UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

Good morning and welcome to this UN Geneva briefing for today, Friday the 25th of July 2025.

Today we're going to begin with a joint briefing by the International Organisation for Migration, the UN Refugee Agency and the UN Development Programme on the urgent need to support more than 1.3 million war displaced Sudanese who are beginning to return home to Sudan, a country that the UN Secretary General has described as remaining in a crisis of staggering proportions, with civilians paying the highest price.

We're going to hear from them in a minute.

We also have thank you to the World Health Organisation, an important update on the health situation in Syria.

Before we start, you should have all received overnight an important document from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA that details the consideration for the delivery of humanitarian aid during much hope for long overdue ceasefire in Gaza.

And I believe Jens is organising to be to join us online today.

So should you have some questions on that or relation related issues, he he will be able to answer them online.

I also want to flag that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is delivering a message to the Amnesty International Global Assembly today.

[Other language spoken]

In his message, he will highlight concerns about human rights challenges around the world and the importance of recognising that human rights are the solution to these challenges.

These remarks will be distributed later today.

There's a joint press release from IOMUNHCRUNDP that I referred to at the beginning of this briefing, and it says that while conflict persists across much of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged and to date, over 1,000,000 internally displaced Sudanese have made their way home.

A further 320,000 people have crossed back into Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and from South Sudan, some to access the current situation in the country before deciding to return.

So to address this situation and to take your questions on it, we're going to start with Mr Othman Bilbaisi, Regional Director of the IOM, who is speaking to us from Port Sudan.

I think it's a, it's AI don't know if we have a very good connection with Port Sudan, but if do we have Mr Bell Basie online, Can you hear me?

[Other language spoken]

Well, thank you very much.

The floor is yours, Sir.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for this opportunity and greetings from Port Sudan, particularly to the distinguished representatives of UNSCR and UNDP.

So my colleagues and I will speak to you about the urgent need for support, the facts and figures that make Sudan the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered given the limited time of the intervention.

You will find most of the figures in the joint press release, but I am here in the country today.

I would like to set up the stage by giving some impressions of what it's like to be here to see this great country being severely impacted by vicious, horrifying civil war that continues to take lives with impunity.

I would like to address 3 groups in this short statement.

The parties to the conflict, the international community and the people of Sudan.

For the first group, the men with guns, we plead with you.

Let your weapons fall silent.

The war has unleashed hell for for millions and millions of ordinary people who dream only of raising their families and living their lives in peace in harmony with their neighbours, that dream has been shattered.

Sudan is a living nightmare.

The violence needs to stop.

Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected and humanitarian workers given safe, unimpeded access wherever aid is needed to the international community.

If you could only see Sudan.

If you could only see and hear and feel the pain of this vast multicultural dynamic country.

In Khartoum this week I spoke with community leaders, officials and civil society and I deeply appreciate all what they are doing for their people.

As we know, the majority of the response is done by the communities and Sudan is very well known for its solidarity and ability of its people to help each other in the times of crisis.

But what will stay with me forever is a lady we met yesterday.

She's called Akbal, a young lady providing food and water for big part of the community in Alwadil Akhtar in Khartoum since the beginning of the conflict.

And she is doing this with her own resources.

An old man approached during our visit to say our needs are simple.

What we're talking about is food, water, healthcare and education since this is the future of our children and we really need to invest in this future.

And to be honest with you, I was speechless when I learnt from my colleagues that eight of the mobile clinic programmes may have to close down by the end of the month if no further funding is received.

And the examples are many.

So it seems that we have turned our backs on Sudan despite countless warnings that the humanitarian situation was dire.

With verified accounts of the suffering of the people of this country, we can safely say that their dignity has been compromised.

Yet, Sudan's situation is completely solvable.

Famously known as the bread, as the bread basket of Africa, it can go from being a dependent to provider of food for this continent.

So we must play our part in achieving peace and stability to let people return to their homes and their lands to recover and rebuild.

And we must help them on that journey of recovery.

This brings me to my last message and it's for the people of Sudan, the wonderful welcoming nation which greeted me with such warmth despite all the challenges.

To all of you that are still suffering, to those yearning for their homes.

My message is we hear you, we see you, and we will not turn our backs on you.

We will continue to advocate tirelessly for you because we know who are you and what you are going through, and you need to build back a a bright and a good future for yourself and for your children.

We will continue to show the world your potential, not just your plight, and we will stand with you for as long as it takes.

We feel your pain.

We share your humanity.

Let the war end, let the aid flow, and let the Sudanese return safely to rebuild their nation.

And thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr Bell Basie, for this very important message.

Just a reminder to everyone that according to our data, Sudan is now the largest hunger catastrophe in displacement crisis on the planet.

