31 October 2017 – At least four Rohingyas fleeing unrest in Myanmar drowned when a small fishing boat capsized in rough seas off the Bangladesh coast, the United Nations reported Tuesday, also warning that with thousands of refugees still heading to Cox’s Bazar every day, sprawling makeshift camps there are now dangerously congested and overcrowded.

&#8220UNHCR [the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] staff and our partners rushed to the scene to provide medical support, food, blankets and clothes to the survivors, spokesperson Babar Baloch told reporters at the regular press briefing in Geneva.

According to survivors, six families &#8211 42 people in total, many of them women and children &#8211 left on a fishing boat from Gozon Dia south of Maungdaw town in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state around 2 am Tuesday morning. They ran into rough seas and approached shore in the Imamerdail area of Ukhia sub-district in Bangladesh around 8.30 am local time when they ran into rough seas.

A 15-year-old boy died on the spot and 22 were injured, several when they hit the engine Three were reported to have died en route to hospital, Mr. Baloch reported, adding that the remaining 19 injured were taken to UNHCR’s transit centre near Kutupalong camp. &#8220We will ensure that families are not separated in the course of the medical treatment.&#8221

Meanwhile, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that although the number of new arrivals is now slowing, people continue to arrive in the makeshift settlements of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar every day, bringing the total Rohingya population of the district to over 820,000.

The settlements are dangerously congested and overcrowded and the pressure on sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation are enormous. Having walked for days without water and food, the refugees arrive to the settlements exhausted and thirsty. Many are ill, IOM stated.

&#8220All of the spontaneous and makeshift sites where the Rohingya have sought shelter are in urgent need of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support to prevent diseases and to restore basic human dignity,&#8221 explained IOM WASH expert Antonio Torres. &#8220Existing [sanitation and hygiene] facilities are not yet sufficient to cope with this number of people,&#8221 he noted.

&#8220All of the spontaneous and makeshift sites where the Rohingya have sought shelter are in urgent need of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support to prevent diseases and to restore basic human dignity,&#8221 says IOM WASH expert Antonio Torres. &#8220Existing WASH facilities are not yet sufficient to cope with this number of people,&#8221 he noted.

IOM is providing vital relevant services to both the Rohingya and the communities hosting them, while scaling up its work to meet the needs of new arrivals. Since early September, the agency has, among others, constructed around 785 latrines for the refugees. It has also constructed 14 wells with hand pumps providing over 14,000 people with clean drinking water.

31 October 2017 – Pledges made under the Paris Agreement are only a third of what is required by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, pointing to the urgent need to boost efforts by both government and non-government actors, the United Nations environment wing said on Tuesday.

&#8220One year after the Paris Agreement entered into force, we still find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future,&#8221 said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Erik Solheim in a press release.

The Paris accord, adopted in 2015 by 195 countries, seeks to limit global warming in this century to under 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

&#8220If we invest in the right technologies, ensuring that the private sector is involved, we can still meet the promise we made to our children to protect their future. But we have to get on the case now,&#8221 the UNEP chief added.

The eighth edition of UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report, released ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in in Bonn next month, warns that as things stand, even full implementation of current national pledges makes a temperature rise of at least 3 degrees Celsius by 2100 very likely.

Should the United States follow through with its stated intention to leave the Paris accord in 2020, the picture could become even bleaker.

The pace of growth in carbon dioxide emissions have slowed, driven in part by renewable energy, notably in China and India, raising hopes that emissions have peaked, as they must by 2020, to remain on a successful climate trajectory.

To avoid overshooting the Paris goals, governments &#8211 including by updating their Paris pledges &#8211 the private sector, cities and others need to urgently pursue actions that will bring deeper and more-rapid cuts.

Source: The Emissions Gap Report 2017 | UNEP

The report also says that adopting new technologies in key sectors, such as agriculture, buildings, energy, forestry, industry and transport, at investment of under $100 per tonne, could reduce emissions by up to 36 gigatonnes per year by 2030, more than sufficient to bridge the gap.

However, it warns that other greenhouse gases, such as methane, are still rising, and a global economic growth spurt could easily put carbon dioxide emissions back on an upward trajectory.

Strong action on hydrofluorocarbons, through the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and other short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon &#8211 could also make a real contribution.

31 October 2017 – The United Nations refugee agency is scaling up efforts with partners to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of Cameroonians who have fled violence in that country’s Anglophone regions to south-eastern Nigeria.

&#8220UNHCR [the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] is working with the Nigerian Government and other UN agencies on a contingency plan, readying humanitarian assistance for up to 40,000 people crossing into Nigeria,&#8221 Babar Baloch, spokesperson for UNHCR, told reporters Tuesday at the regular press briefing in Geneva.

However, he pointed out that &#8220our fear is that 40,000 might actually be a conservative figure in a situation where the conflict might continue.&#8221

UNHCR and its Nigeria teams are currently evaluating the situation in various locations in south-eastern Nigeria and have registered some 2,000 people so far.

Additional 3,000 are awaiting registration, while more people might be stranded in forests in Cameroon when trying to cross the border.

Moreover, the UN agency has distributed relief items such as mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils, hygiene kits, as well as 40 tons of food in Nigeria’s Cross River state.

&#8220The current influx of Cameroonians seeking refuge in Nigeria poses additional challenges to the international community and a burden to an already stretched assistance,&#8221 Mr. Baloch explained.

Nigeria and Cameroon are already grappling with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with 2.5 million people displaced by Boko Haram insurgency, according to UNHCR.

Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have seen multiple strikes and demonstrations over the past year as tensions have mounted over what the country’s English-speakers see as discrimination against them in favour of the majority French-speaking population.

