Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, Friday, the 3rd of July.
As always, we have an important agenda for you.
Lots of issues to discuss here.
We have colleagues from the refugee agency to speak to the situation in the Lake Chad Basin.
We have the situation in Kordofan in Sudan, which will be addressed, as well as the earthquakes in Venezuela in the response, as well as updates from the World Meteorological Organisation on El Nino.
But before we get into that, I would like to introduce to you our new colleague.
Well, not new to WHO, but are the new Director of Communications at the World Health Organisation, Soren Brostrom.
Excuse me, WHO is here in person to introduce himself to you?
Of course, Christian is here as well.
But Mr Brostrom, over to you.
Thank you very much and good morning, everybody.
So my name is Soren Brostrom.
I'm, as of this week, the Acting Director of Communications and WHOI stepped into this role by the request of our Director General.
I have served for three years now here in WHO headquarters in Geneva as a senior advisor to the Director General in his office.
So it was natural for me to shift into this role because a replacement was needed.
I have a background in public health and global health, Medical doctor by training.
I've done lots of communication work in previous roles.
I'm not a communicator, of course, but I do know about communication.
I'm looking forward to working with all of you, you, of course, in safe hands with Christian and Tariq and Amna, but I'm just here to kind of get to know how this works.
Thank you very much to you Doctor Brostrom, It's very nice to work with you.
And of course, your team is magnificent.
So we'll continue a good relationship with you.
OK, colleagues, we're going to move to, as mentioned, we have an update from our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency online is Andrew Wiley who is UNHCR, is a Deputy Director for the West and Central African Bureau.
I don't know, Eugene, did you want to start off or?
OK, sorry, but so Eugene is here with me, but we're happy to have Andy with us.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Today, we're joined by, as Rolando just mentioned, our UNHSUN Refugee Agencies.
Deputy Director for the West and Central Africa Bureau, Andrew Willey will brief on the escalating situation in the Lake Chad region and recently visited Norden, Benin, where he met people affected by the spillover of insecurity and displacement linked to the worsening situation in North East and Northwest Nigeria.
OK, thanks very much and and good morning to everyone.
It's good to join you here this morning.
So yes, UNHCR were were quite concerned about the deterioration of the situation across the the Lake Chad Basin.
While that may have been a more stable environment a few years ago, since about 2024 the situation has been deteriorating from a security perspective in particular.
And we've seen an acceleration of that deterioration since January of this year.
What we're witnessing are an increase in, in violence and attacks by armed groups on civilians, on, on military criminality.
Also climate shocks that are contributing to a deterioration in the environment and that is causing people to, to, to move, to have to move across borders or internally and sometimes multiple times.
So there are lots of cyclical displacements that are, that are happening.
Just to give you a few a few statistics, there are today about 3.5 million forcibly displaced people across the broader Lake Chad Basin region.
Of that number, about 332,000 are are refugees and and we estimate that since the beginning of the year there have been about 77,000 new refugees.
Now the overall in the region, we estimate that about 8.2 million people are in need of some form of of humanitarian assistance.
Our main focus continues to be on making sure people are protected.
So making sure that people have continue to have access to asylum documentation, that they can get away from these places where the threats of violence are, are very real.
The the violence is obviously disproportionately affecting women, girls and children.
We've seen that one out of five households in the region say they don't feel safe.
We've seen an increase in in violence against women.
And across the region, about 50% of children are are out of school, unable to go to schools.
And when they're unable to go to schools, that exposes them to all kinds of different protection risks.
Those figures actually go quite higher when you move into the Lac region of chat.
Almost 75% of children are out of schools, communities across region and governments refugees to to cross borders to flee the violence.
But the, the, the, the crisis itself is expanding beyond its typical epicentre.
So as Eugene said, I was in Benin last week where we're seeing Nigerians arriving in northwestern Benin fleeing the violence caused by armed groups.
And, and that has been increasing since the beginning of the year.
They've also been significant movements into Niger from, from northern Nigeria.
People are being received in communities and, and, and that's, you know, where there are some positives and that communities are stepping up.
Governments are stepping up to make sure that people can have access to basic services when they have had to displace.
But we have to acknowledge that those services are strained under the the weight of the of these new arrivals.
So there's a need for community based support to to allow this inclusion in existing communities to to work effectively.
We've come out just recently with with an advocacy document on the region where we've identified about $29 million worth of needs between now and the end of the year to respond to the most urgent protection and and life saving needs that are out there.
So that document describes a bit in a bit more detail the needs we are seeing, what kinds of activities are necessary to address them.
So I'll stop there and and hand back to you, Rob.
Thank you so much Andy and thanks for joining us.
We have a question for you from Kyodo News.
Thank you for taking my question.
With this $29 million, if I heard, well, how many people are you willing to reach?
And have you already like seen or been able to see like different vulnerable groups among these refugees?
And what could you do to to help them better?
Thanks very much for the question.
So the, the, the targeted figures vary from one country to another.
The the document itself looks at northern Cameroon, at Western Chad, Niger, Northern Nigeria and and Benin.
So the, the numbers vary from 11 country to another, but the the document itself provides more details on the total who is most vulnerable.
It's I don't think it's going to come as a surprise because it's very similar in, in, in most crises in the region.
It is women, it is girls and especially children who who are most who are most at risk.
