Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 21st of July.
We've got a lot of interesting items on the briefing and I would like to start immediately with our colleagues of WHO.
Tariq, thank you very much for bringing us Doctor Fierno Balde, who is The Who Incident Manager for the Ebola response in DRC.
So you're connecting from Bunya to give us an update of the Ebola situation?
We go directly to to the doctor.
So, Doctor Balde, you've got the floor for short introductory remarks, and then we'll take a few questions.
Sorry, but we can't hear you at the moment.
Maybe you have to unmute yourself.
We can hear you and we can see you.
Go ahead with your short remarks, please.
Thanks for having me this morning.
So today I will provide an update on the EVD outbreak caused by the Bundibujo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Allow me to start by mentioning that we are still really working in a very challenging context here in Gunia, with a kind of context of an outbreak which is rapidly expanded.
As of 19th of July, the government of the DRC has recorded 2423 confirmed cases, including 967 deaths and 469 recoveries.
The outbreak has been reported in five provinces, but the province of Ituri remains the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for more than 90% of cases and also 80% of deaths.
However, despite these figures, it's really important to mention that we are now starting to have a better understanding of the dynamic of this outbreak.
This is an outbreak with different and variant patterns.
We have indeed some areas where definitely we are seeing a kind of intense transmission such as Gunia and all the surrounding hemp areas.
But we also have in some areas where we are having a kind of stable trend, which is quite something which is amperaging.
At the same time also the outbreak is also expanding geographically in to areas where we are trying really to implement adequate response measures for controlling it as much as possible.
One of our work we have been doing during the past two weeks, it's about really adjusting our strategy and tailoring it to specific needs of each of these affected areas, while also maintaining our focus on bringing the situation under control in Bunya and surrounding areas.
By using a granular approach and integrating emerging analysis.
We have identified 3 main dynamic as I was mentioning, one of high intensity transmission, another one with an emerging areas and all those which are now showing again as some sign of stability.
But let's be very clear, these outbreak remains ahead of us and we are still in a phase of catching up.
We have prioritised the expansion of safe and identified barriers, referral system, clinical case management capacity in the most active transmission areas.
10 days ago, I was in in Kisangani in the Chopo province with the special level of coordinator.
I know the partners where we design A collective strategy to scale up the response by deploying a rapid response teams.
This is already showing some accuradian trends and some accuradian results as no secondary cases have been detected there so far.
In Kisangani, currently, all 5 cases are imported from Italy province.
We intend to roll out a similar rapid response plan in the Hotwell in Katwa, Putembo and other emerging areas.
Tomorrow, I will accompany the special Ebola Coordinator on our second high level visit to Kisangani to follow up on this initiative.
We'll also be working on a new project which aims to reinforce control measures through the River Congo, A crucial transit route requiring our attention for rapid implementation of control measures.
However, despite these challenges, there are some encouraging sign.
As I was saying, ****** where the outbreak was first detected is currently showing some signs of stabilisation with a similar trend in Goma in the North Kibo province.
All of our response team are aware on the importance of the work we are doing every day and we continue to engage actively with communities and to work with them in the spirit of listening and openness to be guided to be guided by them.
Obviously, in our intervention, we are grateful to the Ministry of Health and all other partners working alongside us to bring this challenging outbreak under control.
And we definitely ask also for more international solidarity, need to have the necessary operational capacities to catch up with this outbreak, which is still ahead of us.
Thanks Doctor Belder for these updates.
Mina Larsson, AFP yes, hi, thank you for the briefing.
I was wondering, you mentioned new areas where this is spreading to.
If you could provide some details on on where this is spreading now and be if it's beyond the five provinces that we were aware of and also on the safe and dignified burials.
If you could say a little bit about how you're scaling up those efforts and what you're seeing in terms of movements of bodies.
And we understood there was an issue with the body of people trying to move bodies for burial and that possibly presenting risk of spread.
So if you could talk about that thing, thank you.
Also for the new areas, there's no really new province which is affected at the moment.
We are counting for the five provinces and even out of these five provinces, it's also important to mention that S Kibo province have not really reported cases for more than 50 days, five more than 5 zero days now.
So I think we are in that dynamic.
However, as I was saying, the outbreak is dynamic.
I was mentioning an area, a locality like which is on the northern part of the hotel of, of of the province of Ituri here where some people moved, one person moved to one sick person moved from Bunia, went to there where I think that place was quite calm for the last two or three weeks.
But then I created a new hotspot, a new also, you know, chain of transmission, which is we are trying really to respond very actively and very promptly and very energetically to make it under control.
So those are the type of elements I wanted to mention when I was talking about geographic expansion of these outbreak.
We have seen also similar trend in Kapwan temple where the situation was calm.
But obviously with the movement of the people, therefore, I think we can see I mean, some resurgence of cases.
But in all of these type of situation, the and strategy is really to implement a very strong, very effective and very timely, you know response public health measures, you know, to contain those areas by identifying by doing in depth investigation of those cases, listing all of the contacts, helping them to follow those contacts.
