Bi-Weekly Press Briefing 04 February 2022

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Bi-Weekly Press Briefing 04 February 2022

1:30:00

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04-02-2022

Press Conferences | UNHCR , OCHA , WHO , WFP , WMO , UNECE , FAO

Bi-Weekly Press Briefing 04 February 2022

ENG

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, and Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Meteorological Organization, of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that Madagascar, which was still recovering from Tropical Storm Ana, was bracing for much more powerful Tropical Cyclone Batsirai. The storm was currently the equivalent of a category 3 storm and was forecast to strengthen to category 4, with winds of up to 200 km/hour. Batsirai was expected to make landfall on 5 February, on the east coast, and then to curve away from Mozambique. Waves at sea were already 8 to 15 metres high, but the chief threat was from rainfall. Batsirai was expected to bring rainfall of 150 to 300 mm, which could cause dramatic flooding whether it fell on areas of saturated land or on drought-affected areas.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners were ramping up preparedness efforts in anticipation of Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, including the pre-deployment of search and rescue capacity and response teams to areas likely to be impacted, the placement of aircraft on standby to support rapid assessment and response and the purchase of humanitarian supplies to increase available stocks. At least 131,000 people had been affected by Tropical Storm Ana across Madagascar, including 71,000 who had been displaced, and at least 58 people had died. Humanitarian responders had mobilized cash, food, water, sanitation and hygiene items, as well as health and protection for people displaced by flooding.

Pasqualina Disirio, World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director in Madagascar, said that Madagascar was facing multiple crises at once, chiefly drought and recent Tropical Storm Ana, which had hit amid the crucial rice crop season. Tropical Cyclone Batsirai was expected to be a major crisis, affecting at least 600,000 people and displacing 150,000. The authorities were holding meetings to coordinate preparedness efforts and the advance response. Some evacuations had taken place on the east coast along with the distribution of hot meals. That type of event highlighted the importance of access to flexible advance funding in order to make preparations.

Replying to questions from journalists, Ms. Disirio said that the estimated impact of the storm was based on experience with a storm of similar strength some 10 years ago. The Government had issued alerts to the population, had requested people to work from home and had closed schools for possible use as shelters.

Update on clinical care for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Janet Diaz, World Health Organization (WHO), Clinical Lead on COVID-19, said that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was not a mild disease. Patients could present with the entire

clinical spectrum of disease, though it was not yet known what proportion of patients developed each level of severity and how much of the reduced risk of severe disease and death was linked to the virus itself and how much to prior immunity. Bearing that in mind, WHO had launched a new online tool called the COVID-19 clinical care pathway, a concise and easy-to-understand summary of the key actions that health workers were recommended to take when caring for patients suspected of having COVID-19. The pathway could be summed up using the acronym CARE, which stood for confirm, assess, respond and evaluate. It was important to confirm infection through a PCR or antigen test as rapidly as possible and to assess a person’s symptoms, risk factors and severity of illness, then to respond with the appropriate treatment – for mild or moderate, WHO recommended the monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab and for severe or critical, it recommended oxygen therapy, corticosteroids, venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and an interleukin-6 receptor blocker. The final step was to evaluate the clinical response as well as the recovery for up to three months.

In response to questions, Dr. Diaz said that the clinical care pathway, including the downloadable pdf version, was currently available in English and would be translated into the other United Nations languages. Information, including guidelines and training modules, was also available through MAGICapp. Preliminary studies had shown that the casirivimab and imdevimab cocktail of monoclonal antibodies appeared to be less effective against the Omicron variant. A webinar was planned on the neurological and mental health manifestations of so-called long COVID.

World Cancer Day

Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), on the occasion of World Cancer Day, said that cancer was one of the world’s leading causes of death, and its burden was growing. An estimated 20 million people had been diagnosed with cancer in 2021, and 10 million had died. However, care for cancer, reflected the inequalities of the world. The clearest distinction is between high- and low-income countries, with comprehensive treatment reportedly available in more than 90 per cent of high-income countries but less than 15 per cent of low-income countries. Therefore, the theme for that year’s World Cancer Day was “closing the care gap”. WHO efforts were focused on breast and cervical cancer and childhood cancer and was targeting its initiatives at low- and middle-income countries, where the biggest public health gains were to be made.

Refugees in the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia

Boris Cheshirkov, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR and partners were rushing life-saving aid to more than 20,000 refugees who had fled clashes around two refugee camps in the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia between unidentified armed groups and federal forces. Following the eruption of violence, the refugees had made their way to three different sites closer to Assosa, the regional capital. UNHCR was working with the Ethiopian Government’s Refugee and Returnees Service and partners to provide the most urgent assistance to the displaced refugees. It was also working to install basic services at the new temporary site identified by the regional authorities and to begin relocating refugees there. Three other refugee camps in the Benishangul Gumuz region remained fully accessible, and all services there were functioning. In addition to supporting the refugees, the Government, UNHCR and partners had been providing assistance to those internally displaced in the region, reaching over 100,000 people in 2021 with clothing, shelter, psychosocial support and emergency items.

The full briefing note is available here.

Replying to journalists, Mr. Cheshirkov said that the clashes in Benishangul Gumuz were unrelated to the situation in Tigray and that the refugees, who were overwhelmingly from the Sudan and South Sudan, had been cohabiting in the same camps.

Further strain on the fragile Sahel region

Boris Cheshirkov, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the Sahel region, already plagued by political instability, widespread violence, food shortages and the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis, was now contending with an increase in the movement of refugees from Burkina Faso, fleeing vicious attacks by armed groups. Some 7,000 Burkinabé had arrived in north-western Côte d’Ivoire since May 2021, and the influx had accelerated in the past six weeks, though it did not appear to be linked to the recent military coup in Burkina Faso. UNHCR had registered and provided assistance to over 4,000 of them.

As the regional crisis became more protracted, large parts of the region remained or had become inaccessible to humanitarian agencies trying to support the 2.5 million people forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and the Niger. The Sahel also faced an unprecedented rural exodus due to shrinking areas under government control, reduced access to land and various environmental challenges and was on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with temperatures increasing at 1.5 times the global average.

More than 34,000 Burkinabé were now in exile across the region, and their situation was becoming increasingly precarious as more people arrived in Côte d’Ivoire without personal belongings or food. They were being hosted by Ivorian villagers in crowded conditions, sometimes as many as 30 people to a house, and overcrowding was worsening health and sanitation.

The full briefing note is available here.

Replying to journalists, Mr. Cheshirkov said that UNHCR and partners, together with the authorities, were reviewing their contingency planning in Côte d’Ivoire to address the influx of refugees. However, there was a need for more humanitarian and development action, as well as more political solutions. In early to mid-March, UNHCR would be launching a regional appeal for the Sahel to support the local authorities in hosting refugees and IDPs. The current budget was for USD 307 million but was only 7 per cent funded.

Turkey-Greece Border

In response to a question about the death of irregular migrants along the Turkey-Greece border, Boris Cheshirkov, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR was working to verify the reports and had been receiving increasing reports of human rights violations at land and sea borders, including violent pushbacks. Such tragic deaths were avoidable, including through the establishment of regular migration pathways.

Food and fertilizer prices at record highs

Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Trade and Markets Division, said that on 3 February FAO had published the latest Food Price Index, which had reached 135.7 points in January 2022 – 1.5 points higher than in December 2021. That rebound had been driven by higher prices for vegetable oils and dairy products but was part of a longer upward trend caused by the shifting balance between supply and demand. 2021 had seen very strong international demand across almost all regions. The supply, on the other hand, had been affected by adverse weather and climate variability, high transportation costs and record prices for agricultural inputs, particularly fertilizers. In fact, fertilizer prices had risen faster than food prices, due to higher energy prices, growing export restrictions and high transportation costs, and their use would decline as they became less affordable, though by how much remained to be seen. Naturally, that would impact the global food security situation and, consequently, rates of hunger and malnutrition, with poorer individuals and countries feeling the brunt. Indeed, the number of hungry people had jumped by 161 million between 2021 and 2020.

In response to questions, Mr. Schmidhuber said that when prices had shot up in 2008, there had been a considerable contraction in fertilizer use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers in rich countries were much less responsive to changes in fertilizer prices, and places like Brazil, which was a big importer of fertilizer but had a dual agricultural structure, were unlikely to see substantial change in use. There might, however, be a shift in what types of crops were grown. While food prices were driving up headline inflation, the concern was that such volatile elements might cross over into core inflation. The agricultural sector, particularly livestock, needed to be made sustainable and FAO was exploring ways of harnessing technology to achieve that to bridge the gap between climate change mitigation and food production.

