This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Russia responsible for ‘widespread death and destruction’ in Ukraine: Guterres

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has again added his voice to international condemnation of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, addressing the opening of the Human Rights Council on Monday.

“This is a moment to stand on the right side of history,” Mr. Guterres said, just days after a large majority of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops:

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations of human rights we are living today. It has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have caused many casualties and terrible suffering.”

In addition to the devastation caused by repeated shelling of Ukrainian cities and key infrastructure, Mr. Guterres added that dozens of cases of conflict-related sexual violence against men, women and girls, had been documented in Ukraine in the last year.

As part of the Council’s scheduled work, its 47 Member States will hear an update from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine on 20 March.

Tragic shipwreck in Europe prompts call for safe and legal migration routes

A tragic migrant shipwreck which claimed at least 59 lives including 12 children off the Italian coast at the weekend, has prompted renewed calls from the UN for safe, legal routes for migrants and refugees.

The appeal from the UN Secretary-General was swiftly echoed by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the UN migration agency, IOM, which also urged countries to increase resources to meet their responsibilities.

It is reported that the vessel sailed from Türkiye, with possibly as many as 170 people on board from Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere, before crashing into the rocks on Sunday off the coast of Crotone.

In 2022, migrants from Türkiye accounted for around 15 per cent of total sea arrivals in Italy, according to UNHCR, which noted that nearly half of those arriving along the maritime route were people fleeing Afghanistan.

UN seeks $4.3 billion to help 17.3 million most vulnerable Yemenis

The UN's Emergency Relief chief Martin Griffiths appealed on Monday for $4.3 billion to help millions of Yemen’s most vulnerable people, after years of grinding war and economic hardship.

Speaking in Geneva ahead of the High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen, Mr. Griffiths warned that Yemen continues to teeter on the brink of catastrophic food insecurity, with two in three people in need of help.

“By any standards, it's enormously important. We're looking at 21 - more than - 21.7 million people this year in Yemen in need of humanitarian assistance. And of those we're targeting in this humanitarian response plan, about 17 million.”

Fighting in Yemen escalated in 2015, between the Government and opposition Houthi forces that control the capital, Sana’a.

Although the situation is no longer characterised by “full-scale military offensives”, there is no formal peace either, said UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

Humanitarians have continued to highlight that the need for safe aid access throughout Yemen remains crucial for communities struggling to feed themselves, to find work and resist flooding linked to the climate crisis.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.