In many cases we are seeing single head or female headed households that are fleeing with their children in, in northwestern Benin.
I heard some horrible stories about women wives having to witness their husbands being murdered in front of them.
And we're told that there are hundreds of of cases like that coming into coming into Benin at the moment.
So those are the kinds of of typical incidents that we're seeing across across the region, which is why those protection activities need to focus to the extent possible on these especially vulnerable groups.
Yeah, we have a question now from AFP.
Thank you for this briefing.
You mentioned in the Nigerians arriving in Benin and Niger, but can you tell us exactly who are these, those 3.5 million forcibly displaced people in the region and where do they come from also?
And secondly, could you tell us who is responsible for the violence you mentioned?
OK, thanks for those questions.
So the 3.5 million forcibly displaced across the region, it's a combination of refugees, as I said, about 332,000 refugees and and then the remainder internally displaced people.
To be honest, we have people going in all directions.
So because the violence itself is not limited alone to northern Nigeria, there have actually been attacks and kidnappings in the neighbouring countries as well.
That's something we also heard of in, in Benin.
So you know, we have Nigerians moving Nigeria who are moving as well, Cameroonians.
And as I said, they're movements in many different directions.
So an IDP today may become a refugee tomorrow or refugees, Nigerian refugees returning to the north from Niger end up being internally displaced after they return.
So it's a very fluid situation that is very much driven by the, the unpredictability of the, the violence that's occurring.
When it comes to who is perpetrating these these acts, it's very difficult to to put a finger on.
There are many different armed groups in the in the region.
Some of the behaviours look to us like the the ones that we see in the in the central Sahel, so aligned with some of the extremist groups there.
But there's also a criminality factor, some of the kidnappings that are are taking place.
There doesn't seem to be any ideological motivation behind those.
It's more about money and trying to to obtain resources.
Now what's happening with those funds still not clear.
It is such a, as I said, a very fluid and, and changing environment that it's, it's quite difficult to put a finger on exactly who is is committing the acts.
We did pose that specific question to the Nigerian refugees that we met in northwestern Benin.
And the one thing they could tell us was that they were not from the area, so they were from, from, from somewhere else.
Do you want to add something else to just to add that you will soon receive the briefing note to which you will have a document attached and then it has a map to break down that the regional dynamic of internally displaced population and refugees.
Thank you so much, Eugene.
I'm not sure if the further questions for you, Andy, let me double check here in the room online.
So once again, Andy, thank you so very much for shedding light on this important story and we'll certainly do what we can to spread the word.
OK, Zoe, if I can ask you to come on up and Eugene, you'll stay here because we have we're shifting to well, we're staying in the continent.
We're going to move to the situation in Sudan, particularly the Kordofan region and situation around El Abid, which is, as you know, subject of an urgent debate ongoing now at the Human Rights Council.
It started around 10:00 and that's ongoing now.
But without further ado, I'll turn now to Zoe to introduce her guest.
Thank you very much, Orlando, and thank you everybody for joining today.
So I'm going to brief from the International Organisation for Migration on the deteriorating situation in Sudan.
I will be joined online by my colleague Dr Mohammed Rafat from Port Sudan, who is our Chief of Mission in Sudan and he will speak to what we are seeing.
In just three months, the number of newly displaced people across Kordafan has risen by nearly 2/3.
More than 100 displacement triggering incidents have been recorded in less than nine months, averaging one major incident every two to three days.
Families are being uprooted faster than humanitarian assistance can reach them.
The pace at which this crisis is unfolding should concern us all.
So if we could go over to Doctor Mohammed Rafat, who will speak more directly from the ground.
Thanks Gloria and it's a pleasure to be with you.
I know that there will be other colleagues talking about Sudan from other agencies.
We will be talking about the women situation, the children, the food and the health.
But let me speak as this is my third year in Sudan and in this four year almost conflict, what I have seen is that civilians have been regular and continue to be the the main target in this conflict.
And targeting civilians is mainly to displace them, to attribute to them from where they belong to and to start taking cities, empty cities.
What we have seen in a fasher unfortunately was not a one time incident.
It was a higher scale of a trend that we have been seeing for quite long in Sudan and the humanitarian and the whole system has failed to stop it.
I'm here also because I'm concerned and we are all concerned about Al OII being the next Al Fisher.
In Al Fisher, we have almost estimated as IOM, as the agencies that's counting displacement and the needs on the ground in through the multiple sectors that we have counted in Al Fisher at the time before it fell was more than 200,000 in Al OII.
Our estimate now is that we have more than 500,000 stranded in this city.
We hear the story from our numerators on the ground who are assessing the needs on the ground, that they have no access to water, electricity and they won't weigh out.
They have been stranded for a couple of months now and that tax is mainly targeting civilian, not only civilian population but civilian infrastructure.
It's very common now every day to wake up on the one attack on a fuel station or one attack on a hostel or in a convoy that was carrying humanitarian aid.
As you know, Sudan is almost the second most deadly environment for humanitarian workers on the ground, and most of them are Sudanese national.
If we don't act now to stop what's happening in Al Fasher, in sorry, in Al Boubayed, we would see another Al Fasher.
We'll see another displacement of maybe 500 or more, 500,000 or more.
Do we have the resources for this?
Our system has been depleted from every resource that we have to be able to attend to the needs of the current displacement, let alone new architect displacement that we don't know the scale or the mass.
