UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 15 January 2021

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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 15January 2021

1:02:57

MP4

518.3 MB

15-01-2021

Press Conferences | UNHCR , OCHA , UNOG , UNITED NATIONS

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 15 January 2021

ENG

Ethiopian refugees in Sudan

Axel Bisschop, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), speaking from Khartoum, said that he had just returned from the east part of Sudan, where a recent influx of refugees from Ethiopia had taken place. The influx, which had started in November, was still continuing, and it was difficult to predict what lay ahead. Refugees were using two border crossings from Tigray (Ethiopia) into Sudan, from which they were being taken by UNHCR and partners to two settlements, Um Rakouba and Tunaydbah.

The Government of Sudan had generously opened the border, and all refugees coming in were immediately given the refugee status, said Mr. Biscchop. There were still quite a few people on the borders, and the UNHCR was working with partners to decongest those areas, relocating the refugees to the two settlements. The refugees arriving now came from all spheres of society, and some were Eritrean; several hundred refugees were still arriving every day. UNHCR was calling on all donors and partners to provide support, as the operation was currently only 30 percent funded. Most refugees said that they had left because of the fighting and because of an increased conflict between the Tigrayans and the Amharans. Many feared to return, said Mr. Bisschop in a response to a question.

Babar Baloch, also for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), referring to the previous day’s statement by Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that UNHCR had no access to the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps in north Tigray, and without direct access it was difficult to say what was happening there. UNHCR repeated its call on the federal Ethiopian authorities to provide unhindered access to Tigray.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), added that the UN was alarmed about reports of civilians being killed in rural parts of Tigray; many in the region were receiving no assistance, more than two and a half months into the conflict. There were reports of an increase in malnutrition and water-borne diseases. Humanitarian assistance continued to be constrained by insecurity and bureaucratic obstacles caused by regional and federal authorities, deplored Mr. Laerke. UN renewed its call to all actors to allow for a safe unobstructed access to the entire region.

Libya talks

Jean El-Alam, for the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), apologized for the technical difficulties that had caused inconvenience to the journalists on the start of the talks at the Palais des Nations this week. Mr. El-Alam said that much had been accomplished during the meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Tunisia between 9 and 15 November 2020, where Libyans had agreed on a roadmap for the preparatory period leading to the national election; eligibility criteria for the unified executive authority positions; the prerogatives of the unified executive authority; and most importantly, setting a date for the elections on 24 December 2021, which was a top priority for UNSMIL.

With some 70 percent of the roadmap accomplished, the LPDF had not been able to make progress on the selection mechanism of the unified executive authority, which was why this week in Geneva, the Advisory Committee was meeting to come up with concrete recommendations about the formation of an interim unified executive authority to be presented to the LPDF to decide upon. Mr. El-Alam informed that there had been significant progress in the ongoing talks of the Advisory Committee on some major blockages.

In addition to the political track, there had been very encouraging progress in the military track since the signing of ceasefire agreement in Geneva by the 5+5 Joint Military Commission on 23 October 2020, including recent exchanges of detainees conducted under the JMC’s supervision, as part of wider confidence-building measures; the resumption of flights to all parts of Libya; the full resumption of oil production and export; and the proposed unification and restructuring of the Petroleum Facilities Guards. On the economic track, there had been a long—awaited meeting of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Libya, which had resulted in the unification of the exchange rate.

Earthquake in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that a 6.2 magnitude earthquake had stricken the West Sulawesi Province in Indonesia in the early morning local time today. Local authorities had reported 34 people killed and 637 people injured so far. More than 18,000 people had been temporarily displaced to ten evacuation sites. Those numbers were likely to increase as assessments continued.

Heavy damages had been reported in the city of Majene, including at the five-story Mitra Manakarra Hospital where eight people were reportedly trapped inside. The Governor’s office, two hotels, a mall, a community health centre, and over 300 houses had also sustained damages.

The earthquake interrupted the access road between Majene and the provincial capital Mamuju in three different locations. Electricity, communications network and fuel supply have also been disrupted. The UN was in close contact with the Indonesian Government and stood ready to support the response, said Mr. Laerke.

At least initially there had been no tsunami warning, confirmed Mr. Laerke in a response to a question.

Refugees from the Central African Republic

Boris Cheshirkov, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that UNHCR was calling for the immediate end to all violence in the Central African Republic as nearly 60,000 people had been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries since December, a two-fold rise in just one week.

Most had fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, across the Ubangui River, where the number of arrivals topped 50,000 after 10,000 Central African refugees had arrived in a single day on 13 January. The events of the previous month, since reports of election-related violence had begun, reversed the trend of recent years of Central African refugees returning home.

UNHCR was already seeking USD 151.5 million this year to respond to the CAR situation. The needs of the recently displaced Central Africans were mounting, and UNHCR would soon face a substantial funding shortfall.

Responding to questions, Mr. Cheshirkov confirmed a rapidly growing number of refugees, caused by the increasing violence in CAR. UNHCR was appealing for an immediate end to the violence.

UNHCR briefing note is available here.

World Health Organization

A number of journalists voiced strong concerns regarding the absence of the World Health Organization (WHO) representatives in biweekly press briefings, and the general lack of access of journalists to information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, possibly the most important global story in many years. The journalists emphasized that it was imperative for the Geneva-based press corps to be able to receive specialized briefings and directly ask questions to the WHO.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), thanked the journalists for sharing their concerns; good note was taken of their requests, which would be once again shared with the WHO. Discussions were on-going with the Association of UN accredited journalists (ACANU) and should be pursued in another setting.

