The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UN Geneva briefing - 02 February 2024
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1:24:24
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MP4
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5 GB
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
2 February 2024
Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Telecommunication Union.
Situation in Gaza
Jonathan Crickx, Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Jerusalem, stated that UNICEF estimated that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip were either unaccompanied from their parents or relatives, or separated from both parents or former care givers. This corresponded to one percent of the overall displaced population - 1.7 million people.
Mr. Crickx, who had returned from Gaza this week, spoke of having met 12 children, of whom three had lost a parent. Behind each of those statistics was a child coming to terms with this horrible new reality. An 11-year-old Razan, for example, had lost almost all her family members, and her injured leg had to be amputated. She was still in shock, learning to live with a disability in the context where rehabilitation services were not available. In the middle of a conflict, it was common for extended families to take care of children who lost their parents. But currently, due to the sheer lack of food, water or shelter, extended families were distressed and faced challenges to immediately take care of another child as they themselves were struggling to cater for their own children and family.
Palestinian children’s mental health was severely impacted. These children presented symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite, they could not sleep, and they had emotional outbursts or panic every time they heard the bombings. UNICEF now estimated that almost all children of Gaza, more than one million, needed mental health and psychosocial support. The only way to have this mental health and psychosocial support delivered at scale was with a ceasefire. That was not possible under the current security and humanitarian conditions. Mr. Crickx stressed that those children did not have anything to do with the conflict, yet they were suffering like no child should ever suffer. Not a single child, whatever the religion, the nationality, the language, the race, no child should ever be exposed to the level of violence seen on 7 October, or to the level of violence that we had witnessed since then.
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, also speaking from Jerusalem, stated that currently there were over 100,000 Gazans injured, missing, or presumed dead, out of the population of 2.3 million people. Those who were not injured or missing were struggling under the dire circumstances, trying to keep themselves safe, fed, healthy, and warm. Hostilities were increasing in the middle area of the Gaza Strip, which was further crippling access to the existing health facilities. In January, WHO had planned 15 missions to the north of Gaza, eight of which had been denied, informed Dr. Peeperkorn. The lack of sustained access to hospitals for both patients and health workers was very disconcerting. Only thirteen out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza were partially functioning, he said, and of the 73 primary health care centers, only 13 were functional right now. Critically injured or sick patients should be able to be referred in an orderly, safe manner, to Egypt or other countries willing to take them; an estimated 8,000 Gazans were believed to need for referral right now – of these 6,000 were related to war injuries, and 2,000 were connected to chronical illnesses. It was frustrating that only a small fraction of those in need, around 1,200 patients, had been successfully referred through Rafah so far.
High levels of food insecurity and contaminated water created a fertile ground for spread of infectious diseases. There had been over 245,000 recorded cases of respiratory infections, 160,000 cases of diarrhea in children under the age of five, and close to 70,000 cases of scabies and lice, among other diseases. WHO and partners were extremely concerned about malnutrition. Even though food aid was available, and the WFP had sufficient supplies, way too little food was getting into Gaza, and food distribution within Gaza was limited. Gaza used to be relatively self-sufficient with regard to various foodstuffs, but that was all gone now, informed Dr. Peeperkorn. Food production and distribution processes had to be restored as soon as possible, he stressed. Speaking of attacks against healthcare, which were continuing, Dr. Peeperkorn said that the 342 recorded attacks in the Gaza Strip had resulted in 627 fatalities and 783 injuries. 61 health workers were known to be currently detained.
Ahmed Dahir, Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Sub-Office in Gaza, speaking from Gaza, said that thousands of people were moving to Rafah, many of whom looked visibly thin and weak from the lack of food. People were searching for food and safety, both of which were impossible to find in Gaza. The sick and injured were struggling to find the health care they need. Hostilities around Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital were obstructing access for patients and health partners from reaching the hospital to keep them resupplied regularly. Lack of sustained supplies could dismantle the fragile health system, and it was a vital lifeline for keeping them functional.
This week, the WHO had reached Al Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital, but access to the north of the Gaza Strip remained very restricted. WHO requests to reach several health facilities in the north had been denied. At the Gaza European Hospital, some 22,000 people were sheltering on hospital grounds; medical supplies were insufficient, and the risk of disease spread was increasing. Many health workers were split between taking care of their patients and their own families at the same time; their commitment and courage ought to be saluted. Many of them had been working for three months straight, without a pause. There were four WHO emergency teams helping with surgeries at this hospital. Meanwhile, hostilities around the Al Nasser Hospital were intensifying. Hospital previously had hosted 8,000 IDPs, but now only 2000 IDPs remained because the others had fled for safety. There was only a single ambulance available, and people were having to use donkey carts to bring in the injured. The hospital had 400 patients, supported by 200 medical staff, the majority of whom were volunteers. There was shortage of specialized medical practitioners.
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), expressed deep concern over an escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which resulted in an increased number of people looking for safety in Rafah. Rafah had become a pressure cooker of despair, and OCHA was worried of what would happen next. Agencies were struggling to respond under these circumstances, informed Mr. Laerke. The Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent societies had established hundreds of tents near Khan Younis, but more was needed. Half of all food distribution needed in Gaza was now in Rafah, which reflected how crowded that area had become.
Answering questions from the media about Israel’s announcement that the next combat theater would be in Rafah, Mr. Laerke, for OCHA, said there was no safe place in Gaza, and further fighting in Rafah would make it even worse. Rafah was so crowded that humanitarian vehicles could barely move. Mr. Laerke said that nobody would be protected in the next wave of fighting. Humanitarians kept saying that the situation could not get any worse, yet it was still getting worse by the day. The spirit of the international humanitarian law had certainly not been respected throughout the ongoing crisis, said Mr. Laerke. Dr. Peeperkorn, for the WHO, added that Rafah should not be attacked because people seeking safety there would have nowhere else to go. He said that he had never seen as many amputees in his life, including children. Most hospitals had effectively become trauma centers, affecting provision of regular primary healthcare and treatment of chronical diseases. Mr. Laerke said that humanitarian reports over the past week, since the International Court of Justice decision, did not indicate any improvement of the situation on the ground. Mr. Crickx, for UNICEF, said that UNICEF with partners was trying to provide mental and psychosocial support to some unaccompanied and separated children, but the sheer number of children in need made proper tracing and comprehensive support impossible. Rolando Gómez, for UNIS, reminded that the Secretary-General had underscored the importance of the vital work of UNRWA going, as the agency was the backbone of all humanitarian work in Gaza
Urgent and safe access needed to feed millions in Sudan
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), informed that on 7 February, two response plans for Sudan would be launched – one for inside Sudan and one for displaced Sudanese in neighbouring countries. The launch, with the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and the High Commissioner for Refugees, would be webcast on UNTV, and details would be provided soon. He informed that more than 13,000 people had been killed and some 25 million urgently needed humanitarian assistance. Over 1.5 million Sudanese had fled abroad to countries whose resources were already stretched.
Leni Kinzli, World Food Programme (WFP) Communications Officer in Sudan, speaking from Nairobi, said that the war in Sudan continued to rage and take an unimaginable toll on civilians. It was even more difficult for the WFP to deliver aid to those who needed it the most. WFP was calling on the warring parties to provide immediate guarantees for an unimpeded access to all zones, including conflict areas, where civilians were stuck and had no access to food. The situation in the country was dire. Almost 18 million people across the country were facing acute food insecurity, stressed Ms. Kinzli. WFP had repeatedly warned about a looming crisis, which could become a catastrophe. The number of the hungry had doubled over the past five years. An estimated 1.7 million people had fled to neighbouring countries, which had already been struggling. WFP was the logistics backbone of the humanitarian response in Sudan; it had established a cross-border corridor from Chad, through which it had thus far supported one million people.
