The UN headquarters in New York city will close one of its employee entrances on the 42nd Street in Manhattan starting Monday as a cost-saving measure to cope with its funding shortfall.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday while launching the UN80 Initiative, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that some member states have failed to pay their contributions on time and in full, leading to a persistent financial strain on the United Nations and severely limiting its ability to function effectively.
As the largest contributor to the UN budget, the United States accounts for 22 percent of the regular budget and has long borne more than 25 percent of the costs related to UN peacekeeping operations.
As of this January, the U.S. accumulated unpaid contributions to the UN regular budget stood at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Combined with outstanding payments for peacekeeping and court budgets, the amount has reached a total of 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in arrears.
UN headquarters in New York city to shut one staff entrance to cut costs
Half of children under the age of five in Yemen are malnourished, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, underscoring how a decade of conflict has been catastrophic for the country's young population.
The decade-long conflict has devastated the country's economy, healthcare system, and infrastructure, leaving more than half of the population reliant on humanitarian aid to survive, Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative to Yemen, said via a video link from Yemeni capital city of Sanaa, at a press briefing on the situation for children in Yemen after 10 years of conflict.
He warned that the country is registering a staggeringly high child malnutrition rate, while mothers and expecting mothers face similar challenges.
"One in two children under the age of five are malnourished in Yemen today. This is a statistic that is almost unparalleled across the world. Among them are over 540,000 girls and boys who are severely and acutely malnourished. Equally alarming are the 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women who are malnourished," said Hawkins.
He added that severe and acute malnutrition rates of 33 percent have been recorded in certain areas including the west of the country.
Yemen's conflict entered its second decade in 2024 since the Houthis stormed Sanaa on September 21, 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile.
Half of Yemen's children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition: UNICEF