Secretary-General’s Remarks on the Olympic Games

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), drew attention to the UN Secretary-General’sremarks following his bilateral meeting with the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, in which he stated that “we need at this moment more than ever the message of unity and solidarity that is the message of the Olympic Games. In a moment when we see so many expressions of populism, so many expressions of racism, so many expressions of xenophobia, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, to be here and to be with athletes that come from all cultures, from all countries, from all ethnicities, from all religions, it’s a fantastic message. It’s a message of tolerance, of mutual respect and a message in which it’s proven that it’s possible to compete loyally and at the same time to fraternize. This is what is needed in the world.” And the Secretary-General to add that “The Olympic Truce is the most important and most ancient symbol of the importance of peace. I had the opportunity a few days ago, to invoke the Olympic Truce to ask Ethiopians to stop fighting. When we see so many conflicts around the world we see the absolute relevance of having Olympic Games in which all countries are represented, even – unfortunately – some that are in a war situation, to have them all here and to show that peace is possible, that unity is possible and that solidarity is possible.” The full statement had already been distributed to the journalists.

International Day of Human Fraternity

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), mentioned the UN Secretary-General’s message on the occasion of International Day of Human Fraternity, where the Secretary-General said that “On the International Day of Human Fraternity, we reflect on the importance of cultural and religious understanding, and mutual respect. I am grateful to religious leaders across the world who are joining hands to promote dialogue and interfaith harmony. From deepening poverty and widening inequalities to conflict, division, and mistrust – our human family faces a cascade of challenges. To confront them, we need to challenge those who exploit differences, traffic in hate, and instill fear of ‘The Other’ in anxious hearts. Today, let us commit to stand firm against bigotry wherever and whenever we see it. Let us recognize our diversity as a richness that strengthens us all. Let us build bridges between the faiths, inspired by our common humanity. And let us come together in solidarity to create a more inclusive, peaceful and just world for all.” The full message had been distributed to journalists.

Announcements

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) recalled that the Conference on Disarmamentwould hold its next public plenary meeting on Tuesday, 8 February, at 10 a.m., in room XVII. The eighty-first session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women – during which the Committee would review the reports of Gabon, Panama, Senegal, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Peru, Lebanon and the Dominican Republic – would open on Monday, 7 February, at 11 a.m.

Teleprompter

Good morning.

Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service in Geneva.

Today is Friday, 4th of February.

I'm very sorry for this delay and we'll start immediately because we have a very long list of items this morning.

I'd like to start immediate immediately with the colleagues who will brief us on the tropical cyclone.

But Sirai and maybe we can start with Claire and then we'll have OCHA and World Food Programme with a a lady Pasqualina de Sirio, who's the WFP country director in Madagascar.

We'll have the three briefings and then we will go to questions.

Claire, you want to start giving us a little information about the meteorological phenomenon?

Yes, yes.

Good morning, everybody and thank you for letting me speak.

Speak first, I'll just give you the the meteorological perspective and then obviously colleagues from WFP and Ocho will talk about the impact.

So the tropical cyclone season in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean is now under way.

We had Tropical Storm Anna last week, which impacted Madagascar among other countries.

Now Madagascar is bracing from much more powerful cyclone called Bat Surrey.

It's currently the equivalent of a category 3 storm.

And the WMO regional centre, which is based in La Feunion operated by Meteo France.

They are forecasting that there is the potential for it to strengthen further ahead of landfall into a category four equivalent storm.

So that means winds of about 200 kilometres an hour.

Landfall is expected currently tomorrow, Saturday, obviously on the East Coast of Madagascar.

There's a bit of uncertainty as to where it is going to make landfall exactly.

But the what we've been given is it's in the region of Mahanoro and perhaps WFP on the ground can give us more, more information on that.

Once it makes landfall, as these storms always do, it weakens it then will head back into the into the ocean to the Mozambique Channel where typically it you know, it re intensifies because it picks up all the energy from from from the ocean.

At the moment, the good news for Mozambique is we expect it to sort of curve away from Mozambique.

Quite often these things hit Madagascar and then go and hit Mozambique.

This particular storm at the moment, we're not expecting to make landfall or have too many impacts in Mozambique which flooded last week as as a result of of Anna, the our tropical cyclone experts in La Reunion are describing this storm as, and to quote them, very dangerous.

We're already going to see impacts today with very **** waves at sea of at least eight metres up to 15 metres.

The wind speeds, as I've said, 200 kilometres an hour up to.

But the the real ****** here, as with many storms, is the is the rainfall.

And there's two sides to this, to this coin.

So Batsu Batsu ray is going to bring **** rainfall totals to the East Coast.

We're talking about widespread 150 to 300 millimetres with much, much higher peaks.

Now if this rainfalls on ground which is already saturated from last week's rainfall, then obviously that exacerbates the risk of flooding.

As you've heard from our WFP Notcher colleagues in the in the past is the, the southern part of Mozambique has been dry, very bad drought.

So if you get some of this rainfall on falling on, you know, very, very dry land, the most immediate risk of that is that this land can't absorb it.

And so there is a risk of of of flash flooding.

But as I said, at the moment, there is a bit of uncertainty where it's going to make landfall.

Exactly.

And so the impacts it will, it will have.

So that's all I have to say.

It just gives you the, you know, the weather perspective of this thing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Claire and maybe Yan's for giving us a little bit of an A briefing on the humanitarian situation and we'll go to Antenna Narivo.

Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning, everyone.

Yeah, a bit on the overall humanitarian preparedness here.

the United Nations and our humanitarian partners are ramping up preparedness efforts in anticipation of Tropical Cyclone Batsuray, which is expected to make landfall in Madagascar over the weekend.

After having passed through Mauritius.

We anticipate a significant humanitarian impact in Madagascar, including in areas that are still recovering from Tropical Storm Anna in late January.

Our efforts under the Government of Madagascar's leadership include preparing for the pre deployment of search and rescue capacity and response teams to areas likely to be impacted, aircrafts being placed on standby to support rabbit assessment and response, and local purchases of humanitarian supplies to increase available stocks.

Madagascar was already hit by Tropical Storm Anna, which brought winds, heavy rains, destruction and loss of life.

More than 130,000 people were affected across Madagascar, including over 70,000 people who were displaced.

At least 58 people have died, almost all of them in the capital where traditional houses collapsed and others were swept away by landslides.

Humanitarian responders mobilised cash, food, water, sanitation and hygiene items for people displaced by the flooding and also health and protection services.

People have since begun to return to their home spot.

The situation may deteriorate dramatically again with the approach of Tropical Cyclone Bati Rai.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jens.

And now it's my pleasure to move to World Food Programme and we have with us Thompson here.

Oh no, it's Thompson.

Sorry, isn't in in Nairobi, but we also have the pleasure to host the Pasqualina Desirio, who as I said, is the World Food Programme country Director in Madagascar.

I think she's in Antananarivo, misses the Serio.

You have the floor.

And Thompson, please let me know if you want to also say something.

So let's start first then good morning to everybody and thank you very much for the opportunity to give a few, a few ideas from here from the sense of what we are going on here in Antananarivo.

I will not repeat what has been said so good that our colleagues from Ocha and Dimitio they they could give more detailed information about the gravity of the situation that we are.

We can see from my side.

I would just make a point that it's really how important the how this is seen in the moment because we we have several crises.

Some have been mentioned.

We have a drought in the old part of the Madagascar, which has been severe and this continues to be keep a visit the country.

We added Cyclone Anna just practically less than 1010 days ago, one week ago.

So with the 55 deaths.

So it's the major distraction, particularly a destruction of the infrastructure and also rice field.

You know, we have to understand this is the moment for Madagascar, for these islands to to prepare for rice culture, the crops and they are not yet just there.

So all these crops, they might be completely lost.

The people, they are struggling also to maintain and to save as much as they can of their livelihood.

So there is still the country, the our, the authorities, ourself, we are helping for this cyclone.

And then we have this one coming tomorrow is expected in the morning, which is expected to impact more than the 600,000 people with the 150,000 displaced.

So it's a major crisis with the, as we can see it's, it really becomes strength more stronger than it is now.

It can be even worse.

So we are all very nervous here.

As you can mention, the authorities, the Bureau that manages catastrophe, they are very on top of it.