Human Rights Council

Alessandra Vellucci, speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council (HRC), informed that the Council was having a meeting today at the Palais des Nations to hold a secret ballot election to appoint its President for 2021, who would come from the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting was webcast live, and the results of the secret ballot elections would be announced at the end of the meeting today.

Geneva announcements

Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), reminded that the Conference on Disarmament would open its 2021 session and hold its virtual public plenary on 19 January at 10 am. The Conference would be addressed by Tatiana Valovaya, in her capacity as the Secretary-General of the Conference. The Conference would open under the presidency of Belgium. More information is available here.

The current number of UN Secretariat staff in Geneva infected by COVID-19 stood at 205, informed Ms. Vellucci. Responding to a question on COVID-19 related measures at the Palais des Nations, Ms. Vellucci said that UN Geneva was already implementing the policy of teleworking and limiting the number of people in meetings to five.

Teleprompter

The moment let's start, we have a guest.

I would like to start with him, Mr Axel Bishop, who is the representative of the UN refugee agency in Khartoum, who would like to brief us on the newly arrived Ethiopian refugees in Sudan.

And I would like to apologise with Mr Bishop because I know you had don't have that much time, but unfortunately this morning was a little bit more complicated.

So I will give you the floor straight away unless Babar wants to introduce you and then hopefully we will be able to have the question and answer session.

Babar, would you like to start or we go straight to Mr Sure, Eliza?

Thank you very much.

Happy New Year to everyone.

So good to be back.

Axel Bishop is our representative leading our operations in Sudan, and he has just been to the eastern parts of the country where refugees have been arriving from Ethiopia's Tigray region.

He's currently in Khartoum and he is joining us from there.

Excel, Are you online?

Message Bishop, you have the floor.

Yeah, if we can unmute him, if we can unmute Excel.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very, very much.

And thank you, Babar, for having introduced me.

[Other language spoken]

My name is Axel Bishop.

I'm speaking to you here from Khartoum.

I've just been on a couple of days mission up to the eastern part of Sudan.

These are the states of Kasala and Gadare, and these are the two bordering states to the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

This is where we've had the recent influx and my mission there was to see how we progress when it comes to the response.

As you know, this influx actually started in November, but it is continuing and it's very, very difficult to tell how this will actually end up in light of the fact that we have so little information of what is happening inside the tea grey area.

As such, currently what we have is that we have two border crossings 2 main border crossings 1 into the Castle estate which is called Hyundai.

Yet is this a far away quite remote area where most of the people are coming from a place called Humira which is just on the border in Tigray.

There is another border crossing a little bit further South which is called Lugdi, which in principle is feeding a place called Village 8 from their unit yard.

Together with all the partners are transporting the refugees into two settlements, 1 settlement which is called Umra Khoba.

It's about two hours away from Gdarev, still 70 odd kilometres from the border and another one which is relatively new called Teneba.

It was actually opened on the 3rd of January and it is about 100 and 41170 kilometres further inland.

Now what we have is a situation where we now still see influx.

We have now about 58,000 people who have actually arrived.

The government of Sudan has generously opened the borders and actually arranged for prima facie recognition, recognition up on arrival.

So all the refugees which are coming in are actually getting refugee status up on arrival.

Most of the people have already been relocated to the camp with the settlement of Umrakuba and we have about 20,000 people there.

But as you see, we still have quite a lot of people on the borders and both in Hamdiyev, which is actually just on the border.

And then we have Village 8, which is a little bit further inland and UN HCR is trying to get there with partners to actually decongest these border areas due to the fact that we don't want refugees to be residing so close to the border.

So we have relocated about 20,000 to the Umrah Khuba area and we are about now to relocate the rest to the Tanaba area.

The refugees which have come in, we have seen in the beginning that they were mainly male, I mean saying mainly male but there was a majority male who actually came in.

We had about 57% male to the 43% female.

At the moment we see a more mixed flow and most of the refugees which we have now are taken to the Tenebot site.

The ten of our site is the site which has been developed on an area which is very, very remote and at the moment we don't have any electricity there.

We have pitched camps and we are trying and we're actually racing against the clock here to get that camp up and running.

We say it's the new camp because it was opened on the 3rd of Canterbury.

The other camp, Umra Koopa, has been there since November and is there for the old camp, even though it's only two months ago.

The refugees which we have seen coming in are also coming from all parts of society, all professions, and I myself spoke to a lot of them during my trip.

I particularly remember a father who actually came.

He was a car repairman and he had his two daughters who had been very, very successful in school but at the moment had nothing to do.

And we are looking together with especially a UNICEF on the education area at the moment.

What we will see is a situation where we still have about two to, I would say 500 refugees surviving on a daily basis.

And the, the situation which we see is that we need to quickly actually decongest the border areas and the settlement which is now in play is that form of Tannebach.

At the moment we have moved about 5000 people there, but we expect to actually move about 20,000 additional people there.

The movement to this camp is something which I want to just stress.

It's a very difficult area to reach.

And the movement from the border to this camp can take up to 1015 hours, meaning that even though we we actually load the refugees early in the morning, we arrive in the middle of the sometimes evening and it's very, very dark.

