UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, Friday the 15th of May.

Another very important, another heavy agenda will have the situation, the humanitarian crisis and the situation of children in Somalia.

We have colleagues joining us also to speak to a report that just came out on Sudan concerning hunger and famine and situation in Ukraine.

We have a guest with us here who is going to speak to the health situation in Ukraine, as well as a number of announcements.

So without further ado, I'm going to throw immediately to Mr George Conway, who's the UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative to the UN Secretary General for Somalia.

[Other language spoken]

So over to you, Mr Conway.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, colleagues, and grateful for this opportunity.

To brief, we've just had, as mentioned, updated food and security figures for Somalia released, which indicate A deeply worrying situation.

From this data, we have 5 key takeaway messages.

First, the humanitarian context in Somalia is worsening faster than we originally projected and expected.

And right now around 6 million people in Somalia, nearly one in three, are facing serious hunger, meaning that they're skipping meals or going days without enough food.

Following a protracted multi seasonal drought, we are entering into a new rainy season called the Goo, but the rains have been erratic and conditions are deteriorating rather than improving.

Looking ahead, food insecurity is expected to remain extremely high over the next months with a very real risk of further deterioration if these types of shocks continue.

Second, the situation is a result of multiple compounding shocks, the combination of which is escalating the human impacts.

In addition to the cumulative impacts of increased frequency and intensity of climate shocks, including drought and erratic rains, ongoing conflict and insecurity across the country and and repeated disease outbreaks.

Somalia is experiencing spiking food and fuel prices due to the crisis in the Middle East and a precipitous drop in humanitarian assistance, reflecting global trends.

Our current response as it stands right now for this year is funded at approximately 15%.

Together, these factors are eroding people's ability to cope, to recover and pushing more families into crisis and triggering large scale displacement.

Looking ahead toward the rest of this year, a strengthened El Nino phenomenon could further compound this crisis over the course of the next months.

Thirdly, children are paying the highest price.

Nearly 2 million young children are acutely malnourished, meaning they're dangerously undernourished and physically weakened, placing them at high risk of illness or death.

Of these, almost half a million are so severely malnourished that they require urgent treatment to survive.

This outlook is particularly concerning as malnutrition levels are expected to remain very high and could worsen during the current season.

4th we've confirmed a real and credible risk of famine in Baracaba district in southwest state of Somalia.

Conditions are already severe in the district with high levels of hunger and child malnutrition, and analysis shows that famine could occur if if conditions continue to worsen and if the rains continue to be erratic.

Food prices are, in the current global context, continuing to rise and humanitarian assistance is not currently at scale to reach the most in need.

So this is a critical warning as current trends suggest deterioration rather than improvement.

And finally, noting the previous comment in particular about the risk of famine in Barakaba, we have a window of opportunity to prevent the worst outcomes.

With rapid and scaled up humanitarian action now, famine can still be averted.

There's a narrow but critical window of opportunity in the coming weeks to prevent famine in Barakaba and other high risk districts, and the analysis makes clear that while famine is not yet occurring today, it could develop if conditions deteriorate further, meaning that timely action now could change that trajectory.

To prevent the worst case scenario, 3 priorities are essential.

Rapidly scaling up humanitarian assistance, particularly food, nutrition, health and water services to reach the most vulnerable 2nd.

2nd, Stabilising access to food, including mitigating the impact of rising prices on poor households and 3rd, Sustained response capacity and ongoing monitoring in hotspot areas to detect and respond quickly to further deterioration.

With these measures and increased funding to support them, current assistance levels will not be enough to worsen ongoing food gaps, rising malnutrition and increasing mortality risks.

Thank you very much and very happy to take any questions.

Thank you very much, Mr Conway.

Focusing on the children's situation, I'm going to turn to Ricardo.

And then afterwards we'll take questions from all speakers.

And of course, Yens is also here to respond.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks, Ronaldo.

Good morning, everyone.

It will be a little bit repetitive, but I'll try and focus more on the messaging around children because as always, they pay the highest price in any crisis and and that's not no different in Somalia.

In Somalia today, hunger is no longer only about empty stomachs.

It's about a fight for children to survive disease, displacement and the collapse of basic services.

Almost 1/3 of the population will face acute food insecurity.

Between April and June 2026, nearly 1.9 million people are already in emergency levels of hunger.

That number has tripled in less than a year.

And now famine, famine risk has emerged in southwest Somalia.

If humanitarian aid cannot scale up and if drought and economic shocks worsen further, which is expected, children are carrying an enormous share of this crisis.

This year alone, around 1.9 million children under 5 are expected to suffer acute malnutrition.

Across the country, nearly half a million children are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form.

These are children at imminent risk of death if they do not receive urgent treatment, and hunger never travels alone.

Malnutrition is colliding with disease outbreaks, including measles and cholera, while health systems weaken under enormous pressure.

Measles cases, measles cases doubled during the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, more than 630 health facilities are already at risk of closing or scaling down.

[Other language spoken]

Let's just see if we can correct that.

[Other language spoken]

In practical terms, these means more mothers waking, walking for hours to reach treatment that they not that no longer exists.

It means more children arriving too late for care.

In Somalia, severe acute malnutrition is no longer no longer only a nutrition issue.

It is becoming a death sentence for children when clinics close, disease spread and families cannot reach help in time.

The crisis is also being worsened by global economic shocks.

Fuel prices in Mogadishu more than doubled within days following the escalation of the Middle East crisis.

The cost of transport transporting life saving nutrition supplies has has surged.

Water trucking, nutrition treatment and health outreach operations are still becoming dramatically more expensive at the exact moment needs are rising.

At the same time, 3.5 million people remain displaced across Somalia and many of them children from millions of children.

Displacement is becoming a permanent part of childhood.

[Other language spoken]

Famine is not a sudden event.

It is the result of many warnings ignored.

Today, the warnings are once again clear.

