UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 22 December 2020

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22-12-2020

Press Conferences | UNHCR , UNOG , WFP

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 22 December 2020

ENG

Situation in Tigray, Ethiopia

Andrej Mahecic, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, together with 30 humanitarian partners, UNHCR was releasing today an urgent appeal for USD 156 million. The requested funds were needed to meet the critical humanitarian needs of Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in Tigray through the first half of 2021.

The Regional Refugee Preparedness and Response Plan for the Ethiopia Situation

(Tigray) covered the period from November 2020 through to June 2021 and was expected to reach up to 115,000 refugees and 22,000 people from host communities. It aimed to support the governments of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea in maintaining and facilitating access to

asylum and providing life-saving assistance to those who had been forced to flee.

Currently many refugees remained in overcrowded conditions without proper facilities and

there continued to be a shortage of medicines and other supplies. Partners were calling for

urgent new contributions in order to meet the immense humanitarian needs in eastern

Sudan and to ensure full preparedness throughout the region, concluded Mr. Mahecic.

UNHCR briefing note is here.

More than 52,000 refugees had arrived to Sudan thus far, said Mr. Mahecic responding to a question. Access to Tigray was very much needed in order to assess the situation there, including the number of internally displaced persons.

Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access, coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas, raised increasing concerns about the situation of civilians.

OHCHR had received allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting. Those reports pointed to failure by the parties to the conflict to protect civilians, which was all the more concerning given that fighting was said to be continuing, particularly in some areas of north, central and southern Tigray.

One of the most shocking incidents reported to date was the alleged mass killing of several hundred people, mainly Amharans, in Mai Kadra, on 9 November. If civilians had been deliberately killed by a party or parties to the conflict, these killings would amount to war crimes and there needed to be independent, impartial, thorough and transparent investigations to establish accountability and ensure justice. Independent human rights monitors ought to be allowed to all areas of Tigray as soon as possible in order to ensure accountability, stressed Ms. Throssell.

OHCHR briefing note is here.

Refugee ration cuts in Uganda

Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that from February 2021 the WFP would reduce cash and food rations for more than 1.2 million refugees in Uganda. Uganda hosted around 1.4 million refugees, which made it one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. Most of those refugees had fled different conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Burundi. This year had been incredibly difficult for those refugees, and the WFP had received less than one half of the funds it needed. Since April 2020, the WFP had already been issuing reduced rations in order to keep up its activities.

WFP immediately needed USD 95.8 million to provide rations to Uganda over the next six months. WFP aimed to continue providing assistance to the most vulnerable categories, but there was a fear that there would be many who could not be helped. Many refugees were already food insecure, stressed Mr. Phiri. Consistent funding was necessary in order to secure continuous support for the refugees.

Geneva announcements

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that this was the last briefing of 2020. The next briefing would take place on Tuesday, 5 January 2021. Ms. Vellucci thanked all the spokespersons, the journalists and her staff at UNIS for being cooperative and going an extra mile in this extraordinarily difficult year.

Teleprompter

Welcome to this press briefing, the last of the year of the United Nations Information Service at Geneva on Tuesday, 22nd of December.

I would like to start immediately by giving the floor to Andre Emma Hertich for the EN Refugee Agency on the situation in Tigray.

Andre, thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Great to be in the briefing again.

And first let me just congratulate on behalf of the UNHCR media team to the colleagues at WFP, Ontad and WTO, congratulations.

This is really important recognition for the for the media work your teams have been doing.

As to the item we will be briefing on this morning, we are releasing, together with 30 humanitarian partners, an urgent appeal for $156,000,000 to support refugees fleeing Ethiopia's Tigre crisis.

The requested funds are needed to meet the critical humanitarian needs of Ethiopian refugees fleeing the conflict in Tigre throughout the first half of 2021.

This.

Appeal will also strengthen preparedness to receive refugees in other countries in the region in case of further refugee movements.

Over the past six weeks, more than 52,000 refugees have fled the grey region into eastern Sudan, despite the number of of new arrivals dropping more recently to some 500 a day.

Aid agencies are dealing with a full scale humanitarian emergency in a very remote area that has not seen such a large influx in decades.

The Regional Refugee Preparedness and Response Plan for Tigre for the Ethiopia Situation I in Tigre covers the period from November this year to June 2021 and it is meant to reach up to 150,000 refugees and 22,000 people in host communities.

It also aims to support the governments of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea in maintaining and facilitating access to asylum and providing life saving assistance to those who have been forced to flee.