We have seen the reports of the human rights violation from Alfasher, the gender based violence violation and until now justice has not come and we all know that just it takes time to come.
I want to leave you with a very clear message that really concerned me as a humanitarian, as a father, as a human being, that what we are seeing as a systematic strategic reduction in humanitarian aid while increasing funding in other sectors, including defence, is not going to help us.
It's not going to help us having a better future for ourselves or our kids if this doesn't come with a clear investment in peace.
Over the last two years we have not seen much of peace coming to Sudan or too many other conflicts.
And we stay here in Sudan trying to provide what we can through an environment that's very much challenging to when it come to access.
And I would just would like to flag finally that when a population get displaced, their first request is always shelter and non food items in order to survive.
The shelter cluster in Sudan is one of the most one of the most depleted from resources, underfunded clusters.
And so that I hope this message can reach all member states, all actors to stop the siege on aloe by it and to allow us to access, to allow civilians to leave and to allow us through funding to be able to provide much needed life saving support.
Thank you very much, Mohammed.
We're here to just give you a brief information.
The said the tragic incident happened on the 1st of July.
UNHSCR contracted truck carrying fifty metric tonnes of a relief item was reportedly hit by a drone near Tandelte on the coast T Tandelte corridor.
This corridor is particularly important because this is a route connecting a White Nile with the SAS quarterfan.
The driver survived unharmed.
But the entire consignment was just destroyed.
The supply comprise comprising blanket, Jerichan, kitchen set, sleeping mat, plastic sheet and solar lamp were destined to vulnerable community in Abu Jubaya S Kordofan.
This is the second such incident this year in which a UNHECRA truck containing relief supply has been hit in Sudan.
It reflects A deeply worrying pattern of attacks that are increasingly affecting civilians and also civilian, including a displaced families as well as the humanitarian convoy carrying life saving aid.
Every destroyed trucks means every family already uploaded by conflict or left without essential support.
An aid organisation face even greater obstacle in reaching people in urgent need.
Unity, Sir, strongly condemn attacks on civilian humanitarian workers, humanitarian assets and relief supply and call for safe and secure humanitarian access across Sudan and respect for international humanitarian law.
Thanks to you Eugene, and again to Muhammad and Zoe.
So let's see if there are questions for you colleagues in the room online.
No, I don't see that's the case.
Again, I think you were very comprehensive.
And of course, this is a story that we'll continue to spotlight.
Thank you so very much to you, to Muhammad and to you, Eugene, for continuing to spotlight this story as it develops.
And of course, Carla, you will have seen the various statements that we should on behalf of the Secretary General, which he calls on for the protection of civilians and the increased flow of humanitarian goods.
So we echo these sentiments.
Let's move to WHO, if I could ask you to join me again, Christian here on the podium.
And I think maybe you want to start off or.
Yeah, thank you, Ronaldo and colleagues.
I'm very glad to have with us again today Doctor Cyril Ogate.
He is the regional emergency director in the WTO regional office of the Americas, PAJO, Pan American Health Organisation.
For the latest updates on the Venezuela earthquakes.
It's early in Washington, DC.
So thank you very much for joining us and please let's go to Doctor Ogate.
It's, it is difficult in, in Venezuela as you said.
Since I spoke last last week, we have now a clearer picture on how the earthquakes have affected the health system and services in Venezuela, particularly because they are under severe pressure with facilities operating unfortunately beyond capacity.
8 facilities were directly accessed by PAHO Da Blecho and all require immediate support.
Three of them reported the structural damage and one requires critical and immediate attention.
Most of them report connectivity loss for patient referral and tracking, lack backup power supply, morgue over more overflow and waste accumulation, and also limited ambulances capacities and challenges, patient flow and overcrowded services.
With supply shortages, growing, surgical wait lists, particularly for trauma, orthopaedics and neurosurgery, and high biosafety risks, particularly the Hospital Vargas from the Social Security Institute of Venezuela is the critical priority.
Just few examples, 96 patients are in 8 bed ward, the morgue is overwhelmed, the blood bank is critically low of supplies, ventilators, many ventilators are not operational because of generator failure and others medical waste are blocking the corridors and patients are transferred to other places including Caracas, another hospital.
The hospital Rafael Medina Jimenez in La Guaira, for example, reduced from 108 to 35 beds and other 11 health facilities accessed by the partners also report damage and as 22 report severe shortages.
Paco WTO has coordinated the deployment of two emergency medical teams, one from the US based Samaritan Sports which arrived in La Guaira on the 27th of June and is fully operational and one from Lithuania also said set up in La Guaira, 37 father emergency medical teams and specialised care teams have been made available through the PAHO coordinated network of which five are are being deployed to the country.
PAHO has PAHO have delivered 6.2 tonnes of medical supplies to Venezuela including materials that were already pre positioned in the country and distributed within the 70 or the 1st 72 hours of the emergency.
On July 1st, PAHO delivered A4 tonne emergency shipment of essential supplies from the Regional Strategic Reserve in Panama and the shipment included trauma supplies, medicines, fill equipment and personal protective equipment that is sufficient to meet all those supplies to meet up to 10,000 people patients for three months.
In terms of health risks for the broader population, but mainly for the people now living in shelters, there is an increased risk of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria and pertussis, as well as vector borne diseases and water borne diseases including dengue, chikungunya and diarrhoea.
