Welcome to the press briefing of the United Nations here in Geneva.
Today is Friday 5th of June, World Environment Day, as you all know.
So I hope you'll do something for Environment today to celebrate it.
And I just would like to welcome a very long list of speakers.
Thank you very much for being with us.
And I have the honour to start with OCHA.
Yentz was on the podium with me, brought us Imran Riza, the humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon from Beirut.
And we'll also hear from Andrew Saberton from UNFPA, the Deputy Executive Director for management, who's also calling in from Cairo, also briefing on Lebanon.
So I'll start now with Yentz for some introductory remarks.
And we will go to Mr Riza just after Yentz, please.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Before I hand over to Imran Risa, who is speaking to us from Beirut, I just want to say that the material that I shared under embargo yesterday with you, that embargo is now lifted, obviously.
It includes this one, which is A2 page summary of the flash appeal that will go online in full later today at around 2:30 Geneva time.
But in in, in this one, you have, I would say the vitamins and nutrition concentrated.
So with that, I'll hand over to Mr Risa.
Thank you, Alessandra, and thanks to all of you for your interest in reporting on the crisis here in Lebanon.
Later in the day, we will be launching A humanitarian flash appeal jointly with the government.
In the past three months, communities across Lebanon have faced an appalling situation due to the escalation of hostilities.
We have witnessed too many casualties, widespread and repeated displacement, destruction of housing and basic service infrastructure and far reaching psychological trauma.
The toll on civilians is alarming and worsening by the day.
More than 3500 people have been killed and more than 10,000 have been injured.
Nearly 1,000,000 people remain displaced from their homes.
Health workers and 1st responders are facing death and injury on a horrific scale.
Entire neighbourhoods have been turned to rubble.
Families have lost their homes and livelihoods.
Food security is rapidly deteriorating.
At least 1.4 million people need humanitarian aid.
In the communities I have visited in recent weeks, I was shocked by the devastation of infrastructure and essential services.
Hospitals and clinics hit by air strikes, government buildings destroyed, agricultural land scorched, water stations demolished and schools turned to displacement sites.
Not all the damage is physical.
The psychological trauma of conflicts cuts deep into the fabric of daily life, with emotional scars that will last longer than the sound of guns and bombs.
The people of Lebanon have developed a remarkable strength to withstand the hardest of times.
But even this exceptional resilience has its limits.
I was recently in the City of Tier, meeting with displaced people in a collective shelter.
Some families told me that they had been forced to move five times.
Their wishes were crystal clear.
A true stop to hostilities, the possibility of rebuilding their lives and hope for the future of their children.
Three months ago, we launched our original flash appeal in the immediate aftermath of the escalation, which of course started on the 2nd of March.
Since then, humanitarian donors have provided 190 million U.S.
dollars to enable the government and humanitarian community to respond effectively and rapidly.
These efforts have provided life saving assistance to more than 680,000 people during the first phase of the flash appeal, but humanitarian needs are soaring with each day of the conflict.
Our work is unfortunately far from over.
Today we call for an additional $331.5 million to sustain life saving efforts for 1.4 million people, bringing our overall ask for the Flash appeal through August of this year to 639.9 million.
It'll be in that handout that the Yens was was talking about earlier that that sharped the this humanitarian funding is not just an act of compassion, it is an investment in peace, stability and humanity itself.
Our objective is to support government LED efforts in confronting the severe humanitarian crisis.
Through the plan launched today, we will sustain and expand the provision of life saving aid and protection to displaced families as well as their hosts, with particular attention to risks exacerbated by conflict such as gender based violence.
We will prioritise our support for the most vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled.
We will not forget the communities remaining behind the front lines and in the hardest to reach faces.
In fact, we have two convoys right now in hard to reach places this morning, and we will bolster the courageous efforts of frontline responders and demand their protection under international humanitarian law.
Civilians, unfortunately, will continue to bear the heaviest burden of hostilities.
First, the escalation of violence must stop.
There is no military solution.
Dialogue and a full cessation of hostilities will pave the way for an end of humanitarian needs.
Second, international humanitarian law must be respected.
Civilian, civilian infrastructure, aid workers, medical personnel must be protected at all times.
This means safe, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access, including safe passage for civilians that are fleeing hostilities and displacement orders, as well as access of humanitarians to hard to reach areas.
Finally, we need the funding we need to scale up humanitarian funding.
Urgent, predictable and sustained financing to the Flash Appeal that we are launching today will help save lives.
Thank you very much, Mr Riza.
And before I open the floor to question, let me also give the floor to Mr Saberton from UNFPA on the UNFPA part of the Flash Appeal.
Lebanon, Andrew, thank you and good morning to everyone.
I returned from Lebanon two weeks ago, where I met displaced families, health workers, government counterparts, and humanitarian partners responding to a crisis that continues to deepen despite the ceasefire.
What struck me most was that nearly everyone I met told me the same thing.
They want to go home, but many may not have homes to go back to.
In one shelter, an extended family told me that they had been displaced multiple times over the past few years.
The only family member who had not experienced multiple displacement before was a six month baby born shortly before the family was forced to flee once again.
Today, more than 1,000,000 people remain displaced across Lebanon and among them are an estimated 390,000 women of reproductive age, including 16,000 pregnant women.
