Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, the 9th of May for this press briefing hosted by the UN Information Service.
Another very important agenda for you, we have Juliet, our friend from Onrah, who is going to be speaking shortly on the situation and update on situation in Gaza and E Jerusalem.
And we have colleagues from the World Food Programme who will speak to the situation in West and Central Africa, particularly on the deepening hunger there, as well as colleagues from UNHCR who will address the situation of refugees in Costa Rica.
We also have announcements from WHO on road safety and ITU on World Telecommunication Information Society Day.
So without further ado, I'm going to throw right to Juliet, who I thank very much for joining us as always.
Rolando, just confirming you can hear me, OK?
All right, Well, look, thanks so much for for having me.
I'll say a few words on the situation in occupied E Jerusalem to start, and then I'll move to a quick update on the situation in Gaza.
Sadly, not much has changed since we've spoken.
I think it was a couple of weeks ago.
In fact, things have gotten only worse.
So on occupied E Jerusalem, yesterday was a very sad day for children who go to Indre schools in in East Jerusalem.
The commissioner general of Indrea denounced an assault on children, called it an assault on education because yesterday in the morning, heavily armed Israeli forces entered 300 schools in one of the Palestine refugee camps in in East Jerusalem, they say forced over 550 girls and boys who were in their classrooms out of their schools.
We had 100 colleague under a staff member who was detained and he has been released since.
We were also as a result forced to evacuate all other schools that we run in occupied E Jerusalem now nearly 800 girls and boys, some of them as young as six years old.
They're left in shock and trauma and without education.
Storming schools and forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law.
These schools are premises of the United Nations and must never be violated by enforcing closures issued last month.
You may recall Rolando colleagues, there were orders from the Israeli authorities that the schools received in April.
They were enforced yesterday.
So the Israeli authorities are now denying Palestinian children their basic right to education.
We emphasise that these undressed schools must continue to be open to safeguard an entire generation of children.
These actions are also a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the State of Israel have signed and according to which every child must have the right to education.
I'll move to the another incident that's related to, to to schools.
You may have seen another school in Gaza that was doing shelter that was was hit.
There's no escape for for the people of Gaza.
Death follows them wherever they go because no place is safe in Gaza and no one is spared.
The school was hit on the 6th of May, so just a few days ago 30 displaced people who were sheltering in that school have been reported and killed.
The school was home at the time to 2000 people who were taking refuge in in the school.
These are displaced people who came to the school seeking refuge.
We're seeing quite a lot of inaction and indifference towards what's happening in in Gaza, as if we are normalising dehumanisation and overlooking crimes that have been live streamed under our our eyes, under the world's watch.
Families in Gaza are being bombed, children are being burned alive and people are starving.
To give a perspective over the the the number of of schools that have been hit since the war began in their schools since the war began.
We estimate that for out of our schools have been hit, the vast majority of them were hit when they had displaced families in them.
And then just a couple of words on the humanitarian situation overall in Gaza and we can open for questions.
Rolando hunger is is is spreading in in Gaza.
We're speaking to our colleagues and when we can open the camera and when the telecommunications allow allow us to do this, we see, we notice that they are using weight.
My colleagues also tell us that people got used to standing in long lines just to get a little bit of food.
Even those lines are now gone because food is running out.
It's been 9 weeks since the Israeli authorities have imposed a siege on on the Gaza Strip, restricting any access of supplies, humanitarian, commercial fuel alike.
We have reports from our health workers at Indra, we have around 1000 of them who work in in health, but those who are working with children are reporting increased number of children with malnutrition.
So let me stop here, Rolando, and see if there's any questions on what I've just spoken to.
And this is an important update as always, hard to hear, but important to hear.
So thank you very much for that update.
Colleagues in the room starting off, let's see if we have any questions.
As you're no doubt aware, there's been a new document published on on a Gaza humanitarian foundation, which sets out a completely new parallel model for distributing aid in in Gaza.
I know the UN has previously criticised this, but my question to you is where does this leave UNRWA if it's put in place?
Like you said, there's been a clear United Nations position on on this, on this same mechanism.
And I think there's a chance to tell you what I always tell you is that it is impossible to replace Andrea in a place like Gaza.
We are the largest humanitarian organisation.
We have the largest reach, whether it is through our teams that work across the Gaza Strip, where we have more than 10,000 people who work to deliver whatever is left of the supplies.
But we also manage shelters for the displaced families, including the one that was hit earlier this week.
It is very, very difficult to imagine any humanitarian operation without UNRA.
And and you know, at the risk of being very repetitive because we've been saying this ad nauseam for, for weeks and months now.
Of course, you know, what is clear for us and Yen's also is in the room and James is here if they want to chime in.
We we said this as a recent as, as Tuesday.
Of course we're aware of this document, Emma, her colleagues.
And what is clear for us is that we'll only participate in NNA operation that respects our humanitarian principles, right of independence, humanity and partiality.
And what we've seen when the blockade was lifted, and this is what we're calling for, we're calling for the blockade to be lifted.
And when it was lifted, when the ceasefire was in place, we saw the positive impact it had.
And this is what we want.
We want food, we want aid, we want healthcare, all these things to be delivered to the desperate people in Gaza.
And of course, if anyone else wants to chime in, please do so.
Yeah, So it would be the same question, please.
Where does it leave the UN and and given what you know about distributing aid in in Gaza, could this be implemented and why or why not?
Yeah, I mean, so as Rolando said, go back to the sense of what the ceasefire meant.
The ceasefire meant a huge improvement in the nutritional situation of of girls and boys.
It meant food in the markets, repaired water systems.
It meant people could access healthcare safely.
Healthcare facilitators had had medicines that they need.
Now, of course, food, water, medicines, everything for a child to survive has been blocked and and in many ways boastfully blocked.
So the only thing entering Gaza right now is bombs.
Now this is, as Juliet points out, it's a profound moral collapse and no one's going to escape the cost of such indifference.
So it's very, very clear that the resumption of humanitarian into humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is urgent and essential.
