The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 24 May 2024
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UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
24 May 2024
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, and the World Meteorological Organization.
Growing human rights crisis in Rakhine state in Myanmar
Elizabeth Throssell, for the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the OHCHR was receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property. Some of the most serious allegations concerned incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property. Tens of thousands of civilians had been displaced in recent days by the fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. An estimated 45,000 Rohingya had reportedly fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh, seeking protection. Over one million Rohingya were already in Bangladesh, having fled past purges. The High Commissioner called on Bangladesh and other States to provide effective protection to those seeking it, in line with international law, and to ensure international solidarity with Bangladesh in hosting Rohingya refugees in Myanmar. Testimonies, satellite images, and online videos and pictures indicated that Buthidaung town had been largely burned. OHCHR had received information indicating that the burning had started on 17 May, two days after the military had retreated from the town and the Arakan Army claimed to have taken full control. OHCHR was corroborating information received about who is responsible.
The High Commissioner called for an immediate end to the violence, and for all civilians to be protected without any distinction based on identity. Prompt and unhindered humanitarian relief had to be allowed to flow, and all parties had to comply fully and unconditionally with international law, including measures already ordered by the International Court of Justice, for the protection of Rohingya.
James Rodehaver, head of the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) Myanmar Team, connecting from Bangkok, informed that his team had spoken to many sources on the ground and reviewed numerous source materials, many which were deemed to be credible. The Buthidaung town had been burned, as corroborated by many victims. Information indicated that the burning had started on 17 May, but there were different claims on where the burning had originated. OHCHR corroborated information further in order to establish who were the perpetrators of the burning.
Survivors described seeing dozens of dead bodies as they were leaving town, while others spoke of being blocked from leaving town by the Arakan Army, thus having to choose more perilous exit routes. The Arakan Army had reportedly abused the survivors and taken money from them, informed Mr. Rodehaver. Rohingya individuals spoke of sheltering with families who lacked sufficient food for themselves. He further said that at least four cases of beheadings by the Arakan Army had been confirmed, as well as multiple enforced disappearances of individuals. For a long time, the military had imposed draconian restrictions on the Rohingya. They had historically needed special permissions to move from their localities, which was why they had been reluctant to move this time. They also remembered previous experiences when leaving their home often meant not being able to return there ever again.
Responding to questions from the media, Mr. Rodehaver said that there had been several instances in recent weeks with lot of misinformation and propaganda on social media sowed with the purpose of spreading discord between the Rohingya and other Rakhine communities. The head of the Arakan Army himself had spread on X some ethnically motivated conspiracy theories about the Rohingya. So far, most interethnic clashes were being seen between armed actors rather than local civilian communities. He explained that there were many reports about conscription, and many conscripts had been promised various benefits by the military, which showed a level of desperation, as the military continued to lose ground, including in Rakhine. The military knew that the Rohingya men were overall poorly prepared to fight and malnourished and were often sent to the frontlines as the cannon fodder. A variety of pressures were reportedly used on the Rohingya to join, explained Mr. Rodehaver. The military targeted civilians because they could not fight back; when they fought organized armed groups, they frequently lost ground.
Mr. Rodehaver explained that the Arakan Army was an ethnic armed group, part of the “Three Brotherhood Alliance”, which had started coordinating attacks against the Myanmar military and driving them back across the country. The Arakan Army had begun fighting the military in earnest in 2019, with some intermittent ceasefires. They were building alternative administrative structures in Rakhine and had gained a lot of credibility among the local community, said Mr. Rodehaver. There were some 600,000 estimated Rohingya left in the country, he explained, and about one million were displaced in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Russian attacks in north-eastern border areas of Ukraine
Elizabeth Throssell, for the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that testimonies gathered by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) highlighted the terrifying impact on civilians of the recent escalation in hostilities in the north-east of the country, where Russian armed forces had seized control of several villages. People who had fled from these areas along the Kharkiv region frontline described having to shelter for days in cold, dark basements, with no electricity amid intense aerial bombardment, strikes by drones and missiles, and artillery shelling. There had been massive destruction of people’s homes and other civilian infrastructure. Entire communities had been uprooted and destroyed, with more than 10,000 people displaced to date. According to HRMMU, at least 35 civilians had been killed and 137 injured in the Kharkiv region since Russian armed forces launched their cross-border offensive on 10 May.
