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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 03 May 2024
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Press Conferences | WHO , OCHA , UNHCR , IFRC , WMO , FAO
UN Geneva Press Briefing - 03 May 2024
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
3 May 2024
WHO: Update on Gaza
Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking from Jerusalem, warned about the health consequences of a potential, imminent full-scale operation in Rafah. With more than 1.2 million people crammed in Rafah, such an operation would result in worsening the humanitarian catastrophe. WHO and partners were making contingency plans to ensure the health system was prepared and could continue providing care. Despite these measures, the ailing health system would not be able to withstand the potential scale of devastation that the incursion would cause.
An incursion could render the three hospitals in Rafah inaccessible and non-functional, including the European Gaza Hospital: this would have a knock-on effect on the overall health system, as patients would need to be transferred to other already overcrowded hospitals. Increased insecurity could also severely impede the movement of food, water, and medical supplies into and across Gaza via the border points.
The health system was barely surviving and only 12 out of 36 hospitals and 22 out of 88 primary health care facilities remained partially functional.
As part of contingency efforts, WHO was setting up a new field hospital in Al Mawasi (Rafah). WHO had set up a large warehouse in Deir Al Balah and had moved supplies to ensure rapid access and movement of supplies to Khan Younis, the Middle Area, and north Gaza. Nine out of 10 operating theaters were operational. WHO and partners were also establishing additional primary health centers and medical points in Khan Younis and the Middle Area.
In the north, an expansion of services was being supported at Al-Ahli, Kamal Adwan, and Al-Awda hospitals through emergency medical teams and pre-positioning of supplies. Plans were also being developed to support the restoration of the Patients’ Friendly Hospital, focusing on pediatric services, and expansion of primary health care centers and medical points.
The food situation had somewhat improved. Food was more available and more diverse. However, WHO had observed several cases of severely malnourished small children, with hundreds of other cases reported.
Dr Peeperkorn then discussed the arrangements WHO was making to let medical supplies reach Gaza. He hoped WHO would be also able to rely, soon, on local procurement from Israel and the West Bank.
For his part, Dr Ahmed Dahir, WHO Gaza Sub-Office Team Lead, speaking from Gaza, said the Gaza health system was barely surviving. Any operation against Rafah would block access to the only hospital specialized in kidney dialysis, with potential catastrophic consequences for its more than 700 patients.
Rolando Gómez cited press remarks by the Secretary-General at the end of his visit in Santiago of Chile, in which Mr. Guterres reminded he had “called consistently for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire (…) and a massive surge in humanitarian aid”, and stressed that “a military assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation [and] would have a devastating impact on Palestinians in Gaza, with serious repercussions on the occupied West Bank, and across the wider region”. Mr. Gómez also mentioned a report by the United Nations Development Programme, regarding the “Gaza War: Expected Socio-Economic Impacts on the State of Palestine” (2 May).
Responding to questions, Dr Peeperkorn said any contingency plan by WHO could only be “a band-aid”. WHO hoped the military incursion would not happen and a ceasefire would prevail. He added that WHO expected the hospitals would be deconflicted and not attacked or attacked again. Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza was not operational anymore, parts of if having been either heavily damaged or destroyed during military operations: to restore anything there would take years – a process which WHO was already planning, Dr Peeperkorn explained.
Over time, since October, basic food had become more available, and more diverse, too. The risk of famine was not averted, however, and the availability of cash [to buy food] remained an enormous problem, Dr Dahir warned.
Regarding reported mass graves discovered in Gaza hospitals, Dr Peeperkorn explained that WHO had no expertise in investigating crimes. During their visits on the ground, WHO teams had observed makeshift cemeteries in hospitals; one team had helped perform decent burials for several bodies. Public health had to be taken into account. Despite a few incidents, WHO generally found that people in Gaza respected its work and were helping it.
Dr Peeperkorn insisted that malnutrition used to be unheard of in Gaza. Today, more than one million people in Gaza were exposed to acute or catastrophic food insecurity. Twenty-five small children had died due to malnutrition or related conditions; 46 children suffering the same condition were now taken care of in Gaza hospitals. Dr Dahir then described the food stabilization and support system that WHO was setting up in Gaza.
Almost all medical supplies to Gaza were now coming through the Rafah crossing, a concern that WHO had raised at all levels, including with the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces], Dr Peeperkorn further explained.
Jens Laerke, from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), added that Rafah was also the heart of humanitarian operations in Gaza, acting as a transshipment point for the life-saving assistance. From there, several UN programs and their partners were running their services across the whole Gaza Strip. More importantly, the hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza would be at imminent risk of death in case of an assault, he warned.
The UN, Mr. Laerke insisted, was not party to any planning and would not participate in any ordered non voluntary evacuation of people.
UNHCR: On the situation of civilians in Sudan
Olga Sarrado Mur, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), expressed the UN Refugee Agency’s grave concerns over the situation of civilians cut off from life-saving aid in Sudan. For the first time since the conflict started, a UNHCR team reached Omdurman in Khartoum State, a city severely impacted by the conflict. Omdurman hosted over 12 000 refugees and more than 54 000 internally displaced people. UNHCR had met with local officials and people impacted by the conflict to identify needs and understand the protection risks.
Displaced families, including Sudanese and refugees who were in Sudan before the war, had told UNHCR of their struggles to get enough food due to soaring prices, leading to fears of children becoming malnourished. Children had no access to schools and were distressed by the sounds of clashes. Displaced people did not have adequate shelter, with many living in overcrowded conditions. While two hospitals remained open, there was not enough medicine, especially for those with chronic illnesses. Pregnant women were not able to access prenatal care. People also shared serious concerns for their safety, reporting increasing sexual violence.
Beyond Khartoum State, escalating hostilities in Darfur’s El Fasher city were aggravating the already perilous protection situation for civilians. According to available reports, tens of villages had been targeted, some razed to the ground, killing innocent people and destroying public property and crops. Indiscriminate violence, including sexual violence as well as cases of separated and missing children, were on the rise.
UNHCR called for the safety of civilians, safe access for aid agencies so that support and supplies could be delivered and, above all, for a cessation of hostilities. Humanitarian partners also needed more support to boost their capacity to respond. The funding requirement was not being met to meet needs across Sudan and in neighboring countries, Ms. Sarrado Mur regretted.
(Briefing note: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/grave-concern-over-civilians-cut-life-saving-aid-sudan.)
Responding to questions, Ms. Sarrado Mur said there were restrictions of movement in key roads out of affected areas, which were inhibiting civilians from fleeing to safer areas; UNHCR was in contact with neighboring countries to assure the safe passage of refugees. Other fears were attacks targeting civilians, the restriction of movements, and reports of sexual violence. All this also meant a risk of a further increase in the prices of goods, Ms. Sarrado Mur pointed out. She confirmed that 1.8 million refugees had been displaced by the current war, as well as more than 6 million persons displaced inside the country.
Despite the security situation hampering the delivery of aid in Khartoum and the Kordofan areas, among others, Ms. Sarrado Mur added, UNHCR was committed to deliver aid as much as it could, in the locations where it could, and maintain its presence in Sudan to support the population. UNHCR called for humanitarian aid to reach the persons in need.
Mr. Gómez said the Secretary-General had been very vocal on the situation, particularly regarding El Fasher, where some 800 000 civilians were in grave danger, according to latest updates from OCHA.
UNHCR: Heavy rainfall in East Africa forcing thousands of refugees from their homes
Ms. Sarrado Mur of UNHCR said that thousands of people, including refugees, were caught up in the El Niño-triggered heavy rains and severe flooding that was sweeping across East Africa.
In Kenya, nearly 20 000 people in the Dadaab refugee camps – which hosted over 380 000 refugees – had been displaced due to the rising water levels. In Burundi, around 32 000 refugees – nearly half of the refugee population in the country – were living in areas affected by the floods, with 500 of them requiring urgent assistance; in the capital, Bujumbura, refugee families, along with many Burundians, had had to relocate multiple times as water levels continued to rise, while access to food and other necessities was increasingly difficult. Beyond Bujumbura, rent prices had reportedly doubled, making it too expensive for many refugee families to relocate. Other countries in the region, such as Somalia and Tanzania, had also seen forced displacement following this heavy rainfall.
UNHCR was working closely with local authorities and partners, rushing aid, and providing protection services to refugees and affected communities living nearby. UNCHR provided, among others, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, dignity kits, soap and jerricans, with special attention to older people and those living with disabilities; it was also helping families relocate to safer locations until the waters recede.
Climate change was making many parts of the world – especially in fragile regions like East Africa and the Horn of Africa – increasingly uninhabitable. Storms were more devastating. Wildfires had become commonplace. Floods and droughts were intensifying. Some of these impacts were irreversible and could worsen.
These floods showed the gaps in preparedness and early action. Funding available to address the impacts of climate change was not reaching those forcibly displaced, nor the communities hosting them. Without help to prepare for, withstand and recover from climate-related shocks, they faced an increased risk of further displacement.
(Briefing note: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/heavy-rainfall-east-africa-forces-thousands-refugees-their-homes. B-roll: https://media.unhcr.org/Share/nny808bpmxpqi118080lllg28854s253.)
Answering questions, Ms. Sarrado Mur said that despite the early warnings, the preparation had not reached the most vulnerable communities, including refugees or other displaced communities, which were more exposed to the climate hazards. That was why UNHCR was stressing the need to increase funding for the countries most impacted by extreme weather events and by climate change. This funding also had to reach the displaced communities, to equip them so they could adapt to this new situation.
Claire Nullis, from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), stressed that the rains in East Africa had been exceptional this season, with very heavy loss of life among the general population in countries such as the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya, and with no relief in sight. It was a huge disaster, with 150 people killed, and bridges and roads swept away.
Moreover, a new threat was tropical cyclone Hidaya that had formed in the last two days – the first documented system to have reached tropical cyclone status in this part of the world, low in East Africa.
Climate change was supercharging these events. The El-Niño event we were witnessing was fading, but its impacts were obviously continuing. The cyclone would add still more water to already flooded areas, complicating the aid efforts.