The world cannot wait for images of dying children to spread and appear on screens before acting.

We need urgent funding now to keep clinics open, scale up nutrition treatment, sustain water systems and reach vulnerable families before conditions deteriorate further.

That window to prevent a deeper catastrophe is still open, but it's closing fast.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for those powerful briefings, Mr Conway.

[Other language spoken]

We'll take questions now for any colleagues starting, if any, in the room.

[Other language spoken]

AFP yeah, thank you very much for the briefings.

I was wondering, obviously, Ricardo, you were talking about this being a death sentence.

Are we already seeing children dying or is it is it something that's looming?

And then what indications have you received that this is going to that countries might take advantage of of this window of opportunity?

How quickly do you think it will close?

And yeah, thanks.

Thanks for the question, Nina, we don't have exact numbers now, but I can check in with my country office to to make sure I can provide you with that data in terms of children already dying of severe acute malnutrition.

But we are extremely concerned in pockets of the country where again the health they require is no longer available or or the health systems are strained.

And again our supplies might not be moving fast enough due to all the disruptions that are happening in the Middle East, which so far haven't impacted heavily our operations.

But we are very concerned about delays and our UTF arriving to to impacted areas and and also other supplies that are important to prevent children from from dying from severe acute malnutrition.

We are we're also concerned about the fact that things are not moving fast enough and that we're not again getting the attention we need given all the crises that are happening in the world.

So I don't have any indications that that window of opportunity that we have to prevent the worst is being taken and that our partners or governments are are acting fast enough.

So this is indeed a call for international community to step up quicker because otherwise we will see this great crisis being measured again in in children's lives.

Thank you so much colleagues and your role thereon is invaluable.

So try to get the word out.

So thank you so much Ricardo.

[Other language spoken]

We do have one online, but yeah, let's go back to you, Nina, then we'll take a question from Nick, New York Times.

I guess just a quick one for both of you on, on the disruptions mentioned and and if you have any concrete examples of of sort of how that's impacting the delivery of aid, the disruptions from the Middle East war?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Mr Conway.

Thank you, Nina for the question.

I mean very concretely the, the the price of fuel in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia has more than doubled in the aftermath of the of the crisis, inflation and food prices.

Broadly speaking, Somalia is very import dependent and a lot of the imports do come from the Middle East have increased variably about 20%.

Given the the drug situation and the drying up of water points, a lot of communities are reliant on water trucking and then the cost of water trucking obviously increases with the price, with the cost of of fuel.

So in some locations we've seen water prices for water trucking triple over the course of the of the past month.

The, the, the, the impact on Somalia has been immediate and widespread.

Shipping has decreased by an estimated 49% as against last year.

And that impact, impacts on, on basic commodities available in the markets as well.

Implementing partners and organisations are indicating as a result of all this quite a spiked cost of doing business as well with some reporting an increase of up to 40% for their implementation costs on the ground.

[Other language spoken]

From our side, we're very concerned about the rising cost of fuel, but also of moving the supplies themselves.

For example, we depend a lot obviously on ready to use therapeutic feeding to treat malnourished children.

And with this projection that was just mentioned, this is critical.

It's a matter of my life or death for them.

And the cost of air fright has increased significantly since the Middle East crisis to a point that it it, it is of grave concern for us looking at the mid and long term.

And this is because we do have a localization of our UTF production.

We have a factory in Nairobi for example that produces a lot of the RUTRUTF that we provide for Africa and and other countries.

But Somalia is a specific case whereby moving these supplies by Rd is not as feasible and we depend on air fright.

And obviously with the fuel rising, fuel prices rising so significantly, that cost will become very complicated for us to manage looking forward.

So we're really looking at a potential catastrophic scenario here, and that's why this warning is so important.

[Other language spoken]

Let's take a question from Nick, New York Times.

[Other language spoken]

Bunch of questions, please.

Ricardo, just to can I just be clear, you're saying children are already dying of starvation or associated diseases from that?

I wasn't quite clear from your answer to Anina and and question to you or to George Conway.

Could you just remind us what some of the, the financial numbers here?

You say you're 15% funded, 15% of what we hear now, you know the United States and Tom Fletcher saying $1.8 billion is available now to OCHA new emergency funding.

Is any of this coming to you and and if not, why not or is it all going?

I think we're going to hear about Sudan later.

But is is there competition of crises here that is just squeezing Somalia out of the picture?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks for that.

Nick, just to clarify, no, we don't have numbers of children dying of severe acute malnutrition yet where we do have the projection of how many are expected to suffer from it this year.

But again, if we don't act immediately, those numbers will start coming.

It's just a matter of time.

So this window cannot be missed.

And in terms of the funding, I, I don't have a concrete answer for you on that.

[Other language spoken]

Mr Conway, can you address that as well and as well as the second part of the question over to you.

[Other language spoken]

No, thank you for the question.

The, the, the total planned requirements for this year based on what we then knew to be the situation which had estimated 4.8 million people in need was a financial requirement of 852 million to mount the level of response to address prioritised populations.

The the number of people in need has has increased.

As we mentioned, the, the 6 million people currently in food security crisis means that that number is, you know, the, the, the needs are actually quite higher.

But when we say 50% funded, that's against the the annual request in the humanitarian needs and response plan that was put out at the beginning of the year on on the 1.8 billion contribution that would have to go to to Ocho Geneva for feedback and comment.

My understanding is Somalia has not been included in the priority countries that have been defined in that contribution, neither in the the original 2 billion contribution, nowhere in this additional 1.8.

Whether this is due to global competition amongst crises, which of of course does exist.

We know there were overall figures of people in need globally.

It is a a very challenging situation across the world with multiple crises competing for attention.

But This is why this particular data input and our our our current highlighting of Somalia's risks and threats right now is so important.

Thank you indeed.

Thank you very much Mr Conway.

I think we do have another question.

