Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
- Ukraine
- Yemen
- Afghanistan
- Security Council
- Mali
- Central African Republic
- Myanmar
- Malaria
- Peru
- David Attenborough
- Western Sahara
- Press Briefing Tomorrow
UKRAINE
This morning, the Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, and the Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, briefed the media in Kyiv. In the briefing, Mr. Awad noted that 15.7 million people in Ukraine now need humanitarian assistance and protection.
In her briefing, Ms. Lubrani announced an additional $50 million from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund to support NGOs and UN agencies in the country.
With this new disbursement, OCHA’s humanitarian funds will have allocated over $158 million for life-saving operations in Ukraine since 24 February. To date, 68 per cent of the initial $1.1 billion that was requested in the initial Flash Appeal has been funded.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that more than 600,000 additional people were internally displaced in Ukraine in the first 17 days of April, pushing the total number of internally displaced since the beginning of the war to more than 7.7 million men, women and children. This represents 17 per cent of Ukraine’s population.
IOM’s new assessment reveals that women represent at least 60 per cent of those displaced. More than half of internally displaced persons – mainly in the east of Ukraine – reported a lack of some food products.
In addition to ongoing large-scale deliveries of humanitarian supplies, IOM has identified cash-based interventions as one of the most feasible, efficient, and effective ways to reach people in need both inside Ukraine and in the neighbouring countries. Preparations are ongoing to scale up this assistance in close coordination with other UN agencies, the Government of Ukraine and the local authorities.
For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for continuous, unimpeded access to families trapped in hard-to-reach, embattled cities in Ukraine. They warned that these families are facing critical shortages of food, water and other essential supplies. Lack of access to conflict zones is the biggest obstacle to providing life-saving food assistance.
WFP said that the encircled city of Mariupol is running out of its last reserves of food and water and said that no humanitarian aid has been allowed into the city since it was encircled more than two weeks ago. Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Sumy are partially encircled but can be reached through commercial transport. Mykolaiv remains unreachable due to the conflict in the area.
YEMEN
The UN welcomes the announcement of the planned first commercial flight from Sana’a airport in six years, in Yemen. It is scheduled to take off from Sana’a to reach Amman, in Jordan, this coming Sunday, the 24th of April.
This is an important element of the truce recently achieved through the mediation efforts of the Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg.
The UN thanks the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for its support in bringing about this achievement, and the Government of Yemen for its constructive role in making this happen. The UN counts on the continued facilitation of all parties involved to ensure a successful flight on Sunday, and to continue facilitating flights as per the terms of the truce agreement.
Mr. Grundberg is working with the parties to ensure the successful implementation of the truce, including making progress towards opening roads in Taiz and other governorates to facilitate Yemenis’ freedom of movement within their country. He is also engaging the parties to strengthen and extend the truce and build on its momentum towards reaching a sustainable political solution to the conflict.
AFGHANISTAN
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned in the strongest terms today’s horrendous attack in Mazar-e Sharif, targeting civilians in a place of worship. The UN Mission noted that recent attacks against civilians represent a worrying trend in Afghanistan, stressing that this must end immediately, and perpetrators must be held to account.
For his part, the UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, said that the people of Afghanistan have already endured immense suffering, and must be spared from such senseless and horrific attacks.
Full Highlights: [ Ссылка ]