We are picking the meetings every days to coordinate the preparedness endorsed so the already the advanced response as much as possible.

So we have the people have been put aware of the situation.

There is there have been some evacuation of the the cost people in the coast in this cost some hot meal are already distributed on the sites to to give some assistance to the people and this will be intensified as much as we go along.

Another point that I would like to make is really how important it is for WFP but for UN in general to be ready to have this funding advanced funding.

We were lucky enough to have our internal mechanism in WFP that allowed us to have $1 million, which allowed to already give some logistic assistance and telecommunicate, telecommunication auto meal provision and prepare already for assessment on the grounds.

So, but so I would like to thank all the community, the international community donors mainly to allow for this flexible funding the mechanism because it makes really a huge difference when we receive this kind of a phenomenon and allows to do as much as we can.

As we know we there's nothing against natural disaster that they are.

So we can only try to prevent.

I would stop here and definitely I will be happy to take your question as they can.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm trying to see if there are questions from I see Peter Kenny.

Peter, you want to start asking questions?

Peter is our correspondent of Anna.

Oh, sorry, of Anna Dolanski, but also South African newspapers.

Thanks for taking my question.

I just wondered if you could just explain it in a few words.

So what we have is we've got drought and a cycler.

Can you just?

Elaborate on that sort of contradictory state of events, please.

Thank you.

Do you, do you want me?

Do you want me to take that?

Yeah, OK.

I think Claire is also is also like, I don't know who who like maybe you want to start Mrs this year and then maybe Claire, you want to add something.

Maybe I will just focus more on the impact for people and for the country.

What does it mean and not to, to enter so many crises, so many different phenomenon at the same time.

And definitely there is a stretching of all capacities in our sense in the yes about climatically we have seen it's not the first case unfortunately I believe where you have this extreme phenomenon in the same country and eventually they will all overlap, overlap.

Even so the there is now in the trajectory of the cyclone but but also to pass to the South.

So there could be even there some flooding and I think there was already from other colleague from WMO or said already mentioning that could be even with some serious consequences because of the land is not ready to receive a lot of water.

So we say that it's climate change and we believe that there is because there is a lot of intensification of this phenomenon and it's more and they're stronger and it's more serious every every year.

So I will leave it now to Claire probably to give more in terms of meteo.

Thanks.

OK.

Yeah, thanks, Peter.

It's it's not really contradictory.

You know, we are in the tropical cyclone season in the Indian Ocean.

So we are going to see cyclones.

We are going to see rainfall.

Madagascar, it has been a, you know, a drier wet season, you know, the normal so far, it's not uniform across the whole of Madagascar.

And it's it's really southern Madagascar where, you know, there really is the bad drought that we've all been reading about and, and, and seeing so.

And at this stage, it's not completely clear, you know, if the rainfall from this cyclone is going to hit the whole of the drought affected area in, in in the South.

You know, there's a lot of there's still a lot of hasn't made landfall yet.

There's still a lot of uncertainty in the in the in the models.

But it's it's not contradictory.

You know, even when you've got drought, you still, you know, you still get tropical cyclones.

Thank you very much, Claire.

Alessandra had to step out for an urgent issue, So I'm just checking over from her moderating.

We have Emma fart from Reuters.

Emma.

Over to you.

Thanks, Pascalina.

I just wanted a bit of clarity on what you said about how it would impact 600,000 people and displace 150,000.

How will it impact the 600,000 and another 150,000 being displaced preventatively?

Are you moving them to other locations or do you think that that will be they will be displaced later?

Could you just clarify and also tell us a bit about the atmosphere there?

You said, you said you're nervous.

I mean what is the country going through having these two in such a quick succession?

Thanks.

OK, thank you Emma.

Yeah, no, the impact as you can imagine at the point, at this point it's estimation and under the numbers that I've given to you are scenarios because depends how we learns what the strength it will have, what will be the impact.

Right now with the also this some movement in what is exactly the the area that you will touch.

But we know that it's definitely stronger than what we saw up to now.

The the national office says the that this is the more similar to the one that they had 10 years ago that was called the Havana.

So they are basing their estimation on the past of this type of impact.

So where they will be these people and I would I guess there is one parties already has been moved and that there are there have been evacuated.

The one in the areas that they are more at risk.

There is one area particularly that is called the Bricaville that is very prone to flooding.

And the it's the first one that the people they've been invited to move people, they're still continuing to move right now.

So that as the weather gets worse at the moment, apparently even and the coast is quite OK.

So we are they're expecting to have rains in the evenings in the evening.

So as they thinks they roll the people, they will also move and they will be more displaced if you want, but also after the impact, because you never know how many of those they will be and how they will impact.

So there this is just an estimation.

Please take the numbers as planning figures to make sure that we have a plan how to respond and to make the arrangements and then it can be, we hope not could be much worse.

We hope it will be much less really at this point.

So that's practically our hope.

And yes, the IT is as I said, we are nervous.

We are every all the institution are working hard to make things to happen today because it's the if you want, it's the only good day that we can make still things to happen.

So people are preparing for stock edge, for repairing of, of items for, you know, just the solar power, making sure we have the connection as long as we can, finding the good places even for us, for workers in the humanitarian workers.

So that's what is going on today.

We are really all of us busy on that the the government has a bad way declared this day today as a day to prepare for the event.

So people they have not gone to work, but they have been asked to work remotely.

And also the kids not, not at school because they needed to prepare some of the infrastructure, the school infrastructure for the as refugee, as a refugee.

So that's what is happening today.

Today's really the day where we can still prevent as much as we can and prepare for the impact.

I hope I have addressed your question.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sorry for my little absence, Lisa.

Yes, good morning.

Following on the same line, you earlier Yanks were mentioning that people have begun to return to their homes.

Should they be prevented from returning to their homes considering the impending disaster?

And I was wondering whether there are evacuation centres, places where they can go now.

Pascolina, you mentioned, you know, the government has told people to prepare.

Should they actually be heading to these places?

What, what are the most concrete things that people can do to protect themselves?

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

Yeah, correct.

No, you're it's exactly that today that let me clarify.

People have not gone back to home, even the one that they have been affected by the Anna cyclone.

They are still in the in the refugee places and there are like 6068 places.

So centres for.

So we are still that one very active in the, in this moment.

And the they've also prepared to the national authority for centres in the coast now in the East Coast.

So you have an area of Antananarivo that was affected and all the Anna Lamanga region, the central region from Anna and now you have a new centre.

So that they are starting people there, they've started to move here.

Today actually and they are going today more and as the weather I was saying gets worse people they would feel the urgency to even go further in this centre.

But yeah, that's the idea.

It's really they have been campaigning the authorities to have the people alerted.

They have made them aware that today they have to be be going towards the centre and to be at the safest place as possible.

So they've been indicating which are the area really at the **** risk red red zone and the the centre where they can go.

They have prepositioned also you know the boats and old material that they can use as soon as the impact comes.

So to rescue people that they can they can be trapped.

So this has been the pre positioning that the work that has been done from the authorities plus we have our self prepositioned to food in this areas and items from other UN agencies.

So we can be there.

Things like you know the mask, you know there is also a COVID crisis right now that we have a rise in COVID cases in the country.

So we have also to think about how to prevent more spreading of COVID in this centre.

So all of this is, you know what we, we are very busy today and this happened.

Thank you very much, Madam.

The serial, I don't see any more questions online or from the room.

So thank you very much for your for your contribution and, and from calling in and all the best really with the preparedness today.

There's a very short window.

I do see.

Excuse me, we, there was just a question popping up from Agnes Pedrero from AFP.

So Agnes over to you.

Yes, hi, good morning everybody.

I just a question on the figure, you are saying that around 600 people could be potentially affected of which 150,000 could be displaced.

But we get this morning a press release from the Red Cross which say that it would be almost 600,000 expected to be directly affected and more 150,000 likely to be displaced.

So they're not saying they're included, but they're saying that it's and more.

So if you could just clarify which, which one is the correct version?

Thank you.

OK, so don't sorry, see if it was not clear.

But yeah, it is actually it's correct what you just spelled out.

It's 600,000 affected and when on top of it, it can be 150 displaced.

But again, I think these are estimates.

We we cannot say at the moment.

As I said can be much larger, hopefully will be less, but these are really estimates.

But yeah, I think you can you can take as you just mentioned.

Thank you very much.

Again, I don't see any more questions now, so we will let you go.

