This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Quake latest: Aid convoys will keep crossing into Syria ‘for as long as needs are there’

The steady flow of UN aid trucks filled with vital humanitarian relief crossing from southern Türkiye into northwest Syria to help people affected by last week’s earthquake disaster “will continue every day for as long as the needs are there”, UN aid teams said on Friday.

Since 9 February, 143 trucks have passed through the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam border crossings, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

As part of the UN-wide response, the World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered assistance to nearly half a million quake-affected people in Türkiye and Syria, providing hot meals, emergency ready-to-eat food packages and family food rations.

From UN partner the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Fabrizio Carboni described the scale of needs in Syria’s Aleppo:

“For the first time I saw that there was not only a crack, and cracks in the buildings, but for the first time I really saw that our colleagues, the people you talked to in Syria, they were really wounded, and something is broken.”

UNHCR and partners seek $605 million for a million Congolese displaced

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), whose more than one million refugees need humanitarian help urgently.

The alert from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and 69 aid partners, accompanies an appeal for $605 million.

This funding is needed to provide direct assistance to seven African countries where Congolese refugees are sheltering, victims of one of the continent’s most intractable crises - particularly in eastern DRC, where more than 100 armed groups operate.

Uganda remains the largest host country of refugees from the DRC. In 2022 alone, attacks by militia in the east uprooted 98,000 refugees to Uganda, which is now home to almost half a million Congolese.

Ukraine: WHO increases 2023 appeal to $240 million

In Ukraine, almost a year since the Russian invasion, nearly 780 attacks on healthcare services have been reported, the UN health agency said on Friday.

One in three people can no longer afford the medicines they need and 10 million suffer from mental health problems, said Dr Hans Kluge World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe.

In a statement of solidarity for the people of Ukraine, the WHO official stressed that “each and every community” had “overwhelming needs” for mental health and psychosocial support services.

Dr Kluge also stressed how much additional support was needed to treat conflict-related injuries to adults and children alike.

To help, the UN health agency is working with nearly 200 partners to deliver services right across the country.

Some 8.5m people received health assistance last year; this year, the target is 13.6 million.

To make this happen, WHO will require $240 million - $160m for Ukraine and $80m for refugee-receiving countries.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.