As this crisis becomes increasingly protracted, it is evolving into a health and protection crisis.
Around 1800 women are expected to give birth every month and yet healthcare facilities continue to come under attack.
Hospitals and primary healthcare centres have been forced to close and women are finding it increasingly difficult to access essential maternal health services.
Some have already been forced to give birth in difficult and unsafe conditions.
Women and girls also facing heightened risks of gender based violence, overcrowded shelters, lack privacy, adequate sanitation and basic protection measures.
More than 600 thousand women and girls are estimated to be at risk of gender based violence.
Just this week, a UNFPA supported Primary healthcare Centre and women and girls safe space in South Lebanon, which I visited while it was being rebuilt in 2025, was once again severely damaged by air strikes.
These were amongst the few very few facilities that continue to operate in the area but now they too have been shut.
This underscores once again the importance of international humanitarian law being adhered to.
Healthcare should never be a target and such attacks deprive women and girls of life saving care when they need it most.
UNFPA is working closely with the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, local partners and women LED organisations to sustain critical services.
During my visit, I toured the Ministry of Public Health Central Warehouse with the Minister of Public Health where UNFPA has delivered recently 14 tonnes of reproductive health supplies through three EU Humanitarian Air bridge flights.
These supplies are helping women continue to access safe childbirth services, emergency obstructed care and support for survivors of gender based violence.
Today, under the revised Interagency Flash Appeal for Lebanon, UNFPA is appealing for 25 million U.S.
dollars to reach 450,000 people between March and August 2026 with life saving sexual and reproductive health and protection services.
But as of today, only 16% of this appeal has been funded.
The cost of inaction will be acute.
Without additional resources, nearly 203,000 people will lose access to life saving health and protection services in the next 6 months.
Mobile medical teams will be forced to scale down and health facilities will lose critical supplies and thousands of women and girls will lose access to maternal healthcare, protection services, psychosocial support and safe spaces.
The consequences will be lives lost, rights denied, and futures diminished.
Sustained investment is essential to protect the health, safety and dignity of women and girls, and to prevent a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.
In closing, I'd like to echo the Secretary General's call to end the hostilities and alleviate the suffering of communities on both sides of the blue line.
We urge all actors to cease any further attacks and to comply with their obligations under international law.
Thank you very much, Andrew.
Let me open the floor to questions now.
My question for Mr Riza Imariza.
One, 4.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
What that's mean exactly?
Food needs, health needs.
Can you give us please some details about the the situation in in Beirut air and of the South of the yellow, so-called yellow line exactly how they are leaving today?
Uh, yes, umm, sorry, 1.4 million.
That includes, of course, the displaced people, umm, and from, from the displaced, we have about 130,000 that are in collective shelters and umm, most of the others, uh, are, are with, are either renting or in unfinished buildings or with relatives or with others.
Uh, and a lot of the assistance for them is, uh, obviously through cash, umm, to try to help them to, to, to survive.
Host communities are another, umm, population that we have to be assisting, umm, to make sure that also tensions are not rising in terms of what's going on.
And the last group is of course, what you were talking about in terms of those that are either beyond the frontline or in other hard to reach areas where there's active conflict that's going on.
Umm, what our estimation is that below that self declared military line, there are probably around 28,000 people at this time.
But as we see, there are a lot of displacement orders happening all the time.
And in fact, this morning there have been a number that have been issued that people keep moving.
So it's very difficult to know where people are at certain times.
It takes a little bit of time to get that in terms of what we need to provide.
Umm, Andrew was talking very much about it being a protection crisis.
There is a lot, a lot that that we need to be doing in terms of that.
But of course, the basics about food, about shelter, about water, water becomes extremely important now we're getting into the summer and there have been a lot of water facilities that have been damaged extensively from what's going on.
So it is all of that that needs to be handled at this point.
Thank you very much, Mohammed.
My question is also for Mr Riza.
So you said nearly 1,000,000 people remain displaced from their homes in Lebanon, even if it's a fragile, there is a ceasefire over there.
My question is what is the process of four people, people returning to their homes and how many people returned homes since the ceasefire was announced?
Many people, we were talking about how we when we meet with displaced people, many of them have moved 2345 times because they think they can move back at certain points.
When I was in Thea, the families that I met over there had not only been displaced in 24, but in the recent period about 3-4 times, umm, when they heard that there was a ceasefire, they moved back.
There were again displacement orders.
There was again conflict that was happening.
It's very fluid in terms of that.
But what we do know is that at the end of the conflict in 24, we had about 68,000 people that were, uh, internally displaced who could not go back to their villages after the cessation of hostilities at that point because either the security situation there or mainly that their villages have been destroyed.
I think our estimation now is that number is going to be much, much larger, at minimum, probably around 200,000, but probably more than that.
And that means we're going to have a protracted displacement that we need to also deal with.
Other questions in the room.
Thank you very much for the briefing.
I was wondering if given the amounts that you've asked for now for just three months, how you see this developing going forward?
It's already more than double what you were asking for initially in March.
So, and given the the very fragile ceasefire, if you can call it that, that that's in place, what are your hopes that you won't be asking for the same amount in three months time?
Well, we're, we're, we're actually hoping.