So our staff out there are trying their best to actually ensure that the refugees when they come get the necessary assistance in order for them to find their tents and find whatever needs they, they, they actually need to fill.

I would like to maybe conclude here with the fact that all the partners, we are about 30 plus partners have come together in an appeal which was released by the **** Commissioner somewhere in the end of November, beginning of December.

It is around 147 million and so far we have received 30% of this.

We would need much more and we called on all the donors and all our partners to actually help us in this response.

I think I will leave it there and I stand ready to to take questions should there be any.

So over to you and Geneva, and thank you once again for the opportunity.

Thank you very much, Sir.

And I'm happy to report that we have solved our our technical issue here in the room.

So I hope that now you can hear me and I can hear you.

Well, I would like now to open the floor to questions.

I see a first question from Jamil, but I understand it's not from Mr Bishop.

[Other language spoken]

In fact, you registered under Mark or Tadu Chade.

So it's it's Jamil if you can open his mic.

Sorry for that.

[Other language spoken]

Let let us let us deal with our guest who has limited time with us, Emma from Reuters.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that briefing.

Mr Bishop, a question actually about the Eritrean camps in Ethiopia, please.

After the images that came out of the destruction at the hitsads in Shimelba camps, can you comment on who caused the destruction and what the UN intends to do about it, given that you now have concrete evidence of violations of international law?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I mean, I would believe that our office in Ethiopia stands better prepared to answer a question like that.

What we hear on the Sudan side is doing is that we're actually monitoring the influx of the Ethiopian refugees and some of the people which have crossed have actually been Eritrean.

Many of them actually come from Eritrea, but also some have come from the camps.

What we do with the Eritrean caseload here is actually transfer them to our old camps which host Eritreans.

So this is in principle the response to the influx of the people of Eritrean Norwegian.

I cannot answer the question on what has actually happened inside Ethiopia.

And I'll leave that to my colleagues in Alice or my colleagues here on the on the briefing to to respond to.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Yeah, just, I mean, Emma, as you asked and you saw **** Commissioner's statement over there yesterday, really, really troubling reports that that we, we are getting out of the region.

The problem is as as we have been mentioning, we don't have access to at least those two camps.

You just briefly were able to go to the other two, two refugee camps where we were able to bring in some supplies and also try to restore some of the facilities that we could.

But we don't have access to the two camps in in the north, the the ones that you named.

And without being on the ground it, it's really, really hard to say what has happened.

But the disturbing reports and imagery, satellite imagery in terms of open source satellite imagery that was also mentioned in in the press release also, that is really, really troubling.

And that's why we repeat our call on the federal authorities to provide humanitarians unhindered access.

And as as you saw in the **** Commissioner statement there, I mean this appeal again comes and we have been several times requesting it's not there yet.

And and we hope to be on the ground as soon as possible and and willing and ready to work with the authorities.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

I've got a question from Ben Parker, the The Humanitarian.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

I would like to ask when you were up there and from your staff, what are you hearing about the ability of Ethiopians and Tigrayans in general to cross into Sudan?

Are they being Hanford in their ability to cross and leave the country?

[Other language spoken]

I mean, we have spoken to the refugees and there were reports a couple of, I would say weeks ago in relation to the fact that there was some, I would say, checkpoints of administrative nature which actually made it difficult to cross into Sudan.

Recently.

We have not really heard of any.

I would say hindrances were limitations for crossing.

We have seen three days ago about 500 people who crossed in.

I think 2 days ago was down to about 300 and I think yesterday we had about 200 people.

Now we are monitoring this as much as possible.

What we believe though is that many of the refugees are now further away from the border and it's difficult for them to actually go the distance to to the border.

But this is something which we're monitoring on a on a very, very close basis and our protection teams up in the area there is looking at how we can, if necessary, unblock such issues.

Thank you very much, Sir.

Gabriela Sotomayor from Proceso, Mexico.

Mexico, yes, Thank you Alessandra, but isn't the other issue?

It's in another issue.

[Other language spoken]

Not OK, then I'll give the floor to Lisa Shrine, Voice of America.

I guess Lisa has a question for you, Mr Bishop.

[Other language spoken]

What are stories are the refugees telling your staff when they arrive?

I'd like to get a kind of picture.

Of the situation from which they're fleeing, I mean, there's the kind of stories that we get out of Ethiopia is a little scant at times.

And so don't know whether the conflict is very, very violent still, as it has been before.

And if you could give some kind of a word in picture of what is happening in Ethiopia, why they are fleeing.

[Other language spoken]

OK, miss special to you.

Yeah, most of the most of the refugees arrived a couple of weeks ago.

And as I said, now there's about 500 people, 200 people arriving.

Those ones we spoke to and have still speaking to actually say that they left because of the fighting and mainly in the town of Romero.

Now when they come in, they are trying to get in contact with people inside Ethiopia.

But as we know it's very, very difficult.

It's not only because of the Ethiopian I would say limitation when it comes to Internet etcetera, etcetera.

It's also the access in the two areas where we are and we are trying to assist when it comes to Internet and making sure that the refugees actually have access to to the world through both telephone but also through the Internet.

Now what I have heard is that people have left their areas, first because of the fighting, secondly because there has been an increased, I would say, a conflict between the Tigreans and the other say Amharas.

And here many of the people are indicating that it's very, very difficult to return to their areas because they feel afraid that some of the neighbours and some of the people who are actually came in when they fled are still there.

