UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Martin Griffiths on the response to disasters in Libya and Morocco

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Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service of the United Nations in Geneva.

Today is Friday 15th September.

We have a long briefing and lots of news on the agenda, but it's really my honour and my pleasure to start this briefing a little bit earlier because we have the the honour and the pleasure to have here with us Martin Griffiths, Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Martin will give a few introductory remarks.

He will be telling us more about the situation in Libya and then we will open the floor to questions.

He will have to leave soon.

So we'll try to get the most out of it, but then we will have other colleagues who will speak also about Libya.

So without more, do I let you open the remarks?

Thanks very much.

Briefly, I wanted to talk about very briefly about Morocco, but also about Libya.

I mean, you know, we we all woke up towards the end of last week.

We all thought, I'm sure in this room and elsewhere that the world was sad and bad and dangerous enough.

And then we were wrong because of the terrible scenes that we have all been seeing thanks to your coverage in these last days.

And I think we all remember the Syria and Turkey earthquakes and we remember the trauma from there.

And I want to refer to that when I talk about these issues, but very briefly as an opening remarks, of course, in Morocco, nearly 3000 lives.

Let's be very clear at this stage, it's a classic aspect of sudden onset disasters.

The early figures on the deaths, terrible enough in these cases, by the way, frightening enough in these cases, are likely to be overtaken by events as authorities and rescuers get access to the rubble where so many people or the floods where so many people are buried.

So 3000 lives claimed in Morocco.

I'm sure it's an under evaluation, but it's a carefully done one by the authorities.

We, like others, are standing by for requests for assistance in both these cases and all the cases of sudden onset disasters.

You have an immediate phase, the first days where the attention is rightly on finding survivors and also finding those who have not survived and providing for their for their Interment properly and respectfully.

And then the next phase is to provide aid to those survivors, shelter, food, medical supplies, the inevitable health problems that arise.

And I'll come to in a minute.

So in Morocco, I hope, I hope we are moving from one phase to the next and that we're ready.

I spoke yesterday to the deputy foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Lord Ahmed.

the United Kingdom is present with other aid from other countries in Morocco.

We talk about how we can work with the authorities there to do what we do best, and that is to provide search and rescue, to provide support for coordination and most importantly, tangibly through the humanitarian agencies, NGOs, as usual, in the forefront the the, the aid that is needed for the survival of the survivors in Libya.

A completely different catastrophe, as we have heard from various authorities.

1 which is appalling, shocking, I think unimaginable actually in its, in its, in its consequences.

I, I've heard that there are speculations about up to 20,000 may be dead.

I believe there's 4000 deaths registered at the moment.

Again in Libya, where access to Derna is still so difficult, where there's a compounded problem of the problems of the dams breaking as well as the storm breaking from the, from the sea.

This is, this is a tragedy in which climate and capacity has collided to 'cause this terrible, terrible tragedy.

Derna, a city of what of 100,000 people, 900,000 people affected.

And, and this is on top of a situation in Libya where 300,000 people in Libya already needed humanitarian aid.

Now we and other agencies are already present in Libya for the humanitarian.

That's that's been happening there for some years.

We have sent in from Ocha, from my office, from Geneva here, UN Disaster coordination team, 15 people who went to Morocco and then redeployed to Libya, and also communications people, also specialists and experts.

We will be hearing from other agents, including the Federation Red Cross about that.

I think the issue for us in Libya is of course coordinating with two with the government and then the other authority in the east of the country.

Secondly, discovering the extent of the problem.

We're not there yet in Libya.

We we don't know the extent of the problem.

The floods and the torrents and the destroyed buildings and the sludge still conceal the level of need and death.

And then sustaining in that second phase, getting the right aid to the right people at the right time.

That's where coordination is so important.

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Helping key humanitarian agencies to do the job they do so well elsewhere.

But, and I'll stop on this, Alessandro, what is so deeply shocking about this is I think in the, in the both cases, and they are very different crises as we know, but in both cases, it's a massive reminder of climate and its presence.

We don't need to to anywhere in the world.

We know that we face a really, really difficult year ahead in government capacities going to be stretched to the limit as we see in both these countries.

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I'm sorry.

We have launched an appeal for Libya, flash appeal yesterday, just over $71 million.

This was as quick as we could get it out given the access we needed to make the needs assessment.

I have already spoken to some governments here in Geneva about this.

The key sectors are the ones you know well, health, medical, wash, water supply, shelter.

And this is my final point, psychosocial support.

I remember in the earthquakes how we talked about the terrible noise that shattered families at 4:00 AM here.

The flood started at 2:30 in the morning on on Monday morning.

