Today's top news: Ukraine, Syria, Vanuatu

Ukraine

Intensive hostilities continued to be reported near Bakhmut town, in Donetska oblast, while several thousand residents, including dozens of children, remain in the city, according to the partners on the ground and local authorities. Due to the security situation, only few partners remaining on site are focusing on the evacuation of most vulnerable people.

At the same time, we are receiving reports about new attacks in different parts of the country where civilians were killed and injured again.

In Zaporizhzhia city, at least five people were killed, and ten more are missing due an airstrike destroying a five-storey residential building, burying people under the debris, according to the Government.

Humanitarian partners on the ground, including several international and national organizations, provided the affected people with hot meals, blankets, sleeping bags, food and hygiene kits. They have also provided counselling and helped them to find a place to stay in shelters. Partners will also support the families with cash assistance.

Also in Kherson region, the Government reported that over 20 civilians were killed or injured in several front-line villages over the last two days.

Local authorities reported that the village of Kozache in the Kherson region was repeatedly attacked, injuring more than 10 civilians. Two volunteers of a local NGO were also injured in this village when helping with evacuation, as informed by the partners on the ground.

The Humanitarian Coordinator expressed her regret that more civilians lost their lives again. She also voiced  concern about volunteers and air workers getting injured while trying to support people affected by the war.

From the response side, on 3 March, a UN inter-agency convoy delivered blankets, bedding and kitchen sets, hygiene items and solar lamps to cover the basic needs of about 4,500 residents in the Stanislavska community in the Kherson region, which has been severely affected by the hostilities in late 2022. The supplies were provided by the International Organization for Migration, UN Refugee Agency and UNICEF.

Syria
 

Today, 22 truckloads of aid from the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF crossed into north-west Syria. In total, 557 trucks have crossed since 9 February.

The UN also carried out 18 inter-agency cross border missions to north-west Syria, since the first interagency visit to Idleb on 14 February.  Yesterday, a joint OCHA/UNICEF delegation carried out a mission focused on gender and accountability to affected people, including a field visit to a site for internally displaced persons in Kelly Mountain and to Al-Iman hospital in Sarmada, northern Idleb.

Our humanitarian colleagues also tell us that over 105,000 households have reportedly been displaced following the earthquakes. Many are staying with host communities or going back to their inhabitable homes making it very difficult to estimate the total number of the displaced.

The UN is currently supporting structural damage assessments of affected buildings to help facilitate families’ return. Longer term shelter operations are also being identified for families that cannot return to their homes due to the scope of the damage.

Humanitarian partners continue to provide assistance across affected areas and need additional funding to be able to scale up their operations. The $400 million Syria earthquake appeal received $173 million, or 43.5 percent of the funding required.

Vanuatu

The Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu has declared a state of emergency in areas affected by Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Judy, which hit the island nation two days ago.
Now a second cyclone, a Category 3 system, Tropical Cyclone Kevin is bearing down on the group of islands, with the potential to affect 95 per cent of the population.

This morning an earthquake of 6.6 magnitude, followed by a second earthquake of 5.4 magnitude, was recorded off Vanuatu’s largest island. No tsunami was reported.

The scale of the damage caused by the cyclones has yet to be determined.

On behalf the humanitarian community in the Pacific, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, through the Resident Coordinator in Fiji, has offered support to the Government.

UN staff are on the ground and have pre-positioned aid.