At the moment we can, we are really trying to mobilise the communities, all of these contacts or amperaging them to accept to be really followed up on the occasion around the SDBS.
I think it's really one of the main elements 'cause, you know, the, the, the safe, the unsafe, you know, barriers can constitute really one of the Super spreaders of the transmission of this outbreak.
And we are really trying to focus a lot for having and ensuring safe and dignified barriers for all of these different people who are dying, but both due to Ebola, but not also due to Ebola.
So by doing that, we can, we can be able at least, you know, to secure all of these different, I mean barriers, barriers, but there are many, there are many people used to die and I think this is a natural phenomenon.
So how can we really help on that?
Therefore, we are facing WHO but mostly also partners who are specialised in this area.
I'm referring here to the International Federation of Red Cross, FHI 360.
They're doing their best and obviously us as partners, we are coming to help fulfilling some of the gaps.
One or two elements which are important.
It's for this team to be functional is to recruit the team to train them.
It's a team which team is composed of about 12 people, you know, having two cars for each of the team but also having some of the supplies.
Thank you and over to you.
I think Nina has a follow up.
On the safe and dignified burials, did you, were you saying that you're trying to do these burials for everybody who's dying in in the area, so even those who haven't been determined to have Ebola?
And why would you be doing that?
The modality, the modalities, I think are decided by the National Health authorities is really to try to to help as much as possible.
All of the different communities know for insurance safe and unified barriers.
So this is the measures in this type of outbreak in some specific localities where it's needed those measures that are implemented or just trying to to to to be able not to to miss any of these potential cases.
So if what is are done on that on that sense over.
I don't see other hands up for you, Doctor Barde.
And so I would like to thank your less static ones to add something, but I think not.
So thank you very much for this update.
Keep keep talking to us about the situation in DLC on on the Ebola response.
So thank you very much again and good luck with your important work.
And I'd like now to go to our colleagues of OHCHR Tamim.
We have the pleasure to have with you Miss Daniel Bell, who is the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
I'm happy to have you here.
And you're connecting from Kiev.
I mean, you want to start and then we go to Miss Bell.
The war in Ukraine is having a deepening impact on civilians by the day.
The scale and intensity of long range attacks impacting residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure are shocking.
In recent days, there have been multiple attacks causing civilian casualties across Ukraine as well as Russia.
Civilians and civilian infrastructure are strictly protected under international humanitarian law and any such deliberate attack is a war crime.
On Sunday, Kiev was hit for the seventh time this month and the largest reported the missile attack on the capital since the start of the full scale invasion.
At least 35 ballistic and hypersonic cruise missiles targeted the city.
Authorities reported one civilian death, while twenty others were injured and damaged across 5 districts.
On the same day, glide bombs struck residential areas of Zaparrasia City, reportedly destroying part of a five Storey residential building.
Authorities reported 3 civilian deaths, a girl among them, and injuries to 41 people, including seven children.
At the same time, 4 civilians were reportedly killed and 20 injured by a strike on a Nova Posta postal terminal in Korotich, near Kharkiv city.
Recent attacks against civilian vessels in the Black Sea have further increased risks to maritime operations.
In the latest In the latest incident on Sunday, a merchant vessel sailing under the flag of Guinea Bissau was struck by cruise missiles shortly after departing a port near Odessa.
10 people, including at least 8 crew members, were reportedly killed and seven injured.
Long range drone attacks by Ukraine have also reportedly continued to cause civilian casualties and damage to logistic infrastructure belonging to a private company inside Russia.
Overnight on the 17th to the 18th of July, Russian authorities reported attacks, including strikes on the Wild Berries logistics centres in the Moscow and Tambo regions that killed 8 civilians and caused injuries to 86 others.
Today, we are joined by the head of our Ukraine team, Daniel Bell, who will share some of the key trends and developments documented by her team on the ground.
The attacks that that mean just described in Kiev, Odessa and Zafr Asia are not isolated events.
They're becoming more frequent and more deadly for civilians.
In the first six months of 2026, civilian casualties increased by 37% compared with the same period last year and almost doubled what we documented in 2024.
This escalation is being driven by two main reasons.
The 1st is long range ballistic missiles and drones and the second by short range drones and glide bombs in the frontline area.
Long range attacks are increasingly affecting densely populated urban areas that are far away from the frontline.
Yesterday our team in Odessa visited several incident sites in residential areas that had been impacted, including a recreational area near Tornamorsk in which a 16 year old boy was killed as he and his family were just spending time together.
Earlier this month in Kiev city, a missile struck a residential complex, collapsing an entire section of the building, killing 76 civilians and injuring excuse me, killing 19 civilians and injuring 76.
When we visited and arrived at the incident site, we observed emergency workers searching through the rubble for survivors while families including parents, teenagers, children stood watching and waiting for news of their loved ones who were still missing.
The second driver of civilian casualties is the widespread use of short range drones or first person view drones FPV's.
This is where the drone operator can see the target in real time.
I have seen the impact of FPV drones first hand.
During my recent visits to Zafir Asia, Kerrison, Kodakif, and Nepro, I saw how these drones are transforming civilian life.
