Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- Disaster risk is outpacing resilience in Asia-Pacific and putting people in this most disaster-prone region at risk of being pushed back into poverty, the latest report from a United Nations regional commission has revealed.
- At least 13 Rohingya refugees, 11 of them young children, fleeing violence in Myanmar have drowned when the fishing boat they were on capsized in stormy weather, the United Nations migration agency said.
- United Nations agencies are seeking more funds to cope with the mass exodus of people fleeing violence in Myanmar into Bangladesh, which the top UN aid official described the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
- As she begins to read her poem, Fatema’s voice is faint and unsure of itself. She has been writing poetry only for the last six months because, as she explains, she wants to get in touch with her inner feelings. What emerges in her recitation has echoes of Afghanistan’s ancient past, and signs of a new and modern passion. What is heard, translated from Dari, is a short narrative about the horrors of war – “The color of blood and cold corpses … fresh bodies thrown into battle” – and Fatema’s own story, one that ends with the hope that, “somewhere between the lines, set in the sweetness, is a space without war.”
- The human tragedy unfolding in southern Bangladesh is staggering in its scale, warned two senior United Nations officials today as they wrapped up a mission to Cox’s Bazar with calls for a “significant increase in assistance” for the thousands of Rohingyas have settled in the area after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
- With over half a million Rohingya refugees having fled their homes in Myanmar since violence erupted in late August, the top United Nations humanitarian official has underscored that the solution to the crisis needs to be found within Myanmar.
- Concluding her three-day visit to Japan today, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed today noted how much the Japanese society has embraced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a compass guiding to a more prosperous future for themselves.
- Through a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a private aircraft company, airplanes flying in Nepal’s skies will bear UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) branding icons, disseminating the globally-agreed targets far and wide.
- United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, at an event in Tokyo today, stressed the need for social dialogue on sustainable development, expressing her expectations regarding the role of media in bringing different constituents together to reflect on difficult questions such as on sustainable life style.
- Amid the deepening refugee crisis in Bangladesh and its attendant toll on children, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNCEF) launched today an appeal for its emergency response to reach some 720,000 children – both in Rohingya refugee and host communities – with protection and assistance.
- The head of the United Nations food relief agency called today for an end to the “horrors” driving Rohingyas by the tens of thousands from their homes in Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh.
- The United Nations refugee agency announced today that it has started distributing plastic sheeting and essential relief items to Rohingyas arriving in from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh, as part of a massive effort to cut the time refugees spend in the open.
- Noting that the humanitarian crisis that has resulted in displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas from Myanmar not only provides a “breeding ground” for radicalization, but also puts vulnerable people – including young children – at grave risk, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for “swift action” to prevent further instability and find a durable solution.