Mr. Gómez said that the Secretary-General had been “deeply distressed to hear of the hundreds of lives lost and many others affected by heavy flooding in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania and other parts of East Africa” and had extended his “condolences to the Governments and people of the countries affected, especially the families of those who have died or been injured in this disaster” (see statement).
IFRC: Humanitarian consequences of heatwave in Bangladesh
Speaking from Dhaka, Alberto Bocanegra, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) Head of Delegation in Bangladesh, briefed on the humanitarian consequences of heatwave in the country and the activities of the Red Cross Red Crescent.
The situation was alarming, with impacts – hydration fever, heat exhaustion, rapid heat rate – on the most vulnerable population, not only children, but also persons with disability, persons with special needs and those with chronic disease, especially those with blood pressure, kidney disease, asthma, and diabetes. It was an exceptional climatic event: this level of temperature had never been seen before in 76 years of records, and were affecting 70 per cent of the population, or some 125 million people.
IFRC was providing first aid and referring severe cases to hospitals, in urban and rural area, with the help of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, which had around 700 000 volunteers, all of them trained. IFRC was also preparing for an imminent threat of flash floods, mainly in the northeastern part of the country.
This crisis showed the harsh reality of climate change. The response showed what [could be done] in coordination with the International Federation of the Red Cross and its member Societies.
FAO Food Price Index: monthly update
Presenting the FAO Food Price Index for April 2024, Monika Tothova, Senior Economist at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), said the Index had increased marginally (1.3 per cent) in April, for the second month in a row following a seven-month long declining trend, and down 9.6 per cent from its corresponding level one year ago. The increase in the Index had been led by increases in the price for meats and modest upticks for vegetable oils and cereals which more than offset decreases in the sugar and dairy prices.
That was generally good news for the importing countries: except for vegetable oils, which were on a similar level as one year ago, prices of all other basic commodities were below their levels [in 2023], including sugar (14.7 per cent) and cereals (18.3 per cent). However, global commodity prices being denominated in the United States dollar, a strengthening USD did not necessarily translate into lower food import bills for many countries.
Announcements
Tommaso Dellalonga, of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said IFRC would celebrate the anniversary of its foundation next Sunday, 5 May; and, on 8 May, the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, on the theme “Keeping Humanity Alive”. Activities would include interviews with volunteers (Monday); Red Cross / Red Crescent weekly spaces on X (Wednesday, 9.30 a.m. Geneva time); assets and stories on IFRC social media and website; and a “Red Cross Village” at Place du Rhône, Geneva (May 8-12). Also in Geneva, on 8 May, the Jet d'eau would turn red as a tribute to this special day.
Claire Nullis, from World Meteorological Organization, said WMO would issue, on Wednesday 8 May, its report on the State of the Climate in Latin America and predictions for temperatures over the next 5 years. A virtual launch event would be hosted by WMO Secretary-General, Celeste Saulo.
Mr. Gómez said the Committee against Torture was concluding, this morning, its review of the reports of North Macedonia and, at 3 p.m., of Finland. Next Monday at 10 a.m., the Committee on the Rights of the Child would open its 96th session, during which it would review reports from Namibia, Guatemala, Georgia, Mali, Panama, Egypt, Bhutan, Estonia and Paraguay.
As for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council, the human rights record of Comoros was being reviewed today; Slovakia and Eritrea would follow on Monday, 6 May.
Mr. Gómez finally reminded that today was World Press Freedom Day, its theme this year being “Press for the Planet, Journalism in the Face of an Environmental Crisis”. In a message on this occasion, Mr. Guterres stressed that “the world was going through an unprecedented environmental emergency which posed an existential threat to this and future generations”. The Secretary-General also expressed his shock at the high number of journalists killed in various crises, including in the operations in Gaza.
On the same subject, UNESCO, UNEP, WHO, OHCHR, the Permanent Missions of Austria and Chile, and the Geneva Press Club, would organize a World Press Freedom Day event in-person and broadcasted on UNTV on 7 May (3-5 p.m., Palais des Nations, Room XXIII). The event would focus on the protection of journalists and scientists in defense of the environment.
Teleprompter
A very good morning.
Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing.
Today, the 3rd of May, we have a busy agenda for you today.
We have an update on the situation in Gaza.
We have updates on Sudan as well and including an update on the heat wave in Bangladesh.
We also have some announcements for you.
So we'll turn over immediately to our colleagues who join us from Jerusalem and from Gaza, Doctor Rick, Rick Peppercorn of the World Health Organisation, who is a regular briefer here, who is joining us from Jerusalem.
And then we'll turn immediately to Doctor Ahmed Dahir, who is speaking to us from WHS Gaza sub office from Gaza.
So Rick over to you.
Thank you very much.
So good morning to all of you.
I hope you can hear me loud and clear.
I just came back from another lengthy mission in in Gaza from the the 7th to the 23rd of April and I want to say something about that.
But I want to start of course with I think all of us are most concerned about is a potential and imminent full scale operation and military operation in Rafa.
And I want to explain very much from the health side, from the health perspective why WHO and partners are so concerned about that.
Well, of course, the, the, the, the 1.2 million, 1.5 million people crammed in Rafa and, and any operation will result in an additional humanitarian disaster.
On on top of what have already is we as WHO and, and, and also when I was in, in, in Gaza and visiting all those hospitals and places both in the South and, and N.
So we'll get back to that later with partners and with hostile staff.
We are of course making contingency plan to to help ensure that the health system is as good as possible prepared and, and, and can continue to provide care, some care.
But I want to really point out why, why this is so complex.
In Rafa, there are three functional hospitals at the moment, small hospitals.
There's Al Najjar, Emirati, which is an MCH hospital, a more a child hospital in Kuwaiti, which is a very small hospital.
Now every time when we have seen when there's a military incursion, if it is in the North Dallas city or Hainunas, these hospitals very quickly become not reachable, staff cannot go, bases cannot come and go etcetera.
So they be they be come from partly functional very quickly non functional.
In worst cases what we have seen in the north and and and **** Newness etcetera, hospitals get damaged or even partly destroyable.
Another problem is that because the the escalation will come from the east to the West that patients cannot be reversed anymore, cannot be referred anymore to to the European Gaza hospital, which is the referral hospital for, for the, for the current patients, that road will be blocked and that hospital will be kind isolated.
So then we only have a few field hospitals along Rafa Mawasi and there's plans to kind of field hospital in Daraballa and that's it.
So what's what's the health workers from National Medical Complex, which was the most important hospital actually in in South of Ali Gaza, most important hospital next to Shippa in the past with all and it became as we all know, it became non functional after the last siege in February.
So the hospital director of health workers WHO and partners and I want to mention specifically the MSF UK met and MAP UK.
So they, they've been clearing and cleaning this hospital and restoring it for some functions, the emergency ward, maternity ward and the, the, the, the, the neonatal ICU, some ICU operation theatres and OPD.
So to have a referral place because not the medical complex and Al Aqsa hospital in the middle area will be only to be two places as a referral potential.
I want to really say that this is this contingency plant is Band-Aid.
It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.
Also of course, a military operation will lead to a new wave of displacement, more overcrowding, less access to essential food, water, sanitation, etcetera, and definitely more outbreaks what we already have including of course a security situation which is already very volatile, which will well will will worsen.
So there's plans also to have an additional field hospital set up as WHO we also shifted that for ourselves directly.
We have, as you might remember, we we critically set of warehouses from start of this crisis in the South, in Hamunas.
Those warehouses are destroyed.
Then we set up quickly warehouses in Rafa 3.
Now we set up a used warehouse in Darabella and we're shifting supplies there as well to spread the risk.
We don't want to make those plans.
I want to make it very clear, we don't want to make this plans.
We all of course hope and expect that this military incursion will not happen and that we will move towards a sustained ceasefire.
I just want to add one other point on, on, on health system health sources.
In the north, there's an expansion of services which the reaction partners support in our athlete and Kamala 1 and our other.
We try to look is anything possible as well from Shiva but also expansion of primary healthcare, patient friendly hospital with support of IMC.
They're actually currently only trying to renovate, rehabilitate some of that and get paediatric services and primary, more primary healthcare services and medical points.
One small point I want to ask.
So when I was there over the two years, we did many missions to the north.
It's always the same pattern.
What we do, we bring in medical supplies, fuel.
Now we also bring in emergency medical teams.
We bring them in or we get them out and we take patients out when it is needed etcetera.
We did a couple, quite a few of those missions and at one point I want to say deconfliction improved a little bit, but we still have massive issues.
We often have delays.
So we are prepared with this whole group, emissions trucks that have fuel truck, mountain supply truck already 4:30 in the morning, 6:30 everybody is ready to go.
Often they get delayed, delayed, delayed and we can only leave at one for two in the afternoon.
That means we cannot take the the fuel truck with us and the medical supply truck and we can only, for example, get the, the, the emerging medical team in and, and the patients out.
So sometimes we, we, what we could do in one mission, we have to do it for it's incredibly labour intensive and also incredibly falsely and which and of course is shifting us from all the priorities.
What we have a small point also malnutrition when I saw the north compared to when I was there in February and and, and in December on long missions.
So that the food situation has a little bit improved, there's a bit more food, there's more diverse food, etcetera.
People tell as this as well.
However, I want to make the point when I wasn't come out at 1:00 and then bringing this medication and getting people out.
So the, the, the director, Sam, the paediatrician showed me around this therapeutic feeding unit supported by WHO and, and UNICEF and he showed me a couple of kids of two years, which were four KGS children from two years, kids from two years, they should be between 10 and 14 KGS.
And then so they were severely malnourished.
He told me that he had seen hundreds of this type of kids.
And he, he said, I asked him over the last week, he saw a little bit of salt going down.
But of course the effects this has had for hundreds of children, we don't even know how, how, how, how many that will the effects will be then for potentially a lifetime.
And, and, and also Gaza health workers were never used to actually treat malnutrition etcetera, because there was no malnutrition in in Gaza.
