OK, Good morning, everyone.
We're going to begin this briefing of Friday, 14th of August.
Just before we get into the agenda with an update on the situation in Lebanon, I just want to remind you of the the statement that we issued well late last night or this morning, a statement attributable to the spokesperson of the Secretary General on the announcement of an agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
So you will have seen the news now that there was a joint statement by the US, Israel and the United Arab Emirates yesterday that they had reached a peaceful agreement.
The Secretary General in his statement said that this announcement effectively suspends Israeli annexation plans over parts of the occupied West Bank.
And this is something of course that he has consistently called for annex.
Annexation, he says, would effectively close the door for a renewal of negotiations and destroy the prospect of a viable Palestinian state and the two state solution.
Secretary General has welcomed this agreement, hoping it will create an opportunity for Israel and Palestinian leaders to re engage in meaningful negotiations that will realise A2 state solution in line with relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.
Peace in the Middle East, he says, is more important than ever as the region confronts the grave threats of COVID-19 and radicalisation.
Secretary General will continue to work with all sides to open further possibilities for dialogue, peace and stability.
And also on, on a sadder note, the you will have received last evening an announcement that our former colleague Teres Gastow had passed away last night, two nights ago.
She had been the director of Eunice Geneva before becoming the director of the DPI Public Affairs Division and was, inter alia, the spokeswoman for the Nairobi and Beijing Women's Conferences.
There is a small announcement in the Tribune de Geneve this morning where there will be a service held for her next Wednesday at 10:30 at Legally Sajan des Rita.
This is in Petit Saquine.
So our condolences to the family and friends and colleagues who worked with her and knew her personally.
I don't see any questions in yes, Peter, you have a question, It's actually.
About the speech made yesterday by the director general at the Conference on Disarmament, she said that you guys are broke.
Can you elaborate on, you know, what the state of the finances of the United Nations in Geneva is?
Are we all going to be out in the streets?
Well, I don't have exact detail situation.
I can say that generally the situation, the financial situation of the organisation is still fragile.
As we've said over the last few months.
I think the spokesperson for the Secretary General in his briefing just yesterday announced that there had been recent contributions by Member States.
But the total number of Member states that have paid their regular contributions to the budget today totals about 109.
So out of 193 Member States, you can see that there is still quite a quite a number of contributions that that we are waiting for and need for to if we are going to continue our operations.
I think we're all being extremely vigilant on on our finances and on our budget.
Then it means that yes, there are there are things that might have been planned as part of our, our, our objectives, our goals that we are not able to implement at this point.
But we're trying to work around the situation as best as we can.
I can tell you on on that front at the moment.
We are going to move on to the topic of Lebanon.
We have with us this morning a couple of guests who are joining us via via online from Lebanon directly.
So our first guest is from UNDP, Sarah Bell is with us.
She's going to introduce the guest, Rica Dasa, and then we'll hear from Ms Das.
Thank you very much, real good morning to everyone.
UNDP is working in Lebanon alongside the humanitarians on the immediate response to the crisis to restore our livelihood, small businesses as well as to clear debris from the blast and support access to justice for the most impacted vulnerable groups.
My colleague Rekha does, as Rial introduced, will provide you another view of the needs and priority action.
And I'll send you this afternoon a press release that recaps this information.
Thank you, Rika, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Sarah, and good morning to everybody in Geneva.
As you heard, my name is Rika.
I'm the crisis advisor here for UNDP, the UNDP office in Beirut.
The blast on the 4th of August hit Beirut but impacted all of Lebanon.
The coping capacities of the people in Lebanon have been tried beyond anybody's imagination through a crippling economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic that we're also familiar with and aware of now.
UNDP were was here before the blast.
We were responding to the massive needs of refugees and host communities.
We will remain here responding to the immediate impacts of the blast, and we will also remain here for the long run to help people in Lebanon recover and rebuild lives and livelihoods.
Within seconds, Beirut was covered in layers and layers of debris.