These risks are exacerbated by disruptions to health services, water and sanitation systems and the displacement of population to overcrowded shelters with inadequate sanitary and hygiene conditions.
There is an urgent need for mental health and psychological support for many population families of misers person and also healthcare workers and 1st responders.
Bako, WHO have launched a 24,000,000 appeal to support the first six months of the health response and health recovery, helping restore essential health services, ensure access to medicines and vaccines, and strengthen disease prevention and surveillance in areas hardest hit by the earthquakes.
In emergencies of this magnitude, influence of external support can create coordination and absorptive challenges for the country.
But with working with the Government of Venezuela and other UN agencies and partners to ensure a well coordinated approach that strengthens the health system and is its capacity to save the greatest number of lives.
We'll continue working closely with the Ministry of Health and partners to strengthen the health response and support affected communities over.
Thank you very much, Doctor Ugarte Mucho Garcias, and thank you again for joining us so early in the morning your time.
So let's see if there are any questions.
We do have one from Isabel of Spanish news agency FA.
Doctor Ugarte, I would like to know something more about the risk of outbreaks that you mentioned.
We are talking about this since a few days and I would like to know if you have seen any concrete indication that this this could happen and how serious is this risk?
And if in in this context is is do you consider it's important to to have a compare vaccination campaign of any of these diseases, infectious diseases or water borne diseases or insect vector diseases also that have you have mentioned?
Those are very, very good questions because the the assessment of the risk are ongoing.
But I would like to highlight that the the vaccination coverage in Venezuela, particularly for measles and others were already low.
So the risk of for having all those cases of measles and pertussis are, are at this moment high, particularly in the shelters where the transmission of these diseases can be very high.
The other concern that we have currently have is the water quality.
The water quality is essential and unfortunately the water, the supply is low and it is very difficult to assess the situation in all the shelters.
And that's why the, the priority is to ensure that the quality of the water that is provided to the people, particularly in in big shelters is assessed, but also ensure that it is, is, is in good condition.
The other aspect that you mentioned, we consider that a campaign vaccination campaign is not the way to proceed, but to specifically prioritise the areas where we do have those shelters, overcrowded shelters, but also in the areas where the people are staying.
But unfortunately the coverage is has been very low.
So targeted vaccination is the approach that we see regarding vector borne diseases.
This is something at this moment it's just strengthening the surveillance and early detection and control.
Once we we see those cases, there are several other priorities that we see, but we are also working on the reducing the risk for the population.
Do we have further questions for Doctor Ugarte?
I think Isabel is that a new hand, a follow up perhaps?
Yes, this is a follow up.
Could you be precise on what is the current coverage of vaccination in for this kind of diseases in Venezuela and in also on, on the side of wounded people?
Are you able to say how, how many people or what, what is the proportion of people that cannot access medical services because the, the capacity as you said is the, the, the hospitals are overwhelmed.
Yes, I cannot tell you the exact figures of the vaccination coverage.
This information will be assessed to us as we speak, particularly for in the areas where the earthquake hit the most.
Regarding the lack of bets, we saw that at least 1500 bets in the areas are not have been lost because of the damage of the health facilities are all the damage also of the equipment and several others.
So in that regards the what that's why the assessment of the health facilities but also on the other risk in the shelters and other places are ongoing.
It is the teams that have arrived in the country are doing that together with the Ministry of Health and other partners.
So the the risk assessment and the response in those regards are ongoing.
Well, no, thank you very much, Doctor.
Meva of Kyodo with Japan.
Just a question because you know it's not an apparent conflict zone, it's like a catastrophe happened there.
But could you describe what are your main challenges?
Is it just related to the lack of funds?
Could you be more precise about what is missing and the challenges you're facing?
Is the lack of healthcare workers and staff on the ground and for example, we have been informed by the Ministry of Health and other partners that the significant number of healthcare workers are not available to provide the healthcare in in the hospitals and the increase demand is putting all the teams under huge pressure.
So because of that, there is a specific lack of personnel to do the proper assessment.
For example, engineers, architects, medical experts in terms of assessment of health facilities are looking at those facilities but the the access to those places but also the proper assessment of the health facilities are being finalised.
We expect that in the next few days we will have a bigger picture.
But from what we assessed as I, as I mentioned, there is most of the health facilities loss connectivity, patient referral and tracking, tracking and all the other specific things that I mentioned before.
Very, yes, go ahead and make a follow up.
Just as a follow up and you mentioned that two medical teams arrived on the ground from the US and Lithuania, if I'm not wrong.
So could you describe how many people are now on the ground?
And I also heard in a previous briefing that we had many rescue teams.
Could you could you give more us more details on that?
Yes, 2 field hospitals that we call it the emergency medical teams.
One of them is Samaritan Sports with surgical capacity and 49 beds capacity and and personnel is, is being fully operation in La Guida.
And also the the emergency medical team of Lithuania has been deployed there.
There are other emergency medical teams or or health teams that were deployed not necessarily through the channels of the cell of information and coordination of the medical access in in Venezuela, but they are also performing their their duties.
We don't have full information of those, but the in this case the, the support to the healthcare in those areas are still very low in comparison with the demands.
Doctor Ugarte, I don't see further questions for you.
So thank you very much, particularly for joining us so early in the morning, your time in Washington.