And this is what we are hearing at the moment.

So in the beginning, it was more in relation to pure conflict.

Now it's more in relation to the fact that it's very difficult for Tigran national people to actually be in that area.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Just to do a little bit of housekeeping.

I understand Gabriela and Shamil have got questions on something else.

[Other language spoken]

Are you A question for Mr Bishop?

[Other language spoken]

One second should pass limited time.

So if there is no other question for Mr Bishop, I'll, I'll give you the floor.

Musa for Babar and then Yance would like to add something on Ethiopia too.

[Other language spoken]

I want to know just if you and NCR have a specific strategy to vaccinate Syrian refugees in particular, especially in the country this neighbouring Syria.

Do you have something about that?

[Other language spoken]

Misa, you used our statement regarding Jordan yesterday, kind of Jordan being among the first countries in terms of the start on rolling out their national vaccination scheme, but also including refugees in their Iraqi refugees who, who got the first shot or, or, or the first vaccine.

The effort for us is to make sure that wherever refugees are and majority of them are in the developing underdeveloped countries that they are part of the national response plans to COVID-19, including the the vaccination.

So as the efforts get more momentum, we hope to see more refugees being included.

Jordan has set the example for other countries which are hosting.

And this is also a movement for for countries with resources, with institutions, with resources to step forward and help poor countries which are hosting refugees.

So we hope that we we would see more refugees being part of the national schemes and efforts for vaccinations.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

OK, so this concludes our questions on the subject.

I would like to give just the floor a moment to Jens, who would like to add something on the situation there.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Alessandra and good morning everyone is just to follow up on on the question from you Lisa.

As we heard from our UNHCR colleague here in in Khatoum, it is very difficult for for the Iritrans refugee in there.

But the broader situation, as as we see it today, is as follows.

The UN is alarmed by reports we continue to receive of civilians being injured and killed during fighting in rural areas of Tigray.

We're deeply concerned about the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who have still not received assistance more than 2 1/2 months since the conflict began.

Lack of food, water and health services are affecting hundreds of thousands of people and our colleagues on the ground are reporting a rise in malnutrition and waterborne diseases.

UN agencies and NGOs have managed to deliver assistance in some areas, mainly in cities where access has been granted by the authorities.

However, the number of people reached is very low compared to the number of people we estimate to be in need of assistance, which is around 2.3 million across that region.

Humanitarian assistance continues to be constrained by the lack of full, safe and unhindered access to Tigre, caused both by insecurity but also bureaucratic obstacles imposed by federal and regional authorities.

We have had some progress.

The road between Gonda and Shia, for example, has been accessible in the past days, and partners could provide assistance to the people in Shia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict.

However, delays in clearance processes and the need to engage with multiple actors for approval to access certain areas are hampering our operations.

the United Nations renew our urgent call on all parties to allow the immediate and safe passage of humanitarian personnel and supplies into the region to make sure we're able to reach everybody who desperately need our assistance.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Jens, for this additional information.

So I will close now the issue of the refugee and the situation in Ethiopia and Sudan.

Thank you very much, Mr Bishop, and thank you for being here.

I know you have very short time, so I would like really to thank you for having, being here briefing the journalist in Geneva.

And I would like now to also again ask for the patience of our correspondents who like to ask questions on a totally different subject because I have here with me Jean El Alam.

As you know, Jean is the spokesperson of the UN mission in Libya, and he's here, as you know, for the discussions on the political discussion on Libya.

He doesn't have that much time either.

So I would like to give him the floor straight away for just a brief update on what's happening in the discussions, and then he will be able to answer your question on his e-mail.

[Other language spoken]

OK, good morning and thank you Alessandra again for having me here.

First, I want to start by apologising about the inconvenience and maybe the frustration that we may have caused you during the first day of the thoughts regarding document remarks of the special that thing special.

[Other language spoken]

We, as Alessandra already mentioned, we have faced some difficulty, technical difficulties, especially with the relations of translation.

And we promise that this will not be the case in the future.

Thank you for your patience.

I'm going to brief you today, of course, about mainly about the talks that are ongoing here, why we are here, What is, what is the team that negotiated, the team, the deviant team that are meeting here, what they're doing, What is the role of this committee that that is meeting here?

And under facilitation of the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General for Libya, Stephanie Williams.

As you know, much has been accomplished since, since the meeting, during the meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which took place in Tunisia between 9 and 15 November, during which the Libyans agreed on on the road map for the preparatory period leading to the national election.

They also agreed on the eligibility criteria for the executive authority positions, also the the prerogative of the unified executive authority and most importantly, the breakthrough as we hold it.

They set the date for the national election to take place on 24 December 2021.

This date, actually this what we call as unwavering achievement is for us in the United Nations is top priority.

But with all those accomplishment, we can say that 70% of the road map that beat upon Indonesia has been has been implemented, achieved.

However, the LPDF or the dialogue would not make progress on the selection mechanism of the Unified Executive Authority.

Since the meeting, since the meeting in Tunisia, of course and the RPDF, the RPDF convened 7 virtual meeting on this matter.

They spent many, many hours, more than maybe 40 hours on this matter.

However, they could not move forward on this matter on the selection mechanism.

And that's why we decided to form this advisory committee of the Linear Political Dialogue Forum, which which comprise of 18 members of the Limo political Dial forum.