But after careful analysis, it appears the design of the plan presented by Israel to the humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip.
So let me explain why it's dangerous to ask civilians to go into militarised zones to collect rations.
It further entrenches forced displacement for political and military purposes and humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip.
The most vulnerable people, the elderly, children with disabilities seek and wounded who cannot travel to these designated zones will face horrendous challenges in getting aid.
UNICEF is also very concerned about the about family members being separated whilst they move between back and forth to try and get aid from what is 5 locations, all located in the South in a territory that locks that lacks any safety due to ongoing bombardments.
There is no guarantee of safety at the distribution locations or when people are moving there, leaving families attempting to access aid risk of being targeted or caught in the crossfire.
In short, as UNICEF has seen this in the discussions we've had, more children are likely to suffer and risk death and injury as a consequence of this plan.
It appears designed to reinforce control over life sustaining items as a pressure tactic.
And of course there is a simple there is a simple alternative.
Finally, we are very concerned about the proposal to use facial recognition as a as a precondition to access aid.
It's against all humanitarian principles to screen and monitor beneficiaries for intelligence and military purposes.
And according to the plan as we've seen it, there'd only be 60 trucks delivering aid to the Gaza Strip everyday.
This is 110th of what was being delivered during the ceasefire.
It's not nearly enough to meet the needs of 1.1 million children, 2.1 million people.
So civilians must not be forced to flee again.
And the use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the South, will create this impossible choice between displacement and death.
Before, before we do that, Emma, let me just say I see that Juliet has her hand up and I think she wants to add something.
So please, Juliet, back to you.
Thanks, James, and great to see you.
And thanks for everything you've added.
Perhaps just a couple of things.
I mean, all we're saying is why fix something if it's not broken?
So to James's point, during the ceasefire, stuff was flowing.
We were collecting the supplies, we were distributing the supplies.
Medical facilities run by India, run by others, had the medicine that they needed.
The looting has decreased massively.
At some point, it had completely stopped.
Because there was a standard flow of humanitarian supplies, largely managed by the United Nations, including Andrea.
So why fix something if it's not broken?
And then, Emma, just a reminder perhaps to you and others that we all know what happened when there were attempts to exclude the United Nations from the delivery of humanitarian assistance, several attempts that happened, if you recall, early on during the war, and they have not succeeded, to say the least.
Thank you very much, Julie.
I know there are lots of questions online and in the room, but let's let's throw it to Jen.
Jen, Jens, now who's going to add another comment on this point?
I just wanted to add a nuance that that that I think it's it's important.
And thank you very much to my to my colleagues, James Juliet for everything they have said that to which I completely agree.
I just wanted to to be clear that we've had multiple meetings in recent weeks, continuous contacts with Israeli officials to reconcile their concerns with ours, namely that aid operations must be conducted according to humanitarian principles.
And those concerns that we have raised have not been met, have not been addressed.
Their plant modality as presented to us does not meet the minimum bar for principal humanitarian support.
That is not something we say today or even yesterday.
These are things that we have been discussing for weeks.
So the current shape that we have been briefed about by them would not allow us to resume life saving activities at the scale that was possible prior to the total blockade of Gaza.
Discussions are ongoing on the need to open up Gaza in a way that meets people's needs everywhere, right, everywhere, wherever they are and on the need to facilitate the aid than we and our partners have available just a few kilometres away.
Thank you, Jens, very important comments there.
So, Emma, it's just to clarify, both of you are talking about Jens and James, about the Israeli plan as it's presented to you.
Is that one and the same for you as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation?
Is this the same thing we're talking about, the same plan Are are they aligned?
Are we talking about separate initiatives?
The the answer I gave was with regard to that, that plan which is as I understand it, the name Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, I think that would apply as well.
Let's, OK, I think Mohammed, as you had your hand up first and then and yes afterwards and then we have some questions online.
So Anandolu, Julie, thank you so much for being with us.
My question about the health, did any medical evacuation happen since 2nd of March from Gaza Strip?
And also before the chapter, you said more than 10,000 people need medical evacuation.
Could you give an update about this number and also situation of this innocent people?
I was just asking to be unmuted.
Yeah, thank you very much.
It is my question that better be asked to our colleagues from the World Health Organisation because Indra is not involved in medical evacuations.
Indeed, I think Margaret is online if I'm not.
Margaret, did you get the question?
So if you could maybe provide a comment, that would be great.
Sure, it's medical evacuations.
Yes, indeed, we have a huge number of people who need medical evacuations.
Since the resumption of hostilities in 18 March 2025, we've only had 122 patients evacuated out fire Karem Shalom.
We have more than 10,500 patients who are really in urgent need of evacuation and more than 4000 of those are children.
Yeah, that's basically the numbers you were looking for.
OK, I think that's clear.
Thank you very much for that.
OK, turn now to Anya's AFP.
This is a question to to all about the this foundation that you have named.
Could you let us know if you have been given information about this foundation, who, about who will be the leaders of this foundation, who will be working?
If you could give us more insights about about that, if you have been given?
I have not named any foundation.
What I'm referring to is what I also said on Tuesday, the briefings that we have received verbally by Kogat, the humanitarian country team.
That is that is what I'm responding to.
If, if I may, James Elder have have named a foundation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation when you were answering to to Emma.
So if you could give us information about this foundation, who would be what have you been informed about that?
We don't have information that we have.
We're aware of these proposals, but you know, we'll repeat what we've said.
We're not going to, we're not going to follow any, any plan that it contravenes our, our lofty principles, simple as that.
You know, we've been saying this from day one.
We're not changing our position.
You know, UNRWA is the backbone.
We have our humanitarian partners, we have Ocho, we have UNICEF and all the agencies who speak to you here.
These are the agencies delivering this much needed aid.
And this is in line with our humanitarian principles of independence, impartiality and and humanity, as I've said.
So we're not going to comment on any specific plans.
But again, you know, we'll, we'll repeat what we've been saying is that they have to be in line with our principles.