Volunteers, shopkeepers, families, anybody with a broom and a shovel immediately started cleaning the streets and the houses and and shops and they're still cleaning.
UNDP is following up on this by assessing the damaged houses and shops in affected areas.
We are assessing the types of debris, the bricks, the steel, the glass.
Hazardous waste, medical waste and electronic waste also needs to be dealt with.
We have to find out what is dangerous and what is not dangerous, what can be recycled and what cannot be recycled.
And if it cannot be recycled, then where can it be safely disposed?
Lebanon already had a huge solid waste crisis before the blast.
The blast has added another massive long term dimension to this.
In addition to the visible waste and the contamination on land, the pollution and the environmental impact that the blast has had on the Mediterranean Sea is unknown.
UNDP will also support economic recovery in the hardest hit areas of Beirut.
COVID-19 had already compounded Lebanon's economic crisis.
Last year alone more than 5000 factories shut down and this year nearly 800 restaurants closed.
It has left 10s of thousands of in them unemployed and more poverty without a social safety net within.
With the Beirut blast, in an instant we estimate around that 100,000 people became unemployed.
Women and men working in hotels, in restaurants, in cafes, in car rentals and corner shops, many of them informally employed.
UND PS priority is to support economic recovery and social protection.
With the revival of businesses and livelihoods, we will create employment, provide cash, grants and loans for restarting small and medium sized enterprises in a sustainable way, not least for the many, many women who've lost their livelihoods.
This all requires collective efforts and we will be working with partners and with all the sister agencies to support the people in Beirut and in Lebanon to rebuild their cities, city and their lives.
Thank you very much, Rika.
Please stay on the line with us.
We have other people briefing on Lebanon and then we will take some questions from from the from the journalists.
We're going to move to Violet Varnery, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF who is also based in Beirut and is joining us this morning.
If we can unmute Ms Varnery and I give you the floor, please go ahead.
So like our, like our colleagues at UNDP, it has been 10 days since the devastating Beirut airport explosion and the instructions are still being understood.
And this is happening as, as Reika says, in the context of a collapsed economy, political instability and a surge of COVID cases, unfortunately.
And from the outset, UNICEF has really been there for the Lebanese people and protecting children and especially in the areas of health, water, education facilities to keep them safe.
UNICEF actually just came out with a humanitarian action appeal last night.
It's a new appeal for 100, updated appeal for 100,000 children for the amount of 46.7 million for the initial three months that we're now talking about.
It has three main pillars, one, keeping children safe and protected, 2, rehabilitating those basic essential services to keep children safe and to their basic needs, to address their basic needs.
And three, to support the movement, as Rick I was saying of young people, the building of rebuilding of their, of their country and rebuilding also of their livelihoods, of them and their families.
So all those 3 pillars 1 is a major component and a major issue that has happened to children is that this has been a very traumatic experience for them and for their parents.
So mental health and psychosocial support for children and their parents is a huge priority for us moving forward, including child friendly spaces, for example, where there are referral mechanisms, ongoing GPV, gender based violence is a major aspect for us as well.
And making sure that these services are continued and also with hygiene supplies and hygiene support.
And three, with cash support.
The social safety net system in the country is not very strong.
And to help with an emergency cash programme to make sure that these economically vulnerable families can meet the basic needs of children #2 when we're talking about Pillar 2, it's about the rehabilitation of these basic essential services.
And we're talking about basic rehabilitation because the reconstruction comes in the next phase and we will have to see that when all the assessments are done.
But this is about homes, homes not having access to, giving them access to safe sufficient water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene, and repairing the minor repairs that are needed for buildings.
And the water in the houses #2 is that there's been Primary Health care centres damaged, 16 of them serving about 160,000 people.
It's about rehabilitating those services and making sure that there are supplies available and specifically in this COVID environment, that the nurses and the doctors there can protect themselves against the COVID with personal protective equipment.