The committees at this meeting here today to be able actually to discuss.

They had they had several virtual meeting and finally there.

But here they came here to discuss in person, face to face, to come up with concrete recommendations about the formation of, of an internal internal unified executive authority.

And of course, this recommendation will be later presented to the LPDF, the plenary, which means 75 numbers to to decide upon.

Now in this regard, I'm pleased to inform you that there has been significant progress in, in the current talks of the advisory committee on, on some major blockades blockages.

And we, we hope that shortly we will be able to narrow down the major differences and reach near consensus on many of the contentious issues plaguing the selection mechanism like selection mechanism mechanism proposals we have today and tomorrow.

And we hope that we come up with with a consensus on this.

Now, in addition to to the talks here and in addition of course to the political track, I would like to brief you on on positive and many positive developments that took place.

Also another tracks that are facilitated by the United Nations mission in Libya that also emerged from from the Vending conference, Russell Vending Conference on Libya.

As you may know, there has been significant and very encouraging progress in the military track since the signing of the ceasefire agreement here in Geneva on 23 October 20/20, which was signed, negotiated and signed by the joint military, the 5 + 5 Joint Military Commission.

Since the signing of of the agreement, there has been many positive development in the implement towards the implementation of this, of the ceasefire agreement.

This of course include the recent, what we have seen recently, the exchanges, several exchanges of detainees between the two parties, which is a wide part of a wider confidence building measure.

Also that assumption of lies of flights to all parts of Libya and the full assumption of oil production and export, as well as the proposal, the proposed unification and restructuring of the Petroleum Facility Guard.

In addition to the ongoing serious talk on opening the Coastal Rd between Strata and Sur, which we hope will take place very slow.

Lastly, on the economic track, we also have seen promising developments including what the long-awaited meeting of of the Board of Director of the Central Bank, which took place on 16 December 2020, which was the first meeting since five years and which resulted also which also resulted in the unification of the exchange rate.

During that meeting as well, the CBL agreed to to forge a plan to address the banking crisis in a manner that actually rebuilds confidence in the banking sector and ensures national access to liquidity.

In addition to that, there has been excellent development recently, which was the recent meeting between the Ministers of Finance of two governments, which is an excellent step actually to towards unifying the budget of the country and allocate sufficient funding to improve services and rebuild Libya's deteriorating infrastructure, especially the electrical grid.

So as you see, we see many positive developments in the country, but a lot remains to be a lot remains to be done.

And we hope to see the same progress we've seen in the military and in in the military and economic drag.

We have to hope to see the same progress in in the political drag, especially in the current ongoing talks here.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Ron, and I really thank you for your patience.

I know you have to go back to the to the negotiation, to the discussions.

Thank you for having one second and to have briefed us.

And as I said, I mean, if you have questions for Jean, of course, please feel free to to write to him on LL no Alam jalamj@un.org.

And we will keep you informed if there will be any press opportunity at the end of the discussions.

So thank you very much to the journalists who have been waiting.

And I give you now the floor to Gabriella, Jamil and Peter.

And then we still have two persons, 2 colleagues to brief us.

Jens has another point and then Boris is going to tell us about Central African refugees.

So I'll start now with Jamil, who had asked the floor first.

A body of OK, let's.

[Other language spoken]

I mean, I'm going to, I would like to speak, but WHO is not there, right?

[Other language spoken]

OK, so once again, once again, I understand that WHO is doing exactly what he claims governments should not do, which is to cut access to information.

We have no access to the building, we have no access to specialists to talk to.

We have no background briefings.

We have no response when we need responses to specific questions and now we have no access to them in a briefing.

Let's be very, very clear, the global briefing that you're going to mention for sure in a minute, it does not inform.

It is a platform to promote their own agenda.

And this is not journalism.

And WHL knows that and you know that.

And I, I really, it's an apologies to the other colleagues, the other agencies who respect us and have been there throughout the year, even when they don't have anything basically to say they are present.

And this shows respect.

But in such conditions, I don't know if you understand and if WH understands how dangerous this president is.

I would just like to make this very, very clear.

It is not an issue of being present or or not being present.

It's an issue of cutting access to information what which is the reality.

And because of this, Alessandra, I'm very sorry to say, but I personally will leave the briefing now.

There's no reason to stay, not because the other information is not relevant, but to make it clear that, at least from my side, the biggest global story on Earth for the last decades cannot be going on without the presence of WHO, since they have always been at your briefings.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Jamil.

Obviously you do as you like, but going not staying at the briefing also doesn't show respect for the other colleagues who have to brief.

But obviously this is your choice.

I'll give the floor now to Gabriella.

I guess he's on the same subject.

And then body.

Body has asked also for the floor from the room.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, one question and then I want to say something.

What did The Who told you about last briefing that we asked them to?

[Other language spoken]

What is their answer?

I had OK, let let me give you an answer at the end, because I guess other people wants to ask maybe questions which are similar.

So I'll I'll answer at the end.

Body and then Peter.

[Other language spoken]

And then I've got Peter Tamer, Elizabetha and.

Jan may on compound Fabian on Ambia negotiate alik OMS may wufet deja vu trifo location secure is no propose tower conversation Awik not a committee mayor that that's my portion.

Don't do this man twice man, but that cruise OMSA you are excuse that is on is present.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I would also as a as a journalist and also on behalf of APEZ, we have written numerous letters asking WHO to open up their closed blind webinars as proper press conferences.

