This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: UN chief begins solidarity tour of Moldova to meet refugees and host families

UN Secretary-General António Guterres began a two-day tour of Moldova on Monday, to express his solidarity and gratitude to the country’s people for taking in nearly half a million refugees from Ukraine, since the Russian invasion on 24 February.

In addition to holding talks in the capital, Chișinău, with President Maia Sandu and other senior officials, Mr. Guterres is due to visit a refugee centre run with the support of UN agencies, offering people temporary places to stay, hot meals and the opportunity to register for cash assistance.

The Secretary-General was also scheduled to meet one of the many families who have taken in the majority of refugees from Ukraine in Moldova.

To date, more than 5.8 million people have fled shelling and fighting in Ukraine across its borders, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

In a related development, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE, announced that it’s joined forces with star architect Norman Foster to rebuild Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine.

About 25 per cent of housing has been destroyed by bombing in Kharkiv since the Russian invasion, the city’s Mayor, Igor Terekhov said.

But administrative buildings, schools, nurseries, cultural centres, infrastructure and power stations have also been damaged – all of which will need reconstructing.

Here’s Norman Foster now:

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to combine the best and most loved aspects of a city with the city of the future, which has been described truly very eloquently by the mayor in terms of how he sees this city as a city of culture, a city of industry, of advanced technology and how one builds on that for the future.”

The “UN4Kharkiv Task Force” comprises more than 10 UN agencies which are working together to support the efforts of the Government in developing innovative approaches to rebuilding cities in Ukraine.

Ethiopia’s worst drought in 40 years may derail gains in maternal and newborn health

Drought in Ethiopia – the country’s worst in 40 years – is believed to be behind an increase in maternal and newborn deaths in recent months, UN humanitarians warned on Monday.

In an alert from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), it reported that pregnant women with labour complications and no transport had travelled up to 200 kilometres to get medical help, in Ethiopia’s Somali region.

Women and girls are the hardest-hit by the climate crisis, the UN agency said, noting that in eastern and southern Ethiopia, seasonal rains have failed for the third time since late 2020.

This has fuelled mass displacement and deepened an “already dire humanitarian situation”.

Nearly eight million people have been affected, UNFPA said, and more than 286,000 Ethiopian Somalis have been displaced, fleeing their homes to survive as crops, livestock and livelihoods are wiped out.

In the Somali region, some 930,000 people need emergency and reproductive health support and more than 565,000 people have reduced access to protection services. This includes women, children and survivors of gender-based violence. UNFPA cited data from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute showing that more than 60 per cent of those living in the Somali region are over an hour’s walk away from the nearest health facility – which may or may not be functioning, even if they do manage to reach it.

Space talks get under way to manage new threats to global security

UN-led talks on space security began on Monday, in a bid to find common ground among Member States and manage the growing number of risks to global peace.

The first open-ended working group on reducing space threats taking place all this week in Geneva follows a UN General Assembly resolution last December, seeking to promote “norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours” on space-based threats.

Progress on disarmament is also a key priority of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who recently reported on ways to reduce the “risks of misunderstanding and miscalculations” on outer space issues.

An international treaty for outer space already exists that forms the basis of international space law.

But it is 55 years old and needs updating urgently, said Hellmut Lagos, who’s chairing the talks in Geneva on reducing space threats:

Daniel Johnson, UN News.