Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Syria Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that water was slowly returning to Aleppo. For almost a month, 1.8 million people in and around the city had been deliberately cut off from the public water network. The most recent water cuts in Aleppo had taken place on 14 January when the Al-Khafse pumping station in eastern Aleppo had stopped...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration and the International Labour Organization.Iran Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that OHCHR welcomed reports that Iran had suspended the execution of a juvenile in...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.Syria Yara Sharif, for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), said that the Special Envoy for Syria was alarmed at the failed humanitarian access during the month of January. Out of 21 requests for convoys to access a total of 914,000 people, only one convoy had been delivered for 40,000 people. January had marked the worst...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of UN Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Ukraine Patrick Vial, for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), reminded that Ukraine was the ICRC’s eighth largest operation. There were...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.Syria Jessy Chahine, for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), said that the Special Envoy would brief...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization, the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.Syria On behalf of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ms. Vellucci announced that yesterday, the second part of a two-part inter-agency convoy was delivering life-saving...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria.Yellow fever vaccination campaign Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), gave an update on the latest yellow fever vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Angola...

Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the Radio and Television Section, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. World Humanitarian Day Michele Zaccheo started the briefing by recalling that today was World Humanitarian Day. He quoted from the message of the Secretary-General saying that “World Humanitarian Day is an annual reminder of the need to act to alleviate the suffering. It is also an occasion to...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Stillbirths, Maternal and Neonatal Deaths Ian Askew, for the World Health Organization (WHO), presented three publications launched today by WHO on the issues of stillbirths, maternal and neonatal deaths. Every year, he said, 2.6 million babies were stillborn, 2.7 million babies died within the first 28 days of life, and over 300,000 women...

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization.Polio in Nigeria Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that two cases of polio had been confirmed in Nigeria this week. Michel Zaffran, Director, Polio Eradication at the WHO...