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PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
6 December 2022
Drought and conflict force 80,000 to flee from Somalia to Kenya’s refugee camps
Boris Cheshirkov, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that more than 80,000 people had arrived in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps. The majority had arrived over the past two years, fleeing ongoing insecurity in Somalia and the unrelenting drought, the longest and most severe in decades.
Despite a recent decrease in the pace of daily arrivals, UNHCR and partners in Dadaab estimated that some 24,000 people had arrived since the end of September. Adequate space in the camps, where the newly arrived were sheltered, was running out, forcing many to reside in makeshift shelters along the outskirts, where clean water and sanitation facilities were either grossly insufficient or non-existent. Further challenging the response, a cholera outbreak had been affecting refugee and host communities. Over 350 cases had been identified since the end of October, mainly affecting children. Together with health partners, UNHCR was setting up additional treatment centres to increase access to health care for new arrivals and to be prepared in the event more cholera cases were reported.
In June, as part of a regional appeal for the Horn of Africa drought response, UNHCR had requested USD 11.1 million to assist more than 257,000 drought-affected people in Kenya, including 55,000 new arrivals. So far only half of the needed funds to respond to the drought had been received, said Mr. Cheshirkov.
Full statement is available at this page.
Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Cheshirkov said the priority was to provide arriving people with urgent support. Even if cholera cases were seemingly under control, UNHCR continued to be concerned about the situation. UNHCR was cognizant of the important role Kenya was playing in hosting Somali refugees for over three decades; some half a million refugees and asylum seekers were currently in Kenya. Resettlement of refugees to third countries was also under discussion.
Announcements
Carla Drysdale, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that today at 3 p.m. WHO would host a virtual press conference on the World Malaria Report 2022. A media advisory had been shared. The embargo on the report would be lifted on 8 December at 12 noon.
The third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate an international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response was underway until 7 December, informed Ms. Drysdale. The body was looking into the conceptual zero draft of the instrument and discussing the way forward. One-on-one interviews with bureau members could be arranged. The meeting was being webcast live. Dr. Tedros had delivered opening remarks on 5 December, said Ms. Drysdale. The Bureau’s proposal on an updated timeline and deliverables can be found here.
On 8 December, there would be a virtual press conference to release the fifth Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) Report. The report was based on inputs from 87 countries, and it was the first report trying to capture antimicrobial resistance rates since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, informed that on 9 December at 9:30 a.m., on the occasion of Human Rights Day, there would be a press conference by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The regular press briefing by UN Information Service will consequently be moved to 11 a.m. that day.
Mr. LeBlanc also said that the UN Secretary-General would be in Montreal today to attend the second part of the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The first part of COP15 had been held in Kunming, China, in October 2021. This second part would include the continuation of negotiations by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was hoped would lead to the adoption of an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. COP15 would be webcast at UN TV.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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