Ukraine: Aid agencies step up relief deliveries as humanitarian situation worsens

UN aid agencies and partners said on Tuesday that they’re continuing to push to get aid to Ukraine’s most vulnerable people – amid devastating Russian shelling and attacks on health care facilities and personnel.

An estimated six million people need food and cash assistance, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been able to provide relief to previously inaccessible areas, such as Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel and Borodianka.

But the agency’s Emergency Coordinator for Ukraine, Jakob Kern, insisted that sustained humanitarian access was critical if those in dire need of help in places like Mariupol, are to be reached:

“A city of Mariupol – 100,000 people – would probably need about two to three trucks a day, so just food alone, not you know, now just the other items. So, it’s not the question of going with 10 trucks once a month, that’s not going to, to cut it.”

The development follows a plea from Secretary-General António Guterres who appealed for a four-day Holy Week pause that would begin on Holy Thursday and run through Easter Sunday, 24 April, to allow for a series of humanitarian corridors to open.

Guterres calls for calm in Middle East

After violent clashes in Jerusalem, the UN chief has reiterated his “call for calm” and for the status quo at holy sites to be upheld and respected.

His message came during a telephone call with Jordan’s King Abdullah late on Monday, after more than 150 Palestinians were reportedly injured in clashes with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque last Friday.

Calm between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has also been severely tested in recent weeks, after several deadly attacks on Israelis, and subsequent security operations by Israeli security forces in the West Bank.

Africa drought: low funding means only one in two people will be helped: FAO

A fresh warning over drought in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, where UN humanitarians have said that up to 16 million people are highly food insecure.

Three consecutive seasons of below-average rain in the Horn of Africa are responsible for much of the suffering, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

It’s estimated that in southern Ethiopia and Kenya, failed rains have killed off more than three million livestock, and up to 30 per cent of Somalian herds have died since mid-2021.

To help the most vulnerable, in January, FAO launched a drought response plan for all three countries.

While $130 million was asked for to help 1.5 million people, the agency has only received $50 million to date – an amount “insufficient to save livelihoods…and therefore to save lives”, it said.

Liz Scaffidi, UN News