Food security levels are generally better than a year earlier in East Africa and the Sahel, with most areas facing either IPC phase 1 ‘minimal’ or phase 2 ‘stressed’ conditions, thanks to favorable agro-climatic conditions in 2012.

• Two new wild poliovirus (WPV) cases are officially reported this week, both from Nigeria, bringing the total number of WPV cases in 2013 to 26 (compared to 53 at this time last year). Additionally, a new circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) case is reported in Pakistan. Please see country-specific sections below, for more information.

CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

NEW YORK

Rocked by militants in the north and politically inspired aggression nationwide, Nigeria has become one of the worst nations in the world for deadly, unpunished violence against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index. The global index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country's population, also found soaring impunity rates in Somalia, Pakistan, and Brazil.

Around 6.5 million people were newly displaced, almost twice as many as the 3.5 million during 2011. The conflicts in Syria and DRC were responsible for around half of the new displacements.

The Higher Committee of Foreign aid at the Red Crescent Authority has allocated Dh 4.027 million to carry out developmental projects in a number of countries.

The assistance will cover health, education and social services sectors in addition to the provision of water supplies in areas which suffer from shortage of this vital service.

These projects will be carried out in a number of countries, including Palestine, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan and Pakistan, Senegal, Bosnia, Uganda, Benin, Thailand, Chad, in addition to Ghana, Lebanon, Libya and Mauritania.

The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

• Next week, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9-11 April. Among other immunization topics, SAGE is expected to review the global polio situation. The draft agenda of the SAGE meeting is available at http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/en/.

The Global Overview collates information from a wide range of sources and displays this information in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

New and old conflict-affected countries, such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, contributed to an increase in asylum applications during 2012.