WFP was currently able to deliver food to only 10 percent of the hungriest people in Sudan; the other 90 percent were largely stuck in the conflict zones. Humanitarian convoys had to be allowed to cross frontlines, something which was currently impossible for a plethora of reasons. WFP had food in Sudan, but the lack of humanitarian access and unnecessary hurdles were making most food distributions impossible. Every single of the WFP trucks had to be on the road every single day in order to reach all those people in need. Both parties to this gruesome conflict ought to provide an unimpeded, unobstructed, safe access for humanitarian agencies to people in need.
Responding to questions, Ms. Kinzli said that this conflict should not be forgotten. This conflict had wide-reaching regional implications, and it was the time for the international community to realize the gravity of the crisis and implications. At the moment, 18 million people were facing acute food insecurity, twice as many as a year earlier. Hunger would increase from May on, when the lean season started, and crops became less available. Reports were being received on people dying of starvation, but those reports had to be corroborated. Millions of people could soon slip into the catastrophic levels of hunger, which could be described as famine. Some 3.6 million children under the age of five were suffering from acute malnutrition, informed Ms. Kinzli. The lack of access to the most affected areas made having exact numbers of hungry children impossible.
Rolando Gómez, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), stressed that a humanitarian ceasefire, humanitarian access to people in need, and respect for international humanitarian law were all needed in Sudan.
Food Price Index
Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), speaking from Rome, informed that the FAO Food Price Index stood at 118 points in January 2024, down 1.2 points from its revised December level, as decreases in the price indices for cereals and meat more than offset an increase in the sugar price index, while those for dairy and vegetable oils only registered slight adjustments. The index stood 13.7 points below its corresponding value one year earlier.
The Cereal Price Index averaged 120.1 points in January, down 2.7 points from December and 27.4 points from its January 2023 value. Global wheat export prices had declined in January, driven by continued strong competition among exporters and arrival of recently harvested supplies in the southern hemisphere countries. The Vegetable Oil Price Index averaged 122.5 points in January, up marginally by 0.2 points from the previous month, but still 17.9 points below its January 2023 reading. The Dairy Price Index averaged 118.9 points in January, virtually unchanged from its revised December value and standing 25.8 points below its value in the corresponding month a year earlier. The Meat Price Index averaged 109.8 points in January, down 1.5 points from December, marking the seventh consecutive monthly decline and standing 1.3 points below its corresponding value the previous year. Finally, the Sugar Price Index averaged 135.3 points in January, up 1.1 points from December and 18.5 points from its value a year before. The increase in world sugar prices had been mainly driven by concerns over the likely impact of below-average rains in Brazil on sugarcane crops to be harvested from April.
Further details can be found here.
Announcements
David Hirsch, for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), informed that the ITU had opened media registration for the AI for Good Global Summit 2024, which would take place at the International Conference Center in Geneva (CICG) on 30-31 May, with other events being scheduled, including an AI Governance Day on 29 May. While many details were yet to come, lists of conference speakers, exhibitors and programme events were already available on the AI for Good website. The registration link is at https://aiforgood.itu.int/newsroom/. Industry and the UN system, along with media and other society actors, would all be involved in the Summit.
Rolando Gómez, for the United Nations Information Service, informed that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was reviewing the report of Turkmenistan today.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child would close this afternoon at 5 pm its 95th session and issue its concluding observations on the six countries whose reports had been reviewed during this session: Republic of Congo, Bulgaria, Senegal, Russian Federation, Lithuania, and South Africa.
Finally, Mr. Gómez informed that 4 February would be the International Day of Human Fraternity.
Teleprompter
Very good morning to you.
Welcome to this press briefing at the UN office at Geneva today, the 2nd of February.
We have a a very packed agenda today.
We have artificial intelligence, we have Gaza, we have Sudan and we have food commodity.
So we're going to start right away with our colleague from UNICEF, Jonathan Cricks, who is the Chief of Communication in the State of Palestine for UNICEF, who is going to address unaccompanied at separated children as well as the huge urgent needs around mental health and psychosocial support to hundreds and thousands of thousands of children.
Over to you, Jonathan.
Good morning.
UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated.
Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief.
This figure corresponds to 1% of the overall displaced population, 1.7 million people.
Of course, this is an estimation, since it's nearly impossible to gather and verify information under the current security and humanitarian conditions.
I returned from Gaza this week.
I met with many children.
Each of them had his or her own story of loss and grief.
Of 12 children I met or interviewed, more than half of them had lost a family member in this world.
Three had lost a parent, of which two had lost both their mother and their father.
Behind each of these statistics, it's a child who's coming to terms with a horrible new reality.
11 year old Hazan.
She was with her family in her uncle's house when it was bombed.
In the first two weeks of the war, she almost lost all her family members.
She lost her mother, her father, her brother and two sisters.
Hazan's leg was also insured and it had to be amputated.
Following the surgery, her wound got infected.
Azad is now being taken care of by her aunt and uncle, all of whom have been displaced.
In Haha, where I met with them in a centre where unaccompanied children are hosted and cared for, I also saw two very young children, aged 6 and four.
They are cousins and almost their entire respective families were killed in the first half of December.
The four year old girl in particular is still very much in shock.
I met with these children in Rafa.
We fear that the situation of children will have lost their parents is much worse.
In the north and the centre of the Gaza Strip.
In the middle of a conflict, it's common for extended family to take care of children who will have lost their parents.
But currently, due to the sheer lack of food, water or shelter, extended families are themselves distressed and faced challenges to immediately take care of another child as they are struggling to cater for their own children and family.
In these situations, immediate interim care must be made available at scale while keeping children connected or tracing their families so that they can be reunited when the situation stabilises.
Razan, like most of the children who went through such a dramatic experience, is still in shock.
Each time she recalls the events, she falls in tears and gets exhausted.
But Hazan's situation is also particularly distressing since her mobility is severely limited and specialised support or rehabilitation services are not available.
Palestinian children's mental health is severely impacted.
They present symptoms like extremely **** levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite, they can't sleep, they have emotional outbursts or or they panic every time they hear a bombing.
Before this war, UNICEF was considering already before this war that 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in the Gaza Strip.
Today, we estimate that almost all children are in need of that support, and that's more than one million children.
UNICEF and its partners have provided mental health and psychosocial support to more than 40,000 children and 10,000 caregivers since the beginning of this conflict.
And last week I attended one of these activities and it's really a relief to see children play, draw, dancing and and smile.
It helps them to cope with the terrible situation they're going through.
And of course this is far from sufficient when we see the scale of the needs.
The only way to have this mental health and psychosocial support delivered at scale is with a long lasting ceasefire before this war in 22/20/22.
For example, the Child Protection area of responsibility, the Child Protection Cluster led by UNICEF provided the support to almost 100,000 children.
And it's possible to scale up now.
We have done it before, but it is not possible under the current security and humanitarian conditions.
And before I conclude, I'd like to add just one thing.
These children don't have anything to do with this conflict, yet they are suffering like no child should ever suffer, Not a single child.
Whatever the religion, the nationality, the language, the race, no child should ever be exposed to the level of violence seen on the 7th of October or to the level of violence that we have witnessed since then.
Thank you.
Thanks to you, Jonathan.
We're going to take all the briefers all in one fell swoop on on Gaza and then we'll take questions at the end.
Turning now to Tarek, who is with Doctor Peppercorn or joins us from Jerusalem.
Tarek, do you want to start off or do we go directly to Doctor, Doctor Peppercorn?
Hi, Thanks, Ron.
I think we can go straight to Peppercorn who is talking from Jerusalem.
We also have online our head of sub office in Gaza, Ahmed Dahir, who may add a few words after after Doctor Peppercorn.
So Rick, over to you.
Thank you very much.
I hope you can hear me loud and clear.
So yes, I'm here in Jerusalem.
SWHO represented for occupying Palestinian territory and and my colleague Dr Ahmed Dahir is in Gaza and he's the team leader of our team in Gaza.
He's also the incident manager of Gaza.
Actually, I'm going back to Gaza next week, coming Monday to be there again with the team for a couple of weeks.
But let me start and give some some overall again an overall kind of picture.
