"HEALTH"

The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today called for greater funding for agriculture to ensure there’s available and accessible food in crisis situations, noting that conflict “remains the single greatest driver of hunger.” FAO

On the African continent, Kenya has been one of the quickest countries to introduce and scale-up first-in-class lifesaving technologies for HIV. UNITAID

Mass displacement due to drought and conflict has resulted in devastating food insecurity in the Afar region in Ethiopia, pushing children and their families to the brink. UNICEF

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, "over the last week, COVID-19 cases have risen in four out of the six WHO regions. Due to testing and sequencing reducing in many countries, it is increasingly difficult to know where the virus is and how it’s mutating." WHO

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, concluded a two-day visit to Kenya on 13 May where he saw first-hand the devastating impact of a fourth consecutive failed rainy season in the Horn of Africa. OCHA

Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said, “we are deeply concerned about the likely human rights impact of the first officially reported outbreak of COVID-19 in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and the subsequent lockdown imposed by the authorities.” UNTV CH

The number of children with severe wasting was rising even before war in Ukraine threatened to plunge the world deeper into a spiralling global food crisis - and it’s getting worse, UNICEF warned in a new Child Alert. UNICEF

United Nations unaware of any biological weapons programmes in Ukraine, top disarmament official affirms, as Security Council considers new claims by Russian Federation.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at the Human Rights Council’s special session on Ukraine that her Office continues to verify allegations of violations of international human rights law and of international humanitarian law, many of which may amount to war crimes. UNTV CH

A special session of the UN Human Rights Council met on Thursday in Geneva, prompted by increasing concern over atrocities against civilians linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. UNTV CH