The Assad regime's Russia-backed offensive against the last rebel-held area of northwestern Syria caused the biggest single displacement in a nine-year war.
The Assad regime's Russia-backed military offensive against the last rebel-held area of northwestern Syria caused the biggest single displacement of the nine-year conflict, U.N. humanitarian officials said on Thursday.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that at least 800,000 people —including an estimated 480,000 children and 168,000 women — fled the fighting since the start of December.
Conflict, climate, environmental degradation and uneven development are major factors in the US$7.9B appeal.
Some 52% of all refugees and others who needed international protection came from Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine.
Amy Pope will become the first woman to serve as director general of the International Organization for Migration.
The figures show an 'intolerable' loss of life amid more reports of government-led rescue delays and obstacles to NGOs' search and rescue efforts, the U.N. migration agency said.
The chair of the talks called for optimism despite divisions among plastic-producing nations and those urging restraints.
The group of organizations that reviewed the U.N. agency recommends several ways of strengthening its neutrality.
The humanitarian nightmare and attacks on civilians in Gaza dominated the U.N. Security Council's quarterly open debate.
Climate scientists have warned for decades about bleaching of coral reefs, which are nurseries for commercial fisheries.
