So we're going to try to make this as efficient as possible because as you know, then there is a press conference by UNCTAD at 12:00.
So we want to have a bit of a breather space between our briefing and that that press conference.
So let me get right into it.
Just a couple of announcements from my part on behalf of the Human Rights Council, the Universal Periodic Review Working Programme Group programme for Friday 22nd of January.
They will be reviewing Austria this morning and then this afternoon they will be adopting the reports for reviews of Micronesia, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Australia.
You will, I just want to point out a few statements that you will have received from the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General.
But in particular, a number of statements were issued over the last day or so where the Secretary General responded quite positively to some of the decisions issued by the new United States President Joseph Biden.
First, the Secretary General warmly welcomed President Biden's steps to re enter the Paris Agreement on climate change and joined the growing coalition of governments, cities, states, businesses and people taking ambitious action to confront the climate crisis.
He said he looked forward to the leadership of the United States in accelerating global efforts towards net zero, including bringing forward a new Nationally Determined Contribution with ambitious 2030 targets and climate finance in advance of COP 26 in Glasgow this year.
He also welcomed EU SS stated re engagement with the World Health Organisation.
He said supporting The Who is absolutely critical to the world's efforts for a better coordinated response against COVID-19.
Now is the time for unity, he said, and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.
With vaccines being a critical tool in the battle against COVID-19, the US joining and supporting the COVAX facility will give momentum to efforts to ensure equitable access to vaccines to all countries.
And finally, he also welcomed the positive steps announced relating to migration and refugees.
The Secretary General looks forward to working with the new US administration to strengthen multilateral cooperation in these areas and hopes the US will join the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migrations.
Three important announcements, which I'm sure my colleagues from the respective organisations that our concerns would be happy to maybe add more to.
And finally, you saw that one minute after midnight today, officially went into force the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
We issued a statement by the Secretary General on this.
The Secretary General is obviously pleased to recognise today's entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It's the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty in more than two decades.
The TPNW, he said, is an important step towards the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and a strong demonstration of support for multilateral approaches to nuclear disarmament.
He commends the states that have ratified the treaty and welcomes the instrumental role of civil society in in advancing the treaty's negotiation and entry into force.
The survivors of nuclear explosions and nuclear tests offered tragic testimonies and were a moral force behind the treaty.
The entry into force is a tribute to their enduring advocacy and he concludes by saying the elimination of nuclear weapons remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations.
He calls on all states to work together to realise this ambition to advance common security and collective safety.
You have the full statement which was issued to you during the night and one small reminder about an important event taking place next week.
The Secretary General has convened a **** level Replenishment conference for the Peace Building Fund which will be held virtually next Tuesday on the 26th of January.
This is to mobilise critical support from Member States for conflict prevention and peace building to meet the funds 1.5 billion requirements for the period 2020 to 2024.
So he will be joined by the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Madabio, the Prime Minister, Minister of Sudan, Abdullah Adam Hamdoc, the minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Haiko Mass, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mcgarnou.
This event will be webcast so you can follow it live.
If there are no questions, we will get right into the agenda.
Catherine Risu from the Hunk Tan would like to give you some information.
Just to clarify, so I sent you the document which will be presented by James Dunn at 12.
This document is under embargo until Sunday at 6:00 PM GMGMT.
And should you have not received it, please let me know and I will send it to you immediately.
I used the unis list of emails.
So if you recently registered the, you may not have it already.
So I'm happy to, to come to, to, to send it back to you.
And the prospects on FDI are global.
It's an update of the 2020 trends and prospects for 2021.
Super merci buku Catherine ET Rebanjo Nieto.
Let's go to the next topic, Cyclone Eloise.
Sorry, Jens Lard from Mocha and Paul Dillon from IMO who wish to brief you on this topic.
Let's start with Claire Nollis.
So I will give you the meteorological aspect of this storm and then obviously my humanitarian colleagues will talk about the humanitarian implications.
So Eloise Tropical Cyclone Eloise is currently a severe tropical storm in the Mozambican Channel and is expected to intensify and reach tropical cyclone intensity and make landfall overnight local time tonight in Mozambique at the equivalent of a Category 2 on strength on the Sapphire Simpson scale.
Eloise has already hit Madagascar before crossing the Mozambican Channel, as quite a lot of these tropical storms do.
Madagascar caused damage and a limited and some casualties, but obviously, you know is going to strengthen before it it hits Mozambique on the forecast track, it's forecast that Eloise is going to make landfall near the city of Beira.
So that's one of Mozambique's you know large cities somewhere between the Zambezi Delta and the Sava river delta.
It's, you know, it's, it's this is a big storm.
And so even if Eloise doesn't make landfall directly on bearer, you know, there is a very **** probability that that bearer is going to be, you know, hit by these very **** winds, heavy rainfall and obviously flooding just because of the size, the size of this storm.
Bearer, as you recall, was hit by Tropical Cyclone Idai back in March 2019 and is still recovering from that.
The WMO we, the way we work is we have regional specialised meteorological centres.
The one responsible for this part of the world is Larry Unio, which is operated by Meteo France.
And the latest warning that we've got from our Central Union is says and I quote, Eloise poses a serious ****** to the coast of Mozambique and is a dangerous cyclone.
**** winds, heavy rainfall and dangerous sea conditions are to be expected.
There is a major risk of coastal flooding.
Just very briefly on the winds.
It's expected that winds are going to affect a pretty large swathe of coastal Mozambique with winds of about 100 kilometres an hour.
When we measure the strength of cyclones, you know, we measure their intensity in terms of wind strength.
But as I say, time and time again, the impacts of tropical cyclones are also heavily related to to to rate to rainfall.