If colleagues want to add something, please do so.
James I, I'm, I think you said that the, the plan doesn't allow to reassume the humanitarian aid at the scale previous to the blockage.
So does it mean that in any way the Israeli plan allows you to have any participation on the on the entrance of the humanitarian aid?
I mean, not at the scale, as you said, as previously, but in any scale, Because all this is very confused for all, I suppose also for you.
It's clear as MOD what when we're talking about at scale recall before this crisis erupted October 23, we had some, we were talking about 600 trucks a day that were coming in.
Then we had during the the ceasefire where as as Rolando just laid out, we had, I think we were up touching 800 trucks a day coming in on some days.
That's the scale that we need.
Then we have the infrastructure very much with UNWA at the centre of it as the beating heart of that inside Gaza for distributing all this life saving is.
That is what I'm talking about.
The mechanisms, the structures are there.
They are not perfect, I'll be the first to to admit that, but they do save lives.
So the Israeli plan doesn't allow any participation of the UN or other humanitarian independent agencies.
The plan is not has not been presented to us in a way that allows us to participate in a principled humanitarian manner.
So going back to Juliet has her hand up.
You're unmuted, I believe.
Just maybe to say a few things.
Yan's going to see you as well, my friend.
I also suggest to the to, to to our colleagues, the journalist to get in touch with the government of Israel and the government of the United States and ask them about the details of, of, of this plan and ask them those very good questions that you're asking all of us.
Maybe they have more, more details on how are they going to operationalize this, this, this plan and perhaps just the answer's point.
And we all have a bit of a short memory here.
But let's go back to when the ceasefire was was reached mid mid January and the huge flow of of trucks that came in every day.
We had on some days over 800 trucks that the United Nations was able to pick up, to bring in, to distribute in, to sort, to put in in in warehouses.
So it's not like we've failed, unlike other claims that used to come our way in, in, in the UN, we've delivered and we have done that in Gaza for many, many years, even before the war started.
You see, Gaza was under a blockade for 18 years before and the war began and there was lots of humanitarian supplies that the United Nations, including India, was bringing in.
So there was a system in place.
There is a system in place, if there is a political will to make that system work again.
No, I think Juliet covers it perfectly and I think it's very dangerous that we start to see it as any viable proposition.
The most simple sense that as we've seen the plan presented, it simply doesn't comply with Israel's obligations to, to allow and facilitate impartial humanitarian relief.
We have to keep going back to that, their obligations, their legal obligations, which is actually to provide aid, not just facilitate it.
But let's just go with facilitation.
That is a very clear obligation.
And then as Juliet Riley points out that the United Nations and the very brave partners on the ground have shown absolutely that they can meet the needs of that population when when allowed to, then we can go into the granular, which become would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous, which is the idea that everyone won't have access to this limited aid.
As I said earlier, children, disabled, the elderly, I've seen the elderly be forced to cross from South to from north to South.
So go to collect your, you know, to collect supplies for five days carrying those supplies.
They're too heavy for people.
And then that's basic supplies.
Then we move into those other daily legal essentials for civilians like vaccination, which has got nothing to do in this so-called plan.
So we do need to just keep reverting back to what works.
And what works is international humanitarian law and allowing those brave Palestinians and partners in the United Nations to do their work.
Thank you, James and Julia.
OK, we still have lots of questions, colleagues.
Let's see the starting in the room that I might have missed.
Moussa, thank you, Rolando, and good morning.
Juliet, you said something about the malnutrition in Gaza.
Can you please give us some details about the situation, like the level of risk faced by population and children, especially the number of children on risk?
And I have a question for all concerning the Israeli plan.
Can you give us please your clear and official positions concerning this plan?
Let me just start with the second point.
I think we were pretty clear we're not going to accept any plan that is contravenes our our principles.
So let's let's just let's just be very focused on that, that that position which is firm.
On the other question, sorry, this is maybe who wants to take that You want to start off James the nutritional situation.
I think much more will you'll get all those answers on on Monday when an IPC is released.
For now, the the nutritional situation of children across the Gaza Strip is, is catastrophic.
And that should surprise absolutely no one because no aid has been allowed in for 9 weeks now.
And again, the only thing that children in Gaza have seen come from outside are bombs and missiles.
OK, let's take a question from Jeremy, Radio France international.
I, I didn't quite get the number of universal schools that were hits and if it was since the beginning of the year or since the start of the war.
And another question on that is that in the end, how many schools are still functioning right.
You mean in Gaza or is it the related to the story in the occupant E Jerusalem?
Well, both I say, I guess that's you don't have many schools functioning left in Gaza, but I mean for the West Bank and Jerusalem, sure, sure.
Like I said yesterday, we've had Israeli forces invading three of our schools in in East Jerusalem, Indra schools, UN schools, and that forced over 550 kids out of those those schools.
We have in total 6 schools in occupied E Jerusalem with just over 800 boys and girls.
Now all of them are without education.
So that's on the occupied E Jerusalem.
And this is due to an order that the Israeli authorities have handed over.
They came into our schools previously, which is a violation of international law, came into our schools, gave us this order in April and sounds like, looks like yesterday they've implemented that order.
It's it's a stain on our humanity that this was allowed to happen yesterday.
And you know the the fate of these 800 boys and girls is hanging by a thread.
There were only six weeks away from finishing their school year and now we don't know what's going to happen to to these kids.
Some of them are in grade 9 and they're supposed to graduate and and go to high school in in a few months.
So that's on occupied E Jerusalem across the occupied West Bank and has just over 90 schools and they've been even during the ban from the Israeli Knesset, give or take.
We provide around 50,000 boys and girls with education in Indrea schools across the West Bank.
In Gaza the situation is very, very different.
Schools have been closed since the morning of the 7th of October 2023.
So children, not only those going to under schools, but children in Gaza haven't been going to school for 19 months now.
For Andra, the vast majority of our schools have been turned very early on into shelters.
I, I visited those shelters on, on, on several occasions when I was in Gaza during the war.