People told us that they no longer decide whether they want to go to the market, visit friends, go outside, work in the fields.
They must first decide whether or not it's safe enough to leave their homes.
People describe measures to me that they've been taking to protect themselves while walking outside, like darting between buildings, leaving their homes at different times of the day.
Across these visits, civilians consistently described feeling tracked by FPV drones while carrying out ordinary daily activities, gardening, walking their dogs, feeding their animals outside, going to the store, driving or simply walking or cycling outdoors.
This is reflected in our findings.
In the first six months of this year, civilian casualties and short range drones increased by 65%.
These drones are fundamentally changing civilian life and frontline communities.
Public transport has repeatedly come under attack, with services suspended in many areas.
Humanitarian assistance in many places can no longer be delivered safely.
Schools, medical facilities have ceased functioning and electricity, water and mobile communications are frequently disrupted.
Last week when I was visiting NEPRO and Zapat Asia, authorities described to me establishing anti drone police units which are deployed to protect civilians carrying out ordinary yet fundamental work such as the repair of public works or other essential services and allow farmers, for example, to safely harvest their field.
So, for example, when I visited Koshouham Haramata that's also in Aphrodisia, repeated attacks on fields, combines and grain trucks, as well as farmers themselves fearing being targeted by drones, have slowed the harvest from 30 hectares a day to as little as three to five hectares per day.
These attacks are gradually destroying the system that sustains civilian lives and allowing communities to function.
These trends show that danger to civilians is not only increasing, it is evolving.
Civilians across Ukraine, whether in urban areas or front lines, are facing new and expanding risks, or even ordinary daily activities have become increasingly dangerous.
Thank you and I stand by for any questions.
Thank you very much, Danielle.
For this additional detail, see Emma Reuters.
I had a question on the anti drone police wards.
Is that completely new in the conflict and how are they able to protect civilians from these aerial predators?
So when I was in NEPRO in South Asia last week, it was the first time I had heard of it.
And what my understanding is how it was explained is that these units are deployed with the civilians, whether it's farmers in the field or guys preparing electricity infrastructure.
They watch for the drones to come and they try to intercept them.
What we have heard for a NEPRO, for example, that two police have been injured in recent weeks because, you know, they've been protecting the farmers and these electricity workers or workers preparing, repairing essential services.
But how, sorry, how did the police actually intercept them?
How do they bring them down?
There's I mean, I don't want to go into too many details in in this venue, but there's different anti drone anti drone devices such as jamming, which can be used or physically shooting them down.
Although with the anti jamming equipment it's becoming increasingly difficult, particularly with the increase in use of fibre optic drones where the drone can only be intercepted if you know the the wire is is cut.
Different ways in which these weapons can be intercepted.
I was just going to add on another point, another way that and this is outside of the anti drone police units.
Another thing that we're seeing in these frontline areas is an increase in the use of the fishing Nets or these Nets, anti drone Nets being put up in the city.
So I was in in Kharkiv, you know, a week ago, and it's the first time that I've seen anti drone Nets being put up in different parts of the city.
So lots of new measures as these weapon systems quickly evolve, you see the authorities trying to find new ways to intercept and protect communities.
I think Emma, is that fine?
Can you also describe to us what that looks like an anti drone net?
How high does it have to be and how is it installed?
In terms of how it's installed, maybe I can just describe it.
So it would be long pulls kind of put up as you go down the street and then you have like the road with a protection over it that looks like that.
And it's it's fishing net that's made out of like nylon net canvas, like actual fishing Nets.
And So what happens then is that when the drones are following a vehicle, typically what they would do is follow the vehicle and then they would be they'd function like a suicide drone and that they would crash down into the car.
And So what happens is the net actually stops them.
And so to to give it some context, when I was in Carousel and city, this is a little bit longer ago, about about a month ago, I asked the authorities, OK, how many anti or how many short range drones do you see in the city on a weekly basis?
And the authorities told me, no, it's not on a weekly basis.
And then my follow up question was how many times do they get stuck in the Nets?
And they said about 30 a week.
We've seen other instances where the drones, what the first drone will crash through the net, make the hole in it and then the second drone can come underneath and fly in.
But so these drone Nets, they do have a mitigating effect, but they're far from perfect.
And I'm seeing them increasingly like in NIPRO Tarasan, but I've just met in Zephyr Asia, we've seen them and of course, Sumi Karakiva as well.
And we're seeing them increasingly as the number of drones we've seen deployed on a daily basis increases as well as the range themselves increases.
Because about two years ago when we first started releasing the increase in them, they had a bit of a shorter range at 2030 kilometres.
And now we're seeing the short range drones that can come in 50 kilometres from the frontline area.
Sorry, I just had a clarification on the numbers that you mentioned at the start of your briefing when you talked about an increase of civilian casualties of I think 37% in the first six months.
Are you talking about deaths and injuries or are you talking about deaths and can you break it down into those?
We documented 1396 civilians killed, 7978 injured with a combined total which I don't have in front of me.
That amounts to a 37% increase from the same.