And three, it's about rehabilitating schools and having the opportunity for children to go back to school even in a COVID environment, which means distance learning.
And with children, some children now not having homes, that distance learning will be more difficult.
So also looking through that #3 is indeed this area that I was talking about with the young people.
We've been overrun by young people who want to support and they have been supporting.
Amazingly, we've been supporting that with tools, resources and equipment for them to be able to be on the street cleaning debris, cooking, cleaning.
And we will continue that.
At the same time, we will extend our programmes that we have across the country on skills building and cash for work in the sense of giving them the opportunity for employment in the area of rebuilding, carpentry, construction, plumbing, these kind of areas.
The longest term consequences are still very unknown.
We are with many other partners doing many assessments, water, education, health, these are on the way and what will be needed is a holistic response to multiple challenges in the country.
The huge refugee population, the social, economic, political crisis, the COVID-19 and now this devastating blast.
All that needs to be looked at in the longer term perspective.
Children need our sustained attention and support in this and they deserve nothing less.
Please stay with us and we'll get to some questions in a few minutes.
We're going to hear from our colleagues from the World Food Programme and the International Organisation for Migration.
So let's turn to Elizabeth Beers from WFP for a briefing on her own at Elizabeth At Elizabeth.
Yes, good morning everyone.
Just a very short update on logistic regarding Lebanon.
WFP is on the ground responding to the immediate and long term food needs of the most vulnerable people in the country.
The WFP is bringing into Lebanon 17,500 metric tonnes of wheat flour and a three month supply of wheat to help replenish the country food reserve.
The first wheat flour shipment is due to arrive to Beirut port by 20 August to provide immediate support to bakeries, followed by wheat that will go to local meals.
It is essential to get parts of the port operational again as quickly as possible.
The WFP team is working to get parts of the port OR operational.
WFP will airlift this week equipment to render the port operational enough to facilitate the import of wheat and other bulb grain into Lebanon.
We are rolling out a rapid logistic operation that will include setting up warehouses and mobile grain storage units to augment Beirut port facilities.
WFP plans to gradually expand by tenfold its existing cash assistance programme in Lebanon to reach up to 1,000,000 people across the country.
This includes, of course, people affected by the blast.
We also procured 150,000 food parcels to distribute to families impacted by the COVID crisis and also the economic crisis this emergency assistance in Lebanon requires.
I repeat because I already said that $235,000,000 for six months over.
Thank you very much, Elizabeth.
Let's turn to Angela Wells from the International Organisation for Migration.
She's with the Department of Operations and Emergencies and also has a statement to deliver to deliver on Lebanon.
Good morning, Angela, and please go ahead.
Oh, just the wait, just the moment we need to unmute you.
So the International Organisation for Migration is today launching an appeal to raise $10.3 million to assist more than 43,000 people affected by the August 4th explosions at the Port of Beirut, as the international community galvanises efforts to respond to the needs of hundreds of thousands.
Affected by this tragedy, we must not forget the red migrant and refugee populations who are at risk of being overlooked.
Devastated, economically disadvantaged areas in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, which hosts large numbers of migrant workers and Syrian refugees.
IOM estimates that roughly 8% of the estimated 300,000 people affected in Greater Beirut are migrant workers, primarily from Ethiopia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
At least 150 migrant workers have been injured and 15 died in the explosions, IOM estimates.
Many of these people were already reeling from the effects of COVID-19 and the protracted economic downturn in Lebanon, which has disproportionately affected migrants and refugees.
An IOM assessment conducted between May and July classified 40% of migrant workers surveyed as food insecure and 74% reported having no income nor source of income at all.
Funding will allow IOM to respond to the immediate needs of 25,000 vulnerable migrants, 16,500 Lebanese, and 2000 Syrian refugees affected by the crisis for the remainder of 2020.
These needs include healthcare, food, short term employment opportunities, shelter, mental health and psychosocial support, and assistance and protection for migrants who are at risk of exploitation.