The The critical activities include registration documentation, ensuring civilian character of asylum, the congesting of the border site areas, transferring refugees to the new settlements, provision of food, health and education services, support for groups with specific needs, particularly for women and girls at risk, unaccompanied minors, the disabled and the elderly in Eastern Sudan.

Since the 14th of November to date, more than 20,000 refugees have been relocated from the border areas to Umrakuba camp, which is located some 75 kilometres from Gedaref town at this site.

As this site approaches its capacity, we and our partners will begin next week preparatory work on a new site further inland, some 136 kilometres away from Gedaref town.

Currently, many refugees remain in overcrowded conditions without proper facilities and there continues to be a shortage of medicine and other supplies.

We have seen a huge demand for family tracing and reunification education and for child friendly spaces and nutritional programmes.

So far, only about 30% of the required funds have been received by UNHCR partners for the ongoing response.

The responding agencies are grateful for these contributions from both government and private sector supporters, but those together with onion mark contributions have allowed us to have a rapid response to the initial needs.

Partners are calling for urgent new contributions in order to meet the immense humanitarian needs in Eastern Sudan and to ensure full preparedness throughout the region.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Andre, for this briefing.

And we have more information from the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.

[Other language spoken]

Liz, yes, good morning everyone.

And also our congratulations to WFP and WTO from the UN Human Rights Office media team.

What has been such a challenging year for everybody?

Picking up on the picture that Andre has painted of the the needs in Tigre, we have this morning issued a press release by the **** Commissioner highlighting our concerns that several weeks after the conflict began in the Tigre region of Ethiopia, the continuing lack of overall humanitarian access, coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas raises increasing concerns about the situation of civilians.

Now, our particular human rights concerns concern the fact that we have received consistent information pointing to violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law by all parties to the conflict, and these include artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting.

While we're not in a position to verify these reports on the ground, they do point to a failure by the parties to the conflict to protect civilians.

And this is all the more concerning given that fighting is said to be continuing, particularly in some areas of north, central and southern Tigre.

Among the accounts, witnesses described artillery strikes on the town of Humira on the border with Eritrea between the 9th and the 11th of November.

We interviewed several people from the town who alleged that shells launched from Eritrea had hit residential areas and the hospital.

The Ethiopian army and regional Amhara forces and militia then reportedly took control Chimaera, allegedly killing civilians and looting the hospital, banks, businesses, supermarkets and private houses.

Artillery strikes against the town of Adigrat in early November reportedly forced many families to flee to the mountains.

They were then trapped by heavy fighting between the 20th and 24th of November and many people were reported to have been killed.

One of the most shocking incidents, as you may recall, reported to date was the alleged mass killing of several 100 people, mainly Amharans, in my cadre on the 9th of November.

The **** Commissioner has previously stressed that if civilians were deliberately killed by a party or parties to the conflict, these killings would amount to war crimes and they need to be independent, impartial, thorough and transparent investigations to establish accountability and ensure justice.

We urge the authorities to build on the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission's preliminary findings into what happened in my Khadra.

It's essential that there are investigations into allegations of human rights violations there against both Amharans and Tigrayans.

Based on multiple accounts, the Amharat Fano militia have reportedly committed human rights abuses, including killing civilians and carrying out looting.

We've also received information, which we have not been able to verify, concerning the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray, their involvement in the hostilities and related serious violations of international law.

Now, while telephone lines are beginning to be restored, the communications blackout that began on the 4th of November and restrictions on access raised significant concerns that the human rights and humanitarian situation is even more dire than feared.

These reported allegations are likely only to be the tip of the iceberg regarding the extent and seriousness of the violations committed by all parties to the conflict.

For instance, while the government of Ethiopia has repeatedly alleged that the Tigray People Liberation Front forces have been involved in violations of international law, without access, it remains challenging to verify these allegations.

This underscores the need, as the **** Commissioner is stressing today in her press release, the need for independent human rights monitors to be given access to Tigre, to adequately assess the human suffering resulting from the conflict, verify allegations, and to help ensure accountability.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Liz.

[Other language spoken]

As usual, it seems we have a problem with Emma with Emma's mic.

[Other language spoken]

And Emma, please send me a question on on the e-mail.

I read it for you.

Sorry for this.

It seems there's a recurring problem with your with your mic.

So let's go to Nick and I'll read the question from Emma, if she can send it to me.