In the previous year and then almost doubling what we saw in 2024.
Let me go to the platform, Mousasi and Maiden.
Just one, Just one second.
Way sable that I would like to, to know if you please, if you have something about what happened exactly in other side and the Russian side.
Because the authority of Moscow announced 2 days ago that 37 people were killed or injured in the Moscow and in some cities in in Russia and the many attacks against the old refineries in Russia.
If you have some information about that.
Thank you for the question.
Our mandate is to document civilian casualties in Ukraine where we have access and can verify.
However, we do record the civilian casualties that are taking place in the Russian Federation as a consequence of Ukraine's increasing use of long range weapons firing into the Russian Federation.
I'll give a few statistics if that's OK.
So in the first, in the first six months of this year, we recorded, and this is based on Russian Federation open source reporting, which we find credible, 250 civilians killed, 1596 injured.
This represents a 121 percent increase in civilian casualties in the Russian Federation compared with last year.
Again, this is open source, not verified independently.
And to answer a few other questions that that you've you've recorded the most recent case that we have and because I don't know that where the exact numbers came from that were reported.
So I'm going to give a couple of different recent incidents that we've recorded.
So on the 20th of July, a Ukrainian drone reportedly struck a passenger bus in the town of Shebec Neo that's in Belgar Road and approximately 6 kilometres from the front line, or excuse me, excuse me from the border with Ukraine.
And in that incident, the Russian authorities reported four women and one child were killed and 23 injured.
Famine in his briefing mentioned the civilian casualties that came from the attack on the two wild Berry facilities.
These are commercial enterprise similar to to Amazon and we've recorded other incidents in recent days and months.
Nicoming Bruce, The New York Times.
You mentioned farmers who were coming under a drone attack.
I wondered, I mean, do you do you have a casualty figure for them?
How many farmers in particular were killed?
Is that an increasing number?
We've, we've had previous reports of large numbers of, of kind of agricultural equipment being taken in occupied areas and and so forth.
But I, I wonder if we're, we're not seeing something that you know, constitutes A concerted attack on agricultural food production particularly and whether you have any sense of, of, of what the impact on agricultural or on food production has been.
Second, sorry, the second question you talked about a ship being hit in in the Black Sea.
Was was this a one off or has there been an increasing pattern of attacks on merchant vessels?
Thank you, Nick for the question.
I'll answer the second question first.
So, so yes, we have seen, you know, continued attacks by the Russian Federation against civilian vessels in the Black Sea.
We the attack that Tamim briefed on is not a one off.
In recent weeks, months, several separate attacks have reportedly killed 20 vessel workers and injured 29 others.
That's the information I have in front of me right now.
And we have seen these attacks continuing.
In terms of your question about attacks on farming and agriculture, and your question was essentially do we see a deliberate policy of the Russian Federation targeting farming both in terms of destruction of equipment, the burning of fields and deliberate targeting of farmers themselves?
We do not have enough information at this time to state that as a pattern.
The examples that I gave from Kushuhum in Zafir Asia, and then I heard similar things when I was in NEPRO the second day.
We don't have multiple attacks coming out of other Ramadas.
What we're doing in the coming days and weeks is looking through our data and doing more proactive outreach to these frontline communities so that we can identify whether or not this is an attack, whether or not this is a policy or a plan.
But what I can say is we've certainly seen a massive impact.
So a few more stats on Kashuhum that I didn't say in the in the briefing.
You know, more than 50% of the agricultural equipment in this one Horamada has been destroyed.
So it's something we're looking at closely standby and we'll be doing a lot more reporting on a short range drones in the coming months.
Oh, now you should be on.
OK, Sorry, yeah, technical issues.
Thank you for so much for taking my questions.
Thank you, Danielle, for your presentation.
Alina, Fedina, Russian news agency tasks.
So my question is actually addressed will be addressed to Tamim.
And Tamim, you've just cited Russian reports about the deaths of 80 billions and 48 people, injuries in Ukrainian strikes on wild various logistics centres in Moscow and both in the recent days.
So my question would be, what is the OOHCHR assessment on this?
If these facilities were deliberately attacked, would that consisted of war crime under the international humanitarian law?
Thank you, Alina, for that question.
In fact, we cannot verify independently these reports because we lack access to the Russian Federation as a matter of principle.
Deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime under international humanitarian law.
But to determine this, whether there was a deliberate attack or not, and that's what we're calling for, there needs to be investigations in all attacks both in Ukraine and in Russia, where civilians were impacted, killed or injured in order to determine the the responsibilities and to achieve accountability and justice.
And that's a call we are making regardless of the territory in this whole conflict.
Any other question for Danielle on Ukraine?
Before I pass to the next topic, I just wanted to remind the the correspondence that the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Ukraine, which seeks 2.31 billion to deliver life saving assistance to 4.12 million people facing the most severe need is as of today only close to 63% funded, 62.5 to be exact.
So that is really an appeal to provide the missing the missing funds because the global funding shortfall requires humanitarian actors to make difficult but principal choices, The response is sharply focused on those most at risk, particularly along the frontline, including civilians affected by displacement and repeated strikes on essential infrastructure.