And we'll continue to highlight the situation as the recovery efforts in in Venezuela before we go to WMO.
We have, I think Christian, you had an extra announcement from WHO Go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, Doctor Ohgarten, just on that topic, just to mention for those interested, power WHO is also bringing out a situation report, a SITREP regularly on the situation in in the earth of the earthworks in Venezuela.
So please look that up and for more data, another announcement on Monday and you should have received the invite already on Monday 6th July at 330 Geneva time 1530 CEST.
There's an embargoed W Joe press conference on the launch of the global status report on cancer for 2026.
It's a really detailed and important one.
W Joe and together with the International Agency of for Research on Cancer, IARC will present key findings from the upcoming status reports.
This report will provide first comprehensive analysis of global progress in cancer prevention control while identifying critical caps that remain.
The embodied material is available already.
Please write to media@who.in T or follow what's what you saw in the announcement.
Thank you very much, Christian.
Before we release Christian, any questions for WHO further?
No, I don't see this case.
So thank you very much, Christian and for highlighting that important report.
And first of all, I'll start also with a quick announcement on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organisation will be releasing the State of the Climate in the Southwest Pacific report for 2025.
This is the final one in a series of regional reports.
We'll send the information to you, Andrew Embargo on this weekend or early Monday morning.
So moving on to the topic, heat and El Nino.
El Nino is a term you're going to be hearing quite a lot about in the in the coming weeks and and months.
So just by means of introduction, it's the first week of July, it's the start of what is traditionally the hottest month of the year.
And yet already in June we've seen record-breaking temperatures in many parts of Europe.
Just as an example, Germany last weekend saw a new national temperature record of 41.7°.
And on the 27th of June, and this is June and it's Germany, 46 observing stations saw temperatures of above 40°C.
That just gives you an indication.
And now as we entered July, we're seeing and I quote the US National Weather Service on this, a prolonged and dangerous heat wave in the Central and the Eastern United States of the America through the end of this week and into the Independence Day weekend.
The US National Weather Service is saying this warning of an extended period of widespread, widespread major to extreme heat risk.
Moving on, global sea surface temperatures on the 21st of June were the highest on record for the month of June.
This is according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service.
And this beats the Daily Record set in June 2023 and June 2024.
So all of this sets the scene for a what we are seeing is a rapidly developing El Nino event.
So today, at the start of June, the World Meteorological Organisation warned of the likelihood of an El Nino and today we are releasing a new global seasonal climate update which confirms El Nino is rapidly developing.
We anticipate it will develop into a strong El Nino event during July to September 2026 and is expected to continue strengthening during the northern hemisphere autumn.
The World Meteorological Organisation community, we've really launched an unprecedented mobilisation to coordinate activities with our members within WMO and at regional level with regional climate centres and with the United Nations system to, you know, to support governments and provide information which we hope will save many lives and protect livelihoods.
So that's quite a long introduction, but I will hand over to Alvaro Silva, who is a climate scientist.
Alvaro Works with the World Meteorological Organisation Coordination mechanism.
This is a support mechanism which has been doing really fabulous work over the past couple of years to provide information to humanitarian agencies, including the UN refugee agencies, to other agencies, and is stepping up up its work at the moment.
So Alvaro can tell you a little bit more about the developing El Nino climate impacts and also, you know, the work that we're doing.
El Nino conditions have emerged in the Equatorial Pacific and there is a remarkable agreement between forecast models that this will be a strong El Nino.
More, this strong El Nino will develop rapidly over the coming months and having a strong El Nino is not irrelevant.
So the intensity of El Nino is important because it increases the likelihood of extreme weather and climate events in different parts of the world.
Even if this phenomenon is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it now develops on top of long term climate change due to human activities.
The forecasts released today are important to guide the preparedness and early action by different sectors, including by the humanitarian sector.
But El Nino will not act alone.
El Nino is one of the most important climate drivers globally, but there are additional factors that are also playing an important role in the different regions in different periods of the year.
This combination of different effects is available now in the seasonal forecast that are released today in the global seasonal climate update and indicate already a strong and robust typical pattern of the El Nino in in in the different regions including drier than normal conditions in parts of the world such as Central America and Caribbean.
Northern South America enhanced conditions also for drier for drier patterns in the South Asia during the monsoon season in the parts of Indonesia and and the Southeast Asia and weather conditions in other parts of the world coming for for example, in East Africa during the rainy season that normally starts around September and goes until December.
So the impacts of El Nino will be felt in different regions until end of the year and and beyond also during 2027.
And this is an important thing to have to have in mind this impact in terms of the shifting rainfall patterns.
But El Nino will also give an extra book boost to to global temperatures.
We know that during El Nino years, the global temperatures normally reach record record levels.
Another important thing to to refer is that we have a window for to act for preparedness for early action.
And this window is narrowing in some regions as the, the El Nino will lead to impacts already in some of these of these regions during the the, the rainy season.
That is important then in terms of ensuring that there is enough rainfall to developing into development of different sector activities, agriculture, energy and other relevant activities in many regions.
So in other regions, the El Nino influence will become later in the year or even in in 2027 as as I mentioned, for instance, typically El Nino leads to drier conditions in, in in Southern Africa.
And this window of preparedness is relevant for many sectors.
But let me specifically talk about the humanitarian sector.