I mean, there's, there's, as, as we, we're seeing, there are, there is a dialogue happening, there are negotiations happening.
We're hoping, we were hoping that at this point we would actually not need to be going up with an extension or revision of, of, of the flash appeal.
Umm, I have no crystal ball about where things are going to go.
Umm, but, and I know that we have been, umm, uh, for, for a long period asking for humanitarian assistance.
Umm, Lebanon has gone through all these crises since 2019.
So it does not have the, umm, the sort of institutional capacity to deal with it.
And that's our main message to donors.
I mean, we can move towards stability, we can move towards peace.
It's not through humanitarian assistance.
Obviously we need those political solutions.
But in the meantime, we have to not just have the humanitarian imperative in what we're doing, but also not let things get much worse on a peace and security level.
Any other question or any question to UNFPAI?
So I'd like to thank you and of course, but also very much Mr Riza and Mr Saberton to join us for this briefing on Lebanon.
We will continue speaking about the Middle East later on with Jamerton Bauer, who is patiently waiting from Rome.
Now to our colleagues of UNHCR because Matthew Brooke is connected from Juba and I like to give him the floor because the connection is is what it is.
I've seen your camera is on.
You're with us, Mr Brooke.
So you are the representative in South Sudan of UNHCR just to tell us about the situation, then we will go back to Middle East with Jean Martin just after Eugene.
You want to start or we go straight?
Thank you very much for joining today's briefing.
UNHCR today bring the focus on the worsening situation in South Sudan, particularly after the month of fighting and violence in John Glay states.
The briefing will be presented as Alexandra mentioned that our representative in South Sudan connected from Juba who has just returned from Akobo yesterday.
Just to give you the context of a discipline and situation in South Sudan.
South Sudan remain one of the worst, worst, most severe displacement situation with a 2.4 million S Sudanese refugee in the region, almost 2 million people internally displaced and 1.2 million spontaneous refugee returnees.
And for many, this is not the first time they have been displaced.
I will give a floor to Matthew, who will give a more detail and information from the ground.
In fact, yeah, I was yesterday in Akobo in Jonglei State, which is in eastern South Sudan.
Right on the border with Ethiopia, along with the Unhcr's regional director for, for, for this region and the deputy special representative of the secretary general, we're able to witness first hand this very grave protection crisis which is evolving in, in John Ley state.
We've seen a repeated rounds of of conflict over the past month and 1000s of thousands of women, men, girls, boys have been forced to to leave their their homes.
Just in Akobo County, where we were yesterday, 140,000 have been displaced.
And then more broadly across Jonglei State, it's more than 300,000 and in, in addition, there's 100,000 that have gone across the border into Ethiopia.
So I, I, what did we see on the ground?
We did see thousands have started to return over the past couple of of weeks, even though conditions on the ground remain very, very difficult.
And I wanted to just reference in in particular, one woman who we met yesterday in a cobo.
She fled to Ethiopia 6 spent six weeks there due to the violence and and the conflict in a Kobo.
She returned back after spending this the six weeks in Ethiopia to find that her home had been looted, destroyed.
There's no roof, there's no door.
Her husband is is is missing.
So this is just one story we've heard there were also many children who have been traumatised by the violence in in a cobo.
Also multiple, we heard multiple reports of of women who have been affected by conflict related sexual sexual violence.
But at the same time, we also saw some promising signs the the resilience of the of the population.
Their the eagerness women spoke to us of the of the wish to rebuild to re engage economic activities.
There's a lot of potential as well.
It's a very fertile area.
So this is the kind of despair, but balanced as well by the by some signs of of of of hope.
So the the issues of the, the lack of of shelter and basic, basic services is really is sharply increasing the protection risk.
And we're particularly concerned about women and children exposed to exploitation, abuse and violence.
Also vulnerable groups, elderly population, disabled as well, given the the the challenges with respect to services, lack of healthcare facilities, etcetera.
At the same time, I need to mention the issue of humanitarian access, particularly as the rainy season has started in in South Sudan and this will make it even more difficult in the coming months to be able to provide a the the assistance that's that's necessary.
And the population is in is in a very difficult situation because they've moved repeatedly between South Sudan and Ethiopia.
So their resources have been exhausted.
And in many cases, returning to Akoba, returning to South Sudan is, is not a reflection of ideal conditions being in a place in, in a Kobo, but rather that they really have very few, few, few options.
We can also expect in the coming months as we enter into the rainy season, As I mentioned, flooding is a perennial issue and that will likely further complicate the, the situation, the humanitarian situation on the ground.
And then as my colleague mentioned, we this is all against the backdrop of the of the broader displacement crisis in, in South Sudan, 2.4 million S Sudanese hosted across the region, 2 million internally displaced within Sudan.
And we also have the impact of the ongoing conflict in, in Sudan.
So we are on the ground as UNHCR, along with our sister UN agencies, international and and local NGOs, working closely with the community to try to build up a community based protection, protection response, providing services, identifying those that are most in need and providing the necessary support.
But the issue is that the needs are growing so quickly that there's no way that the response can can keep up and the financial situation is difficult.
As UNHCR, we've received so far only 25% of the of, of the resources required to provide the necessary support.
And we're very grateful for that.