And back to your very important work in Madagascar.

Thank you very much for for joining us here today and thanks to Thompson for helping making that happen.

According to the programme we are going out to WHO Margaret Harris should be with us on soon with Janet Diaz with an update on clinical, clinical care for COVID-19.

So over to you.

Thank you.

Thanks very much, James.

I've got a couple of announcements first, which I suppose it's worth making.

At the same time, today's World Cancer Day and it's really I've got some sobering numbers for you.

Cancer is one of the world's leading causes of death, as I'm sure you know, but it's burden is really growing.

In 2021, the world crossed a very sobering new threshold.

An estimated 20 million people were diagnosed with cancer and 10 million died.

And these numbers will continue to rise in the decades ahead.

Now what's really also critical is care for cancer, like many other diseases, really reflects the inequalities and and inequities of our world that but there's a big distinction between what's available in **** and low income countries with comprehensive treatment reportedly available in more than 90% of low income countries, but less than 50, but available in less than 15% of low income countries.

So for this reason, the theme for this world's World Cancer Day is closing the care gap.

We have some a lot of new information for you on all of this up on our website and I'll send you the link.

Our efforts are very much involved in focusing on the common cancers, female cancers, female and male cancer, breast cancer, which is now the most common cancer worldwide, cervical cervical cancer and childhood cancer.

So that's the first announcement.

The second one is just a reminder that we've got a press conference this afternoon, really an information session on the messenger RNA hub being set up in South Africa where we are.

There's been a lot of progress how it works.

Pardon me.

And we will have, we have 3 great speakers, Doctor Samia, somewhat Swaminathan, whom you know well, Doctor Martin Frieda and Charles Gore from the medicines patent pool.

So you've all been sent an invitation.

I encourage you to join that.

There will be other journalists, but there's they're specially invited.

It's really to give the Palais A comprehensive review of that.

Now without further ado, I'll hand over to Janet.

He'll give you an update on where we are with clinical care in COVID.

Janet, over to you.

Thank you, Margaret, and I want to thank everyone for the invitation to present at this briefing.

I am here today to share with you the launch of the new tool on our website, which is the COVID-19 Clinical Care Pathway.

This tool is a simple, concise, easy to understand summary of the key actions health workers are recommended to take when caring for patients with suspected COVID-19 and that means patients that are symptomatic with COVID-19.

It is based on our COVID-19 living guidelines, the therapeutic guidelines that I've been here before, sharing information about the clinical management guidelines and also linked to the WTO guidelines on testing and as well as WWO information on basic emergency care.

Before I go on just a few comments on Omicron and disease severity, I want to emphasise and repeat what you've heard my colleagues before say.

Omicron is not just a mild disease.

The entire clinical spectrum of disease is seen with overcome infection.

What we do need to better understand however, is the proportion.

So how many patients proportionally when they start get infected develop asymptomatic disease, How many are asymptomatic infection, how many develop mild or moderate disease, how many develop severe critical?

And then what's the proportion of death?

And so we are doing a meta analysis to get these proportions updated in our clinical guidelines.

What we can say for now is though that the analysis that have been done by colleagues all over the world, including those that have contributed to The Who clinical data platform is that there is a reduced risk.

It appears to be a reduced risk associated with Omicron infection when compared to Delta, reduced risk of developing severe disease and critical disease, a reduced risk of death.

Those analysis are ongoing to better understand what is actually attributable just to the Omicron virus itself and also what is attributable potentially also to previous infection or previous and or previous vaccination.

But before I move on, we do understand increased transmissibility doesn't mean there are increased cases.

So even though the proportion is less of those that are hospitalised and develop severe disease, there are still patients being hospitalised and developing severe disease, still patients that require treatment with oxygen therapy and still patients that may die.

So with that, the importance of implementing the COVID-19 clinical care pathway remains very important and I want to walk you through the highlights of that.

So we're using CARE as the acronym CARE and I'll go through each piece.

C equals confirm SARS, COV 2 infection with a test.

It is important to get a confirmatory diagnostic test.

We do recommend it gets done as soon as possible in order to know if you have the patient or if you have the symptoms you have COVID.

And that can be done either with a plague acid amplification test such as APCR, which you're all familiar with, or with an antigen detecting test.

Detection test A is to assess, assess the symptoms.

So what kind of symptoms are are you having and do you have any of those concerning symptoms such as confusion, shortness of breath, chest pain etcetera assessed risk factor.

So are you in a risk group for developing severe disease?

Are you of an older age?

Do you have a chronic condition?

Have you not been vaccinated and is that causing your increased risk and assess the severity how what's disease severity category is the patient in?

So here we have divided and WHO since the beginning of the pandemic, mild disease, moderate disease, severe and critical disease.

And that is to kind of put you on the right treatment pathway because that determines what treatment and care.

So R is respond and that's respond with appropriate treatment and interventions and care interventions.

So briefly, if you have mild moderate disease with no risk factors, so symptomatic patient and symptomatic management and monitoring for any complications is the treatment pathway.

If the patient has or you have mild moderate disease and you do have a risk factor for severe disease, we do have treatment options for you.

Now, WHO in their recommendations currently recommends monoclonal antibodies for mild moderate patients with risk factors?

That is sotrovimab, which we launched last month.

And in the past we have had casagromab and debimab, which is a monoclonal antibody cocktail.

But unfortunately, it does appear that that cocktail does show reduced or lack of efficacy with the Omicron variant and that will be updated in our guideline and soon to come.

The end of this month as well as next month is W chose new recommendations on oral antivirals that will address treatments for the subgroup of patients, patients with mild, moderate and risk factors.

If we move on, if you have severe or critical disease, that means you're likely in a hospital getting cared for there.

The treatments include oxygen therapy, which you know corticosteroids, venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and then also the addition of a second immunomodulator, either interleukin 6 receptor blocker such as tociluzumab or cirrillumab and the recent recommendation of baricitinib which is a genus kinase inhibitor.

So E is evaluate.

So that means evaluate the clinical response.

So once you start on the treatments you get evaluated for improvement.

Hopefully if you don't improve, then you get re evaluated for potentially another treatment and then recovery evaluate not just through the acute illness, which we hope people survive through, you know, and recover, but do they fully recover.

And it's important to follow patients out for, you know, up to three months in the sense to ensure that symptoms such as we see with post COVID-19 condition or better known as long COVID are, are not persisting or or appearing in patients who had infection with COVID-19.

So there you have it.

It's the COVID-19 clinical care pathway CARE.

And I hope you can share, help us share this information with the public.

And I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

That yes, there are quite a few.

So I'll start with Catherine Hyun Kong.

Yes, good morning to all of you.

In fact, I had a question first for Margaret when when she handed over to Doctor Diaz, the my question was related to cancer, to know if there was some data about the impact of COVID-19 on the handling of people affected by cancer in the world.

That was my question for Margaret and for Doctor Diaz.

I have a couple questions.

Doctor, if I understood well, those guidelines and basic emergency care are on a website.

So I would like to know, first of all, could you kindly send us the link for us to have a look to it?

And also in which language is it?

Are all these information posted?

Because as you know, in most of the countries of the world people don't speak English and also there are problems of connections.

So it is very difficult in certain areas of this world to download pages and to print them.

So is there any possibility for medical people to have access to hard copies of what is in fact advised by WHO and also other languages?

Thank you.

Margaret, you want to start and then I'll give the floor to the.

Thanks.

Katrina, great question.

I we do a regular pulse survey which looks at all the sort of health systems, health, health services and how they've been impacted by COVID.

I don't have the numbers right now, but if I'll get back to you on that, I'll get to the people who've been doing that survey and give you the numbers.

And I think that was and then over to Janet.

Thank you, Margaret.

Thank you, Margaret and thank you chair for the for the floor and thanks for the question.

It's a great comment.

Right now.

The website was launched in English, but it will get translated into the UN languages.

But I do want to highlight all our clinical guidelines and therapeutic guidelines are translated into the UN languages and that can be found on our website.

There's always a slight delay from the publication in English to it being available in different languages, but we do have them.

We publish in three different platforms, our clinical and therapeutic guidelines.

It's an electronic platform called Magic App.

It's in the BMJ, which has a downloadable PDF.

And also on our website, we have a downloadable PDF that can be printed.

This COVID clinical care pathway is currently on the website and there will be posters that can be PDF and printed.

We also have QR codes and I know that still requires Internet, but the QR codes will link to the different guidelines.