So we really call for donors to bridge this gap, funding gap.
Danielle, thank you very much for being with us today.
Please keep updating us whenever you can.
And sorry, I see, I saw Jamie hands.
Sorry, Jamie Keaton associated President.
Thank you Miss Bell for coming to see us again.
My question actually has to do with the, if you have any metrics in terms of, because you're discussing, you know, civilians in Russia, it seems to be a bit of a new commentary from you because you usually focus on Ukraine.
So, so to my knowledge, you haven't always talked about the civilian impact in, in Russia.
My, my, my question would be in terms of accuracy or in terms of casual or, or, or, or collateral damage.
Is there any way to tell sort of whether or not by your count if there are more civilian target, actual actual civilian sites being targeted either by Russia or by Ukraine or one side or the other is doing is targeting more military sites as opposed to civilian sites?
Can you just give us a little bit of a picture in terms of whether or not you have a mindset evidence that civilians are being actively targeted in either of those two countries?
Danielle, Thanks Jamie, you saved the tough question, the toughest question for last.
First, before I answer your longer question, OHCHR has consistently reported on civilian casualties that take place in the Russian Federation in the periodic reports that we issue several times a year and that's all available on on our website.
But it's receiving more coverage now because the numbers are are getting higher.
Your, your second question was to what extent do we assess that either side is increasingly or consistently directly targeting civilians with the verification that we do when we go to incident sites, it's not always possible to ascertain what the intended target was.
And what we do on the ground is we measure the impact on civilian communities and then we advocate for other bodies to do proper or formal investigation that leads to accountability and prevention, of course.
So we're we're the fact finders.
Having said that, I'm going to divide up short range drones, long range drones and certain weapon systems.
In some cases when we go to an incident site, for example, if a ballistic missile has hit a residential building, we'll look to see if there's, you know, a possible military target or potentially military target in the region.
So or that we hear reports that there may have been military presence.
So we try to determine that, but sometimes with the way that the weapons are being used, they're being used in such a way that it avoiding civilian harm is quite difficult.
I mean, the most obvious example I gave is with the short range drones where the user can look through a camera and see what he or what he's targeting.
So, for example, I've interviewed people in the front line who speak about holding their dogs in the air or waving their arms to show I'm I'm a civilian.
And then that account is matched by when we receive the drone footage.
Sometimes through the military, bloggers will release coverage, we'll see drone coverage of a civilian holding their dog in the air or waving it.
So that would be a case where it certainly looks like the civilians were deliberately targeted with the glide bombs, you know, such as what Tamim spoke about in Zapa Asia.
You know, it's essentially a bomb that's been really equipped with, you know, wings and a guidance system that's, you know, dropped through the to the front line.
And it's not as precise as another weapon system.
So it often might hit something taller.
So for example, you know, I went, I've been in one as in Aphidisia, not this time, but another time went to an oncology oncological hospital that has been hit with one of these that was quite tall and other targets may have been closer by.
So that's a long way, Jamie, of saying it's really difficult to tell.
And our role is collecting the facts on the ground and determining the harm that these weapons cause.
Thank you very much, Danielle.
I don't think there are other questions.
Thank you very much for answering in the difficult question.
Last, Thanks again and thank you Tamim for for bringing Danielle to us.
But Tamim, you stay with us because you have another topic and it's Gaza.
The Israeli military has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians, children, women and men.
These attacks have struck residential buildings, at least one tent sheltering internally displaced people and other crowded areas.
Nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire, still nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said that over 1100 Palestinians have been killed since October 2025 by the Israeli military.
Our office has so far verified the killing of 685 Palestinians from October 2025 to mid-april 2026, including 283 women and children, mostly in Israeli attacks reported across the Gaza Strip.
Our verification work is ongoing.
From the 13th to the 20th of July alone, our office has recorded that the Israeli military killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women.
Among these victims, 34 were killed far away from the Israeli imposed Yellow line.
On the 17th and the 18th of July, for example, 10 Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Middle Gaza, N Gaza and Khan Yunus killed at least 21 Palestinians, including four children and three women, according to information gathered by our office.
In one of these attacks, on an apartment in Gaza City, five members of one family were killed together, both parents and three siblings, reportedly aged 815 and 17.
The killing of civilians in these attacks raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and other possible atrocity crimes in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian population in Gaza remains trapped in an ever shrinking area, with the Yellow line constantly being moved westwards by the Israeli occupying power, presenting A continuous threat to life as the Israeli military appears to routinely fire on Palestinians for mere presence in the vicinity of that line, in violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
The violations, the suffering and the misery that continue to be imposed on the Palestinians in Gaza cannot be ignored.
Third, states must take urgent action to insist on full respect for the ceasefire, to put an end to all violations and to ensure accountability and justice.
Thanks for this important briefing.
Let me open the floor to questions.
I'm looking at our correspondent in the room, but since I don't see hands, let me go to the platform.
You had a question on the region.