You're talking about 10s of thousands of people who are just piling on top of each other just to, to have somewhere to stay, thinking that they will be safe under the United Nations flag.
On several occasions, uh, in fact, we have recorded over 800 hits on United Nations Andrea facilities in Gaza.
The vast majority of these hits were schools.
Now as a result, 2/3, so just over 200 of our schools in Gaza that we, we used as schools, just to be very accurate that are now used as shelters, 2/3 of them have been hit.
Some have been severely damaged.
They can no longer be used as anything.
And some, despite being damaged, despite being hit, people continued to stay in them because they have nowhere else to go.
OK, I think we have one last question.
I wanted to ask 2 questions.
One is, we have understood that there have been a number of meetings as you've mentioned, I think Yents and James are both aware of my, my, my coming question.
But I just wanted to know if you could tell us what, if any conversations that you've had with Americans either or, or Israelis about that You've mentioned to it already earlier, but about this and, and, and yesterday did as well.
Can you just say anything about sort of whether or not there are there's US specifically support for this plan and whether there are are strong efforts to actually to shoot this down, this plan down?
That's the first question.
And then the second question, it has to do with what you had said earlier about how the UN has the systems in place and the and the and the track record of delivering.
What do you say to people and Israel, Israeli government who say that that they are concerned about diversion of this aid, that it's going to go to militants?
Because that seems to be one of their central concerns.
How do you address that issue?
Because that is the seems to be the fundamental one from the Israeli side?
I don't know, maybe Juliet, do you want to start off on that maybe I guess both questions and then maybe colleagues here want to chime in.
Hi, Jeremy, good to hear you.
Look, on the diversion of aid, it's a question that we're often asked, in fact, all the time, and I was asked this question, question at the briefing last week.
I mean, look, for Andhra, we are what we call direct service delivery providers.
So it is our operation in Gaza is managed 100% by United Nations staff who bring in the supplies from the borders that is Germany when the borders are open and they've been shut for 9 weeks.
But when they are, we bring ourselves the supplies.
We bring them in United Nations trucks or cars.
They come to Andrea warehouses where they're sifted and sorted by Andrea team members who then put them on, on, on, on cars and drive them to Andrea shelters or areas around the shelters, right.
We've not had aid diversion and when we have received reports of aid diversion, we've launched investigations into these reports.
Now, it's very, very difficult to counter what continues to be a claim at the end of the day when international media, like yourself, Jeremy, continues to be banned from reporting in Gaza independently.
So we do hope that international media makes it into Gaza also to look at such claims because they're very, very serious claims.
And Needless to say, the UN takes these claims very, very seriously.
So until there is independent verification of these claims, they will remain as such claims.
I think Jens wants to jump in.
Jamie, we have received your your question particular question just on the first bit and I am investigating and will that you know whatever I I can say about that.
But as as I mentioned earlier, it's important to to to stress that we have been meeting regularly in recent weeks.
So the engagement continues.
Now, Juliet addressed the issue of diversion very clearly.
The other issue of that is, is looting, which is also being mentioned.
And we've been very open and transparent about that, that it has happened and it is happening right now.
There's not much to loot anymore to to, to be frank, if if anything, and I think 1 needs to keep the perspective of what is it we're looking at, what is the problem?
The problem is that catastrophic humanitarian situation for 2 million people.
The looting of a few trucks here and there is never going to be the problem.
The problem is the blockage of hundreds of eight trucks that should go into the Gaza Strip everything single day.
That is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis there.
Yeah, I think the Yens and Juliet cover that word for word.
I think we have to keep going back to what Juliet said around international journalists.
It's impossible to overstate how frequently we have been playing a he said, she said.
Whereas we are dealing with absolutely the impartial reality on the ground and we are faced with political statements that belie that truth now.
And I think Juliet also, her words were it's difficult to counter what continues to be claimed without that foreign press on the ground.
And there is a clear reason for not having foreign press on the ground.
When we talk of aid, we must ask on aid why aid is being blocked even if we take the claim as being made.
We have a large number of premature babies being born because of the stress on pregnant women in Gaza.
There are dozens of incubators sitting on the other side of the border and large numbers at will and and women giving birth and dying because of that and children not having access to those incubators that save lives.
We cannot lose a generation of of children and Gaza to what is a very proud education system, anaesthetic.
Once you start to drill down into the things being blocked under a blanket statement of a diversion, then then we start to see the truth.
OK, I'm going back to Juliet and Margaret also has her hand up.
So I'm happy to see you jumping in on this point.
Just stay on Jensen's point on the looting and and it's it's a good reminder to all of us that looting has significantly Inc decreased when there was aid flowing in, Yes, just before the ceasefire.
We've had serious looting also related to the desperation of people and to the lack of basic supplies.
Now when the ceasefire was in place, we've seen the looting significantly decrease and many, many times it has completely disappeared.
So there's a chicken and an egg there.
And then also to James's point, at under alone we have over 3000 trucks of aid that are stuck outside Gaza and.
That's a really big dollar figure, right?
So instead of food going to children or medicine going to chronic patients, that's likely going to be wasted.
So the clock is sticking.
The siege must be lifted as soon as possible.
We got to go back to where we were during the ceasefire deal where we see the release of hostages from Gaza, the standard flow of humanitarian supplies as well.
And Margaret, sorry, I was having trouble unmuting.
Yeah, colleagues have covered this already totally thoroughly.
But I just wanted to say on medical aid again, we have not seen any diversion of within the health system.
We've not witnessed any aid diversion.
Our supplies are reaching the health facilities they're meant to serve.
And just as other colleagues have said this, we have a system end to end to make sure that the aid gets there.
So it is not about failure of a delivery within Gaza.
It is about not being allowed to bring it in.
And we don't, we, we, we've got again, trucks just line up filled with supplies.
And we know that the medical supplies, it's been 68 days since it's been allowed in.
People are really hungry.
Fuel is running out and the medicines are all running low with all the stocks of everything needed.