Next we go to Nairobi, where we have the regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan crisis, Mr Mamadou Dion Balde.

Sir, if you can hear me, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Are you able to hear me loud and clear?

[Other language spoken]

And also just to compliment a bit, Ottman, a week before Ottman arrived, I was in in Sudan.

And just to say that with Luca from UNDP and acting President Coordinator, this was my third visit for the past two years.

And you've highlighted very clearly that this is indeed the largest displacement crisis for that we've been dealing with very sadly, with one out of every three Sudanese being forced to flee their houses, 8 million internally, but about 4 million have been forced to flee and going into neighbouring countries.

During my visit last week into into Sudan, I went to Khartoum and Khartoum, as Osman indicated just now, and this is a city where I lived over 24 years ago.

It was heartbreaking to see the level of destruction, the destruction of infrastructure, the destruction of services and making the lives of the 1,000,000 people who have opted to return to either Khartoum State or to Al Jazeera State or to to to Sennar State, making possibilities for rebuilding life just extremely, extremely challenging.

When people return home, when possibilities of hope have started.

I think it is really up to the international community to help people take care of themselves.

And the people I met in Khartoum, former internally displaced person, former refugees, it just highlighted what has been indicated earlier, possibilities for them to rebuild their lives, possibilities to take care of themselves, as well as the possibility for greater solidarity so that we can find at least solutions in part of Sudan that are relatively stable.

After Khartoum, I travelled 1200 kilometres to the north with Egypt at the border tours, Egypt in Wadihalfa as well as Eshit.

Eshit is the border area where some of the over 300,000 who have returned have been passing through.

[Other language spoken]

It's people coming back home empty handed.

It's people whose family members have, some of them remained in Egypt, orders coming with them, who have barely nothing for transportation, dignified transportation for as I indicated, for over 1200 kilometres from only Wadi Alpha up to Hartung Amberman, they have nothing.

So what they clearly said to me was the following one, help us get dignified transportation up to areas where we are coming from, help us take care of our family members so that between their dongola and few other places, people can, can, can take care of themselves.

But most importantly, we need peace.

We need reconstruction.

And I'm sure Luca can speak to that a bit more about the services that are happening.

My third message, which I think is equally important is to say, and you will see in the in the joint statement we have released with IOM and UNDP, it's also to say that as we speak about places of relative safety inside Sudan, there are places where we still have active conflict in the Darfurs, in the court of funds, in the Darfur's, they keep producing refugees over 800,000 only this year, for the past two years over 800,000 refugees.

And these places produce the number of refugees that we've been speaking about.

And the regional refugee response plan is only founded at 17%.

So in a nutshell, need to support people who can return to areas where we have relative safety and people are asking us for the support.

Authorities we meet, government officials that we meet, returnees that we see meet.

This is what they are asking people who are in refuge.

I'm still there.

I need greater support from our side.

And overall, I can't agree more with Ottman.

We need peace, we need peace.

We need peace so that this brutal conflict will end.

Thank you and back to you.

Thank you very much, Mr Balde.

People coming back home empty handed who need peace very much.

They need support and they need reconstruction.

On that note, we're going to go to Mr Lukarenda.

He's the UNDP Sudan resident representative, and we're going back to Port Sudan to speak to him.

If you can hear me, Mr Renda, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much.

Good morning to everyone, greetings from Port Sudan.

I want to start by thanking both Mamadou and Othman for visiting Sudan and for adding their voice in advocating for to support the Sudanese people.

As it was radically said, this is the world's biggest humanitarian catastrophe at the moment.

Yet I want to take the opportunity, as my colleagues have said, to shed the bit of light on the on the possibility we have to support millions of people to go back home.

The the fact that certain areas of the country are now considered safer by the Sudanese people.

It meant that in the last few weeks we have witnessed already large number of people who are returned, as it was said, in mainly the central states of Jazeera and Sinar.

But more and more so in the coming months it will happen in Khartoum and Khartoum is a place where most of the ID PS came from.

So it means that in the next few months, we might witness large number of people going back to the capital.

We are, it's hard to put a figure there, but we it could be between 2 and 3 million people that are coming back to the capital.

And as it was said, the capital, particularly Khartoum Central is the level of devastation and destruction is, is extensive.

So we have, I think an opportunity to support people to go back home and build their lives back, you know, go back home no longer be ID.

PS There is the people are eager to go back.

We know that we we hear the community, we talk to them, even our own staff, they are all eager to go back home as most of them come from Khartoum.

However, it is important we intervene now because if a large number of people go back to the capital and they don't find an enabling environment, we could have, first of all, we could have a repeat of the outbreak of cholera we have seen a few weeks ago.