Mercy Moussa setimaj kuku vuze decree duskis pasoli bon efremo oribe the the person que sontre the civil que sontre de zanfon de tham continue documente de California essay the the very fier de con axe ozone que sontouche a continue a play as key in in processors the the responsibility judiciary kille desonquet independent a a transparent poor responsibility injustice for the victim male or Jean OC or Geordie said direct to test attack direct the.
We open the the the, the, the infrastructure.
Civil also shows just a pass here.
We'll see the infrastructure on the TVD.
Maximus Civil Ayudla de la Region Pascua supplies for the the the pace Agravola stability if you could, if you want to.
If you see this don't get independent transparent the civilian touché lafra structure civil OC Don AP limit of donor region AIRA4C saturate Killian passage fluid a facile poor tooth le le commodity necessary.
International humanitarian working.
the PE debuted the set Escala.
Palestinian song documented on the Rapport duo Commissaire not not rappel rest to Julie MME rest restaurant MME LED was human.
The Turmond LED Palestinian a lot of determination.
Thank you very much for doing this.
Could you tell us how many percent of the Gaza territory has been occupied by the Israeli army now?
Thank you for that question.
I don't have a specific figure.
We have seen a report, media reports on statements by the Israeli Prime Minister saying that he ordered the military to advance to 70% of the territory of Gaza, but that's not an information verified by our office.
I just would like to add that the whole of the Gaza Strip is officially and legally under Israeli occupation.
Thank you very much, Tamim.
And yes, the sorry, sorry, Emma, go ahead.
It's more of an institutional question if you may.
I just realised that four years have passed and it's the end of Turks term I believe in October if I'm not mistaken.
What are the next steps please?
Will we have another four year mandate?
I guess this is a question for the Member States and the Secretary General for our colleagues in New York.
I believe the High Commissioner is ready to serve, but this is something that's more for the for the New York parts of the UN.
Thanks, Tamim for the two important briefings.
So let me turn on to the left, Zoe, I think your colleague might want to sit here because of the of the frame.
So let's give our colleagues from IOM the time to reset.
OK, So welcome to our IOM colleagues.
Zoe brought us Maria Moita, who is the Director of the Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery.
I believe you have a briefing on Venezuela.
Thank you very much everybody.
So I have indeed brought with me from IOM today Maria Moita, who is a Director from the Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery.
And she has just returned from a visit to our teams in Venezuela coping with the earthquake recovery.
So she will deliver a few words on that and then open to questions.
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
As we mentioned last week, I returned from Venezuela where I visited the communities hardest hit by the twin earthquakes, including La Guaira, the area most severely affected.
I met families who lost everything, local authorities, humanitarian partners and IOM staff working around the clock to support the response.
Today marks one month after these devastating earthquakes.
It has been a month of immense loss, grief and uncertainty.
But it has also been a month of extraordinary courage and bravery.
As I went through the affected neighbourhoods, I was struck by the scale of the destruction, but even more the strength and solidarity of the people I met.
I witnessed entire communities pulling together to help, including those affected by the earthquakes.
Families shared heartbreaking stories of losing loved ones, their homes, their belongings and their livelihoods in a matter of seconds.
Many are still living next to the collapse and or heavily damaged buildings, hoping that loved loved ones can still be recovered or trying to savage the few positions they have left.
The emotional toll is enormous.
Many people are living with trauma, anxiety and uncertainty about what comes next.
Children, parents and older people alike need not only shelter and basic assistance, but also continued psychosocial support to help them begin to recover.
Across these affected areas, one message came through very clearly.
People need a safe place to live.
Shelter remains the most urgent priority, a safe place to live.
It's much more than a roof overhead, it's the foundation for recovery.
Without safe shelter it is impossible to restore to restore any sort of normal life, for children to return to school, for parents to return to work, and for a sense of stability to be re established.
Many families continue to move between temporary shelters, staying with relatives or wherever they can find space.
Understanding where people are most moving is essential so that assistance reaches those who are in need.
Protection risks are also increasing in some displacement sites as overcrowding and adequate lighting and limited community spaces increase the risks of gender based violence and human trafficking, particularly for women and girls.
IOM is working side by side with the Government of Venezuela and humanitarian partners to respond.
We are managing 5 temporary shelters hosting around 6000 people.
So far, we have reached more than 8200 people with shelter assistance, side coordination, healthcare protection services and displacement tracking.
But we also know that recovery must begin now.
Experience from emergencies around the world tell us that people cannot wait for the crisis to end before we build start rebuilding their lives.
To support this effort, IOM is appealing for $98,000,000 to insist 850,000 people through a response that combines life saving assistance with early recovery, resilience and long term solutions.
This includes shelter, water and sanitation protection, livelihoods, psychosocial support and displacement tracking.
The people of Venezuela have demonstrated incredible strength in the face of great loss.
Our responsibility now is to stand with them not only in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, but throughout the long road to recovery.
They need our support to heal and rebuild their homes and restore their communities.
I am calls on our partners to continue to give hope to Venezuela in their moment of greatest need.
Thank you very much, Maria.