IOM will operationalize its Displacement Tracking Matrix to assess the needs of those displaced and join other agencies to lay the groundwork for long term recovery and reconstruction interventions.
The organisation will also, in coordination with UNHCR, continue to resettle refugees from Lebanon, which has the highest the largest refugee per capita population in the world, and to scale up efforts for voluntary return of migrants who wish to go home.
Thank you very much, Angela, for being with us this morning.
Are there any questions from the journalists in the room?
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And I understand that Reika Das from the UNDP will need to be going very shortly.
So if there is a question for for her or for Sarah, you might want to prioritise that.
Good morning to you, Rael.
I have questions actually for three of the speakers.
Perhaps you ought to keep my mic open so that after each speaker answers the questions, I mean, just to simplify things, if possible.
And my first question, are you agreed to that instead of muting me?
Or do you want me to ask all of my questions right now?
I'm sorry, I I have questions for three of your speakers.
Look, I think we have a bit of time.
Why don't you go ahead with your first question and if you have something for UNDP as I said.
Yes, my, my, my first question is for UNDP and also Sarah, if you would be so kind as to send the notes now rather than waiting in the afternoon because deadlines loom and this would be helpful.
You were talking about the problem of pollution and I'm particularly interested in knowing what measures you have for the safe disposal of toxic waste, electronic waste and so forth.
And whether or you consider this a Herculean problem, how you will go about tackling this.
I don't think maybe you mentioned it and I missed it, but how much money will you need for your operation?
That's my question for you and I'll wait for the answer and go on later.
Could we unmute Miss Das, please?
Thanks so much for your question.
Look, we're, we're in the middle of, we're in the beginning of all this, so to speak, even though it's been almost 10 days, we're still at the very beginning.
We're assessing, we're assessing the types of debris.
As I said, we know that there is toxic waste.
We are, we, we, we know that there's electronic waste out there.
We know that there's a lot of black.
Lebanon does not have a tradition for recycling as there is a tradition for in, in, in many, many other countries.
So first of all, we have to assess what's out there and what is dangerous.
And we have to be careful ourselves when we go out with our partners.
We are working not alone on this.
We're working very closely with the European Union on this, with the experts who know about the these things, toxic waste and waste in general.
And once we have that laid out, and as I said also in my brief, we don't know the magnitude, for example, of the pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.
And, and we still have to unpack all the debris here.
If you were here, you would know it's very difficult to access the sites that that are, that are the, the areas that are damaged, the neighbourhoods that are damaged.
There's still bricks and roofing that falls down from, from, from, from roofs and, and, and window panes.
So we have to be careful ourselves when going in and careful or, you know, protect the engineers that we're working it with the syndicate of engineers, the our EU colleagues.
And everybody has to take this step by step.
But there is, there is no doubt that that it's going to this, this problem is of such a magnitude because there was already an existing problem in the country around sorting, sorting waste and sorting garbage.
So we will, we will probably know in a week or so.
We're starting a pretty big assessment tomorrow in the affected neighbourhoods of of the debris.
And, and so we will see we should have some results in, in, in a week's time or so, at least preliminary results to start with, in, in, in our appeal we're asking for, because we are so fortunate.
This is also extraordinary with Lebanon.
We are working with a lot of voluntary organisations.
We're starting with a small ask for the debris removal efforts, we're asking for around $3,000,000.
But as we're looking at this in phases, so as we have uncovered the first bit and we find out how complex the next bit will be, we will ask for more.
So, but in the first bit, in the first phase, we're working with a lot of volunteer organisations as partners as well as the EU.
Thank you very much, Rika.
Can we give the mic again to Lisa?
You have another question for Rika or can we?
No, no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm moving on to unisec.
OK, let me just then I think Rika Das has to go.
So thank you very much, Miss Das for being with us this morning and we look forward to having you with us again.
If there are additional questions from UNDP, go ahead, Lisa.
Yes, this is for Violet Speak.