We have not had a response from them apart from one to our first letter last May.

It's important that they come to the briefings here because we have to ask detailed questions, which we are unable to do in the webinars.

And I am, no, I'm repeating myself and I would like to not be repeating myself.

And we have not had any response from who?

So we would appreciate it.

We know that Eunice is able to have open press conferences.

We know that WHO Europe is able to have open press conferences, WHO in headquarters can't have open press conferences and doesn't and just has blind webinars.

So thank you for listening to us and we hope we can get the message across.

I also have, Yeah, I also have, yeah, a bit concerned about the information we're getting on, on Libya because we had AII couldn't actually hear a lot of what the last briefing was about the, you know, the sound wasn't that good.

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Other language spoken]

OK, I hope it was not the problem with everybody.

I think Jean was very clear.

[Other language spoken]

Anyway, we would appreciate more timely information about Libya because to get something at 10:50 at night just means that you can't do a story.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you very much, Peter.

I'll, I'll leave The Who sides for the end.

But on Libya, Jean, just maybe you didn't hear him, but he just apologised for the issue of the very first day when you got the English version of the remarks on Mrs.

Williams quite late at night.

So and he said that we will do our best.

And in fact, I, as I've explained to Akanu, who has already raised this issue because of the extreme, extremely limited number of people that are able to translate that are here and who are, you know, serving for many different tasks.

Now Eunice has put available for the talks our own press officers so that next time that we have a situation like this, possibly maybe at the end, we will be able to give you a very quick transmission of the of the remarks.

We are going to help them.

So and and and Sean just apologise for that and for the inconvenience that it has a closed.

I think maybe you haven't heard the beginning of his of his input.

[Other language spoken]

I would like just to echo Jamil and buddy and we asked you to send us the Kyudu showers, the Tor and we didn't receive it yet.

Can you share it please with us and.

Which Tor taner sorry.

This the kyudu showers the responsibility of the spokespersons, the duties.

Yeah, I I'll answer on that too.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for taking my question, but it's not a.

[Other language spoken]

I just want to echo my colleagues on the issue with The Who and I think that.

The issue of COVID is it's obviously.

It's an international concern and.

The Who should use every?

Opportunity to inform professional journalists on the issue.

SO them not being present at their briefings, bi weekly briefings of UNICE, it's not acceptable.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Elisabetta and Jan, can you unmute Jan Heberman, please?

[Other language spoken]

I just wanted to echo my colleagues on The Who issue.

We know that the information people of The Who are quite busy at the moment, but this is clearly not an excuse to boycott our briefings.

Other agencies have been busy for decades.

I think about the UNHCR, Archer and others, and they always show up.

We are now in a very crucial phase of the pandemic and, and the people around the world, our viewers, our listeners, our readers, they want simply to know what are the assessments and recommendations of The Who.

But The Who people simply do not show up continuously.

This is clearly unacceptable.

Thank you very much, Jan.

Gabriel, I see your hand is still up.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, or go ahead.

[Other language spoken]

So we we, we are asking for them to.

[Other language spoken]

For The Who to come to the briefing and also to give press conference with their experts on certain issues like vaccines and you know.

That all those.

Things, I mean this story, it's in Geneva, headquarters of The Who.

We have been covering WHO for years.

So now they, they put us aside.

So this is not fair.

And then I remember, I hate comparisons, but I remember when we had this H1N1 thing, we had briefings every week or every day at the beginning, but every week there in their headquarters, I remember Doctor Fukuda talk to us and answer all our questions.

So there should be a.

Channel of.

Or something, a way to communicate with us, with the Geneva press corps.

This is here in Geneva happening, so that's the only the thing that I wanted.

To.

To add and I don't.

[Other language spoken]

Why they have time to do social media but not they don't have time for us.

[Other language spoken]

So we have several issues.

I'm very happy that you express all this dissatisfaction at the briefing because it goes on record and I know it's important for you, but it's not the briefing the place where we can discuss this.

As we've already said, Akanu has been contacting us to ask Eunice to support the the issues that you have all re mentioned today and you've been mentioning the last two, two briefings and we've done it.

We have discussed with WHO I understand there is a dialogue which has been open.

Now I don't know about the dates.

I, I didn't know about this, but I can, I can talk again with my colleagues.

But please two things.

First of all, they are very busy and as you know, their team is still not complete.

[Other language spoken]

I'm happy that to, to, to learn that Christian is better and I hope he'll be back soon.

But they really are busy and this is a reality I think we all have to take into consideration.

The other thing is let's discuss this again outside because it's not something we can solve here, but we take notes of your, of your requests and, and you're especially connected to the briefing.

Tamara, you have asked for a job description of the spokespersons.

[Other language spoken]

I, I frankly don't have a general spokesperson description.

Every agency will see the role of their own spokesperson in the way they see it fit.

And there are job description which are published when it comes out.

We are all having this kind of job descriptions which are published by every organisation.

Obviously spokesperson have to spoke for the organisation, that is quite clear.

[Other language spoken]

Otherwise, let me see what else you have asked.

Yeah, many of you have asked about other channels of communication with the Geneva press corps.

And this is exactly what we have been discussing.

And I hope this is what we will manage to organise with the colleagues from WHO if tamer you, you still have a hands up.

And then I will really go to the other colleagues.

