Sri Lanka

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Efforts to find and treat an additional 1.5 million undiagnosed, unreported and untreated tuberculosis patients by the end of 2019 have been showing signs of success, according to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, driven by six Asian countries bearing the world’s highest TB burdens.

The WFP reached 5 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018, double the number reached last year.  WFP significantly expanded its operations there due to widening violence and displacement, poor harvest and endemic poverty, with scaled up interventions in Ituri, Tanganyika and North and South Kivu.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The World Health Organization reports that new measures to overcome challenges in the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are having a positive impact through the use of targeted, multidisciplinary teams to accelerate community engagement in North Kivu province.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary‑General António Guterres:

Briefing the Security Council yesterday, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said that there has been little progress in talks to end the fighting in Ukraine, with the conflict now in its fifth year.  She said that the Minsk Agreements form the only agreed framework for a negotiated peace in east Ukraine.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it is concerned about the resurgence of insecurity in the Lac region in the west of Chad.  The situation has forced some aid agencies to suspend operations leaving tens of thousands of people without food and health services.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Secretary-General told the Security Council today that, despite passing resolution 2401 (2018), there had been no cessation of hostilities in Syria.  Violence continued in eastern Ghouta and beyond, and humanitarian aid continued to face blockages, with the humanitarian and human rights situation becoming more desperate by the day.