"HUMANITARIAN CRISIS"

People in Afghanistan are facing the winter season amid one of the world’s most rapidly growing humanitarian crises. Half of the population face acute hunger, over 9 million people are displaced, and the economy is in free fall. UNHCR

Speaking to reporters in New York today, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, continues to lead to more people needing humanitarian relief and affects aid workers’ ability to respond. UNIFEED

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

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said a nightmare was unfolding in Afghanistan and stressed that “freezing temperatures and frozen assets are a lethal combination” for the Afghan people. UNIFEED

Addressing the Security Council via teleconference, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg stressed “there is no sustainable long-term solution to be found on the battlefield,” and “warring parties can, should, and indeed must talk even if they are not ready to put down their arms.” UNIFEED

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, despite its best efforts, his Organization has been “blocked from sending medicine” into Ethiopia’s Tigray region adding that it is “so dreadful and unimaginable during this time of the 21st century, when a government is denying its own people, for more than a year, food and medicine and the rest to survive." WHO

Mutual distrust, competing priorities hampering efforts to resolve conflict in Yemen, Special Envoy tells Security Council amid calls for progress.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it was distributing winterization kits in different provinces of Afghanistan to vulnerable families with pregnant and lactating women, families with children with disabilities, female headed households, and others. The kits are part of UNICEF’s emergency response to keep vulnerable children, mothers and families protected during the harsh winter in Afghanistan. UNICEF

Informal comments to the media by Martin Kimani, Permanent representative of Kenya to the UN, with Permanent representatives of Gabon and Ghana, on the situation in Mali.

The UN and partners launched a more than five billion USD funding appeal for Afghanistan on Tuesday, in the hope of shoring up collapsing basic services there, which have left 22 million in need of assistance inside the country and 5.7 million people requiring help beyond its borders. UNTV CH