Last point opening of areas.
I think that's good news.
The more openings there are, it's mainly for food.
We we hope to also in future get through our Stockport and here as we're planning to also get medical supplies through that.
We also actually raising the bar.
What we of course really would like to see that we go back in the near future that we will be allowed to tend to do local procurements both in Israel and West Bank and there will be entry of UN and humanitarians through Kerry, Shalom or Harris.
That would really I think facilitate the humanitarian support also considerably.
I think that's all from my side on, on, on there.
Maybe Ahmed, once you want to add something from your point as Ahmed is our The Who team leader and an incident manager in Gaza permanently.
Ahmed, all the team.
Thanks.
Thanks, Rick.
Yes, Doctor Dahir, please, we do have a lots of questions already, but let's let's hear from you first, Doctor Tahir.
Yeah, good morning colleagues.
Thanks Rick.
I will be very quick.
So as Rick mentioned, the health system is barely surviving in, in, in, in Hazas.
So 12 out of 36 hospitals and a 22 out of 88 Primary Health care facilities remain partially functioned.
So for instance, if I just give an examples being here in Raza and, and Rick mentioned and emphasise on, on, on the catastrophe if Rafa operations will happen by, by, by, by the Israelis military.
For instance, in Rafa, we have Najah Hospital, Najah Hospital, it's, it's one of the main hospitals currently serving for specifically for kidney diabetes and it has more than 700 kidney failure patients required kidney dialysis.
So, so, so for instance, if, if, if any operation will happen, which means the populations and, and the patients will not be able to access these hospitals.
So there will be a question what what is going to happen to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to these patients and, and, and ultimately that would be catastrophe.
So it's, it's, it's, it's just with our contingency plan, etcetera is still required that hospitals to be accessed to the to the patients and, and, and, and, and, and, and populations.
And that's why we are now as well as focusing on NASA hospitals for restorations along along with the partners.
That's all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Often before we take questions, let me just recall colleagues that we shared with you late early this morning.
In fact, it occurred late last night our time a press.
Well, it was a press remarks that was delivered by the Secretary General in Santiago, Chile, at the tail end of meetings that he had there, in which he, of course, repeats his calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, immediate unconditional release of all hostages and a massive surge in humanitarian aid.
In that statement, he also says that a military ******* on Rafa would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.
And it would have a devastating impact on Palestinians in Gaza, with serious repercussions on the occupied West Bank and across the wider region.
These are contained in the statement we shared with you early this morning.
OK, let's take questions starting in the room we have been from RTS.
Ben, over to you.
Yes, Thanks, rando.
Thanks, Doctors.
Doc Pepper Con.
To what extent are the Israeli authorities involved in building your contingency plan?
And, well, I mean, it's linked.
What is the feedback you get from them, if you have some, when you explain to them exactly what you just told us, that it will not be enough, it will be only Band-Aid.
Thank you, Rick.
Yeah, thank you very much for the question.
Well, first of all, I think the the plants are made by the the gas and health workers, respective hospital managers and directors together with WHOWHO very much in the vault and all of this and and partners.
So that's the pro, but of course the we not a medical complex and which would be key as a referral centre, which I just discussed in for a contingency plan.
And it's by the way amazing because when I was there in this time in April, the first couple of weeks the hospital was an incredible mass malfunctional and most lot of rooms smash destroyed, partly destroyed, the whole warehouse actually burned, burned out, etcetera.
And in such a short time.
And I think it shows the resilience of the health workers affiliation on partners etcetera.
The hospital is now made partly operational again.
As I said, it's also the only place close by where there's oxygen and and so that's why it's so important to have that.
Of course we this is communicated as well to call that including deconfliction.
Deconfliction of all those hospitals is very well known.
I mean like that's and we expect and of course that these hospitals are will not be attacked and will not be attacked again.
That is the level of because everywhere what we do we have to if it is establishment or a field hospital, if it isn't, if it is expansion or service etcetera.
This is definitely communicated and of course, with a request something like that, this area is deconflicted and will not be attacked.
Over to you.
Thank you very much.
OK, we have anyas from Argent France press in the room.
Yes, thank you.
This is a question on the food situation.
You mentioned that it has improved in some way in the North.
I would like to ask you if you could elaborate.
What do you mean exactly?
Earlier this week, Mr Lazzarini here in Geneva say that there was there's more food on the markets, but there is no cash, so people can't buy the the food.
So what do you mean when you say that the food situation has improved?
Is it about the else, Is it about the quantity of food?
You could say that and then a question to you and maybe Orcha can give say that if you could give us what is your last UN updated figure on the number of people who are in Rafa, You mentioned 1.21.5 million, but maybe this has increased.
OK, yes, thank you very much.
So again on the food situation, so let's say I do want to say under The Who represents it and of course we observe what we discuss also with very much with the key partners in this area Andra and WP.
So you should also raise your specific questions to them.
I think that you have a discussion, but what we, what I observed over the time, over the time and looking back in December, January, February and now definitely there is more more basic food, more wheat, but also a little bit more diversified food on the mark, not just in the South, also in the north, even with our staff in the north in Gaza City.
And I think that's a good he, he actually took me around and he showed me that as well as including that he then raised and that was just before they opened the second bakery in, in Gaza that he actually said.
Also the prices have come come down somewhat and more in line with the South.
Now you mentioned the key issue, cash is an enormous problem, the availability of cash and for everyone and and and the banking system etcetera.
So that is definitely a problem.
But there is there is more foods which is I think provided there is definitely a lot of cash for people to buy.
So that's a serious problem still when I compare that even when missions and Ahmed can be even more specific on that.
But in missions, for example, in, in January and February to the north, it was very difficult to take foods.
And a lot of those food missions and, and you heard about that they, well, they could take it by, by, by sometimes by desperate people and, and, and angry people, very angry, understandably angry people.
They, they felt they were just left and there was an absolutely lack of even the basic food stuff.
That's where we saw this increase in, in, in, in malnourished kids Surveys has been done.
One out of six kids under 2 malnourished.
That's figures we've never seen in Gaza.
Never.
Like we talked about about 1015% of the under 2.
That's that we've figures we've never seen.
We talked about .5%.
We saw some of this hospital flooded by malnourished kids.
We got figures, a report that like almost 30 kids.
I mean, malnutrition is never deposed, but contributes to to actually the mortality.
So we all saw that now.
Now definitely more so a little more food on the markets and more access to food.
So a small improvement.
Also the a little bit more diverse and what the, when I was visiting that hospital, etcetera, the, the, the, also the health workers, they told me that they saw a slight decline in number of kids which were brought.
Now that hospital, of course then it's like the end state, you get severely malnourished kids, but they saw a slight decline and number of kids being brought to the hospital.
So that's a good side.
The cash issues are completely different and completely.
It's a massive problem for everyone, including for humanitarian organisations and our.
And and, and workers now on the number of people in, in Rafa, if I correctly talk about 1.2 million people.
So sorry that I've confused you over to you.
Maybe Ahmed wants to add something on, on because he was on many of these mission missions.
And at the moment, a lot of these food missions, they, they are, they're just going and they're, they're a number of them are implemented not enough, but they're implemented without key problems.
Over to you.
Thanks, Ahmed.
Yeah, thanks for the for the questions.
So what we've observed and comparing to a few months ago when the people in in the northern Gaza were desperate are getting food and, and, and, and, and what was happening that a few months ago, whenever we go for missions immediately and you we cross the, the, the Wadiras to the north, we would see thousands of, of people coming toward us and, and as WH for our supplies.
We're all in majority are, are medical supplies.
So they would think that this is what we are bringing.
It's a food and, and, and we were really having very, very difficult to, to, to trying to convince them and telling them this is not a food.
This is a medical supplies.
But this has changed in, in the last few weeks and as Rick mentioned that now there are more, more, more foods coming and, and, and going to, to, to, to the, to the, to the, to the North End.
But I would emphasise and, and say that malnutrition, it's not only about lack of food, but it's, it's more on multi sectorial.
It's quite a holistic approach in regards to food availability, health availability and, and, and, and Wash.
Thank you.
Thanks to you.
OK, we'll take a question out from Jamie Keaton of The Associated Press.
Jamie, thank you, Rolando, and thank you for the for the intervention today.
I had two quick questions.
One for Doctor Peppercorn, who opened his remarks about talking about the possibility of an imminent military operation in Rafa.
We've of course been hearing about that for many weeks and there's obviously now talk of a ceasefire.
So I'm just wondering what inside information, what makes you think right now the information that you have that the operation may well be imminent given the geopolitical context right now?
My second question, just wants to follow up on on and yes, his question just pretty broadly, you're talking about the overall and improving food situation.
Can you now say that the risk of famine is now declining?
Thanks.
So we'll start, you know, maybe of course we have to talking about this, this, this possible military operations in incursion in Rafa.
I think no, I don't have any more inside information than than you probably have anyone etcetera.
We of course everyone is following and we get information from all sources etcetera.
And for a long time it looked like this was the plan and this is going to happen.
So we hope that with all the discussions and pressures and the discussions about ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, we of course hope this will not happen.
We we need to be, however, we need to be prepared for that as soon as possible.
And I've just described how difficult this, you don't want to make those plans, you don't want to make this, whatever you call them, preparation plan, container sheet plans, etcetera.
You don't want to make them because you know that this is going to be for, and I'm only talking about health now it's going to be Band-Aid.
It's going to be very limited what we can do, but we have to do and not only for the sectors, of course, also for, for the humanitarian operations like how are we going to, how going to adapt?
How are we going to, to, to adjust on your second points?
No, absolutely not.
So, So please don't take me wrong on this.
What Ahmed and myself have seen over the months, we see a slight, A slight improvement in the available availability of food and a little bit more diverse.
We all know for example, that local food production which was very important in Gaza, it's all destroyed.
There was a huge poultry, there was a huge fishery because vegetable, fruits, etcetera, it's all not there anymore.
So for months that whatever food came in was also the quality was very limited.