But we really urge urging our our partners, donors that we can, that additional assistance is provided.
South Sudan is often a bit neglected, doesn't have the same visibility some of the crises that are facing the world.
So we really urge that this can be taken into account going forward.
Thank you very much for these remarks.
Let me see if there are any questions for you in the room.
First, I don't see hands up and on the platform don't see hands up either.
But I thank you very, very much.
It's, it's very important to keep spotlighting this very dire situation, especially in South Sudan.
And thank you very much for connecting from Juba, Matthew, Brooke.
So let me now go back to Middle East with World with the World Food Programme and welcome Jean Martin Bauer.
I don't think I need to introduce you Jean Martin anymore.
The director of the World Food Programmes, Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service.
He is connecting from Rome.
I give you the floor to tell us about the Middle East crisis and the situation of hunger.
Well, thank you for the opportunity to brief you this morning.
When the Middle East crisis started, we at WFP conducted an analysis to estimate the potential food security impact.
And we told you back then that we projected that 45 million people would tip into acute food insecurity by the end of June should the barrel of oil remain above $100.00.
So here we are a few months into the crisis and what we thought we would do is look at the country level impacts.
We did deep dives in three countries.
So two of these are the 1st, 2 are humanitarian countries.
Sri Lanka is in a very different position, but we were trying to understand how this crisis is impacting food security globally.
And the, the findings of this report called Food Security Under Pressure tells us that we're seeing a cost of living crisis unfold across many geographies of the world.
And we need to be concerned and we need to respond to this crisis.
So let me tell you a little bit more about how about our findings and what we were able to do.
We were able to collect data in these three countries.
We're able to speak to to authorities.
We looked at the secondary information, we looked at the markets, the the updates on import flows.
And there's, there's definitely cause for concern from a food security standpoint.
Now we're looking at significant spillovers from this crisis in the Middle East, from the closure of Hormuz to countries that are sometimes very far from the Middle East.
And this is because of impacts on on fuel and food prices.
There have been income shocks and also the disruptions to trade and that's had an impact on food security and livelihoods.
And we, we project through this study that there will be significant impacts in the countries that I mentioned.
In Somalia, we estimate that 2.5 million people will not be able to afford basic food basket.
Basically people won't be able to afford the the central food that they need.
In Afghanistan, we project the 2.3 million people will not be able to well will fall into acute food insecurity.
So that's the IPC 3 and above.
And in Sri Lanka, again a very different situation to the first two countries, we estimate that 1.3 million people may be at risk of not being able to meet their foodies, that they're not able to buy the food that they need to everyday to feed their families.
So what we're seeing in these countries is that new groups are tipping into food insecurity.
That means the hike in in, in energy prices, the hike in food prices that has occurred in these countries is now affecting people like the urban poor or a marginal rural populations.
And in the case of you can think of the pastoralists of Somalia, you can think of the urban ultra poor.
So these are these are new groups that are being pushed into vulnerability to food insecurity as a result of this crisis.
We're seeing significant impacts on supply chain.
And this is an important point.
If you look at the global food markets, they're not anywhere near the highs that they reached in 2022.
But at the country level and in the fragile countries where we were looking at in the study, we're already seeing impacts on local food markets.
This is because shipping has been disrupted.
In the case of Somalia, import volumes have come down by 40% since the food import volumes have gone down by 40% since before the crisis.
And that's generating impacts on food markets at the local level, thereby undermining availability and affordability of food for, for for many people.
We see also the government fiscal space is quite constrained.
I think think of the, the fact that we've had three major crises this decade, the COVID pandemic, followed by the crisis in Ukraine and now this, this crisis due to the closure of Hormuz.
That is a lot to deal with for governments that might be tapped out fiscally.
And there's also the a significant impact on humanitarian operations.
And we've spoken to you about this and have more detail on it.
In the case of Afghanistan, our external transport costs having have been increased by a factor of 2.5 at least or delivery times used to be around 10 days to get food into Afghanistan from outside.
Now is taking as many as 75 when we use alternative corridors.
And the supply chains to Afghanistan are now indeed very long going through the Black Sea, the Caucasus, over the the Caspian Sea and and through Central Asia to get into Afghanistan from the north because the southern border with Pakistan is not, is not available to us now.
All this is impacts on honorability to to support people.
At the start of the year, the World Food Programme plan to support about 103 million people with essential food assistance, things like school meals, cash and voucher programmes.
With these higher costs of doing business because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on energy and and and other markets, we will already not be able to to serve 1.5 million of those.
And if the situation continues, that will go up to 9 million people who will no longer have access to the food assistance through WFP.
And globally, what should really have as concerned is the fact that there's an impact on stability.
We know that there are thresholds, food price thresholds above which violence and insecurity become much more likely.
Now we saw that in 2007 when there were food riots in more than 30 countries.
We saw that again in 2011 with the Arab Spring in 2022 also had an episode of a very high food prices and and greater instability.
And unfortunately, it looks like and what these studies are telling us is that these impacts are there in the in in fragile countries and we might be revisiting some of those issues very, very soon with more risk for, for geopolitical stability worldwide.
Now we're making recommendations in this study.
The first one is really to make sure we support the populations of the people who've been most affected by this crisis, that that has to be done in a way that's targeted and time bound through government social safety Nets.