It's running very, very low.
But meanwhile, the needs for that medicine is increasing because of the terrible conditions people are living in and the bombardment.
So as James said, the only thing coming in as bombs, and those bombs are creating ever greater medical need.
And, and again to you, Juliet, James Yen's colleagues in the media, thank you for your impactful, important reporting, which will hopefully generate the humanitarian response that we need.
So thank you all very much for joining us.
And as always, I'm sure we'll be seeing you soon.
Margaret, you're still on the screen there and we're going to stick with you because we're going to have to shift the order a little bit.
Colleagues, we have colleagues from WFP and UNIT CR who want to brief, but I believe we have a briefer from the World Health Organisation, Dr Etienne Klug, who has a short announcement but I think he has to leave.
So thank you Doctor Krug.
Maybe Margaret, do you want to do just throw right to him?
In the interest of time, Doctor Krug, thank you for your patience and over to you for your announcement.
Yeah, big change in topic here, but it's also one that is affecting children a lot and killing a lot of children around the world.
Unfortunately, I'm talking about Rd safety.
So next week we are having the 8 United Nations Global Rd Safety Week from starting on Monday, May 12th and we want to just to make sure you're aware of that.
This year the week is dedicated to making walking and cycling safe.
And the reason for that is that children and adults all over the world are dying on a daily basis due to the lack of safety for walking and cycling.
Every two minutes, at least one pedestrian or cyclist is killed on the world's roads.
Pedestrians and cyclists make up 1/4 of the 1.2 million deaths every year on the world's road, and many of them are young people.
Rd traffic crashes, as you know, is still the leading cause of death for children and young adults, and the danger is rising for pedestrians and cyclists in many places in Southeast Asia.
During the last decade, 20 level 20/11/2021, pedestrian deaths increased by 42% and cyclist deaths rose by 50% in Europe and 88% in the Western Pacific region.
And all of that is happening in the context of lack of focus on making roads safe for those more vulnerable road users.
80% of the world's roads are not safe, don't meet pedestrian safety standards and 1% only of the roads in the world have a bicycle lane.
So still a long long way to go to improve that.
And it's a pity because when walking and cycling are safe, of course people don't die in Rd traffic crashes.
But also it improves the prevention of non communicable diseases, it improves the quality of the air, it improves our mental health.
There are so many benefits to walking and cycling when it is safe.
This is why on Monday also, we'll be releasing a new toolkit to help governments make walking and cycling safe.
It's officially released on Monday, but it's already available on our website and you have the link going directly to it in the first paragraph of our press release that you should have received.
It includes guidance on integrating walking and cycling into all relevant policy areas, on building safer infrastructure like sidewalks, crosswalks, cycle lanes and ensuring also better behaviour by those who you are using cars, reducing speeds and addressing drink driving and distracted driving using mobile phone.
So there's going to be events all over the world next week focusing on that.
The Director General of WTO will open a global online event which will bring leaders and experts and advocates from all over the world together.
The Global Alliance of NGOs, which is an umbrella of NGOs, hundreds of them all over the world, will focus on a bunch of things.
Marches, events, car free days, open St, pop up cycle lanes in countries as diverse as Uganda, Peru, Tanzania, Swatini, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, etcetera, etcetera.
We also will have activists documenting the safety of infrastructure in countries like Rwanda, Ethiopia, Brazil, Iran, Zambia, etcetera, etcetera.
And in Australia, we'll have the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the national Parliament and many more landmarks lit up to commemorate or to celebrate this week.
So just wanted to make sure you have all that information.
I have my colleague Fiona Boo also who's the author of the new toolkit with us and happy to answer any question.
Thank you very much, Doctor Krug, and apologies for not introducing you properly.
You are the Director for Social Determinants of Health at WHO.
So thank you very much for that intervention.
Colleagues, do we have questions for Doctor Krug in the room online?
I think you were very comprehensive and thank you very much for that.
And maybe colleague, just a note that in the context of you on Road Safety Week, we do have this exhibition that's taking place in the E building on the 1st floor that was announced earlier this week, which I would encourage you to attend.
It starts at 1:00 PM today.
So Doctor crew, thank you once again and for your patience as well.
OK, we're going to shift.
I know that we have you initiate in the room, but we'll have to throw quickly to our colleague who's joining us from Dakar from the World Food Programme, Olo Sib, a senior research assessment in monitoring regional advisor for the WFP who's speaking to deepening hunger in West and Central Africa.
Thanks for your patience.
I will give you a very short briefing, but I think at this time we, we hope that our voice will be heard because this food security situation in the Sahel remain extremely difficult and dire.
In as we speak, 36 million people in the side are struggling to meet their basic foot need.
And by June, August, during the peak of the lean season and this number is projected to rise to 50 million people in the side, over 50 million people.
And in 2019, there were only 4% of the population of the side in West Africa that were food insecure.
In 2025, this number rise to this proportion, rise to 30% of the population of the region.
So it's the net deterioration of the food security situation.
And behind these numbers always remembers that there are people and we had the opportunity to meet with these people during the different assessment in different locations, different countries across the region.
And their stories are first as important to be heard.
In the northern part of Ghana, we visited communities that were affected by an unprecedented drought.
They were forced to replant 2 three times and for them, each failed.
Sowing is an additional financial burden as the cost of fertilisers and seed were extremely high in those locations.
In the Sahel, we saw the opposite situation right.
Farmers were even struggling and non struggling with unprecedented floods in the village like Jara in the northern part of Nigeria.
In many other locations around my degree, we saw villages where farmer recorded twice the normal reinforce, resulting in devastating floods.
And millions of these farmers that we met in that Lake Chad basin, they were worried.
They were worried that this year they will not have enough food to meet their basic needs until the end of the lean season.
In the northern part of Mali, we visited the location around Gao.
We travel up to Minaka and by the way, in Minaka, this is the only part of the West Africa where we find people in catastrophic food security conditions.
In those locations, we had the opportunity to interact with pastoralist elders and who typically sell their livestock to buy cereals.