And for the basic emergency care, those are some training modules that are in that are posted on the website and those are linked through the QR code.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Catherine, you have a follow up.

Yes, thank you.

Alessandra.

Dr I mean, when you go for instance, in regions like Latin America of Africa, I mean it is very difficult to download the page.

You take sometimes more than 45 minutes to be able to download the page.

So my question is, for instance, through WHO Afro or other WHO offices, is it possible for doctors and medical staff to have access to hard copies, not being, not to have to be obliged to go through the Internet because often it's it's, it looks ****** from here, but you don't have ink, you don't have paper, you don't have electricity.

So I mean, it is very difficult.

Sure, thank you.

I, I would have to check with our regional offices to see if they're printing copies of the guidelines, but it is doable.

It was the way we used to do this mostly in the past where we would print nice manuals and then disseminate them globally.

I think the one issue here is that they are living guidelines.

So we, they do get updated on a now we're updating almost on a monthly basis or every six weeks.

And so the keeping of an update of a, of a hard copy is complex.

But I, but I hear your point and we should, we should be, we'll reach out to our regional offices and country offices see what may be a better way to disseminate.

So thanks.

Thank you, MFR.

Yeah, good morning.

A question on long COVID, if I may, and clinical care.

I'm wondering, do you have concerns about how long COVID is being treated given the record Omicron cases we're seeing around the world?

And as we hopefully leave the acute phase of the pandemic behind us, how well equipped do you think the world is to deal with this legacy issue of long COVID?

Can you repeat the first part of your question?

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

Yeah, sure.

I'm wondering if you feel like from a clinical care point of view, long COVID is taking a real backseat because of record Omicron cases which are dealing dealing with that.

Is it risk?

Is there a risk that it becomes neglected in a way?

Oh, thank you.

OK, so now I understand.

It's a great question.

I think, you know, when there are competing emergencies and competing, you know, things that require rapid attention, things do get prioritised and maybe reprioritized and workforce dedicated.

So I do think our tension on over crime, you know, appropriate and had to be intense to better understand and adjust our policies and guidelines was important.

But our work on post COVID-19 at long COVID continues.

We will be having a webinar, webinar on, gosh, I don't have the date.

We can share that with you.

I think it's in the first week of March.

It's on the neurological and mental health complications or you know, manifestation scene with long COVID.

We'll have a lot of experts there to to discuss this important topic.

So the work's ongoing.

There's also going to soon be a publication on the core outcome sets for long COVID on to a support consistency across research.

So, so I do think we are continuing to do our work on that, but of course, work had to be some of the work may have not delayed, but I guess slowed down a bit because we started to focus on Omicron.

But I think we have to you know work on all fronts at the same time and be efficient and remember all parts of the patient journey are important over Christian, Christian, Christian.

Thank you.

Janet, you mentioned on person that there might be an update on the guidance on the monoclonal antibody treatment that the cocktail is is not quite as efficient with the Omicron Because I remember in January there was a new guideline from WHO where you did suggest 2 new anti clonal.

Monoclonal antibodies and there was also mention of the cocktail casts 3V map and in the V map.

Could you just clarify what's going to change there?

Sure.

So in in January we published the cetrobumab which is a monoclonal antibody and that one appears to remain show demonstrate efficacy in Omicron.

So that's so that continues.

Baricitinib was the second drug we published in in January and that's a immunomodulator.

So that's actually for patients with severe critical disease, a different patient population.

And then the cassiribumab and devimab which we had recommended actually for both patient groups, mild moderate patients with risk factors and also for severe critical, it does appear now there's more research has been published and shared from the preclinical.

So then this means in vitro and animal studies showing that the antibody cocktail cassiribumab and devimab does show lack of efficacy against Omicron.

So that's the text that you will see appear.

You know, something like that will appear in the update of our next guideline, which is coming out the third week of February.

Thank you very much, Doctor.

Yes, thank you very much, Margaret, for this briefing.

And as usual, any notes that you can share with the journalist?

Oh, I've got a question in the room.

Sorry, I didn't see it.

Elwa, sorry.

Elwa is from AFP.

Yeah, if you can just turn on the mic.

I've got a question for Margaret.

It's regarding the first MNR vaccine produced in Africa, in Cape Town, South Africa.

Our colleagues in Robur have heard that Doctor Tadros could come to Cape Town next week.

To see the the production.

Could you confirm this this visit and give details if it is the case?

Thanks.

So thanks, I'll have to get back to you on details of any visit, but please attend our information session on the mRNA Hub today and you will learn everything you need to know.

OK.

And that you've never dared to ask.

That's where they say thank you very much.

So let's move now on and I go to our colleagues from the FAO.

We have with us Dominique, Dominique Bourgeon here in Geneva, and Joseph Schmidt, who's the deputy director in the trade and Markets Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

I suppose from Rome you have an update on food and fertiliser prices.

Maybe Dominique, you want to start?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Alessandra and good morning everybody, as you know.

Last year we came to you several times alerting you on the on the deterioration of the global food security situation, both in terms of chronic food security, chronic food insecurity with close to 800 million people in chronic food insecurity and as well as on acute food insecurity.

And, and several times we we came to you.

So we are in that context monitoring a number of elements that may indeed drive further increase in the in the food insecurity.

And as you know, traditionally FAO has been monitoring the food price through the FAO Food Price Index as well.

And Joseph Schmidt Uber, the deputy director of the market and trade division.

Of FAO is with us this morning.

Can we be briefing on both the the latest information from the FAO Food price Index as well as on the soaring fertiliser prices that we see?

So, Joseph, over to you.

Thank you very much Dominican.

Thank you very much Alexandra and good morning to everybody.

As already alluded in in the introduction, yes, FAO yesterday published the latest estimates for its key food price per metre.

That's the FAO food price index.

And most of you probably have seen the news and and read the the news release and and perhaps even managed to dig through the the overall documents.

So we are at 135.7 points in January.

That's higher than in December, just 1 1/2 points higher.

But perhaps more importantly, this is the highest level in more than 10 years and it's just two points shy of the all time **** in February 2011.

The the rebound in January was led for higher prices for vegetable oils and dairy products.

In fact to vegetable oils, we are at the new the all time **** and this was essentially offsetting the decline in sugar prices.

Meat and cereal prices on the other hand remained largely unchanged.

Now as I alluded to already, all these details are available from the FA website and also from the press release.

And so rather than going through the month on month changes, I would like to take this opportunity with the new year to essentially take a slightly longer term perspective, just going back to 2021 and perhaps even to some of the previous years and try to identify the key drivers behind the higher prices because it looks as though there is a more systematic development ongoing now.

So what are the changes, As always in commodity markets, changes in prices are coming from a changing, shifting balance between supply and demand.

Let me start with the demand side.

So on the on the demand side, what we've been seeing and that's actually remarkable in the context of COVID is the COVID, it's very strong demand.

Actually agricultural trade was hardly affected by COVID, at least in aggregate.

So we see for instance, in East Asia, the value of China's overall agricultural imports and China is already the world's largest, largest agricultural import going up by 27% just over the last 12 months.

So cereal imports by China again in value terms of course soared by even 87%.

Medium ports remain very **** and they they reached very lofty levels and it's still mainly driven by the lasting effect of the African swine fever outbreak in 2018.

But also in South Asia we have seen very robust demand.

India for instance stepped up agricultural imports by 36% last year and same similarly in Latin America, Mexico which is another large agricultural importer has increased imports by 34%.

So overall there is very robust demand particularly by the large emerging economies buying a lot of food on international market.

And as I said, it's it's not only demand, it's also supply.

And we've learned already a lot this morning about the adverse weather situation.

And it looks as though these climate swings, the climate variability is something that is a phenomenon that is likely to last with us and it inevitably has an impact on food prices, not necessarily on the levels, but certainly on the swings.

And it's not only the the typhoon or the cyclones that are currently affecting Madagascar and other places in, in East Africa probably, but it's also phenomena like La Nina that had taken a constitutional toll on on agricultural production in Argentina and Brazil, notably on coarse grains, on, on oil seeds and on sugar.

But in other parts of the world, we had too much rain.

So the dryness in in Latin America was essentially matched by excess rain in Malaysia and Indonesia and that was weighed on palm oil output output and and driving up home oil crisis.

And it's not only the the tropical cyclones that are very prevalent currently.

Also the the Atlantic hurricanes actually saw the the third most active season on record.