[Other language spoken]

I wonder if she could just go into a little bit more detail about what happened in Humira.

She talks about some of the allegations against Amhara forces in other parts of her statement, but it seems that she's saying the Ethiopian army was directly implicated in the killings of civilians and the looting of various civilian institutions and property.

Could could you just confirm that and go into a little bit more detail?

[Other language spoken]

We our colleagues did talk to to people from Humira and as I said that that we have received sort of consistent reports painting a picture of what happened there in November.

To give you an example, a teacher from the town stated that the the bombardment of the town began on the 9th of November and he saw 8 civilians killed by mortar shells that landed on 2 houses.

Another account was from a 14 year old boy from Hamera.

He said he was woken from his sleep by the explosion of a mortar outside his home.

Now he ran out into a crowd that was fleeing the village in panic.

As you can imagine, he couldn't find his parents and brother in the panic.

And so he was helped by other people to cross into Sudan and he's not been able to locate his family since.

So we have numerous accounts from people regarding what happened in Humira with regard to, to, to who has done what.

Well, clearly this is a, a very complex situation with multiple forces on both sides.

And what we have gathered is, is information, allegations relating to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law on all sides.

I I repeated by all parties to the conflict.

One of the, the, the, the, the issues really is it has been the killing of civilians.

Now with regard to that, again, this is just a snapshot because of course we are stressing that it is incredibly difficult to verify these allegations, but this is what we've been receiving that with regard to the, to the killing of, of civilians, out of 17 incidents that were reported to us, the the Fanho Fano Amhara militia was said to have been responsible.

The issue of looting kept recurring and it seems clear that this has been committed also on numerous occasions by different parties.

People spoke about the hospital, banks, businesses, homes being looted, things being taken away.

This overall picture is really why the **** Commissioner has issued the press release today saying it is so important that access is given to independent human rights monitors.

To go in and start doing human rights monitoring to find out what happened to establish it is incredibly important.

[Other language spoken]

And I think Nick has a follow up.

Yeah, just to just to confirm, are you saying that the deaths of civilians occurred only in the context of artillery and mortar bombardments or are you saying that there is also accounts that indicate civilians were killed by forces moving into the area?

I've given quite a lot of detail of of what happened with the bombardment.

But I think what is clear from from the accounts that we have received is that the the there were other instances where people were killed by forces moving in.

There was a deliberate targeting of civilians.

It's a whole array of alleged human rights violations from from artillery strikes on residential areas to civilians being targeted to extrajudicial killings, which again, is why it is so important that there is human rights monitoring to help ensure accountability.

Thank you very much, Liz.

So I have the questions from Emma.

One question for Andre Andrei Emma asks, does UNHCR have an estimate for the total number of people displaced by the war in Tigray, Not solely the number who fled to Sudan, but also those displaced internationally?

Right now, in terms of the refugee displacement, it is the displacement that we have registered and recorded in Sudan.

As of the 21st of December, 52,503 refugees have arrived into Sudan.

It is obviously of of great concern for us.

As to the issue of access, we are and continue to ask and we need effective and sustainable access to to degrade to the camps, obviously to assess and address the immediate needs there.

Also one would need to be able to assess the scope of the internal displacement that may have occurred in the course of the past six weeks.

We do not have that information as of now.

Thank you, Andrea.

And Emma also has a question for you, Liz.

She asks, if you Get full access to the Tigrea, how quickly could you get a team on the ground to do the necessary verifications of alleged mass killings and other human rights violations?

[Other language spoken]

We have been doing the remote monitoring and this is is what we're basing our press release on that we have been doing remote monitoring.

We've been talking to refugees that went into Sudan, consulting numerous stakeholders, also looking at open sources.

So that has built up the initial position with regard to, to getting a team together.

Well, clearly given the the, the seriousness and the importance of this situation, that is something that we we would strive to do as soon as possible in incredibly challenging conditions.

That that is, is clear.

We have had contacts with sort of various parts of the Ethiopian government.

We have been engaging with them.

We would just say that it is very important that we we are able to get access.

We're also saying that it's important that that independent human rights, human rights monitors, including national human rights monitors are able to get access to, to go in and find out what has happened.

So I'm not able to give you a clear sort of time frame on that.

But just say that that given the reports of the human suffering, given the reports of the violations that that have been alleged concerning a whole array of human rights violations, this is this is something that we would strive to do as soon as possible given given resources and given the the logistics that can be put in place.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Liz.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, good morning to everybody.