Yep, from UNICEF, OK, first and maybe others have the answer if you don't.
Just overall, are there any latest figures on the numbers of deaths and missing and the homeless?
And then specifically for you on UNICEF, I, I'd like like to know how many children are actually affected by this, by this disaster.
And Merixi had earlier spoken about separated children.
I was wondering how many there are, whether there are a lot of what you are doing in order to try to reconcile them to their families.
And if you're unable to do that, how are you helping them?
And I think that protection in disasters is usually a big problem.
So what measures are you taking to protect children and also women who you indicated that gender violence was was acute under isolation?
Well, there's, I don't know.
But in this situation like this, I suppose that this is a pretty bad situation.
So generally speaking, what measures are you taking to protect the most vulnerable?
And yeah, that that's fine for you, UNICEF.
And then if you'll give me the mic later for someone else.
So that and we'll try to come back to you.
So the latest numbers I have, I'm not sure we have the latest numbers, but the latest numbers that we have is that over 600,000 people were injured.
There are over 150,000 deaths of those injured.
We know around 100,000 of our children, 32 of them were actually in the hospital, estimating that the effect is for about 100,000.
Children in general have been affected by this, by this incident.
With regards to separating unaccompanied children, I think we can actually happily say that most children somehow have been reunited or at least know where their parents are or the caregivers.
Of course there are, there are children that have lost their children.
So this is where the the trauma support and the psychosocial support is becoming really, really essential.
But they also the other way around, right?
Parents have lost their children.
There are three children that have died and so the reunification we have two children left who are in alternative care and that's we're dealing with that.
So it's a case management aspect that that we're dealing with.
And usually in Lebanon, the foster care arrangements, it's very in its infant stages.
We, we are only doing pilot.
So it will probably be extended families.
But these are sensitive cases that we're dealing with and we have some very dedicated to partners who are dealing with that in a very sensitive way with regards to we don't know the effect of gender based violence as such, but we always see this around the world that gender based violence seems to extrapolate and expand in these kind of circumstances.
The good thing, if I can say it good from that perspective, is that we don't have major shelters set up.
So usually in these solter arrangements then if it's a, it's a woman alone or, or, or girl alone, that becomes complicated.
So most families are somehow with friends or families.
That does not mean that friends or families are always the safest place.
But that's in that sense we it's a more of a comfort.
I think our main challenge is to make sure that the services are available because also some of those services were of course touched by this to maintain that the services are available, the people know where the services are and that we provide the services as needed.
So just I mean, the basic hygiene promotion kind of and hygiene kits is really important.
So there are two assessments ongoing at the moment with the the sectors, the child protection sector and the GBV sector at the moment to also put some of a structure in place of how to respond to this in a, in a systematic manner.
In that sense, I think I touched your all your questions and there's a hotline also.
I think this is really important.
There's a hotline and there's a lot of face to face kind of work ongoing to make sure that people understand where they can provide, where they can get the services that they need in both GBB and child protection.
Thank you very much for this very comprehensive answer.
I don't see any other hands up.
So Lisa will give you the mic again if this could be the the last questions and then we'll we'll have to move on to another topic.
Yes, you, I, I asked you about measures that you were taking to protect children, especially since they're out of school.
If you could elaborate upon that.
And then I'll ask my question for Angela at IOM and and then I'm going to liberate you rail from me.
Why don't you ask the question so that Angela is ready?
Angela, the the question, I have the following question for you please.
You said that you would be IOM was there to return refugees from from Lebanon.
So my question is, have you had refugees asked to be returned to Syria, to be resettled there?
Is it actually safe to return them?
Let's go to Violet for the first part of the question, then we'll go to to Angela.
Children being out of school is unfortunately actually something that this whole year we've experienced.
It's been a very difficult school year.
So last year there were protests in this country which blocked roads, blocked completely the the country.
So in October to sort of mid November, children were already out of school.
And then the COVID came in March.
