UN chief’s shock and sorry over LA wildfire emergency
As deadly and fast-moving wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles, the UN Secretary-General has expressed his shock and sorrow at the impact of the emergency, which has uprooted tens of thousands of people in California and left at least five dead.
António Guterres also commended the courage and dedication of first responders working in “extremely difficult conditions” to protect lives and contain the fires.
The wildfires have been described as some of the worst in the history of Los Angeles, burning thousands of acres, destroying homes and forcing firefighters to battle to contain multiple blazes.
They and others are at risk from air pollution caused by the emergency, said Dr Margaret Harris, from the UN World Health Organization (WHO):
“Because wildfire is a mixture of air pollution, one of which is particulate matter, this leads to a significant public health threat. Particulate matter 2.5, often known as pm 2.5, from wildfire smoke is associated with premature deaths in the general population and can cause and exacerbate diseases of the lungs, heart, brain, nervous system, skin, gut, kidney, eyes, nose and liver.”
According to a study from UN partner the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, climate change increased the dryness of forests and doubled the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in Western America.
More than 125,000 refugees return to Syria to find desperate conditions
A month since the fall of the Assad regime, more than 125,000 refugees have returned to Syria “full of hope after years of exile”, only to find themselves confronted by desperate conditions, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday.
Leading calls for the international community to help the country’s most vulnerable returnees urgently, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that many families have to sleep under nothing more than plastic sheeting.
From the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, Olga Cherevko who’s based in Damascus told UN News that the crisis is countrywide and severe:
“The levels of destruction in parts of Syria are shocking and the needs are enormous. Over 620,000 people remain newly displaced and are in urgent need of basic life-saving aid, water, food, shelter and healthcare. But long term, meaningful investments in Syria’s future to restore its infrastructure and basic services will form a solid foundation for the country’s recovery.”
Fourteen years of war ended in Syria on 8 December after a lightning military takeover in Damascus by forces including Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), whose leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is head of the caretaker authority.
Before the fall of the Assad regime, some 7.4 million people were internally displaced inside Syria, with 2.3 million residing in camps and a total of 16.7 million people relying on humanitarian assistance.
Gaza: only three weeks remain until Israel’s ban on UNRWA comes into force
To Gaza, where aid teams and UN agencies remain deeply concerned about the looming ban by the Israeli Knesset on the UN aid agency operating in the enclave, UNRWA.
Head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued an appeal on Thursday not to shut out UNRWA from Gaza at the end of January, when the ban enters into force.
“No other agency” can match the scale of UNRWA, Tedros said, as he insisted that it remains the largest health provider in the Gaza Strip, with about 1,000 health workers who’ve handled 16,000 consultations per day.
UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge said that the situation in Gaza is as horrifying as ever for civilians, while conditions continue to worsen:
“We enter this New Year carrying the same horrors as the last – there’s been no progress and no solace. Children are now freezing to death. Doctors in hospitals are under attack. Journalists are being killed. Humanitarians under fire, conditions continue to drastically deteriorate and the need for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a meaningful humanitarian response has never been greater – and this humanitarian response simply isn’t possible without UNRWA.”
Louise Wateridge from UNRWA ending that item.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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