We're talking about, you know, heavy rainfall of about 200 to 300 millimetres in the space of 24 hours.
And this is in an area which, you know, has already seen heavy, you know, heavy rainfall in, in recent weeks.
So that does obviously exacerbate the, the, the impact.
Now, one of the differences between iodide and Eloise is that iodide, you know, had a terrific, very tragic impact on Behra because it sort of SAT over the city.
Eloise is, is more of a rapidly moving cyclone.
So it's not expected to sit over the city at all.
It'll move up, you know, it will move, move on.
The downside of that is that Eloise is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Zimbabwe, Botswana and the north of South Africa.
And there's been already very, very significant rainfall in recent weeks in Botswana in particular.
So you know we can expect to see some flooding impacts there.
I think that's probably all I would just to say.
The other big ****** from tropical cyclones is storm surge and coastal flooding.
And for for Eloise, we're expecting a storm surge of about 1.5 metres above the normal, the normal tide level bearers, a low lying city.
So obviously, you know, this does entail the risk of coastal flooding.
And with that I'll pass over to to GNS.
I'll send you obviously my briefing notes in written form with all of these details.
We are still waiting for Jens to join us.
For some reason the the leaf blowers have shown up outside my office this morning.
I just want to bring you up to speed on some of the events unfolding in Mozambique at this time ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Eloise.
Now IOM has about 160 staff in the immediate path of the storm.
Of our staff this morning who are describing the situation there you know the the way it's framed is is thus the people in Viera and Mozambique have shown such a tremendous sense of of resilience and courage and community over the last couple of years in the wake of Idai and of course Kenneth later had consequences as far South as as this area as well.
And, and so the question now on everybody's lips is, is why us, what have we done to deserve this, this this new impending disaster?
My staff are saying in the, in the accommodation centres that have been set up to receive those most at risk, there are now in excess of 350 families who've been moved from from their precarious living conditions into these these centres.
The population is moving into government buildings, into churches and into schools seeking shelter.
You know, our staff are talking to people all the time and and encouraging them to to remain calm, to remain remain focused, to be positive, to try and and and get through the next very difficult of 24 to to 36 hours.
As I said, the the focus right now is trying to position some stock to be able to relieve the needs and the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.
We're already responding to this, this situation in Cabo Delgado.
So a lot of our stocks of tents and humanitarian supplies, non food items are badly depleted.
We're doing what we can to move to move materials into that area over the last couple of days ahead of the arrival of Eloise.
I can also tell you that two years on we still have roughly 100,000 people remaining in in in resettlement sites who were affected by Cyclone you Dye who which struck of course in March 2019.
This and then and subsequently Kenneth were two of the worst tropical storms to hit Africa since records began.
1300 people lost their lives to, to Idai.
It affected 3 million people not just in, in, in Mozambique, but in Madagascar, in Malawi and in Zimbabwe and caused total damages in excess of $2.2 billion.
So the situation now is people are battening down the hatches.
They're trying to keep their children calm.
They're looking out the the windows and they're seeing heavy rain coming.
The winds are picking up and so folks are just setting in and and waiting out the worst of the storm to come over the next 24 hours.
Thank you very much, Paul for that update.
Jens is going to forego his his, his statement because I think everyone is saying what needs to be said, but we have Thompson Fieri from World Food Programme who also has a few lines.
So Enrico, if we could open the mic for Thompson Fieri.
Morning, good morning every.
I am joining you from Harare today where angry clouds are also forming are just outside my house.
And regardless of the strength of this cyclone, what we can see is that because of the pre-existing flooded conditions and **** river levels in Mozambique, there is a risk for widespread flooding which may require maximum alert and preparedness.
On our part is the World Food Programme.
We have so far mobilised contingency stocks to support up to 100,000 people.
We have available 640 metric tonnes of food in our central and southern hubs just for the first phase of of the emergency response.
Whilst we've been significantly investing in disaster preparedness efforts over the past years, including mapping of key river basins, using drones to inform government's preparedness and evacuation plans, WP does not have dedicated resources to respond to cyclone a lot.
We will have to borrow food and resources from ongoing programmes in order to provide life saving response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Of course, depending on the impact of the disaster, WFP will then mobilise additional resources to respond to the needs of the of the affected populations.
I just wanted to share that with the House.
Thompson, are there any questions for Claire Paul Thompson or or Yens who joins us also from OCHA?
Just a moment, Catherine.
Good morning to all of you and thank you for briefing us on the situation, the floods, I mean the the weather and the rest.
Is there an increase of cases of COVID-19?
Because all these different elements must be very difficult to cope with for the authorities.
And I see that Christian Lindmayer is connected.
Yes, I think, I think Africa as a whole, not only Mozambique, there has been an uptick in the number of cases of Corona virus.
And I can imagine the same as well in, in, in, in Ambani and so far in beta, which are some of the areas where, where, where, where we are thinking that the storm will make landfall.
So yes, there is a concern COVID, not only Mozambique, but in Southern Africa as a whole as we as we continue to have more and more cases.
Gabriela Sotomayor, you have a question on this topic.
Is this is your question about this cyclone?
Yes, thank you very much.
And I want to ask, what are the shelter options people have right now?
What what is the availability of right now?
What I can tell you is that that several, at least two temporary displacement centres have been created by the government.
And those centres, of course, are filling very rapidly.
You know, we're we're working very closely with the community leaders and government to address and anticipate the issue of COVID-19.
The images I'm seeing from there show best efforts to maintain social distancing as goods are are are distributed.
As people move into these buildings.
We're doing everything we can to ensure that people are masked up and that suitable social distancing efforts are being taken.
