25 Feb 2022
(File photo 2019) An elderly resident of a village in Luhanska oblast fetches home drinking water collected from a local well, as water supply gets often interrupted due to shelling. Credit: OCHA/Maloletka
Daily Noon Briefing Highlights – 25 February 2022
Ukraine
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC), Martin Griffiths briefed media at the UN Headquarters on Ukraine. He told journalists that in the next few days, the UN will launch two coordinated emergency appeals in response to Ukraine’s escalating humanitarian needs – including rising internal displacement – and the needs of people seeking refuge in countries neighbouring Ukraine.
The ERC said all humanitarian partners need safe, unimpeded access to conflict-affected areas. As always, our humanitarian response is guided by humanity, neutrality, operational independence and impartiality. A recording of the briefing is available here.
Syria
Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya briefed the Security Council this morning on the humanitarian crisis in Syria. She highlighted the growing needs across the country, where 14.6 million people are now in need, the highest since the start of the conflict. Ms. Msuya expressed concern at the continued violence affecting civilians, especially women and children, and called for their protection as hostilities in front-line areas in the north-west and attacks in the north-east were reported.
She also updated the Council on the humanitarian impact of the economic crisis, where rising costs put basic items further out of reach for average families. Ms. Msuya briefed on UN efforts to ramp up early recovery efforts to support people in need in a more sustainable manner.
On humanitarian access, Ms. Msuya noted the importance of the cross-border operation to the north-west to reach an average of 2.4 million people in need each month. She also updated on cross-line operations that can complement cross-border aid deliveries.
Her full statement is available here.
Afghanistan
A group of eight senior emergency experts from UN agencies and non-governmental organizations today called for urgent support to life-saving humanitarian action in Afghanistan after a five-day mission to the country. The emergency experts said they witnessed an enormity of human suffering in Afghanistan, but that they also saw humanitarian organizations able to scale up operations despite massive operational constraints, including the ongoing banking and liquidity crisis.
The group travelled to Kabul and to projects in Kandahar, Panjwai, and Spin-Boldak and met with frontline aid workers and healthcare professionals, and affected people. Over 24 million people – 59 per cent of the population – now require lifesaving assistance, a staggering 30 per cent more than in 2021.
People’s reserves are exhausted, forcing many into harmful coping mechanisms to survive, including child marriages and child labour. Women and girls are particularly affected with many of their rights under threat. The Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan this year is the largest humanitarian appeal ever launched for a single country. It calls for US$4.44 billion to provide aid to over 22 million people. It is 13 per cent funded.
Yemen
Moving to Yemen, our humanitarian colleagues reiterate their concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the country, including the impact of the ongoing conflict, which is causing civilian casualties on a daily basis. More than 23,000 people have been displaced since the start of the year, most of them in Hudaydah, Marib, Shabwah and Taiz governorates. They join more than 4 million people who have been displaced across Yemen since the conflict escalated in 2015.
Aid agencies are doing everything they can to respond to people’s needs, but acute funding shortages are threatening the flow of humanitarian assistance. At the start of this year, two-thirds of major UN aid programmes had already been forced to reduce or close due to funding gaps. Further cuts are on the horizon if funding is not received. These cuts threaten to worsen humanitarian needs, including hunger. Food rations have already been cut by half for 8 million people. Those people may soon stop receiving food assistance altogether.
We call on donors to pledge generously at a high-level pledging event for Yemen on 16 March, which is being co-hosted by the UN and the Governments of Sweden and Switzerland. We also urge donors to commit funds before the event to avoid major disruptions in the humanitarian operation.
Ethiopia
Turning to Ethiopia, the conflict in Afar region continues to cause displacement which exacerbates humanitarian needs. Regional authorities estimate that hundreds of thousands have been displaced by fighting in recent months, including some 200,000 people living in areas that are hard for humanitarians to reach.
The humanitarian response is scaling up in accessible areas of Afar but remains insufficient. Assessments have found priority needs for food, protection for children, and health. Humanitarian assistance also continues in Amhara region. More than 6.8 million people have received food assistance in the past two months, including over 230,000 people assisted by the UN and NGOs in the past week. Some areas near the boundary with Tigray, however, remains inaccessible to humanitarians.
In the Tigray region, the UN and humanitarian partners continue to scale back operations due to a lack of supplies, fuel and cash. No relief convoys have reached Tigray since mid-December. From 10-16 February, about 72,000 people received food assistance in some towns, though rations were reduced due to limited stock. During the past week, the UN and partners airlifted some 47 metric tons of medical supplies to Tigray, including antibiotics and medicine for malaria and diabetes. However, lack of fuel is a major obstacle for dispatching the supplies to health facilities in the region.