And the trauma for families looking desperately still days after that awful event happened in the middle of the night to find if their loved ones are alive or dead.

We've heard stories of families who've lost 50 or more family members.

As I said at the beginning, Alessandra, this is unimaginable.

And we must keep our solidarity very clear with the people of Libya and Morocco.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry indeed, Martin, thank you very much and thanks for mentioning the issue of climate.

And we will speak more later of the climate emission summits convened by the Secretary General on the 20th of September.

But now I go to questions, first of all in the room, and I'll start with Catherine Tiancon.

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Happy to have you here in Geneva with us.

Thank you for coming.

My question is, first of all, could you please repeat the name of the gentleman you spoke with?

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I I I haven't catched his last name.

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Deputy Foreign Secretary.

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And also what you mentioned that you had 15 people that went to Morocco and if I understood well, will be redeployed in Libya or are already redeployed in Libya.

Sorry, even I can manage that.

Or you said to Lord Tarek Ahmad, the Deputy Foreign Secretary, FCDO London, who called me yesterday.

Thank you very much to Tarek.

And yes, we deployed very quickly.

I mean we've, we've had decades of experience in search and rescue based out of Geneva, as you know.

And we deployed an what we call an Undack team, disaster assistant, the coordination team, 15 people led by a very experienced ochre staff member.

We also deployed some of our own key staff from the region to help those there in in in Libya.

We had humanitarian staff already.

We have a very, very experienced humanitarian coordinator, Georgette Gagnon, who I think will be on the line later, who I know very well from working together in the past, that we decided with the consent also the understanding of the Moroccan authorities to redeploy that team.

And they are now in Libya and they are progressing.

I don't know where they are exactly geographically.

I was told not coming in there in Benghazi, but they're on the way clearly to the epicentre and they will help the Libyan authorities on coordination.

If you don't have coordination, it's there's chaos and that loses lives.

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Thank you very much.

I'll continue in the room, Chris and then Muhammad, Chris IFP, Christopher Jean Franz Press Thanks for taking my question.

I, I actually have two, one on Morocco.

Do I understand correctly that for the time being you don't have green light to go into the country with like real means of, of help?

And the second one is on Libya, if I may.

It seems that access is really difficult and there is talk, I think the mayor of Dana offered, Dana offered to or suggested to open a maritime route to go.

Does that seem plausible to you?

Is that something you're working on and what kind of means do we need?

Are we talking about, you know, French or Italian Navy having amphibious boats coming?

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I think we're expecting we, we've kept in touch in Morocco.

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We kept in touch very closely.

Our resident coordinator Natalie Fustier, who also I know very well from the Gulf has been leading the UN team in in Morocco, no existing humanitarian aid programme in Morocco before this moment.

And so we're keeping very close touch with the line ministries, the foreign ministry and so forth.

And so it was with their agreement that we redeployed our team.

As I mentioned, we are expecting and hoping but expecting from our discussions with the Moroccan authorities that their that the request for assistance will go out within with today or tomorrow.

I mean you know very soon because as I said Morocco has moved, is moving from one phase to the next.

They themselves have said that it's aid to the survivors that's priority at the moment.

It's always a difficult issue operationally and sudden onset disasters.

You need to keep looking for survivors.

You need to keep looking particularly those **** at that's mountain villages.

But the focus on survivors because we they are identified and helping them avoid the sort of medical threats that are natural in these circumstances are very important.

So we're hoping to have that in, in, in, in Libya.

Yes, I heard that the mayor said that.

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I don't know directly myself first hand the arrangements that would need to follow, but it makes complete sense.

You've got you've got obviously maritime access.

You would ship in aid as well as and typically what you do is you don't choose one route over another.

You do all of them.

You still keep coming in from the land.

You can still keep, you're finding the people who are fleeing S, fleeing S from Derna towards aid away from the city.

So you need to support them as well.

But certainly adding the maritime option makes complete sense.

Thank you very much, Mohammed.

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As you already mentioned, we have witnessed 2 two different disaster in Morocco and Libya.

Do you think that United Nations was ready to respond to these disasters?

At the same time, can you praise the United Nations response?

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I unequivocally say yes to that question.

It's a good question because they are, as you say, Mohammed, they're different formed crises, but they were exactly, almost exactly the same in time, both requiring massive response and immediate response.

The the key characteristic, and we've seen it all over the world, a sudden onset disasters.

You have to be there straight away.

Disaster search and rescue teams are trained to be there within 24 hours globally and ours are included and our teams include representatives from member states by the way, they're they're a consortium of member states.

In our teams.