I can also tell you that many people, I have a figure of roughly 200 families, are due to to move from the most low lying areas.
Some of these people are residents, long term residents of the city.
Others are people who've been forced out of lowland areas into the city over the last couple of weeks as a result of the flooding, and they are moving into government buildings, to schools, to churches and to other buildings that are suitable for them to reside in over the next the next few days.
Are there other any final questions on this topic from anyone?
So Claire, Nollis, Paul Dillon, Thompson Ferry, thank you very much for briefing on this topic this morning.
We're going to, since we have Yens on the podium, we're going to let him tell you a bit more about Syria.
Thank you, Rianne and good morning everyone.
We are seriously concerned over the deteriorating security situation in Alhol camp in North East Syria between the 1st and the 16th of January.
The UN has received reports of the murders of 12 Syrian and Iraqi camp residents, including one female Iraqi refugee.
Another person was critically injured in a violent attack.
With almost 60 two 2000 residents, alcohol is the largest camp for refugees and internally displaced people in Syria.
More than 80% of the camp population are women and children who fled to the camp to seek protection and get humanitarian assistance.
This recent rise in violence among the camp population is not only, of course, the tragic loss of life, but it also jeopardises the ability of the United Nations and humanitarian partners to continue to safely deliver critical humanitarian assistance and services to the residents.
The United Nations and humanitarian partners provide a range of assistance in alcohol, including emergency and primary healthcare, water, shelter, food and hygiene, distribution and protection.
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis has issued a statement where they emphasise that the safety and well-being of people in alcohol is the of the utmost importance and urge all relevant parties to ensure the protection of the camp and humanitarian workers who are working there.
They also_the urgent need for the durable solutions to be found for every person living in the camp, noting that such solutions must be informed, voluntary and dignified.
Thank you very much, Yens.
Are there questions for Yens on this?
Yes, good morning and thank you for taking my question here.
The the people that were killed, maybe you mentioned it and I missed it, but were they women?
And then I'm wondering if you can bring us up to date about the situation of repatriation, whether the foreign nationals, the children in particular, are still stuck in our hole that countries are unwilling to take them back.
What what I said was that between the 1st and the 16th of January, we have reports of the murders of 12 Syrian and Iraqi camp residents, including one female Iraqi refugee.
That's a level of detail that I have.
Another person was critically injured in in in a violent attacks or in addition to the to the 12 murders.
There is a text, a statement from from the two coordinators that I will share with you.
There are also contact details for further information on this in the field.
Of course we call particularly or not least I would say, because there's such a **** proportion of children in the camp for those children to be treated as children and that the world does what is in those children's best interest.
I don't think anybody can be in doubt that it's not in their best interest to be stuck in this camp for for four years on end.
So repatriation of not least, particularly children, would be most welcome.
We also have a question from Bairan, Bairan from Anadolu.
Hearing the statements from various United Nations agencies regarding human rights violations or Green Human Rights Association on Alhol camp for years.
So there is no progress at all despite all the United Nations warning.
So my question what is who is controlling the alcohol camp?
What is the name of the authorities you have mentioned in your statement?
The camp is controlled by Kurdish.
Thank you for taking my question.
I just wanted to ask about if there's any indication on these murders, if they were, there was coordination, he was behind it.
And also you mentioned the impact on UN aid deliveries.
Could you say a little bit more about about how, how this has impacted that and what your fears are going forward?
I think I've said what I can about the murders themselves.
Of course, when you have a camp with 62,000 people, you have two weeks and you have 12 murders, that of course is a huge concern for everybody's security, including those humanitarian workers who who are delivering in the camp.
What they are delivering is primary healthcare, water, shelter, non food items, food and hygiene distribution, nutrition and protection.
All of that delivery is being thrown into jeopardy when the level of insecurity rises to what we have seen now.
Let's go to Nick ******* Bruce from New York Times.
Yeah, your statement clearly implies that these aren't the first murders.
Do you have any indication of how many people have been murdered in?
This camp in in recent months or?
In five years I have the I have given you the information of the murders that I have, that between the 1st and 16th January there were 12 murders in the camp.
Yes, if if I read well the the the press release, they said that 80% of the population are women and children.
Well, I mean, did some of these population decided to leave the camp or are trying to leave the the camp because of security problems?
And if there's someone of UNICEF, it would be nice to tell us a bit more about the children you just mentioned.
Yeah, I'm unaware of anybody has actually tried to leave the camp in recent time because of this.
And on the children, I am not AI don't know, I don't think UNICEF is is on the one.
Marixi, I think you are there on the line.
Can we bring you in to see whether you have anything on this issue for the journalists Marixi Mercado from UNICEF.
So I, I will go to our Syria country office to get the latest numbers.
But what I what from August we know that there were nearly 40,000 children from more than 60 countries who were still in alcohol.
I can tell you that and I can come back to you with an update later on today.
Marxy, could you be more precise about the origin because you said how many countries and the origin of the children?
Ahead, sorry, they're most they're primarily Syrian and Iraqi children.
But let me come back to you, Catherine, with a better with a better breakdown later on today.
And last question on this to Byron.
Just you said the Kurdish troops controlled that area.
Because when you say Kurdish some murders happening that come and some people can understand you know another way around like Kurdish people committed murders.
So can you clarify that term please?
We are calling on those authorities who control the security in the camp to ensure the safety of the camp residents first and foremost, but also the humanitarian workers that are working there.
Thank you very much, Jens, for briefing on this topic.
And since we're on Syria, I'll just use the opportunity to remind you that next week, of course, as you know, the small body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will be meeting in Geneva for its fifth meeting.
And as you've been informed, Mr Ghir Pederson, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, will be holding a press briefing this afternoon at 3 in this very room to give you a bit of information about what he expects to happen next week.