OHCHR called again on the Russian Federation to strictly respect all the rules of international law relating to the conduct of hostilities, and to cease its attacks on Ukraine immediately. In the third year of the Russian Federation’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine, with no end in sight, lives, homes, and futures continued to be destroyed. The long-term impact of this war in Ukraine would be felt for generations, with the task of rebuilding shattered communities, already a massive undertaking, growing larger with every further day of violence and destruction.
Full OHCHR statement is here.
Impact of the Sudan crisis on the health situation in Chad
Dr. Blanche Anya, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Chad, speaking from N’djamena, said that Chad was at the centre of the refugee crisis resulting from the conflict in Sudan. About 45 percent of Sudanese refugees, close to 600 000 people, were being hosted in Chad, while some 170,000 Chad nationals had returned from Sudan since the start of the violence in April 2023. Every week, an estimated 5,000 new arrivals continue to stream in. Some 88 percent of refugees and 93 percent of returnees were women and children. Many women and young girls had been raped. Malnutrition among children was widespread. Combined with measles and other epidemics, and overcrowding in under-resourced camps, there was an ongoing, serious health emergency.
Dr. Anya said that Chad's already fragile healthcare system was under immense pressure; it was now grappling with a dual challenge: supporting the refugees while not neglecting its own citizens' health needs. The health challenges in the refugee camps were serious; every week, 1,500-2,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition are registered. Along with malnutrition, there were outbreaks of dengue fever, measles, chickenpox, and hepatitis E. Malaria, acute respiratory infections, and diarrhea diseases had been consistently increasing week-on-week.
She stressed that the outbreak of Hepatitis E in refugee camps was particularly concerning. By the end of April, some 2400 cases and seven deaths had been reported. Mental health needs were also significant. An estimated 15,600 refugees required mental health support, but the resources were simply not enough.
To sustain its work, and to do more, Dr. Anya said that the WHO urgently needed increased international support. Funding for the humanitarian appeal in Chad remained critically low: in 2023, the humanitarian appeal for Chad had been only 30 percent funded, leaving a significant gap in resources needed to avert a public health catastrophe. The Sudanese refugee crisis was not just a regional issue but a global humanitarian emergency that requires our united efforts. The health impact on Chad is profound, and swift, decisive actions were needed to provide the necessary support.
Answering questions from the media, Dr. Anya said that Sudanese refugees were still coming into Chad. William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that the situation in El Fasher in Sudan was getting worse and the humanitarian situation was deteriorating. The few remaining operational hospitals had been affected by fighting. People continued to flee the region and cross into Chad, he said. The conditions in Adré, Chad, were deteriorating, and the camps were congested. The rains would now make the already dire conditions more miserable and make the delivery of aid more difficult. He appealed to donors to continue supporting Chad and other countries affected by the crisis in Sudan. Elizabeth Throssell, for the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR), reminded that the High Commissioner for Human Rights had repeatedly expressed his horror at what was happening in Darfur; he had spoken to the leaders of the two main military groups in the country and asked them to take the necessary steps to cease hostilities. It was for courts to establish whether what was happening in El Fasher was genocide. Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), stressed that the health system was collapsing, with only 20 to 30 percent of health facilities functioning. Some places in Darfur had not received medical supplies in over a year. Mr. Lindmeier listed numerous WHO activities to support people with medical care both inside Sudan and in the neighboring Chad.
Situation in Gaza
Responding to questions, Elizabeth Throssell, for the United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the Israeli operations had been intensifying in Rafah, but also in north Gaza. There had also been evacuation orders in north Gaza, the situation in which was concerning. About 800,000 people had moved from Rafah and some 100,000 had been displaced from the north. Regarding the International Criminal Court’s warrants, Ms. Throssell said that the process ought to be allowed to go ahead without interference. Aid had to start entering Gaza in massive quantities in order to avoid hunger, added Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service.
One month since start of the floods in Brazil
William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, almost one month after the start of heavy rains in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, UNHCR was expanding its response with national authorities to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including 43,000 refugees and other people in need of international protection, mainly Venezuelans, Haitians, and Cubans along with communities hosting them.
The floods were the biggest climate-related disaster in Southern Brazil and had caused 163 deaths and displaced 580,000 people. More than 65,000 were still in temporary accommodation centres; 93 per cent of the cities and towns in Rio Grande do Sul had been affected. An estimated USD 3.21 million was needed to support UNHCR’s response, including financial assistance to affected individuals and essential relief items. UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration were visiting shelters to survey refugees, those in need of international protection and migrants to assess their needs and support the most urgent cases. Refugee-led organizations in Rio Grande do Sul had been collecting and distributing donations and volunteering at emergency shelters. According to government data, Rio Grande do Sul state hosted more than 21,000 Venezuelans relocated from Roraima state on the Venezuela border since April 2018.
