(Photo:  AFP/VNA)

The COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically increasing wider humanitarian need, he told the Security Council in a briefing on conflict-induced hunger. The indirect impact is already deepening poverty, destroying livelihoods, undermining education, disrupting immunization, and exacerbating food insecurity, fragility and violence, he said.

The humanitarian agencies are in danger of being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the needs, and that will get worse in the absence of a lot more financial help, he said. He proposed concrete measures such as pressing for peaceful and negotiated political solutions to bring armed conflicts to an end; ensuring the parties to conflict respect international humanitarian law; and mitigating the economic impact of armed conflict and related violence, including mobilizing assistance by international financial institutions.