It was contained and it was contained because we were able to put resources into it and work with the local authorities and partners.

But we could have other, you know, conflict, social conflict happening and we could have another humanitarian crisis.

So it is important to intervene now.

We are clear that all returns must be voluntary and they must be safe and they must be dignified.

These are international principle.

The UN will not support returns that do not adhere with these standards.

Among the urgent needs that were mentioned, I want to stress first of all the decontamination of of the city because there are hundreds of thousands, no more of unexploded ordinance in in the city.

So the local mine action authority would support the UN mine action services which have started the decontamination.

And even in our own office we we found literally hundreds of USO and that have now started to be clear.

So that is is clear, people should not go back unless the area has been declared safe.

Then there are essential services like the restoration of electricity and the restoration of water and the repair, rehabilitation and of health facility.

Just to give you an idea, there is about 1700 wells that need to be rehabilitated and they need power and solarization.

Here is a great solution.

There are at least six hospitals that require urgent rehabilitation repair and a number of Primary Health centres.

And in terms of schools, at least 20 Primary Health primary school and at least 15 secondary school need to be repaired if there is a chance for children to go back to school in the next coming months.

So what we want to stress that UNDPIOMUNHER and other UN agencies are already on the ground in in Khartoum.

We are gradually restoring our presence there.

We have a number of implementing partners that are able to to help us and we have all the coordination needed with the state and local authorities.

What we need is the for international community to support us.

My colleagues have have stressed the fact that Sudan is not visible enough and it doesn't have the, the, the, the, the support that there is required.

But if we have more resources and if we are able to, to do our work, we can really write a, a, a, a story of, of success in terms of enabling people to return home and build their their lives back.

Thank you very much and back to you.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

I see we have a question already online.

Antonio Brotto from FA, If you don't mind saying who your question is addressed to?

And also just to remind you, we also have Eugene and Kennedy here from UNHCR and IOM respectively for follow up questions if some of the principles need to leave.

[Other language spoken]

OK, so I don't know exactly who can answer my questions.

I just, I just say them First one is what do you think are the reasons for there are more relatively safe areas in Sudan without a ceasefire and with an ongoing conflict?

The second question is if you can specify what's the period that these returns have started?

Because in the press release, I, I see that the refugees returns is 300,000 over this year, but I don't know if the displays internal internally displaces also accounting from this year or or it started before.

And my third question is if you know how many of these returns can be forced by authorities or by neighbouring countries?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Do you perhaps, I don't know if Luca, if you want to start on on the 1st and then we go to the the displacement questions or?

[Other language spoken]

The the reason why there are certain areas of the country that are considered safe by the Sudanese people.

And I, I want to stress this.

And that is then motivating people to, to consider going back or even already going back is that certain areas have been, are no longer a active area of conflict.

In particular, state of Sanal, the state of Jazeera and the capital Khartoum have been, let's say, retaken by the army over the, the last few months, and particularly Khartoum very recently only during the month of April.

That means that Sudanese who were coming from this area and fled the conflict now are, are looking at the possibility to going back, to go back because they consider that as they are no longer active conflict area, they, they, they are safe and they can at least go back and check their, their homes and, and look at whether there are possibilities for them to, to return or a more permanent basis.

That is the development that happened in Sudan over the last few months.

And This is why this has opened up now the opportunity for people to, to, to going back on the other areas.

I would defer to my colleagues, especially the IOM on the figures and the also the issue of the nature of the returns.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I agree with Luca that I would say we are seeing the shifting front lines.

So now the intense fighting is more towards Darfur and Kordofan.

And it's worth mentioning also that we are witnessing displacement from those areas.

So roughly about 500,000 has been displaced since then, since the fighting have intensified.

And on the returns in general, the larger flows has started since the beginning of the year, but the flows to Khartoum gradually started since March.

So in brief, that's our observation.

[Other language spoken]

I don't know if you want to add something.

[Other language spoken]

No, I, I can adjust few, few, few thought first of all just to say indeed that the large number of returns happen in relation to Egypt when it comes to the refugees, but also in relation to to South Sudan.

And these are, and this has been indicated earlier, these are returns that are precautionary measures taken by several of the people that we see, that we meet and that our teams see and meet.

And some of them are coming, some of the families are being split.

And I think the message that we need to pass, which is a message of return, yes, voluntary return, but also a message of cautious returns by several people.

We have a call centres in Cairo where we have 1.5 million refugees, but also in, in, in South Sudan where we meet with the people who are returning.

I think it's very important to nuance these these messages.

So the voluntariness, I want to agree more with Luca, the voluntariness of the returns need to be highlighted.

