Health

The Secretary-General said today that 195 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff members have been killed, the highest staff death toll in UN history. UNRWA’s $1.2 billion appeal to cover critical humanitarian needs until year’s end is less than 20 per cent funded.

The UN, along with humanitarian aid partners, last night launched a response plan calling for $9 million to support 43,000 people impacted by Hurricane Beryl in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Immediate action is crucial, particularly in light of what is expected to be a very intense hurricane season.

The United Nations continues to support countries in the Caribbean that have been impacted by Hurricane Beryl. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that most of the health facilities assessed in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are now operational, despite sustaining damage.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen said that negotiations held in Oman over the weekend led to a significant breakthrough, where the Yemeni parties reached an understanding on releasing Mohamed Qahtan, a prominent politician who has been held incommunicado by the Houthis since 2015.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that 311 weapons collected from former combatants were handed over to the Government on Tuesday as part of the National Programme for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Repatriation.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has started a joint operation with the Congolese Armed Forces to protect civilians in the Madombo and Itendey areas of Ituri Province, respectively controlled by the Zaire and CODECO armed groups.

Just 18 per cent of the $48.7 billion needed to humanitarian aid worldwide this year has been received, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. The consequences are particularly acute in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Honduras, Mali, Myanmar and Sudan.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today said it is stepping up support to assist some 8,000 Rohingya refugees who were affected on Wednesday by landslides in the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, delivered on behalf of the Secretary-General, to the General Assembly’s annual review of HIV/AIDS, in New York today:

In conflict-ridden Sudan, over 7 million people are now displaced and 2 million more have fled to neighbouring countries, the International Organization for Migration reports. World Food Programme convoys with 1,200 metric tons of food, for some 116,000 people in Darfur, are near their final destination, Darfur.