Again, we're in a situation of repeated crises.
It makes sense to strengthen national systems and have a technical assistance and support to social safety net systems so that the resources can be directed to those groups that are falling into vulnerability.
We need to strengthen data systems, make sure that we have information about this dynamic situation.
The impacts are actually quite different in the, in the countries I mentioned and we, we need to make sure that we're able to pick up changes in food prices, changes in food consumption, changes in nutrition status to inform a response and make sure it's as effective as possible.
We need to safeguard humanitarian supply chains and ensure that they're they continue delivering the the assistance that's needed.
And some of that will be shortening the supply chains, localising what we can using cash transfers, but also ensuring the key enablers like the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service can continue operating.
In the case of Somalia, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service is facing much higher costs, and this is the only way to access some very vulnerable communities.
And this is a key enabler for the humanitarian community that needs to be protected.
And finally, we need to look at our targeting frameworks.
Over the past year, we've read very much in the humanitarian community focused on conflict and displacement.
Right now, we're in the presence of another major economic shock that is undermining people's ability to purchase the food that they need.
And increasingly, the study is called Food Security under Pressure.
Let me see if there are questions for you in the room.
Hi, Jean Martin, thank you very much for the briefing.
I was just wondering on the numbers that you said of people who would be losing, who would lose aid if this continues.
I think the report is talking about if it continues for six months, have you looked even further or is that too difficult a number to look at looking forward because it, it seems pretty staggering.
So the numbers we have are for this year, we, we operate on annual budget cycles and we haven't yet completed the calculations for 2027.
The the point really is that at higher costs, of course, the cost of serving up populations and humanitarian need goes up.
And, and indeed it for in a protracted scenario, and it looks like we could be in a protracted scenario, the same effects will be present in 2027.
The situation in the Middle East and its impact on energy and food markets is not the only cloud on the horizon.
There's also a forecast for an El Nino that's that could come up and also disrupt the food markets and cause additional need and additional stress going into 2027.
That's definitely a question and an issue we need to keep an eye on.
We heard from the from Sylvester Sour on Tuesday about this and its effect on the food situation.
Thank you very much indeed.
Jean Martin, I just had a question from a line I saw in the report which mentioned that there might be pipeline breaks for nutritious products in Somalia expected in the third quarter of this year.
I was just wondering if you could explain in kind of simple terms what that means, what that what that kind of impacts and what what do you mean exactly by a pipeline break?
And if you could just kindly explain is that driven by supply chain issues?
Is that funding issues, the logistics?
Yeah, just any detail that would be super helpful.
And what we point out at the report is that as soon as July supplies run out.
When we use the word pipeline break, it means there is no more food for us to provide beneficiaries.
And if it's nutritious food, it's the most vulnerable beneficiaries is children under 5.
So this is how serious things have become for us.
And so you're asking, is it funding or is it supply chain issues?
The supply chain issues meant that to bring supplies into Somalia, we faced some challenges that there have been way fewer port calls overall, not just WP, but if you look at the private sector, fewer port calls into Somalia since this crisis has started because the the disruptions have affected shipping in the Indian Ocean.
It's affected the shipping in the Pacific as well.
I mean, it's, it's really been an overall issue and we've had the food stranded in Salalah in Oman.
I mean that started moving again, but that's meant that food has not been available in Somalia.
And also it happens to be a very underfunded country.
And if I look at the reports, we have the gap of funding in Somalia in 2026 at 89%.
So it's both of these factors are contributing to what we're seeing right now.
I just wanted to clarify one thing in terms of third quarter, I mean how soon is that?
Is that in terms of month?
And then did secondly, I mean just to spell it out, I mean in terms of impact, what does that mean when the pipeline parts do you have a kind of backup?
Is there is there any way you can kind of read out divert or does this mean we are, you know, staring down the barrel of potentially, you know, thousands of of young people going, going without food and and therefore, you know, pushing many more children into higher classifications of food insecurity magician, etcetera.
So to be very clear, Olivia, the pipeline break is going to happen in July, according to my colleagues in Somalia.
And so that's very close to where we're at now.
So we are running out of food.
The food is not available for distribution.
And the ones who will experience the impact of this are going to be very vulnerable children under the age of five.
Somalia is a country where levels of vulnerability have increased according to the last IPC.
More than 6,000,000 Somalians are in IPC 3 and above.
That's up from 4.5 million, I believe in the, in the, in the previous round of the IPC.
So this is a country that's faced many challenges.
It's faced climate, well, irregular rainfall.
There's also now this reduction in humanitarian assistance.
And all this was before the crisis in the Middle East disrupted supply chains.
And the country is definitely looking at a very difficult situation.
And I do remind, I mean, you, you, you probably know this, Olivia, but just for everybody, there is a district in Somalia that is now currently in a risk of famine, according to the IPC.
So this is a very serious situation that requires immediate attention.
That's, that's not really the, the, the, the option in this type of situation, especially when shipping is so disrupted in, in the region.
I think the you get into very expensive options if it's the last minute, the airlift, these things cost a lot of money at a time where we're, we're very much funding constrained.
So action needs to be done now the to, to to fund that type of that type of of last resort measure.
