"HUMANITARIAN RELIEF"

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, today (30 May) said it was “vital” that recent diplomatic moves in Syria “are matched with real action,” as the Syrian people “continue to suffer on massive scale.” UNIFEED

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Volker Perthes, said that the increased suffering of the people in the country “is not a result of aid organizations not being there or aid organizations not doing anything. The suffering of the people is a result of a war.” UNIFEED / FILE

According to the UN, 339 million people will require humanitarian aid this year just to survive. Almost one third of these people live in countries subject to UN sanctions. UNIFEED

Fran Equiza, UNICEF Afghanistan Representative. He will brief on the situation in Afghanistan.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rapidly scaling up its emergency operations in Sudan, every day reaching thousands more people whose lives have been upended by the ongoing fighting. WFP

Sudan’s Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed said the humanitarian situation in the country “has deteriorated and is getting worse,” and denied the Sudanese Armed forces are breaching ceasefire agreements. UNIFEED

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths called for “clear, definitive agreements, commitments in writing”, to protect the movement of humanitarian supplies, and humanitarian workers, as well as “to stop the looting that happens of humanitarian stocks so that aid agencies can do the job they only know best.” OCHA