UNSC supports efforts concerning potential impact of COVID-19 in conflict-affected countries

The UN Security Council (UNSC) expressed its support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on countries already ravaged by war and called for unity and solidarity.

On Thursday, the UNSC addressed in closed consultations the impact of COVID-19 on the work of the world's body.

"The members of the Security Council also expressed their support for all efforts of the Secretary-General concerning the potential impact of COVID-19 pandemic on conflict-affected countries, and recalled the need for unity and solidarity for all of those affected," Dominican Republic's special envoy to the Security Council and its president for April, Jose Singer Weisinger, said in a statement.

The council members were briefed by Guterres, who stressed that the pandemic had already stalled peace processes across the globe, impacted the UN's peacekeeping operations, as well as created a new grounds for further divisions, public mistrust in governments and escalating terrorism.

According to the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre, the number of people infected with the virus has exceeded 1.5 million, with 95,000 deaths.