Currently, when you look at the fatalities and injuries you talk about that that over 100,000 gas are completely directly affected by the war was going on.
Over 100,000 guns are heated dead or injured or missing and presumed dead.
And if you think that 100 thousands of people on a population of 2.32 point 4 million people and and the ones which are which are not only injured of that they are alive.
They're struggling with with incredible circumstances and and seeking safety where there is little safety.
See searching for food, which is as we know, hard to find, trying to stay warm in all these makeshifts, tents and shelters.
And think about 1.71 point 9 million people displaced, keep the rain and cold out and and of course fight the diseases with because of all of this weakened bodies, declining immunity and a lack access to health care.
And that's the reality of of people in Gaza.
We've seen increasingly hostilities now in the middle area worsened than last week.
And my colleague Ahmed Tahir will talk about that which is affecting and already cripples health systems and and access for patients, the HealthPartners, health workers to resupply hospitals WHO as well remains extremely challenges.
We access the the the N 10 days ago.
But if you talk about humanitarian missions, I think some of the speakers we've raised and and these are really important.
So in in January, we planned 15 WHO planned 15 missions to the north north bodyguas.
Three were facilitated, four were impeded because of impossible roads, one postponed, but eight were denied.
But also from the 11 missions in the South, South of Wadi Gaza, 4 were facilitated, 2 postponed, 2 impeded and three denied.
All those missions should of course happen and and even if they there's a lack of safety guarantees, there should be humanitarian corridors to make this make this happen and to rapidly carry out humanitarian operations.
The lack of sustained access to hospitals for patients, health workers, but also WHL and partners to bring supplies in is what we've seen is burden is mentally in the health system and national Complex is a is a good case.
And I'm sure Achmed will raise some specific on that National Medical Complex being the most important referral hospital South of Gaza together with European Gas Hospital.
We'll talk about the overall health system functionality.
We talk about now that 13 out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functional and two of them are minimal functional.
So that means 21 are not functioning.
There's a few more field hospitals and emergency medical teams operational, not bringing in yet the number of beds we want, but the three fields, fields hospitals fully operational, the UAE Hospital, Jordania and Rafa Fields Hospital, which run by MSN.
And then we look at the primary healthcare centres.
From the 73 primary healthcare centres, there's only 13 functional.
Another concern we have as WHO and Parkinson with regard to medical referrals, we to avertible everybody who needs to be referred critically injured or sick should be able to be referred an orderly and and the same sustained transferred of patients to Egypt should be possible and other locations.
There's many countries who offer their services that they are willing to take up Palestinian referral cases.
So everyone has a right to medevac.
We estimate now that a minimum of 8000 Gazans should be referred.
So that 6000 probably related to the war injuries, the multiple traumas we've seen, burn injuries and the need for other type of special care, reconstructive surgery, etcetera, and 2000s are linked to medical conditions.
We shouldn't forget that before the war, 50 to 100 patients were referred to East Jerusalem and, and, and, and the West Bank and 40 to 50% of that were related to cancer.
Children, women, men.
What we've seen until now, since the start of the war, only 243 patients have been referred together with 1000 companions.
That's, that's a difference.
I mean, like that is way too.
So we need a workable system.
We've made proposals for it, etcetera.
It's, it's, it's really incredibly frustrating that this is not happening.
Then we see, I think a lot of people raise their concerns about diseases.
I mean, if you talk about displacements, you talk about the winter, which around us we talked about the disruptors health system on the news, water and sanitation conditions, which are very poor everywhere, specifically in the in the shelters and all the makeshift shelters.
We see **** levels of food insecurity, hunger, etcetera, contaminated water.
It's of course a cocktail for diseases and disease outbreaks which we see currently we see more than 250,000 respiratory infections since 162,000 cases of diarrhoea and under five years old 85,000, which is a 2423 fold increase from what's normally happening.
So that is an algorithm.
We've seen 70,000 cases up to now, cases of scabies and lice, 45,000 cases skin rashes and almost 8000 cases of jaundice.
Presumably have the text A.
You're currently trying to test that WHO together with Unride and others trying to test that and and making sure that we also get a system in place that where where samples can be orderly transferred to Egypt.
So we get A, a better, a better visibility on, on what's happening.
So that we want to go, of course, to a place where we can, where we can test, where we can assess, analyse, etcetera, where we can prevent as well hunger, malnutrition, hunger saying we are and WHO partners extremely concerned about malnutrition.
And, and the, the people and the Gazans are of course, in the middle of an, of a massive catastrophe.
And it could get worse.
And we hear all these, the stories like feminine loom, feminine looms.
We see this also with, with all our missions.
And, and I hope that Ahmed will be clear on the missions which were going on a week ago to the north to Shifa, but also the one to, to NASA medical Complex.
So and attrition, of course, independence, every aspect of health.
It's just not just the amount of calories you talk about what you eat, but it's the quality and, and, and populations are not too supposed to survive on food aid for months and months.
And, and, and focus on that.
And specifically I want to stress that there is food aid available.
WFP has sufficient food aid available.
It's there is a lot of problems to get into Gaza.
So it's a way too little food gets into Gaza and it's a big distribution within Gaza.
Furthermore, I mean you should take yourself also with FEO and Gaza was relatively self-sufficient when it came to meat and poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruits, fish etcetera.
That's all gone.
That whole industry has gone.
That needs to be recovered as well.
And for that as well I want to make also a plea.
The private sector engagement, the UN and NGOs and Ubiquita can all do a low can all do this alone, can all change the situation alone.
There is.
You're talking about the population of 2.3 million people, the private supply chains and need to be restored as soon as possible.
Commercial goods and activities, specifically food related of course should be allowed to enter again.
They always have been the backbone of any economy, including Gaza.
My maybe the last part.
We of course unfortunately see an ongoing health attacks which we monitor, which we check, which we get reported and and checked.
So we talk about 342 attacks in the gas strips since the war started, which resulted to 627 fatalities and 783 injuries.
And we also want to the race that what we have been reported on, the 61 health workers are detained and of course they, we, their families, the organisation deeply concerned about their their whereabouts.
95 healthcare facilities have been affected, including 27 hospital damage out of the 36 and affected 86 ambulances, including 47 with sustains damage.
Maybe I don't know if that's possible.
Now that that Ahmed can come in, I want to close here.
Thanks, Rick.
Thank you very much, Rick.
Yeah, we'll we'll now turn to Ahmed Dahir again.
He's WH OS the Gaza sub office head who joins us from Gaza, if I'm not mistaken.
Over to you, Ahmed, and thank you for joining.
Yeah.
Thanks and good morning, colleagues.
And then then thanks to, to, to, to Rick.
So to add on this and I will be talking a bit more on on the missions with the bridge I was having for the last couple of days, the hostilities have intensified in in San Yunus.
We are seeing thousands of people moving toward Rafa.
Families are being displaced over and over, many just moving with clothes and, and and their back sheltering and, and makeshift plastic tents which are not enough to keep them safe from from the harsh weather.
And then and, and the last couple of days, Borazda is witnessing A harsh weather, a winter and, and, and a lot of rains.
People are looking visible weak and thin from from lack of nutrition.
Everyone we we speak is is to, is hungry and, and, and they need food.
People are searching for food and safety.
Both are almost impossible to to to find the the sick and injured are really, really struggling to find the the healthcare they need hostilities around and the European has hospitals which are the the largest tertiary hospitals in in in are obstructing access for patients and health partners from reaching the hospitals to keep these hospitals resupplied regular lack of sustained supplies instrumented by health facilities.
It is it is it is vetted lifeline for keeping them functioned this week who have managed to reach European Gaza Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex, but access to the north remains extremely difficult.
We last reached a Shiva hospital in in North and Gaza on 2020 January, 10 days ago.
Just yesterday, we planned 4 missions, of which three were denied and only one to European Gaza Hospital was facilitated.
Our request to resupply and and Asahaba were denied.
So was the request for a Lauda and camel and one as well as Al Aman were benign.