During my meetings with the Minister of Interior in, in Sudan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the middle of this heartbreaking devastations that have been highlighted, we did highlight the need for voluntariness of the return.

And I have to say the authorities in, in, in Manhattan, Port Sudan agree, agree to that.

Over to you.

Thank you very much.

We have a couple more questions that I see.

One is from the floor.

And yes, if you don't mind just identifying yourself for the benefit of the people who are online and who don't see your affiliation identified.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Anya Pedro, I'm working for AFPI.

[Other language spoken]

First question to you in a chair about figures the, the so you you mentioned that over 1,000,000 ID PS have went back to their home.

If you could clarify since when and which.

And about the 320,000 people who have crossed back.

So this is since last year exactly, if you could say exactly when since last year.

And then the other question is about contamination.

I can't remember who talked about that, but the contamination of Khartoum.

Could you let us know how much the city is contaminated and how much do you think that it will take time to to decontaminate the city?

[Other language spoken]

All right.

So I think we start with UNHCR and then we go to UNDPI, believe it was Luka and I was talking about contamination in Khartoum.

Over to you, Mr Balde.

Thank you very much.

I'm sure Ottman will will compliment what I'm going to say.

Let me focus on the number of people who are returning from the from the refugee hosting countries, mostly Egypt as well as South Sudan.

These numbers started quite recently when the the the the power as well as the as well as the the the control of Al Jazeera and Senna states started to switch.

Towards the beginning of this year, we started seeing more internally displaced persons leaving places like Castle Gadare, but as far as Port Sudan to return.

And then and then the refugees started also going back, including to Blue Nile as well as to White 9.

[Other language spoken]

So you have internally displaced person first going back home and then and then the refugees starting to go back home.

So rightly and I would say broadly, it's starting around March, February for some of the March, April and more and more that are going to come and expected to come most probably after the school.

And in in Egypt, we we think that there will be more people returning.

And then if the situation is getting stabilised and that support is being provided, like look, I was indicating we believe that more people will be returning, but it doesn't mean that there won't be refugees staying in Egypt, refugees staying in child refugees staying in other part of the of, of the neighbouring countries.

[Other language spoken]

Ottman Lubisi, would you like to add briefly?

I think just to compliment definitely the majority of returns has been to Al Jazeera, almost 71% and then 13% to Sennar and so far 8% to Khartoum.

As colleagues mentioned, we expect about 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year.

But this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services in a in a timely manner.

And just on I think Luca will talk about that.

But on the contam in contamination, just to say our office, the colleagues has just finished the contamination of the office and we are starting the rebuilding of our office in Khartoum as well.

But we believe a lot of work need to be done.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Luca Render.

Yes, thank you for the question.

It is hard to put a figure, let's say, on the level of contamination in the in, in Khartoum.

We have here our colleagues from UN Mine Action Services who have deployed teams in the capital and in other parts of the country that are working very closely with the National Mine Action Authority as well as with the local partners who have been who have been doing this for for many years.

What we see is that what we, what they're doing is basically going gradually from place to place, including UN offices that have been designed, I mean, assigned as potential places where we could return on in the beginning of, of next year.

And just, you know, what we see in the places that have been cleared, we, we found the, the hundreds of, of, you know, more than more than 1000, you know, unexploded ordinance.

So the level of contamination in the city is extensive.

It massive, as one would expect from an area that has been an active conflict area for, for two years.

Uh, but there is also places where, uh, contrary to what we expected, we have also found anti personal mines at least five location in, in, in Khartoum where anti personal mines have been found.

So this will require extensive work, also funding together with the national authorities and will take years to fully decontaminate the city.

Having said that, I, I, I also want to stress with what Michael D Potman has said, we are also working to secure our, our premises so that we could expand our presence and operation in the capital over the next few months.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

I've got additional questions online from Catherine Fionn, Combo Conga France, Van Catherine, go ahead.

Yes, that.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you gentlemen for and the lady for the the briefing.

This is a question also regarding decontamination.

Maybe I don't know if Mr Luca Renda has figures about the money, the amount of money needed to fully do the job in order to allowed people to get go back to Khartoum in security.

And maybe it would be interesting meekly to have a briefing from Unmask on on that topic.

Because I suppose that if I understood well, they are in over there in in Khartoum and in Sudan.

And also back to Mr Lukarenda, could he give us more details about the other places that are supposedly contaminated by minds?

And I would like, if possible, Mr Mamadou Balde also to say a few words in French because it would be very useful for radio, French speaking radio and TV.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, MI Kelly, thank you very much.

Katherine, your point on on Mass is taken.

We'll, we'll contact them and see if they're ready to do something.

I'm going to give the floor to Luka Renda and then to Mamadou Balde.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Catherine.

