Daily Wrap

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday appealed for warring parties in Sudan to observe a ceasefire for at least three days so that civilians trapped in conflict zones can seek medical treatment, food and other essential supplies. His call to silence the guns during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, marking the end of Ramadan, followed a virtual meeting on the crisis, convened by the African Union (AU).

An ambitious UN-led effort to create mRNA technology transfer hubs in the developing world, is taking another major step forward this week at an international conference in Cape Town, South Africa, coinciding with the official launch on Thursday of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first transfer hub.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has carried out a month-long field mission to areas of northwest Syria devastated by the February earthquakes there, and in Türkiye, helping stem the risk of further disease outbreaks or full-blown epidemics.

If governments continue with the same environmental policies currently in place, the world will become 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century, which would be “a death sentence”, warned the UN chief on Thursday.

Some 67 million children worldwide missed out on one or more essential vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflict, but also decreasing confidence in vaccines, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.