And we know these hospitals especially for the North are the only remaining minimum functionals which serving large number of populations in, in, in in the North.
Just to talk about our visits yesterday from the European has a hospital, we were able to access the the hospital after four weeks and resupply with the medicine and and and medical supply.
We saw a hospital, we saw the hospital really struggling to keep up with the needs.
The hospital is is very crowded with around 22,000 people sheltering on the hospital grounds and and many of these Idbs are actually coming from from from the central of Han Yunus.
The crowd is is taking a toll on water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and increased risk of of disease spread.
They are simply not enough bathrooms to to cater so many, so many people.
It's, it's, it's, it's shocking to see such situations.
The hospital has a bit of capacity of 670, but currently has 800 patients being supported by 100 health workers and 55150 nurses.
Many of them are sheltering at the hospitals with their families and, and, and, and they need to keep, you know, taking care of the families along caring of, of, of, of, of patients.
And that is really putting them in a huge overburdened on, on their shoulders.
Being responsible from first from their family on in terms of security, providing, ensuring that the families have food, water and then at the same time, you know, taking care of, of, of, of, of, of the patients.
We always, you know, we see, we see, we see the medical Staffs at the hospitals.
We, we really salute them and, and their commitment and, and, and the, the, the harshness which some of them they have been working, you know, for the last three months in without, without any sort at the hospitals.
We also noticed that services are, are, are minimum working.
Like for instance the general surgery ICU burning units in, in ICU are very, very limited.
There are four WHO supported and then coordinated emergency medical teams working to support the, the, the current surgeries at the at, at, at the hospital.
Just also to talk a bit more on NASA hospitals which we visited a few days ago and that was on 29th January.
We had on 29th of January, we had two mission planned, one of for one for medical supply and one for food, which was which was delayed and and we couldn't proceed eventually for the for the for the for the two missions.
So we had to decide it was like to to to 1st go on for for the medical supplies.
So we delivered large, large amount quantity of medicine and supplies enough for 1000 people.
Hostilities around the hospitals are really intensifying and and hospital if if we talk about four weeks ago, the hospital had 8000 IBB.
Now it's almost empty as as people left in in in a search of of of safety.
And that's what our earlier said that large number of people are moving from family units toward toward the the Rafa.
The hospital then has 400 patients supported by 200 medical staff where the majority of whom are were volunteers and there's really shortage of specialised, specialised medical practitions.
Kidney dialysis, we know that nausea medical complex, they used to serve more than 150 kidney failure patients per day, but this significantly reduced because of the ongoing anticipated fighting and and that I think we might have just lost you off mid.
Well, yeah, I think he's no longer connected.
So maybe if Tarek, if you could tap Mr Dahir to rejoin us, it will turn out to Yens, who's got an update from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Gaza over to Yens.
Yeah, Thank you.
Rolando.
I, I want to say just a few things and I apologise in advance if it's repetitive for some of the things you've already heard.
But it's very important for us and for OCHA to put on record today our deep concern about what's happening in Khanyunis and Rafa in in the southern part of the strip, because it's really not looking good.
So I want to emphasise our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khanyunis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafa.
In recent days, thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the South, which is already hosting over half the Gaza's population, some 2.3 million people.
Most are living in makeshift structures, tents or out in the open.
Rafa is a pressure cooker of despair and we fear for what comes next.
As we have heard, conjunis has also come increasingly under attack and it's been shocking to hear about the heavy fighting in the vicinity of the hospitals, jeopardising the safety of medical staff, the wounded and the sick, as well as thousands of internally displaced people seeking refuge there.
Agencies are indeed struggling to respond under these circumstances.
However, over the past couple of days we have managed to distribute more than 1000 family tents in Mahwazi on the coast for ID PS living there out in the open.
Some 1450 bedding items including blankets, mattresses and mats have gone out and more than 1000 clothing kits were distributed to ID PS in Rafa, the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent.
Our partners there have also established tented camps near Kanyunis with some 600 tents and we understand they would like to establish more.
And finally, from our food security partners, we hear that in the last week of of January, they managed to provide food assistance across across the Gaza Strip and reached a total of 1.7 million people with some food and half of the distribution of food is in Rafa, reflecting, of course, the very **** concentration of people there.
Thank you.
Thanks to you, Jens.
OK, we'll take questions now, but maybe just to the flag that we do have Maximo Torero of the FAO Food and Agricultural Organisation online.
Maxim, if there's any point in time or if you have a specific question on food insecurity, maybe you can address that.
But indeed, lots of important messages just shared.
We'll start with Imogen.
And if you could pose, if you can indicate who you're posing your question to, that would be appreciated.
Imogen of BBC over to you.
Yeah, hi.
It's, it's for the the aid agencies, WHO, UNICEF, OCHA.
We've heard this suggestion from from Israel that the next field of operations will be rougher.
I just wonder if you could react to express your, your understanding of what the consequences might be.
Maybe.
I don't know, Rick, is that something you could address?
Let's let's let's start with Jens.
Go ahead, Jens.
Yeah.
Thank you very much, Imogen.
That's we're reading the same news, aren't we?
And that's exactly why it was important for us to go on record today and highlight this situation, this movement of thousands of people who've been on the bombardment in Hanoon is now rushing to the South.
But we already have such a unimaginably **** concentration of people.
I said it's, it's like a pressure cougar of, of of despair people living in the open industry.
You know, our vehicles can hardly move simply because there are tents all over the place.
So what I can say about that is we fear for what comes next.
If we look at what has happened in the past when evacuation orders have been given, people move because of that.
They also move because of of the fighting, moving, moving closer.
Then what?
What happens next?
Are they truly safe?
No, there's no safe place in Gaza.
Also not in Rafa.
Thanks, Jens.
Maybe colleagues, if you want to add, maybe just put your hand up to make it easier for us to moderate at any point in time.
In fact, let's take a question from the room here, Jamie of The Associated Press.
Over to you, Jamie.
Thank you, Rolando, just to follow up on what you said, Jens, we've obviously been hearing about the dire situation in, in Gaza and the South for for many, many weeks.
Can you, you know, you mentioned the pressure cooker, you know what makes this particularly worse than it was before?
I mean you you've touched on a lot of that already, but could you just be specific as possible about really what's tipping the balance here?
And if we could just go back to the UNICEF representative.
I just wanted to make sure I got that headline number again.
The first one that he mentioned about 17,000, could he specify exactly what he was talking about?
Which people the the children that that are without parents, if I understood that correctly or or no longer?
Yeah, thanks.
Thank you.
We'll start with Jensen.
We'll go to Jonathan after.
Go ahead, Jens.
Yeah, thank you, Jamie.
I, I think it's our, our concern is for, you know, all, all sectors of, of, of, of the response.
We hear from our HealthPartners about disease outbreaks.
We hear that there's, even though try their best, our, our partners in food security to deliver as as much as they can, there's simply not enough food, there's not enough clean drinking water and there's no protection.
Nobody is, is is guaranteed from the, from the next kind of wave of fighting that that we fear is, is, is coming on.
It's like every week we think we've, you know, it can't get any worse.
Well, go figure, it gets worse.
Thanks, James.
Jonathan on the 17,000.
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for the question.
I think it's important to clarify what we're talking about.
South UNICEF use the the terminology unaccompanied children or separated children.
So what what does that mean?
So unaccompanied children are the children who have been separated from both parents or other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who by law or custom is responsible for doing so.
OK, so that's unaccompanied children and then separated children, our children who are separated from both parents, all four from their previous legal primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives.
So apologies, it's a bit technical, but this is this is the terminology that we are using in in UNICEF.
Thanks for that, Jonathan.
OK, we have another question from the room and then we'll go to the platform.
Beza Andalou, please.
Thank you.
Rolando.
My question would be for gents as well.
I would like to have a follow up on the Rafa situation.
As you already mentioned, it's host over half of the population of Gazan people.
