Today's top news: Haiti, Malawi, Ukraine, Syria

Haiti

Yesterday, we and our partners launched an appeal for about $720 million to deliver lifesaving assistance to more than 3 million people this year.

Our 2023 funding call for Haiti is the largest since the devastating 2010 earthquake – and more than double the amount requested last year – underscoring the scale, severity and urgency of the country’s humanitarian crisis.

Due to gang violence, hunger and cholera, nearly half of Haiti’s population is in humanitarian need.
 

Malawi

Communities ravaged by Tropical Cyclone Freddy still need urgent assistance, one month after the storm.

Sixty UN agencies and NGOs have been supporting the Government-led response, including in hard-to-reach areas. As of April 12th, the World Food Programme has airlifted more than 189 metric tons of food, as well as 300 kilograms of food used to treat malnutrition.

We’re also providing emergency shelter, health care, hygiene services, and water and sanitation facilities. This is especially critical in light of the ongoing cholera outbreak in Malawi.

Schools are set to re-open next week, so UNICEF is working with the Government and our partners to support children who lost everything due to the storm.

However, our $71 million flash appeal for the flood response in Malawi is just 11 per cent funded.

Our UN Resident Coordinator Rebecca Adda-Dontoh is urging donors to redouble their support.
 

Ukraine

Earlier today, the Humanitarian Coordinator, Denise Brown, led a convoy delivering much-needed aid to a community along the Dnipro River in the Kherson Region. Due to the security situation, it’s the first time that the UN has been able to reach this specific location.

This area is under constant bombardment and the level of destruction is appalling. In the location we reached today, some 4,000 civilians – including 200 children – are in dire need. There’s been no electricity for over five months and hundreds of houses have been damaged.

With the help of our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Organization for Migration, we provided shelter materials, as well as hygiene and other critical household items to about 1,500 people in the community.

Meanwhile, another humanitarian team was delivering supplies to a front-line community near Avdiika in the Donetsk region today. Four UN agencies and our partner World Vision International brought food, sleeping bags, shelter materials and hygiene items for about 1,500 people.

Syria

 
We and our partners are continuing to help people affected by February’s earthquakes.

Across the country, more than a million people have received tents, shelter kits and other emergency items. About 1.1 million people have received food rations and nearly 2 million hot meals have been provided.

More than three-quarters of damaged schools have re-opened in the governorates of Aleppo, Lattakia, Tartous, Hama, Homs and Idleb. 

The UN has completed 69 cross-border missions to northwest Syria since the first interagency visit to Idleb on 14 February.

As of 13 April, nearly 1,350 trucks carrying aid from 7 UN agencies have crossed into the northwest since the earthquakes, via the three available border crossings.

Our Flash Appeal for the earthquake response in Syria is now 96 per cent funded. We thank our generous donors. However, our annual response plan for Syria – calling for $4.8 billion – is just 7 per cent funded.