And this year they were worried because the cost of food raised by 50% compared to the five year average.
But at the same time they are not able to access market to sell their goods.
So the income from selling one goods today will barely provide them half the the cost of a bag of millets for for for them.
Then they will force them to sell more livestock and selling more stock mean for them than less saving and undermine their long term resilience.
We also visited communities in the northbound part of Codiva and these communities were mostly relying on cashew nuts and for them they are facing down a double double burden.
The cost of sales were extremely high, but at the same time the price of cashew nuts for is extremely low.
So they were telling me that when they sell one kilogramme of of cashew nut, it barely buys 1/3 of the quantity of sale they used to to buy.
So across the region, we heard the same story related to the increased cost of price flood and security difficulties to access market.
And what strikes us is that people were thinking, no, no, this story, we have been telling this story for a while now and we don't see action.
So we think it's a time to act now to act and address this urgent food and security need in this ahead in West Africa and life saving activities must come first.
For the next three months, WFP is trying to is planning to reach 5 million people out of 11 million people that are initially planned.
And, and for that WFP and the humanitarian actors, we will require around 700 million U.S.
dollar to meet this critical and urgent need of this 5 million people for the next three months.
But providing humanitarian assistance, short term assistance, it's important, but it's not enough.
We need to invest into resilience in the side.
We need to embed into long term solutions.
We have a good and trusting project that has been running for since since 2016.
With this project, WFP and its partners managed to rehabilitate more than 300,000 hectare of land.
We were able to pull out of humanitarian need more than five, 400,000 people.
But again, the scale of this operation remain limited and we need to provide a massive investment to increase the scale of this operation.
Coordination in the Sahar, it's key.
Coordination with most government, given the overall political landscape is important and the government of this region are doing a lot.
They have to come up with an instrument, they're called the National Response Plan.
And that instrument aim at bringing all the humanitarian actors, development actors together to respond to the to the, to the crisis.
Unfortunately, this year only four percent, 40% of this national response plan were funded.
So coordination is important to come all together to help the government of this region to increase the level of support that is provided through this National Instrument and bring an holistic response to the food crisis that we have in this ahead.
So this is the time really to act and we hope that the voice of the communities that we met across the region will be heard and the needed a humanitarian assistance will reach them in the upcoming month.
I stop there for questions, if any.
Thank you very much, Mr Sib.
Indeed, very, very important messages.
Thank you for for pronouncing them.
We do have a question from Catherine Fiancon of France.
Thank you for this briefing and thank you for the notes that have already been sent.
I'd like you to say a few words in French because it will be very useful for my French speaking channel and also for radio.
And my question is regarding what's regarding the national response plan of those countries.
You that has only been founded 40%, what is the global amount of the national response plan And you spoke about $700 million that you're looking for this is part of the national plan that or this is the WFP response.
Could you be a bit clearer on on that point, please?
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Any other questions for our colleague from WFP?
No, in that case, I'd like to thank you very, very much the messages action now massive investment.
So thank you very much for this intervention here at Geneva and please feel free to join us at any point in time.
Now without further ado with our final speaker or a near final speaker, we do have an announcement that's pending, but maybe William, do you want to introduce your colleague?
Thank you, Thank you, Orlando and good morning everybody.
I'm very happy to introduce you to Reuvendrini Merrick Dweller, who is our Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, and that she has just been to Costa Rica, a country that has been very generously hosting refugees from Latin America for decades, particularly refugees from Nicaragua.
And she will be talking to you about what she saw during that visit and especially about how the recent funding situation is affecting the UNACRS operations there.
Thank you, William, and thank you, Rolando, for permitting us to to to avail ourselves of this podium.
Of course, this is a bit of an anticlimax, me talking about Costa Rica when you've been listening to the dire situations in the Gaza and in Sahel.
And these are the situations that dominate the world's headlines and quite rightly given the dimensions of the problem.
But The thing is that while the focus is on those situations, other operations or other countries tend to be overlooked.
So really my reason for speaking out here is really to draw attention to some of these operations.
And I've, as William said, I was just spent the last weekend in Costa Rica and, and other countries in, in the, in the Americas region.
But Costa Rica particularly has really struck me as being a situation where we do need to actually shows focus on and to spotlight some of the issues there.
This is a country that has over 200,000 refugees right now and that constitutes about 4% of the population.
83% of those refugees are from Nicaragua.
And as you know, the social and political tensions in Nicaragua are increasing, which means that there's a constant influx of Nicaraguans coming into Costa Rica even now in their thousands to seek asylum there.
According to the government representatives that I spoke with, they receive anything between 3:00 to 7000 new asylum seekers registering them every month.
So you can see this is in fact a situation that merits our attention.
And Costa Rica, despite its constraints, has really shown a deep seated commitment to receiving and hosting refugees on its territory.
And this commitment was reaffirmed to me by all of the ministries that I spoke with, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ombudspersons office, but also the refugees themselves, who are very, extremely appreciative and grateful to the Costa Rican authorities.
Now over the past few years, this commitment has been facilitated by the fact that international humanitarian assistance has been provided to the country through UNHCR and you know, through our through our donors.
And that has enabled thousands of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers to be provided with legal support, mental health support, access to education, job training and placement.
And all of these programmes have had a particular focus on women and children, and particularly in high risk or remote areas.
And again, this has been invaluable in allowing Costa Rica to meet its obligations, its international refugee obligations, and to keep its doors open to all refugees and asylum seekers of various nationalities.
But principally, of course, Nicaraguan.
It has to be said though, that these refugees themselves, having received this aid, have become really key members of the communities that are hosting them.
They are not only very appreciative of being allowed to remain in Costa Rica and to obtain asylum there, but they have been contributing to the local economies there as well.
And they're remarkably resilient community.
I met with several of them, particularly a population and indigenous population, the mosquito communities, who have a very long and sad history of being excluded in Nicaragua.
This is an indigenous population that's been ostracised for generations.
