Aid to Afghanistan, Syria, vaccine equity top agenda in 2021: UNSC

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday (local time) said that vaccine equity and aid to Afghanistan and Syria were high on the 2021 agenda of the UNSC, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday (local time) said that vaccine equity and aid to Afghanistan and Syria were high on the 2021 agenda of the UNSC, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis. Citing a statement, Xinhua News Agency reported that convening a total of 246 public meetings, the 15-member council has adopted 57 resolutions and 24 presidential statements in 2021.

The statement added that members have shown solidarity and unity on several fraught issues such as reauthorizing Syria's cross-border aid delivery mechanism in July, and exempting humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan from an asset freeze against Taliban. As per the statement, the exemption was aimed at pulling the war-torn country back from the brink of economic collapse, Xinhua further reported.

"Perhaps no single nation's trajectory was as dramatic in 2021 as that of Afghanistan," it added. In 2021, Syria saw a largely calm year on the military front, despite large spikes in hunger, chronic malnutrition, and other grave humanitarian challenges, the statement said.

According to figures from humanitarian institutes, around 13.4 million people across the country required humanitarian assistance, 20 per cent more than in 2020, according to Xinhua News Agency. (ANI)

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