And if we see an Israeli attacks pointing there in future, which is already mentioned by the Israel Defence Minister.
Do you think that such attacks or do you afraid that such attacks wood forest another force and must evacuation for the people?
And also do you think it would further hinder the ability of humanitarian assistance which is already, you know, in a dire situation?
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Ibiza.
Of course, we fear that this could get worse for these people.
We I cannot speak about things that have hasn't really happened yet, but we look at the history of these announcement and then we see what what happens next.
Now we go back to what is the law?
What is international humanitarian law?
And as you know, when we speak about the law, we speak about the letter of the law and we speak about the spirit of the law.
Now the letter of the of, of the law, whether international humanitarian law is followed, that's for competent judicial bodies to decide.
But the spirit of the law which talks about protection of civilians in all conduct of hostilities, that has certainly not been a feature of this crisis.
And whether it will all of a sudden become a feature in the coming days or weeks in Rafael, well, that remains to be seen.
But history is gives us that cause for for concern and without a doubt, without a doubt, a deep fear for all those Palestinians, internally displaced or otherwise, who lived there in Rafa before what they, you know, how they feel these days.
Thanks, Yanzin.
I'm being reminded of colleagues.
If you could send your notes for accuracy, that would be much appreciated.
OK, we'll turn now to Lisa, a Voice of America.
Over to you, Lisa.
Thank you.
Good morning, Rolando and all colleagues there.
Yeah, I, I'd like to just beat the horse on Rafa one more time a little bit.
And that is if there is an Israeli attack on Rafa and as you have all said, there is no safety and no protection and nowhere for them to go, is it possible that they might actually try to breach the border and crossover, try to crossover into Egypt?
The if you would talk about that and the consequence of such a situation occurring And then nobody, which is a surprise to me, but has brought up the issue of UNRWA and the suspension of A to UNRWA.
And I was wondering whether you are seeing the impact of this situation on its ability to operate on the ground or whether, as they've said, the money's going to give out by the end of February, whether the organisation Unruh is still able to operate in Gaza and collaborate with you in your operations?
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Lisa, I think it's as to your first question, it's something that everybody's looking at what what might happen.
I I don't have a crystal ball and I can't speak for the hundreds of thousands of people who are there in Rafa what they might do next in terms of UNWA operations.
I think it's better that UNWA themselves speak about their operation and what, you know, change or impact this whole debacle has had.
Thanks Jensen.
And I feel compelled to remind you of the important comments made by the Secretary General of a few days ago.
In fact, it was Wednesday when, when addressing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, he said he_the importance of keeping Unrwa's Vital work going to meet the dire needs of civilians in Gaza And to ensure ensure its continuity of services to Palestinian Refugees in the occupied West Bank Jordan, Lebanon, And Syria And.
Of course he, noted that unrwa IS indeed the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza Those.
Comments we shared with you a couple of days ago we'll.
Turn up to Yuri Of Rio Nervosity For a question over.
To Yuri Yes.
Thank, you Rolando, I.
HAVE one question for Doctor Peppercorn And one question for Yens.
For WHO?
Do you know in total how many else workers have been killed and imprisoned in Gaza since 7:00 of October 1?
I mean one data for killed and one data for imprisoned.
And second question is for Yens.
Do you see any improvement in the humanitarian situation since the decision of the International Court of Justice Recurring Israel to facilitate humanitarian assistance?
As far as I understand and see, no.
And can we say that the situation has even worsened since the decision?
Thank you.
We'll start with Doctor Peppercorn.
Rick, on the first part, first question about health workers.
Go ahead.
We.
Well, let me first say that we, we have difficulty.
We cannot disaggregate the number of health works kills.
Yeah, that's somewhere just body parts that we we don't know.
There are definitely health worker skills on duty and there's also health worker skills in their in their houses.
I mean like that's what we can, what I said directly related what we call attacks on healthcare.
There are 627 fatalities and 783 injuries.
We also have at least reported to us 61 health boards detained.
Actually that's an underestimation.
What we understand and I maybe want to go back to there's a lot of talk about Rafa and and and the changing what you every time takes us.
The situation constantly changed when I was in Gaza a couple of weeks ago.
So next week going back, we let's say a nice amount of complex was still relatively fully functional.
We, we, we we didn't even call it partly functional.
It had three times the number of patients.
It has over 1000 patients set up, 3 and 50.
It has most of their health workers and staff still functional.
It had all the specialisations.
There's also in a Libya and reconstruction centre within that supported by Weho.
It was all functional and when you see in a couple of weeks and that's the middle area we talk about at the moment.
So not only ID PS are largely reduced because of all the evacuation orders and insecurity and fighting just around the hospital.
So we don't even talk now about a direct attack fighting around the hospital.
What does it mean?
It means that health workers, evacuation orders, health workers leave and they go move to the to the South.
It means that patients don't have access.
Ambulances can come in and WHL parts can deliver their supplies.
So very quickly that hospital from functional became partly functional to now barely functional.
And this is a three level hospital, key hospital and this is what's constantly happening.
We've seen this in the north, etcetera, kennels happening in the in the in the South.
And coming to Rafa, even when I was there, he saw all these people flooding in and, and, and I think what is it the installment as well.
Currently there's a few of difficulties even to to to reach the offices, etcetera, because there's there is, there's ID PS everywhere, everywhere along the coastal roads, everywhere there's ID PS and and so, yeah, what you hear about potential attacks, it should not happen.
There is Rafael used to be a town of 200,000 people, a bit of a sleepy town and being a many times and now it's harbouring more than half of the Gaza population.
So mind you, where do those, where, where should those people go?
So it's maybe the point should be, it should not happen and Rafael should not be attacked.
That should be the key message.
Over to you.
Thanks very much.
Rick.
And I just note that Ahmed Dahir was able to rejoin us on the call.
Jens, second question perhaps.
Yeah, thank you, Ray.
We report independently of what decisions are made by courts and so on every day, as you know, as the courts of course are completely independent.
So I just want to delink the two, the two things.
If you look at our situation reports daily over the past week, two weeks, I do not detect any improvement whatsoever in the humanitarian situation anywhere in the Gaza strike.
Thanks, Yens.
OK, looking to see if we have further questions in the room.
We're online Musa Al Myadin.
Go ahead.
Can we unmute Musa?
Yeah, OK, Thank you.
My question for the UNICEF about the 17 thousandth children, can you precisely please where are these children now and who take care of them in, in in Gaza and Rafa and or in anywhere else?
Thank you, Thank you Musa.
Jonathan, thank you Musa.
It's extremely difficult to say.
So what what we know is that we are in contact with many of the children through our partners and we are providing as UNICEF not only the mental health and psychosocial support I was mentioning, but also support when it comes to the tracing and trying to ensure that these children can be identified.
You know, sometimes a child is coming brought by someone to a hospital and either because he's too young or because he or she is in shock, they, they simply can't even say their names.
So, so it's, it's making things extremely difficult when it comes to tracing.
So UNICEF is is provide with his partners is trying to provide support to some of these children, but the scale of the need is immense.
And so for example, we have a lot of challenges to reach the north or the centre of the Gaza Strip as as my colleagues has mentioned and we don't know how many unaccompanied or separated children are there.
So This is why it's extremely important for us to advocate for a long lasting ceasefire because we need to have the environment, the conditions that will allow to do the proper tracing, to do the efforts for regrouping these children with their extended families whenever possible and to provide the mental health and psychosocial support that they that they really need.
Thanks very much, Jonathan.
I see that Richard Peppercorn has his hand up.
Rick, you want to add something, go ahead.
Maybe you want to add something.
I think for my youth colleague, rightly, rightly so raises the whole area of mental health and psychosocial support.
And I think we, we hardly, we discussed it with hardly discussed, we hardly actually focus on that because we were talking about fatalities in about 70,000 people.
So almost 28,000, 1000 fatalities and 67,000 people injured.
And, and if you go around hospitals and I can raise a bit more.
So of course we talk a lot about trauma and multiple trauma or spinal injuries, burns, etcetera.