AFP again, sorry, I just wanted to clarify because you, I think you said 15% and 50%.

I wasn't sure which one it was.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry if my speech wasn't clear.

[Other language spoken]

1, five.

Yeah, one, 5%.

Thank you very much.

I think that does it for quote.

[Other language spoken]

New York Times has a quick follow up perhaps.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, this is since he answers on the podium.

Why is Somalia not an emergency country?

Why is it not a priority country given given the emergency that we're hearing about?

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

Thank you, Nick for ocheon the UN.

Somalia is definitely a priority country and top of the list of of the crisis that we are looking at.

I will refer to what was said and what was shared yesterday regarding the the second tranche of money from the United States that will be channelled through the Archer managed pooled funds.

[Other language spoken]

I think it does it for the questions on Somalia.

Mr Conway, thank you so very much for joining us here and please do so whenever the opportunity arises.

And of course as well.

And thank you, Jens.

We'll now shift to, we're staying on the continent of the African continent.

We're going to move to the situation of food insecurity in Sudan.

We have 3 briefers to speak to the release of the IPC report, which came out yesterday.

We have Mr Ross Smith of WFP, Elaine Paulson of FAO and Lucia Elmi of UNICEF joining us from Rome and Rome in New York, respectively.

So Ross, we'll start with you.

[Other language spoken]

Smith is connected.

Yes, yes, I'm connected now.

[Other language spoken]

OK, David, thanks very much and thanks for the opportunity to be here this morning.

We talk about the situation in Sudan in the recent IPC report.

And I'm I'm pleased here to be here with my colleagues from UNICEF and FAO.

The latest IPC results confirm what we are seeing on the ground every day in Sudan.

Hunger is not only widespread, but it is deepening.

Nearly 19.5 million people are now facing crisis levels of hunger and some already in catastrophic conditions.

We have multiple areas at risk of famine in the coming months.

Famine has been stalking famines in Sudan for far too long and sadly this shows no sign of abating.

I will say that this is not a sudden shock.

It is a crisis that's now in its fourth year.

It's driven by the conflict.

It's driven by mass displacement and by the systematic erosion of people's ability to feed themselves and to to earn earn a livelihood.

Planets have exhausted every coping mechanism they have.

We have seen market collapse in many parts of the country, and agricultural production has been severely disrupted in some parts.

Access to food is increasingly out of reach for millions of households.

At the same time, humanitarian operations are simply unable to match the scale of need.

Insecurity, bureaucratic impediments and attacks on supply routes, just to just to name three, are presenting the need for me to millions of people who urgently need it For us, for WP, the priority is clear.

We must scale up food assistance now, ahead of the lean season.

Warm conditions are expected to carry it further.

We have been on the ground responding.

We continue to be and we are, but we are ready to do more.

However, we can't do it alone.

Reality is stark.

Funding is far below what is required and access to the most vulnerable must be improved.

And for that the fighting must stop.

The crisis won't stabilise on its own and it will not improve without sustained access.

It will also not be solved without a political solution, and that's a solution that is years overdue.

So today we're calling for three things.

The first is immediate scale up of funding to sustain and to expand humanitarian assistance for WFP, the UNICEF, for FAO and for our partners.

Second is unhindered manufacturing access to all affected areas.

And 3rd is we need a renewed and a redoubling of the political efforts, the diplomatic efforts to end this conflict.

Without these, I think the trajectory is quite clear.

We're seeing that in numbers.

We're seeing more hunger, more suffering and a growing risk of family.

[Other language spoken]

And I will turn to my my colleague from UNICEFU too.

Thank you very much, Ross.

Maybe we'll start with Rainn Paulson first and then we'll go to Lucia Rainn from WFAO.

Sorry.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

And thank you for the opportunity to brief today on on the headlines of this important report from IPC that was just released.

And so to complement some of the elements that Ross just shared, one of the one of the pieces made very clear by this updated IPC analysis is that the hunger crisis in Sudan is not just about food availability right now.

It's also about the food systems that are sustaining people's lives.

And when we think about the impact that the years of conflict now have had on agriculture and rural livelihoods in conflict affected areas, the consequences substantial and in many cases devastating.

Productive assets have been destroyed, farmers have been displaced from that land, markets have been disrupted or are inaccessible to people.

Basic infrastructure, productive infrastructure, water systems, storage, transportation severely damaged in these conflict affected areas.

And so this combination of supply chain disruptions, input shortages, reduced agricultural production and missed planting seasons in these conflict affected areas have led to a sustained increase in food prices.

And as Ross was mentioning, we are rapidly approaching lean season and a particularly acute point of time in the in the calendar.

So urgent action is needed.

That's clearly the call that comes through this revised analysis.

Saving lives through food assistance and nutrition support is vital.

We need also to help the most vulnerable people to have food by helping themselves to plant, to harvest and to be able to sustain their families.

This means, in short, delivering seeds, tools, animal health services and support to keep local food production alive.

It's a vital life saving priority at this time and time is critical.

If we miss key agricultural seasons, the consequences we know will extend far beyond, just as this year.

So again, what is required now to change the direction?

What we urgently need collectively is heavy and sustained investment in the multi sectoral response that's underway.

And within that I'd highlight the need for emergency food production and livelihood support to be to also be prioritised.

As Ross was saying, humanitarian access at scale in conflict affected areas is vital.

And let me just close with underscoring the fact that peace is a prerequisite for food security and that the right to food is a basic human right.

And thank you for the opportunity to brief today and I look forward to questions later.

Thank you so very much.

Now we'll throw to Lucia Elmi, who's UNICEF Director of Emergencies, joining us from New York.

And thank you very much for this.

I know it's very early in the morning for you, but important to hear your voice.

So over to you.

Thank you and good morning, everyone, and thank you for having us together with the colleagues from FAO and WFP.

We work very closely together.

We will continue to do so and particularly in this very dire situation in Sudan.