31 October 2017 – A United Nations forum opened today in Manama, Bahrain, highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Convened under the theme of Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through entrepreneurship and innovation, the World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum (WEIF) 2017 seeks to leverage entrepreneurship and creative thinking to strengthen sustainable development around the world.

&#8220Inclusive and sustainable industrial development will continue to be a key driver of progress as we support [UN] Member States in this essential work,&#8221 said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, via a video message, to the World Forum.

&#8220I commend you for focusing this year’s forum on the SDGs.&#8221

Recalling the establishment of UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)’s first Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO-Bahrain) in Manama, in 1996, Mr. Guterres noted that, over the years, the so-called Bahrain model has created more than 16,000 jobs and raised more than $2 billion in investment.

&#8220Today, in 52 countries, it continues to advance entrepreneurship and change lives for the better,&#8221 he added.

Organized by UNIDO in partnership with the Government of Bahrain, the World Forum is expected to draw more than 1,000 entrepreneurs; representatives of micro, small and medium enterprises; as well as financial institutions to build and foster partnerships and share best practices in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Also speaking at the opening, Hiroshi Kuniyoshi, the UNIDO Deputy Director General and Managing Director of External Relations and Field Representation, highlighted the importance of global partnerships for sustainable development.

&#8220Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, and promoting impact investment […] is more important today than ever before, as we all work together worldwide towards achieving the 2030 Agenda,&#8221 he said, adding:

&#8220The role of impact investment and innovation is further highlighted by the SDGs, and especially Goal 9, which seeks to ‘build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation’.&#8221

In his remarks, Mr. Kuniyoshi highlighted UNIDO’s collaboration with Bahrain on programmes promoting investment and economic empowerment of youth and women through entrepreneurship development and support systems.

Further, recalling the Manama Declaration, adopted at the First International Entrepreneurs Investment Forum, in 2015, the senior UNIDO official called for a coordinated and inclusive approaching in promoting entrepreneurship involving all stakeholders, including civil society and academia.

The opening session also saw the designation of Adnan Kassar, a prominent business leader from Lebanon, as the Honorary Chairman of the UN Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance.

On today’s agenda at the World Forum are keynote addresses by business leaders, a plenary session on the Maritime-Continental Silk Road, a side event on private sector engagement for SDGs in Bahrain, and bilateral meetings.

UN News is on location in Manama, Bahrain, covering the Forum and its associated events. Follow @UN_News_Centre and @UNNewsArabic to stay updated on news and highlights from WEIF 2017.

30 October 2017 – Some 3.2 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) conflict-ravaged south-central Greater Kasai region are severely food insecure, struggling to feed themselves and in urgent need of assistance, the head of the United Nations food relief agency warned Monday.

&#8220As many as 250,000 children could starve in Kasai in the next few months unless enough nutritious food reaches them quickly&#8221, said World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley as he wrapped up a four-day mission to the vast central African country that included a visit to Kasai.

&#8220We need access to those children, and we need money &#8211 urgently,&#8221 he added.

Kasai’s traditionally high malnutrition rates were exacerbated further after last year’s inter-ethnic violence &#8211 characterized by large-scale killing, wholesale destruction of villages and crops, and targeting hospitals, clinics and schools. The region now accounts for more than 40 per cent of the DRC’s 7.7 million severely food insecure.

WFP is ramping up emergency assistance there, planning to reach 500,000 of the most vulnerable by end-December &#8211 and many more by early next year. Dozens of staff are being deployed, 80 additional off-road trucks are being brought in to deliver food to remote areas, and the WFP-run UN Humanitarian Air Service is, presently flying aid supplies and workers to seven regional locations, is being expanded.

However, WFP’s emergency operation, launched in August, has so far been financed by internal borrowings, and only one percent of the $135 million required through mid-2018 has been secured from the international community.

Although violence in Kasai has diminished in recent weeks, banditry and extortion are commonplace. Moreover, in a region the size of Germany with multiple active militias and a road network that is largely impassable during the September-December rainy season, humanitarian access is set to remain a challenge.

What the brave people I met over the last few days want most of all is peace &#8211 peace to be able to grow their own food, to rebuild their lives and to build a brighter tomorrow for their children. It’s a simple, powerful message WFP chief David Beasley

Mr. Beasley also witnessed WFP’s work in eastern North Kivu province, which is also constrained by access challenges and limited funding. Just 250,000 of the province’s one million displaced people &#8211 victims of two decades of conflict &#8211 are receiving assistance, and only half rations.

Much of DRC’s population is dependent on subsistence farming, with competition for land often at the heart of the violence. Many conflict-displaced families who had returned to their villages in North Kivu and Kasai told Mr. Beasley they could not resume working their fields for fear of being attacked.

&#8220I have met too many women and children whose lives have been reduced to a desperate struggle for survival&#8221, Mr. Beasley pointed out. &#8220In a land so rich in resources, that’s heart-breaking. And it’s unacceptable.&#8221

The WFP chief acknowledged donor concerns about limited returns on investing in a better future for the Congolese, noting that some Governments have threatened to redirect such funding to countries where they say it will have more impact.

&#8220I hear those concerns,&#8221 said Mr. Beasley. &#8220But let’s not hold innocent women and children responsible for the failings of others.&#8221

&#8220What the brave people I met over the last few days want most of all is peace &#8211 peace to be able to grow their own food, to rebuild their lives and to build a brighter tomorrow for their children. It’s a simple, powerful message. I have conveyed it to President [Joseph] Kabila and members of his Government, urging that they do more to help this come about,’ he concluded.

Find the Security Council Press Statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo here.