The Russia – Ukraine war, reaching a month, has created one of the largest humanitarian crisis Europe has ever seen. How many people have been displaced? How many children orphaned? How many Killed? – all these remain a great concern.
DEATHS
Two days back, a senior UN humanitarian official told the Security Council that about 1,100 civilians have been killed in a month of fighting in Ukraine, The representative also stated that the conflict “shows no signs of abating.” Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the 15-member Council that the real death toll is likely much higher than what has been confirmed so far, with so many of the most heavily-bombarded areas targeted by Russian forces, inaccessible to verify casualties.
“Cities, like Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and many others – bustling and full of life just one month ago – are encircled, bombarded and blockaded,” she said. The Un representative also emphasised that at least 99 children are among the dead and injured, as hospitals, homes and schools are destroyed.
NOT EVEN SAFE TO BURY THE DEAD
Providing an update on the humanitarian situation four weeks into the conflict, Joyce Msuya noted that civilians in the encircled towns and cities lack food, water, medicine, electricity and heating. “In some neighborhoods, it’s not even safe to bury the dead,” she said.
Meanwhile, more than 10 million people – including more than half of Ukraine’s children – have fled their homes. That includes some 6.5 million who are internally displaced within the country, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
UN HUMANITARIAN SYSTEM
Since February 24, humanitarian organizations have reached around 8,90,000 people across Ukraine with food, shelter, blankets, medicine, bottled water and hygiene supplies, the UN said.
However, the World organisation said that treacherous security risks and access challenges are hampering those efforts, with many routes disrupted and humanitarian convoys and workers frequently unable to pass due to shelling, fighting and landmines.
WORLD FOOD CRISIS
As Ukraine transforms “from a breadbasket to a bread line, the food crisis is in its zenith. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley described the humanitarian situation in Ukraine as a “catastrophe on top of a catastrophe.”
He warned of reverberating impacts on the global food supply, stressing that food insecurity in the Sahel, North Africa and the Middle East is likely to worsen and cannot be ignored.
Much of those regions’ supplies of wheat and other food staples comes from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, where it is currently planting season for maize. June and July are the harvest seasons for wheat crops.
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