three peacekeepers.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein announced today the appointment of Bacre Ndiaye from Senegal, Luc Côté from Canada and Fatimata M’Baye from Mauritania as international experts on the situation in the Kasaï region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mandated by the Human Rights Council.