I mean like it's not what you'd expect from a rich food baskets which which is needed, which is needed specifically for for for children, pregnant women, etcetera.
So absolutely no, it's not we still and I this is absolutely malnutrition aspect is absolutely not over.
It is much broader and, and also the that this has lasted for months to, to, to even start addressing this in a proper way.
We will see the effects, I'm afraid for years to come.
So absolutely not.
I don't want to say, oh, this is over, Ahmed, maybe you want to add something on that one.
Yeah, over to you Ahmed.
Ahmed, if you wanted to add something, please feel free.
Yes, yes, thanks.
Thanks for for the questions.
So on, on the food, the situation is, is, is still fragile and access to food now has to be sustained and more diverse food needed.
Exactly that's what Rick mentioned.
We cannot say a risk of payment is fast.
So so we need you not to be very, very careful on on on on this.
Thank you.
OK, thanks very much.
Maybe just to point out that there I know Sarah's online and maybe some other humanitarian colleagues are here.
There was a launch of a report by UNDP yesterday entitled The war in Gaza talks about the socio economic impacts.
Important read.
We had a briefer at the, the new briefer in New York yesterday who spoke of increasing poverty rates the the years that it'll take to rebuild Gaza, etcetera.
So that's a, that's a very important read for those of you who might not have seen that.
OK, we'll turn now to Emma Farge of Reuters.
Good morning.
I, I wanted to ask about the mass graves at hospitals, please, Nasser and Al Shifa.
Did either of you bear witness to the bodies being placed there or how they died?
If you have any reason to believe that any of the missing medics in Gaza are in there?
And can The Who corroborate any of the allegations from the Palestinian side that the people inside were executed, buried alive, found with bits of medical equipment like catheters still on their bodies?
Do you know anything about this?
Thank you.
Yeah, Shall I start?
OK, So thanks for the question.
So again WHO team today we have visited us and and supplies, supplies no patients out and transfer patients etcetera to Shifa and Nasser many times, many times during this crisis including myself, including Ahmed, my colleague, we have been on on numerous missions like that.
Let me be very clear.
So we are the World Health Organisation, we don't have any expertise, you know, the crime investigating organisation, etcetera.
What we observed, I mean like what I also observed, I observed cemeteries and Shiva, I observed makeshift cemeteries, including in, in NASA.
For the rest, we heard the story.
One of our teams also went and that was I think widely.
We reported on that I think very clearly was present and, and, and, and together with Orchard colleagues and other Yuan colleagues in the, in the burial of 88 dead bodies that said to help and make it a more dignified because they were very superficial and let's say in the ground and to help make it a more dignified burial.
Also, of course, we have to think about public health risks and also if you at least people are buried properly that in future when forensic, forensic investigations can take place, they can take place.
And last but not least, it's a very important thing, the families that sort of can somehow, well, you know, organise their goodbyes.
I mean, like in this kind of set environment, and I think I, we've seen the, the, the, the remarks of the secretary general as well on, on, on this like refer to that what I would expect and hold, because we get also these reports about mass graves that proper investigations, proper investigations by, by organisations who are mandated to do that.
We are specialised to do that will happen in the in the near future and that proper forensic investigations take place that will be definitely needed.
Over to you dude.
Thanks very much Rick.
OK, we still have a few hands up Christian from German news agency.
Thank you.
My question also refers to something Rick mentioned about the four.
No, the 2 year olds were only four kilogrammes and should be 10 or more.
Can you give us a bit more context?
How many of the two year olds are in that category and do you think they were 10 kilos or whatever was age appropriate in October and have actually lost so much weight over the last six months?
Can you give us a bit of context and maybe how big the problem is?
How many 2 year olds are actually in this category?
Thank you.
Yeah, I think maybe Ahmed would like to add on this as well later.
But let me say this, I think we have also reported and otherwise we will do that later in our in, in, in, in maybe some original remarks and send it to you as well.
There has to be done an assessment and and and malnutrition assessment that was done in over December and January etcetera where we where we of course saw not only.
And then of course, you have to the IPC reports, I mean like which all much better describes the malnutrition situation all over gas.
And they were very graphic.
And specifically when I look at for a health perspective that's, you know, I know Gaza well, I know Westlake well, there was no malnutrition in Gaza.
So it's in before this this price that we talked about point 6.5%, point 7% of children under five years which were acutely malnourished, etcetera.
And then in the northern governorates the figure rose to 12.4 to 16.5%.
So that's all coming.
And then the the IDC report was very clear and, and, and and, and and warrant for the risk by the end of May of of Gaza.
And that that what was the percentage that more than accused food insecurity classified IPC 3 was half the population in Gaza.
1.1 million people experienced catastrophic food insecurity.
So now when you talk about the number of of of is what has been reported that 29 believe now 30 kids have died of 25, sorry, 25 children have died partly caused by malnutrition, because you often don't die from malnutrition.
You die from an infection and, and, and, and related to that.
And if you're malnourished, you will have we this is what also these hospitals, paediatric hospitals.
So they saw a lot of pneumonia among kids.
Well, that's typical sign that this kind of infections, people are very, very vulnerable.
And I have to go of course to the health workers and visiting that come out of one hospital frequently helping to establish a therapeutic feeding unit which was never there to assist those malnourished case.
So if you ask me, oh, were those kids, were they not already underweight and then brought in?
No, this is not what we hear weird.
And often, by the way, there are kids from example single parents and, and, and often the most vulnerable from the most vulnerable families.
Well, what you see in every prices and all over the world, those are often the kids which are most, most of us at risk.
That's what you see in guys, actually.
So yes, a serious problem, a serious problem which we hope it should never have been a problem, never ever should have been a problem in Gaza, a place which is so easily to be reached and so easily to be accessed, everything to do with access, everything to do with food and food diversifications.
So we should never have a any level of malnutrition in this place.
So it has happened, figures are there and and we hope that the strengths are now going to be reversed.
Maybe Ahmed you want to say something specific because your business at those obstacles more often.
Yeah, thanks for for the questions.
So if I add to to what Rick mentioned, who is is leading the inpatient management of severely acute monetization with complications.
So what we did with support of partly we have established 2 stabilisation centres and Rafa and one in in North Thousand.
The money like one we also plan to support in establishing 2 more stabilisation centres, one in Gaza City and and the other one in in middle area.
We've also the HR trained more than 40 healthcare providers on the BHR guidelines for management of stability, malnutrition with complications as well on how to set up out for a bit feeding programme.
So for instance, in Kamal in advance, since we've opened a stabilisation centre.
The hospital itself admitted 40 severely accused malnourished children with complications.
Thank you.
Thank you both.
OK.
We still have a few hands up I think.
Christian, did you have a quick follow up on your question?
So your hand is still up.
Thank you, Rolando.
Yeah, that was my question.
What Doctor Pipaco, just repeat was from January and December and February and I will.
I thought there were two year olds in this state in the hospitals now.
That's what I understood from his previous remarks.
And I think Doctor Ahmed just confirmed that there are 40 children in who are severely malnourished and have complications in these units.
If you could just confirm that.
I got that right.
Thank you.
If if you could confirm that those details, that'd be great.
Ahmed.
OK, Yeah.
Yeah.
So what I, I mentioned that these forty children less than five years old, they have been admitted to the hospital since since since March this year.
So, so it's it's, it's a cumulative number since since we've opened the civilization centre.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And I just want to stress as well that we, we we of course hold that those trends will be reversed and, and IPC will come also with with new figures over over time etcetera.
And, and we are part of that and, and, and together with Judy, Seth etcetera, we will we will look at that again like OK, are those trends really reversing?
Are we really on the on on the right track and, and can we provide better?
So we saw to date as of 20 April, so this is the latest figures that you have 46 cases of severe acute malnutrition with complications.
So they have been admitted to the so-called severe acute malnourished stabilisation centre certified in Kamal at one and seven in Tau Al Sultan in in in Rafa and four at IMC field hospital, the stabilisation centre.
Over to you.
Thanks both again.
OK, we now we have Sotoko from Yomi Yori Shimbone.
Sotoko.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Thank you very much.
If lava operation happen, what's going to happen to the lava crossing point?
Will it it be close or kept open?
What has IDF said about in terms of humanitarian aid delivery during the operation and will Lava Crossing Point be replaced by the US floating pier and Astor Point and Astor Port?
Thank you.
Yes, it's a very good question actually.
And and so let me say what we are trying to raise on this, this aspect and I want to say specifically from the health side, because at the moment all the medical supplies, almost all the medical supplies come through the Rafa crossing Ala Reese Rafa crossing.
So you raise the point actually spark also from the contingency plan, which we are extremely concerned about if the military operation that that Rafa crossing will be closed off.
So we've already raised that and at all levels and including in the UN higher levels of discussions with the COVID and IDF that's.
We specifically for medical supplies and a lot of that.
Even so, medical supplies, trauma supplies, medical consumables, essential medicine, some of them temperature sensitive that that that crossing needs to remain open, even if that crossing would go to directly to Nitsana, Karen Shalom and along the fence roads, for example, along the fence road and then actually go into we have a warehouse in Deraballa.
So we are actually constant what you actually raised.
We are lobbying for that something like and, and raising that now on the on on on the pier in the maritime.
We're not as sure how that will operate and and and and if we can also get indeed like the temperature sensitive essential medicines through that.
I mean like will require other operations.
We also try we trying out the the, the route from Jordan etcetera.
What we hope of course, what, what, what I mentioned in the beginning that when Eris is opening up and and our stores are sport that this is still now it starts and it will be for bulky items and food etcetera, hopefully for this kind of items.
But we hope that's very quickly that we can also use this for medical supplies, essential medicines.
And again, my real wish is that we can go back to also local procurements and make sure that we get it in that food.
So we need all the routes at the moment and and and I think your point is completely right about Rafa.
We are extremely concerned about about that.
And I should have mentioned that as part of the contingency plan.
And yeah, we are pushing and lobbying whatever happens that that's remains open even if those supplies will go directly Karen Shalom and it's Anna, Karen Shalom and through the bank route over to you.