And of course, being forced to flee because of violence and come into Costa Rica has just heightened those vulnerabilities.
And they spoke to me at length of their protection needs.
But what also struck me was a remarkable resilience and their willingness to survive and to adapt and to contribute to the local communities with which they live.
In Costa Rica, I was particularly impressed by some of the mosquito women that I met with who despite cultural and language barriers, have managed to establish safe spaces for them to be able to share their experiences.
Many of them are survivors of violence, of gender based violence, but their resilience, their incredible willingness and commitment to other members of their community to help each other, it was just truly remarkable and one of the most striking things that really that really came across during my mission.
And I think it's also stark reminder that when we talk about refugee situations, we must never forget the indigenous populations that tend to be doubly vulnerable and to ensure that they are not left behind when we are providing international assistance.
But my reason for being here is essentially to say, and William alluded to this, that Costa Rica's long standing commitment to hosting refugees is now under threat in is under jeopardy because of the funding crisis.
We ourselves in Costa Rica have now been compelled to reduce operational budget by 41%.
That has a direct impact on the government's ability to provide assistance and protection to these people.
And what we have seen is that already we and the government have had to cut back on essential critical life saving assistance to many of these refugees and asylum seekers.
We have seen 7077% drop in the operational registration of asylum seekers.
When asylum seekers are registered with the Costa Rican authorities are given documents that enable them to have access to local services, education, health and livelihoods as well.
So without that registration, without that documentation, these people are being left in a limbo.
We've also seen similarly the repercussions on the asylum system itself, which now has over 200,000 cases as a backlog and which will take several years for the authorities to actually resolve.
So these are some of the more compelling, I think, illustrations of what it means when the the funding dries up or when the funding is dramatically reduced.
And certainly operations in the Americas really has been borne the brunt of much of the final constraint of financial constraints that UNHR and other humanitarian agents have agencies have been confronted with.
We are firmly committed to remaining in Costa Rica, to supporting the government and assisting them as long as refugees are on its territory.
And we do have the expertise, we have the networks and we have our presence there.
But we require some 40 million, $40.4 million to be precise to help us to keep our operations open in Costa Rica for this year.
And I think, and this is really an appeal to everybody, it's not just the governments who are traditional donors, but also the private sector individuals who are able to contribute, to please step up to help these people in need.
Because everybody I think has a role to play in this.
And we really should not be simply shifting the responsibility on the governments themselves.
The assistance of the government from Costa Rican government provides and that UNHR provides are critical and life saving.
These are not luxuries or add-ons and that is why it makes it all the more compelling when this funding is reduced.
And again, this is really a strong plea to all of you to help us help these refugees and asylum seekers and perhaps more in the to the self-interest of some of the destination countries.
The lack of services in countries like Costa Rica for these refugees and asylum seekers also means that these same people are going to feel compelled to move onwards and seek asylum or services in other countries in the global North.
And this is clearly something that many destination countries are worried about.
And these are also the countries that are donors.
So again, it's also perhaps appealing to their self-interest to continue funding these operations.
Thank you, Rolanda, thank you very much, very clear.
And indeed, colleagues, thank you for hearing this appeal.
I would like to know how many Nicaraguan refugees have recognised to to the months of now May, because in the press release the the figure is of March.
So I would like you to make an update on that number as you made for the total number of asylum seekers, which is, as you said now more than two 200,000.
I would like to know also because of the cut of funding, how many people exactly you, you said you were forced to, to cut 41% of programmes.
I I think how many people concretely are affected that there were beneficiaries of these programmes and why people that when they register for the asylum procedure, they, they, you said they get normally a pass for essential services.
So now why they are not anymore going to, to register this what I, I understood.
So, so it's because they now they know that they will not get anything simply or because they are thinking just to, to, to stay for some time shorter time in, in Costa Rica and then go going somewhere else.
And well, that's, that's, that's thank you, thank you.
No, the number of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum refugees in Costa Rica hasn't changed significantly simply because of the government's inability to address new claims in a timely ways, because of the financial constraints.
And this also impacts, as I said, on its ability to cope with its current caseload.
So we have over 220,000 cases that are pending now which were registered as asylum seekers.
But the government has not been able to look at these files simply because of lack of resources and a lack of capacity.
And that's what I actually meant when I was also talking about registration.
The government has informed us that between 3 to 7000, new asylum seekers come to the government to be registered as asylum seekers every month.
But the government is unable to register them because of a lack of capacity, because they've had to reduce their staffing because of the fact that they don't have the funding, the funding that traditionally UNHR and other donors are provided.
So that means that the asylum seekers are not being registered, which means they then cannot get that documents that allow them to have access to the national services.
Is there any in your conversations with, with authorities, did they tell you about any measure that they they would be compelled to take because they don't have any the, the financial means to to support this big number of asylum seekers?
Yes, their plea to me was help us to help these refugees and asylum seekers.
And I think this is really the reason for my being here today as well.
It's essentially they will have to they have already cut back on their staffing.
The staff that are looking at the asylum claims and deciding whether or not this person is a refugee or not.
The staff who are registering new people coming into the system.
These staff had now been significantly reduced because of a lack of funding and from what they were telling me that the backlog of cases is 220,000 backlog will take between three to seven years to address simply because of a lack of capacity.
So the big appeal from them is we need you to continue to fund us to be able to meet obligations regarding these populations.
I think that's the most compelling, really the most compelling ask that they have on, you know, provided to us.
In relation to how many people were impacted, the refugees themselves, I'm afraid we'd actually don't have the specific numbers here, but I can tell you that some of these critical programmes such as education, such as access to livelihoods, the job training, the job placement, all of these programmes have been impacted by the funding cuts indeed.
Yeah, very rapidly is, do you feel any measure, drastic measure like a closure of the borders for Nicaraguan, especially for Nicaraguan people or deportations at any time?
No, we have never heard that indication.
But of course, this is not to say that the situation can change from one day to the next.
But up to now we have been given firm assurances by the Costa Rican authorities that they will continue to meet the obligations.