I've never seen so many empathies in my life, including among children.
I want to stress out and if you also think about the all these injured people, the impact that it has and will have on not only on themselves, but their families, their communities, etcetera.
Even if there's no war, I mean and think about now rehabilitation and recovery etcetera now.
So all the focus now and most of these hospitals, party functionals, they've turned to trauma centres.
So what is of course, finally always really important is basic health service, Primary Health care, the whole rate, modern child health, reproductive health services, etcetera, etcetera, including non common cold diseases, oncology, diabetes, **** blood pressure and of course mental health society.
So support and, and Gaza being Gaza and, and being affected by multiple escalations wars of the last time and, and, and the isolation it was in, it already always has.
You see that always in areas in, in in countries and areas where there's chronic conflicts, you see a lot of mental health, psychosocial support which is needed.
So there were already an estimated 500,000 Gazans affected by mental health.
Well, that definitely has massively in in increased and it should be something to focus on as soon as we can also focus on other regular healthcare, primary healthcare, basic health services, including mental health, psychosocial support.
And yeah, I want to make a plea of that.
Not only, of course, all the people affected, but also think about the health workers and health carers themselves.
So there's massive, there's massive needs and, and, and yeah, massive needs to to do that.
For that, to do that, of course, you need to again, have access corridors.
But of course, much better it will be when there's a ceasefire and you really can start focusing on on rebuilding health and rebuilding health services.
Whole team.
Thanks very much, Rick.
I think with that we've concluded questions on Gaza unless there are any last hands.
No, I don't see that's the case.
We'll taking this opportunity to thank you all very much.
Jonathan, Rick off me and of course Jens for your very important messaging on this crisis.
We'll stay with you.
And so we're moving now to the situation in Sudan.
Jens has announcement on the launch of a humanitarian refugee response plan for this year.
Yeah.
Thank you, Rolando.
Another crisis you should have received, but I want to put on on the record here as well that we are launching on the 7th of February the two response plans that we have for Sudan, the humanitarian response plan for inside Sudan and the refugee response plan for the neighbouring countries.
The official launch is is here in in the Palais at 10:30.
You're invited to the room, Room 26.
It will also be webcast on UN web TV just to introduce it.
In Sudan, 10 months of conflict have come at an intolerably **** price for the Sudanese people.
More than 13,000 people have reportedly been killed and some 25,000,000 early need humanitarian assistance.
The war has also forced more than 1.5 million to flee abroad to countries that were already hosting large refugee populations and with overstretched resources.
There will be press availability with the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffith and the **** Commissioner for for Refugees, Philippo Grande, and that will be communicated to you in a separate e-mail.
Thank you.
Thanks to you Yens, and thanks for sharing the media advisor with the details.
We're just going to stay on Sudan.
We're going to turn to our colleague from the World Food Programme, which joins us from Nairobi, Lenny Kinsley, who is WF PS Communications Officer in Sudan.
Lenny, over to you.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
So the war in Sudan continues to rage on and take an unimaginable toll on civilians.
As the conflict is spreading to new areas, it is ever more challenging for WFP to deliver assistance to people, especially those who are trapped in conflict hotspots and who are in the highest levels of food insecurity.
That's why today, as the United Nations World Food Programme, we are urgently calling on Sudan's warring parties to provide immediate guarantees for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian food assistance to conflict to the conflict hit parts of Sudan, especially across conflict lines where hungry and displaced civilians are tracked and cut off from life saving humanitarian assistance.
I'm going to be very honest, the situation in Sudan is beyond dire and one of the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history.
Despite WF PS efforts to provide assistance to 6.5 million people across the country since the war broke out, almost 18 million people across the country are currently facing acute food insecurity.
That means that only 1/3 of the people who are struggling to have a basic meal a day are getting the help they so desperately need.
WFP has repeatedly warned of a looming hunger catastrophe in Sudan in the coming months.
People must be able to receive aid immediately to prevent a crisis from becoming a catastrophe.
Shockingly, the number of hungry has more than doubled from a year ago and an estimated 5 million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger or IPC phase four on the Integrated Phase Classification scale.
Especially affected are conflict areas such as Khartoum, Darfur and Kordafan.
WFP is also the logistics backbone of the humanitarian response in Sudan and has ramped up life saving assistance in response to this deepening crisis.
To reach families in Darfur, WFP established a cross-border corridor from Chad over which one million people have received food assistance.
Other agencies have also been able to use this cross-border corridor to deliver other much needed support.
However, WFP is currently only able to regularly deliver urgent food assistance to one in 10 people who are facing emergency levels of hunger in Sudan.
In short, that means 90% of the people who are the hungriest are not getting assistance.
These people are large, largely trapped in conflict hotspots including Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan and now Jazeera state, where conflict spilled over in December.
For assistance to reach them, humanitarian convoys must be allowed to cross front lines.
Yet it is becoming nearly impossible for aid agencies to cross due to security threats, ongoing fighting and forced roadblocks and demands for fees and taxation.
The situation in Sudan today is nothing short of catastrophic.
Millions of people are impacted by the conflict.
WFP has food in Sudan.
The lack of humanitarian access and unnecessary hurdles are slowing down our operations and preventing us from getting vital aid to the people who most urgently need our support.
A vital humanitarian hub in Jazeera state, which previously supported over 800,000 people a month, was engulfed by fighting in December, as I mentioned before, and a key WP warehouse was looted.
WFP is trying to obtain security guarantees to resume operations in the area to reach vulnerable families who are now trapped and in urgent need of assistance.
But these guarantees have not yet come through.
Over half a million people fled Jazeera in December.
We're seeing pictures and hearing stories of many of them who are now sheltering wherever they can find a roof over their head for refuge, including in hundreds of schools across eastern and northern Sudan.
Some are only sleeping under a mosquito net, if that.
For many, it was the second or third time they have been displaced in this conflict, which has sparked the world's largest displacement crisis.
But just 40,000 of these, 500,000 of newly displaced have so far received WFP assistance because of delays in clearances from authorities.
Around 70 trucks carrying enough food to feed half a million people from one month.
We're stuck in Port Sudan for over 2 weeks in January waiting for approvals to move out of the warehouse.
Clearances were only secured last week and now distributions are ongoing in Casa La Gadarif and Blue Nile states.
Another 31 WFP trucks which should have been making regular aid deliveries to Kordofan, Khosti and Wad Madani, have been parked empty and unable to leave El Obeid in South Central Sudan for over three months.
Every single one of our trucks needs to be on the road each and every day delivering food to the Sudanese people who are traumatised and overwhelmed after nine months of this horrific conflict.
Yet life life saving assistance is not reaching those who need it the most and we are already starting to receive reports of people dying of starvation.
Both parties to this gruesome conflict must look beyond the battlefield and allow aid organisations to operate.
For that, we need uninhibited freedom of movement across conflict lines to help people who so desperately need it right now, regardless of where they are.
Thank you very much, Lenita.
Thanks to you indeed.
This is a absolute gruesome conflict, as you just said.
So thank you for highlighting these important messages.
We have a bunch of questions for you and perhaps Yen.
So starting with Christian of the German news Agency.
Christian, over to you.
Thank you very much.
Lenny, that was horrific.
Of course.
I'm just wondering who, who are you addressing?
Excuse me, who are you addressing your urgent calls to?
Because we all know that the international community can't do much about this.
What's what are your contacts with the conflicting parties and what do you hear in response to your demands to be allowed to deliver food aid to people?
What what do they tell you why they are making this so difficult?
Thank you.
So WFP is engaging with through an interagency LED access mechanism by Ultra to facilitate access and expand humanitarian corridors and this is directly with the parties to the conflict.
So obviously our our call here is directly to the parties to the conflict, but it's also very much so to the international community because the IT is necessary to, for the actual access negotiations that are going on the ground to exert pressure from other outside parties and from the international community because that actually supports our access negotiations.
And we continue to urge all parties to the conflict to facilitate this humanitarian access.