So in addition to weather, we have seen very **** transportation costs.

So over the last over the first nine months of 2021, the the bulk transportation cost tripled, so an increase by a factor of three.

They came back in the last three months, but overall transportation costs made a major contribution to higher prices.

Containers are still in short supply and shipments are very expensive and that adds in particular to prices of meats and and as well as fruits and vegetables.

Now one of the new phenomena are the very **** prices for agricultural inputs, notably for fertilisers.

And in fact here we have reached all time highs.

So prices for fertilisers have soared in 10 in the food prices and in fact they have risen faster than food prices and I said they have reached levels that are higher than those obtained during the last peak in 2008.

So the the main drivers behind this fertiliser prices are the higher energy prices, particularly the higher prices for natural gas, growing export restrictions.

And that is something that we see with great concern, **** transportation costs and also of course the **** output costs.

And these **** output costs, the **** food price, increased affordability of fertiliser and LED to a situation where fertiliser use in 2021 actually reached a a very **** level with an increase of more than 6%.

However, that is about to change Now.

What we're observing now, given the fact that fertiliser prices have but up so rapidly and so vastly, the affordability of fertiliser is coming down very rapidly and that bodes skill for fertiliser use in the next season.

And that's our main apprehension at the moment.

That was considerably lower fertiliser use.

We don't know how much it will be agricultural production, food production could come down.

Now it's still very hard to gauge the impact and we're not really trying to make an effort other people have or other institutions have done that.

We're still a bit conservative here, but it, I think it should suffice to say that we are really facing a, a nearly ubiquitous shortage of NMP fertiliser and so much so that we're even running out of fertiliser for our own FAO projects.

So that is, is definitely a signal that we should take very seriously.

One of the, the big problems is now if we put this all together, **** food prices, **** energy prices, **** fertiliser prices, **** cost more generally.

That this of course means that the poor consumers will be hardest hit because their share in of their incomes in these necessities, food, water, energy is of course much higher than for the average consumer or the rich consumer.

So these are essentially regressive taxes on food consumers and that's something that we worry about.

So let me put this overall development in the broader context that in the broader context of food security.

Over the past years, we've seen already the impacts of what we call the big three CS.

So that is climate conflict and COVID.

And we've learned a lot today already about climate and COVID.

And of course, conflict is an issue that is unfortunately very prevalent in many regions of the world.

Now these factors have pushed up the number of 100 people in 2020 relative to 2019 by 161 million.

So by more than 12%.

Now with **** input prices, we can add another seat to big Three, and that's the costs.

So we we can really talk about four big seas now.

This is climate conflict, COVID and costs and and these factors will undoubtedly remain with us in 2022 and beyond.

And it will take a a larger toll on on food security and hunger.

This is I think we think the world has to prepare for this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Sir.

And we have a journalist, Jamil Shade from Brazilian Media Studies, Sao Paulo, who would like to ask you a question.

Yes.

Thank you.

Senator.

A question.

On fertilisers, who would suffer?

The most?

Which?

Countries or regions would suffer the most who we've seen in in this pandemic that dependency is quite **** in terms of some of the elements of production in many areas, not in agriculture, but in agriculture who are the ones dependent on imports or fertilisers in the world.

So that's the first question.

The second question regarding prices, do you, do you expect food prices to keep pushing inflation up in different parts of the world and I'm talking?

Also about rich or.

Emerging countries, not only the in the LDCs or poor countries importing countries.

Thank you.

Yeah, OK.

Thank you very much.

So which of the countries that suffer the most and and probably it's better to look into the farmers that are likely to suffer the most.

To be perfectly frank with you, we don't have very good estimates.

We can only get some ideas as to what happened in the past.

What happened in the past at **** prices like we doing the the price hike in 2008.

We saw for instance A considerable contraction in fertiliser use in sub-Saharan Africa.

I think the the number was about 8% contraction in one year.

But for in fertiliser, but for P&K fertiliser was even 15% or 20%.

So in general, and we know this from fertiliser taxes in developed countries, the fertiliser taxes that were introduced in order to reduce water pollution and things like that.

Farmers in rich countries are much less.

We call this elastic much less responsive to changes in in fertiliser prices simply because they have they're richer, they have a certain wealth effect.

The the fertilisers are a smaller part of the overall expenditure.

So that that certainly will have an impact.

The impact will be in, in general stronger on the poorer countries and the poorer farmers rather than the richer.

Brazil is a big importer of of fertilisers, but Brazil at the same time has a very dual structure in its agriculture.

There are the small holder farmers and there are the the large farms in the estates of the the Shakaras and the Latifanderos.

And of course they will react very differently to it.

So in general, I would expect that the larger farmers are less elastic, so they will reduce fertiliser use by less than the small farmers.

What we will also see in turn with the shift across countries is a shift within the commodity composition.

So in general, you would expect that those crops that can fixate nitrogen, for instance, from the air, like soybeans, will get a boost.

And that will be further exacerbated by the very **** prices that you're seeing at the moment for for soybeans and for for vegetable oils in general.

So that's the first question.

Yeah, whether food prices are driving inflation.

Yes, of course they do.

And it's not only food prices.

So when we talk about inflation, we typically distinguish between two different indicators.

1 is the so-called headline inflation which includes the volatile food and energy markets and the other one is the core inflation which excludes it.

Now, the big question at the moment is whether these volatile elements of inflation, food and energy, eventually translate, for instance through cost, wage spirals into the core inflation.

I noticed also listening to the press statement of the ECB yesterday that there's a lot more concern that that could happen.

Now, this is way above my pay grade and outside of the the mandate of FAO to speculate about this.

But all I can say is that those who are better equipped to answer this question would say yes.

Thank you very much.

Paula Depraz.

Hi, good morning.

So actually I'm just, I just like to get your, your view on the issue of how agriculture is actually affecting climate change.

I mean, we see this in Central America with the deforestation for agricultural, agricultural products, mostly for export in, in, in how, you know, you have a change in the, in the climate of the continent that is creating droughts, you know, in the, in the eastern part of the, the, the continent.

And and I'm just wondering, you know, if we, you know, what sort of debate we should really be having about agriculture and and more sustainable, moving towards more sustainable.

Agriculture, OK, that is certainly a question that goes way beyond the the topic of the press briefing.

But allow me to offer my perhaps not absolutely expert views on this.

As we all know, agriculture is the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

I think it is around 27% of the overall emissions.

And within agriculture the largest emitter are is livestock.

So it's in particular of course ruminants, so cattle and cows and sheep and goats and camels etcetera, etcetera.

And they certainly account for the largest part, if we add to this the deforestation that is coming from essentially the livestock pressure that they need like in Brazil to, to, to deforest to, to promote deforestation in order to have the, the partial and for livestock, this in, in total, I think is around 18%.

So no doubt agriculture is having a considerable food carbon footprint, but at the same time, agriculture is absolutely inevitable.

It's our food production.

Now the question is, is the food production, the way of food production as we pursue it at the moment, a sustainable way of doing it?

And are there more sustainable options?

And clearly there are.

So FAO is very much promoting climate smart agriculture, trying to essentially harness the potential of agriculture, just western carbon that can be through different agricultural technologies like direct seeds and and conservation agriculture.

So no till agriculture.

So this is actually also practised in, in Latin America, in particular in, in Brazil and in, in the north of Argentina as well as in, in Paraguay.

So all of these things we are keenly aware, we try to promote and foster these technologies to sequester common.

So yes, there must be a transition in in agriculture, a transition towards a more sustainable form of agriculture and, and FAO is, is absolutely behind this.

Perhaps let me let me make a little digression because that's an important issue and I think the rule hasn't completely understood this.

There is a very strong link also between climate change mitigation or the the energy policies we are pursuing at the moment and food production.

So what what we learn by digging deeper into the fertiliser side and understanding the the strong in links between the energy market and the fertiliser market.

All of this suggests that at the end of the day, the energy market has a strong impact on agricultural prices and on food prices.

So whenever we take measures to increase energy prices, and that can also be through climate change mitigation measures, we need to be aware of the fact that this can have spillover effects on food prices.

This does by no means signify that we should not go for climate change medication policies, but one needs to be aware of the the impacts of this.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I don't see any other questions.

So thank you to the colleagues at FAO and I'll turn now to and I thank you also for having already sent the notes of the briefing.

And I'll turn now to Boris Cheshrykov for UNHCO.

OK, he had.

He had told me beforehand that Eddie grew a moustache.

