Noon Briefings

The Advisory Committee established by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) concluded its second three-day meeting in Tripoli on 20 February. The Committee held discussions on the current electoral framework, focusing on the contentious aspects that have impeded the holding of national elections in Libya.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Food Programme has partially resumed food assistance in parts of Goma, delivering vital nutrition supplies to treat moderate acute malnutrition in children, and plans to resume operations fully as soon as it is safe to do so.

The United Nations and its aid partners in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have launched this year’s Humanitarian Response Plans to assist 2.2 million people in need, seeking a total of $306 million.

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is sheltering and protecting some 1,400 people in its premises in Goma, North Kivu. In recent days, nearly 56,000 displaced persons have relocated to 34 newly created collective centres across Goma, mainly schools, churches and hospitals.

In Sudan, the total number of newly displaced people in Shamal Jabal Marrah, in Central Darfur State, reached over 120,000, after hostilities over the past week in Zamzam in North Darfur state caused about 5,500 people to seek safety and shelter there, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports.

In Syria, over the past two days, 77 trucks carrying UN food, health supplies, blankets and other aid have crossed from Türkiye to Idlib through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, bring the number of trucks crossing from Türkiye to 200 this year — more than triple the amount compared to the same time last year.

In Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) says that 25 WFP-supported bakeries are now operating across the territory. WFP also notes that every week, dozens of kitchens are providing hundreds of thousands of hot meals to people across the Strip. In the north, WFP is working to further expand capacity.

The UN Human Rights Office today released a report which says that Bangladesh’s former Government, security and intelligence services, as well as violent elements associated with the Awami League party, systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations during last year’s student-led protests.

In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today facilitated its eighth interagency aid convoy this year to deliver humanitarian assistance to 800 residents of a front-line community in the Kharkiv region, where mostly older people remain amid worsening security conditions.

In Somalia, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that drought conditions are looming in several areas of the country due to prolonged extreme dry conditions, with hundreds of thousands of families likely to be impacted.