I don't see other questions for you.
Thanks for for highlighting this terrible situation of what's coming up.
You're always welcome at the briefing and I like now we will continue talking about food in a moment with WHO and FAO.
But I'd just like now to give the floor to our friends from the IOM and Mr Goodstein, if you can come to the podium.
So we have an update on another dire situation.
We we need to put on the spotlight, which is this humanitarian situation in IT.
So we come here so that we are centred.
Oh, you want to introduce?
So we're here to brief the International Organisation for Migration today on Haiti.
We're going to talk about Haiti's displacement crisis, which is hitting a record 1.5 million people with escalating violence.
And specifically, we're going to talk about the the record figure reported by IO M's Displacement Tracking Matrix, which reflects A rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis marked by repeated waves of displacement.
The crisis is entering an even more alarming phase, and we're seeing violence spread into areas once considered safe.
So we're putting out a press release with a more granular breakdown of those figures.
But I bring to you to to speak about what is happening on the ground, our chief of mission from Haiti, Gregoire Goodstein.
Good morning to all, and thanks for having me.
A few weeks ago, a woman in her early 30s came to our offices in Port-au-Prince for a visa application.
Days earlier, she had fled Citi Soleil, which is one of the largest slums in Port-au-Prince, with more than 18,000 of her neighbours forced out by armed attacks to reach safety.
Her family waded through the sea up to their necks, then crawled through farm fields covered in mud and waste to avoid being seen by the gangs.
When she sat with our colleague colleagues more than a week later, she said in tears that she could still smell the cow dung in her hair and that she was ashamed others might too.
I've been in Haiti twice.
I was first the Chief of Mission in 2012 after the earthquake and I came back in June 2024.
Shockingly, the numbers of people displaced are the same.
Basically, it was 1.5 million after the earthquake and today we have 1.47 million.
The needs are nearly the same.
What is different is that displacement is caused by unexplainable violence.
I want to be clear about what we are witnessing.
Haiti is not experiencing a crisis that unfolds in stages, where violence peaks, then recedes, then recovery begins.
What we are seeing is the permanent simultaneity of hardship, armed violence, mass displacement, acute feud, insecurity, forced returns at scale, climate hazards, and institutions under pressure at every level.
They operate together continuously, each one making the others worse.
Over 5900 people were killed in Haiti by the end of 2025, more than 2700 wounded, nearly 650 kidnapped.
And critically, 79% of new displacement last year occurred outside of Port-au-Prince.
To date, nearly 1.47 million people remain displaced in the country.
The violence is no longer contained.
When I arrived in June 2024, there were two departments that were affected by gang violence.
It was to the West and the centre and the Artibonite.
Now it's expanded to the centre, to the northwest and to the South.
At the same time, forced returns continue without pores.
More than 270,000 a Haitians were forcibly returned in 2025 and since January 2026 / 110,000 more have arrived in the country.
25% of women, including breastfeeding mothers.
Nearly 10% are children, including unaccompanied minors and newborns.
Many are returned to areas with severely limited services or to neighbourhoods under armed group influence where they cannot safely go home.
For some, this is the first time in decades, or even in their lives, that they've returned to the country.
They arrive with nothing, into communities that are barely surviving themselves.
You have to keep in mind also some of the regions that they're returning to are actually enclaves.
Enclaves, because the armed groups are controlling all the neighbouring departments, is present where others cannot operate.
We are very much a frontline organisation.
Until March of this year, our teams conducted approximately 92% of all high risk missions in red zones across Port-au-Prince.
We work at the borders, in the displacement sites, in the fragile neighbourhoods where the lines between host community and displaced population has all but disappeared, and where violence from gangs is never far away.
We see what sustained presence makes possible.
Since December 2025, we recorded approximately 78,000 persons beginning to return to the areas of origin in communities in West Department outside the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, cautiously, incrementally, but moving.
We cannot assert that these returns are sustainable, but they are a signal and signals require investment to become something lasting.
But funding constraints now threaten our ability to remain operational beyond October, October 22nd to be exact.
We are at a critical juncture without predictable sustained support to our crisis response plan.
Our capacity to respond is at stake.
On top of that, the hurricane season is starting.
It started just on June 1st until the end of November and we can expect displays from its sites and site and cities to flood.
Every gap in our response is a gap that armed groups, trafficking networks and despair will fill.
What Haitian communities are asking for is not complicated.
A place to call home, safety in their neighbourhoods, access to basic services, livelihoods that allow families to remain together.
These are the foundations of stability and in Haiti today they are either fragile or non existent.
Short term relief alone cannot meet the scale or persistence of this crisis which has now been going for nearly five years.
What is needed is sustained support that connects immediate assistance with recovery and governance, and that invests in national systems and local ownership so that solutions endure beyond any single intervention.
The people of Haiti have not given up their will.
Sustained under conditions most of us will never face is the clearest argument for why continued engagement matters.
Thank you very much for this very, very timely information.
And on this dire situation, let me see if there's any question in the room or online.
But thank you very much for taking the opportunity of your visit to Geneva to come and brief our our Geneva press corps and and thanks to Zoe for for taking you to us.
Let's go back to food now.
And I'd like to ask Christian to come to the podium with her, with his colleagues.
