Press Releases

United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien has today released US$15 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide urgent life-saving assistance for people affected by the recent fighting and military operations in Fallujah.

Since last month, more than 85,000 people have been forced to flee the city, displacing families from their homes, communities and livelihoods. Those remaining in the city face dire shortages of food, medicine, electricity and safe drinking water.

"The families who have managed to flee Fallujah have escaped with nothing: they need everything," warned Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. "Humanitarian partners are working around the clock to provide shelter, water, health care, household kits and specialized support for the victims of gender and sexual-based violence. This CERF grant will allow us to rapidly scale up our efforts, so it could not be more timely."

Temperatures in the region are averaging 115°F /46°C and rising. Many people are unable to access clean drinking water, and shade is limited. Already vulnerable communities are more susceptible to outbreaks of communicable diseases, and there is a real risk of a cholera outbreak. Response efforts will include improvements to hygiene and sanitation, to help prevent the spread of disease.

CERF funds will enable the United Nations humanitarian agencies in Iraq, including IOM, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNHCR and WHO, to quickly assist the newly displaced people.

We are working with the Iraqi Government to quickly set up camps to provide additional shelters. Humanitarian partners will also focus on relief efforts to assist women and children who are particularly vulnerable in this conflict. Mobile psychological support teams are being established to provide specialized care for victims of the violence. The CERF funding will also enable health teams to provide critical care for new-born babies and children who have had limited health support and who have not yet been immunized.

“People escaping Fallujah are in desperate need of assistance now, this minute. We must act fast before this situation becomes a humanitarian catastrophe. These funds are time critical; however they only offer a small portion of what is urgently needed,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.“I call on donors to immediately support our humanitarian response and leverage this CERF allocation with additional resources so that together we can effectively address the growing humanitarian needs throughout Iraq.”

The United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan in Iraq has called for $861 million to address the needs of people affected by the current crisis. To date this appeal is only 36 per cent funded. In addition a further $65 million will be needed to respond to the current situation in Fallujah. This is expected to further strain already stretched resources and force humanitarian partners to reprioritize existing relief supplies and services.

Contingency stocks are nearly depleted, which could leave other communities in the country potentially vulnerable. While agencies have been preparing for the Fallujah situation for some time, the number of displaced people and the scope of their needs have outpaced humanitarian capacity.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien wrapped up his two-day mission to Ecuador today, calling for more support for people affected by the deadly earthquake that struck on Saturday.

“My thoughts are with the people of Ecuador as they deal with the loss of loved ones, and devastation caused by Saturday’s earthquake and aftershocks,” noted the Emergency Relief Coordinator. “Many people have lost their homes, their livelihoods. But I was struck by their resilient spirit. The actions of the Government of Ecuador and local communities themselves saved many lives.”

Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured and over 720,000 people are affected. The Government, local emergency responders, the Red Cross and other organizations are working together to provide people with food, drinking water, shelter, emergency medical assistance and other basic services, including restoring electricity.

Visiting the towns of Manta, Canoa, Jama, and Pedernales in the eastern coastal region and Portoviejo inland, Mr. O’Brien met people who had lost everything in the earthquake.

“I met many people living in the open or sheltering in the remains of their homes, exposed to the weather,” he said. “Medical facilities and items are urgently needed for people who were injured, as well as food, clean water and basic sanitation.”

In Manta, Mr. O'Brien met Rosa*, a teenager, rescued after four days, but now in need of immediate and long-term medical and psycho-social support. In Tarqui, he listened to the story of Ernesto, who saw his house collapse from across the street, killing his wife and injuring his children. In Pedernales, the Emergency Relief Coordinator met the head of the Chilean search and rescue team, the first international responders on the scene trying to find survivors in those vital early hours.

During his two-day visit, the Humanitarian Chief met with Foreign Minister, Chancellor Dr. Guillaume Long, Minister of National Defense, Ricardo Patiño and other ministers and senior officials leading the earthquake response, to discuss how best to support the national relief efforts.