I think it's very important that we also that you also can hear from our colleague from unmask because you see decontamination is, is a, is a critical first step before work on rehabilitation or reconstruction can, can, can begin.

While there are certain areas where we can now work and intervene, For example, we don't need decontamination in in water wells.

We can already go and solarize them.

Health facilities are relatively easy to, to intervene.

But when it comes to other areas where including areas where people may concentrate or may return, it is important that the work of decontamination accelerates and, and happens as as fast as possible.

Here I want to thank, I mean some of the countries that have contributed to, to UNMAS work in particularly Canada, the UK and others.

I think it's, I, you know, in terms of how much it is needed, I would say that I, I would put the figures at least in around $10 million for unmask to be able to deploy the number of teams that are needed, uh, to, uh, to do the job and, and again, in, in coordination and partnership with the national authorities.

Because at the end of the day, the other one who would actually do the, the, the, the, the contamination.

So it is needed, the work is needed to accompany those teams to do the survey and also to do mine risk education.

Because it's this is critical that we are informing people about the areas that are decontaminated and those that are still at risk.

Other areas of the country, of course any area that has been active conflict area are contaminated.

For example, we have now about 70,000 people in Blue Nile in Damasil who have returned from South Sudan and and are looking to go back to their to their homes.

But there is a a need to do the the survey and the decontamination before we are certain that those areas are are free and we avoid having accident as unfortunately have already happened when people have lost their lives because of UXO.

Other areas of course include Jazeera and what Badani.

There have been active conflict areas and not to mention what is going on now in Cordovan, which is catastrophic.

And those areas are also witnessing a high level of contamination as well as the Darfur.

So it will take a long, long time for for for Sudan to to clear itself from mines.

And all the gains that had happened before the war where Sudan have made a lot of progress in freeing itself from mines and your souls is now unfortunately lost and, and, and years of work will be needed and a lot of international support.

[Other language spoken]

Perhaps just before going to that, I just wanted to 2nd that the importance of this demining and that important work for the really creating conditions for, for returns.

You see, for example, I, I went to visit our offices that has been in Khartoum totally destroyed and an inability for even to start reconstructing that office.

And this is an office that has been there since the 70s, eighties.

So just to say is the individual, is the services, is the governance and it's all of that.

And I would really would like to 2nd that for Blue Nile because again, Sudan is that very complex situation.

You also have refugee, in addition to those who are returning, you have refugees who have been crossing from South Sudan, going into into White Nile and other parts.

So that's the very nuance a picture that we wanted to paint pull a pull a media francophone say lapel kunu fazon avec nude avec OEM the prison please do person de plasse and term committed de plasse pass a conflict brutal key on the CD durante shazen a million persons on the Shazam in Zavon do please do refugee.

[Other language spoken]

The frontier.

The transport transported measure of deeper example Transported kilometre and long distance possibility.

The.

Come to that food, come to the front Mason palm pest it is Android the comfy active to produce the refugee to produce the view as your extra man.

[Other language spoken]

It's a situation like back to you.

[Other language spoken]

I do not see any additional questions online more in the room at the moment.

I would like to thank you all very much for the time you took.

Also to remind you that both Kennedy and Eugene are here in case you have any follow up questions today.

And thanks again for making time for this very important briefing and appeal.

Without further ado, we are going to move on to WHOI believe we have Tarek Dzelevich online together with The Who representative at the interim for Cerium is Christina Bethke, who's been waiting patiently in the wings.

Thank you very much for your time, Tarek.

I don't know if you want to go ahead and make an introduction there.

Thank you, Michael.

Edna, let's go straight to Miss Bethke.

[Other language spoken]

The floor is yours.

Thank you and good morning.

And I'm speaking to you today from Damascus, Syria.

The recent escalation in Asueta has already displaced over 145,000 people and many of them left their homes with nothing and are now taking shelter in makeshift reception centres and Data, Royal Damascus and Damascus.

Our teams visited several of these sites just yesterday in Royal Damascus, and they'll be headed to Data on Sunday.

What we've seen and heard so far is a powerful reminder of the stakes.

We see patients searching for medicine for their children, elderly people in need of urgent care, and health workers doing their best under extraordinary pressure.

WHO supported medical teams have already been deployed to many displacement areas, and they're providing urgent outpatient consultations, maternal and child health care, mental health services and essential medicines.

These efforts are fully coordinated with the Ministry of Health and local authorities, and we've already managed to reach thousands of people who've displaced from rural Sweda and other affected communities.

But inside of Sweda, it's a grim picture, with the health facilities under immense strain.

Health personnel are working under extremely difficult conditions and access to care really remains a challenge for so many.

The hospitals themselves are facing shortages of staff.