Ravina Sam, Sam Dazani from OHCHR is here to tell you about Darfur.
We need a couple of seconds to clean the spots.
Sorry, no offence to Yen, but I had to wipe down the podium before I could speak.
On Sudan, we have received deeply disturbing information about two deadly incidents of intercommunal violence in Darfur over the past week, and we fear that the lack of security and chronic impunity in the region leaves it vulnerable to further serious violence.
Between Saturday and Sunday, the 16th and 17th of January, 160 people were reportedly killed and 215 injured in clashes between armed men of the Masaled and Arab communities around the Crinding camp for internally displaced people in West Darfur.
Now the figures of killings and injuries, there are varying estimates, but they're around the the same from the various sources that that we've consulted.
Now, this followed the ****** of an Arab tribal leader allegedly by a Masalid man.
Armed men from the Arab community then opened fire at the mostly Masalid ID PS in the camp and set many shelters on fire.
In spite of measures by the governor of West Darfur to bring the situation under control on Saturday, violent clashes erupted between armed men from both communities on Sunday in the region, which also resulted in mass displacement.
A nearby village was also set on fire.
In a separate incident on Monday the 18th of January, 72 people were reportedly killed and 73 others were injured in South Darfur's Gradia locality following clashes between armed men from the Falata tribe and the Rezigat tribe.
The incident was triggered by the killing of a 10 year old boy from the Rezagat tribe on the 17th of January after his search for his camels caused him to cross into land claimed by the Falata tribe.
The following day, Rezagat armed men launched an attack on the Falata village.
Both sides exchanged fire, causing deaths, injuries and displacement.
We understand that the State Security Committee has been attempting to contain the situation in South Darfur through the deployment of security forces to the area.
These incidents raise serious concerns about the imminent risk of further violence in Darfur in an environment where decades old ethnic and tribal tensions that were further stoked by the previous regime continue to fester.
There are severe gaps in protection by state authorities, as well as a lack of accountability for violations.
Local health facilities have reported being unable to cope with the **** number of casualties.
We call on the Government of Sudan to promptly ensure the full implementation of its National Plan for the Protection of Civilians and to restore public order and the rule of law in Darfur.
We urge the authorities to prioritise carrying out thorough and effective investigations with a view to promptly ensuring that individual perpetrators are brought to justice to break the cycle of armed citizens taking the law into their own hands to avenge attacks on members of their communities.
Victims and their families have a right to redress.
We urge the judicial authorities to take immediate action on the findings of a previous report into inter communal violence that took place more than a year ago, between the 29th and 31st of December 2019 in West Darfur, as a crucial step in the fight against impunity.
We stand ready to continue engaging constructively with the Government, including through our presence in Sudan, on the many human rights challenges that the country continues to face.
Ravina, are there any questions?
Yes, Lisa, Lisa Shlen from Voice of America.
I hope you are doing well.
OK what what triggered this particular fighting the hostilities?
I mean it's long standing hostilities over resources and other things.
If you could elaborate upon that.
And then you also mentioned that in the previous regime stoked the, the, the fighting between these communities.
Is this the case of the current regime or has it, do you see a sea change?
Do you believe that they really want to maintain peace there?
Perhaps perhaps the removal of protective soldiers and so forth was premature.
If you hope you got all that, sorry.
So I think I got all that, but if I've missed anything, please do follow up the trigger.
Now as you rightly point out, there are long standing grievances between the communities.
The Masalit are primarily a farming community and there there's a lot of the the the Arab community are are mostly herders.
There is a lot of clashes over land rights between the communities.
Now what happened in South Darfur was, as I said, there was a 10 year old boy who was searching for his camels and he wandered into land that was claimed by the Falata tribe, by the other tribe.
This boy belonged to the Rezagat tribe and he was killed.
Now, his killing then led to a kind of revenge attack by one community against another, which led to clashes and resulted in 72 people being killed.
In the case of the incident in West Darfur, this related to the stabbing of a man who turned out to be a tribal leader, an Arab tribal leader, and the ****** was apparently committed by a Masalid man.
So again, into communal clashes then erupted.
What is very worrying is given the lack of security in these areas and given the lack of accountability.
For crimes and human rights violations, people are feeling emboldened to take law into their own hands and a single incident can really very easily spark inter communal conflict that can lead to many people being killed and displaced.
Now the government of Sudan, of course they are facing many challenges, but they had undertaken a national plan for the protection of civilians through which they had undertaken to deploy a joint force composed of 12,000 security officers to the region.
Now this has not happened, not a single deployment has happened and this has left a security vacuum where there is a real risk of continued violence.
Are there other questions for having on this issue?
On the the last comment that you made, you said that they had promised the deployment of 12,000 troops and it hasn't happened.
Is this for practical reasons that they are disorganised or do you have any reason, any understanding as to why this has not happened?
And have you brought this and the other matters up with the government and if so, what has it told you?
Sure, Lisa, on why the deployment hasn't happened, I'm afraid that that is a question for the government.
As I did indicate they are facing many challenges during this transition, but the risks are very real and very imminent of of further violence.
Yes, we are in touch with them on the urgent need to to follow through on this national plan as well as on the urgent need to ensure accountability.
Now, as I mentioned, in 2019 December, there was a similar incident of serious intercommunal violence and there was an investigation that took place.
A report was was also drafted into what happened into the events, but there hasn't been action taken on that.
So This is why we're calling for them to take prompt action on these violations, but also to take immediate action to ensure accountability for previous violations.
People need to feel that their government is able to provide them with redress, otherwise we fear that we'll see many more such actions where you know, inter communal violence erupts following one spark.
