UN News Today 26 August 2024 |

UN aid official deplores latest wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine

The UN’s top aid official in Ukraine has condemned deadly Russian missile and drone strikes that began overnight and reportedly hit targets across the country.

“Like millions of people in Ukraine I spent hours in a shelter this morning because of the ongoing wave of attacks on Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces,” said Humanitarian Coordinator Matthias Schmale, in a statement issued on Monday.

Civilians were reportedly killed and injured in the strikes, while civilian infrastructure sustained heavy damage, Mr. Schmale said.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) meanwhile reported that boys and girls “woke up today to sounds of air alarms and explosions”. The UN agency also shared photos online of children and families sheltering at metro stations in the capital, Kyiv.

The attack came in the wake of Ukraine’s recent incursion into the Kursk region in Russia and was among the most intense Russian assaults in weeks, according to media reports.

At least five people were killed in the strikes, which mainly targeted critical energy infrastructure, resulting in power outages and disruption to water supply.

Myanmar: UN World Food Programme pushes to reach flood-affected communities

To crisis-hit Myanmar, where the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing emergency relief to families affected by flooding in the Ayeyarwady Delta, it said on Monday.

An estimated 500,000 people live in areas exposed to flooding in the delta – a key rice-growing region – where WFP plans to assist some 35,000 people now sheltering in evacuation centres.

Food packs include rice and fortified biscuits, along with nutrition support for mothers and children, to prevent acute malnutrition.

Sheela Matthew, WFP Representative in Myanmar, warned that the emergency threatened to significantly reduce monsoon rice yields:

“Initial reports from our partners indicate that hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland have been inundated. In the hardest-hit areas, urgent needs include food, drinking water, and sanitation. Supporting the smallholder farmers is also going to be very crucial if they’re going to recover from the floods.”

According to the Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024, even before the flooding, 1.5 million people in Ayeyarwady required humanitarian assistance – one in four of the population in the delta.

Vitally needed polio vaccines reach Gaza at last

To Gaza, where UN aid teams said on Monday that they’ve delivered urgently needed polio vaccines, at last.

Announcing the development, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that 1.2 million doses of polio vaccine type 2 would soon be available.

The UN agency is already working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, on plans to vaccinate more than 640,000 children.

The development comes after repeated calls for polio vaccine since the virus was detected in Gaza recently for the first time in 25 years.

The inoculation campaign will target children under 10 years old. But a humanitarian pause in fighting is urgently needed to make this possible, said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who warned that any delay “will increase the risk” of polio spreading among children.

Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved