Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing.
Today, the 14th of May, another busy day.
We have Ukraine, the situation in Gaza and an update on the flooding in Afghanistan, as well as a few announcements.
We'll start off immediately with Liz Throssell from the UN Human Rights Office, who will speak to the situation in Ukraine.
And I should mention that we will go to Gaza afterwards.
Our colleague from Gaza to correct the the update that you received is not able to connect.
So we'll have our colleague from ICRC, Jason, who will address Gaza after we hear from Liz.
Yes, good morning, everyone.
I do indeed have an item on Ukraine.
We are deeply concerned at the plight of civilians in Ukraine, particularly in the Khaki region, as Russian armed forces have stepped up their attacks in recent days.
This ******* has seized more Ukrainian territory, triggered further displacement and potentially threatens Khaki, Ukraine's second largest city.
Since the latest incursion by Russian forces on the 10th of May, during which they took control of several small small settlements, at least 6000 people are believed to have fled or been evacuated from areas on the border.
Many have reached the city of Kharkiv, which is just some 30 to 40 kilometres from the fighting.
Our human rights monitoring team in Ukraine, which is continuing to analyse information from the ground, has verified that at least 8 civilians have been killed and some 35 injured in the Kharkiv region since last Friday.
This follows a pattern of civilian casualties documented for April, when at least 129 civilians were killed and 574 injured, the majority amid attacks by Russian armed forces.
Along the front lines in Kharkiv region, the situation is dire and as fighting intensifies, colleagues in Kharkiv report air raid sirens sounding almost constantly and hearing explosions in the border area and in the city itself.
Continuing attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which since March have affected millions across Ukraine, have also meant daily power cuts in many parts of Kharkiv.
Reports indicate that in the north eastern border city of Wolfchansk, where there has been significant destruction, heavy fighting is continuing.
Several 100 civilians residents out of several 100 civilian residents out of a population of some 3000 prior to the 10th of May are believed to still be there.
And just to note that prior to 2022, the population of Ovchansk was some 17,000.
We're also looking at into reports alleging that falling debris from an intercepted missile hit an apartment block in Belgorod in the Russian Federation, causing civilian casualties.
We once again call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its armed attack against Ukraine, in line with the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly, the binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice and with wider international law, and to withdraw to internationally recognise borders.
We also urge all parties to make every efforts to avoid or in any event minimise harm to civilians, including by avoiding the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas.
Thank you very much, Liz.
OK, questions for Liz on Ukraine.
Not on Ukraine, Not on Ukraine.
OK, let's just talk about Ukraine first.
If there are no questions, maybe.
OK, we have Lisa Shrine of Voice of America.
There are always reports that Russia comes in when it attacks and deliberately turns cities, villages, whatever into rubble.
What do you know about its tactics and the attack on Ukraine and sorry, khaki and smaller villages surrounding about it?
Has there been an aggressive campaign to to bomb the the **** out of these cities?
And do you know whether there are any sort of human rights atrocities which have been committed?
And I don't know whether the investigation has occurred, whether there is any or whether this will happen.
Thank you for that, Lisa.
Well, of course we are seeing an unfolding situation.
As we've highlighted there was the Russian incursion starting on the 10th of May and they have seized some settlements.
What we're we're seeing on the ground as as I noted is the people are are are being evacuated from the areas of heavy fighting or or are fleeing.
Now you can imagine that, that for the people, for the civilians living there, this is, this is beyond distressing for many of them.
It, it's really difficult to know what to do.
Many of them really don't want to leave.
That would be a question of leaving their homes, leaving their, their animals, leaving their house, leaving their, their, their plants, their gardens, a really sort of personal kind of impact.
So we have seen a, a, a big number of people evacuated out of the region or, or fleeing the region, many going to the city of Kharkiv as as I've stressed with regard to, to what is actually happening.
Well, of course, this is an area of, of intense fighting.
So the security situation is very difficult.
I would point out two things.
Or we do have colleagues in Kharkiv itself, Kharkiv city, we but we also have our human rights monitoring mission across the country and, and the majority of colleagues in Kiev.
And of course, part of the work that that colleagues there have been doing for, for many years in fact, but of course in this since 2022 intensively is trying to gather information as to what is happening and unfolding.
So I think what you're pointing to with regard to, to human rights violations, human rights atrocities, that is deeply concerning what may be happening to the civilians.
But of course, at this stage, it's quite difficult to establish what may actually be happening on the ground.
But I think this underscores the, the, the call that that we're making is really for, for the Russian armed forces to, to halt their offensive, to withdraw to internationally recognise borders.
And of course, the, the call that we're making them a call that we make repeatedly on all parties to make every effort to, to avoid or or at least minimise civilian casualties when conducting their operations.
Lisa, is that to follow up?
I see your head is still up.
Is the **** Commissioner in direct contact with Russian diplomats about this situation?
I mean, it isn't it kind of naive to even think that the Russians are listening to anything that you're saying?
I mean, you are saying, you're saying to them stop fighting, stop the attacks.
They're not going to stop.
I mean, what, what sort of answer do you get from Russian diplomats when you talk to them?
Do they even bother answering you?
I, I, I'm, I'm sorry, it's just that it's, you know, kind of confusing my question, but if you would answer that, please.
Well, Lisa, I, I think it's, it's an understandable question from yourself as a journalist to ask, well, what, what impact do our words have?
What impact does our monitoring have?
But what we would always say is, of course we have the global mandate.
The **** Commissioner engages with leaders with permanent missions here in Geneva on a regular basis.
And we believe that it is incredibly important to keep making these calls.
They may not be heeded in in the first instance, but as you know, part of the work of our office is to monitor is to document as part of an overall aim of, of establishing accountability for violations.
Now, in some cases, this could well take many years.
But what we're saying right now, given the the immediate impact on on the people fleeing the border areas, what we're seeing is This is why we thought it was so important this morning, right now when we know that heavy fighting is continuing to make that call to the Russian authorities.
Do we have further questions on Ukraine?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So maybe if you don't mind, Liz, we'll take a question on another subject before we turn to our colleague on Gaza.
Sorry, this hasn't been repaired yet, so I can't use this one.
Liz, there is confusion about figures from Gaza, not the death toll overall, but the information about how many women and children and teenagers are among those killed.
That there has been a significant drop in the figures that were reported by the Palestinian authorities last week.
And OSHA has taken them without any comment as to why this was the case.
And I have also not been able to get an answer whether they're going to correct that or whether the new figures are right and the old were wrong.
Do you have any insight in the casualty figures?
And especially is it true that 70% women and children or is that a figure that has to be corrected?
Yeah, Thank you for your your question, Christiana.
Well, I think I think the obviously with regard to to to Archer, Archer can speak for themselves with regard to to figures.
I think what is really clear is that that we have seen thousands of people, thousands of Palestinians killed and thousands more injured in Gaza.
Now, of course there needs to be analysis of the of the breakdown of figures, but I think it's very easy to get sidetracked by, by by the way that figures are presented and, and statistics.
We know that the documentation process by the Ministry of Health in in Gaza is ongoing and, and we have consistently taken figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, but we have consistently made it quite clear these are their figures.
We know that the United Nations teams on the ground in Gaza have been trying where conditions permit their own independent verification of casualty figures.
Ongoing process, as I said, and we ourselves in the UN Human Rights office, as part of of of our work as as that I've highlighted previously, is, is trying to verify civilian casualties.
And this is part of our global methodology.
And this takes time, as you can imagine.
We have said this repeatedly with other conflicts.
So what is the point of this?
Well, well, really, the figures come out in the immediate aftermath of something happening and these do get revised and they do get analysed.
From our point of view, the important work that we're doing is to have our verified figures going forward with regard to our documentation, our reporting, and as I've said previously, with regard to Ukraine with establishing accountability.
So that's why we we feel it's so important.
But of course, I'll leave it to, to Orcha and to, to Jens to explain more from their side.
Thank you very much, Liz.
And, and perhaps this is a good segue.
Christian Jens is actually on his way in.
And Please note that there was a flash update from Ocha which we shared with you, which gives some explanation on the methodology, etcetera, on the figures that that are obviously been reported on.
So if you can indulge us, we just wait a little bit.
Jens is on as we also have actually Christian of a World Health Organisation who may want to jump in on this point and I see that Yens is actually asking for the floor.
So Yens over to you Yeah, hello good morning everyone I'm I'm really sorry I'm unable to come in today.
I hope you can hear me not put on my camera because I'm out and about.
Just question on on your question, I don't think that there is unclarity about the figure.
What has been provided additionally by the Ministry of Health is more detailed information about a subsection of the overall tally of 35,000 deaths.
So we have more verified full identification of 24,000 out of the 35.
That does not change the overall tally.
That does not mean that OCHA has to correct anything.
So I just wanted to put that on record.
Thank you very much, Jensen and of course colleagues, please do look at the update that we shared with you.
Christian, did you have a quick follow up?
I know there are hands that we also have hands online.
So let's just take we'll start with Christian and remind you, we have our colleague from the ICRC also wants a brief on the subject of Gaza.
But go over to you, Christian.
It's just about the the update date, 215, day 217.
You have the overall figure, and underneath it says 20% women.
I don't have it in front of me, but underneath the figures don't seem to refer to only the identified casualties.
I don't know whether I'm reading this wrong or whether it's unclear.
So if we can start off, then I think Christian WHL also had his hand up, but maybe Yen's back to you.
I I do understand, I'm happy to talk to you bilaterally.
It is clearly stores where the information gets comes from.
Again, I, I want to stress these are not mutually exclusive in a way, because you can have a category that is not fully verified and you can have one that is fully verified.
And this is, as Miss just explained, an ongoing process whereby the identification of the information gets increasingly more solid as time goes by.
And of course, colleagues appreciate how difficult a venue we're working in.
So not easy to tally these figures.
Let's go to Christian Lindemeyer of WHO and then we'll take a few more questions on this subject.
Christian, please go ahead.
And then thanks for the opportunity and and thanks for Jens to to bring in a bit of clarification here.
This is this has been a weird look at figures yesterday because the initial headlines produced we're looking at only 25,000 fatalities, the one identified and they were missing out on the 10,000 non identified.
So you have to look at it in a different way.
Honestly, you have to see that until now, this is the most comprehensive update on figures because so far we have been mainly talking about 35,000 estimated deaths with an estimated breakdown.
Now as the Ministry of Health goes forward and identifies every single body, every single dead, gives names to people to give closure to the family, to the friends, that's when these figures get updated and the data get updated.
Now 25,000 have been identified, 10,000 are still missing.
And if you add and if you look at the calculation of the figures, you will come to the point that you still have about 60% of the casualties being women and children.
So this is what we come to when you count up the figures provided.
So nothing wrong with the data.
The overall data are still the same.
It's a good thing to identify the body and move forward to bring one clarity.
And then once you have everybody identified, which is a, a horrifying process and a very gruesome one, looking at, at, at bodies on the rubbles and mass graves and charred burn, whatever, then you may have a name to every person.
We'll have to complete factual data to this point.
It's the factual data, the 25,000 identified plus 10,000 unidentified, which then follow a certain logic of of estimation.
Thanks very much, Christian.
That that helps the colleagues.
I know we still have a few hands up.
Are these specifically on the figures?
Then Isabel and then we'll go to Jamie online.
Follow up on the figures for, for, for.
So, Christian, I don't know the, the, the, yet.
I, I understand it's really hard to, to, to get like precise numbers and I'm not asking for that yet The Prime Minister, the Israeli Prime Minister claims today that nearly half of the people killed in Gaza are, were Hamas fighters.
So to, to what extent do you think that it's coherent, let's say?
Do do you think that is relevant according to your own statistics?
OK, maybe Yens, we still have you there.
If you could perhaps address that Christian as well, either of you.
Maybe Yens, if we start with you, go ahead.
I, I will not go into commenting on finding a point analysis.
We provide the data towards clearly to where they come from.
And then I'll just reiterate, Kristen, sorry, all of that he has to say.
I mean, it is about identifying where being killed not only for the purpose of giving positive to those families who are unaware or do not know exactly what happened.
Yeah, it's difficult to hear you, but maybe, you know, if you want to connect after bilaterally with Jens.
I think Liz wanted to add something before we go to you.
I mean, I'm sure Christian will come in with, with, you know, as he's done with more sort of a detailed sort of analysis of, you know, the, the figures on, on what's being reported.
But I think in some ways we're basically talking about about 35,000 people who are dead.
And really every life matters, doesn't it?
And we know that many and many of those are women and children and there are thousands missing under the rubble.
So as I said in my, my early response and my colleagues are also saying it is very important to have civilian casualty monitoring.
It is very important to have figures and these do get processed, updated, refined.
But at the bottom line is that we are talking about people who have lost their lives.
OK, Christian, over to you.
No, I have no comment on the on on the comments that you mentioned.
I'm also looking at the close to 60% casualties of women and children.
Every single death there is is too many.
And I think that's what we need to focus on and not be be sidetracked by, by various comments.
Yeah, maybe just, you know, say these, these are not numbers, these are human beings.
These are mothers, fathers, children, brothers, sisters.
So, Jamie, I think you have a question on this subject as well.
And then we'll go to Isabel.
Yeah, I just had a question actually about the the death of AUN International Security staff member in Rafa.
Can you tell us a little bit about that and the reaction from you and either from Yen's or from from Liz or or whoever, please?
Just any update that you have on that situation, please?
I think Isabel, your questions on the figures is OK.
So maybe let's really quickly just to highlight that we did share a statement with you last night, which I, I trust you've seen about this incident.
So before we I throw to colleagues, just to remind you that this statement was sent out around after 6:00 PM last night, through which the Secretary General obviously is deeply, deeply saddened to learn of the deaths of this United Nations Department of Safety and Security colleague and the injury of another staffer when their vehicle was struck.
So there is a statement to this effect.
As you know, they as reported, they were on their way to the European Hospital in Rafa yesterday.
Of course, the Secretary of Journal, as he always has, condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation and of course reiterates his appeal for a immediate humanitarian ceasefire and release of all hostages.
I should has has been confirmed, but just to confirm to you here that it was an Indian national, it was a first international staff member, UN staff member that was killed.
And of course, this is a sheer illustration that there is really nowhere safe in Gaza at the moment.
But colleagues, feel free to jump in with any comment on this particular point.
I don't know if you had something to say on this list, but nothing really to to add except, of course, it, it, it is a reminder that you and colleagues, you and staff have died in in large numbers in this conflict.
And and once sort of heartfelt condolences go to the to their families and the families of the most recent fatality.
OK, let's let's turn to Isabel finally.
Sorry, Isabel, I neglected you the first time around.
So, Isabel, I think if Jens is is still around because Jens is connectivity is not so great, but you can pose a question.
Jens can share with us some elements on how the verification process of the to identify the deaths people in in Gaza is is done.
Maybe it it could we can have more clarity on this if he can explain a little bit this.
And also if all these elements, names, ages, place of deaths and so on is also information that this completely shared with any UN with Ocho human rights, health fees.
And certainly just to clarify also that when you said that there are 24,000 people identify that people, that's people identified plus 10,000 more missing people.
We are not talking about people that we consider thousands of people being under still being under the rubble.
So this is a part so we're still talking about 34,000 more.
We are always talk about 7000 or something like that under a durable.
These are important questions.
Let's let's try Yen's I I imagine Christian is something to say and then maybe maybe Liz as well.
Just on, on the the last part of your question, the 10,000 between 24,000 and 35,000, they are dead then there are additional thousands of people who remain missing on the rubble.
On the verification process, please on the verification methodology and verification process, if you have something on that Yens.
The verification is done by the Minister of Health and I think I will lock this one to Christian if I may remain a little bit of time to get those details.
The the way this works is the bodies or the deaths get counted and registered.
That that's important normally at health facilities, meaning at hospitals or at the morgues.
So an ambulance will bring a dead person or somebody brings the dead person to a morgue.
That's where they get registered and that's where a name gets given to the person and given back for a burial to the family to give closure.
Let's not forget also what Rolanda pointed out one more time.
Every single of these of these figures is a person with a name and the history and and a family.
So these are these this is the IT gets collected or it gets counted in the morgues in the hospitals.
So as as people are still under the rubble, dead in mass graves somewhere out there on the side of the road, couldn't get picked up in a conflict area, in a, in a so-called safe zone, but yet still not reachable because there's firing going on.
As long as all this has happened, there are still people out there which can't be identified.
This accounts for the 10,000 that we know of or we that the Health ministry talks about, which are the approximately 10,000 not yet identified.
They need to be brought back to A, to A, to a centre to be identified, to be given a name.
Additionally, exactly as you just pointed out, we talk about about 8000 actually people still under the rubble somewhere missing without yet either being an unidentified death or of course not unidentified death.
And this is, this is an important process, this is ongoing.
So that's why I want to highlight again the fact that we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward.
And the longer this continues, the more people can be identified, the closer, yes, the, the, the actual figures, the fact figures, the identified figures will come to the estimates which are in every conflict there and which need to be based on what you see, what you have on what's going on.
And maybe to remind you that's normal in every, every conflict in every scenario.
And just to think about that, remember in the beginning, after the, after the, the horrifying attacks in Israel, the count was 1400.
That, and that was revised to 1200.
A very normal process that you look then at the actual figures that the date that what you have, that the bodies once you have names to them and then you revise the figures.
So it's an absolutely normal process.
This is the way it moves.
Very important points, Christian.
Let's let's exhaust all the questions on the figures.
And I know that we have lots of interest in this, which I understand we do have our colleague from the ICRC who wants to speak to the situation of the hospital in Gaza.
So maybe I'll just take just ask maybe Lisa, is this on the figures?
No, but it's related and it's a very let's if you, if you can and it's for you, it's for me.
OK, well, all right, go ahead on the spot.
I'm on the spot this this has to do with the the deaths of the UN staffers.
I heard a report that Israel claims that they were not informed about the route that the UN staffers were taking.
And I'm wondering, is this credible?
OK, let me be clear about this, Lisa.
We, we inform that is the UN informs Israeli authorities of the movement of all of our convoys.
That has been the case in any, any theatre of operation.
We this is a standard operating procedure.
This was the case yesterday morning.
So we have informed them and it was a clearly marked UN vehicle as you've seen in the various images.
I, I really want to get to our colleagues.
So maybe I know Robin, we have Nick, we have Emma.
Maybe if you don't mind, we can just go to our colleague from the ICRC.
We'll just take a comment from him and then we can return to these questions, revisit this issue if need be.
But I'll turn over it now to Jason Strazuso, who you know from ICRC here in Geneva.
Unfortunately, Hisham Mana, who is a spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza could not connect this morning.
I understand it's not easy to do so.
So Jason, over to you and then we'll continue with questions on the situation in Gaza.
Jason, hi everybody and and thank you.
Very good news for us today.
The International Committee, the Red Cross and 11 national Red Cross societies have combined to open a field hospital in Gaza, obviously to help address the overwhelming medical needs due to the ongoing conflict.
The hospital is now open today and functioning.
In fact, in the days leading up to the opening today, we have had our first patients, including a first birth Sanad.
SANAD was born in our first soft opening trial days last week on May 10th.
Reem Abu Musa, the mother, told us that this is her third child and she named him Sanad because it means support and she gave us permission to share her story.
So I'm going to quote from her real quickly.
She told us I was so worried and scared about my pregnancy.
I went to a hospital before coming here and they could not receive me because of a lack of medical staff.
My pregnancy was full of suffering.
I had to move from communis to Rafa and then now from Rafa to Al Mawasi.
I was not able to have medical tests and check on my baby as we usually do because of the situation.
There's no food or vitamins for me or the baby.
And she added, I'm worried about moving again while I'm still under recovery from my caesareans and I do not know where I will go again.
So you can see by her experience how desperate people in people in Gaza are for more medical care.
This 60 bed field hospital is meant to complement and support the essential work performed by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and providing urgent care as the medical and humanitarian community attempts to meet vast health needs in Gaza.
The field hospital provide emergency surgical care, obstetrics, gynaecology, maternal, newborn and paediatric care, and it has an outpatient department.
Mass casualty management and triage capacities are also included.
This fuel hospital is truly a global Red Cross effort.
It's implemented in coordination with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and is supported with equipment, medicine and staff by the Red Cross Societies of Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Norway and Switzerland.
This field hospital will be able to provide medical care for roughly 200 people a day.
People in Gaza are struggling to access medical care and they urgently need that.
They urgently need, due in part to the overwhelming demands for health services and the reduced number of functioning health facilities.
Doctors and nurses, as we all know, have been working around the clock.
We know this new facility will help provide valuable care for people in need, but it's clear that even more medical capacity is desperately needed in Gaza.
And that's all I have on that.
But I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you very much for sharing that information, Jason.
We still have lots of questions on the situation in Gaza.
So we will start off with those in the room first, I think Robin, Agence France press, we'll start with you.
This is one for Jens or anyone else who might wish to to answer on the on the attack on trucks coming from Jordan into into Israel heading towards Gaza.
Do you have any any reaction on that and any any details on what happened there?
Let's wait a second to see if he can connect.
OK, I see that he's he's not online at the moment, so apologies for that.
If he reconnects, maybe we could throw back to him then maybe on that point if you want to.
Yeah, one for one for Christian, just for just for clarification, can you clarify that that 60% of the of the casualties in Gaza are women and children?
And just just for clarification where that figure comes from?
All right, So if, if you look this, this is going to be a lengthy calculation now, so, but I'm happy to walk you through.
If you look at the, the two sitreps of OCHA that have been scrutinised so much and where this headline came for from that the UN has halved the the figures, which is absolutely not true.
So out of the 25,000 identified ones there were, if you see the numbers, there were 30% women, 40, sorry, one more time out of 25,040% men, 20% women, 32% children.
And interestingly, as the, the ministry apparently calculated 8% elderly on top of the statistics.
So they don't count as in in the category of men or women, they're they're additional 8%.
If you put that same ratio of 402032 on the on the on the 35,000 on the additional 10,000 unidentified ones and you break down the elderly into men and women, you arrive very quickly.
Calculated over the whole 35,000 reported deaths unidentified plus identified, you come to approximately rough calculation 44% men, 24% women and 32% children.
That is 56% of of women and children.
And that is if all the statistics apply that way.
If you don't put into account that under the collapsed houses, for example, there's a **** likelihood that you find rather women and children because they are the ones typically staying at home while the men are out looking for food, looking for business, looking for any, any supplies for their for their families.
So a lot of unknowns in that equation.
These are estimates after all.
But again, in the minimum statistical calculation, you come to 60% women and children.
And that's just out of the pure statistics which are available right now.
Figures, data plus estimates.
Thank you very much, Christian.
OK, we have three more hands up.
We'll start with Emma of Reuters.
The issue is that the Ministry of Health is saying over 70% are women and children.
So it doesn't quite add up for me.
How can you know what portion of the dead are women and children if they've not all been identified?
Could you explain to me no one more time.
This is exactly why these figures are called estimates.
They're said in the report.
It's talked about estimates in the initial figures all through the months.
We always the the reports always talked about estimates.
Only as the process is continuing of identifying every single person of giving a name to every single dead person will the figures at the end of the day have be complete.
We, we, we should assume so again, this is a typical and very normal process in any conflict, especially in such a difficult conflict where people have been on the move all the time, they've been displaced 567 times.
There are areas where no, not a single healthcare worker can go, no ambulances can go.
People can't go to retrieve their, their dead or their, their, their family members.
So let's, let's keep that in mind.
There are still people out there missing.
There are still people under the rubble.
Once everybody is recovered, you may have a chance to have a name to every person and have precise figures.
But one thing is clear here.
It's a name to every person.
And we need a ceasefire now to be able to recover those dead.
I think that was abundantly clear, Christian, thank you very much.
I we do have a couple of hands still, Nick.
New York Times is in Laurent Ciero.
One relating to the UN staff were killed.
I wonder if you have any more detail on exactly what happened in the sense of was that an air strike or drone strike or was that grand artillery fire that or gunfire that caused the fatality?
And then a question for ICRC please.
In relation to your hospital, how many staff have you got working there?
What what's the balance, international or foreign?
And I'm curious, at a time when so much international assistance to Gaza seems to be completely paralysed, what, what has made it possible for you to open the hospital at this time and how are you getting it fuelled?
How are you getting it staffed?
And do you have any opportunity to evacuate severely injured people?
OK, maybe just just to before we go back to Jason, just to say we, we are still investigating this incident which occurred yesterday.
We don't have any details other than what I mentioned here, you know, international staff from India, it was the first.
We have a second staff from the Department of Safety and Security who was injured.
He was in the vehicle at the time.
As I mentioned, they were on their way to the European Hospital in Rafael yesterday morning, but this is something that is being investigated.
The Secretary General himself has condemned this and is called for the full investigation.
Of course, we want accountability.
This is the ultimate aim of of this investigation.
And of course, you know, international's humanitarian workers are not targets.
So such attacks must end.
Jason, on the question of the hospital, back to you.
We have about 30 staff working at the new field hospital at any given time.
I, I read a long list, these 11 national Red Cross societies that some of them are deploying equipment and some of them are deploying staff.
Nick, we sent out a news release and it should have those details at the bottom.
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, and that may not be exhaustive.
Switzerland all deploying staff on the supplies because this hospital is now just opening and has been in the works for many months.
The, the, the, the field hospital itself is well supplied for now.
The ICRC hasn't been able to get in supplies for about a week.
So we have those ongoing concerns.
We brought in 15 trucks about a week ago.
That was food, mattresses, tarpaulins.
Separate from the field hospital, Nick, we also have a surgical team and we've had a surgical team since November at the European Gaza Hospital, and we contribute supplies there.
That hospital is down to about 3 days of fuel.
If no more fuel is delivered before then, operations there become very difficult.
You had quite a few questions.
I'm not sure if I covered them all.
But Nick, feel free to chime in quickly if there is something that is unanswered.
11 Quick one, I mean, yeah, evacuations.
Do you have any shorthand or quick route for evacuation of people who you feel needed?
We we're not involved with medical evacuations, so no, not us.
OK, we have a question now from Lauren Sierra, Swiss News Agency.
Also for questions to Jason.
First, I don't know whether you have a breakdown about how much the different national societies contribute and and how many people from the Swiss Red Cross have been sent there.
And then did I understand correctly that you said that you have three days of fuel for the new field hospital or is it another health centre that you mentioned, 3 days of fuel for the European Gaza hospital?
They're quite in close proximity to each other.
I don't have a figure exactly on the field hospital in in a way, it depends on what machines we have to use and what the influx of patients are, how this is.
This is not only for fuel, but all supplies basically what supplies need to be used, what machines need to be used.
So we don't have a definitive answer there yet other than to say it's something we're always concerned about and keeping our eye on.
And then we're not in panic mode yet and necessarily in either of those places, but we could be soon.
And on the Swiss, on the Swiss across.
Laurent, let me come back to you.
I don't have the figures obviously very interesting for your readers.
So we'll, we'll get that information to you.
Yeah, just a quickie for Jason, the exact location of this new facility.
I don't know how many metres away very close to the European Gaza hospital, which is in Rafa.
And I don't, I don't have whether it's on the West side of the east side off the top, off the top of my head.
But Nick, I can send you an e-mail.
Also, if you can send your notes, that would be appreciated.
Think some colleagues are asking for that.
Do we have further questions on Gaza before we move to our?
Thank you very much again, Jason.
Any last questions on Gaza for Jason or other colleagues?
In that case, we'll turn now to our colleague who's joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, Timothy Anderson, who's the acting Head of Programme in Afghanistan for the World Food Programme, who has an update for us on the flooding in Afghanistan.
Thank you very much and thanks for the invitation to to talk today on On the 10th and 11th of May, flash floods swept across NE and Afghanistan, impacting 18 districts in three provinces, Baghlan, Barakshan and Takah.
There's been widespread destruction, death and injury in areas where people at least able to absorb shocks.
On our current information, about 540 people are dead and injured, around about 3000 houses fully or partially destroyed, 10,000 acres of orchard destroyed, and about 2000 livestock killed.
Many of those who have survived have nothing left, no homes to return to, and no food or resources.
We expect these impacts to increase as assessment teams reach and report from less less accessible affected areas.
This paints A grim picture of what's been happening over the last few days.
Our staff on the ground tell me everyone they speak to is worried less about their homes that they lost and more about their destroyed agricultural land, as well as grieving for for lost family members as subsist as subsistence farmers.
It's their sole source of livelihood and already marginal to meet their basic needs.
These are the same communities for which WFP pre positioned food in the winter and two of the districts in Baghlan and Badakhshan are are are in so-called hunger hotspots.
Which means that when other areas are faring better because of the harvest season, these communities will still need food assistance over the summer just to survive.
And now with the impact of the floods, these same families are left in a catastrophic condition.
Now, this flood is not an anomaly.
It's one of many floods that have left a trail of destruction across the entire country in the last few weeks alone.
But this one has been the most significant one in terms of impact.
This also comes after what was one of the driest winters yet in Afghanistan, leading us to believe it would be another year of drought.
With these erratic weather patterns, it's been disaster after disaster, pounding communities back into destitution over and over again.
Some areas have been quite difficult to access.
We're taking food in via donkeys as that is the only way we can reach some of these districts.
So far, WFP has provided the survivors with emergency food assistance and we're planning to distribute blanket cash assistance in the coming days, which is enough to cover their basic needs for a month.
We've also dispatched wheat flour to some of the remaining operational bakeries so that the affected families can have access to fresh bread for free.
However, we need to help them not only to get through this crisis, but also to rebuild their lives and mitigate future climate shocks.
We can do this if we receive funding for Livelihoods and resilience programme to build with and in communities flood diversion walls, check dams and other vital small scale infrastructure.
And we know this works in bag land.
Describe the grim intact of floods.
WFP supported protection walls, saved over 640 families from the floods and protected 400 hectares of productive land.
Sadly, however, at times of massive funding shortfalls in Afghanistan, we are taking the assistance to the flood affected communities from an already underfunded programme that is increasingly insufficient to support the starving amongst the many hungry women LED households.
Children, the elderly and people with disabilities continue to rely on our diminishing assistance.
Without urgent additional funding, we'd not be able to support continue to our support to these families.
Thank you very much, Timothy.
And I should just remind you that we did share a statement from the secretary general on the flooding in Afghanistan over the weekend, through which he says he's saddened by the loss of life in the flash floods in the Baghlan province in the northeast of Afghanistan.
He expresses A solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, expresses condolences to those lost.
Reportedly, I just hearing from Timothy 540 for the moment and of course noting that the United Nations and its partners in Afghanistan R&D coordinating with the de facto authorities.
So this is something of course that was just addressed in that search and rescue operations continue in northeastern Afghanistan.
So thank you very much Timothy for that update.
Do we have questions for Timothy on the flashlight?
Lisa Shrine of Voice of America, Over to you.
Well, Rolando, you seem to have answered one question.
OK, I'll ask you my questions, please.
And that is, I'm wondering what role the Taliban government, the de facto government is playing in this, whether you are receiving the kind of cooperation that you need that you would like from them, or whether there is any interference in terms of the ability to get aid in.
I know you have a big funding shortage, but if you have the the supplies that are there, are you able to get them in without any kind of interference?
I mean, well, they're also physical problems, roads that are out of sync and so forth.
Oh, before I forget, please send us your notes.
That always helps with the situation.
And let's let's see where, where am I without?
And I'm very wondering and very concerned, given the enormous discrimination against women in particular, whether this is now or likely to be a hindrance in terms of recovery efforts.
Because clearly there are people who, well, they have been killed and others that are many that are injured and that would need medical aid.
And I would think if you are a woman in in Afghanistan, you need to have women who service you.
Probably a lot of them do not get the aid they get because you do not have women who are there nurses as doctors and so forth.
So thank you for enlightening me.
Thanks for the questions, Lisa.
In terms of in terms of access and integration with, with DFA, we have two, 2 levels of of integration.
One at national level through our access teams that that deal with with ministry level conversations with de facto authorities and assist us with access issues in terms of signature for Mous and letter of agreement, particularly in terms of being able to access areas in disaster periods on the ground.
At the moment, the relationship that our area offers colleagues, WFP colleagues and our cooperating partner colleagues have with DFA has been very positive.
That includes the integration of female staff members from cooperating partners and from WFP directly into the response.
So we we are always very keen to ensure that all beneficiaries or all affected population, male and female are adequately and equally covered in our response, response mechanisms and processes.
To date, that's been a very positive outcome on the ground and there have been no reported issues for our female staff, cooperating partner, female staff, our monitoring partner, female staff to to access and assist in the, in the response.
In terms of health, though it's not my not my area of expertise, I also understand that there are significant numbers of female staff in clinics across the affected areas.
And that that's been one of the features of of the assistance provided by by other agencies to ensure that there is sufficient coverage so that women, as you say, can be treated appropriately by by female, female doctors and nurses.
Thank you very much, Timothy.
We have a question from Nick of the New York Times.
Timothy, if you could just remind us, what was the WF PS overall financial ask for Afghanistan, what you've received?
And do you have an estimate of what it is that you kind of feel you need supplementary to to deal with this particular emergency?
And secondly, you mentioned this with this area is one of the the hunger hotspots in Afghanistan.
What, what is the, do you, do you have a snapshot of, of the malnutrition status of of the population there and just how bad it is and whether essentially the lack of donor response to your request for funding so far, How much do you think that is really just because of the pressure on funding for global emergencies generally and to what extent it's because Afghanistan seems to have become a bit of a prior state for donors under the Taliban.
Some complex, some complexity in there in terms of in terms of answers.
I'll start with the the simple ones, the overall, the overall funding envelope or request for 2024 for food alone was around about $1 billion as I understand it and figures we are read about 30% of that.
So a significant shortfall to give A to give an example over the summer.
We are undertaking a hotspot response forced into this process because we simply don't have the resources to be able to manage a general food distribution, resilience and livelihood programming, nutrition programming over a 12 month period with the current funding restrictions and resource restrictions.
What that means is that from May to April, May into June, we're dropping from 12.1 million people a month receiving assistance to around about a million and a half, 2 million maximum.
And that will be dependent on the types of emergency responses that we might need to be mounting in this interim.
So between May and October, we're dropping down around about 10 million people out of our assistance modalities and and looking at how we might be able to to save enough of our diminishing resources to pre position food for, for winter.
Winter is particularly harsh in terms of, of being able to manage nutrition across people who are already, you know, very, very marginal in terms of the impact of, of, of these decreases in resources for, for MAM moderate acute malnutrition and Sam severe acute malnutrition.
There's a, there's a negative correlation between the reduction in the, in the provision of general food assistance and CBT and A and a a rise in reported cases of MAM and Sam.
We don't, we don't call that causality because the data sets are can be can be difficult to, to be to be clear, but there's certainly a strong correlation and there is an increasing trend for MAM and Sam across Afghanistan.
In terms of of donor funding and the drivers, I think that there are two, two main components.
The first is of course this is a very competitive environment at the moment for any type of funding for humanitarian responses with many, with many very worthy recipients.
There's simply not enough to go around.
My my sense is that while there might be a political element to some of that, we don't really see that.
We see that the areas huge amounts of need across a number of different theatres and that, that we we need to be articulating the needs that are here in competition against the needs which are very, very obvious in, in places like Gaza or the Sudan and other Yemen, other locations where you, you know, there's, there's, there's a lot of dire need out there.
So there are some solutions I think to that in terms of of Afghanistan and donor funding.
And partly that lies in, in the transition from from general food assistance into more resilience and livelihood programming that actually has a more sustainable longer term effect on food insecurity.
So that's the that's the pathway that needs to be a transition process.
Of course, you can't just stop feeding starving people.
You need to to maintain at least a lifeline of some description, but transiting into a a resilience livelihood programming component is, is vital, I think in the in the coming iterations for our donor requests.
Thank you very much, Timothy.
I think Christian of WHO wants to add something on this point.
Christian Yeah, Thank you, Rolando and thanks Timothy.
And just to add a few points on on Afghanistan, the floods that the heavy rainfall as you just heard triggered the violent floods last Friday in the north of the country and several health facilities remain non operational making it difficult for people to access essential health services.
The full extent of the damage caused by the floods are still being assessed and WHO and the local health authorities are closely looking into the situation.
Looking on the ground what what we what what we can identify.
W Joe has so far delivered 7 metric tonnes of essential medicines and medical supplies and immediately deployed A surveillance support team and other experts to the flood responsive activities.
And prior to to that, WTO had already provided enough medication for pneumonia, acute watery diarrhoea and malnutrition to treat about 20,000 people plus supplies for 500 trauma cases.
Also, 17 mobile health teams were deployed by WTO and Health plus the partners to support the delivery of the healthcare.
Thank you very much, Christian.
Do we have further questions on Afghanistan?
I don't see that's a case.
So Timothy, thank you very much for this very important briefing.
Stay well and thank you as well Christian and and colleagues in advance for your much needed reporting to shed a light on the situation and urgently appeal for much needed funds.
Then we'll go in and move to Catherine of UN Trade and Development who has an update or announcement from us for us rather from us or for us, for us the new commercial development and so Hondra orphansomen or Canal de Panama.
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OK, I don't see any further questions.
And now we'll turn to David Hirsch of the International Telecommunication Union who has a update from the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
Just a quick announcement that on 17th May, which is Friday, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day will be commemorated.
This is the annual commemoration marking the founding of the International Telecommunication Union.
This year at WTI ST24, we're exploring how digital innovation can help connect everyone and unlock sustainable prosperity for all.
A virtual live streamed hour long event being streamed from IT US headquarters.
We'll bring together experts and innovators to talk about this topic.
And the subject is is the programme for that is is online.
And also just take this opportunity to to mention that media accreditation remains open for ITSAI for Good Global Summit taking place first with 29th of May, the AI governance day, which is planned, and then the 30th to the 31st to talk about how AI can artificial intelligence can support the Sustainable Development Goals as it does annually.
And also to remember to remind correspondence that accreditation remains open for the Wissus Plus 20 Forum **** level event, which will take place during that same week, this from the 27th through the 31st of May.
Both events will be at CICG, the International Conference Centre.
Wissus will be there from 27th, 28th and then we'll move to ITU headquarters.
And then the eye for good activities will be at CICG 29th, 30th and 31st.
Look forward to receiving more information on that important event coming up soon.
So thank you both very much.
Before we end, just a couple of announcements from me.
Firstly, just to flag a press statement, yet another press statement from the Secretary General that you received early this morning on the very worrying situation in Al Fasher, Sudan.
The Secretary General is gravely concerned by the outbreak of fighting in Al Al Fashir, which we've been reporting on here in this podium which puts over 800,000 people, civilians at risk.
He's alarmed by reports of the use of heavy weaponry in densely populated areas, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, significant displacement, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
And of course, he calls recalls that civilians in the area are already facing a looming famine and the consequences of over a year of war.
And as she urges the parties to immediately stop the fighting and resume ceasefire negotiations without further delay.
That's a statement that we shared with you early this morning.
Lastly, just to note, a couple of meetings taking place here at the Paladinacion this week.
We have the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which started last week, continues this week and next.
In fact, today they are concluding its review of a report on Egypt.
And this afternoon it will start with Bhutan.
That's a Committee on the Rights of the Child.
And the Committee on the Elimination of Discriminations Against Women is reviewing today its report on the Republic of Korea that's taking place here, in fact, in Room 23.
And lastly, the Conference on Disarmament this morning opened up the second part of his 2024 session at 10 AM.
We'll have a good afternoon in Bon Appetit.