I'm sorry, I see that Baba Baloch also wanted to say something about the violence in in Darfur.
And I don't know if we have Baba online.
Why don't you go ahead and then and then we'll see if we take another question or two.
Many thanks Real and good morning to everyone.
We had a last minute switch of horses so to to just join Ravina and OHCHR on this issue.
UNACR, the UN refugee agency, is concerned by the recent violence in Sudan's Darfur region, which has caused an estimated 100,000 people to flee their homes seeking safety, including across the border into Chad.
Among the newly displaced, some 3500 Sudanese have arrived in Udai province in eastern Chad.
These refugees, the majority of them women and children, have been hosted in four very remote locations that lack basic services or public infrastructure, where they're even sheltering under trees.
Due to the COVID-19 situation, Chadion local authorities are directing the new arrivals to a transit location where they will undergo quarantine before they are relocated to an existing refugee camp away from the border area.
UNHCR is rushing supplies to the area to respond to their needs.
Before this latest round of clashes, Shad was already hosting more than 360,000 Sudanese refugees in Sudan.
UNHCR is mobilising resources is part of an interagency response to assist those affected by the clashes.
UNHCR has pre positioned emergency shelters and other relief items to be quickly distributed as soon as the security situation allows.
There are a few more details in our note.
Thank you very much, Boris.
We still have Gabriela Sotomayor, who has her hand raised.
I have a question for Ravina about in another subject.
OK, we'll have to wait on that, Catherine.
I have a question, in fact for you and WHO at the same time, if I recall well, there was an agreement between WHONUNHER to to work together on the COVID-19 issue.
So could you tell us a bit more about a programme of vaccination for vulnerable people?
I've seen on the net that a very old Syrian lady aged 104 years had been vaccinated.
So what about the younger people around refugees?
OK, Boris, I think we have all we have no more questions on the floor.
So we'll take this question and then the question for Avina.
On the vaccine issue, UNHCR has clearly been calling for the inclusion of refugees and other displaced communities into vaccination campaigns.
You may have seen that already some countries have begun adding refugees into their vaccination campaigns.
It was the first UNHCR registered refugee in the country to be vaccinated just last week.
So these efforts are underway.
I can't give you many details right now, but I'm happy to get back to you bilaterally with what are the plans as we know them for the moment, including what type of partnerships we will have going forward, including with organisations such as Gabby.
Please go ahead with your question for Ravina and then we'll have to close here on that topic.
I don't know if somebody asked already the question, but I would like to know if the government of United States did say said something about returning to Human Rights Council if they have intentions, that's the question.
I'm not aware that that might actually be a question for Rolando.
If there has been any official communication between the government of the US and the Human Rights Council, you may have seen that we did yesterday issue a tweet welcoming the the new administration's recommitment to multilateralism.
And we do very much welcome that.
We we look forward to working with the new administration and welcome this the strong signal of engagement, including on climate change and tackling the pandemic.
Yeah, Gabriel, I think it would be good to check also with Rolando.
I haven't seen any such statement in the press so far.
OK, I think we're we're done with this.
The topic you have a question for Ravina.
I, I just want to refer you to what is happening in India in terms of violation of civil liberties, particularly political prisoners.
There are 17 of them, 17 of them in a gaol in Mumbai and it's called Taloja gaol.
And some of these political prisoners are 80 years old and the way they have been treated is completely inhuman.
I don't know whether you have any response to make on this.
Thank you for the for that question.
No, indeed, we are aware that there is a difficult situation in India for for many human rights defenders and civil society organisations.
If you just bear with me for a second, I'm just looking for a press release that we had issued on this that I can refer you to.
Well, it was issued in October but but the concerns very much stand and we have been in touch with with the government as well.
Now we, the in fact, the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, I can send you this press release after the briefing.
But the **** Commissioner for Human Rights has in private meetings with the government as well as publicly, she has called on the government to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs and to respect and protect their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups that they represent.
Because when we talk about civil society actors and human rights defenders, we're not only referring to those specific individuals, but the many communities and and other individuals that they that they support.
The **** Commissioner pointed out that India has long had a strong civil society, which has been at the forefront of groundbreaking human rights advocacy within the country and globally.
But recently she is concerned that vaguely defined laws are being increasingly used to stifle these voices.
I can send you the full press release and then if I have anything specific on the cases that you refer to, I'll get back to you on that as well.
On that, I'm afraid you'll have to ask the Government of India.
It wouldn't be appropriate for me to relay their response to you.
As I said at the beginning, we have a press conference at 12 and so we still have three items on the agenda.
Let's try to to stick to that.
And then if we have additional time for more questions, we'll we'll go to those as well.
Boris, you have another topic to discuss about the Sahel.
Thank you, Indeed we are.
We are marking A grim milestone in the Sahel as violence has now displaced 2 million inside their countries.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, is calling for an end to the unrelenting violence in Africa's Sahel, which has now displaced more than 2 million people within the borders of their countries.
For the first time ever, the extreme vulnerability of the Sahel has been laid bare by the impact of force displacement caused by widespread and gruesome violence perpetrated by armed insurgent groups and criminal gangs.
The humanitarian response is dangerously overstretched and UNHCR is urging the international community to redouble its support for the region.
States must act now to help to help countries address the root causes of the sports displacement, to boost strategic and sustainable development, and to strengthen institutions such as schools and hospitals, many of which have shut due to ongoing violence.
The situation has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Internal displacement in the region has quadrupled in just two years, as there were 490,000 internally displaced people at the beginning of 2019.
More than half of the ID PS in the region are Burkinave.
The Sahel also hosts over 850,000 refugees, mainly from Mali.
