UN chief urges immediate global ceasefire to fight COVID-19

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called Monday for an instantaneous ceasefire in conflicts around the world to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.N. chief said: “It's time to put armed conflict on lock-down and focus together on the true fight of our lives.”

Guterres said the world faces “a common enemy - COVID-19” which doesn’t care “about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith.”

He said women, children, the disabled, marginalized and displaced and persons caught in armed conflicts, which are raging all over the world, are the most vulnerable and “are also at the best threat of suffering devastating losses from COVID-19.”

It’s time to silence guns, stop artillery, end airstrikes and create corridors for life-saving aid and open windows for diplomacy, he said.

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” the secretary-general said.

Guterres spoke as the Syrian conflict has entered its 10th year, the conflict in Yemen is in its fifth year and Libya’s rival governments have already been fighting for practically a year. Africa also faces unrest from Somalia and South Sudan to Congo. The conflict in eastern Ukraine is nearly six years old and Colombia has still not made peace with the smaller of the armed groups it turned out fighting.

Extremist groups just like the Islamic State and al-Qaida and their affiliates are also actively engaging in attacks in southeast Asia, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and several other countries around the world.

Guterres urged warring parties to “reserve mistrust and animosity” and take inspiration from efforts to get rivals to tackle the coronavirus together, but he stressed that much more was needed.

“End the sickness of war and fight the condition that is ravaging our world,” the secretary-general said. “It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere. Now. That is what our human family needs, now as part of your.”

The secretary-general said over the weekend that the parties in Libya had responded positively to demands a humanitarian pause to tackle COVID-19, but he told reporters Mondat that a recently agreed truce “is not holding very well, which is one of the explanations why I believe we need a global ceasefire.”

He said U.N. envoys incompatible areas will be speaking with warring parties “to try to make sure that this global appeal isn't only listened to but brings about concrete action, leads to a pause in fighting, creating the conditions for the response to COVID-19 to be more effective.”

Guterres stressed that in war-ravaged countries, health systems have collapsed, “medical researchers, already few in number, have often been targeted,” and refugees and the displaced are “doubly vulnerable.”

“If the fighting continues on, we might have a truly devastating spreading of the epidemic,” he said.

The United Nations plans to launch a $2 billion humanitarian appeal on Wednesday to cope with the pandemic, including refugees and the displaced, he said.

Guterres said he also sent a letter Monday to leaders of the Band of 20 major monetary powers, who are expected to carry a virtual meeting this week that he'll attend, saying much strong coordination is needed to suppress COVID-19.

He said this coordination must not only make sure that richer developed countries can respond effectively to the pandemic but that there surely is “massive support” to avoid the coronavirus from spreading “like wildfire in the developing world.”

Then, Guterres said, there must be “an enormous package” to react to the economic and social consequences in developing countries, to keep households, businesses and societies afloat.

The secretary-general said that given the need to keep countries afloat in this crisis, major industrial countries and organizations just like the World Bank and IMF should provide support in the developing word that might be equal to more than 10% of GDP for those countries.

Also Monday, the head of the IMF said that the IMF was prepared to do its part, suggesting that if needed it could deploy most of its $1 trillion in lending resources to countries in need.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement carrying out a conference call with finance officials of the Band of 20 nations that the IMF has received requests for emergency help from almost 80 countries. She pledged that the IMF planned a strong coordinated response dealing with the World Bank and other groups.