So from March to the end of the school year, children were out of school.
There was a lot of effort to get distance learning up and running.
This worked in a certain extent for those children that could really access the distance learning.
And we started at that moment in time psychosocial support mechanisms in creating an environment with their families at home because they weren't able to go outside to socialise in their homes.
So dealing with WhatsApp calls these kinds of things to to support families and their children during these times.
We don't see much difference this time.
We we are working with the Ministry of Education and other partners to look at the distance learning, to beef that up, to scale that up.
So looking at more device oriented approaches and the connectivity of people at home, especially lots of vulnerable families specifically have an issue of electricity and connectivity.
So this is a huge exercise that we're trying to sort out.
Think of solution, innovative solutions to get children into school in this period of time for the next full year.
Thank you very much, Angela, for the other question.
So, Lisa, there are, there are two different movement operations that are that are happening that are very distinct, distinct operations.
So the first is resettlement of refugees.
Many of them are Syrian, but they come from other other places as well.
And that is resettling them to third countries.
So they are not, we will not be returning any Syrians to Syria.
It's resettling them to places like Canada, Australia, Europe.
These are operations that have been happening from Lebanon for years now.
More than 100,000 people have been resettled from Lebanon as of last year and that of course that number has has now risen.
With COVID, there was a temporary hold, but now we are start, we are starting up to to continue those movements of of people with those.
Needs that have been have been vetted by UNHCR and are referred for a settlement that we assist with the logistical movement onward to 1/3 country.
Other operation that would include moving moving people would be to hopefully be able.
The ability to start returning migrants who do not have refugee status to their to their home countries through our voluntary return programme.
These are people who would request to to return home and we would be able to to assist them, we hope if if we're given the the funds and the the political will from from host countries to do so.
Thank you very much, Angela.
Before we close on this topic, Sarah Bell from UNDP would just like to rectify or give some additional details on numbers.
And Louisa point sticking on the notes, we're sharing the notes as soon as possible.
I just wanted to add to what Rick has said about the the numbers that will be part of a global appeal to be launched later today by OCHA.
So what we have now is 2.5 million for immediate shelter support, 2,000,000 for debris management, 3,000,000 for cash for work, 2,000,000 for family food security kits, 0.3 million for legal aid and the total is 9.8 million.
Obviously, this is for the moment an initial task subject confirmation after our conversation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon.
Thank you very much, Sarah.
Thank you also to Violet Warnery, Elizabeth Beers and Angela Wells for being with us this morning on this topic.
We're going to move on to the rest of the agenda.
We have Jens, Jens Lark from OCHA here with a statement on alcohol camp in Syria.
Yeah, Good morning, everyone.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Mr Imran Risa, last night expressed alarm over the recent death of eight children under the age of five last week in El Whole Camp in northeastern Syria.
The children were suffering from a range of illnesses including malnutrition related complications and dehydration from diarrhoea.
The tragic deaths have occurred at a time when health services at the camp are under increased pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the beginning of August 5, health workers at alcohol camp have tested positive for COVID-19, leading to the temporary closure of 1 Field Hospital and disruptions to another amid growing shortages of protective personal equipment.
In response to this, health facilities have been disinfected and other exposed workers I'm self quarantine and contact tracing is ongoing.
Additionally, only critical staff with personal protective equipment are allowed to operate inside the household camp, the humanitarian coordinator Iman Riza said.
With a fragile healthcare system and a severely depleted healthcare workforce estimated at around half of the numbers which existed prior to 2011, Syria can I'll afford the loss of more qualified staff for backgrounds you may have seen well health organisations.
Recent situation report states that there are 1332 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Syria and 58 deaths.
Are there any questions in the room for Yens No online Lisa and then Catherine.
So I'm glad you're there.
First a question hanging over from Lebanon and then a question regarding Al Hall Camp.
I got the sense is, is the UN issuing its flash appeal for Lebanon later on today And if so, can you tell us about it?
