World News Brief: Sudan Displaced People a ‘Bleak Milestone’, UN Deputy Secretary-General for West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire Joins UN Water Pact
The “sad milestone” This means 20 percent of the population has been forced to evacuate in just 15 months, he added.
“The vast majority of those displaced are internally displaced – that is nearly eight million people – and more than half of them are children,” Dujarric said at a daily press briefing at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
“Meanwhile, more than two million people have fled across borders into neighboring countries, which often face their own humanitarian challenges.”
Major humanitarian challenges
Mr Dujarric said the humanitarian community in Sudan was doing everything possible to scale up assistance to those in need, including those fleeing the fighting.
On Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesreported delivering relief supplies to some 2,000 displaced and vulnerable families in East Darfur.
This follows a weekend announcement by the World Food Programme (World food program) that food aid has been provided to more than 120,000 internally displaced people in South Kordofan.
However, he warned that aid organizations in Sudan continue to face major challenges, including ongoing insecurity, limited access and a lack of financial resources.
“While funding for this year’s Humanitarian Response Plan increased over the past week, we are still only 30 percent funded more than halfway through the year, with $820 million in cash received out of the $2.7 billion needed,” he said.
On behalf of the United Nations, he called on “those who have committed to turn those pledges into cash and those who have not committed to turn those pledges into cash.”
UN Deputy Secretary-General in West Africa Mission Examines SDG Challenges
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed arrived in Senegal on Tuesday – the first stop on a mission to West African countries, where she will assess challenges in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and work with stakeholders to find a path towards the goal.
Her visit followed SDG Summit held at the United Nations Headquarters last September to accelerate progress towards achieving the 17 goals ahead of the 2030 deadline.
Ms Mohammed held a meeting in Senegal’s capital Dakar with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the finance, economy and foreign ministers.
Reaffirming the support of the United Nations
“During those meetings, the Deputy Secretary-General reaffirmed our support to the Government for key transitions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including the food system transition, renewable energy and the digital economy,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. speak journalists in New York.
Ms Mohammed is expected to meet Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on Wednesday, along with a group of UN and civil society representatives, including women and youth groups.
She will then leave Senegal for Conakry, Guinea to continue her regional tour, which will also take her to Mali.
Following the visit, Ms. Mohammed will travel to Ethiopia to chair the opening of the First Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.
Ivory Coast joins UN treaty on transboundary water management
Côte d’Ivoire has become the latest country to sign a UN treaty aimed at improving shared transboundary water management, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said. speak on Tuesday.
The West African country is the 53rd Party and the 10th Party in Africa to the United Nations Water Convention, officially known as Convention of 1992 on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.
The move adds to the strong momentum for water cooperation in Africa, where more than 90 percent of water resources are in 63 basins shared by two or more countries, according to UNECE, which serves on the convention.
“The accession of Côte d’Ivoire is a milestone for multilateralism and reaffirms the role of the UN Water Convention as an instrument to support water cooperation for peace, sustainable development and transboundary climate change adaptation,” said Tatiana Molcean, Executive Secretary of UNECE.
Ivory Coast has a population of about 30 million people and shares eight transboundary river basins with its neighbors, including Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Meeting the water needs of the country’s population, which is growing by 2.5% per year, poses significant challenges in the face of threats such as urbanization and the impacts of climate change – including droughts and floods.
At the same time, water quality is deteriorating due to pollution from agricultural and industrial waste, illegal gold mining and untreated wastewater. Water resources are also unevenly distributed across the country, with the north and northeast being particularly affected.
“In the context of increasing water scarcity and high water demand in Africa, Côte d’Ivoire’s accession as the 10th African Party to the 1992 Water Convention is a major step forward for the continent,” said Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Parties to the Convention will next meet in Ljubljana, Slovenia in October.
