The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Situation in Tigray, Ethiopia
Andrej Mahecic, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, together with 30 humanitarian partners, UNHCR was releasing today an urgent appeal for USD 156 million. The requested funds were needed to meet the critical humanitarian needs of Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in Tigray through the first half of 2021.
The Regional Refugee Preparedness and Response Plan for the Ethiopia Situation
(Tigray) covered the period from November 2020 through to June 2021 and was expected to reach up to 115,000 refugees and 22,000 people from host communities. It aimed to support the governments of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea in maintaining and facilitating access to
asylum and providing life-saving assistance to those who had been forced to flee.
Currently many refugees remained in overcrowded conditions without proper facilities and
there continued to be a shortage of medicines and other supplies. Partners were calling for
urgent new contributions in order to meet the immense humanitarian needs in eastern
Sudan and to ensure full preparedness throughout the region, concluded Mr. Mahecic.
UNHCR briefing note is here.
More than 52,000 refugees had arrived to Sudan thus far, said Mr. Mahecic responding to a question. Access to Tigray was very much needed in order to assess the situation there, including the number of internally displaced persons.
Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access, coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas, raised increasing concerns about the situation of civilians.
OHCHR had received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting. Those reports pointed to failure by the parties to the conflict to protect civilians, which was all the more concerning given that fighting was said to be continuing, particularly in some areas of north, central and southern Tigray.
One of the most shocking incidents reported to date was the alleged mass killing of several hundred people, mainly Amharans, in Mai Kadra, on 9 November. If civilians had been deliberately killed by a party or parties to the conflict, these killings would amount to war crimes and there needed to be independent, impartial, thorough and transparent investigations to establish accountability and ensure justice. Independent human rights monitors ought to be allowed to all areas of Tigray as soon as possible in order to ensure accountability, stressed Ms. Throssell.
OHCHR briefing note is here.
Refugee ration cuts in Uganda
Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that from February 2021 the WFP would reduce cash and food rations for more than 1.2 million refugees in Uganda. Uganda hosted around 1.4 million refugees, which made it one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. Most of those refugees had fled different conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Burundi. This year had been incredibly difficult for those refugees, and the WFP had received less than one half of the funds it needed. Since April 2020, the WFP had already been issuing reduced rations in order to keep up its activities.
WFP immediately needed USD 95.8 million to provide rations to Uganda over the next six months. WFP aimed to continue providing assistance to the most vulnerable categories, but there was a fear that there would be many who could not be helped. Many refugees were already food insecure, stressed Mr. Phiri. Consistent funding was necessary in order to secure continuous support for the refugees.
Geneva announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that this was the last briefing of 2020. The next briefing would take place on Tuesday, 5 January 2021. Ms. Vellucci thanked all the spokespersons, the journalists and her staff at UNIS for being cooperative and going an extra mile in this extraordinarily difficult year.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNAIDS
Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024—Take The Rights Path
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNECE , ITU , OHCHR , WHO , IFRC , WFP
Michele Zaccheo, Chief, UNTV, Radio and Webcast Section, United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, International Telecommunication Union, World Health Organization, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the World Food Programme.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OCHA , WHO , UNHCR , IFRC , ILO , UNCTAD
Alessandra Vellucci of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Federation of the Red Cross, the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Trade and Development.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | ITU , OSE , UNIFIL , UNICEF , OHCHR , WHO , FAO
Rolando Gómez of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and the International Telecommunication Union.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OCHA , WHO
UN Geneva briefing: Ukraine's humanitarian crisis deepens, with 12,000 dead and 3.6M displaced.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNWOMEN , UNHCR , UNDP , UNRWA , WFP
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, representatives and spokespersons of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, UN Women, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNHCR
Kelly Clements, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, briefs the Geneva press corps about the upcoming “1,000 days of full-scale war on Ukraine: urging solidarity with innocent victims”.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNHCR , IFRC , FAO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Committee press conference to present findings on Ecuador, France, Greece, Iceland, Pakistan and Türkiye
1
1
1
Press Conferences | FAO
Media launch of the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2024