This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Around 258 million need emergency food aid: UN-backed report

The number of people in desperate need of food, nutrition and livelihood assistance around the world rose for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, to around 258 million in 58 countries; an “unconscionable” situation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.

According to the latest UN-partnered Global Report on Food Crises, conflict, climatic change and COVID-19 left people in seven countries facing starvation, destitution and catastrophic levels of acute hunger last year.

More than half of those were in Somalia, while extreme hunger also hit Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen and, for the first time, Haiti.

The report also shows that more than 35 million children under five suffered from wasting or acute malnutrition, which have long-term impacts on mental and physical growth.

Responding to the report’s findings, the UN chief said that they were “a stinging indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition for all”.

Ethiopia: essential measles vaccination campaign to prevent Tigray outbreaks

Over 830,000 children in the Tigray region of Ethiopia have been successfully vaccinated against measles as part of a new campaign seeking to narrow the immunization gap there following two years of conflict.

Announcing the good news, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the campaign took place between March and April this year in collaboration with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other UN agencies and partners.

The vaccine roll-out included acute malnutrition screening for children under five, along with pregnant and lactating mothers. The campaign also vaccinated mothers and caretakers against COVID-19.

WHO said last week that the coronavirus pandemic, along with conflicts, climate crises and a rise in vaccine hesitancy, caused millions of children to miss out on essential immunization, leading to deadly outbreaks of measles, diphtheria, polio and yellow fever.

The UN health agency advocated for a “big catch-up” to restore essential immunization coverage to at least 2019 levels. Under this initiative, Ethiopia is one of the 20 priority countries, which are home to three quarters of the children who missed vaccinations in 2021.

Somalia: Funding urgently needed to save lives of thousands of migrants

The lives of tens of thousands of migrants are at risk in Somalia, as funding has dropped while needs continue to increase due to climatic shocks, conflicts, and economic crisis, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Thursday.

“We need $3 million before the end of June 2023, or at least 50,000 migrants who are passing through Somalia will be left without access to critical life-saving assistance each year”, said Frantz Celestin, IOM Somalia Chief of Mission.

Mr. Celestin highlighted that IOM will be forced to close several of its Migration Response Centres in Somalia, which assist migrants with medical care, psychosocial support, information, family tracing and basic essentials.

He said that he was “deeply concerned” by the rise in numbers of unaccompanied migrant children who find themselves stranded in the country.

Somalia is a main transit country for thousands of migrants, particularly Ethiopians embarking on perilous journeys in search of better opportunities in the Gulf or Europe. IOM says that migrants travel through the country on foot and risk inhumane treatment and death at the hands of smugglers.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.