Thanks Rico Yen says something to add.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Good morning everyone.
I just wanted to re emphasise what we're saying about Rafa.
You will have seen the, the statement that came out from emergency relief coordinator Griffith just a, a, a couple of days ago where he, he stressed the importance of not having an attack on Rafa.
But just to give you an, an, an idea of what, what's at stake.
Rafa is at the heart of the humanitarian operation in Gaza.
It is the transshipment point for the life saving assistance that arrived in the Strip via via the two crossings, Rafa and Karam Shalom.
It is where dozens of aid organisations store their life saving supplies they deliver to civilians across the Gaza Strip.
Across the Gaza Strip, Rafa is central to the UN and partners ongoing efforts to provide food, water, health, sanitation, hygiene and other critical support to people.
For example, the UN Population Fund, UNFPA operates clinics for sexual and reproductive health at field hospitals in Rafa.
UNICEF and partners provide outpatient treatment for acutely malnourished children at more than 50 sites in Rafa.
The World Food Programme and its partners are distributing nutrition supplements to children under 5, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women in Rafa.
Three of the eight health centres run by UNWA in Gaza are in Rafa and they provide primary healthcare, medication, vaccination and so on and so forth.
But most importantly, the hundreds of thousands of people who are there are would be at imminent risk of death if there is an *******.
So we are looking at if this happens, both a, what the emergency relief coordinator has warned about could be a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Yanz.
And just to remind you that statement of Martin Griffiths we shared with you earlier this week on Tuesday, you have that in your inbox.
Can we still have a couple of questions, maybe if you can stay here with us, Yanz?
Lisa, rather we'll go to Yuri first to RIA Novosti.
Yuri.
Yes, thank you, Rolando.
My first question is not a question.
This is just a request because one more time we have a briefing on a lot of topics, but we are still about one hour speaking only about Gaza.
I'm pretty sure that Rishard and Ahmed have others possibilities to speak to us.
I mean a briefing only on Gaza will be really great.
So we have, we can all ask questions and not during this briefing, but a separate briefing with you so we can cover all the subjects because as we know we have now after that we have to speak about Sudan, we have to speak about other topics and for journalists this is really hard to cover it.
So please, I don't know WH or Eunice Ahmad, Richard, if you can just organise a separate briefing for journalists in Geneva, it will be really great.
Then I have two questions on Gaza, of course.
The first one is what about the public order in Gaza?
Because the public order, Richard, the fact that I remember about one month ago or two months ago, it was really difficult for WHO to bring supplies to Gaza because some young people was trying to still what they think that was food, but in fact it was medical supplies.
Is this still the case right now?
I mean, is the public order better now than it was few months ago?
And my second question was about the fact that we had a briefing with Lazzarini this week and he he said that in fact, nobody can take the place of UNRA in Gaza.
It is the same thing that was told by the new director general of ICRC, that ICRC, for example, can't do the work of UNRA in Gaza.
Do you have the same point of view?
Does that mean that, for example, WHO can't take the mandate of UNRA if this kind of decision will happen?
Thank you, Rick, we'll start off with you maybe.
Yeah, OK, thank you.
So on the public order, it's like that's again, not, not my my specialisation, but let me say that as WHO Yuri, we from the start.
So we focus on the areas of let's say medical supplies, patients transfer later EMG fuel and a little bit of food and and water for patients and and for staff.
Now it definitely and we all have been on missions when every time when we had the food and water included that specifically when I'm taught December, January, February.
Yeah, we had sometimes some issues.
I mean, and people also being obsessed that it was only medical supplies from the other hands.
We also had some fantastic, I mean, in general fantastic receptions everywhere in the North and the middle and South.
People really respect what humanitarians are helping and trying to do etcetera.
We do it together, of course, Palestinian and Palestinian stuff.
And so every time when we announced, when there was a crowd coming, this is medical supplies for this hospital and that hospital in general, people were facilitating and they were actually helping to make sure that had happened.
So we've had a few incidents and I think which was not nice, but I think nothing compared with I think colleagues from Andra and and WFP hats for a while with foods and I think they've been reportable.
I think in general this is much better now.
And Ahmed can confirm that.
I mean, even when, when I was there on the last, my last three weeks there, it was what I thought, yeah, much, much better on Enron.
I think not only the SG, my boss, Doctor Ted Ross, everyone has said it, NRA is absolutely essential, absolutely essential for services, but not only for services.
It's the it's part of the humanitarian engine in Gaza.
So without UNRAP, it will be really virtually impossible to deliver and do what we do.
And we all agree we don't do enough.
And that's not because of the UN.
We can and we want to do much more, but unround is absolutely essential and right even hosting us in the so-called job in, in, in the South it's assisting.
We do this also at one UN when we didn't have a security officer, we, we got a security officer from Unride and vice versa, etcetera, as we are secondly, so Unride stuff like logistically in logistics and everything related to that.
And right, essentially the number of staff, they dwarf any other UN agency and EUA terror.
So in all kinds of areas, including in my own area health, otherwise essentially and specifically on Primary Health care, they were next to the, in the past next to the Ministry of Health, by far the largest provider of Primary Health care in, in Gaza.
They're still, they're still doing that in many of the Primary Health care centres, which was, I think very well summarised by Yens just before me.
So absolutely, we work with NRA, we support NRA.
We will continue.
No, WHO will not replace NRA like, oh, we don't provide services, ER effort.
NRA should continue to do that.
And, and, and, and I really hope and expect that NRA is it's essential for everything what is done Unitarian services and they should be properly supported as well.
Over to you.
Thank you, Rick.
OK, we'll take the last question from Lisa of Voice of America.
Lisa, thanks Rolando.
Yes, good morning.
First, I I would just housekeeping please Doctor Peppercorn and Yen send us your notes as soon as possible would be very practical and helpful.
I have question first for you, Doctor Peppercorn, you early said that you expect that now Sir and she for the hospitals will not be attacked.
Now do you have presumably because the alleged terrorist ****** is over correct and have you got actually guarantees from the Israeli authorities that that is the fact that those hospitals will not be attacked?
Also how soon will it be before these hospitals, it could be at least functionally partially functional.
And then yes, for you, I'd like to ask whether you think it is actually practically possible that 1.2 million, one and a half million, whatever the large population of Rafa is, can be physically moved away from the site that they could actually be well somewhat safe.
And then what about the Rafa crossing?
The, the good questions were asked about that earlier by my colleague, but do you believe that the crossing to Egypt will be closed to Palestinians who might want to flee from Rafa to Egypt and your fears about that?
Thank you.
We'll start with you, Rick, and then we'll go over to Yens.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
So let me start try to address your first question.
So Shiva is non functional, by the way, it's not functional.
And and and then we start with Shiva.
We know many times I said so Shiva was there were a lot of siege around Shiva from the start of the crisis.
It was heavily damaged and, and, and partly destroyed.
Then actually we were actually requested to to help make it work again.
And that not only WHO and partners made chief work again as AI would not say as a, as a third referral hospital, not as a maybe first, first level referral hospital.
But it became again the, the, the trauma centre for the, for the north and meet the last siege, the last siege which happened, most of Shiva is, is either heavily, heavily damaged or destroyed.
So I watched her recently and, uh, some of the health workers and I would say it reflects a bit of the, the, the incredible resilience they, they would like to have A, at least Shiva working as what we call a trauma stabilisation, uh, centre.
But at the moment even that is not possible when the trauma war, some of the buildings are completely burned out, not only destroyed, burned out.
I'm not an, an an engineer, but the structural integrity of a number of these buildings is questionable and it's probably very dangerous.
So not work Shifa to restore anything in Shifa, I'm afraid it will take years.
I mean, like, first of all, you need a battery of and we, we are planning already for the medical water, electricity engineers to come in and not just for Shifa, for the whole, I mean, only talking about health and health sector for the whole sector to see, to get a proper assessment of the damage, what can be rehabilitated, what can be renovated, what could be, should be completely actually flattened and, and rebuilt.
And how will that be rebuilt?
That's one.
And, and, and you have to look at much larger items, of course, water, electricity, solar, most, the most of this hospital had extensive solar parks, etcetera.
Then you talk about the the equipment and a lot of equipment is damaged or destroyed and you talk about medical imaging equipment and and of course all the X-ray CT scans, ultrasounds, etcetera.
And so that also if you look already future hopefully on a sustained ceasefire, early recovery, you have to completely rethink that approach.
Before the crisis, what I mean was extremely, incredibly difficult to get some of those supplies in.
It took WHO almost two years to get a few mobile X-rays into Gaza, Mobile X-rays in any hospital, any further hospitals.
They have 1015 mobile X-rays in hospitals, nothing special about that.
So I hope we have to really completely rethink that those approaches as well.
So we're cheaper.
That will take a long time.
I would say NASA complex during the last siege, some parts were destroyed.
What I said to the, the the the the warehouse, a lot of the supplies also WHLM partners destroyed, but the building itself stood.
So a lot of damages, etcetera.
And by the health workers, again, extreme resilience by the health workers instead of WHLM partners cleaned up the most important wards, specifically the, the, the emergency ward, eternity ward, ICU's oxygen plant, etcetera.
And so the hospital starts partially functional functioning again.
And it's extremely important because it will be a referral place for whenever the 1st for everyone, but also for whenever there would be an, an incursion.
This, all of this, of course in hospitals.
And the details on that is communicated.
And, and we expect that the confliction part of the confliction that they will not be attacked and not be and will not be attacked again.
That's all what I can say on the early recovery.
Maybe, yes, want to say something about that.
There's of course all kinds of plans and discussions already made.
Maybe you saw the initial report from the the World Bank, the UN and the EU that was an assessment only done up till actually late January, early February.
And that assessment only assess the structural damages, the structural damages buildings etcetera.
So nothing about equipment, nothing about staff and new resources etcetera, which is finally the most important that came already to 18.5 billion and that is seen by many as a gross under and gross underestimation.
So yeah, that process will will of course take for years.