Sudan now continues to face one of the world's largest and most severe hunger crises and children are at the centre of it.

The latest IPC analysis that shows that nearly 19.5 million people or two out of every five people across Sudan, as my colleagues have already said, are now facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

More than 5 million people are in emergency level of hunger, where nearly 135,000 people are already facing catastrophic conditions.

For children, the situation is particularly alarming.

UNICEF estimates that around 825,000 children are under the age of five are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year, the deadliest form of malnutrition that is the 7% increase compared to last year and 25% higher than the pre conflict level.

Between January and March alone, more than 98,500 children were admitted to treatment for a severe acute malnutrition.

Those are children whose immune systems have been pushed to the brink, children who became dangerously vulnerable to diarrhoea, cholera, measles, malaria and other diseases.

They continue to spread across the country.

In many parts of Sudan, conflict, displacement and collapsing of services are combined into a deadly cycle for children.

Around 40% of health facility are non functional.

17 million people are lack of access to save drinking water.

[Other language spoken]

At the same time, families continue to be approached by violence.

More than 8.9 million people remain displaced in Sudan.

Many are trapped in the areas where humanitarian access is extremely limited, but where a flat to a remote location with little access to food, healthcare or clean water.

The IPC analysis warns that 14 areas across their food and Cordova remain a high risk of famine in the coming months if conflict intensify further in humanitarian access deteriorate.

This is not a crisis we want to we can wait.

Without sustained humanitarian access, increased resources enable of of an end to virus, more children in Sudan will sleep beyond the reach of life saving assistance in weeks and months ahead.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you all very much.

It's it's hard to imagine the gravity of the situation, but you've really helped paint this picture, which which will hopefully, hopefully create some sort of response.

So we'll start off with any questions in the room, if any.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you very much for the update.

I was wondering if you could say a little bit about the, the hunger gap that's quickly approaching and and efforts to sort of to stock aid for that.

And how that's being impacted by the current disruptions if you have and how that will impact on hunger at this current moment?

[Other language spoken]

Maybe Ross, if you want to start off and colleagues please chime in.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, indeed.

And I think you're referring to the rainy season that that I mentioned.

But you know obviously we have a big gap in the overall response.

Pre positioning ahead of the rainy season has always been a major feature of the operations in in Sudan.

We are being impacted.

The operations in Sudan are being impacted by the rising cost of fuel and other other imported commodities from the Middle East.

This is at least 25% increase on the average level in Sudan.

And I have seen some figures from other other parts of Sudan, some of the more remote parts which are much higher than that.

So indeed it limits, you know, it effectively reduces the amount of coverage we have, it makes the operations more expensive.

And you know, another major factor in that prepositioning has been the lack of access to to some areas.

So we're just unable to preposition in some in some parts because of because of insecurity, but also because of of lack of approvals to to access certain supply routes.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks to you Ross.

Colleagues, if anyone wants to jump in, just maybe put your hand up.

[Other language spoken]

Ryan, I think did you want to add something?

[Other language spoken]

Just quickly, I, I, I think the this issue of time sensitivity and windows of opportunity is, is really key and comes through clearly in the analysis that was released by the IPC.

And as boss was referring to rainy season, I mean, if you think in terms of what people need to be able to plant and produce for themselves, these rains that vary a little bit by parts of the country.

But in this period, end of June, July, August, this is the key period for getting cereal seeds in the ground, sorghum and Millet, the key staples.

And we know what can be done because last year FAO alone was able to produce more than 500 million U.S.

dollars worth of food with about $15 million worth of seeds and inputs in a number of different locations.

But that was still only allowing the production of about 22% of the sorghum production that was that was produced nationally last year.

And of course, the overall numbers are are down a little bit.

So the points around funding, timing and access are absolutely indispensable, whether we're talking about emergency agriculture or other sectors.

And I think that's one of the things that I hope readers and and those that are following this take with them for action.

Thank you very much.

Miss Elmi, I think you wanted to add in, yes, as also was said for Somalia and also by my previous, previous colleagues, the impact of the Middle East crisis is also showing up on other, you know in Sudan, particularly for the the stockpiling of ready to use therapeutic feeding.

So we're already seeing delays, the increase of prices, very similar situation of Somalia.

So this is also unfortunately we continue to have an impact as well on our response in Sudan.

It's funding, but it access as also rain was saying, but it's really the impact of the overall crisis and the and the delays that we already starting to see linked also to price increases.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much all three of you.

Let's see if there are any further questions before we move on to the next subject.

I don't see that's the case you mentioned about.

I think it was you and I who talked about the fighting to stop this.

Precisely what the Secretary General has been saying since day one.

Cessation of hostilities, unhindered access of sustainable, sustained humanitarian access, safe under unhindered passage for people also seeking to flee.

So these are other very important messages in addition to yours, which you shared with us.

So thank you very much on this important announcement today.

And thanks for your your amazing work.

Ricardo, thanks for joining me here.

We now will shift to the situation in Ukraine.

And if I could call our guest to join me here on the podium.

[Other language spoken]

I believe, Yarno, you've been here before.

I think so, yes.

[Other language spoken]

So Yarno Habicht is a Ukraine representative for the World Health Organisation.

And Tariq is also joining us on the podium.

He's going to speak to the health situation in Ukraine.

And thank you very much again for joining us.

Thank you, thank you and thank you and great pleasure to talk to you in person as there are delegations coming to forthcoming World Health Assembly.

At the same time, in Ukraine, we witnessed yesterday the death and devastation as there were a number of attacks to the civilian infrastructure, which has continued since the 24th of February 2022 and the Russian Federation invasion.

But in addition, I like to bring to your attention the attack against the UN convoy, as the UN convoy delivering essential support to people in her zone was attacked just twice yesterday, twice where the OSHA and UNDSS mission was on the ground.

And there is more information.

But what it means is that humanitarians are not safe as well as many Ukrainians across Ukraine, and we need to continue this essential work.