And and that's not because I want to cut this conversation short, it's just that really the briefing is not the place for solving this kind of problems.

It's important that your remarks are put on record, but we have to discuss it in another context.

I'll take Tamir follow up and then we go to Jens and to UNHCR.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Alessandro.

Just to follow up on the appointments with WHO, Yes, we, it should be on Tuesday, our first meeting with them, then last yesterday it was postponed until the end of March and then today morning the change at the time and it will be on the 1st of February.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for this update.

All right, thank you.

[Other language spoken]

Yens, you had an update on the earthquake in Indonesia?

[Other language spoken]

Back to the briefing did this, this is a developing story.

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the West Sulawesi province in Indonesia in the early morning hours local time today.

Local authorities have reported eight people killed and 638 people injured so far.

More than 18,000 people have been temporarily displaced to 10 evacuation sites.

These numbers are likely to increase as assessments continue.

The earthquake happened about 6 kilometres North East of the city of Magene and the epicentre of the earthquake was quite shallow at 10 kilometres but it did not trigger a tsunami warning.

A smaller 6 point, sorry a smaller 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck the same area yesterday on the 14th of January in the afternoon local time.

Heavy damages have been reported in the city of Medina, including at the five Storey Mitra Manakara Hospital where eight people were reportedly trapped inside.

The governor's office, 2 hotels, a mall, a community health centre and over 300 houses also sustained damages.

According to the reports that we have, the earthquake interrupted the access Rd between Magena and the provincial capital Mamuju in three different locations.

Electricity, communications network and fuel supply have also been disrupted.

National authorities have so far mobilised for helicopters, tents and mattresses, special kits for children and the elderly, food and medical assistants including orthopaedic and psychosocial support.

**** level officials are visiting the area today and respond coordination has begun.

The United Nations is in very close contact with the Indonesian governments and we stand ready to support the response to assist all the affected people.

The Indonesian Red Cross and non governmental organisations are also mobilising their response.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Yanceisi Ahmad, there's a question for you.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you and happy New Year for everybody.

[Other language spoken]

You received this information because I heard some rappers talking about possibility of the tsunami there and some reports also about a higher number of killed people during the earthquake.

Another thing if you can send us the your notes about the grey will be great.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you, Ahmed.

On, on, on the, on your last point, yes, I will do that when I, when I go back to the office, the information that we do have from the, from the national authorities is that at least initially there was no tsunami warning.

But I, I, I hear you as I started saying, it is a developing story.

As we know information are constantly being updated.

The same is the case for the numbers of people that I mentioned.

I mentioned eight people killed, 638 injured, more than 18,000 people displaced.

Well, this May, these numbers may increase as more assessment information becomes available, but thank you for for for raising that.

And you will send the notes.

Indeed, I will send.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

If there are no other questions for Jensen, I don't see any.

Our next and last speaker is Boris.

[Other language spoken]

I, I have to learn how to pronounce your name.

Sorry.

Cheshirkov from HCR.

And you're going to brief us on the Central African refugee situation, Boris?

Yes, Many thanks, Alessandra, and good morning to everyone.

We indeed have an update on the Central African Republic for this morning.

The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today calling for the immediate end to all violence in the Central African Republic.

Nearly 60,000 people have been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries in the past month, a twofold rise in just one week.

Most refugees have fled across the Ubangi River into the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC, where the number of arrivals topped 50,000 after 10,000 Central African refugees arrived in a single day on the 13th of January.

Some 58,000 people remain displaced inside Carr's affected regions.

According to the Population Movement Commissions, nearly 9000 refugees have arrived in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo since December 15th.

UNHCR commends neighbouring governments to for continuing to grant Central African refugees access to territory and asylum despite border restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNHCR and partners in QAR are gathering reports of abuses by armed groups, including of sexual violence, attacks on voters and pillaging.

UNHCR is calling for an immediate return of all parties to meaningful dialogue and progress towards peace.

The events of the last month since reports of election related violence began reverse the trend of recent years of Central African refugees returning home.

UNHCR and its partners are scaling up assistance for the new arrivals despite poor infrastructure hampering the humanitarian response.

We are already seeking 151.5 million U.S.

dollars this year to respond to the CAR situation.

The needs are mounting for the recently displaced Central Africans and we will soon face a substantial funding shortfall.

We call on the international community to urgently expand support to the CAR humanitarian response to allow more aid to reach those in remote areas.

I'll leave it there.

Thank you and happy to take questions on this.

Thank you, Boris.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that briefing.

[Other language spoken]

10,000 in one day.

[Other language spoken]

Can you give us an idea of what that looked like on the ground?

Do you have reports of that?

How were they crossing the river?

Are they getting the the aid that they need on the other side?

And and how are you coping with that huge daily influx?

[Other language spoken]

Just to to to re say my name for for everyone to to help possibly in the future.

It's Boris Cheshirekov and thank.

[Other language spoken]

Know it's difficult, but back to your question Emma, what we have seen and the date of the 13th of January arrivals was a, a, a very difficult situation for the people that have come across the Ubangi.

What we are hearing from those that are coming in is that some of them have been separated from loved ones, some of them have had loved ones killed, that the attacks have intensified, that they have seen some advancements by by armed groups, that a number of people have reported sexual violence that some of the voters were harassed in, including some being physically attacked.

And then of course, we're also receiving reports, quite disturbing reports of, of pillaging.

