Lebanon
In Lebanon, OCHA says that airstrikes continue to hit densely populated areas in central Beirut and its southern suburbs.
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, deplored the dangerous escalation marked by yesterday’s strike on a relief center in central Beirut, which directly targeted relief operations, killing paramedics and civil defense officers. He said that these attacks disrupt the delivery of essential services, delay life-saving medical care and violate people’s fundamental right to access healthcare. Frontline health workers are civilians who are risking their lives to help others and should never be targeted.
Since the escalation last October, at least 73 health workers have been killed while on duty, the majority since 23 September, including 28 health workers having died in the past 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
On the health front, WHO and its partners continue to support Lebanon’s health system by providing medical supplies and technical assistance, while training health workers to manage complex cases caused by recent events.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is distributing more than 10,000 dignity kits and providing psychological first aid in shelters in Beirut, Bekaa, South, North and Mount Lebanon.
UNFPA is also supporting 17 safe spaces for women and girls across the country, including five in Tyre, Bezourieh, and Jezzine.
UNFPA also says that seven medical mobile units are providing reproductive health services across Lebanon, including three within 10 kms of the Blue Line.
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Gaza
OCHA is very concerned about the toll of repeated strikes on shelters for displaced people in the Gaza Strip. These attacks have killed and injured dozens of people and left even fewer places where people can seek the basics they need to survive.
In recent days, at least six schools serving as shelters for displaced people have been struck. That’s in addition to a deadly strike on the Al Amal Institute for Orphans yesterday, which had been serving as a shelter in west Gaza city.
OCHA underscores that international humanitarian law demands that the parties take constant care to spare civilians from harm. Civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met.
OCHA reports that humanitarian partners continue to provide treatment to malnourished children in Gaza, despite the limited entry of critical supplies and the loss of access to some warehouses.
Even in the face of these challenges, humanitarian partners screened more than 24,000 children in Gaza for malnutrition last month – bringing the total screened since mid-January to nearly 319,000 children under the age of 5. This includes more than 70,000 children in Gaza’s northern governorates.
Of all screened children, nearly 22,000 have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition. Four stabilization centres and more than 100 outpatient sites across Gaza are providing treatment. In September, nearly 50,000 children under the age of five – as well as more than 18,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women – received supplementary feeding.
However, OCHA warns that partners have limited ability to store supplies that require refrigeration. Meanwhile, ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders have disrupted efforts to provide treatment, monitor cases, and access nutrition sites.
West Bank
The UN and partners are gearing up to support Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season. OCHA and our partners warn that access restrictions and widespread settler violence pose high risks and challenges for these farmers, potentially undermining their livelihoods. The Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund has allocated US$750,000 to help local partners assist farmers in rural communities, including by providing essential tools and equipment.
More than 9,600 hectares of olive-cultivated lands across the West Bank remain unharvested because of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access. The result has been an estimated loss of more than 1,200 metric tons of olive oil for last year’s season, amounting to a financial setback of some $10 million for these farmers.
Ukraine
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, visited Kharkiv yesterday – on the same day that an attack on an apartment block injured civilians, including a child.
He stressed that we must do everything possible to ensure that the war in Ukraine is not normalized – and that civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected. This is especially important given repeated attacks on energy facilities, with winter fast approaching.
There were more than 50 attacks in Kharkiv last month alone, killing or injuring more than 190 people – including 19 children – according to authorities there.
Meanwhile, OCHA says hostilities in the front-line Donetsk and Kherson regions yesterday and today also reportedly resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure.
Humanitarian workers delivered emergency shelter materials to people affected by the attacks. In Kherson City, aid workers assisted people affected by a recent deadly attack at a marketplace. They delivered emergency shelter materials to help cover damage to homes and civilian infrastructure, in an area that has been subjected to repeated shelling.
West and Central Africa floods
OCHA reports that floods have reached catastrophic levels, with more than 5 million people in 16 countries across West and Central Africa having been affected so far this year,
Chad, Niger and Nigeria are among the hardest hit, being home to more than 80 per cent of all people affected.
More than 1,000 people have been killed, with at least 740,000 people having been displaced. Hundreds of thousands of homes, more than a hundred of schools, and dozens of health facilities have been damaged. Nearly 500,000 acres of farmland has been damaged.
Without sufficient support, the floods threaten to hinder the reopening of schools slated for October. The floods could also aggravate existing food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly in Chad and Niger.
The precarious living conditions of people affected by the floods also increase the risk of waterborne diseases, such as cholera, which is spreading in many regions of Niger and Nigeria.
Our humanitarian partners are mobilized and supporting the response, including food and health assistance, but efforts are limited by a lack of financial resources.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, has allocated $35 million to support the response in five of the affected countries – Chad, Niger, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Congo – but more funding is urgently needed.
Nigeria
Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, has allocated $5 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to scale up the response to floods in the states of Borno and Bauchi in the north-east and Sokoto in the north-west, Nigeria.
The new funds will help humanitarian partners reach 280,000 people in these three states with food, clean water, sanitation and shelter support. The funds will also help to rapidly mobilise resources to improve access to healthcare, including preventing the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
The resources will also go towards enhancing protection services, including addressing gender-based violence, as well as support to people living with disabilities.
The CERF funds complement a $6 million allocation from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in the north-east of the country, where more than half a million people have been affected by floods. These states are experiencing cholera outbreaks that have claimed dozens of lives at the height of a food security and malnutrition crisis that is projected to affect five million people through October.
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, said that the floods have create a crisis within a crisis, noting that millions of people were already facing critical levels of food insecurity before the floods. But he cautioned that the latest infusion of funds are insufficient to meet the scale of needs.
The $927 million Humanitarian Response Plan is currently just 46 percent funded with $424 million received.
Author :
Publish date : 2024-10-03 17:15:41
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
The post Today’s top news: Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, West and Central Africa floods, Nigeria first appeared on Africa-News.
—-
Author : africa-news
Publish date : 2024-10-03 17:43:23
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.