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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 05 February 2021
Situation in Tigray, Ethiopia
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that three months into the conflict in Tigray, the humanitarian response remained severely constrained and inadequate, because most people in need could simply not reached, and necessary clearances to enter Tigray were still missing. The needs observed on the ground were dire and growing for some 2.3 million people, which included those who had needed assistance before the conflict. Access to the countryside was mostly blocked to both the United Nations and NGOs; no humanitarian assistance was taking place in the non-government-controlled areas. Mr. Laerke stated that more than 70 humanitarian staff were waiting in Addis Ababa to receive clearance to travel to the region. Basic services remained largely disrupted in Tigray, where two thirds of the population lived, including electricity and communications. Key supply routes to Tigray were still cut, and malnutrition among the population had already been on the rise before the hostilities, due to the COVID-19 and locust situations.
Responding to questions, Mr. Laerke said that the United Nations was encouraged by recent visits which had resulted in productive meetings with the Ethiopian authorities, and it was hoped that the assurances made at the highest level would be put into practice. Mr. Laerke could not provide the reasons why the Ethiopian Government was not still allowing humanitarian access to the affected region. Getting in and assessing the needs was a paramount first step.
Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), answering questions, said that many Eritrean refugees in Tigray also needed assistance. The process of permissions should be improved to avoid the existing delays. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi had met with both high-level authorities and refugees, who had shared their traumatic experiences, including on their forced returns to Eritrea by the Eritrean troops. The High Commissioner had shared his concerns with the authorities in Addis Ababa. On another question, Mr. Baloch said that UNHCR had access to two camps in the south of Tigray but had had no access to other camps in northern Tigray. There was still no clearance by the Ethiopian Government for UNHCR to visit Mekele and conduct an assessment there.
Killing and disappearance of children in Paraguay
Marta Hurtado, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), informed that the High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet was deeply concerned at recent reports in Paraguay regarding the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, Carmen Elizabeth Oviedo Villalba, and the lack of progress in investigating the killing of two 11-year-old girls, Lilian Villalba and Maria Carmen Villalba.
According to available information, Carmen Elizabeth had witnessed an operation carried out on 2 September 2020 by the Paraguayan Joint Task Force against members of the Paraguayan People’s Army group in the Yby Yaú area, some 370 kilometres north of Asunción. The two 11-year-old girls, who had been killed in the same operation, were Argentinian citizens.
The High Commissioner called the Paraguayan authorities to urgently search for the missing girl, Carmen Elizabeth. Considering the new witness accounts about the capture and killing of the other two girls, Bachelet urged calling on the Paraguayan authorities to conduct a prompt, independent and effective investigation into the many unanswered questions surrounding their deaths. An independent forensic study should be carried out.
Full briefing note is here.
Geneva announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, on behalf of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), announced that UNSMIL had received four lists of candidates for the positions of the three-member Presidency Council and of Prime Minister. The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) had convened at 9:30 am today to vote on the lists. The required selection threshold was 60 percent of valid votes. Should no list reach this threshold, a second round would be held to vote on the two lists which obtain the highest number of votes in the first round. The threshold for the second round is 50 percent + 1 of the valid votes. More information is available here. A press conference was expected in late afternoon today, said Ms. Vellucci.
Speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council (HRC), Ms. Vellucci informed that the Human Rights Council would hold an organizational meeting on 8 February at 10 am, to discuss its upcoming forty-sixth regular session scheduled to take place from 22 February to 23 March. The meeting would provide an opportunity for States to announce initiatives they intended to take during the month-long session and discuss other procedural issues. The Council's new President, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, would deliver her inaugural address. The meeting would be public and webcast.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that a virtual press conference would be held on 8 February at 11:45 am to present a new tool - the Productive Capacities Index. The Productive Capacities Index measured countries’ capacity to achieve social and economic transformation and helped track their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.Speakers would be Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General, and Paul Akiwumi, Director of the Division on Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes. The subject would be under embargo until 6 pm of the same day. Ms. Huissoud informed that this would be the last press conference by the outgoing UNCTAD Secretary-General.
On 8 February, UNCTAD would also share its Global Trade Update with figures on what had happened in 2020. The document would be under embargo until 10 February at 12 noon.
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), informed that from 8 February, Ramesh Rajasingham, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, would be in Burkina Faso, with the view of drawing international attention to the deteriorating situation and unfolding large-scale humanitarian emergency. Humanitarian needs had increased sharply, with a large displacement crisis, and the record 3.5 million people who would need humanitarian assistance in 2021.
Ms. Vellucci informed that that the Conference on Disarmament should have its next public plenary meeting on 10 February, at 10 am, under the presidency of Belgium.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child had publicly concluded the previous day the works of its eighty-fifth session.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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