But again, the funding will be a key factor of course.
I think that does it for questions.
So thank you very much for your appeal, for your messages and just to take this opportunity to express our solidarity with you and your colleagues and the great work that you're doing.
OK, we're almost done colleagues.
David is here from ITU and I'm sorry for keeping you so long, but he has an announcement for us.
And just an announcement that next Saturday, 17 May, is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
WTISDITU marks WTISD annually on 17 May to commemorate the organisation founding on 17 May 1865, when the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris.
This year, 17 May also marks the 160th anniversary of IT US efforts at the forefront of technology innovation and connecting the world.
Next Saturday evening, to mark the occasion, a public outdoor event will include guest speakers who will share stories from sea to space on how they are connected by ITU, as well as the importance of ITU's work bringing connected connectivity to everyone, everywhere.
The programme will also feature a light show with images projected onto the ITU tower, showing and telling the story of ITU's 160 years of technology for humanity and how the organisation is laying the foundations for the future of global telecommunications.
This is a free public event being conducted during Geneva Music Museum Night with formal activities beginning at about 9 O clock 2100 hours.
The special commemoration of WTISD will take place on the Esplanade outside adjacent to ITU headquarters and will also be live streamed on ITU social media channels.
For more details, not to use 160th anniversary, we have the website and we're also working on getting an advisory out to you, hopefully by later today.
Thank you, David, very clear.
Do we have questions, any clarifications?
Yes, no, no, I don't see that's the case.
So thank you very much, David, and good luck with your upcoming events.
We'll be promoting those, by the way, from Eunice.
OK, colleagues, just a few announcements, reminders from me.
You will have seen the statement that we issued last night on the election of Pope Leo the 14th.
The Secretary General expressed his expresses his heartfelt congratulations to His Holiness Pope Leo the 14th and to Catholics around the world.
And in that message, the notes, the Secretary General notes that the election of a new Pope is a moment of profound spiritual significance for millions of faithful around the world and it comes at a time of great global challenges.
So that statement is in your inbox.
Speaking of the Secretary General, he is wrapping up his three day long visit to Copenhagen where he met with the Chief Executive Board, the CEB as we call it, where they discuss many important issues, those which we address here, many global challenges as well as the UN80 initiative which we've spoken about in this room.
So these were meetings that took place this week and the SG is heading back to New York today.
Just really wanted to flag briefly a statement that we issued on behalf of the Secretary General on Sudan through which he expresses his grave concern about the recent drone attacks in Port Sudan.
We'd spoke about this also on Tuesday, we shared yesterday, but I wanted to make sure you saw that.
In terms of meetings here we have the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination wrapping up their 115 session this afternoon, after which they will, after which they will adopt the reports for Ukraine, Mauritius, the Republic of Korea, Gabon and Kyrgyzstan.
On Monday we have the Committee on the Right to the Child opening its next session, it's 99th session.
Over the course of what is that 2 weeks, 2 weeks worth of meetings, during which time it will review the following countries, Norway, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Romania, Qatar and Brazil.
So that's from the 12th to the 30th of May.
And the Conference on Disarmament will also kick off its next second part of its 2025 session on Monday.
So that is under the presidency of Kazakhstan.
Almost done a couple more meetings.
We have under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to development will hold its 26th session from the 12th to 15th May.
So that's next week, and this session is at The Tempest Building, which is right at the end of the campus here.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volcker Turk, will open the session at at 10 AM on Monday.
This coming Monday, the 12th, over 30 representatives from states, UN entities, human rights mechanisms, civil society, among others will be addressing this important gathering.
Universal Periodic Review, also under the Council will conclude its session this afternoon after having reviewed and adopted reports interimly on 14 countries.
So the last three or last four country reports will be adopted this afternoon and then they will close that session.
And last but not least, in 6 minutes from now, colleagues are in the room already from the Basel or Rotterdam Stockholm Convention Secretariat.
They will be speaking to you momentarily from this podium for this press conference.
And thank you very much in advance for this important intervention at the end of the important gathering here in Geneva.
Any questions for me before we close this press briefing?
Rolando, just on Copenhagen, can you summarise a little bit what was discussed there and can you say anything about when we'll find out more about the outcomes of these important discussions, please?
Well, I can't say much because these were held under Chatham House rules, so I would be violating that important principle if I were to say much.
But I can tell you there were important issues.
Indeed, as I mentioned, the UN80 initiative was discussed, which is which is something we have addressed here in this room.
It's a very important initiative of course, which is really meant to identify the efficiencies and improvement in the in the way we work.
That is the way the UN works, making more fit for purpose of these when the gathering of all the heads of agencies here in Copenhagen, rather in Copenhagen over the course of these last few days was a very, very supremely important opportunity to to address this important process.
Of course, when we are ready to announce something, we will do so.
For the moment, I can't predict when that will be, but indeed this is an ongoing process which is which is very important to us here at the UN and to everyone we serve.
I think Anya says a question yes, over to yes, a request on Sudan just to, to, to any UN spokesperson who can help on that.
If you have more elements on what is the impact on the humanitarian activities after the the it's on Port Sudan.
I know on Tuesday you mentioned the fuel, but if you have more details about about.
And yes, you did ask the question.
I think we were trying to come back to you on the number of staff we have in Port Sudan.
As I mentioned, that is a big concentration given what was a relatively safe place to work in this devastating setting in Sudan.
We have, you know, many, many colleagues, many agencies, a big country team based in Sudan.
I don't have the specifics.
Maybe Jens is left, but maybe I'll check up with him.
If you want to do the same, please do so, but we will get back to you.
Again, the S GS message I think is pretty clear.
I mean, we, we are calling for the end to the conflict.
We are calling for the flow of humanitarian, unimpeded flow of humanitarian goods in the country, which has affected large swaths of the population there.
But I'll get back to you on specifics and maybe you can reach out to Yens as well.
OK, well, without further ado, I will relinquish this seat for our colleagues.
And thank you and have a nice weekend.