Many cannot even reach their place of work safely, electricity and water are cut off and essential medicine supplies are running out.

The city's main hospital has been overwhelmed and even at one point this week sway to hospitals more reached capacity.

Five reported attacks on healthcare have been confirmed by WHO, and these include the killing of at least two doctors, obstruction, targeting of ambulances and hospitals being temporarily occupied or otherwise affected.

These these incidents are deeply concerning.

We know healthcare must never be a target and in fact health facilities, patients and health workers must be actively protected.

Ensuring that doctors, nurses and supplies can reach people safely isn't just vital for saving lives, it's a responsibility under international law that all sides must uphold.

These days, access to Sueda remains limited and inconsistent.

WHO is still managed to deliver critical medical supplies to health facilities that are receiving referrals in places like Data and rural Damascus.

These supplies include trauma and essential medicines.

And thankfully, the first convoy entered Suede on Sunday, followed by a second on Wednesday, that one containing medical supplies from WHO.

This shipment was coordinated closely with the Ministry of Health, the Department of Health and Syrian Arab Red Crescent, or Sark as we call them.

The continuous and unimpeded access is essential to sustain the health response, including timely medical referrals and uninterrupted delivery of care.

Right now, we're working closely with the national stakeholders to develop a trauma referral pathway that will allow the safe and timely transport of wounded folks from frontline areas to other hospitals that can cope with the strain.

Today, Syria is out of crossroads.

It's facing multiple crises, but also there's a real opportunity here to rebuild.

Ensuring the resources and act and access to keep humanitarian health services running is not just critical for the emergencies we are facing today, but it's also a bridge to recovery that this country so desperately needs.

Thank you so much for giving time to this issue today.

Thank you for ending on a message of hope and the opportunity to rebuild, but also for your appeal, which you will, you know, constantly reiterate that healthcare facilities and workers should never be a target and we will always appeal for upholding international humanitarian law.

[Other language spoken]

We're going to start with Dina Abisab from APTN.

Dina, the floor is yours.

Yes, thank you, Michele.

Actually, I have many questions to Christina.

My first question, is there any convoys plan to go to Sueida soon?

A second question about detained and disappeared people from Suwaida.

I saw lists of more than 120 people who are disappeared and I heard a lot of stories about detained people waiting for exchange of detainees maybe, or I don't know why, but they are still outside Suwaida and concentrated in a kind of camps.

[Other language spoken]

The situation as you mentioned, inside Suwaida is catastrophic and many people lost their houses and they cannot go back to their villages.

So what do you have any numbers about displacement inside Suwaida?

[Other language spoken]

Regarding your question about the convoys, there are convoys being continuously organised and really a credit to our colleagues at the Syrian Arab Red Crescent who have been able to carry not only WHO supplies but many other UN partners and NGOs as well to ensure those relief services are flowing.

We were lucky to receive another shipment from our own supply warehouse in Dubai that arrived and was unloaded yesterday.

So the plan is to continue providing supplies inside of and delivery inside of Sueda.

But I want to emphasise that supplies are only one part of this equation and making sure that humanitarian partners can reach to affected populations.

For example, it's not just the hospital that needs to be insured, but also the restart of primary healthcare centres.

So we can remove the burden from those, those hospitals and treat patients closer to their their, their homes.

Regarding the issue of detained and disappeared persons for WHO, that is something that we defer to our colleagues at ICRC and others who are working on this.

I know also the national authorities are playing paying close attention to this issue as well.

So we will defer to to others who work more closely to this.

And then finally, regarding displacement inside of Sweda, indeed we have heard of a number of people who've moved within the government because access has been largely constrained due to mainly to security and also to to permissions.

We don't have a clear picture of those numbers.

But you are right in saying as far as we have heard from those we've met outside of Sweda, many have lost their homes and the question of what will they return to.

We have seen so much displacement in Syria over the years.

And it is a difficult moment to think that the number of makeshift shelters and IDP camps may be expanding at a time when we're hoping for for rebuilding and renewal in the country.

But I think we'll know more in the coming week as we're able to gain more presence in inside of Sueda, hopefully with a calmer situation.

[Other language spoken]

Olivia, the floor is yours.

Hi there.

Thank you very much indeed for this.

I was just wondering if you were able to give any detail about the types of injuries that have been documented in, in hospitals where people have been receiving treatment.

Any level of detail there would be very helpful.

And just if you're able to describe a picture in terms of the challenges, what obstacles you're facing and having to navigate in terms of actually getting supplies into Sweda safely.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, sorry I wasn't able to.

Sorry, I probably didn't give you enough time there.

[Other language spoken]

Regarding types of injuries, we don't have a detailed breakdown, but the majority of injuries that hospitals are receiving at the moment are trauma related injuries.