But obviously, as I'm sure you have seen and heard in the news, it's extremely difficult and a politically volatile context where both parties are trying to gain the upper hand.
And so this makes it very difficult to negotiate access because of because the fighting continues.
Thanks, Lenny.
We'll take a question out from Catherine Fianken of Franz Foncat.
Go ahead, Catherine.
Thank you, Rolando, and thank you, Lenny, for telling us all, giving us, providing us all these information.
Could you be kind enough to send us as quickly as possible your notes?
That would be very helpful.
And also in a kind of follow up of the question of my colleague Christiana, what do you think will make the difference?
Because I mean, Sudan has always been a country that has been left on the side.
What do you think will make the difference now with all the two main conflicts where people are totally focused on meaning Ukraine and, and, and OPT and could you please tell us, you just spoke about people starving.
Could you give us figures how many people the difference between last month and this month or last year and this year that will help us also?
Thank you so much.
OK.
So to your first question of what will make the difference, I think what is necessary and as WFP would, would say is necessary is that this conflict cannot be forgotten and the people of Sudan are not invisible.
But more so this is a conflict that has wide reaching regional implications, especially as we've seen 1.7 million people flee to neighbouring countries like Chad, South Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.
And it's time for the international community to wake up and see these alarm bells and these these wide reaching regional implications and what that could mean for stability in the East Africa region.
And so that is what I think would make the difference and and, and what needs to happen before it continues to to go further out of control as the conflict is, is ricocheting, the effects of it are ricocheting across the region.
And your second question was on the reports of starvation.
So currently we are seeing 18 million people facing acute food insecurity and the same time last year and this is in the harvest season, I must say.
So this is actually the time when food is most available in Sudan.
And so if we compare that to the same time last year, it's twice as much.
And we can only expect, we're expecting to see, as is typical in the yearly seasonal calendar for Sudan, that hunger will increase come May when the lean season hits, crops become less crops and food stocks become less available.
And what is also really concerning right now is that it's actually the cultivation time for wheat, but the conflict is also impeding farmers abilities to reach their farms and put in much needed fertiliser and cultivate these this the wheat production for which harvest is expected in April.
And then directly to the reports of starvation.
It's very hard to have specific data points because these reports are coming from conflict hotspots like Khartoum where we're hearing that people are trapped in areas between areas of control between the staff and the RSF.
So these are anecdotal accounts that we're hearing, but the and and we're working on getting the data to support and back that up.
And as as I mentioned before, we anticipate that this hunger crisis will only deepen in the coming months.
Thanks, Lenny.
Maybe, Catherine, if I may just say very broadly speaking, and this is something we've been saying since the answer to the crisis, what we need, what we need is political will.
We need a ceasefire, We need facilitation of humanitarian access.
We need critical items and services to be guaranteed, and we need a respect for international humanitarian and human rights law.
So we'll take the next question from Peter Kenny of All Africa.
All Africa.
Yes, go ahead, Peter.
Peter, if we can unmute.
Peter, no.
OK, We may have to come back to you, Peter.
We'll move on to Lisa from VOA.
In that case, Lisa, over to you.
Thanks, Orlando.
And yes, good morning, Lenny.
Thank you for this terrible briefing.
You mentioned that people are already dying from starvation.
Now, for some time, WFP and other agencies have been warning of a looming famine.
UNICEF did so early on in this briefing.
In fact, I'm wondering if people already are starving, whether famine is not already there or how soon it's possible to I mean, I, I don't know, when do you get to the point of famine?
How many people have to starve before this actually is a reality becomes becomes a fact according to your system.
And could you talk about the malnutrition, how serious that is?
It must be going, must be skyrocketing.
Are you are, are children in particular dying from this and are you and other are agencies able to reach them and save any lives or is this has this become almost an impossibility in order to deal with this situation?
Thank you.
So first, first, your question on, on the, on whether people are dying of starvation.
As I said, we are receiving reports of this and, and especially in the conflict hotspots, but these reports need to be corroborated with data and evidence.
And just to get a little bit into the technicalities of how declaring A famine works, basically it's a certain percentage of the population that is in IPC 5 out of five in the integrated phase classification scale, which is an internationally recognised food security assessment.
And so 20% of a population, what would trigger a call for famine would be if 20% of the population is in that IPC 5 category.
Now at the moment, we are currently seeing 5 million people in the four out of five in its emergency level hunger, so 4 out of five.
And what we're warning about now is that if we aren't able to reach those for in that four category emergency level, then they would in the coming lean season, which is in a few months away slip into the catastrophic levels of hunger, which could be described as famine like conditions depending on what percentage of the population and which areas would be in that level.
So to bring it back to the point, that's why our calls are so urgent now because there's still time to do something about it and for us to deliver in those conflict hotspots.
And sorry, your second question was if you wouldn't mind posing that again, Lisa, I couldn't recall.
Yeah.
On malnutrition.
Sorry.
Yeah.
No, No, no, no, no, no, no, I just.
No apologies, please.
Yes, I was asking about the situation of malnutrition, particularly as it affects children.
I would imagine that is skyrocketing.
If you have some information on that numbers and whether it's even possible to help these children, provide them with the kind of life saving therapy that is needed and seems from what you have been telling us, perhaps not possible.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So there's around 3.6 million children under the age of five who are suffering from acute malnutrition.
And last year or actually since the conflict started, we have been able to provide prevention and treatment for moderate acute malnutrition for around 600,000 children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
In fact, in places like Port Sudan, there you know few malnutrition centres where WFP is providing what is called ready to use supplementary food.
It's a peanut packet that has nutritional supplements and we've seen that this helps children recover from malnutrition.
So we are able to help in areas where we have access.
But the main concern is in areas where we don't, which are the conflict hotspots like Khartoum, the country's capital, which is pretty much in the centre and, and also now Jazeera state, where conflict spilled over in the middle of December, as well as in different parts of the Darfur, especially S Darfur and N Darfur, where we have not been able to get assistance through since around June of last year.
So it's extremely concerning.
And, and the issue of access and, and actually ascertaining how how many children are suffering from malnutrition in these areas is also just as difficult because we simply don't have access due to the ongoing conflict and these access constraints.
Thanks very much, Lenny.
And we have a question again from Catherine Fiancan.
And I know that you've asked for the notes to be sent, Catherine, so, but please pose a question if you have one.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you, Orlando.
Just to remind the spokesperson that when they send us notes through the chat, we are not always able to copy and paste them.
So it would be really helpful to just mail them to Eunice or directly to the group of of UN correspondence.
I'd like to come, Lenny, back also to the Sudanese refugees that are leaving for Chad or for a car.
Could you give us for other countries DR Congo also?
So could you tell us also give us some details about it?
Because in fact, the they're leaving their country, Sudan, because the situation is, is is terrible, but in fact, they become a burden for countries that have already difficulties.
Thank you.
Thanks, Catherine.
I should just mention that William of UNHCR is also online.
So I don't know if William, you've had anything to add.
Please, please just chime in.
Great.
OK.
Maybe, Lenny, if you want to start off with any comment on that.
Yeah.
So as I said before, 1.7 million people have fled Sudan crossing borders.
And it's not just refugees, it's actually also returnees that are going back to South Sudan who were previously refugees in Sudan.
And as you rightly mentioned, the resources in these places are extremely stretched.
There are around 500,000 people who fled parts of Darfur into Chad, where our operations there are also facing extreme funding shortfalls, which has made it difficult to provide to consistently plan assistance for those refugees that are crossing the border from Darfur.
We can get you an exact funding figure after the briefing, but this is basic.
This is stretching the resources, especially in the countries, the neighbouring countries in the region where resource, where resources are already so low and where especially in cases like South Sudan, the context is already so fragile.
Lenny, thanks very much for that.
I'm not sure if there are any further questions.
I don't see that's the case.
So I'd like to thank you very, very much as this is indeed a very tragic situation which we need to be, we need to have spotlight.