Mr. Spindler stated that extreme weather events in Brazil had been more frequent and devastating in recent years, including droughts in the Amazon region and severe rains in Bahia and Acre states, all of which UNHCR had responded to. But funding to address the impacts of climate change was insufficient to address the needs of those forcibly displaced and the communities hosting them. Without help to prepare for and withstand these impacts, to include them in national adaptation plans and to recover from climate-related shocks, they risked displacement.
Speaking of other crises, Mr. Spindler said that in Afghanistan, flash floods and heavy rains, which had begun on 10 May, had caused extensive damage and loss of life in the north, north-east and west. Thousands of homes and hectares of farmland had been damaged or destroyed, and more than 300 people killed. The situation across East Africa also remained of great concern. In Kenya, for example, more heavy rains this week had flooded parts of Kakuma camp, affecting shelters and public facilities including health clinics and schools. In Burundi, UNHCR, with the government and partners, was assisting the most affected through relocations to temporary sites, provision of clean water, cash assistance for urgent needs and distribution of school learning materials for children. Mr. Spindler stressed that climate change disproportionately affected refugees and other people in need of international protection, who were already living in vulnerable areas prone to the effects of extreme and recurrent climate events. In April 2024, UNHCR had launched its first-ever Climate Resilience Fund to build the resilience of refugees, displaced communities and their hosts to the increasing intensity of climate-change-related extreme weather events.
UNHCR statement is available here.
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that the Brazilian national meteorological service was posting constant updates on its website. A cold front was now passing through, slamming into the warm and humid mass of air, which would intensify the rainfall. Added to that was a tropical cyclone, which would make the situation even worse. Huge amounts of rainfall were witnessed in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catherina, which would exacerbate the already terrible situation.
Regarding East Africa, a new study released today looked at the role of climate change and rapid urbanization in destructive floods. The extreme rainfall in Kenya and Tanzania was becoming more intense with the climate change as a major driver. The study conclusions applied not only to East Africa but to the world. More information is available here.
Responding to questions, Ms. Nullis, for the WMO, said that the science and the national meteorological services needed to be listened to. It really paid dividends to invest in national meteorological and hydrological services, as well as early warning services. It was not just the weather and climate change, but also rapid urbanization, loss of ecosystems and the damage to the environments, which were jointly creating a perfect storm. William Spindler, for the UNHCR, said that over USD 400,000 had been received in response to the floods in Brazil, mostly from private individuals in Brazil, the Netherlands, and the USA.
Northern hemisphere hurricane season
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), informed that high ocean heat content and the anticipated development of La Niña were expected to fuel an above average hurricane season in the North Atlantic this year, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center forecast a range of 17 to 25 named storms (average was 14); of those, 8 to 13 were forecast to become hurricanes (average was seven), including four to seven major hurricanes (average was three). A major hurricane was category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir Simpson, with winds of 178 kmh/111 mph or higher.
It took just one landfalling hurricane to set back years of socio-economic development. For example, Hurricane Maria in 2017 had cost Dominica 800 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. Early warnings by the WMO community and improved disaster risk management had dramatically reduced fatalities. Sea level rise, worsened by storm surge, increased the potential risk for coastal communities. In recent years, there had been more rapid intensification of tropical cyclones, which posed a significant challenge when it occurred near land, such as Hurricane Otis.
More details are available here.
World Health Assembly
Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), replying to numerous questions, informed that the discussions on a pandemic treaty were still ongoing and were tentatively expected to finish by 9 pm today. The mandate of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) was to present an outcome, or the lack thereof, to the World Health Assembly (WHA), which would then advise on the next steps. It was difficult to prejudge on either outcome at this stage.
Mr. Lindmeier reminded of the Walk the Talk event on 26 May, which would start at Place des Nations at 9 am. At 5 pm the same day, a celebratory event would be held prior to the formal opening of the World Health Assembly. The event would be opened by WHO Director-General and attended by High-Level Representatives of Member States, with live performances by internationally acclaimed Egyptian opera singer Farrah El Dibany. There would be statements of commitment to WHO from Member States and other supporters. The Grand Prix winners of the Health for All Film Festival would be announced by Indian actor, filmmaker and social advocate, Nandita Das, a member of the distinguished international jury.
On another question, he explained that the next WHO Investment Round would encourage Member States and other donors to finance the estimated gap. He reminded that the WHO Investment Round was a new approach to mobilizing resources for WHO’s core work for the next four years (2025-2028). Working with existing donors and other partners, the Investment Round also aimed to attract new donors through an inclusive engagement process that would culminate in a high-level financing event in the fourth quarter of 2024. More details are available here.
The formal opening of the 77th World Health Assembly would be held at the Palais des Nations on 27 May at 9 am, reiterated Mr. Lindmeier, while the official Director-General’s main address would take place at 2:30 pm. All details on the 77th WHA are available here; all official side events would be listed in the Journal. Photo opportunities were planned, but there was no space for additional cameras setup.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that the accredited journalists would be allowed to stay at the Palais des Nations as late as needed to cover the WHA and the negotiating process. During the WHA and the subsequent International Labour Conference, working hour limitations at the Palais would be reduced. As a high number of vehicles were expected during the WHA, all parking slots would need to be used, and the security service might impose certain limitations. She explained that in order to receive a media accreditation to access the Palais des Nations, journalists would need to have a travel document issued by a country recognized by the United Nations General Assembly. Media requesting accreditation also had to be registered in a country recognized by the General Assembly.
On another question, Mr. Lindmeier, for the WHO, said that the list of the high-level speakers would be shared tonight or the following day. Taiwan’s observer’s status was a question for the 194 Member States to consider and decide on. Decision in this regard should be taken on 27 May between 11 and 11:30.
Announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the previous night World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Member States had approved a groundbreaking new treaty related to intellectual property, genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, marking a historic breakthrough that capped decades of negotiations. More details could be found here. A press conference would be held at WIPO today at 1:15 pm, with media presence preferred in person.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was reviewing today the tenth periodic report of Rwanda.
The Conference on Disarmament had the previous morning held the last public plenary meeting under the presidency of Iran. The next plenary of the Conference, under the presidency of Iraq, had not been announced yet.
Teleprompter
Let's start the briefing.
[Other language spoken]
Today is Friday, 24th of May.
We are here in Geneva, the United Nations, and we are going to start this press briefing with the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, who's coming on with two subjects.
And we start with Myanmar, the situation in Myanmar.
And for that, Elizabeth has brought us James Rod Haver that you know well.
We have had the pleasure to hear from you, James, in the past.
You are the head of the OH Army and Martine and you are calling in from Bangkok.
But I'll start by giving the floor to Liz and then we will go to you and we'll open the floor to questions.
Thank you very much, Liz.
You have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning, everyone.
We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property.
Some of the most serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property.
10s of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by the fighting in Butidong and Mangdao townships.
An estimated 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh seeking protection.
Over 1,000,000 Rohingya are already in Bangladesh, having fled past purges.
The **** Commissioner calls on Bangladesh and other states to provide effective protection to those seeking it in line with international law and to ensure international solidarity with Bangladesh in hosting Rohingya refugees.
In Myanmar, we see clear and present risks of a serious expansion of violence as the battle for neighbouring Mongdong town has begun, where the military maintains outposts and where a large Rohingya community lives, including hundreds of displaced Rohingya who moved to to the town from villagers seeking safety.
In this appalling situation, civilians are once more victimised, killed, their properties destroyed and looted, their demands for safety and security ignored, and they are again forced to flee their homes in a recurring nightmare of suffering.
The **** Commissioner calls for an immediate end to the violence and for all civilians to be protected without any distinction based on identity.
Prompt and unhindered humanitarian relief must be allowed to flow and all parties must comply fully and unconditionally with international law, including measures already ordered by the International Court of Justice for the protection of Rohingya.
Now, I'll hand over now to to James Roderhaver, who, as Alessandra said, is our head of our Myanmar team and is just back from a visit to Cox's Bazar.
James, over to you.
Thank you very much, Liz, and good afternoon or good morning to you all.
We over the last week have talked to many sources on the ground.
We have reviewed satellite imagery, we've received online videos and pictures, some from sources on the ground, some from open sources.
But we have been able to review and see that many of those source materials are credible and they indicate the Buddha Dong town has been largely burned.
This of course is, is very, it is corroborated by many of the testimonies that we've taken from the victims and and eyewitnesses to some of the events that occurred inside Butadong town beginning, you know, last Friday afternoon and evening there.
We have received information indicating that the the burning did start on the 17th of May.
There are, I will say there are conflicting reports, some saying that the the burning started at 3:00 in the afternoon at the **** school in Ward 4 of Butadong Town and some saying that began at 9:00 PM at the hospital Ward one.
Now this was two days after the military had retreated from the town and had withdrawn largely back to their bases just outside of **** Da, and the Erkan Army claimed to have taken full control of the village.
Now our our offices corroborating information further, particularly in order to establish who were the perpetrators of the burnings.
We do have some information already, but it has not BeenVerified to our legal standard of proof.
One survivor described seeing dozens of dead bodies as he fled the town.
Another survivor said that he was among a group of displaced persons numbering in the 10s of thousands who attempted to move outside of the town to safety along the Western Rd towards Mongdol, but they were blocked by the Ericon army from going in that direction.
So this large mass of people had in some cases to go different ways.
So in the last few days, we understand some people have gone S to Sipway and while it whereas others have have been able to to to move in a more securities route towards the north and towards the the Bangladeshi border and the Naff River, which is one of the traditional crossing sites.
Survivors recounted that the Arakan Army had abused them and extorted money from them as they fled the town and moved through villages where there were a a checkpoints, particularly in the the area of 10 to 15 kilometres South of the town where they had previously shot, sought shelter.
The Rohingya individuals in these areas have for weeks described sheltering with families they do not know without enough food to feed their families.
In the weeks leading up to the burning of Butadong, the Myanmar team of the UN Human Rights Office has documented renewed attacks on Rohingya civilians both by the Arakan Army and by the military in northern Rakhine State.
Of course, many of these were as a result of air strikes perpetrated by the military, as well as other attacks perpetrated by unmanned aerial vehicles.
So drones, and we've also received reports of shooting at unarmed fleeing villagers.
We have confirmed at least 4 cases of beheadings and multiple enforced disappearances of individuals, as well as several villages and homes that have been burned.
Now, for years, the military has targeted the Rohingya and have actively enforced draconian and discriminatory restrictions affecting all aspects of their lives.
That has to be taken into account, and it's one of the reasons why the Rohingya, whenever they were asked to leave Butadong and other villages, have been very reluctant to move because they've needed special permission to move outside of their Township of residence.
They also have nowhere else to go.
And they, of course, have learned very hard lessons since 2017, knowing that the, you know, whenever movement starts usually ends by them leaving their homes, never to see them again.
So I'll just stop there.
You know, I was just in Cox's Bazaar where I was able to talk to many people who had either been in Myanmar or who had spoken to family in Myanmar.
So it's it's been a very busy and fruitful week of investigations.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, James, for this comprehensive report.
I'll give the floor to the journalist now for questions.
If there is any in the room, let me see.
Don't see any hand up.
So let's go to Maya on the platform.
Maya plans the UN brief.
Thank you very much for taking my question.
Good morning to all.
My question is related to the Rohingya massacre a couple of years ago where most of it happened through social media platform Facebook.
And my question is regarding if you have, this has been very well documented, including by the UN, the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
Are you observing 2 movements in terms of the platforms?
Has the company, in case of Facebook now called Meta has been doing something about it?
Or can you tell us a little bit, how do you survey all that, the usage of social media platforms to disseminate hatred that spill over into real life violence?
Thank you very much.
James, do you want to take this?
Sure, I would just I would indicate that.
Yeah, right now there are.
There have been several instances in recent weeks where you've had a lot of disinformation and propaganda placed on social media, clearly with the intent to sow discord between the Rohingya and the Rakhine communities.
There have been conspiracy theories promoted there, including by some very prominent individuals, including the, the Arakan Army commander in chief, who has, who has in some cases been promoting the idea that some of the Rohingya are members of extremist radical Islamic groups.
And, and then on the other, on the other hand, he's been retweeting and, and I would say that a lot of the activity that we've observed has been on Twitter or X.
You know, since you clarified Facebook is now Meta, then then I have to clarify that Twitter is now X, even though I think it's ridiculous, but the, and, and this, these conspiracy theories have been about, you know, kidnappings and that are ethnically motivated and so forth.
The one thing I will say is that whenever we, you know, look at this kind of material, you know, we do first of all check with our other UN agencies because, you know, a lot of this is of course, in a variety of different Myanmar languages.
So my team has very limited language resources.
So we do check with UN agencies that do have more resources dedicated to monitoring social media.
And then we also of course check with the double I double M because I'm sure as you will seen a few weeks ago they put out a report on hate speech and, and how it was used in 2017 and, and, and in other instances as well.
And so we do know that they are tracking that as part of their investigations.
So it is something that we take very seriously.
I will say that the one sort of hopeful sign that we have seen is that so far at least, a lot of the sort of interethnic tensions that seem to have arisen as a result of of these efforts to sow division between the Rakhine and the Rohingya communities, Which I will say has been one of the major tactics of the military going back, you know, years and years.
And, and we do think that by enacting the conscription law and by promoting certain disinformation and conspiracy theories, they are trying to sow those divisions to divide right now one of their primary opponents.
And but one of the hopeful signs, as I was saying before, is that right now a lot of the interethnic flashpoints that we're seeing are between armed actors.
We're not seeing this being repeated by civilians in, in local communities and in split interethnic settings.
And, and that's important because in 2017, the, you know, the violence really was magnified by, you know, the whipping up of, of anger and hatred in local communities where, you know, civilians were sort of pressed and taking part and, and duped into taking part.
So we're not seeing that sort of dynamic yet.
So that's a hopeful sign.
Thank you very much.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Yes, good morning and thank you.
First, James, where are you talking from?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Questions in in regard in regard to the conscriptions into the army.
I mean is isn't this counter intuitive?
On the one hand, what the army seem and the general seem to want to kind of get rid of the massacre the Rohingya and at the same time are they actively trying to conscript the Rohingya into the army?
Is this working?
I had read reports that a lot of the Rohingya were fleeing as a consequence of that.
And what is what do you know in regard to the the war that is going on?
There are reports that in fact the generals are losing in many instances.
And is that providing greater impetus on the part of the generals to go after the Ibrahim regarding this Genocide seems unfortunately to be the word, the word of the day in too many crises that are erupting around the world.
Is there any indication that this is perhaps in the minds of the generals that this is happening?
I mean, what is it that they want from the Rohingya?
They want to get rid of them.
How do they do that?
Thank you teams.
I well, let me just say that first of all, you know that that we, when I, when I, when we talk about conscription, we've received many reports on it and we have talked to some people who have been conscripted.
We've actually talked to a few people who who were taken into and, and given their military training with the the Myanmar military along with many of their comrades.
Now, they have been promised many things by the military.
You know, some of them have been promised that, you know, additional food rations for them and their family.
They've been promised money, land.
Some have been promised citizenship if they serve in the military.
And we think that there are many reasons why, you know, this is being offered.
First of all, I think that it shows the the degree of desperation in the military because as you say the conflict, they're doing very badly in the conflict.
They are in retreat to anonymous, all of the 9 to 12 different fronts that they're fighting on right now.
And they've probably only had I think one marked success in the last three to four months, which was retaking Mayawati back from the the Eaos working down in the southeast of the country.
But in Rakhine, they've been steadily having to retreat or withdraw.
They've had, there have been several instances where their forces have retreated their or had to flee into to India or Bangladesh because, you know, they were, they were soundly beaten.
That's one of the reasons why they continue to rely on air strikes because at least with air strikes, you know, it's, it's, you know, there is no surrender at fault.
It's, it's conflict from from above.
But the conscripts, there's a couple of different things there that makes this far more insidious.
1 is that they know that these Rohingya men are ill prepared to, to fight.
First of all, you know, they've been deprived of humanitarian access for for months and months, dating back to last year's cyclone.
They have been existing on very few rations.
So a lot of these these men are very poorly nourished.
Secondly, most of them have have never had any sort of combat training or self defence training.
So they're largely being sent to the front lines as human Shields or as cannon fodder.
And so you can say that the military knows that very well.
And so why not get rid of some of the your young fighting age opponents by Co opting them?
They've also been involving other groups to help them convince and conscript people, including ARSA.
ARSA is a group that is, you know, it's it's it's it's it's sort of an armed group, but it's also a criminal gang.
And clearly they're in the money making business.
And so it's very uncertain, you know, what their motives are in this case.
But they've been helping recruit people for the military, in some cases through kidnapping them and then taking them to a military training site.
And so, you know, the military has also told the Rohingya that, look, if you run away, if you don't serve, we will arrest you or we will cut the rations to your family.
So they've used a variety of pressures to convince Rohingya to join.
And we don't know fully the full numbers, but we have, we've had reports of anywhere from 1500 to 2000 that have been recruited at this point.
And, and those are, you know, and those are reports.
I will stress that this is not information that we have confirmed, but the reports are out there and, and I think that it's indicative.
Now these armed groups, of course, that are operating in a variety of areas.
They, they are also forcibly recruiting people.
So right now it's kind of open season.
And the Rohingya are, are, are, you know, recruit, you know, they're, they're, they're trying to pressure their own people into fighting for different actors.
And it's, it's and that that's contributed to the whole mess.
And then on, on genocide, I mean, I think you just have to look at the provisional measures that were ordered by the ICJ that are supposed to be in force in Rakhine, which are essentially, you know, stop committing acts of violence against the Rohingya community.
Stop, you know, hiding evidence, stop putting Rohingya at risk of the impacts of violence.
You know, these are the things that these that, that these groups are supposed to be observing.
And that was to prevent a future or a continuing genocide.
And yet those provisional measures at least seem to be being flagrantly violated right now.
I'm not the ICJ, so I can't make that determination for them.
But I would say that if you look at it from a common sense perspective, that seems to be the state of affairs.
[Other language spoken]
Gabriel Tetraw, Writers just to to clarify, is, is there, is it possible to say who might be the perpetrators of this, this violence, these frightening and disturbing reports of the killings and burning?
Can we attribute those to the Arakan Army itself?
Is there any evidence suggesting that?
Just to clarify.
[Other language spoken]
All right.
Well, right now the you know, if we could clarify in all instances, we would, we would say that you know, we have been able to verify some.
Incidents like, you know, as I said, we have multiple incidents of, of killings that have been perpetrated both by the Arakan Army and by the military of Rohingya civilians and and frankly of other civilians as well.
This is not just an issue of Rohingya.
There have been a number of incidents that have targeted the Rakhine ethnic Rakhine civilians and Hindus in in Rakhine state.
Civilians are getting the the worst of the violence there and that's because the military targets the civilians because they can't fight back.
It's far easier to fight civilians than it is the armed groups because every time they fight the armed groups, they lose ground and but the civilians don't fight back.
And if they **** civilians, and then frankly, what that does is send a message that these armed groups that say they're fighting for you, they can't protect you.
So it also damages the credibility of these armed groups in the eyes of some of these communities.
So, so, so that's sort of the game, the military's point, the air can army.
You know, it's very hard to know why these different incidents have happened.
Many of them, the men killed are fighting age male civilians.
And as I say, we have confirmed at least 4 incidents in which there were beheadings.
Now the, the the violence in Butadong, we do have some strong suspicions of of who the perpetrators are.
We have some information, as I said, but we have not confirmed it to the point where we can announce firmly, you know, who the perpetrator is.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I had a few, just some follow up questions on the the beheadings that you just mentioned are, are those attributable specifically to the Arfan Army?
And then also on the social media question, I was just wondering in the the hate speech that you have seen circulating, are there any actual instances of violence that have been attributable to those so far?
[Other language spoken]
Excuse me, could you just repeat the last part of your question?
Yeah, sorry.
On the social media question that you received earlier, I was wondering on the, the more recent hate speech that you were mentioning that you've seen on Twitter and elsewhere, if there are any actual instances of, of violence that you think could possibly be attributable directly to, to that hate speech on social media.
[Other language spoken]
Well, in the latter part of your question, I'll answer that first and just to say that, you know, that that's something that we are still like connecting the dots on.
So I, you know, I can't, I, I certainly could not make those connections at this moment.
There are, there are several, as I say, several instances of things being said and promoted different, you know, stories that have been reported in different media sources in the region and then amplified by retweeting or, or rebroadcasting those claims or the stories themselves that really alarm us.
And so we are trying to find out more.
We are trying to also engage with some of these parties to find out why, you know, they're, they're doing these things.
So, you know, we are, you know, these are areas of, of concern.
Now the, the, you know, some of the violence, as I say, is, is attributable to the a A and of course a lot of it is attributable to the, to the military and the, the instances of these beheadings.
And in this case, in those, you know, 4 cases or 4 instances, it does, you know, I'm fairly confident in saying that, yes, we have confirmed that, that it was the A, a acting in those instances.
OK, we've got two more questions, elements of the A, A.
We've got two more questions and then we'll go to the next item.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Alessandra for the introduction.
James, can you letter, can you tell us how many Rohingya are left in Arakan State or in Myanmar total?
And could you characterise the Arakan Army for us a little bit more?
Who are these people?
Do you have contact with any of the commanders or are you exchanging views with them?
And a question that is possibly impossible to answer.
The Rohingya are hated by everyone and are discriminated by everyone, including Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers.
What is a realistic solution that goes beyond asking the unrealistic question of the military powers to let them be and allow them to stay and not attack them?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Well, the the Arkan Army, it's a, it's a, you know, it's an ethnic armed group or an ethnic armed organisation that is essentially it is, it is both Rakhine based, but it also has operations more widely.