I mean, that's kind of big stuff.
How much money you actually going to ask for?
I would be very interested to know that and the terms of it.
And then on what you just reported on alcohol, how how many children currently are are still in alcohol and are countries still unwilling to to take these children back?
I mean, the children who were born from from mothers, fathers, I don't know, but you know, their own, their own citizens.
Or is that still stuck tragically?
On the first one, yes, we expect to have a flash appeal for Lebanon later today.
It's will be finished when it's finished and you will have the numbers in the press release and access to the to the document itself.
As soon as I have it available, I will share it with everyone on the AL Hall camp.
I don't have frankly, more information than what I've sent to you.
I've sent you the the full statement was some more detail about what the UN is doing in the AL Hall camp that I will invite you to to have a look at.
I know that we in the past certainly have asked the countries which have children of their nationality in the camp to be more forthcoming in taking those children back.
I see we have a question from Catherine Fiancan.
If we could unmute Catherine.
In fact, I had the same question as Lisa regarding the flash appeal.
Jens, do you have any idea if it's going to be delayed afternoon or you you have any ID on, on, on?
Moment it will be launched.
I'm going to stick my neck out and say mid afternoon, meaning maybe 3:00 or 4:00 PM.
But don't you know, don't sue me if that doesn't happen.
Stay tuned For more information on this Flash appeal to be issued later today.
I don't see any other questions for Yens.
So we are going to thank you Yens for coming this morning.
And move to Elizabeth Beers again from WFP, who has some information on the food security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We share with you this morning a press release which was issued in Rome and simultaneously in Geneva.
But I would like to add a couple of details.
WFP is ramping up its operation in DRCDRC is the world's second biggest anger emergency after Yemen and it's a challenging one.
No fewer than 15.6 million people are acutely food insecure and another 27.4 millionaire in a stress state at **** risk of rapid deterioration.
Four in 10 people on about the total 100 million population of DRC are food insecure in general, but we are particularly concerned for those over 15,000,000 people who are accurately food insecure, which mean in phase three and four of our the IPC scale which has five steps, I mean levels.
Worst of are the conflict ravage eastern provinces of Ituri, North and South Kibuentanganica as well as the central Kasai region where up to 40% people are in phase three and four.
These are the region of **** concern.
Malnutrition is pervasive.
DRC has thousands Africa highest under 5 stunting crate 42.7% and 3.4 million children are acutely malnourished.
DRC has 5 million Idps and now with they are at greater risk because of COVID-19.
You have conflict and inter ethnic violence force.
More than 1,000,000 civilians from their own in eastern DRST in the first half of this year country host almost 600,000 WFP supported refugee mainly from Burundi, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
And nearly 1,000,000 Congolese have sold safety in neighbouring countries.
So you have kind of several layers and Ebola persist.
Ebola, another Ebola as outbreak has begun 3 weeks earlier in northwestern Ecuador province and continues to spread in the Castai region.
Meanwhile, we have the epicentre of a large scale measles epidemic.
So you see we are very concerned about the situation, the hunger situation in DRC and to continue our and ramp up our operation, we badly need a funding.
Of course you can understand $172 million are needed.
We plan to reach 8.6 million people in DRC this year.
More details in the note that I have seen.
Yes, Lisa, Lisa and Catherine again.
Elizabeth I, I'd like to ask you, you're speaking about malnutrition.
Do you have any figures on how many children are malnourished and, and, and, and also are many of them at risk of dying if they don't get the kind of specialised treatment that they need?
How many people are you currently reaching with food aid?
And you say you want to increase that number to how many, how many would you like to reach?
Yes Lisa, so far as I said, the malnutrition is children.
Malnutrition is of concern and we work closely with UNICEF to provide the malnutrition treatment to children in in DRC.
I told that DRC has one of the highest under 5 centigrade with 42.7% and the second highest wasting rate 8.1 percent.
3.4 million children are acutely malnourished.
