"HUMANITARIAN CRISIS"

Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen reiterated his appeal for a complete immediate nationwide ceasefire throughout Syria “to enable an all-out effort to counter COVID-19 and spare all Syrians additional suffering,” a UN spokesperson said. UNIFEED

The Security Council will turn to technology in April to tackle the humanitarian crises in Yemen and Syria, address conflict-induced hunger, promote the youth, peace and security agenda, and respond to the threat of COVID-19, says its President for the month, José Singer Weisinger, Special Envoy from the Dominican Republic.

At a joint virtual press briefing, Secretary-General António Guterres, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Lowcock, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, launch a $2 billion coordinated global humanitarian response plan, to fight COVID-19 in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries in a bid to protect the millions most at risk.

Briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Although a fragile ceasefire agreed in north-west Syria is still holding, UN humanitarians on Friday warned of dire conditions for hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by conflict, now in its tenth year. UNTV CH

Escalating violence threatens quest for political resolution of conflict in Yemen, senior officials Warn Security Council.

As the Syrian conflict has entered its tenth year, the UN Secretary-General said, “we cannot allow the tenth year to result in the same carnage, the same flouting of human rights and international humanitarian law, the same inhumanity.” UNIFEED