So thanks very much for your important intervention today and please do join us at any point in time and good luck.
I'm not sure if Jens has anything to add.
I would like to thank you as well, Jens, as always for joining us here.
We'll now shift to, we have two more quick briefings, one from FAO.
We have Maximo Torrero, who is, as you know, FAO Chief economist, who joins us from Rome.
He's going to speak with us about the FAO Food Price Index, monthly update on global food commodity prices.
Afterwards, we have a brief announcement from David Hirsch of the ITU.
But firstly, to you, Maximo, and thank you for joining.
Oh, thank you.
No, thank you.
Thank you very much.
And it's pretty complex to present this in the middle of the two cases that we just heard.
But in any case, so this is the powerful press index that is released at 10 AM this morning in Rome.
Following on this, on its 2023 trajectory, the FAO index price index decline in January by 1%, standing 10 point, 8.4 below its value on a year ago and 26.4% below the picket reach in March 2022.
The decline in the food FAO food price index in January were led by decreasing the price of for cereals and meat, which offset the increase in rice prices and sugar prices, the key drivers of the food price movements in 2024.
And it's important to understand that these are commodity prices, which is different, different to the final prices that you consume at the retail or wholesale market.
So the first driver is a global wheat export prices decline in January, driven mostly by strong competition among exporters and the arrival of recently harvested supplies in the Southern hemisphere countries, while those of maize fell sharply, reflecting improved crop conditions and the start of the harvest in Argentina combined with larger supplies in the United States of America.
By contrast, the commodity which is still a concern is rise, which rose 1.2% in January, reflecting the strong pace of the Thai and Pakistani shipment of higher quality in Dhika rice and additional purchases by Indonesia.
Palm oil prices were driven by seasonally peak lower seasonally lower production in May or producing countries and concerns of unfavourable weather conditions in Malaysia.
An increasing important man is slightly pushed by sunflower seeds oil prices and by contrast, international soil and rapes.
Seed oil prices decline on an account of prospects of large supplies from South America and lingering ample availabilities in Europe, respectively.
In the 36th sector, international price quotations for butter and whole milk powder increased largely due to the increase in demand from nation buyers, nearly offsetting declines in those for skin, milk powder and cheese.
As for the meat, abundant supplies from the exporting countries drove prices of poultry, bovine and pig meat lower.
By contrast, international owine meat prices increase on on **** global import demand and the lower supplies of animals for slaughtering or Zanya sugar prices increases slightly underpinned by concerns over likely impact of below average rains in Brazil when sugar cane crops and harvested from April coupled with alpha our production prospects in Thailand and in India.
So just to summarise, we are seeing an improvement in the global prices.
El Nino impacts is still are not yet rice price remains the exception and El Nino is affecting rice and cool affecting the future.
But let's hope that the prospects improve.
The cigar production seems on track and we have 2856 million tonnes, up 1.2% from 2022, according to the new projections of the latest cereal Supply and demand brief, which is also released today.
So yet there are some potential chokes, for example, what we are observing in the chipping cost Panama Canal because of lack of water.
And this is affecting the mobility of of of of vessels, direct sea and many inland waterways which we are observing the potential increase in risks.
And therefore, that affects immediately transportation costs and mobility, velocity of mobility and risk and insurance.
And this could affect future prices.
And if they always will continue to monitor significant developments to provide timely analysis on the vulnerability of lower food markets and implications on food security.
So let me stop there and more than happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much muchas Gracias Maximo for this update.
Do we have any questions?
I don't see that's the case.
I think you are very, very comprehensive, very thorough.
So thanks once again, and you're always welcome joining us here at this press briefing.
Maximo, thank you so much.
We will not turn to David.
Last but certainly not least, David Hirsch of the International Communications Union has an update.
Media registration for IT US AI for good is now open.
You've made my announcement for me.
Thank you for inviting me up here.
But I'll reiterate in no uncertain terms that yes, media, media registration for IT, US next edition of its AI for Good Global Summit 2024 was opened.
The event will take place at CICG here in Geneva from 30 to 31 May.
That's the main event.
There are other events that are being scheduled around this and during and the planning for that continues.
We'll make sure that we update as that goes.
That would include as well on the 29th of May and AI Governance Day, although many of the details are still coming together on the activities.
There are already a lot of details on the website, so please do check the IE for Good website, for speakers, for exhibitors and for programmes that are being planned.
We pledge to you to make the registration process as seamless and easy as possible and we look forward to seeing you at that event.
All the details are in the release.
Thank you, Elena, Great, thanks very much.
Jamie has a question for you.
Thanks, David.
Thanks for coming to see AI for good.
AI has been causing a lot of concerns in a lot of different quarters.
I'm wondering what ITU sort of position is on that.
I mean, people are concerned about job displacement, they're concerned about intellectual property being impinged upon.
Are those kinds of subjects going to be brought up?
And then could you also give us a glimpse as to who might be coming?
Obviously, there's some big players in the AI space.
I'm thinking of the head of Microsoft.
I'm thinking about the head of of open AI and others.
Are you going to get the real corporate players that really can make an impact and really beyond just the the United Nations, international organisation and and advocacy groups that have a voices to express on this matter?
Thank you.
Thank you, Jamie.
I think to your first question, I think there's been no lack of consideration that this is complex space within Torch and that's the that's the role that ITU has has played and seeks to play in this space.
This is ITU has consistently that this is not something that anyone organisation can solve or entity can solve on its own.
So it's committed to serving as a convener of forum for activities like AI for good.
It is a multi stakeholder event and ITU has been a centre of the AI conversation with AI for Good, but also as part of the Internet Agency working Group and other activities that are going on.
I would also remind that the priority of AI for Good is to ensure that AI and associated technologies are used for good to use to help advance and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
So that is very much a focus and comes very much with the reality that no, again, no organisation can do that alone.
So that, that leads to your second question.
I would more direct you to the list that are already starting to be populated on the website and as well as to colleagues.
But yes, the, the short answer is that yes, industry will be involved.
The UN system is going to be involved.
We, we know that the society at large needs to be involved and that includes the media that the one that are interested in these, these these activities and that raise the profile of them.
And that is an open activity.
And we, we do, we do impress upon people to to register through the site.
Can I just follow up, Do you expect Sam Altman to come if you the speakers are on the list for that are up there right now.
Sam Altman is for the moment scheduled to appear remotely and to present remotely on the site.
But I would say that that name and others are all on the list.
That list is subject to change as are many lists.
So we're not, I can't make any sort of promises relative to how that looks.
This shaped up by 30th of May, but as of now there are many names in the list and and meant more to come.
That's great.
Thank you very much, David.
Appreciate that update.
Any questions, any further questions for David?
No, I don't see if that's the case.
Thank you once again for this flagging this important event.
Before we wrap up, just a couple of quick announcements from me.
Just to keep you on track for the human rights treaty bodies, we have the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, CDAW, that is reviewing today.
The report of Turkmenistan and the Committee on the Rights of the Child will conclude its 95th session this afternoon after having issued its concluding observations for the following six reports during this session, Republic of Congo, Bulgaria, Senegal, the Russian Federation, Lithuania and South Africa.
The Universal Periodic Review will also conclude its 45th session this afternoon after adopting reports, the remaining reports for Belize, Chad, the Congo and a Malta and or no, Friday, we'll tell you, is Friday, Sunday, the 4th of February.
Is is, is coming Sunday.
And this is also the International Day of Human Fraternity.
I don't know if anyone knew that, but it's an important day, of course, among other things, that we celebrate the spirit of mutual respect and solidarity that binds us together as one human family.
These values today are being severely tested.
Our world is marred by divisions, conflicts and inequalities.
This is what the SG, the Secretary General says in his message.
He calls on people to come together, protect and uphold human rights, combat hate speech and violent extremism, and push back against those who profit from peer.
Message is more poignant and meaningful today more than ever.
So that message is in your inbox and unless you have any questions for me going once, going twice, I would like to wish you a very nice weekend.