And we are also concerned about the ID PS 5, millions of ID PS because 90% of them are women and children, and they live in crowded settlements in urban areas with poor sanitation and poor health care.
And they are now at risk, greater risk because of COVID-19.
Let me see if I have other details regarding the assistance we provide.
The We the People WFP aims to assist in 2020 is 8.6 million and the net funding needs through January 172 million.
Indeed, if we do not get adequate funding, we will have to reduce our operation, cut food ration and reduce the number of people we we assist.
This is a very worrying situation and we we are calling on donors to support the WFP operation, but also other agencies and our partner, UNICEF partner who are particularly concerned and dedicated to support children in in DRC.
Elizabeth, let's go to Catherine.
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Let's make this the last question on this topic.
I mean, it's a question that that I had asked that Catherine actually asked.
Now I want to press you on it a little bit, Elizabeth.
I mean, you say that you're at risk of having to cut rations, food rations.
I mean, is $172 million the appeal that you made for this year?
And if so, how much of that has been funded?
I mean, it apparently you haven't received very much.
And I think it would be really interesting to know how much money you actually have received to know how serious the situation is.
Yes, Lisa, I understand your point and I know that you would like to know if at the beginning of the year we had a global appeal for DRC, how much we received.
I do not have this information.
WFP in fact works with on I would say ongoing contribution and is doing it's best with what we have in, in our cash in our accounts.
So I will come back to you with more details in writing when I will ask the question to to my colleagues who can give us an overview of the funding situation.
I'm just talking about those 172 million which are needed from now until beginning of January.
And this, this amount will cover our operation to continue to provide this assistance and also to scale up assistance to reach those 8.6 million.
If we don't get this funding, the situation might be of concern and we might have to reduce our operations.
Thank you very much, Elizabeth for briefing this morning and being with us.
Understand Yens you would like to add something some numbers on the AL home situation.
Saved by the Bell or rather by Marixi from UNICEF.
These are on on children in alcohol.
So from UNICEF, we have that nearly 40,000 children from more than 60 countries continue to languish in alcohol camp.
They lack access to basic services and have to contend with the sweltering summer heat and the trauma of violence and displacement.
Thank you very much for that, for that clarification.
In terms of information meetings that are being covered by UNIS, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be opening its virtual 23rd session in public next Monday, 17th of August at 2:00 PM.
The only other public meeting of this session will take place at 3:30 PM on the 4th of September for the closure of the session.
And you can follow obviously this session on UN Web TV.
The conference on disarmament yesterday had a meeting, you know, it's third and last part of the, the, the, this year's session runs until the 18th of September.
For the time being, we, we don't have any information on when the conference will be meeting again, but we will inform you of that as soon as we have information.
And we will certainly remind you of this next Tuesday.
But just want to mention that one of the major international days coming up is next week, World Humanitarian Day on the 19th of August.
We will be celebrating this this day here in Geneva with a ceremony just outside of Room 20.
It's a ceremony that will be also web casts and it's going to start at 3:00 PM.
And you are, of course, cordially invited to attend either in person or virtually.
It starts at three with a wreath laying by our Director General and the UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
And then Miss Valovaya and Miss Bashley will both give some remarks.
Other speakers will include Samuel Mbeli Mbong, who is the father of a former UN staff and victim of the 12th of January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
The victim's name was Lisa Mbeli Mbong.
And then we will have the shouted affair from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq saying some words, as well as the executive secretary of the ENOG Staff Coordinating Council and the chief response support of the chief of the Response Support Branch from a coordination division of OCHA as well.
It's a ceremony that's expected to last about 45 minutes.
And of course this year the theme of the the World Humanitarian Day is focusing on those real life heroes that everyday are working tirelessly to bring aid and assistance to those people who most need it.
So I hope that you will be able to join us either in person or virtually for the ceremony next week.
And unless there are any last minute questions or things, I will close here and wish you very good afternoon and also a very good weekend and we'll see you next week.