And WMO through the WMO coordination mechanism is actively supporting UN and humanitarian agencies.
Since 2022, we delivered more than 700 products to the UN and humanitarian community and this is thanks to the efforts of WMO community, it's centres, the National Geological Services and many experts around the world.
This effort is even more demanding during El Nino because as I mentioned, we will see enhanced conditions, increased likelihood for many weather and extreme events.
So we are supporting all these, all these efforts with weekly mostly scans and briefings that we think that are good in terms of supporting these, these these activities of the UN and military system and also raising awareness of many reasons for concern in the three to six months ahead.
As we can see today with the seasonal forecast that is available from from the GSU.
Just to give you an idea that this service delivery is now the is now sent to more than 400 registered users across more than 40 UN and humanitarian agencies.
This isn't just a reference number.
So to to give you this idea of how far are we reaching in terms of supporting humanitarian early action?
Thank you both very much.
OK, We do have a question online for you from Jeremy Radia, France International LFE.
Couple of questions on on the on the phenomenon, you mentioned that we are heading towards a strong El Nino this year.
I was wondering is there any chance that it could actually turn out to be a, a, a very strong El Nino?
I think you have a four levels on your on the scale.
So could it still tend to be a, a, a very strong El Nino this year?
And I'd like to to understand what could be the effect on the hurricane season in the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.
Thank you for for your question.
It's in fact a strong El Nino that is coming in the in the coming months as we could see from the the forecasts that are released today and 1st with further strengthening towards end of the year.
So in double MO we have these three categories.
Some climate centres use also the very strong El Nino and this is mainly related with the the sea surface temperature anomalies in the Equatorial Pacific.
The the how far we could go in terms of this anomaly.
One important thing is that we should specially focus our attention in terms of the expected, the expected weather and climate patterns during the next three to six months and even in in 2027.
That reflects not only this influence, but also the influence of other climate drivers, for example, in in East Africa and with the possible development of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole that is another important driver in this, in this, in this region of the Indian Ocean basin, we will have enhanced conditions, another contributing factor to increasing the likelihood of weather than normal conditions and and leading to, to, to, to to flooding.
So what we can say in terms of the the intensity of El Nino, as I mentioned, it's not irrelevant and it decrease the likelihood of of the extreme and weather climate events.
And this means that this likelihood will continue to to be at high level towards end of the year and early 2027.
In terms of the hurricane or the tropical cyclone activity, normally we tell Nino, we tend to see a decrease in, in reconnectivity in the Atlantic and an increase in the eastern and central Pacific.
I want to, to just to, to, to refer that it's it only takes 1 Aricane impacting a vulnerable community, a vulnerable country to lead to significant damages.
So even if in the outlook, for example, for the Atlantic, we see that the most likely is to be above, sorry, below average activity, this does not mean that we should we should put the level of efforts and the monitoring below what should be.
This means that we need to always monitor the information available from double MO centres because yeah, this type of extremes can lead to significant damages even if we have a below average activity in this in this basins.
Just to just to compliment the the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Atlantic hurricane forecast, which was issued a few weeks ago, they did forecast a below average season in terms of numbers.
And there's lots of discussion ever since then on, you know, the relationship with El Nino.
But as my colleague said, it just takes 1 land falling hurricane to, you know, to turn back years of development.
We do have a question now from Olivia of Reuters.
And forgive me, I actually Claire, I missed your your opening comments, but I just wanted to check is, is this a change in the in the WMO's forecast spell a Nino because I know, but earlier in June, I think the forecast on the WMO was from moderate to strong to a possibly strong El Nino.
But is that now, are you not saying today that has shifted to to just strong or is this only based on kind of these national forecasts that you are are taking a look at?
Or is this the WWE's actual position today that this is going to be a strong El Nino event?
And although my colleague can elaborate more than me, from my recollection, when we issued the El Nino update at the start of June, we were talking about potentially strong.
Obviously the start of June, it's still, you know, quite early.
It's just after what we call the, you know, the spring window where forecasts are a little bit more difficult.
But I think then we were talking about potentially strong.
But Alvaro will will know more than me.
Yes, Claire, the forecasts during spring typically have low skill.
We flagged that the possibility of a strong El Nino and now that El Nino conditions have developed, we have coupled a couple El Nino.
This means that the atmosphere already is coupled with the ocean El Nino conditions and the forecast that we have now that have been generated since the the update in early June, we have much more confidence that strong El Nino conditions are developing in the Equatorial Pacific.
This is an evolving analysis based on not only on the forecast, but also in the in the on the observations that we have from that area of the world.
And this means that we may update even then later this summer with more information for for example, if we have forecast suggesting this will be really strong El Nino.
So it's it's step by step approach in terms of the information that is available from observations and in terms of the confidence and the the information we get from forecast models.
Let's see if there are further questions for you.
Don't see that's the case.
So thank you very much, Alvaro and Claire, as always for joining us here.
And I'm sure we'll be seeing you soon as it's still hot and lots of, lots of focus on the, the state of the climate on the globe.
So thank you so very much.
And maybe Eugene, if I can ask you to join me here.
I just have a few announcements before we wrap up and end up with one announcement, a big announcement next week.
And Eugene also wants to add in on that point and maybe and David, I don't know if he wanted to join me as well, just in case.