But as the war continues at the day of 1541, I like to bring more the topic of health and public health to you and few aspects and particularly concentrate on six of them.

First, seasonality and health.

We are out of the cold winter where it has been essential to ensure that the hospitals and primary care centres have power heating water to ensure that there is a continuity of essential services And over the past years, WHO has been supporting facilities and hospitals with more than 300 generators and 26 heating stations to have the heat in the hospitals.

We have also installed number of water purification centres and water tanks that the services can be provided.

But now when I have been travelling across Ukraine, being in Mikolaev, Odessa, also in Harki, Vansumi, now everybody's getting ready to prepare for the next winter as the war goes on.

So the seasonality is extremely important.

But for public health, it's not only about winter for us as a public health specialist.

Equally important is the summer because due to the summer heat war related infrastructure damages as well as service disruptions, we need to ensure that we are ready for the heat related illnesses outbreaks and particularly waterborne, footborne and vector borne outbreaks as these will affect mostly the people living in the South and E part of Ukraine.

Second, attacks on health.

The attacks on civilian infrastructure and the impact across the whole country has been there for years long, but just last week we passed 3000 attacks on Hells mark.

It means 2 attacks per everyday and this is putting in risk having access to care it.

We have lost number of healthcare workers and since 24th of February 2022 this has caused 239 deaths and 991 injuries where every fifth attack is against ambulances and medical transport.

So those who are going to save others are actually putting their lives in risk every day.

We have seen intensified attacks on health since 2024 as as we enter to the 26, this has continued.

The third I'd like to bring to you is health of people.

The war has devastating effect to health of people.

Now, if we compare to the time before the War, Two out of three people will say that their health has worsened through this war and during the last over four years.

In the past, every second person in the past year has said that their health has deteriorated related to the sleep disorders, having headaches and migraines, anxiety, depression and PTSD.

The cumulative stress and also the past four years disruption in the health system has manifested also an increase of chronic diseases.

And why I'm talking about that is extremely important aspects of human capital, because these are the people who are at the same time living and in Ukraine and also there to contribute to the development.

We have seen in hospital admissions 11% increase of strokes and 7% increase in myocardial infarctions.

And we notice that health situation is commonly worse among those who are looking shelter, those who are the internally displaced, who have been pushed out from their homes.

And these are millions of people within Ukraine, more than 3 million, and we see that their health situation is worse.

4th, I wanted to mention the adaptation because the health system in Ukraine is working, but it is adapting to this very volatile and very violent environment which is there around.

When we have surveyed a population, we see that 68% of people have visited their primary care, and it's very similar to our own countries in the West and other parts of the world where there are no wars.

And 85% of people say that they are satisfied with the quality of services they are getting.

So we need to put these two sides together.

There are attacks on health, but the health system is functioning, but healthcare workers are under constant risk.

So in that environment also Ukraine is introducing new vaccines, ensuring that the services are provided and ensuring that also services are provided in the front line.

So a few words as a fifth on WH OS actions.

There are a lot that we have been doing as well, many partners and I'd like to thank everybody who has been very busy in the last years as WHO we have delivered 320 metric tonnes of medical supplies to the heart to reach Arias.

These are done together with AUN convoys, 41 convoys last year.

And as I started, I mentioned these convoys have been attacked as of yesterday as well.

The WHOWFB and UN convoy was attacked also in October last year.

But we need to continue to do that and WHO has been also working on our own convoys to ensure that the medicines are available for those living in the front line.

Primary care has been provided to 20,000 people and we are building back and that's why WHO has invested to 28 modular primary care and emergency care units that have been built to provide services to 168,000 people.

And this is important to have a trust to the system.

Of course, the capacities need to be built on mental health, trauma care, rehabilitation, because we have 168,000 medical devices, assisted devices distributed for rehabilitation.

Without war, these 168,000 assistive technologies would not have been needed.

So this is the scale of the devastation and the disruption.

Finally, I'd like to thank all the partners who are staying with solidarity with energy and with a focus in that new environment where we are living globally to support also the humanitarian and the development support.

However, the humanitarian partners in Hells, we have more than 100 partners under Hells cluster.

They have available as of today only every 3rd dollar that they planned to reach 1.3 million in Ukraine.

So we need to continue to ensure that the resources are there as the attacks continue and people need care.

At the same time, I like to thank all the partners who are providing budget support because of this budget support.

Actually Ukrainian doctors, nurses, those who are in the ambulances have continued to work.

And I like to thank those who are providing resources, but also those who have courage to do everyday the work they do.

And finally, I like to mention with the hope that there is a recovery and reconstruction going on that builds the trust and that allows to continuously to invest that actually the services are available.

And why that is important is that means that we have the courage to work on humanitarian response recovery, but keeping the development focus also for the future because we don't want to leave behind those who are living currently in Ukraine and those next generations to live in Ukraine.

So thank you next to you.

It was excellent, incredibly important brief.

Thank you very much.

Arno, see if there are any questions, I'm looking to you in the room.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for coming.

It's nice to see you.

So I was just wondering, could you say a little bit more about the mental health concerns because you're talking about these these constant attacks and the health system that's continuing to function, but it must be under an incredible strain.

So how are how are you dealing with, I guess, especially among health workers?

[Other language spoken]

So mental health has been a priority for many partners and also for the government and particularly Ukraine has launched its own all Ukrainian mental health programme under the leadership of First Lady or Lena Zelenska.

And we as a partners have been behind that.

So first, what is important, what I have seen the unity among the partners, both national internationals to work on mental health all together and that's important because we need to support many.

Now the needs have been growing because in the beginning, if you remember our first briefs in February, March 2022, we said that we estimate that 10 million people would need support on mental health.

Now as the war goes on, on the 5th year, this, these needs have been increasing, those who need support, but also our latest data shows that 71% of people have episodes of anxiety, stress, sleepless nights.