And we're also connecting with Rome as we have a speaker coming in from that.
So let me welcome, in addition to our Christian doctor, Elaine Borghi, Unit Head Monitoring and Surveillance at the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO and Yuki Minato, the Technical Officer of the same department from also WHO.
And online we have Marcus Lip, the senior Food Safety officer at FAU connecting, I believe from Rome.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Today on the occasion of the word Food Safety Day 26 on 7 June.
They come this coming Sunday, an event organised by WHO and FAOWHO is drawing attention to a crisis that touch every family.
One in nine people globally unsafe food.
Yesterday, WHO released the key findings from the the estimates of the global burden of Food Borne Disease.
When countries know the scale and origins of their food borne disease burden, they unlock the power to act.
They can craft the smarter policies, sharpen surveillance, and build systems that anticipate risk instead of reacting to it.
The term of this year's World Food Safety Day From burden to solutions, safe food everywhere reflects the importance of translating evidence into action.
For the first time, countries have access to detailed national data covering 42 major foodborne hazards across 194 countries from 2002 2020 one.
This includes new assessments of metals hottavirus and the parasite that causes chagas disease.
New food WHO foodborne disease estimates show that in 2021 alone, unsafe food was estimated to have caused 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths worldwide.
Africa and Southeast Asia continue to bear the heaviest impact, and although globally decreasing, progress is uneven across visions and hazards.
Children under 5 face almost three times the risk of illness from unsafe food compared to the rest of the population, yet they are only 9% of the global population.
For many children, especially in low resource settings, diarrhoea diseases linked to contaminated food can be deadly, and chemical hazards like methylmercury and lead can cause lifelong harm to a developing brain.
Most illnesses come from biological hazards such as bacteria, virus and parasites, but chemical hazards are estimated to have caused 73% of all food borne deaths, even though they account for less than 1% of all illnesses in 2021.
Inorganic, carcinic and LED alone are linked to more than a million deaths per year.
This also is a cries of equity.
Children and people living in low and middle income countries continue to face the greatest risk, and climate change and dianthamicrobial resistance are making the situation even more dangerous.
The global economic toll of unsafe food is massive, estimated to be more than $3 billion in lost productivity, nearly six, 650 billion when adjusted for cost of living differences, and this is excluding the cost of medical care.
As we mark the word Food Safety Day 2026, we have both a wake up call and a road map.
A1 health approach linking human, animal, plant, environment, health is essential.
Countries must use this a new estimate to target interventions, strengthen surveillance and breakdown silos across sectors.
Food safety is a shared responsibility.
With political commitment and coordinated action, we can prevent millions of illnesses and deaths.
We we call to act now, protect the vulnerable and make safe food a reality.
And let me give now the floor to Marcus Lip for FAO.
Yeah, thank you very much.
The everyday unsafe food harms life, livelihoods and economies.
And that's of course why this year's World Food Safety Day theme jointly celebrated by FAO and WHO as From Burdens to solutions, Safe food everywhere and the new estimates of the global burden for food borne disease help countries to move beyond a reactive stance and towards a preventive stance, targeting the risks that matter most and investing where the impact will actually be greatest.
That's also where FAO comes in.
At FAO, our work is focused on the solution sides of the World Food Safety Day theme.
This year we support countries every day to identify food safety issues and implement practical science based solutions that make food safer across the entire food chain from farm to table.
Let me highlight five areas where FAO is supporting countries and making real progress.
First, anticipating risks.
Through our Foresaid programme, FAO helps countries identifying emerging food safety challenges with a link to climate change, evolving production systems, migration or new food sources.
2nd Science As a foundation in global food standard settings, FAO provides, very often with, together with WHO, independent scientific advice that underpins food safety decisions worldwide.
The evidence base directly supports international food standard settings through Codex Elementarios.
When implemented, standards help countries and food businesses detect, manage and prevent food borne disease and facilitate safe trade of food across the world.
Third, working with farmers and producers this year, the International Year of Women Farmer offers an important opportunity to recognise the critical role women farmers play in active food systems.
At FAO, we support farmers through practical guidance and training on safe production and handling practises, helping prevent contamination at the source and improve both food safety and livelihoods.
4th Our work addresses food safety risks across sectors, including through a One Health approach linking human, animal and environmental health on micro.
On microbial resistance, for example, we are leading the way on global data collection and analysis on antimicrobial resistance.
Of course, together with WHL, WAR and UNAP, this tools like Risk Ranking help countries prioritise key foodborne hazards and target inspections where they matter most to keep food safe and with use illness.
All these efforts are part of a broader objective, helping countries build strong, coherent and effective food control systems which protect and turn consumers and underpin healthy societies and robust economies.
We have developed sophisticated science based tools to help streamline this work and we have been helping countries using these tools effectively and with great results.
I can offer a couple of examples.
FAO has helped 30 countries to assess their food control systems to identify weaknesses, whether in legislation, inspections, laboratories or coordination or elsewhere, and where investments can have the greatest impact.
To do this, FAO uses the effort of Food Control systems assessment tool, which has jointly developed as WHO.
The tool was recently featured in in FAO story on our corporate website.
So you can get more information then.