Many of them were wounded.

But at the same time, it's worth noting that also because primary Healthcare is disrupted and because people are on on the move and perhaps have left medicines and others behind, there's also still the, what I would say the normal burden that hospitals face of critical care, cardiac events, et cetera.

But the vast majority of cases that have been coming to the hospitals have been trauma related injuries.

Regarding the obstacles that we're facing, it is indeed a mainly a security situation.

There's different groups controlling different areas of the government and the pathway to the governor as well.

And ensuring humanitarian negotiation for those those points is a tricky A tricky situation, particularly as the tensions between different groups continue to evolve.

They're not a steady state.

So negotiations with one group proceed and then the situation may deteriorate and require going back.

So it's really about the fluidity, the security of the situation.

And indeed we have seen on the part of the national authorities a desire to ensure that that relief can be safely and securely delivered.

And indeed we are working hand in hand to try to ensure that aid is reaching.

Already we have seen the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has been able to to access and we hope that additional actors will be able to fall.

[Other language spoken]

Antonio Brotto from FA Thank you.

I would like to ask if you have any more details about the attacks on healthcare, especially on on the two doctors killed.

Do you have information on on their identity and also if they were killed by gunfire or by bombs?

And also if you know any information on the perpetrators of these of these five attacks?

Are they from the from the Syrian Army or from the opposition militias?

Any information that you have?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Antonio.

Regarding the specificities of the attacks on healthcare, Debbie Joe has is mandated to report through its surveillance system for attacks on healthcare.

What we aim to do with that system is confirm that an attack on healthcare has occurred, whether it is on a health facility, a medical provider, another type of facility like storage or perhaps healthcare staff and the movement of, of things like ambulances and others.

We do not as part of our work assign responsibility or attribute the attacks, but rather we aim to really capture that the attacks are happening and the impact that they're having on healthcare.

That is the the purview of others to to investigate the the, the responsibility for those attacks.

So I will have to defer that question.

[Other language spoken]

We know that there is one main hospital, the national one.

But what is the situation of other hospitals?

How many hospitals are there and how much is it still dangerous to enter your convoys to to Sueda?

[Other language spoken]

So prior to the escalation, there were three public hospitals, 5 primary healthcare centres and five specialty centres that were fully functional before.

And then we had an additional one hospital in 75 primary healthcare centres that were partially functional.

Right now, we are still working to get the picture of this situation.

We know that services have been suspended and a number of those health facilities due to insecurity and also the ability of health workers themselves to safely move to their places of work.

Many of those health workers also may have fled during during the escalation of of hostilities and therefore we are working to get updated numbers on that.

But you are right to say that many of the the services have been suspended and and or are are non functional at this time.

We are hopeful that the situation is starting to stabilise.

But it's very dynamic day-to-day and even hour to hour.

And therefore each, each time there's an effort to send a convoy, it's very much monitored closely.

And as I said, we're working with Sark who has managed to through their local networks, they have many local partners, local members to gain safe passage for their convoys.

And so hopefully that approach will continue to enable us to to send supplies regularly.

Of course, there are additional SARC themselves has has a lot of capacity.

But given the amount of assistance that all of us would like to provide, we hope that the acceptance for additional shipments through other partners, including WHO will expand in the coming days, hopefully as things stabilise.

Thank you very much.

I'm looking to see if there are any more questions coming in online or in the room.

I do not see any at the moment.

I would like to thank Christina, Bethke and Tarek as well for bringing the spotlight on this very, very important topic and also very timely.

So thank you for for having joined us today that I think this brings to a conclusion the formal part of the briefing here.

I've terms of meeting updates there.

I, I should flag to you that the third and last part of the 2025 session of the Conference on Disarmament will officially begin on the 28th of July and that the next State of the Public Planner meeting of the CD, which will continue under the Presidency of Malaysia will be announced at a later stage.

You are all updated, I'm sure, with information about the upcoming meetings here at the United Nations in Geneva.

And so we won't go into that.

I see a couple of questions online, Olivia and then Dina, go ahead.

Hi there again.

And this is actually a question for Yentz Orcher.

If if now is the moment or I don't if you have anything else you want to announce.

Yes, I think so.

He's online there.

[Other language spoken]

OK, I just wanted to check in Yentz, if I may please on Gaza.

I would just like to confirm the following in terms of number of trucks that have entered and crucially how many have actually been distributed and emptied this week.

I also wanted to understand if there has been any improvements in recent days to aid getting in over the crossings such as Gillam Shalom and also to distribution.

And finally, in terms of your work with Kogat, can you confirm if you've been having daily meetings with with them and what are the sticking points that are still unresolved?