So when we look to the mental health, we see the impact now, we know that there will be impact for generations to come.

So from mental health, the focus from my personal perspective, we have work to do until end of the century.

And now how we have addressed that is there are more than 150,000 healthcare workers trained in the past years in The Who tools called MH Gap and others, which has allowed the primary care doctors and many specialists in the hospitals to provide services to people.

Are we reaching to all people?

No, we know that not everybody who has mental health needs reaches out to the doctors, to the caregivers.

And that's why also mental health support has been integrated to all the sectors.

So it's not only the work of the health sector but equally across many.

But there is a lot of work to be done in the mental health for the coming years and we are there to support that area.

Thank you very much.

Further questions online or in the room, I don't see that's the case.

I think you were very, very clear and comprehensive in your brief.

[Other language spoken]

And do come back and join us again for this update.

Thank you and good to be in person.

[Other language spoken]

Nice to see you.

[Other language spoken]

We have a few announcements.

We'll start off with Zaina ILO and then we have an announcement as well from UNAP and WMO.

But I'll turn immediately to Zaina who's going to talk about the International Labour Conference starting next month.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, morning, colleagues.

Thank you very much.

I've got 2 announcements to share with you today.

The first one is to let you know, if you're not aware already, that on Monday we will be releasing the new Employment and Social Outlook 2026 update, which will be looking at the impact of the Middle East crisis on labour markets.

The report is available under embargo.

We've received a couple of requests and we'll be sharing the embargoed copy with you quite soon.

On Monday, we're holding an embargoed briefing at 9:30 AM Geneva local time, which is until 10:00 in the morning and 10:00 is when the embargo will be lifted on both the content of the online press briefing as well as the actual report.

The briefing will be led by our ILO Chief Economist, Sangyong Lee, along with Cher Varrick, his deputy, and Maurizio Busia, who's the Director of our Action Crisis programme.

And you can expect to see a new estimates on potential impact on jobs, working hours, labour incomes under different energy price scenarios depending on how long the current crisis continues.

Do reach out to US newsroom@ilo.org and we will make sure to share with you the embargo copy as soon as it's ready.

And if you'd like to attend the online Zoom briefing, also do reach out to us and we will make sure that you have all of the information that you need.

I'd also like to it's not an announcement, it's a reminder slash re announcement about our upcoming International Labour Conference is the 114th session of the ILC and it will be held from the 1st until the 12th of June.

This is our annual conference where workers, employers and government delegates from our 187 member states come together to discuss some of the most important issues in the world of work.

They will be looking at the report of our Director General and of our chairperson.

They'll be looking at programming and budget and application of international labour standards.

Now there are a number of important policy themes discussions that will be taking place, including one on social dialogue and try partism.

They'll have we'll have a second second standard setting discussion on decent work in the platform economy and a general discussion on gender equality and the world of work.

The full agenda is available on our ILO website.

The website is being updated slowly but surely with that relevant documents and information.

And you can also find the accreditation information as it relates to you on the website as well.

And as always, my team and myself are available if you'd like to reach us via e-mail.

Thank you very much.

Thanks to you, Sena.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, accreditation information.

So we, we won't have access with our UN badges.

You will have access to your batches.

Yeah, but there'll be information about, I forgot to mention one important thing is that this year it's taking place on three different sites.

So it's, it's taking place here at the, at the Pali.

It's also taking place at the ILO as well as the sorry, give me a minute, the CICG, which is the Geneva International Conference Centre.

So be good to just take a look and reach out if you've got any questions about any of the sites.

It's an unusual setup this year.

But yeah, the badges will be good for all three locations.

They should be in principle, but but do get in touch because we're still ironing out the back and forth to the CICG.

Will things be available?

Can we follow online or is it only in person?

[Other language spoken]

Some sessions will be streamed online and others will not be streamed online, in which case it would have to be in person.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Did you have another question or?

Yeah, I was looking at Tarek as rudely turning the other way towards my colleague in the front row.

But we do have a few other announcements.

Maybe if there are no further announcements for Sena, I'm going to release her.

And then maybe before we go to you, Tarek, let me just quickly throw to Alejandro and Claire.

We've been waiting patiently.

Thank you very much, Sena.

So, Alejandro, maybe we'll start with you.

Alejandro, OK, You're We can't hear you.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I think we have an issue.

Is he unmuted?

[Other language spoken]

OK, tell you what, we'll we'll go back to you.

Maybe we'll go to Claire quickly and then we'll come back to you.

Maybe just to log out and then come back in.

Claire Nullis of the World Meteorological Organisation.

[Other language spoken]

OK, right.

Can you see and hear me?

[Other language spoken]

I'll be very quick.

Umm, just to say that the, uh, World Meteorological Organisation on Monday the 18th of May is releasing its, uh, report on the state of the climate in Latin America and the Caribbean.

It's one of our regional series of climate reports.

Umm, we issued the one for Europe a couple of weeks ago.

Umm, so this is the one for Latin America and the the Caribbean.

[Other language spoken]

I'm not sure that there's actually going to be a press conference because we're not responsible for the, for the launch arrangements.

But if you do need interviews with any of the principal authors, just please.

[Other language spoken]

And you should have received the embargoed materials this morning in your inboxes.

We're still awaiting the press release in Spanish.

The full report is is already available in Spanish, but all the material is, is also in English.

So that's, that's all I have to say.

Thanks very much.

OK, thank you very much, Claire.

[Other language spoken]

I think that's was very clear.

So thank you very much for joining us and for your patience.

[Other language spoken]

We're going to try again with Alejandro to see if that's working your link.

Otherwise, I'll go to Tarek for an update on the WHA.

Alejandro, I think it should work now.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

I'm here to speak to you about a report by the UN Environment Programme Unit and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.

It's the 10th edition of the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction from 2025 to 2026, and it's going to be officially launched next week on Tuesday the 19th of May at 8:00 AM Geneva time.