And let me open the floor to questions if any in the room don't see any hand up.
So let's go to the platform.
I had a question about whether IOM has received assistance from the US for your efforts in Venezuela, and if so, how much and how this may compare with with the more recent assistance when it comes to the Venezuelan migration situation.
Any assistance, recent assistance from the the US going there and when that could have been?
And yeah, just basically recent trends in funding.
And then I, I wonder, I, I wanted to know if IOM has communicated with the US regarding concerns over deportations returns, supports returns to Venezuela.
As you probably know, there, there were a number of deported Venezuelans that were killed in the the quakes and possible discussions with the US regarding reinstating TPS for Venezuelans amid amid the earthquake concerns.
Thank you for the question.
Starting with your first question about the funding, yes, IOM has received funding from the US.
Several organisations have with this public information that the United States have provided substantive funding support to the Venezuelan response, both through bilateral funding to some UN agencies, one of each IOM and also NGOs, and another portion of that funding has been channelled through the Ocean Managed Pool funds.
With regards to the deportation question is the know this is an agreement from government to government.
IOM does not have a role in those negotiations.
So we are not aware what is the current status of that conversation.
What we know at this point in time is that the airport in Caracas is still not operating and it will take some time because it's been also damaged during the earthquake.
This thing doesn't work today.
Any other question to IOM?
Nina Larson, sorry, just to follow up on that, has IOM been asked to assist in repatriating Venezuelans from the US?
So IOM, although I'm here mostly to talk about my experience in visiting the earthquake affected areas and that assistance.
But I can also tell you that IOM is not part of the the deportation process as I was mentioning, but it has in the past assisted not deportations with people that have returned voluntarily to the country throughout our agreement with the the states that are involved.
Thank you very much, Maria.
Paula, as a follow up, yeah, just just on that, I mean to, to how much degree is, is it coordinated between the the actual deportations and the resettlement arrangements?
How much coordination is there between the US once they deport and the resettlements that that the assistance that you're providing in terms of helping the the Venezuelans that are deported being resettled in their country?
So resettlement is, is it's not, it's when people go as a refugee to another country, right.
So perhaps this is this is a confusion in terminology.
But just to be clear, there is no linkage to what we're doing now in terms of supporting people that have been affected by the earthquakes.
The assistance that IOM is coordinating with the local authorities and through the funding that was mentioned, that's not only the American funding, but also from other donors that are investing efforts to support the people affected by the earthquakes.
Maybe it wasn't clear Paula, because I see your end is up again.
Yes, no, I'm sorry about the terminology.
It's, it's regarding the coordination that the IOM may have with the US when it comes to deportations and, you know, receiving and helping to helping the, the return returnees to Venezuela resettle.
I mean, I guess, you know, it's, it's all terminology, but I hope you understand it's the reintegration perhaps that you mean.
So again, there's not getting too technical, but of course there are different tracks in which we, the migration management takes place.
The deportation is 1 track for which IOM is not involved.
It's an agreement between the state of Venezuela and the United States in terms of the assisted voluntary return is a programme that has been long running in the Venezuelan as well where IOM supports with the the reintegration and this the arrival and some level of reintegration of the retro knees that has been on hold after the earthquakes.
Given the situation in the country, including as I mentioned, the the airport has been damaged.
Any other question to yes, Nina, sorry to keep harping on this.
So on the, I understand you're involved in the voluntary returns to Venezuela, given the fact that the US is putting a lot of pressure on on people to self deport as they call it.
Do you, does IOM have systems in place or are you helping people to return when they they say they want to but are perhaps under pressure from the US authorities to do so?
And also do you have any of the people who were killed in the earthquake who were returnees to Venezuela?
Were there any of those that IOM had assisted in returning and is that of concern to you?
No, that for that, that very unfortunate situation, I was not, I was not involved because again, there were deportees and that's the agreement between the states.
Perhaps that's something that we can follow up with you bilaterally on more information.
I don't have all the the data and the points to answer adequately to your question at this point, Zoe, just that I can follow up with you on that by actually Nina, but to assert that IOM was not involved in that tragic situation.
OK, I think that was the last question.
I don't see any other hand up.
So thank you very much for your briefing, Maria.
Thanks, Louis, for coming.
Thank you very much for this briefing.
And let me go to our last but definitely not least speaker, who is Matt Saltmarsh.
Thank you for having me here this morning.
A quick note from us on tragic shipwrecks and rescues last week in West Africa.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is extremely saddened and concerned at reports that 144 people are either dead or missing as a result of tragic maritime incidents off the coast of Mauritania last week.
The refugees and migrants were reported dead or missing after attempting the perilous sea journey from West Africa towards Europe and that of course highlights the continued human costs of these dangerous routes.
Overall, three rescue and disembarkation operations were conducted between the 14th and the 18th of July, July in Nuadibu, Mauritania and that brought 387 people safely ashore.
UNHCR was present at the disembarkations with all of our partners and and of course the survivors came from various different countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Passengers on one of the boats that was rescued on the 18th of July had experienced particular tragedy, with 143 people reported dead on the scene and just 38 surviving after nearly 25 days stranded on the Atlantic, having left The Gambia to try to reach Spain.