I hope it will start the real it's planning is already started, but I hope that the real process and implementation can start very soon quickly as there is an sustained ceasefire, I mean implementation on the grounds.
Over to you.
Yes, thank you very much Lisa.
We can always count on you for the big difficult questions to to take them in turn.
You asked about whether you can move 1.2 million people and I assume kind of overnight out of that area.
I have no idea.
the United Nations is not part of any planning and will not participate in any ordered non voluntary evacuation of people.
That is not what we do.
I have not, in my experience, limited as it is, ever seen this amount of people voluntarily move overnight.
So there's that.
In terms of the Rafa crossing, again, it's impossible.
I don't have a crystal ball just to to say whether what the impact on that crossing will be.
We all know the importance of of that crossing not only for Rafa but for aid across the Gaza Strip.
So it is of course important that it remains operational.
We will of course do what we can to ensure that the humanitarian operation continues under any and all circumstances.
That's that's our pledge as humanitarians, that we will do our utmost to continue the operation.
And of course, we are looking at internally various scenarios for how we may do that.
Thanks.
Jens, thank you very much.
And as always, Rick and Ahmed, your your points taken.
This obviously is gauging from all the questions we received.
We've just met the one hour mark, so we'll discuss with colleagues on how we could better arrange these briefings.
But immensely important to hear your voices.
And thank you again, Rick and Ahmed.
We're now going to shift to the situation in Sudan and I think Olga, who we're very happy to have back here from UNHCR, also has an update on the heavy rainfall in East Africa.
But first on Sudan.
Good morning, everyone.
So over a year since the start of the war in Sudan, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, remains extremely concerned about the shocking levels of violence and devastating humanitarian and protection risks.
In many areas, as in many areas across the country, civilians continue to be cut off from life saving aid.
For the first time since since the conflict started.
A UNHER team reached Omdurman in Khartoum state, a city severely impacted by the conflict.
UNHER staff saw the massive destruction caused by the war with vast needs and **** levels of suffering among a population which has been out of reach of humanitarians to humanitarians for months.
During the two day mission to Amderman, which hosts over 12,000 refugees and more than 54,000 internally displaced people, UNITY are met with local officials, partners on the ground and also people impacted by the conflict to identify their main needs and understand the protection risk risks.
Displaced families including both Sudanese people but also which have been displaced but also refugees who were in Sudan before they were broke out, told unitary teams of their struggles to get enough food due to the soaring price of available goods, leading to fears of children becoming malnourished.
Children have no access to schooling or places to play, and they are distressed by the sound of arm clashes.
Displaced people do not have adequate shelter, with many living in overcrowded conditions in some of the gathering sites located mainly in schools, while two hospitals remain open, there are not enough medicines, they told our teams, especially for those with chronic illnesses.
Pregnant women are not able to access prenatal care.
People also shared serious concerns for their safety, reporting increasing sexual violence as well as limited legal support, and many are severely traumatised.
Beyond hard to mistake skeleton hostilities in in that force.
Fascial City are aggravating the already difficult protection situation for civilians in the in the area, according to available reports, terms of villages having targeted some race to the ground, killing innocent people and destroying public property and crops.
Indiscriminate violence, including sexual violence, as well as cases of separated and missing children are on the rise.
Movement restrictions on key roads are preventing people from fleeing so to safer areas, forcing them to shelter in already severely overcrowded displacement sites or in open spaces, putting them at further risks.
UNHER continues to call for the safety of civilians, safe access for aid agencies so that support and supplies can be delivered, and above all, for a cessation of hostilities.
Humanitarian partners also need more support to boost their capacity to respond to the crisis safely and effectively.
And we've explained several times that actually the funding requirements are not being met not for inside Sudan, but also for the response in in neighbouring countries.
Back to you.
Thank you very much Olga.
Do we have questions for Olga and Sudan?
I'm a farge of Reuters.
Hi Olga, great to see you back from the.
I wanted to ask a sort of related question on Sudanese refugees.
There was an investigation by the new humanitarian on Sudanese refugees being detained in a large number in Egypt in kind of secret detention centres and then sent back over the border where they came from.
Can you NHCR confirm this and how concerned are you about this trend and has grandy raised it with Egyptian authorities?
Thank you.
So thanks, Emma.
So we understand the, the heavy toll that the situation is taking in, in, in neighbouring countries, including Egypt and unit TR is in in conversations with all the countries, including Egypt, to ensure that those that are being forced to flee Sudan can do it in safety and and that they have access to, to, to safety in Egypt and also in in neighbouring countries.
Thank you very much, Jan Oh, sorry, Lisa.
Lisa Shalin VOA, thanks again.
Good morning.
Oh, guy.
I have a few questions for you.
First, there are reports that an attack on Al Fasher is imminent.
And I'm wondering whether there have been any refugees that have been fleeing from the area across the border to to Chad, whether they are even able to leave or if there are barriers to this.
And are you able as, as an organisation to have cross-border food going from Chad into Darfur or has that essentially dried up?
And then let's see, I had one more thing.
Yeah.
And I'm wondering whether you think that Sudan is on the brink of famine, whether it seems as if very little food is getting in and is this a concern of yours?
Are you able to do anything in this regard?
Thank you.
So first on the cross-border movements to Chad, we were discussing with with our colleagues in Chad while while preparing this note.
And at the moment, we have not observed a major changes on arrivals, but it's something that we continue monitor because as you will mention, Lisa, this may may have an impact on on cross-border movements, especially if the situation gets worse.
But in the note that that you just received as well on your emails, there is a link to to a protection report from from Darfur.
And, and there you can, you can read what our colleagues know from inside and, and, and they, they say that there are restrictions of movements in key roads out of Al Fasher which are inhibiting civilians from fleeing to safer areas.
So this is something as I mentioned that we continue monitor because of course people maybe face challenges to actually seek safety cross-border as well.
Then on your question on, on, on farming, I think maybe colleagues from WFP or, or Chub would have a better understanding of the situation inside.
But of course, as the escalation continues and, and, and the prices are increasing and, and there is less access to humanitarian supplies, the situation may get worse.
We have for instance, some some tracks with relief items that are ready to get to Alfasher, but at the moment they are not able to cross because of the of the situation with relief items and and such a sharp tarpaulins, shelter kits, etcetera.
So it's it's a risk.
And Lisa, what's what was your question?
Sorry about that.
Yeah, actually you have your hand still.
So maybe if you can repose that and add any quick follow up, Lisa.
Yeah, OK.
It's interesting that you said that there is a protection report about what is happening and now Fasha doing radio.
I'd like to hear you actually verbalise that it could.
Could you elaborate upon what is happening?
You say that there that people are being prevented from going across.
I mean, what are your your big fears in that regard?
And then also are Sudanese fleeing from the country to other areas to other countries, not just from other parts of the country, not just from Darfur.
Thank you.
So our biggest fears, Lisa, are the the attacks targeting civilians continue especially in in El Fascia and and this restriction of movements what which include paying fees for movement.
It includes attacks, reports of sexual violence, as we have been repeating are, are preventing civilians from fleeing to, to safer areas.
And of course this is something that we are observing and, and keeping an eye on.
Because if people cannot move to safer areas, then of course they will get trapped in, in an area in, in the middle of the of the hostilities if there is an imminent attack taking place.
And of course, I mean this, this will further increase prices of of goods.
They will it will further damage infrastructure, which is already heavily impacted by by the conflict, which has lasted already over a year.
Thank you very much, Olga.
We still have a couple of hands up.
Jan Herberman.
Yes, good morning.
Many thanks for giving me the floor.
Good morning.
Olga, I was wondering, have you mentioned that there are nearly 6.7 million ID PS plus 1.8 million refugees?
And I was wondering, have all of them been displaced due to the current conflict in Sudan?
And secondly, I suppose that Sudan is still the biggest displacement crisis globally.
Can you confirm that?
Thanks.
First, regarding 6.7 million people internally displaced, these are people newly displaced by this conflict.
These are the data that UNHCR is is managing you, you, you.
You can also look at the detail information on on the data portal.
But yeah, I can confirm that this is newly displaced by the by the war and the same for the 1.8 million refugees.
So this has been in the period in a period of of a year.
And your second question, sorry, my brain, my brain as well.
Let's see Jan, please repose that second part of your question if you would.
Yes, sure.
I was wondering whether this is still the biggest displacement crisis globally.
Yes.
So I, so we are as, as you know, UNHCR publishes the it's global trends report in June just before World Refugee Day.
But still the Syria crisis remains the largest in terms of displacement at the moment.
We are, we are trying to to put together all the final data and you'll have a final confirmation in just a few weeks time.
But the Syria crisis, the numbers continue to be large.
OK, thank you.
I'll get one last question on Sudan from Yuri Rio Navasti.
Yuri.
Yes, thank you and good morning, Olga.
Yesterday, the ICICI announced the death of two of its drivers in 1004.
Three other employees were injured.
What is the situation of your employees there and will they continue to work?
And what situation will push you to stop your activities for security reasons?
Thank you.
So.
So, so we have at the moment 300 and let me give you the exact figure 360.
Sixteen staff members in the country and we are working with 40 partners.
We have activities in 15 out of 18 states in Sudan.
However, of course, the the war and the ongoing fighting and and and the security situation, it's hampering the delivery of aid in some locations, especially that for Khartoum and the Kordofan areas.
We have increased our presence in some states where before we were not present because now they are hosting ID, PS and also refugees that have moved to other areas, especially in the east and the north of the country.
We are committed to continue presence in Sudan and delivering aid as as much as, as we can because it's crucial to, to support Sudanese people and those displaced and refugees inside the country.
And it's for that that we continue calling for, for safety for civilians and, and to allow humanitarian aid to, to, to reach those in need.
Thank you very, very much, Olga.
Just to remind you that the secretary general has been very vocal on the situation, particularly Al Fasher, where some 800,000 civilians are in grave danger, according to latest updates from OCHA, 200,000 of which are internally displaced people.
So with that, let's turn.
I'm sorry, Yuri, did you have a quick follow up on this before we turn to the next subject?