It assesses progress across the the sector, the buildings and construction sector using several key indicators covering policies, finance, technologies and investment aligned with global efforts.

[Other language spoken]

It is very timely because it is published in the middle of a global housing and an energy affordability crisis.

And it stresses how climate action in in buildings can reduce energy bills, improve living conditions and strengthen resilience to climate impacts while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Now there's a series of very interesting figures and and percentages that I can't share now because it is under embargo, but I will at least give you a sense of what to expect to find in the report.

[Other language spoken]

Or rather, how much more are we building?

What is the environmental footprint of the building sector?

What percentage of global material extraction does the building and construction sector account for?

What about global emissions and global energy consumption?

Our buildings becoming more energy efficient and and at what rate, what are buildings operation emissions like?

What percentage of buildings energy demand is supplied by renewables at this moment and and what has the trend been and green building certifications increasing.

There's also a series of examples in many different countries across the world, positive examples related to operational emissions, emissions released before and during construction, growth in renewables, national climates, action plans covering building sector strategies, etcetera.

I'm going to stop there.

As I mentioned, it's going to be launched on the 19th.

We do have a set of materials including a press release, key messages and the report itself that can be shared with you under embargo.

Thank you very much and have a good rest of the day.

Thanks to you, Alejandro.

Do we have questions for Alejandro?

No, I think it was very, very clear.

So thanks for your intervention and again for your patience.

So we'll go now to Tara for the WHA kicking off Monday.

[Other language spoken]

All right.

Well, on Sunday, Sunday morning, we will have a walk to talk just here in front of in front of the UN as we had previous years.

I hope you all received the media advisory we have sent last evening that has all the practical information that all reporters have to know.

Also that spells out little bit areas that will be discussed by member states from global health system to emergencies, shaping health policies, but also discussing budget, finance and constitutional matters of WHO.

So we will this year exceptionally have Assembly at the boat at Palais, at and at WHO.

So here at Palais, we will have a plenary in Committee B, while Committee A will be in the auditorium in, in, in, in, in The Who.

So there will be shuttle services that that reporters may may use.

So for Palais journalist, you, your badge will be activated on the first day when you come to WHO.

So you can use your badge at W 20 to be activated for the duration of the assembly.

So until 23rd, we have as always, number of reporters who are accredited specifically for, for the World Health Organisation for the World Health Assembly.

They're not here today, they're not listening.

But we have again, a group of journalists who will be following specifically for them.

This, this system is a little bit different, but they have been informed about that.

So we at The Who we have a, as you know, our media team is much smaller this year than previous years.

So but we will do our best to, to help you with, with whatever you may, we may, you may need add the plenary.

There will be dedicated press space.

Usually you would have it, it was on a on a right side.

When you look from the from the stage this year, it will be on the left side at WHO there will be a press area near new press room that you can, you can come and use.

So that's it.

Otherwise, as always, there will be daily journals.

They will we will issue notes on what has happened, what has been adopted.

And again, we will be there for you.

Thank you very much and we'll be there for you as well to support, of course.

Thank you very much for that announcement.

OK, Maybe, Nina, we're going to go to somebody else first, if that's OK.

Go ahead, Dina, and then back to you.

[Other language spoken]

And sorry, Nina, my question is about the accreditation.

Our last, during our last meeting with Doctor Tedros, he promised to give us accreditation until the end of 2026 and I sent an e-mail from Akanu e-mail and a follow up without receiving any reply from your side.

I would like to follow up here today about this and when will we receive our or maybe activate our badges, UN badges also at the WHWHO building.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

We are aware of of your request.

[Other language spoken]

Again, this is a decision that will be first with with our security services.

So we are checking with our security services and we will follow their advice for the time being.

So badges that are issued by UNOC can be activated very easily.

As you know, it really takes a few seconds just to come to the reception and your badge gets activated for the duration that is needed.

So this time around it will be for the duration of the assembly.

But we are aware of your request.

But again, this is something that has to be approved by the by our security.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I have a few questions on the programme for next week.

So first, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that, what timing we can expect on Monday for starters, when we can expect the Doctor Tetris to speak.

I was also hoping you could say how many delegates you're expecting and how many ministers, any heads of state, if we could have an overview of that and a list would be helpful.

It would also be good to know because your programme doesn't really, it's very, it's quite difficult to tell when things are going to happen for planning purposes.

Would it be possible to know when issues might be discussed on for example, resolutions around the Middle East on the Palestinian issue on hantavirus, which I guess isn't on the programme, but it would be nice to know if you when you expect that might come up.

[Other language spoken]

So these are the exactly the same questions we get every year.

And the answer is always unfortunately we cannot answer many of those questions right now.

The list of participants will be posted.

It's it's usually at the last moment.

So, so we have to see with our our colleagues from governing bodies when they will have that list posted and it's changing, you know, the delegations, you know, announced, but then there are always changes.

So on the first day, as you have seen in a in a media advisory.

So we will have a high level welcome opening of the assembly election of the officers, different committees.

There will be addressed from the from the president and then there will be a speech by by Doctor Tedros.

As always, what time I have to check really.

But we will, what, what we are planning to do is every year is that we will have a e-mail list with all the Pallais reporters plus those who are specifically accredited for the assembly.

And we send you things as we get to know.

So then we said, hey, look, we expected the, the, the Doctor Tedder speech at this particular time, or we expected the, the, the, the discussion on this particular point at, at that time.

It's, it's, it's really moving.

But just to stay, stay, stay with us.

You know that we, we can't really predict how long discussions will go on certain items.

And then it can be that items are moved either forward, but more, more usually they are, they are moved to the, to the later stage.

But again, it's, we will do our best.

So journals are good thing to, to look in the morning.

It gives you really the, the orientation what, what, what's going to happen that day and and then you, you just call us and then we will, we will try to get again it.

It really doesn't.

