Afghanistan, Syria/Türkiye & other topics - Daily…

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the United Nations from working. The UN is still looking into how this development would affect its operations in the country and expects to have more meetings with the de facto authorities tomorrow in Kabul, on which it is trying to seek some clarity.

In Syria, the UN continues to provide assistance to people affected by the earthquake. In Government-controlled areas we, alongside our partners, have provided food and nutrition assistance for more than 221,000 people in Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous and Hama.  

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, months of violence and insecurity in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu have put millions of people on the brink of major humanitarian catastrophe. 

In Papua New Guinea, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and humanitarian partners are helping with rapid assessments coordinated by provincial authorities after the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck the Chambri Lake area in the remote East Sepik Province yesterday. 

According to a new report published today by the World Health Organization (WHO) - 1 in 6 people worldwide are experiencing infertility.  This shows the urgent need to increase access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need. WHO notes that at present, in most countries, fertility treatments are largely funded out of pocket – often resulting in devastating financial costs.

In his message to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, the Secretary-General said that broader global efforts are essential to safeguard people from mines. He urged Member States to ratify and fully implement the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. 

Tomorrow, at 11:15 a.m., the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, will join us to virtually launch the “2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing Sustainable Transformation.”  
This is the eighth report of the Secretary-General’s Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development.