Already this year, violence in Niger and Burkina Faso has forced more than 21,000 people to flee their homes and seek refuge within their own countries.
Across the region, UNHCR and its partners are working to provide critical assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and their hosts, such as shelter, aid items and cash.
Our teams are also working to prevent and respond to instances of sexual violence, which has become widespread.
We are rehabilitating schools and classrooms and supporting business learning opportunities.
There are some more details in our note which you should you should have received.
Are there any questions on this issue, Lisa?
Lisa Schleines from from Voice of America.
You say that states must act now to deal with this horrible situation.
Why are states not acting now?
Are you talking about they're not supporting in terms of giving money or are there other things that concern you?
And what can the states actually do?
Thank you, Lisa, and then good morning to you.
Indeed, the situation has continued to intensify and escalate over the course of the past two years.
Last year, 2020, with the addition of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became even more difficult to deliberate in some of the more remote locations.
Of course, questions of access exist, but what we are saying is that the international community has to continue to support both the humanitarian response and also the countries that are affected.
What we see is that funding is not the one issue, It's not the sole issue.
For instance, we launched an appeal in June, which was for 186 million U.S.
That appeal was funded to 74%.
So it's a compared to many of the other situations where we work.
It was a substantial amount of funds.
However, the security situation is, is not allowing us to reach some of the people that require assistance.
The fact that there's so much volatility and this is an area, this is a region where so many crises converge.
You have on the one hand, the displacement and armed conflict.
You have also extreme poverty.
You also have climatic change that are forcing people to to move and are affecting those that are already displaced.
So the situation needs more attention and, and quite urgently so.
I don't see any other questions, but it's for you.
So thanks so much for being with us and I wish you a good afternoon.
So we're pleased to welcome back Elvi The Hussal, our colleague has joined us again now with Unit Aid.
So welcome Elvi and I'll let you brief on your topic.
Merci, Bonjour, Bonjour, That's an important announcement for low and middle income countries that I'm pleased to share with you today.
Unit aid and the foundation for innovative new diagnostic find.
We are pleased to announce today an important step for what's ensuring equitable access to antigen detecting rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19.
This initial agreement introduced by United and Find will increase capacity to supply those tests, those diagnostics test sufficiently to meet approximatively 50% of the total estimate needs for low and middle income countries.
It will also cut in half the price of those tests.
Today those tests the cost $5.00 with disagreement they will cost 2.5 dollars half of the price.
More than 250 million tests will be produced in the coming 12 months following disagreement.
Find and Unitate are working as member of the ACT Accelerator.
Testing has played a critical role since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and this is especially the case in low and middle income countries where fragile health system have often left health care providers unable to access urgently needed tests.
While **** income countries are now conducting 252 tests per 100,000 people each day, in low and middle income countries the weight is 10 times lower at just 24 tests per 100,000 people a day.
These issues arise from a lack of access to the laboratories needed for processing more complex molecular tests and the population will often live far from health centre and need rapid results to avoid multiple journey.
The ACT Accelerator estimate that 500 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests are needed in low and middle income countries during two thousand, 2175% of which must be deployed in decentralised setting.
Then one more time, Find and Unitate are very pleased to announce that agreement who will have the price of the rapid diagnostic test for more than 250 million additional tests for low and middle income countries.
It is something very important for those countries.
Thank you very much of the.
Let's see if there are any questions.
Yes, we have one in the room.
You know, it's been now established both SCTA and COVAX.
In fact, the World Health Organisation director general other day said only 29 year 21, nine sort of vaccines have been provided in LDCs.
Does UN8 on UNT 8 support proposal for TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation?
I will not comment on on on statement from from other organisation on on that issue and I can put you in in contact with a specialist in our organisation today to speak about that very specific occasion.
We have a question from Gabriella Sotomayor.
Nice to see you again here.
One very quick question, Does that test detect the new variance?
Those tests still work to detect the new strains of COVID-19.
Then we don't anticipate any problem with the strain that we know for the moment.
I don't see any other questions.
We'll hope to see you again in the coming weeks.
At the briefing, we are going to move on to our last agenda on the on the last item on the agenda, Margaret Harris from WHO is here with Doctor Ibrahima Sochefal, the assistant director general for emergencies response, and Doctor Teresa Zakaria, the health emergency officer.
They're here to give you an update on the health needs and actions in Tira, Ethiopia.
Do you wish to say a few words before Good morning, Margaret?
As you all asked for excellent technical spokespeople, I've provided two of the best today.
We're also will have our global press conference at 1800.
But without further ado, I'll introduce Doctor Ibrahim Sefal, whom I think most of you have met already, who's our Assistant Director General for Emergencies Response and Doctor Teresa Zakaria, who is one of our health emergencies officers.
They will give you an update on recent assessment of the health needs in Northern Ethiopia.
Dr Fal will begin and then Dr Zakaria will give, will add on and after that we'll open it to questions.
So over to you, Doctor Sosofar, if you are on.
Well, go ahead, Doctor Fal dear.
Colleagues, good morning, good afternoon.
Today I would like to bring to to bring your attention to the public health risk by the population living in Northern Tokyo following the conflict in the region that conflict and disruption health services.
We are concerned about the potential for a number of diseases to spread in the region, including malaria, COVID-19, measles, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever.
And we'll come back to that more later.
And additionally, many hospitals and clinics are only partially functional or close.
Along with the population, healthcare workers have been displaced when social health services are disrupted.
The consequences for the population are severe.
We are concerned about children not being able to be vaccinated, mothers not being able to deliver safely in a clinic, and people with long term diseases not being able to pursue their treatment.
My colleague Dr Tina Bakalia, one of our public health experts, will provide additional details very soon.
