Syria

In Syria, the United Nations and its partners are continuing to help people impacted by the earthquakes. Across the country, more than a million people have received tents, shelter kits and other emergency items. About 1.1 million people have received food rations and nearly 2 million hot meals have been provided.

The World Food Programme today urgently called for $26.7 million to support 541,000 people impacted by Cyclone Freddy in Mozambique who have no alternative for meeting their basic needs. This crisis is unfolding at the beginning of the main harvest season, exacerbating the already high levels of hunger.

In Papua New Guinea, the International Organization for Migration and humanitarian partners are helping with rapid assessments coordinated by provincial authorities after the magnitude-7 earthquake in the Chambri Lake area, which, due to the remote location, requires seaplane and canoe to be reached.

In Türkiye and Syria, the United Nations, along with partner organizations, have provided water, sanitation and hygiene support to more than 440,000 men, women and children impacted by the earthquake. Rehabilitation work and emergency repairs have also restored water and sanitation access for some 250,000 people.

In Vanuatu, the World Food Programme’s Pacific Humanitarian Air Service today transported 15 metric tons of critical medical and food supplies for over 250,000 people, about 80 per cent of the population, that have been impacted by the two category 4 cyclones and earthquakes that hit the country in early March.

A convoy of five trucks today reached the front-line community of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine where repeated shelling has destroyed or damaged many homes, and delivered shelter materials, solar lamps, medicines and other medical and hygiene supplies to the town’s remaining 3,000 people, one sixth of the population.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the Interactive Dialogue on the Report of the Secretary-General on Missing Persons in Syria, in New York today:

A new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) finds the cholera outbreak impacting 11 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa is an “emergency for children”. The agency is mobilizing health supplies, safe water and technical support in the region, and is calling for $171 million to protect those in need.

Since last month’s earthquakes, more than 1,070 trucks have crossed into the north-west of Syria from southern Türkiye, carrying aid provided by seven United Nations agencies. Staff have now completed 37 cross-border missions into the north-west since the first inter-agency visit to Idlib on 14 February.

United Nations humanitarian partners in Somalia have reported an early start to the country’s annual rainy season, which has brought flash floods, killing 14 people, destroying property and displacing thousands. The rains also come amid several disease outbreaks, including cholera, which are now likely to increase.