People urgently need safety, food and water, and basic health care. Children need a place to continue their studies. Families need support to rebuild their lives. The humanitarian community stands ready to support the Government to ensure that critical needs are met.

“The United Nations and our international partners are supporting the Government by mobilizing international support for immediate and life-saving assistance, to bolster relief, intensify recovery and help people get their lives and livelihoods back on track,” said Mr. O’Brien. “Today I allocated US$7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kick-start vital operations in logistics, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, and emergency health.”

The Emergency Relief Coordinator noted that the UN and partners would be launching the full Flash Appeal for the Ecuadorean relief operation on Friday 22 April, to help some 350,000 people with immediate relief and initial recovery assistance within the next three months.

The United Nations in Mongolia is scaling up its emergency response to address the urgent needs of populations affected by the harsh winter locally known as dzud. These interventions, amounting to $2.4 million, are funded by the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) under the rapid response window.

Around 60 per cent of Mongolia’s 339 district have been in dzud or near-dzud condition since December 2015. Dzud is a cyclical slow onset disaster unique to Mongolia. It consists of a summer drought followed by a deterioration of the weather conditions in winter (10 to 350 cm snow thickness, temperatures -40° C to -50° C) and spring during which shortage of pasture and water leads to large scale death of animals. The dzud conditions have been compounded by a prolonged, El Nino induced, drought in the summer of 2015 that resulted in a 40% reduction in wheat harvests and grazing pasture in some areas.

As of 15 February 2016, an estimated 225,788 people (62,719 herder households or 41 per cent of the total herder population) in 211 districts are impacted by adverse weather conditions, including 28,290 children under age 5 and 3,340 expectant mothers. Out of this, an estimated 11,800 herder households with less than 100 animals who reside in the 98 most dzud affected districts are considered particularly vulnerable.

The number of animals perished as a result of the heavy snow fall, severe storms and cold weather conditions jumped 10-fold from 40,000 in January 2016 to 359,981 as of 10 March 2016. Soaring trends indicate that the numbers of deaths may cross 1.2 million during the spring, when weak and starved animals are expected to die in large numbers.

“UN assistance supported by CERF is designed to address the most urgent survival and livelihood needs of 4,390 vulnerable herder households affected by the dzud in Mongolia”, says Ms. Beate Trankmann, UN Resident Coordinator. “The household level assistance complements the Government’s response which focuses on infrastructure and service provision. UN measures are aimed at ensuring that the most vulnerable households can make it through the harsh winter and are protected from an extreme collapse of livelihoods thus averting a wider humanitarian crisis”, she added.

The response is organised in 4 projects to be provided as a package of complementary time-critical interventions including food aid, nutrition, protection, agriculture, and early recovery. The Protection and the Nutrition sector will deliver a package of food, nutrition and basic relief items to facilitate the survival of the most vulnerable herders. The agriculture component aims to protect livelihoods of vulnerable herders who are dependent on their livestock by minimizing additional loss of animal lives and damage to economic assets through fodder provisions. This will be followed by a cash intervention which will ensure that low income households can buy additional warm clothes, heating and cooking fuels, and other products essential for surviving the extreme winter and isolation. The projects will be implemented in the next six months by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in partnership with NGOs and government authorities.

The government of Mongolia has already disbursed much of the Emergency funds allocated from its State Reserve. Mr. Tserendash Oyunbaatar, Deputy Prime Minister and head of State Emergency Commission has welcomed international assistance. The head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Badral Tuvshin said that he “appreciate(s) the coordination efforts of the United Nations to complement the government‘s response”

The CERF grant will cover 17% of the $ 14.3 million estimated overall response requirements addressing both immediate life-saving and other mid-term needs in the four sectors. In addition to the support through the CERF mechanism, $ 4.4 million in immediate assistance is urgently needed to reach the most vulnerable herder households in all 98 dzud affected districts. The Humanitarian Country Team will continue working with the government and partners to advocate for more resources to address life-saving needs of the most vulnerable households.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced that US$21 million will be allocated from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for people in South Sudan.

