UN News Today 20 January 2025 |

Gaza: Over 630 aid trucks enter Gaza in one day, says UN’s relief chief

More than 630 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza on day one of the ceasefire and at least 300 of them headed to the north, the UN’s top aid official said on Monday.

Emergency relief chief Tom Fletcher warned however that needs in the enclave are “staggering” after 15 months of intense Israeli bombardment that have flattened vast areas of the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, the head of the biggest UN aid agency in Gaza, UNWRA, said that some displaced residents from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza have been starting to return, after being uprooted by forced evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

“For some, their homes have been reduced to rubble”, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA; he added that aid and some commercial supplies had started flowing into the enclave “smoothly”.

UNRWA has 4,000 truckloads of aid ready, half of them carrying food and flour, the agency said.

In a related development, top UN aid coordinators visited the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza and nearby Al-Arish city in Egypt to explore how to boost humanitarian aid deliveries, in line with the ceasefire agreement.

Rafah was a key entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid before it closed last May when Israeli forces moved in and took control, ahead of a major escalation in southern Gaza.

Sudan famine: WFP sends aid convoy to help most vulnerable in Gezira state

A UN aid convoy is on its way in southern Sudan to the strategically important city of Wad Madani, carrying food and nutrition supplies for families at risk of famine.

In an alert, the World Food Programme, WFP, said that the trucks will be the first from the UN agency to reach Wad Madani in over a year, since conflict spread there at the end of 2023.

But “they must arrive safely”, the WFP insisted.

That comes after the Sudanese Armed Forces – the national army – reportedly reclaimed Wad Madani from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who they’ve been battling for control of the country since April 2023.

The conflict has involved the use of heavy artillery, fighter jets and drones, it has killed at least 29,600 people and caused one of the world’s biggest displacement crises across the region, with around 11.5 million uprooted inside the country, 3.2 million refugees and famine declared in parts of northeast Sudan.

Marburg virus alert: WHO’s Tedros advises against travel restrictions

To Tanzania, where the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has advised against travel restrictions linked to the Marburg virus outbreak there.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “considering the low global risk and the strong capabilities of the Tanzanian Government”, the UN agency’s assessment was that there should not be restrictions on trade and travel to the east African nation.

Tedros’s comments came as Tanzania confirmed an outbreak of Marburg disease in northwestern Kagera region. At least nine suspected cases have already been reported and eight people have died.

Health workers were among those affected and patients presented with similar symptoms including high fever, back pain, diarrhoea and vomiting with blood.

This is the second reported outbreak of the disease in Kagera – the first outbreak was almost two years ago, in March 2023, in which a total of nine cases and six deaths were reported.

Previously, the WHO has said that animal carriers of the disease such as fruit bats remain in the area.

Tedros said that following the outbreak, the Tanzanian authorities had scaled up their response by enhancing case detection, setting up treatment centres and a mobile laboratory to test samples. National response teams have also been deployed.

To support Tanzania’s response, the WHO has released $3 million from its emergencies fund.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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