And the question, questions I have are for whoever, Andre, Liz, both of you.

Liz, you, you were talking about allegations that the Eritrean army may be involved in the war.

There are also a number of other disturbing reports about abductions of Tigray of sorry, Eritrean refugees and being sent to to Eritrea.

[Other language spoken]

And also reports that the Ethiopian government itself is preventing Eritrean refugees who are fleeing for safety within the country from actually achieving this and being sent back to camps or perhaps to Eritrea.

And then just one of the thing on the Axis issue, apparently the government still hasn't agreed to allow humanitarian agencies of impeded access into tea Greys.

Is that correct?

And do you, does the government give any reason for this?

You, Liz, just mentioned that you do have some contact with various parts of the government.

Is this an issue that comes up in your conversations?

[Other language spoken]

I will start by giving the floor to Andre.

But just to remind you that as Liz said, there were two themes that humanitarian colleagues were were able to do it to, to to access the the area yesterday.

But maybe my colleagues can compete on that.

I'll start with Andre and then Liz.

Well, first Lisa, we, we remain extremely worried about the impact of the conflict on the Oditrian refugees in Tigray.

We are sorry, we are in discussions with with the government.

We call for obviously for the safety and security for of those refugees to be respected.

We are in discussions with the authorities to undertake an assessment to the camps with our partners to resume the services and discussions on security, logistics and and modalities are are ongoing or on the way.

We obviously join other UN agencies in calling for all parties to protect displaced civilians, including refugees, and to respect the safety of the humanitarian staff in the region we have taken.

We essentially have seen and are alarmed by reports that people are being prevented from leaving Ethiopia to seek refuge in Sudan.

We have been calling persistently on all parties to allow free movement of affected civilians in search of assistance, their access to safety and security within the region or outside these affected areas.

Including to respect and fully uphold the right to cross international borders and seek asylum if they wish.

So yes, Lisa, I mean, I think Andre has, has covered many of the points there.

What we would just stress and, and this really is, is one of the points that the **** Commissioner is making in her press release is that while we welcome that the Ethiopian government statement that there would be unimpeded humanitarian access, this needs to be all to all areas of Tigre where civilians have been affected by the fighting.

And, and as we said, this is all the more concerning given that there are reports that fighting is continuing in some areas of north, central and southern Tigre.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much to both colleagues and to Lisa.

I don't see other questions on this subject.

So thank you for your briefing colleagues.

And now I'll turn to Thompson for WFP and congratulations for your for the satisfactions expressed by the journalist for you, for your work.

Thompson, you have a briefing note on Uganda.

[Other language spoken]

Indeed, thank you so much.

[Other language spoken]

It was a terrible year, but it was also quite an amazing year.

The pandemic, the Peace Prize, we all had a crash course on working from home.

I mean, we had to lift our game, everybody.

But most importantly, we did look out for each other.

And I hope next year will be the same or even better.

Now I'm going to to to to give you an update on double FP cards refugees rations in Uganda as funds dry up now.

The World Food Programme will, from February 2021, reduce monthly relief cash and food rations for more than 1,000,000 refugees in Uganda due to a serious lack of funding.

The cutbacks on Russians mean an unfortunate reduction of support to 1.26 million vulnerable people before they can fully cope on their own.

Most of these refugees in Uganda have fled conflict from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC and Burundi.

While this year has been particularly hard for everyone, it has been incredibly difficult for refugees.

WFP has received only half of the funds it requires to provide basic assistance first, with shortfalls.

WFP and its partners were obliged to make Russian cuts from April 2020, a move which coincided with the COVID-19 lockdown.

Since then, WFP has issued only reduced rations to people in order to sustain activities.

From February 2021, there will be a further cut, resulting in refugees receiving only 60% of a food ration.

The World Food Programme immediately needs $95.8 million to provide full rations to refugees in Uganda over the next six months.

While appealing to donors for agent funding, WFP will strive to maintain life saving assistance to the most vulnerable groups such as the malnourished children as well as pregnant and nursing women.

But we fear there are many whom we might not be able to help.

WFP is extremely concerned as hunger is on the rise across all 13 refugee settlements.

The latest Integrated Food Security First Classification IPC analysis for June to December 2020 found that refugees faced acute levels of food insecurity as food assistance has been inadequate and the the restrictions that have been introduced to help reduce the spread of COVID have worsened an already dangerous food security situation.

We recognise that donors have been very supportive over the years and that food assistance has been the difference for the majority of these refugees.