We certainly have more than a single team in the the the roster of UN disaster coordination teams that we manage through the Otter Geneva office or support through the Otter Geneva can certainly manage response to more than one onset disaster at a time.

We felt that it was that that redeploying to Libya was an efficiency at this time.

They were there in the region, people speaking Arabic and and being able to engage quickly and effectively.

But we're equally ready to to to build up more coordination.

But more aid is what's really needed now into Morocco.

The agencies of of course, have been in Libya all this time.

We've heard about them on in the media.

The welfare programme I I know has has a programme of assistance through local partners.

As usual, local partners are the key in both places.

And what we're waiting for in Morocco is, is that moment of the green light to start the process.

And let me be very clear, in my experience of sudden onset disasters, that first few days is always days of relative confusion.

Responding to the complexity in a period of trauma is very difficult for governments, for administrations, for ministries, for local organisations.

No, nobody should be surprised by how attention is focused on other things when we wanted to be about ourselves.

But the signs are very good in Morocco that we will be able to provide support and you can be **** sure we'll be ready.

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Martin, I know you have another commitment just after this, but can if we can take at least one more question.

Is that OK?

I have Jamie Keaton, who has been waiting on the platform for a while.

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Thank you, Mr Griffiths, for coming to see us.

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I just wanted to get you, you mentioned green, the green light.

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Can you can hear my question?

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I wanted to just ask you about both situations.

One very quickly.

You mentioned the green light.

I mean there's been a little bit of a hand wringing and a little confusion as to why international aid, particularly UN aid was not called for right away.

You've mentioned you're waiting for the green light from Morocco and you've, you've said on numerous occasions the coordination, which is your expertise.

This is your expertise.

You're the coordinator.

How I'm just how surprised were you that, that, that the call was not made to Ocha to get more involved in this, being that this is your area of expertise?

That's the first question on, on, on Morocco and then just very quickly on Libya, if you could just tell us exactly what the pressing needs are now.

I mean, you mentioned the search and rescue and, and under the rubble and the earthquake of, of, of Morocco, but what is the urgency now for, for Libya?

I mean, if what can be done and, and what needs to be done in the very immediate phase?

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The Morocco, we, we, we stood by.

It's important that the government, which has primary responsibility and frankly has the resources needed in any country, the primary resources needed to respond to the needs of its citizens, needed to be clear on its own organisational arrangements, on getting access to its people.

And Morocco has a very distinguished history in recent years of building up very deliberately and putting a lot of investment into its response capacities.

And they were very clear with us that they needed to, you know, avail themselves of their own highly developed assets.

And they didn't need us at the beginning.

But you know, the beginning is only last Saturday and we're, we're, we're, we're, we're not that late much later now.

So we, we, I, I don't have any critical remarks to make at all.

We are ready to to work and we're ready to provide support on coordination.

And critically Utter is not the primary player here and critically for the agencies to be able to provide assistance.

And it is only in the recent day or so that in Morocco, the shift has been from finding survivors to helping survivors survive.

And that's when aid is of the highest importance.

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And one of the things that we need in Libya, as we saw in Syria, for example, in the Syrian earthquake in February, is the need for equipment to find people in the, in the, in the floods and the sludge and the, the damaged buildings in Derner and its environs.

But also we need those priority areas are shelter, food, key primary medical care because of the worry of cholera, because of the worry of taint, you know, particularly in Libya, the worry of of lack of clean water.

That's a huge ****** to the lives, particularly of children, which is why UNICEF and and and others are there, but also so the the the clear core business of humanitarian response, food, shelter, healthcare, but also in a disaster like this and Libya as well as Morocco, but Libya is going to be a huge issue is psychosocial care.

As I said, Alessandra, in my remarks, and as I've seen in the privilege I've had of going to some of these places of tragedy damage, the trauma.

The unimaginable way in which people are required to get up in the morning and deal with a family which is 3/4 of which have lost their lives in a situation in which all their property has been torn away, in which they have no money, they don't know where to sleep, how are they going to get food.

The psychosocial trauma in these moments of crisis are the hidden story.

That needs so much attention.

And humanitarian agencies are well equipped to deal with this.

We've we've, they've all seen it everywhere before, but they're going to, we're going to see it very, very importantly, I think in Libya, because of the specific nature of this complicated moment on that Monday morning at 2:30 AM with the storm bursting and the dams breaking and taking the lives of God knows how many people we eventually discover.

Let's pause a moment just to think of them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Martin.

I'm sorry for the journalists who are queuing with questions, but Martin really has to go.

And we really thank him for having being here and come back whenever you want.

You're always very welcomed by our journalists.

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Martin Griffiths on the response to disasters in Libya and Morocco - 15 September 2023