Global deliveries of critical equipment to tackle COVID-19 pandemic will grind to a halt unless urgent funding is made available to maintain air fleet, UN World Food Program warns.
I am my brother’s keeper, George Floyd’s brother tells UN Human Rights Council. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday heard powerful testimony from the brother of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of US police officers sparked worldwide protest.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi discusses the findings in UNHCR’s flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement. The report, which details the figures in the numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people as of end 2019, will be launched on Thursday, June 18.
Syrian refugees resort to ever more desperate measures to resist pandemic impact. The COVID-19 crisis has put another 200,000 Syrian refugees in need of emergency assistance in the last three months alone, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, in an appeal for funding to confront new challenges posed by the health emergency.
Human Rights Council picks up again after COVID suspension, to hold racism debate. After a three month long COVID-19-enforced break, the Human Rights Council resumed its work at UN Geneva on Monday, giving the green light to a rare Urgent Debate on racism, alleged police brutality and violence against protesters sickened by the killing of American George Floyd in police custody.
YEMEN: Severe funding gaps for humanitarian aid as cases of Covid-19 are on the rise
Conflict-hit Nigerian families hit by COVID lockdowns on ‘life-support’: WFP . Help and funding are needed urgently for millions of people in Nigeria who have been hit severely by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including conflict-hit communities “on life-support” in the north-east, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
Cameroon: UN office strongly condemns attacks on aid workers
At a virtual press Conference Ravina Shamdasani, Philippines Report Team Leader, UN Human Rights Office, Bangkok and Rory Mungoven, Chief Asia Pacific Section, UN Human Rights Office, Geneva, briefed journalist on Release of report mandated by UN Human Rights Council (Resolution 41/2) on the situation of human rights in the Philippines.
Western Niger attack leaves 1,100 people ‘on the run’, warns refugee agency. A vicious attack by an armed gang on vulnerable refugees and host communities in western Niger has left more than 1,000 people “on the run”, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, the latest violence in the troubled Liptako Gourma region.
European COVID infections indicate ‘east-west divide’: WHO. Europe is seeing a “steady” decline in COVID-19 infections, although the generally positive trend has not happened in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe, the UN health agency said on Tuesday.
Millions in Latin America and the Caribbean at risk of severe food insecurity due to impact of Covid-19
Yemen aid lifeline nears breaking point as UN food agency appeals for $870 million
The Covid-19 pandemic is severely exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, says OCHA. Yemen, a war-torn country, will be left to fight a Covid-19 pandemic with a collapsed health system without additional funding, warned today the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Syria’s warring parties will resume talks in Geneva, says UN envoy
UN agencies step up support for Rohingya camp complex, host communities as first case of COVID-19 infection is confirmed
UN leads push to protect most vulnerable from mental health problems during and after COVID-19. Decades of neglect and underinvestment in addressing people’s mental health needs have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN said on Thursday, in a call for ambitious commitments from countries in the way they treat psychological illness, amid a potential spike in suicides and drug abuse.
Almost no humanitarian aid is entering the non-government-controlled areas in Ukraine due to Covid-19 lockdown measures. Since the third week in March practically no humanitarian aid has reached eastern Ukraine beyond the “contact line” that separates the government-controlled and non-government-controlled areas of the country.
Conflicts and heavy floods force tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in Somalia amidst COVID-19. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) calls for a strong and coordinated response from the international community, national and local Somali authorities and humanitarian actors to meet the massive humanitarian needs arisen in Somalia due to conflicts and heavy floods which force people to leave their homes amidst Covid-19.
Press conference WHO: Covid-19 Zoonotic Origin - Virus hunters continue search for animal link to COVID-19 infections in people
Migrants stranded ‘all over the world’ and at risk from COVID-19. Thousands of migrants have been stranded “all over the world” where they face a heightened risk of COVID-19 infection, the head of UN migration agency, IOM, said on Thursday.
COVID-19 makes universal digital access and cooperation essential: ITU
Food insecurity in West Africa could leave 43 million at risk as COVID hits: WFP / UNHCR
UNICEF calls for support to unblock massive backlog in vaccine shipments
Briefing by spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Jeremy Laurence on Sudan at a tipping point because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UN leads bid to help 135 countries get vital COVID-19 medical kit
OHCHR Press conference with Piggy Hicks and Georgette Gagnon - COVID-19 new policy guidance on emergency and exceptional measures - COVID-19
Challenges for multilateralism - and optimism - revealed in UN-led global debate
UNHCR: Refugee health workers step up for coronavirus response in Latin America
Concern for Libya's civilians mounts as fighting continues even in face of pandemic and calls for global ceasefire
Fall in carbon emissions linked to COVID-19 won’t halt climate change, says UN weather agency chief
UNHCR: Massive floods in DRC’s South Kivu impact 80,000 people, kill dozens
Renewed inter-communal violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, resumed in this province on the Ugandan border. The United Nations Joint Human Rights office in the DRC published a report in January that this type of acts of violence, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, may constitute crimes against humanity.
30 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were found dead on board a boat in the Bay of Bengal, that had been drifting at sea for 2 months. Nearly 400 others were found on board this fishing trawler by the Bangladesh coast guard attempted to make landfall on Bangladesh's southeast coast near Cox's Bazar.
FAO: World has enough food to withstand COVID crisis, says UN agency
The first United Nations “Solidarity Flight” is scheduled to leave Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this afternoon - from there, the aircraft will transport the vital medical cargo to all countries in Africa, where supplies are desperately needed to contain the spread of COVID-19.
With seven confirmed COVID-19 cases in Somalia, the United Nations and their humanitarian partners in the country are urgently reprioritizing activities to help prepare the response to the pandemic.
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “After the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s last week urged governments to reduce overcrowding in prisons in order to prevent catastrophic rates of COVID-19 infection, we are encouraged to note that a number of countries have indeed been taking action on this front.
The spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Jens Laerke said that “seven COVID-19 cases including two deaths have been confirmed - all cases arrived from abroad and are receiving medical treatment in isolation centres in Khartoum.”
Burkina Faso crisis and COVID-19 concerns highlight pressure on Sahel food security. Food insecurity levels in the Sahel region are “spiralling out of control”, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday, as it expressed concerns about the potential impact on humanitarian supply chains because of restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.