Similarly, FAO developed step by step guidance for food businesses and authorities to successfully apply preventative risk based practises to improve food safety, such as good hygiene practises, GHP or the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System Hazard.
Thousands of users access these guidance, which helps food processors identify critical points where contamination can occur during storage, handling or transportation and implement simple control measures like temperature monitoring, hygiene protocols and traceability systems that help ensure safety of our food.
What we see from this work is clear.
When countries invest in understanding their food systems, building capacities and applying risk based approaches, the results are tangible.
Inspections become more targeted, resources are used more efficiently, coordination improves, and ultimately food becomes safer.
This is what we mean by moving to solutions.
Most foodborne diseases are preventable and prevention starts long before the food reaches the plate.
Safe food means healthier people, stronger economies and more resilient Agri food systems.
FAO supports countries to make food safer with practical solutions to strengthen national food control systems and implement good practises along the food chain.
Join us on World Food Safety Day in working together to make food safer for everyone, everywhere.
Thank you very much Marcus for these remarks.
In the room or online for both WHO and the FFAOI don't see any.
So thank you very much to all the speakers to come and highlight this important day.
Thanks, Christian, for bringing your colleagues.
So let me give you and thanks to Marcus from Rome.
Let me give you a few announcements I have for you.
First of all on the treaty bodies.
Just to remind you that the Committee on the Protection, the Rights of All Migrant Workers and members of their families will review this afternoon the report of The Gambia.
And this is 1 press conference to remind you, the one on the 9th of June at 9:30.
From this room, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Baham Sali will tell you about the annual Global Trends Report and the new push for refugee solutions.
This is, as I said already under strict embargo until 501 CST on 11th of June.
And Eugene is nodding and of course she is available if you have any question.
We've also announced you a press meeting with the High Commissioner for Human Rights for Couture, which will happen at on the 10th of June at 12:15.
And it will not be from here, but from Paula Wilson to remember that you have to go there if you want to attend this event.
The international community, as I'm sure you know, commemorates on 10th of June, the International Day for Dialogue among Civilization.
And on this occasion, the UN Director General will participate and deliver remarks at an event organised by the Permanent Mission of China to the Yen in Geneva, whom we thank at the World Meteorological Organisation.
That's going to happen on the 10th of June at 3:00 PM.
The event will comprise A seminar, exhibition, cultural performance and reception, and will focus on promoting equal dialogue among civilizations and fostering mutual understanding among people.
Journalists are invited to attend if they want to join this event for this very important day.
And we, I think online there is the whole programme of the events.
Also, let me keep telling you about events on the 15th, 16th and 17th of June.
There will be here at the Palace an informal exchange on artificial intelligence in the military domain.
This is the so the title exactly is the formal exchanges on AI in the military domain and its implications for international peace and security.
This is the first UN meeting dedicated to considering the military applications of AI and the implication of this technology for international peace and security.
As I said, these are informal exchanges, so media are invited to attend.
They will not be able to.
You will not be able to be there for the informal exchanges because they're informal.
They're not official meeting.
However, you may attend the side events subject to confirmation by the organisation of each side event.
You can have a look at the programme and of course, speak with the delegates and other participants on the sidelines.
We have sent you are about to send you a media advisory so that you have all the information about this event.
I know it's of interest of many of you.
And then on behalf of you of our colleagues of UNOPS, I like to flag the launch of the Organisation twenty 25th 2025 Annual Report which shows that UNOPS continue to deliver to the most vulnerable communities, I mean global challenges, increasing armed conflicts and humanitarian needs and a deepening climate crisis.
You will see that UNOPS has in 2025 provided technical operation and logistical support through over 1100 projects across 130 countries and territories, delivering around 2.7 billions in support of humanitarian response, sustainable development, and peace and security initiatives.
There wasn't an embargo until this morning.
So we've sent you the report and but you can now cover it.
The embargo was 8:00 this morning.
So please go ahead and cover this important report.
I just wanted to flag a last thing.
You remember last Friday, sorry, last Tuesday at the last briefing, we spoke about World Bicycle Day.
Christian asked me questions about what the UN is doing to walk the talk, or maybe better say to write the talk.
And I wanted to inform you that in order to have a more precise picture of the situation of mobility and bike situation mobility and including also soft mobility and biking at the Palace, our colleagues have created a survey on mobility that I'd like you all to fill in.
It is important that you keep you participate in this, in this survey to help us track the evolution of community.
I'm sorry of commuting partners.
Since that survey, which was completed before the COVID, at that point, 17.6% of the staff of the pallet was using bikes and other soft mobility means.
And we think this situation is very much evolved.
So we need now to ascertain what we can do what, what the situation is and what we can do better to support individuals who work or in any case use like you with the pallet and want to adopt more sustainable commuting patterns.
So please fill in this form of the survey.
We have sent you the invitation with the QR code and the link to the survey.
And I think I've told you everything I had for you today.
Is there any question for me?
If not, I remind you that on Sunday we will.
We'll the, the foundation, the Portae Denacion together with us inaugurate the Portae Denacion and then starting from Monday, you'll be able to visit it.
Thanks to those who came to the media launch and I hope that we will see many of you taking the experience together and learning more about the UNI.
Don't think you need it, but still, thank you very much.
I wish you a very good weekend and see you next week.