Yuri, this is really a quick follow up.
So go ahead, understand there there is no condition, no security reasons that will push you back from the country.
I mean you can move your staff from a region to another because the situation there is worsened, but you will not leave the country in any case.
This is that I understand we are going to continue in Sudan to to deliver aid as much as as we can and to the locations where we can.
I mean, of course, as I was mentioned in the security situation in has a, a, a stream impact in, in our presence in certain locations like our colleagues in El Fascia and some of our partners were moved to a safer location just a few days ago for, for, for the ongoing fighting and, and the and the fear of, of increased hostilities in the coming, in the coming days.
But but we are present, as I mentioned, in several parts of the country and we will continue to do so.
Thank you very much for that.
OK, we'll stay with you.
Elga, we you have an update on the heavy rainfall in East Africa and forcing thousands of refugees from their homes.
Over to you.
Thank you, Vernon.
So thousands of people, including refugees continue to be caught up in the ongoing and linear triggered heavy rains and serious flooding sweeping across East Africa.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is particularly concerned about thousands of refugees, another displaced, being forced to run once again for their lives after their homes were destroyed and taken by water.
For instance, in Kenya, nearly 20,000 people in Dadaab refugee camps, which host over 380,000 refugees, have been displaced due to the rising water levels.
Many of them are among those who recently arrived in the past couple of years after fleeing severe drought.
In Somalia, some 4000 people are currently sheltering in six schools with facilities that have been extensively damaged, and others are staying with friends and and relatives.
Several latrines have collapsed, putting refugees at risk of deadly water boring diseases.
And in Burundi, around 32,000 refugees, which is nearly half of the refugee population in the country, are living in areas affected by the floods.
In the capital Bujumbura, refugee families along with many Burundians, including elderly people, have had to relocate already multiple times.
As water levels continue to rise.
Access to food and other necessities is increasingly difficult due to the **** fees of the canals that people have to use now to move around.
Education has ground to a halt as classrooms are flooded and learning materials are destroyed.
And beyond Bujumbura, rent prices have doubled, making it too expensive for many families to afford, leaving them with either choice that to remain in their waterlogged homes.
Other countries in the region like Somalia and Tanzania have also seen forced displacement following this heavy rainfall.
And Unity R is working closely with local authorities and partners Russian aid and providing protection services to refugees and affected communities.
I'm not going to go in detail, but you have the note with the items we are delivering, which include a relief items such as tarpaulins, mosquito Nets, dignity, kids soap, Jerry cans.
We're putting special attention to elderly and people with disability which have more difficulties in in moving and we are helping families to relocate to safer locations.
Climate change is making many parts of the world, especially in fragile regions like East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Increasingly any any any inhabitable storms are more devastating.
Wildfires have become a commonplace and floods and droughts are intensifying.
And some of these impacts are irreversible and displaced people are bearing the brunt of these impacts.
These flats show the gaps in prepare Nets and early action and funding available to address the impacts of climate change is not always reaching those forcibly displaced and not the communities hosting them.
And without this help to prepare for it to withstand and recover from the climate related shocks, they face increased risks of becoming displaced.
Once again, thank you Olga, Claire has her hand up.
Claire of the World Meteorological Organisation, I think want to chime in on this point.
Claire, over to you.
Yes.
Can you hear me OK?
Good.
All right, start my video.
Thank you.
Yes, thank you for the opportunity to to join you.
As Olga just said, the you know, the most vulnerable in the world are hit hardest by the effects of climate change.
The rains in East Africa this rainy season have been absolutely exceptional.
The ongoing flooding in in Kenya, you know, as as we're seeing is, you know, it's, it's really off, you know, off the scale.
We've seen, you know, very heavy loss of life, not, you know, threats not just to the displaced, but heavy loss of life among the general population in.
Countries such as the United Republic of Tanzania in Kenya and unfortunately there is no relief in insight.
Now, hard on the heels of the existing heavy rainfall, we have a new ****** and that is in the form of Tropical Cyclone Hideya, which has been a formed in the past couple of days.
Now, according to WM OS Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre in LA Reunion, this Cyclone Hideya, it's the first documented system to have reached tropical cyclone status in this part of the world.
We're not talking about Sudan, we're talking about Lower in East Africa.
It's so it is, you know, historically significant, but it's also going to have a very big impact.
And specifically on Tanzania, which you know, the rate, you know, the grounds are already absolutely sodden.
You know, Tanzania's suffered flooding.
It's about to get hit by even more heavy rainfall in the next couple of days from this, from this system and the the moisture in this tropical cyclone, you know, will also impact to impact Kenya, Kenya where you know, there is also very, very, very bad flooding.
What's blame?
Yes, climate change is the supercharging extreme extreme weather.
We have a El Nino event.
It's, it's fading, but the impacts are obviously continuing.
That does lead to more heavy rainfall in East Africa.
And we have very, very, very warm ocean waters.
And so, you know, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture when it rains, that rain is heavier.
So that's, that's all just to say that, you know, the meteorological authorities in the country is concerned.
You know, they are issuing numerous alerts, numerous warnings.
And it, you know, it really does go to show that, you know, we do need early warnings.
We need early action, you know, against, against a crisis of this this nature.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Claire.
And I know we're going to go back to you in a bit.
You have another announcement for us.
But just maybe to mention on the East African floods, we did share with you another statement from the Secretary General, which he expresses that he is deeply distressed to hear about the thousands, hundreds of lives lost and many others affected by the heavy flooding in the countries Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania has just mentioned.
So that statement was shared with you yesterday.
We have one question from Maya Blintz of the UN brief.
Thank you very much for taking my question.
My question is for Claire, if we can have the report before this weekend, if possible.
I don't know if they're ready so we can look into it to prepare questions for interviews and also if they have already also a Spanish version.
Thank you very much.
OK, right.
We're going slightly off subject here, but I can deal with it quickly.
Yes, I can send, I can send you the English version.
This is of a report, a climate report on Latin America.
I can send that to you later today in English.
We'll have the Spanish version next, next week.
OK, got you.
Thank you, Claire.
Actually, I missed that Ben from RTS has a question.
Yes, just a quick suggestion because Claire mentioned the early warning system and all the campaign.
I guess we never had any briefing from UNDRR and that would be very interesting, I think especially in the region that you mentioned, Olga.
And also we have the satellite centre here and I know they're active also in monitoring what's happening there.
So maybe both would like to come one day.
That would be very interesting.
Thanks.
These are good suggestions, Ben.
And indeed, we'll reach out to our colleagues there and and see if we could arrange something, an ad hoc briefing for you.
We have one last question, hopefully from Lisa.
This is VOA.
We have another subject as well.
So Lisa.
Yeah, thank you.
First, Claire, please send us your your notes, the ones you have now not, not talking about the upcoming report.
Thank you.
And and then I'd like to know what kind of preparations can actually be made for, for cyclone when, when do you anticipate that it will make landfall?
And do you and perhaps Olga as well have any information on the number of people that have died as a consequence?
I mean, throughout the region, there's a consequence of this enormous rainfall and also on damages and destruction.
I don't know whether this is too premature, but if you have that information would be interesting.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Do you want me to take this perhaps so on tropical cyclones, you know, we do have very, very good warnings these days in most parts of the of of the world that does enable, you know evacuations to take place.
It enables what we call anticipatory action, which is sort of pre positioning by humanitarian agencies of you know, of, of relief of relief supplies and the thanks to a combination of the early warnings of the anticipate reaction, you know, we have prevented great loss of life in in many regions of the world.
The problem with this is incoming tropical cyclone and it's not necessarily a very strong one, but it will bring more rainfall to already, you know, completely waterlogged, completely flooded areas.
So that does make, you know, the aid effort much more, much more complicated in terms of lots of life.
I think we talk.
I don't have precise figures.
I can, I can check we are talking about, I think there was about 150 people killed last week in flash floods in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Kenyan floods.
You know, the loss of life there is, is ongoing.
I think there's also been lots of life in, in Burundi, in, in, in Uganda.
And as Rolando said, you know, the UN Secretary General has, has been voiced his, his condolence.
We, we share that condolence.
In terms of economic losses, it's still, it's still too early to say.
When you, when you look at the images of, you know, bridges, roads being being swept away, it's, it's going to be immense.
It's, you know, it's really going to be immense.
You know, the loss of livestock, the this disruptions in agriculture, it's, it's a huge, huge, huge disaster.
And just just Lisa, I wanted to stress that despite the, despite the early warnings, sometimes the, the preparation is not reaching those most vulnerable communities.
And this include refugees or other displaced communities, which are often in areas that are more exposed to these climate hazards.
And that's why we, we, we continue to stress the need to increase funding for, for, for the host countries, the most impacted countries by, by this extreme weather events and climate change.
And also for, for this funding to reach those displaced communities so they can, so we can equip them and so they can be prepared, they can adapt to this new situation, which is unfortunately their new reality.
And they can also recover when actually they are hit by by by events like like the one the flooding we are seeing in now in East Africa.
And just to mention that we have B roll available, it's in the note that we sent via e-mail in case you you want especially broadcasters to to use it.
That would that would be great.
Thank you very much, Olga.
Maybe Claire, since you've already delved into the announcement you were to make later, maybe if you can just we'll use this opportunity for you to add to that.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'll just very briefly on Wednesday, the 8th of May, WMO will be releasing its State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean report to 2023.
We're not having a press conference as such, but there will be a virtual launch event hosted by our Secretary General, Celeste Salo, and I will send you the details of that link afterwards.
We will be sending out materials on Monday under embargo in English and hopefully in, in Spanish.
And those who need report already today, in fact, I can, I can send you the report and today Maya and, and other people.
So thank you.
Thanks to you, Gracias.
OK, we'll stay on the subject of climate and thank you very much.
Mr Bocanegra of Alberto Bocanegra is IFRCS head of delegation in Bangladesh who is joining us from Dhaka.
Once again, thank you very much.
He's addressing the humanitarian consequences of the heat wave in Bangladesh.