You're welcome, Boris.

Go ahead.

Thank you Alessandra and good morning to everyone.

This despite this, it's, it's not a happy occasion to be here.

Unfortunately, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and partners are rushing life saving aid to more than 20,000 refugees after they fled clashes in Ethiopia's Benishangul Gummuz region, which borders Sudan and South Sudan.

Fighting broke out on the 18th of January in the town of Tongo, reportedly between unidentified armed groups and federal forces, and the nearby camp hosting 10,300 refugees was looted and burned.

This followed the looting of another camp in the area in late December.

A total of 22,000 people in both camps have been cut off from access and assistance.

Since then, all humanitarian staff have had to evacuate and access to the area, including to the two camps, remains impossible.

Over 20,000 refugees have made their way over long distances to three different sites closer to Asosa, the regional capital, arriving exhausted and in need of assistance.

UNHCR is working with Ethiopian Refugee and Returnees Service and partners to provide the most urgent assistance to displaced refugees, including hot meals, clean water and medical care.

UNHCR has also recorded the arrival of 70 refugees from Sudan, mostly women and children, who fled the camps and have returned back to Sudan's Blue Nile state.

UNHCR teams inside Sudan, together with the authorities there and with our partners, are providing assistance to these returnees and contingencies are being put in place in case of further arrivals.

With the fighting continuing, a cessation of conflict is essential to avoid further threats to civilian lives in the region.

UNHCR is urging the protection of civilians, including refugees and those forcibly displaced.

Tragically, refugees who had sought and enjoyed safety and were rebuilding their lives have now lost everything all over again.

There's some more details in our note and I'm happy.

To which we have already received.

Thank you very much.

Any question to the refugee agencies?

Yes, Lisa, Hi.

Wow, what a swell moustache you have.

Have you got a good Barber?

I, I, I have to tell you, I'm confused by this story because these refugees that you're talking about, how long have they been there?

And why have they fled from, from Sudan and.

Well, South Sudan, have they been there for very long time, this area where they are, it's bordering Sudan and South Sudan, but how far away is it?

I mean, I don't know have the geography of Ethiopia in my head.

So how close is it to the Tigray, the region where that's going on and whether that is having any sort of an impact upon this situation or whether this is quite isolated in terms of what's happening?

And if you can't reach these people, how do you know what their situation and condition is?

What sort of help are they going to be able to get?

Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Lisa.

Firstly, just to say that this is unrelated to developments in northern Ethiopia, which of course we have been following since late 20/20/20, quite quite a long while ago.

What we're looking at today is the Beneshung Gul Gamuz region.

This is in the east of Ethiopia, right at the Tri border area of Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan.

This is an area which has been hosting 7 around 70,000 Sudanese and S Sudanese refugees and also some half a million internally displaced people for for quite a long while.

The refugees have been there for years.

It's this is not a new situation.

The area is posed to in in in total 5 different camps, these are Bambassi, Shirkole and Soren.

These three camps remain fully accessible and we have the ability to continue to provide the emergency assistance and support.

The regular activities are being run.

The two camps that have been impacted in the crossfire of this latest violence.

These are the the camps of Tongo near the town of Tongo and the Girish Ambola refugee camp, both of them hosting Sudanese and S Sudanese refugees.

Now the refugees have fled because of the violence and many of them have have moved to other areas where we are providing emergency assistance.

But of course, we're deeply concerned that we're not able to reach everyone at this time.

We're trying to resume aid as soon as possible, but for that to happen, we need to see the humanitarian security situation, the humanitarian access and the security situation improving rapidly.

And that is that is partially our call.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And I see Lisa has a follow up.

Yeah.

Do you have a little more information as to why the fighting is going on between what you say, unidentified armed groups, I mean, and the federal forces?

I mean, what is the issue there which is creating these clashes?

And if it's if this has been going on for a long time, you must have some identification of armed groups.

I mean, specifically this group may not be identified, but you generally must know who is fighting who.

Thank you.

Thank you Lisa for the follow up.

Indeed, these are unidentified, unidentified armed groups and they are fighting with the federal forces.

What we have seen is that the situation has begun to the security situation began to deteriorate.

Back in December, there was an attack on one of the two camps that the Guru Shambhala camp.

That camp was looted.

People had to move.

And then on the 18th of January and since then, the second, the second camp near the town of Tongo was burned down and looted.

And out of those two camps, around 22,000 people have have had to move.

This was the population of the two sites before the latest developments.

We know and we have been able to to reach some if if many of the 20,000 refugees that have made their way over long distances to three different sites which are close to a salsa.

Salsa being the regional capital of the Venetian Gul Gimmuz region.

Thank you.

Very sorry.

Thank you very much, Robin.

Thank you.

The two camps, you said they contained Sudanese and South Sudanese.

Refugees was was each camp, did each camp contain both or was 1 camp for Sudanese and 1 camp for South Sudanese?

Secondly, those people that have that have scattered, are you, you concerned that there'll be some that you are just not able to to trace which are going to disappear off the radar?

And finally, the aid that you're attempting to get there, what's the sort of time scale for when that might arrive?

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Robin, my understanding is that these locations across the Benishen Gogamus area where we have the five refugee camps, including the two that have been looted there with a mixed population of Sudanese and S Sudanese refugees.

In terms of assistance, we are already providing emergency assistance, what we have and and this is due to the quick work of the regional authorities in the Beni Shingu Gummuz area.

They have already identified a location for a temporary site that will have a capacity for 20,000 people and we are already working to install basic services including shelter, water points and latrines and to begin relocating refugees to the site as soon as possible.

And this is this will be our priority.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I don't see other question in the room, so you may want to go to your second.

And the second item that we will present today is on the Sahel region.

Africa's Sahel region, already plagued by political instability, widespread widespread violence, food shortages and disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, is now contending with an increase in the movement of refugees from Burkina Faso fleeing vicious attacks by armed groups, notably in the region bordering Cote d'Ivoire.

Around 7000 Burkinabe have arrived in northwest northwestern Cote d'Ivoire since May.

The influx has accelerated in the past six weeks, though it is not linked to the recent military coup in the country, with an average of 100 people recently crossing the border daily, according to local authorities.

We have registered and have been providing assistance to over 40,004 thousand of them already.

While the regional crisis becomes more protracted in the Sahel and the limited international focus shifts, large parts of the region remain or have become inaccessible to humanitarian agencies trying to support the 2.5 million people forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

This is leading more Sahelians to move southwards towards coastal countries or to North Africa, where many end up in a dangerous limbo.

The Sahel is also facing an unprecedented rural exodus and movement to urban areas by the forcibly displaced due to shrinking areas under government control, reduced access to land and agricultural production, and the multiple environmental challenges.

The Sahel is also on the front lines of the climate crisis, with temperatures increasing at a 1.5 times faster than the global average.

Last year some 19,200 Burkinabe fled to neighbouring called d'ivoire, Mali and Niger and Benin A50.

This was a 50% increase on the previous year.

More than 34,000 Burkinabe are now in exile.

Across the region, the plight of Burkin ABBA refugees is becoming increasingly precarious as more people arrive and call d'ivoire without personal belongings or food.

They told UNHCR staff that civilians had been killed and their homes burned down by extremists.

They are being hosted by Ivorian villagers in crowded conditions.

UNHCR staff said that many Ivorian families are now hosting up to 30 Burkin ABBA refugees in small houses.

Crowding is deteriorating sanitary conditions and there are already numerous cases of malaria, respiratory infections and malnutrition, which is adding pressure into local health facilities.

There's some more details in our note and thank you for any questions.

I see.

Katrina.

Yes, good morning, nice moustache.

As Lisa said regarding Cote d'Ivoire, Cote d'Ivoire had the tradition not to have camps.

Usually refugees have been always have always been hosted by a local families.

What are your plans now?

Do you have what I suppose that you have exchanges with the Ivorian authorities?

What do you plan to do?

And as you've mentioned at the beginning, it is the old region that is in trouble, not only booking a Faso, we had several coups in the in the region recently.

So all these people were used to go to Cote d'Ivoire to work and they still have maybe relatives over there.

So how do you expect to in fact respond to to this those needs?

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Catherine.

What we are doing already is with with our partners, with the authorities, we're reviewing our contingency planning in the eventuality that that more people continue to move and that outflow then increases what we have in called d'ivar, of course.