But let's before we go to the global dialogue in artificial intelligence in the digital week coming up next week, Let me just focus on the meetings today.
As you well know, as I mentioned, the the Human Arts Council is currently engaged in urgent debate on the situation of Sudan, particularly in LO Baid, which we focused on at this briefing.
As you just heard from our colleagues, that meeting is underway and should last another an hour or so.
The Council will then move on to a dialogue on the situation in Ukraine.
You will have heard what the Secretary General said yesterday.
He strongly condemned the attacks the night before last, drone attacks in in the capital city of Kiev and Armed Forces of the Russian Federation attacks on the capital city of Kiev.
So that was a statement that we issued yesterday.
So that's dealings with the Human Rights Council.
Just a short announcement, Secretary general appointment.
Mr Guterres appointed Mr Edward Shaban of Lebanon as his deputy executive director at the UNICEF.
We issued a statement last night to that effect.
It gives you some information about Mr Chibon, who's been in this system for some time.
Press conference programming note on what is it, Tuesday, the 7th of July, 930.
Just ahead of this regular briefing, we have the UN Trade and Development, the Acting Secretary General, Pedro Manuel Moreno.
We'll be briefing you on the occasion of the World Investment Report launch for 20/26.
He'll be joined by a colleague, Nan Lee Collins, who's Unctad's Director for Investment in Enterprise.
So 9:30 AM here Tuesday, the 7th press conference with UN Trade and Development.
And now again, you've heard us speaking about the meetings taking place next week at PAL Expo and also there's one taking place here in ITU.
But the Secretary General, as we have announced, will be taking part in this inaugural session of the Global Dialogue and Artificial Intelligence Governance.
This is taking place Monday, Tuesday, 6:00 and 7:00 July, this coming Monday, Tuesday.
There are lots of things going on.
We've announced several, several of the events, but in, in a nutshell, the the three events in one week, right?
So we have the AI dialogue, which is will address 4 broad priorities, AI opportunities and impacts, capacity building and AI divides, safe and trustworthy AI and human rights and artificial inhuman oversight in the context of artificial intelligence.
Then we move to the World Summit Information Society and the AI for good.
Maybe David can talk a little bit more about that.
I know that many of you are registered.
You do need a badge, as I mentioned, to attend these events at PAL Expo.
We can fast track that for you.
But there are lots of, lots of interesting speakers who I think we have some 4000, if I'm not mistaken, 4000 participants registered to attend.
So they're oversold, if I may say that.
Lots of interest, lots of media interest as well, lots of interesting actors to speak to.
So the details are in the various media summaries or media advisors rather, that we shared with you.
The President of the General Assembly will also be attending in addition to Mr Guterres and Elena Beierbach.
And she issued a statement yesterday, which we did share with you in terms of announcing her visit, where she will be present.
They will, we'll have some media stakeouts, but we can't announce those just yet.
And an important note is the, the, the scientific panel on artificial intelligence, which launched the report this past Wednesday.
They will be presenting this report formally to this dialogue.
And it's an important opportunity with two Co chairs of this distinguished panel of 40 experts in total.
But the two Co chairs, Yoshua Bengio of Canada and Maria Ressa, a colleague of yours, journalist from the Philippines are the Co chairs and they will be presenting this report.
So maybe I'll turn maybe firstly to Eugene because I think you wanted to add something in the context of this meeting.
And then over to you, David.
Just a short heads up that you will soon receive our press release ahead of next week's AI for a Good Global Summit in Geneva.
The release highlights how your NHSCR is using a responsible AI and advanced analytic to support humanitarian work, from anticipating displacement and mapping damage after crisis to improving supply chains, analysing refugee laws and supporting asylum system under pressure.
It also underlined that AI must be used cautiously, ethically and with the human oversight.
So the technology supports a human humanitarian judgement rather than replacing it and also highlights how UNHCR bring refugee voices.
So when the use of AI and then their expertise on the table.
So please, we're going to release it within an hour.
So you will soon receive it.
And then also UNHCR experts, including our Head of innovation will attend the summit there.
So and then we'll be available for any interview.
To request one, please contact one of us.
And and maybe just a mix in, in, in what I present to you in both logistics, which I know are important and then you are now up against it officially because Monday is coming quickly.
So I'm happy to take any questions related to that particularly for, for for access to these activities.
But as Rolando was suggesting, it is a a special week in Geneva.
Next week it is Geneva Digital Week and it is, you know, many terms.
If you want to put it in sports terms, it is a digital full press as far as the UN systems addressing digital technology and specifically AI in many of the events.
Rolando talked about the dialogue and what that represents as as far as the inaugural UNGA mandated dialogue, which is really going to focus on international cooperation.
From there it kicks hand over to the AI for Good Global Summit, which really presents the state-of-the-art in solutions and knowledge and skills and capacity building and in standards.
All the things that allow us to take these technologies with the international cooperation that's being forged and to provide practical impact to allow it to do good for humanity.
And then the, the wider event, the full week event is WISSIS, the World Summit Information Society forum, which extends from Monday through Friday.
And this is the longest running of all of them from since 2003.
And the, and the WISSIS activities, then this is really pulling AI and on all digital technologies together to ensuring that they can work for the greater good.
So that I think provides a little bit of context.
One thing I I say to note is that if you've covered previous activities, previous events, this technology is not standing still.
This technology is moving.