Alberto or I don't know, Tomaso, did you want to start off and and add something at the onset?
No, I think that a better way than that.
Very good.
Thank you very much and thanks again for your patience.
Alberto, thank you very much and thank you for all the colleagues here from the press, international organisations, UN and my colleagues from the Red Cross for Crescent Societies are very happy to be here today and be able to share a little bit of more information about the heat, heat wave here in the Mangladesh.
And probably I would like to begin by sharing some observations that witness during my recent visit to the affected areas in Bangladesh, more precisely to the affected areas in Dhaka, with the severity of the current heat wave is really very vulnerable.
A couple of days ago, I was together with the Secretary General of Recresent and Gladys Recreation Society and the Head of Resources Response.
We're visiting some of the services that we're providing the current context of heat wave, and we're seeing hundreds of thousands of people that have been affected by this heat wave, especially those outside workers.
These are ritual pullers, St hawkers, construction workers, and the situation is really, really alarming.
We can see especially the impact on the most vulnerable population, not primarily children but also persons with disability, persons with special needs and those with chronic disease, especially those with blood pressure, kidneys, disease, asthma, diabetes and the consequences that we see or probably Nova, dehydration, fever, heat exhaustion, rapid heat rates.
So we visited some of the cooling stations that we have set in Dhaka and we saw hundreds of people that were receiving services, mainly control over pleasure, distribution of water to also have bed for those that need to recover from the heat.
And what we're witnessing in general is an exceptional thematic event.
That's undoubtedly a situation that is new here in the extension and the level of rising of temperature, something that we have never witnessed in the past 76 years almost since we have records here.
And So what is happening is that we have alerts in around 57 out of 64 districts and this is affecting more or less around 70% of the population.
So we're talking about 100, twenty, 125 million people.
In response to this situation, we are together with Bangladesh Represent Society, activating our early action protocol that was on back on 21st of April.
And we have activated also our volunteers in 57 branches and we have here in Dhaka approximately around 250 volunteers supporting the communities and providing different types of services.
Most of these services are related to distribution of drinking water.
Not all the people have access to potable water, distribution of caps, distribution of umbrellas.
So we're distributing packets, packets of saline and we're also providing first aid.
And for the severe cases, we're referring those to hospitals.
Of course, all this is being done not only in urban areas but also in rural areas.
I would like to mention also how critical is the role of youth and volunteers in the case of Bangladesh.
We count with Bangladesh Represent Society that has around 700,000 volunteers, all of them trained and very, very positive in supporting and providing assistance to the communities.
They are part of the community themselves.
So they're able also to be front liners in the assistance that we're providing.
The current heat wave in our auxiliary Rd, we're coordinating very closely with the line ministries.
So we're working together hand by hand with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, and of course with the Ministry of Environment.
We're coordinating with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department and of course also with IFRC Climate Centre.
Besides the heat wave, we also are preparing for an imminent ****** of flash floods.
This is mainly in the north eastern part of the country.
But this shows the reality and it was been mentioned in the in the last presentation the harsh reality of this climate change.
We have to say that this response that we have a gathers for present society is doing is being done in full coordination with of course International Federation of the Red Cross, but we're getting also the support of American Red Cross, Swiss Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, Swedish and British Red Cross.
So this is a collective action that is supporting our national society.
In this response, we committed, of course, to continue the efforts moving towards providing the services to the community, but we're also very committed also in the preparedness for the future thematic challenges.
That's that's a reality and it's something we're working on together with the with the governmental authorities and we wish to be able to in the near future have some more impact in the way we're preparing ourselves for the future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your attention.
Ready if there's any questions.
And thank you for inviting me for this session over.
Thank you very much.
Alberto.
Do we have questions for a caller from IFRC in Bangladesh?
OK, see that's there are no hands up.
I think you were very, very comprehensive and I think Tommaso will be sharing the notes with all of you.
So thank you very much and thanks for your patience as well.
Tommaso, maybe before we go to our last brief or just briefly since we have you on screen as well.
I think you had a very quick announcement before we go to our final briefer, Tommaso.
Yes, absolutely.
Thanks Rolando.
Just would like to brief on 2 upcoming days that we'll celebrate and share all the resources available for media.
The first one is next Sunday, the 5th of May, which is the anniversary of the foundation of the IFRC.
And the second one is the 8th of May, next Wednesday, which is the word across centre Question Day.
This year's team will be keeping humanity alive in a word marked by an president in crisis and emergency.
This team serves as a reminder of the enduring commitment of the international cross incursion movement to uphold the human dignity, alleviate suffering and extent assistant to people facing dire circumstances.
And I mean today we already spoke about some of these very challenging contact from Gaza to Sudan and others affected by climate crisis.
While it is important today's the resources available are on Monday we will share a package of stories of volunteers and it will also be available for follow up interviews.
On Wednesday, we'll have our usual live on X former Twitter, our across weekly space and of course you are all welcome to tune in.
And we'll have stories of volunteers from different countries that are at the moment facing different emergencies.
There are, of course, assets and stories on social media website.
Our joint movement statement will come and will be shared with media from our leadership.
And then of course, we'll have spokespeople available to talk about different emergencies.
And finally, for the people who are in Geneva, the Geneva Across will run several activities and among others, volunteers will run a Red Cross village plus Iran for five days from May 8 to 12.
And on the 8th of May, on what the Cross occasion day, as soon as night falls, the JEDO will turn red as a tribute to the special day.
And of course, for any information, you can come to us on the website of the River Across.
Thank you, Rolando, and thank you, colleagues.
Thank you, Tomaso.
We'll look out for the red JEDO, of course, and thanks very much for that announcement.
I'll turn now to our colleague in Rome, Monica Totova, who's a Senior Economist at FAO, who's going to brief us on the monthly update on global food commodity prices, the FAO Food Price Index.
And thank you very much and apologies for the the delay.
Over to you, Monica.
Thank you.
Good morning.
At this point, good afternoon from home.
For the sake of time, I will keep my remarks very concise.
The press release was distributed and so were the notes.
So the FAO Food Price index was released this morning.
It edged up a little bit marginally, .3% in April, which was the second month in a row following a seven months long declining trend.
The good news is it was down 9.6% from its corresponding venue one year ago.
This increase was led primarily by increases in the prices of meats and some modest increases for the vegetable oils and cereals, which then more than offset decreases in the sugar and dairy prices.
So what?
What does this mean overall and other than going to details on individual commodities?
First of all, it is generally good news for the importing countries.
With the exceptions of the vegetable oils, which are on the similar level as they were one year ago, prices of all other basic food commodities are now below the levels that there were one year ago, right.
So sugar is down almost 15% and cereals as a group, as an aggregate and down more than 18%.
However, the global commodity prices aren't denominated in the United States dollars.
And that means that the strengthening U.S.
dollar does not necessarily translate this easing global commodity prices into lower food import bills so many countries.
FL also released its monthly Cereal Supply and Demand brief, affirming comfortable supply for the current marketing year for cereals.
Although fertiliser prices have eased compared to the past and thus improved profitability, farmers tend to respond to the lower prices, which are good news from the consumers by planting glass.
Now, assuming that weather conditions remain favourable, yields could make up for smaller wheat plantings for the coarse grain crops.
The main harmers will begin soon in the southern Hemisphere where the recent adverse weather condition have curbed the the yields for the major producers, notably Brazil and South Africa.
And the last point I would like to make is about South Africa in particular when the Union drought has caused a widespread crop damages with the 24 harvest expected at the below average level.
This means that the import requirements for the region which traditionally has been trading is using a lot of white maize and they have been trading with Zambia.
South Africa was supplying the region.
These supplies will have to be sourced from outside the South African region and this could have also implications for acute food insecurity in the upcoming year.
I would leave it there at this in case there are any questions.
Thank you, Omar.
Thank you very much, Monica, for that very thorough update.
Do we have questions for a colleague from FAO?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So thank you.
Once again, apologies for the delay.
I trust Key you'll be sending these notes.
So thank you once again, Mr Tova.
OK, before we wrap up, just very briefly, just a couple of announcements as usual for me, just to highlight a few things happening here in Geneva.
As I mentioned, we shared with you the remarks of the Secretary General, his press remarks out of Santiago last night.
So do take a look at that.
Lots of important messages there in as well as the statement that I referred to briefly about the East Africa floods.
So do take a look at those terms of meetings.
Here we have the Committee Against Torture is wrapping up.
This morning its report is review of its report of North Macedonia and this afternoon it will review the report its report on Finland.
Next week the Committee on the Rise of the Child kicks off its 96 session.
The number of countries to be reviewed include Namibia, Guatemala, Georgia, Mali, Panama, Egypt, Bhutan, Estonia and Paraguay in that order.
And then as you know, the Universal Periodic Review, a working group, the the body under the Human Rights Council is meeting this week and next.
Today it was Komoros being reviewed, human rights record in Komoros on Monday, it's Slovakia and Eritrea in the Monday in the morning and afternoon.
And today is which observance World Press Freedom Day, OK, I thought you would know this, but it is indeed a day to obviously highlight the critical work that you do.
What's that?
No pressure, OK, critical, critical work that you do obviously to inform and educate about in this particular theme of this year is about the press for the planet journalism in the face of the environmental crisis.
So this this year we're highlighting important work that you do colleagues in the media to highlight this important discourage the unprecedented environmental emergency, which poses an existential ****** to this and future generations.
Among other things.
The secretary General and his message for the year also addresses rather he's expresses his shock in how how appalled he is by the **** number of journalists killed, of course, in various crises, including in the operations in Gaza.
So this is a message we shared with you in connection with World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday.
This coming Tuesday, the 7th of May, we have an event taking place here at the Palais from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM in Room 23, hosted by UNESCO, UNEP, World Health Organisation and the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, together with the permanent missions of Austria and Chile to mark this important event.
Mark this important observance rather with some panel discussions on the important work that you're doing to highlight this important issue.
That's all I have if you have questions for me.
No, in that case, have a good afternoon.
Nice weekend in Bon Appetit.