Among the survivors on that ship were two children who had lost all their family members during the journey and are now recovering in hospital with other survivors.
Another death was reported from among passengers on a boat that was disembarked on the 14th of July.
Overall, this is a stark reminder that despite sustained efforts by coastal authorities and partners to save lives, the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands remains one of the world's deadliest mixed movement corridors due to long distances, unpredictable ocean conditions, unseaworthy and overcrowded boats, and limited access to timely rescue.
Despite the number of arrivals to the Spanish archipelago dropping this year by some 61% from 2025, with 4400 arrivals as of the 15th of July, the incidents do highlight the persistent risks faced by refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe, many of whom were embarking from over 2000 kilometres away from their intended destinations.
Overall, if we look at arrivals to Europe by sea so far this year on the major routes, there have been over 40,000 this year, compared to over 65,000 in the first half of 2025.
Still, units, your and our partners have repeatedly warned that deaths and disappearances at sea continue at alarming levels, with many incidents occurring far from public attention and often resulting in entire boats vanishing.
Against this backdrop, the rescues in Mauritania demonstrate that concerted efforts need to be made to address the root causes driving refugees and migrants to take these perilous journeys while providing quicker and meaningful access to legal pathways to which the refugees and migrants can find safety and opportunity.
But thanks for this briefing and I'm sure everybody would love to have it in their mailbox if you, if you can send it out.
Any question to you, NHCR?
Oh, Paula, well, first of all, on on that that story, do you have the nationalities of the the victims?
And and then I have other questions that are less well less related to that in terms of the nationalities of those who were rescued.
They were from sub-Saharan Africa.
We don't have an exact breakdown of of all the nationalities at this stage, but we can get you that later if if you would like that information.
Paula, what what are the questions you had?
So as you probably read the colleagues that Reuters said that reported that the US is considering disengaging with your agency.
And I wanted to know, has the UNHCR been in discussions with the US over this, this issue?
What if they told you as a reason for the disengagements and otherwise, what do you suspect may be the reason?
And what would the this disengagement mean for the agency?
And then separately, another question on the anniversary celebrations perhaps which I can come back to afterwards.
In terms of the report, yes, we have seen the Reuters report.
We're not commenting on that.
We don't comment on speculation or we would say that.
Is there any comment on US funding of UNHCR or other international organisations, of course, needs to come from the US government themselves.
So that's all we're going to say on that at this stage.
Paula, your last question, yes, and I saw that next week you're going to be celebrating your anniversary.
Just wondering who will be attending those celebrations?
It's not actually our anniversary.
It's the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, the 1951 Refugee Convention, and the event will take place on the 28th of July.
We will be sending out an advisory to the Palais media, hopefully today, and journalists of course, will be welcomed to attend that event.
In attendance will be, of course, our High Commissioner, senior officials, alongside a number of our goodwill ambassadors and other high profile supporters.
So hopefully you can join us for that and we will give you details on that very shortly.
Thank you very much, Matt.
Yes, Emma, I'm trying to see on the platform also, but go ahead, Emma.
Just to clarify on the shipwrecks, the 143 who died, were they sorry, all in one or was it several?
If you could just clarify that point.
And then on institutional question on the building, I understand you're you're moving to Pally Wilson, my colleague at ARD had a scoop on that.
When are you moving and why and what's going to happen to your current address?
On the first question around the shipwrecks and rescues, there was 143 from 1 vessel that was disembarked and then one further person from a second vessel.
So that means 144 altogether.
Hopefully that clarifies that.
In terms of your other question about the move to Kelly Wilson, yes, we can confirm that we will be moving from our current premises in Geneva, our headquarters staff to the Pally Wilson building, which is not too far away.
We don't have an exact date for that move at this stage.
We expect it could be relatively soon, but we'll have to see.
And in terms of the reasons for doing so, as you know through your own reporting last year, we had significant cuts in staff both here in Geneva, but also globally.
And so the move to this premises will help us to save significant funds on our on our rent.
We estimate around 50% saving on our rent.
And in terms of what's going to happen to this current building, that's the question for the Swiss authorities who own and manage the premises.
Matt Gorky, Venezuela appeal and so on.
Meno America are blockade for Venezuela this will see de la de la situation will see the main to say more Venezuela the the.
No Venezuela question we in opportunity for or a donk on Valvo.
I said the Venmo le Vantuiguer egelmo in communicate the press a it's just sparky.
You had this opportunity a paleo epic circuit vice siste.
I don't see any other question for you.
And since I don't have much of an many announcements for you, because it's, as you know, we have suspended for a while the meetings of the human rights treaty body as well as the Council conference on disarmament.
I think we could close here if there are no other questions.
Just a reminder that you you will know that we have opened the portal in Assume in June and we will soon send you some information about particular favourable conditions for journalists to visit the Portai.
So this is coming to your boxes in a little while.
Otherwise, thank you very much and I'll see you.
In fact, I think Rolando will see you on Friday.