So each year is different in that sense.
We'll be talking about technology potentially this year that perhaps wasn't even known or talked about last year.
And the same could be said for forthcoming sessions.
So if you think you've been there, if you think you've seen it, I think you really need to come and take part of all of these activities to see how they all fit in, to see what the UN system is doing to again to ensure that technologies are working for humanity.
Emerging, evolving technologies, lots of things moving there.
The S GS remarks we will share with you as soon as we get those under embargo.
Those are scheduled for Monday morning.
What is the precise time again, I should have that it's 8.
Well, the start is when you need to be in the building before things get going.
So for us that building will be open between 7:00 and 7:30 for sure.
Things will be up and running in full at 7:30, but I believe access as early as seven.
And then the the opening ceremony itself will begin at 8:30 for the badges, I think, if they can collect them.
So badges are available now.
I could attest to that, actually.
This is what they'll look like when you come get when you come get yours today at ITU headquarters in the lobby that is open to, I believe, at least 5:00.
Take your time and do it.
It will save you a lot of time on Monday.
If not today, there's also the provision Sunday afternoon between one 1:00 again and five.
We'll, we'll get that information to you.
Again, I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I believe it's 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday afternoon where you can do that and then again beginning on 7:00 Monday.
But I would strongly recommend to it's a real investment in not spending time trying to get in the building on Monday.
If you get your badge today, if you're not yet credentialed, please send just a photo of your UN badge to press Reg at ITUINT.
And just as soon as you hit submit, you might very well get your confirmation.
Great, thank you so much.
I'll be picking up my badge right after this briefing.
We do have a couple of questions before you disappear.
Thank you so much for taking my question.
One is the pickup of badges today.
And my question is I've received the correspondence from the UN Foundation in New York saying that the UN Secretary General will be here on Sunday.
What time and where and can we see what is doing something public already related to the events?
And then there is also mention of a press take out on Monday.
No, the OK, so my the, the programme he does arrive late on Sunday evening, but it's a private, I mean he's arriving late and there's nothing official in his agenda for Sunday.
He will be at PAL Expo early morning on Monday and I it was failed to mention there is another element to his one day visit here.
So he spends the morning of Monday the 6th at PAL Expo for the dialogue.
In the afternoon he will move here to the Palais where he will have a brief encounter and deliver a statement with the International Law Commission.
We will be webcasting it not live, but we will transmit that afterwards for your interest.
So that's that's nothing more to say.
In terms of the stakeouts, there will be a stakeout position there and we will announce those speakers the times as soon as they are confirmed and perhaps as early as this afternoon.
My question, which of the lobbies of the ITU complex because the main lobby was damaged during the G7 demonstrations, the the Montbreon lobby which is directly across from the Palais.
Thank you for that question.
And I would, I would say, I know that they are open now and they'll be extended through the afternoon.
And, and relative to you to your point from a little earlier that all of the entrances to ITU's headquarters are, are operational, but that is the one that you can access without a badge and to go to get the badge.
Oh, couple more hands coming up.
Yes, that's a follow up question is where exactly will be the meeting of the International Law Commission where he's going to be delivering?
Is that open to the public?
No, it's not, it's, it's not open to the media.
It's, it's a short encounter with the ILC, the International Law Commission.
However, as I mentioned, it's taking place here in the Palais and we will be transmitting afterwards his intervention.
He's only there for a short period, but we will share that those that those remarks with you afterwards.
Rolando, you mentioned about the the press take out on Monday.
Is it at the PAL Expo or at the the Palate?
Yes, the stake out is at PAL Expo.
So once you walk into PAL Expo, which as you know is an enormous venue, the stake out is just just outside the plenary hall.
So as you walk into Hall 4, you'll just descend down some steps and that's where the plenary hall is.
To the left you'll see the press take out.
It's clearly marked and I failed to mention there's also a media centre for you.
So we are thinking about you colleagues.
We're looking to make it as conducive environment if possible for you to do your work.
So there's a media centre where you'll access with your badge.
There's a press take out.
Stakeouts will take place in the morning of Monday and we will again announce as soon as we have confirmation.
If we want, we can take this if, if we have another follow up on this point, but otherwise we can discuss afterwards.
I was just a follow up of the stakeout and most of the young lady was sitting next to you.
I didn't catch up her name and what organisation she was working for because she mentioned we could do interviews as well.
It's for Aun refugee agency, UNHCR.
Because I would like to see if we can schedule interviews too.
So I'll be in touch if you can give us the contact afterwards.
You, you should have the context, but we'll make sure you you will make sure of that.
Thank you very much, David.
Colleagues, I just have one announcement.
Well, it's not really an announcement, but I it's, it's, I'm sorry to say, it's a bit of a sad note, but I learned last night late that Ambassador Gustavo Gajan of Colombia, he passed away earlier this week.
And, and I feel compelled to say something about this because he was a friend.
He was a friend of us at Eunice.
He had participated in meetings, a Senaonu meeting.
He was, I Co moderated with him.
And he was a real human rights defender, somebody we knew and we liked, very much admired.
And he did a lot to advance human rights in his own country, Colombia.
And I just wanted to and there was a nice tribute at the council, which I actually learned about last night earlier this week.
He passed away late on Tuesday.
But I just wanted to pay our respects to Ambassador Gajan and to the people of Colombia for this this big loss.