A lot of these things do not depend on WHO, it depends on the on the discussions of member states.

So it's not as deciding that item will start at 11:00, sorry, but just on some some of the specific issues.

Generally you have some kind of idea when maybe resolutions might be discussed or when if there's a specific day for look at the agenda, there is a agenda is posted.

So it's not daily journal is is something that is a little bit more precise, but agenda is already there.

[Other language spoken]

I don't have it here in front of me.

OK, I think all right, thanks.

I'm sure there'll be a lot more information to come out.

There is another question for you.

[Other language spoken]

We all know that you, you and The Who press team do a lot of does a lot of lot do a lot of efforts to to to keep up keep us informed.

You may assess Nina said what is important for us for especially, you know, for agencies.

But because we cannot catch I mean, we we we need to inform to be.

I mean to follow at the moment what is happening.

And as you said, everything move can move at the last minute.

So you may also apart from warn us by e-mail, you can use also maybe they, they can contact us through the Alcano Secretariat to, to inform us about, you know, we have had Alcano group and this is very useful because it's something that we, we see very rapidly.

So you, you may do this also at the same time that you send the emails.

I don't know if you find that this, this is a good idea, but the, the question is to be really at the last minute to, to, to, to be able to come to, to connect to the, to the, to the assembly if it's necessary.

[Other language spoken]

The, the thing for us is that, you know, usually we send, we have a platform that we send all our press releases, it's through campaign monitor.

Now with assembly, it's a little bit different because we have all those people who are here just for the assembly.

So we want to inform you and them at the same time.

And that's why this e-mail system worked pretty well previous years.

So you receive e-mail directly from my e-mail address or from Christian's e-mail address saying, hey, this is happening or this is what we have to, to tell you.

And, and I hope it, it will work.

It will work this time as well.

Because we have really truly, there's only three of us in the team now and we have two, we have two venues.

So we have to discuss like, you know, one person will have to stay probably at Palais and other person have to be at WHO?

So we'll we'll see how we can we can do it.

It's not easy.

[Other language spoken]

Appreciate the efforts for this important meeting.

And Sir, we'll be hearing from you regularly.

So thanks Tarek.

I don't think Oh, is that a follow up is Isabel?

[Other language spoken]

I wonder if you you may have any idea if you want to organise some press briefing or technical press briefings, you know, like you, you did a few years ago for the any important issue or or not or we cannot expect that.

Well, that reminds me, I didn't, I didn't mention, I didn't remind you that we have a press briefing today.

So Doctor Tetris is having press briefing today at 3:00 and and he will obviously talk about about upcoming assembly as well, among other issues.

So that's that's one next week while we have Palais briefing so that we can come and and speak, we will see.

It's really on the during the assembly.

We are really have to be flexible and see what's what's.

As situation develops, as resolutions are being adopted or there are issues being discussed, then we are we are flexible and to organise.

But again we have a press area, we have a stakeout area.

We can if you have follow particular topic, we can find WTO experts for you to speak.

When it comes to delegates, as always, you know, you approach delegates and, and try to get, get information from them and their point of view.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, I just wanted to back up Isabel on the fact of we miss those briefings that you used to have, which were daily briefings during the World Health Assembly where we actually got some information about what had happened during the day and what to heck expect the next day.

Because your programme is very or the agenda is very difficult to read and to understand when things are going to happen.

So I just it would I know that you guys are understaffed, but it would be very helpful.

Noted.

[Other language spoken]

You can count on us for support as well.

I know it's a it's a very big event for you as well journalists.

So thanks for your reporting there on.

OK, just a few announcements as usual, the secretary general statements.

We'll start off with the couple that were shared with you yesterday.

One speaks to the the donation from the United States of 1.8 billion for life saving humanitarian work.

This was following an announcement yesterday by the US.

So the SGU responded to that.

There was a message as well from the Secretary General concerning the release of more than 1600 conflict related detainees in Yemen.

So a very welcome development, which we have a statement on a couple of meetings taking place here.

We have the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council closing its session today.

This afternoon we'll adopt 14 state reports on the reviews which take place over the last two weeks.

So that's this afternoon.

We also have another update I received from Pascal concerning another Human Arts Council related meeting taking place starting on Monday the 18th, 18/19/2021.

So next four days next week the right, the working group on the right to development's 27th session taking place in The Tempest building.

And this is an important gathering of the working group.

We'll continue to monitor and review progress made in the promotion and implementation on the right to development.

It'll also hold an interactive discussion with the special rapporteur on the right to development as well as the expert mechanism on the same subject, the right to development.

So that's taking place to consult Pascal if you have any questions.

Just to mention that the Security Council on the other side of the pond is meeting this afternoon.

Our time on the situation in the Middle East in a public meeting, press conferences.

We did announce it once, I'll announce it again.

Press conference at Padley Wilson down by the lake, a very important gathering with the head of the UN Human Rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Press conference 2:00 PM, 2:00 PM on this this coming Monday the 18th with Ajit Sunge, who is the head of the that office, who you know well, I have an announcement from the Secretary General's travel plans.

The Secretary General this week and will be travelling to Tokyo where he will chair a the biannual session of the UN System Chief Executive Board for Coordination, otherwise known as the CEB, which brings together heads of UN agencies, head of UN systems organisations.

So the SG will also be meeting with the Emperor of Japan, I don't know the specific time as well as the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs will share with you, as we always do, readouts of those meetings.

Mr Guterres will also participate in a high level symposium entitled Celebrating 70, Japan UN Cooperation Expo 2025 and the Future of Multilateralism.

Lastly, in terms of Secretarial's plans, he is planning expected to hold a press conference on the 20th of May that's Wednesday.

And of course, this will be in Japan.

So we'll share with you the transcript as we always do.

That's all I have.

[Other language spoken]

No, thank you very much.

Have a nice afternoon.

See you here on Tuesday.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 15 May 2026