ReliefWeb

UNHCR is making available its in-country stocks of shelter kits, plastic sheets, rub-halls, and thousands of other core relief items including blankets and mattresses for immediate distribution and use.

Many of the newly displaced are now living in overcrowded, makeshift shelters constructed from old clothes, plastic bags, cardboard and sticks in already dire IDP sites.

"Sanctions should be lifted - or at a minimum eased - so people can get basics like soap and disinfectants to stay healthy and ... hospitals can get ventilators and other equipment to keep people alive."

WHO health experts have arrived in South Africa to bolster its response to COVID-19. As the continent nears one million cases, WHO is expanding support to countries experiencing an uptick in cases.

Half of Bangladesh is under water, leaving nearly one million families stranded. Flooding and landslides in Nepal have left 200 people dead or missing. In India, almost 12 million people are affected.

The number of food-insecure people in East Africa is estimated to increase this year to more than 41 million as a result of COVID-19, including 14 million who are estimated to live in urban areas.

With escalating inter-communal conflict and recent economic shocks associated with COVID-19, emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes are widespread at the July/August peak of the lean season.

This new funding will be delivered through national governments, UN agencies and partner organizations in Bangladesh, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.