I don't have much detail, but I'm happy to to connect you to my colleagues on the ground to give you more.

What is essential now is that the needs are indeed mounting.

These are hard to reach remote areas along View Bangi.

We're trying to mobilise more resources.

There are also discussions for an urgent airlift of supplies.

I cannot give you too much detail on that, but these operations were already severely underfunded and we're starting the year with a very low percentage of funding levels.

We need more support, and this is clear, so that we're able to provide care to the most vulnerable and also to to reach these remote areas.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, hi Boris.

[Other language spoken]

I've been practising.

Well done.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, it it, it, it seems as if the the elections fighting seems to have escalated since the elections you know, have been undergoing or the lead up, whatever.

Do you think that the peace process essentially is falling apart or has fallen apart?

And the IT it seems to be worse.

Right now than has been for a long time.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Lisa, both for the question and for for your excellent pronunciation of my surname.

What what is clear is that the situation has evolved.

It has worsened.

We've seen that the number of refugees displaced and moving across borders into neighbouring countries has doubled in just one week.

We were reporting of 30,000 refugees last Friday.

[Other language spoken]

And much of that is is the increase we've seen in the DRC.

This is coming with reports of intensified violence, that people are being forced to move from their home and the situation has not calmed down for the moment.

This is why we and our **** Commissioner has also made this clear.

We're calling for parties to get back to dialogue, to end all the violence immediately and to pursue peace and this is essentially what we're calling for.

Obviously the situation has has centred around the electoral process.

What has happened has essentially happened in the last month and this is right around the time of the 27th of December when elections took place in the country and we're calling for the situation to improve immediately.

Thank you very much, Boris.

I don't see any other question.

So thank you very much and thanks for your patience.

I only have for the announcement.

I'll take off my ask.

I have a a couple of announcements for you.

The first one comes from Rolando Gomez.

Rolando's asked me to to remind you that the Human Rights, Human Rights Council is holding a meeting today in the Assembly hall to hold the secret ballot election to appoint its President for 20/21 that will be coming from the Asia and Pacific region.

As I am sure you know, the meeting is webcast live and the results of the secret ballot elections will be announced at the end of the meeting today, and Rolando will send you an update at that point.

So this is what he asked me to give you as an update on the process for the Presidency of the Council.

I also would like to remind you that the Conference on Disarmament, the World single Multilateral forum for disarmament Negotiations, will virtually hold the first public plenary of its 2021 session on Tuesday, 19th January.

During this session, he will hear a statement by Tatiana Bellavaya, the Secretary General of the Conference on Disarmament, in addition to Director General Yunagus, you know, and personal representative of the UN Secretary General to the Conference.

And he will also, we will also hear for the President from the President of the Conference.

The session indeed open under the Presidency of Belgium.

As I said, the plenary meeting will start on Tuesday at 10 AM On the website of the Conference on Disarmament, you have all the documentation related to the 2021 session.

The public meetings of the conference or disarmament will be made available to listen to in real time also on on the website.

So, and the last point, the very last point, you have asked me to give you an update on the number of positive case to COVID-19 among the Secretariat in Geneva.

And I can just confirm that the number is now standing at 205.

So this is the latest update on numbers that I that I have.

Is there any other question from the journalists?

I don't see any.

Sorry.

[Other language spoken]

You're Alexandra, Just wondering if there's any update on what's going to happen to working at the Pele in in view of new announcements by the Swiss government.

Is is there any change or will it be will be able to continue as in the past?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Peter, I guess you're referring to the announcements that were made by the federal government, the Federal Council a few days ago.

And the answer is basically no.

We have been the Obviously there will be an impact on our life outside the pallet, but for what concerns the Paladin assume we had already implemented teleworking.

Obviously with some exception of people who cannot do the work from a remote location.

As you can see, we're keeping the briefing hybrid.

But we are strictly respecting the the measures of having maximum 5 people in the room, as you know, with the exception of some political talks for which Switzerland has granted an exception.

Otherwise, the room will never be more afield than five people, which which we also were implementing beforehand.

And the other issue, I think these are the 2 main questions, the number of people in the rooms and in fact, outside, I mean, even in, in, in outside situations, which has to be limited to five.

And we're already doing it and the teleworking, which again, we are already implementing.

So I don't expect to have other changes in the organisation of our work.

What I can also tell you is that the Director General is really engaged in keeping the palette open and keeping the palette open and functioning, including for the journalist.

In fact, as you know, you've never been, we've never asked you not to come to the office.

You are absolutely welcome to come and work here from your offices.

And so we don't expect other, other disruptions.

Some of you have come to us about the strategic heritage plan.

This is something that is going to impact a little bit more, I think the the way we work, not more, but in in a new way.

Because as you know, starting from the beginning of the month, we have started the renovation of the Palais, of the old side of the Palais, namely the building called AC, which has brought to a closing of a lot of corridors.

So I would like just to remind everybody that we keep informing you on the ways the that people can circulate in the palace.

[Other language spoken]

And Real is working hard together with Francois to ensure as as smooth as possible a transition period for all of us, including the journalist.

So thank you very much Real and he will keep you informed if there are any further changes and there will be, but when they come up.

So that's that's what I had in terms of update on these two issues or more on logistics and organisational issues, I don't see any other question.

So thank you very much and let me wish you a very good weekend.

[Other language spoken]