This is this is type of environment we market close people displaced, not able to work and not able to own their living and living condition worsening every day.
We are also concerned about the risk of communicable diseases training due to lack of food, thin water and proper shelter and also because health promotion and disease prevention activities have been interacted.
The nation is working with national and local authorities and this partner to scale up respond to the immest need of population.
For weeks now we have signed vital medicines and supplied to health facilities and to our partners.
More partners are ready to come in and provide assistance when access become possible.
During the population need to have access to health services and healthcare workers need to have access to the population.
We need to make sure that healthcare workers are able to return home and return to work.
The availability of supplies and presence of healthcare workers have two typical conditions that must be met for health services to resume.
Given the diseases I mentioned, we must expand business servers, more targeted criminalization for children as well as other typical need humanitarian assistance such as food, water and shelter that they should provided supply to the Minister of Health to deploy 6 mobile health claims, but more is needed.
A number of international partners current depends in Addis Ababa also standing up their support to the division.
But we will need access to and secure areas.
Resources are clearly needed for us to respond effectively and is estimated that more than 4.5 million people need assistance.
So the mental response plan for Northern Echiopia which is budgeted at 160 million U.S.
dollar health sector required 9.8 million U.S.
dollar and we receive less than half of what we need.
So I would like to give the floor to Doctor Telenas Lacaria who will share more information on and what we or the partner are doing that have set up or what we still need to do Thank you.
Thank you very much, Doctor Fal.
Yes, I hope you can hear me well.
Good morning to all and thank you to Doctor Sosafal.
As soon as the situation allowed it, the WHN partners visited a number of communities and health facilities in the affected region.
We found that many like medicines and supplies and the needed infrastructure to function and healthcare workers have been displaced along with their communities.
The situation is particularly observed outside of the main cities.
In these locations, it is even harder for the population to access health services.
Referral hospitals have not been able to receive patients with serious conditions, which could lead to increased risk of preventable illness and death should health services not resume immediately.
To note, we have not been able to access the entire Tigre region and so the picture we currently have at the moment is not complete.
We provided supplies to some facilities directly and through partners.
We have distributed medicines and supplies enough to treat more than 120,000 patients for three months and more than 1000 cases of injuries, as well as personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.
But more is needed to reach many more who are in need.
We are working closely with partners to share information and coordinate our activities under risk of disease outbreaks.
Until the beginning of November 2020 / 6700, people were reported to have COVID-19 Of home, 47 died.
The incidence of COVID-19 in the region is higher than the country average.
We also received reports of COVID-19 response activities initially interrupted and now are very slow to pick up, so this constitute a major risk.
Additionally, from January to November last year, over 400 cases of measles in children were reported.
With disruption to routine vaccination, this number may increase significantly in the near future.
Over 9000 cases of malaria were recorded and when compounded with malnutrition, the fatality due to malaria among children can increase up to threefold.
Furthermore, there are over a dozen pockets where cholera is repeatedly reported from in the Tigray region, and 30 cases were reported in 2020.
The Tigray region is also located on the meningitis belt and is at risk of yellow fever outbreaks.
Now, with most disease prevention activities interrupted and based on what we know of past history of outbreaks, the risk of spread of COVID-19, measles, cholera, malaria, yellow fever and meningitis is very real, and other health conditions are also left untreated.
However, without a functional disease surveillance systems, we are not able to gauge the epidemiological situation and we are flying blind.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much to both our guests.
Jamil, if you can introduce yourself?
Is this a good time or should?
If it's not on Tigre, then I would like to take questions on Tigre first.
We'll see if we have time.
Catherine Fiancon This is a question about this topic.
Yes, good morning, Doctor Sosefal and Dr Zakayah.
The sound when Doctor Sosefalfal took the floor was very bad.
So I'm sorry, but I didn't catch certain elements.
I I would like to come back on the figure of the number of people in need of assistance, 4 point.
I did not catch the rest and also the amount needed I did not catch the figure.
And could you please be precise?
You mentioned children in critical need.
And Doctor Sosafal and Zakiah did mention different times that they were working with partners.
Could you be more precise about whom are those partners and also about the authority that are stopping you to access Tigray?
Who is stopping you to access Tigray or with whom are you dealing in order to have access to the region?
Thank you, Catherine, who would like to take this doctor file or Doctor Zakaria Thank.
This is the kind of compliment on the figure for children in need.
Please speak clearly and close to the to your microphone so we hear you properly.
So I mentioned that 4.5 million people are in need for assistance and this figure is from the emergency coordination, you know, team on the ground and now to not everybody.
And now in terms of the mental response plan for Northern Ethiopia, the overall budget is 160 million U.S.
dollar, but specifically for the health sector I mentioned 9.8 million U.S.
So access is still an issue and now you are working as one team.
Is your system led by Orchard, who, you know, working with the national authorities to have access, I mean, secular access to all areas.
As you know, we are many prisons in the big cities, but accessing the small and remote area is still very challenging and security is not guaranteed.
That's why it's really important to have full and secular access to the airport to deliver the health services.
And so I will ask that more specific information on the number of children in need for vaccination.
Let's go to Doctor Zakaria if you wish to add something.
So the humanitarian team in the country have done through exercises to quantify the total number of population in need.
And so the 4.5 million people are those in need of humanitarian assistance.
Of this number, 2.3 are directly targeted with humanitarian assistance by multiple partners, including WHO.
We're counting at least 50% of these 2.3 million of those who will be targeted.
So that that's the caseload that we are currently working on at the moment.
This figure may change again because the picture that we currently have is not complete and we may see things evolving and needs evolving as well in the near future.
But these are the planning figures that we are currently working on.