“This protracted conflict and worsening food insecurity have resulted in the urgent need for life-saving assistance. Timeliness of this assistance is critical, as time lost will result in lives lost. These CERF funds will provide protection and relief to people affected by conflict in South Sudan when it is needed the most,” said the Secretary-General during his visit to South Sudan.

Approximately US$15 million of this will go towards assisting more than 250,000 people affected by conflict, many of whom are in areas that can only be reached by road. Prompt delivery of assistance by the United Nations and our humanitarian partners is essential now as there is only a small window of opportunity for the most vulnerable people to receive help before road access is restricted by the rainy season, expected to begin at the end of April.

A further $6 million will go towards the relocation of more than 76,000 refugees from the Yida refugee camp in Unity State, to a new camp in Pamir. UNHCR and humanitarian partners will coordinate the relocation and provide refugees with emergency relief services. The majority of refugees are from South Kordofan State, Sudan, where the conflict remains unresolved.

“This CERF allocation comes at a critical time, enabling an immediate response to the increasing humanitarian needs in South Sudan. However, much more is urgently needed to respond to the scale and urgency of the challenge. I call on donors to significantly increase their humanitarian funding to provide relief for those whose lives are most at risk,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.

Since the crisis began in December 2013, CERF has provided more than $90 million in humanitarian funding for South Sudan. More than $100 million has also been provided to help South Sudanese refugees and host communities in neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.

In his recent report for the World Humanitarian Summit, the Secretary-General called for the global community to ‘invest in humanity’, specifically to expand CERF to reach $1 billion so that it can better address humanitarian situations such as that faced by South Sudan. This expansion would reflect the current global need for humanitarian assistance and enable responders to access the necessary funds whenever circumstances arise.

CERF is one of the fastest and most effective ways to support rapid humanitarian response. The Fund pools donor contributions so that money is available to start or continue urgent relief work at the onset of emergencies and for crises that have not attracted sufficient funding. Since 2006, 125 UN Member States and observers, private sector donors and regional governments have supported the Fund. To date, CERF has allocated almost $4.2 billion for humanitarian operations in 94 countries and territories.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 29 January 2016 released US$ 8 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for severely underfunded aid operations in the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK). These funds will enable life-saving assistance for more than 2.2 million people most vulnerable and at risk of malnutrition. The DPRK was one of nine countries to receive such grants within the overall $100 million allocation to underfunded emergencies.

Undernutrition is a fundamental cause of maternal and child death and disease: in DPRK, chronic malnutrition (stunting) among under-five children is at 27.9 per cent, while 4 per cent of under-five children are acutely malnourished (wasting). Around 70 per cent of the population, or 18 million people, are considered food insecure. Food production in the country is hampered by a lack of agricultural inputs and is highly vulnerable to shocks, particularly natural disasters. Due to drought in 2015, 11 per cent of the main harvest was lost.

Health service delivery, including reproductive health, remains inadequate, with many areas of the country not equipped with the facilities, equipment or medicines to meet people’s basic health needs. Under-five children and low-birth-weight newborns are vulnerable to life-threatening diseases, such as pneumonia and diarrhoea if they do not receive proper treatment or basic food, vitamins and micronutrients.

CERF funds will be used to sustain critical life-saving interventions aimed at improving the nutrition situation in the country through reduction of maternal and under-five child mortality and morbidity. More than 2.2 million people, including 1.8 million under-five children and 350,000 pregnant and lactating women, will benefit from assistance provided by CERF funds.

“The commitment and support of the international community is vital. Protracted and serious needs must be addressed” said United Nations Resident Coordinator for the DPRK, Mr. Tapan Mishra. “Humanitarian needs must be kept separate from political issues to ensure minimum living conditions for the most vulnerable people.”

The United Nations will continue to work towards addressing the structural causes of vulnerabilities and chronic malnutrition through its interventions agreed with the DPRK Government.