And we're already seeing this is that most of the Burkin ABBA refugees are indeed being hosted in with, with local families very generously hosted where they're able to and, and already sharing in many cases scarce resources that they have conditions for those refugees, conditions for the host communities, They're quite tough.

They're difficult because of overcrowding.

We have people that are being hosted sometimes 30 Burkina Faso refugees in a single household.

So the situation is already needing quite a bit of response.

So we're working to support authorities and working closely with our partners.

What we have inside Burkina Faso is also an internal displacement crisis.

Burkina Faso now has one of the highest rates of internal displacement among any African country per capita.

We have over 1.5 million internally displaced per kinabe.

So if we look at the compare, if we compare it to the refugee numbers, they're not as significant.

Of course, we're talking about the 10s of thousands of people rather than more than 1.5 million.

However, what we see is that this has been increasing in in the last year especially.

And with the extremist violence continuing in large parts across the Sahel, we're concerned that we need more humanitarian action, more development action and more political solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam.

Good morning, Alessandra.

Good morning, Boris.

I have a question actually on another issue at least let me go to right, I'm sorry.

Let me go to Catherine.

I think she has a follow up.

Sure, sure.

Yes, thank you Alessandra.

Yes, my follow up is, is regarding as you said OK, 1.5 IDP's in Burkina.

So what is organised?

Do you have anything organised over there?

As we know that the situation is quite volatile and also the problems that occurred in, in Guinea are of course having consequences also that people are going to Burkina or going to, to Cote d'Ivoire.

Where where the I'm I'm sorry, the the problems in Mali.

I was thinking they're going also to to Cote d'Ivoire and practically have you already amounts that you you know you will need to assist the authorities.

Yes, thank you very much, Catherine.

What we are looking to do in the coming weeks, we will be launching a regional response plan in PO.

We'll we'll be launching an appeal for the Sahel.

The right now the budget that we have, it's a total of 307 million United States dollars and at the moment we're only 7% funded for the Central Sahel.

So really in need of resources, but we are doing what we can and where access allows us to provide emergency humanitarian assistance, life saving care.

And we do this with other UN agencies, with NGO partners and with the authorities.

What we have across the Sahel is a very generous local community and we do see the the authorities putting in whatever effort they can, but they are buckling under the stress.

This pressure has continued for for so long and unfortunately it is only intensifying.

So we need urgent action across the Sahel to improve conditions for the hundreds of thousands of people that that need assistance and protection section.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Boris.

And maybe now we can go to Catherine.

Your hand is still up.

Is still you still up?

No, it's done now.

OK.

Byram, can you ask you a question to Boris on another subject?

Yes, I want to thank you Alessandra Boris.

At least 1919 irregular migrants have been found frozen to death near the Greek Turkish border after Greek border officials stripped them off the clothes and pushed them back to Turkish authority, local authorities said yesterday.

As you away took here.

An international rights group have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practise of pushing back asylum seekers.

However, there has been no official statement yet from the from the NHCR on such a tragic issue.

What is?

Will you have a call to the Greek government on this issue?

Thank you.

Thank you, Byram, for this question.

We have seen reports in the media and we are shocked and deeply distressed by these reports that people have died at the border, near the border between Greece and Turkey.

We we're working to verify and to confirm these reports.

What I can say is that for quite a long while, especially over the course of the last two years, we have received some, sometimes especially in the last two years, reports of increasing numbers of human rights violations at land and sea borders, including violent pushbacks.

Those reports, we, we find them alarming and with a, we have received them consistently and they have been recurring reports.

These tragic deaths, such tragic deaths, they are avoidable, including through the establishment of regular and safe pathways that could prevent people from resorting to smugglers.

Increasing border restrictions and push backs in Europe contribute to refugees and migrants using riskier routes, and it means that people are putting themselves and their lives and their children in greater risk.

Catherine, your hand is still up.

Are you a further question?

Yes, I'm sorry.

Yes, I had a follow up and maybe Boris I can send you some more, more questions because I'm always you, you spoke about the regional response plan that would be launched for the site.

Could you tell us when it is planned to be launched?

And you spoke about the 307 million U.S.

dollars, only 7% funded.

So what are you expecting?

I suppose that if you you launching a new appeal and the former one has not been totally founded, it is kind of a problem and problematic.

And also about the refugees that are coming from Burkina Faso to Cote d'Ivoire.

It has been all ready for decades that you have these kind of movements in the region, people coming from Burkina, from Mali and other countries, and then they stay in the villages in Cote d'Ivoire.

And then there the the children don't have access to IDs and they become stateless because there is a problem already in Cote d'Ivoire about the fact that since I don't recall exactly the date, people born in Cote d'Ivoire don't have automatically the nationality anymore nationality anymore.

I think it's 70 something.

So could you please provide me some infos on that?

Because there is a stateless problem there due to the movements of people in the region and the regional response plan.

When will it be launched?

Thank you.

Thank you so much Catherine.

Starting first with the issue of statelessness which we we have been focus focusing on in the context of Code d'ivoire and I have also briefed appellate unfortunately not recently.

I will have to check the latest with my colleagues and get back to you including on the specific support in for the Burkina WI refugees and those that are coming in now.

So happy to take this bilaterally.

Please do reach out over e-mail.

In terms of of regional response plan, I misspoke.

It is in fact an appeal that we will be launching.

I don't have the date yet, but we're looking at possibly early to mid March.

So hopefully that will be the timeline.

The moment that we have a confirmation, we will share that information with you and and hopefully you'll be able to brief you at that time just to say that indeed the funding and needs across the Sohel are significant.

But keep in mind find that unfortunately, even if we were to get the full funds that we are seeking to provide life saving support in the, in the health, we would not be able to deliver everywhere because of insecurity.

We need access, we need humanitarian access.

And this can not only be a, a security solution, this has to be humanitarian response with development and, and with, with political solutions.

So we we hope that there will be progress in this area.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Boris, I don't see other questions for you.

So thanks.

Just left with my announcement, but before and thanks for having send the notes already.

I just would like pardon me.

I just would like to say you a few things.

First of all, we've just distributed, we've just sent out the remarks of the secretary general after he had a bilateral meeting with the president of the International Olympic Committee, Mr Thomas Bach.

As you know, the secretary general is in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

On this occasion, he said, And I quote, we need at this moment more than ever the message of unity and solidarity that is the message of the Olympic Games.

In a moment when we see so many expressions of populism, so many expression of racism, so many expressions of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti Muslim hatred, to be here and to be with the athletes that come from all culture, from all countries, from all ethnicities, from all religions is a fantastic message.

It's a message of tolerance or mutual respect and a message in which it's proven that it's possible to compete loyally and at the same time to fraternise.

And then the Secretary General concludes by saying the Olympic Truce is the most important and most ancient symbol of the importance of peace.

I had the opportunity a few days ago to invoke the Olympic truths, to ask Ethiopians to stop fighting.

When we see so many conflicts around the world, we see the absolute relevance of having Olympic Games in which all countries are represented, even unfortunately some that are in a world situation, to have them all here and to show that peace is possible, that unity is possible and that solidarity is possible.

You have the full remarks in your mailbox.

I also would like to remind you the same spirit that today is the International Day of Human Fraternity.

And in this message, the Secretary General says that he's grateful to religious leaders across the world who are joining hands to promote dialogue and interfaith harmony.

He also says that we need this spirit more than ever.

From deepening poverty and widening inequalities to conflict, division and mistrust.

Our human family faces a cascade of challenges.

To confront them, we need to challenge those who exploit differences, traffic and hate and instil the fear of in brackets, the other in anxious hearts and the Secretary General.

To conclude today, let us commit to stand firm against bigotry wherever and whenever we see it.

Let us recognise our diversity as a richness that strengthen us all.

Let us build bridges between the faiths inspired by our own common humanity.

And let us come together in solidarity to create a more inclusive, peaceful and just world for all.

And just a reminder that the Conference on Disarmament will hold its next public plenary meeting on Tuesday at 10:00 AM in Room 17 of the Palestinians, as you know, in person.

And finally, the just just to inform you that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will open next Monday at 11 AM It's 81st session.

The session will last until the 25th of February in during which it will review the reports of Gabon, Panama, Senegal, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Peru, Lebanon and Dominican Republic.

And if you want the exact date for for all these countries, we of course can provide them to you.

And I think I have told you everything I had.

I don't see other questions on the chat or in the room.

So thank you very much to you all.

Sorry again for having started late and we finished quite late.

And I wish you a very good weekend and see you next week.

Thank you.