I know there was mention, I think of potential need for armoured vehicles or maybe armed escorts.

So just wondering if there's been any developments there.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

I think Jens, I'm assuming you can hear us and that you can come in now.

There he is.

[Other language spoken]

I think it may be on your end.

[Other language spoken]

That was a lot of of details.

The the first bit if I understand correctly and you may want to send it to me just in an e-mail or or a message so that I get it right.

It's about this week number of trucks entered Gaza, number of truck picked up distribution and so on.

We do, we do track that, but I need to to to find out what those numbers are.

So if you could please do that, that would help me investigate this one.

Cogat, Well, we have regular meetings with Cogat and with the with parts of Cogat.

Let me just find the name so I get correctly.

Yeah, with the with the liaison office at, at under COGAT, which is where we do the coordination.

As you know, several areas of, I mean very large parts of of Gaza require what is called coordination, which is where we need to requests for, for movements and then they are either denied, which happens often or they are allowed.

And then whether if they are allowed, there are other impediments that comes on on top, which may mean that they cannot proceed or we are put in a situation where we have to cancel it.

Typically, it happens because clearances and approval comes so late in the day that there are just a few minutes of daylight left and we can't move.

So I think we have briefed on that many, many times.

So yes, I cannot confirm that these contacts are daily, every single day, but they are certainly regular and they are very frequent.

There was a third part of your question and I'm not sure I understood.

So if you could repeat that, please go ahead.

Olivia, if you could repeat that.

[Other language spoken]

And I will send you that e-mail.

[Other language spoken]

I just want to understand, you know, following these regular meetings, have there been any improvements?

I know Orchard has raised certain sticking points and concerns about security, the need maybe from potential vehicles or potential escort.

I was just wondering in in recent days, has there been any movement at all?

I do also note that very comprehensive note that was sent to correspondence from Orchard as well overnight.

[Other language spoken]

And, and I'm, I'm happy you mentioned that because basically a, an overview document of our planning for a potential ceasefire which starts by listing all the issues that we currently have on how they need to be resolved.

It's there.

There's, there's a lot of good information in there and we've sent that to you overnight because these issues are still there.

They have not been resolved.

So that is that is I think that answers your question.

They they have not been resolved.

[Other language spoken]

There there are a few more questions online.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, thank you Micheli.

[Other language spoken]

I would like to transfer the questions I asked to Christina about the detained and disappeared people from Sueda.

We hear that a lot of camps where they work, those who are detained, they are, they are now in a kind of camps.

They were collected and they are still waiting until an agreement of exchange of detainees between Sueda and the other parts.

Do you have any information about those people detained and disappeared?

Clear numbers maybe?

Did any of the UN organisations visited any of those camps?

Can you confirm the the existence of those camps and did anyone visited them?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much Dina.

As as a humanitarian response operation, we do not typically engage in exchange of people who are detained as, as you know very clearly within the within the the system, the international course for example, this very often the the agency that is kind of the go between and works behind the scenes very effectively to make some of these things happen.

So I do not have any information on on that.

We are of course aware that that this is being reported here and there.

I have no information that that we know for, for, for a fact any of the things that you mentioned there.

Our focus has been, as we've heard earlier, on getting aid in to to people there.

And as you know, we've had two convoys already as as we heard organised with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a very valued partner there.

We have one on the 20th and we have another one on the 23rd.

And there are, as we hear plans for for more going in.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I, I wanted to go back to the situation in Gaza and the and the claims of ************ going on there.

I was wondering I know that it's the IPC that that does the famine declaration or or would consider a famine declaration.

I'm wondering if, if you know if, if there are any announcements coming from them anytime soon and if, if you have any idea about the because they're very strict criteria for announcing it.

If if there is an issue of access to the details or to the data that they would need to, to actually make that declaration, since the images that we're seeing from Gaza would seem to suggest that such a declaration might be merited.

[Other language spoken]

I really don't want to overstep into the territory of of the IPC partnership in Rome, which has a very efficient way of communicating these things.

But I think it's fair to say that an update is coming very soon.

So that's, that's the first thing.

The second thing I I want to say is what, what we get and what they produce and what they say are not declarations of famine per SE.

They provide the evidence which will show us whether famine conditions or rather various levels of food insecurity exist and where they exist.

And based on that, you or anyone can conclude whether a ramen is indeed taking place.

Thank you, Jens, and also thank you for making the time to come online and, you know, take some questions as we know that this these are some of the issues that are being followed by, by our media here.

I, I, I don't see any more questions, perhaps surprisingly, but I think with that, we're going to conclude our briefing for today from me and from the United Nations Information Service team.

I wish you a very happy Friday afternoon and a good weekend.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 25 July 2025