We need consistent funding to meet both immediate and longer term needs of refugees.

I will stop here.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

And Lisa has a question for you.

Good morning, Thompson.

**** in there.

2021's bound to be better right?

Anyway, my question you say that you'll have to cut rations essentially by 20% for 1.1 and a quarter million people.

Is that right?

How many people does WFP actually aid in in Uganda?

Are they and are they mixed lot of nationals, refugees and displaced people?

Or are you only talking about Ugandans?

And I mean essentially how, how will these people cope?

You were talking about COVID-19 and so jobs are probably non existent or very scarce.

[Other language spoken]

There are approximately 1.4 refugees who are living in in in Uganda.

Uganda was the largest refugee, 1.4 million people, mostly from South Sudan.

Others are from DRC and Burundi.

It has one of the largest castles, if not the largest, in Africa right now, and the World Food Programme is assisting 1.26 million of the refugees.

Of course, we also have other assistance schemes that target Ugandans in Karamuja in the Western Nile across the country.

Yes, COVID-19 is an added strain in Uganda.

The lockdowns that were introduced have resulted in an increase in the number of people who need assistance.

[Other language spoken]

Some Ugandans have been migrant workers in the region, others work as far afield as South Sudan, others in Kenya.

Some of them have had to come back warm and they're coming back to already burdened hosts.

However, COVID-19 must not be an excuse to assist the most vulnerable.

[Other language spoken]

Any other question to WFPI?

Don't see any.

So thank you very much for this briefing, which was quite short and brings me now to the end.

I just would like to remind you that today is the last briefing of this very peculiar year.

As Thompson said, there will be no briefing on the 25th and 29th of December as customary and on 1st of January 2, unless of course a major event occurs, the first briefing of 2021 will be held on Tuesday, 5th of January.

And of course, during this time we will be available in case you need any support.

I'll be here.

Our some of our colleagues are, are going to be here and also you have been receiving, I believe the list of the colleagues on duty in every agency.

So you know whom to call if you have a question.

We will also be sending you the message of the Secretary General for the New Year as usual at the end of December.

And I see that Nick and Katherine have got question I've got, I've asked for the floor.

I'll start with Nick.

Is that something for Thompson because he's leaving?

No, it's for you.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for sending those questions on COVID cases in the secretariat.

I wondered how many of those.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, sorry.

Nick, can you go ahead with your question?

[Other language spoken]

The question is, thanks for sending those details of the number of people, the UN staff, we've got the virus.

How many of those have I got it in the in, in the pallet?

How many of these, sorry, how many of these cases are thought to have been contracted in the pallet within the, the building you mean?

OK, well, to the best of my knowledge, of course, I can't be 100% sure.

But from what I'm told by the doctors, this norm, these contagions have have not happened in the in the palate, they've not happened in their professional sphere, but in the personal life of the of the colleagues.

I can't be 100% sure, but this is the information I've been given by the by the medical doctor, not by the medical staff of the UN.

Catherine Catherine Misu Reimoso Hatus Good morning everyone.

I would like to thank you very much for your trust and appreciation of the work done by the whole comms team and it's, it's been a pleasure to work with you all.

I would like to wish you all the best in the name of all my colleagues for, for the next year and hope we'll be able to maintain the, the level of, of work where we we've managed to reach this year.

It's going to be very, very important.

We have the, the quadrienal conference in, in Barbados.

I feel, I think you all saw that it will be postponed until October 2021.

So a lot of work ahead of us and we count on you.

Thank you very much again and to all colleagues and all media, have a nice end of year and happy 2021.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much Katherine and indeed thanks everybody.

The journalists, of course, I can hear and all the journalists and also all the colleagues for having been with us during this very challenging year.

As you know, when we were all surprised by the crisis in, in March, the big question was how are we going to continue with the media activities and continue to service the journalists as much as as best as best as we can in a in a very dire situation.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues and in particular the team of UNTV who have been able, who has been able to put on very quickly a platform which has been able to serve the media community in Geneva.

And thanks to these platforms, we have been able to continue working with you and with the colleagues.

So that's been really I think an important outcome, but it's, I think the time to thank everybody who has been accompanying us in this journey in this very difficult year.

So wish you all a very happy holiday season and looking forward to see you again in 2021.

As I said on the 1st Tuesday 5th of January of 2021, for a year that I really wish everybody to be better and healthier and, and a very good year for everybody or for all of us and for our families.

Thank you very much.