Of note, the rate of malnutrition integrive region is higher than national figures and again, more thorough assessment needs to be done, especially after the conflict took place.
And so I think we would be able to also update more precisely on the figures in the future.
But these are the the the numbers that we are currently working on.
We are a little bit pressed for time.
So Lisa Schlein, I see you have your hand raised.
One question please and then we'll close with Jamil's question.
And then we we did have to close because it's almost noon and there is a press conference and our colleagues need to prepare for the next press conference.
Rael, you used up 30 seconds of my question.
Margaret, would you please send the notes of Doctor Sosafal and Dr Zakaria?
The I'm sorry, especially this is not a question, it's a request, especially since I do I do radio the audio.
I'm afraid Doctor Sosa follows really unusable and was hard to understand as Catherine said.
So would appreciate your sending the the notes.
Doctor Zakaria, since your audio is better, I I will refer my question to you.
And that is are are there are, are you concerned about many deaths occurring, especially among the children?
I don't know if you have a figure of how many children are malnourished and how many desperately need nutritional treatment in order to avoid deaths.
And and as part of this question, you how much of the territory of Tigray have you been able to access and why are you not able to access the rest?
Is the is the government blocking you from going to the entire region that you need to?
Thank you for the question.
I think of our of our concern is, is yes is the health and well-being of the entire population of Tigray region that is affected by the conflict and this includes children, women, those with chronic diseases and those who may actually be directly impacted by various disease outbreaks.
So I think we are concerned about the entire population at the moment because our disease surveillance system, our mortality surveillance system is actually not working optimally.
It is difficult for us to actually gauge what the real scale of the needs are and what is the true epidemiological profile of the region.
And so and for this, we need to have better access.
Now then coming back to your question on access, I do believe that access is multi and there are many factors influencing access.
And one of the biggest thing is actually in security.
We are working with many partners and these are the the UN partners, the international NGO partners with whom we are used to work in many other countries.
And I think this the situation of needing better access is felt throughout by by everyone involved.
And it's, it's multi factorial and we need to work together and we continue to work together within the UN system and with the government to make sure that safe access can actually be obtained for us to do our job back to you.
Thank you so much Doctor Fal and Doctor Zakaria for being with us this morning to brief on this very important situation, preoccupying situation.
And Tigre, we hope we can have you again in future.
And we'll take one last question from Jamil and then we will have, I'll just have a couple of announcements and then we'll have to close the briefing for today.
That is very kind of you.
There were questions during the Executive Board towards Doctor Tedros on the transparency of COVAX of the ACT accelerator.
What is your response to that?
And I would like also to know, many countries are asking questions regarding the conditions put on the COVAX in terms of basically not transferring of technology to countries, countries having to assume the risks of the vaccine and so on and so on.
There are many conditions.
Why do you have these conditions put to towards countries in such a situation?
And one of them, for example, a letter was sent yesterday by Oxfam to Doctor Tedros regarding also the element of lack of transparency.
If you could comment on that and if ever you could go back to Manaus because I haven't had that answer yet.
You've asked a lot of different questions and you referred to a lot of different things that I haven't got in front of me.
So I can't comment on something when I don't have the specific details on Kovacs.
Yeah, as you know, that's a partnership between WHO Gavi, Sepi and and lots of others are involved.
So the the overall concerns, you raise a number of different concerns that would have to be unpicked.
So I know it's annoying, but please send me an e-mail with the very specific things so that I can send it to the specific people for a clear response.
You will get an opportunity to also ask this question this afternoon at the 1800 press conference on Manas.
You did send that to me and I did send it forward, but I will harass them on your behalf.
And I know there would probably be a lot more questions, but unfortunately, we have to close here for the next press conference.
So thank you, everyone and all of our guests for being here today.
I'm just going to end with a couple of announcements.
So again, press conferences well at noon and Rabbi Inktad and then 3:00 PM this afternoon with the Special Envoy for Syria.
On Monday, the ILO will also hold a pre a virtual press conference at 12 noon to launch the 7th ILO Monitor on the impact of COVID-19 on the world of work with an embargo until 1:00 PM Geneva time.
And then on Tuesday, there's a virtual press, uh, conference by the UNDP at 2:00 PM on its report, the world's largest survey of public opinion on climate change.
Uh, a majority of people are calling for wide-ranging action.
This is also embargoed until the 27th of January at 6:01 AM Central Eastern European time.
And next week we will be marking an important International Day, the International Day in Memory of Victims of the Holocaust.
You should have received our programme of activities.
There are three major main things happening in Geneva, namely the the the official ceremony on Wednesday at 12 noon.
This is going to be carried virtually because of COVID measures.
We we can't welcome people so much at the Palais.
So we invite you to watch it on webtv.un.org or on UN Geneva's Facebook Live.
We will hear a testimonial by a survivor, Miss Fani Benami, who will tell her you a very inspiring story.
And we we'll have the ambassadors from Israel and Germany as guests as along with Director General Tatiana Valovaya.
Then on Monday, the European Union, with the collaboration of the Permanent Mission of Israel, will be inaugurating an innovative video project that aims to keep the memory of Holocaust survivors alive by featuring their interactive biographies on the exterior walls of the Great Synagogue, the Beth Yakov Great Synagogue of Geneva.
This is a really interesting exhibition that anyone can go View from 5:00 to 10:00 PM next week, from the 25th to the 31st of January.
And you can even interact with Holocaust survivors.
And then on the 26th, of course, at 5:00 PM, it's an online cine anu.
We're featuring the Albanian code with a discussion afterwards with some with the the film director and other guests.
So please look at that programme and we'll close here and in a few minutes will please join us for the UMTAD press conference.
Thank you very much everyone and have a good weekend.