It's part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance that was formed in 2019.
And the three members of that alliance are the Arakan Army, the the T in LA or the Tang National Liberation Army, and the MNDAA, which is the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
And those are the three armed groups that started this whole turn around of events in Myanmar back in late October last year.
This started a series of coordinated attacks in northern Shan State that really put the the military on the back foot and started driving them out of many areas in the ethnic states.
And then of course, those tactics were so effective, they've been repeated pretty much all over the country by ethnic armed groups working with the People's Defence Force, you know, militia forces.
And so the American army is one of those three major armed groups.
And now, you know, they are based primarily in, in Arakan or in Rakhine state.
They are an ethnic Rakhine largely organisation.
They have a political wing, which is the ula and they also have a humanitarian wing now in they, they began, you know, fighting the military in earnest back in 2019.
And there was an, there's been an sort of an ongoing, an on and off armed conflict with the military in Rakhine State since 2019.
There have been ceasefires agreed that have lasted different periods, one that that took hold in 2020, late 2020, right around the elections in Myanmar.
And it lasted about a year and then it was broken.
And then there was fighting again for about four or five months and then a new ceasefire was established that held until last November.
And their kind of army, basically they've always lobbied for either an independent Rakhine state or an autonomous Rakhine state within Myanmar.
And they have been incredibly effective, particularly in the periods where there were cease fires agreed with the military because they built up a democratic or a, a civilian governance apparatus as part of their operation.
So they, they started promoting, they started creating their own courts, their own judges, their own police forces, and, and they built up a lot of credibility with the, the Rakhine communities all over Rakhine State.
And so that's effectively how they are.
And yes, we do have an ongoing conversation with them, both with their humanitarian wing and with elements of their political office.
We've, we've been trying to establish a, a discussion with their military wing and because we want to talk about these incidents that we are investigating.
And then in terms of the number of Rohingya left in the country, it's around 600,000.
That's the, those are the estimates.
And with, you know, another 1,000,000 plus in, in Bangladesh and, and then, you know, a few 100,000 spread out in the region.
Thank you very much.
I'll take the last question from Moussa, Moussa, ASI and Mahidin.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
So, I mean, this still has another briefing item.
So if this is the case, let me thank our colleague, James Rod Hever for this very extensive and very interesting briefing.
Thank you very much for being with us.
To brief the journalist in Geneva, I'll let you go and turn to Liz.
Maybe before we take Moses question, I'll like maybe to give you the floor for the second and last item that you have this morning, which is on Ukraine.
Maybe I'll just start by saying that Dennis Brown, as you know, leads the UN efforts in Ukraine, has condemned the deadly attacks on Cardiff City, which followed 2 weeks of attacks on the region.
And while the UN are of course, continuing to support evacuated people and those impacted by the strikes, I think you have more on the human rights side, please.
Yes, that's right.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Testimonies gathered by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine highlight the terrifying impact on civilians of the recent escalation in hostilities in the North East of the country, where Russian armed forces have seized control of several villages.
People who have fled from these areas along the along the Khaki region frontline described having to shelter for days in cold, dark basements with no electricity amid intense aerial bombardment, strikes by drones and missiles, and artillery shelling.
There's been massive destruction of people's homes and other civilian infrastructure.
Entire communities have been uprooted and destroyed, with more than 10,000 people displaced to date.
According to our monitoring team, at least 35 civilians have been killed and 137 injured in the Khaki region since Russian Armed forces launched their cross-border offensive on the 10th of May.
Of those killed or injured in the northern part of the region, which has seen the heaviest fighting, more than half were over the age of 60.
And now this reflects the disproportionate number of older people in border and frontline areas who in many cases were either unable or unwilling to leave their homes, even amid a fast deteriorating security situation.
Since the 10th of May, our monitoring teams have interviewed 90 displaced civilians and have visited several sites that were struck.
Some of those interviewed were unable to reach shelters or even get to a basement.
People describe seeing their neighbours killed or injured.
Some said the situation was so bad they decided to risk walking for several kilometres to reach an an evacuation point.
Local authorities and volunteers have taken major risks to help vulnerable people to get to safety.
As an example, on the 16th of May, 2 medical workers, 2 ambulance drivers and a local official were injured while they were trying to get civilians out of the village of Bukharivka.
On the morning of the 19th of May, Russian Armed forces struck a recreation centre in the village of Cekaska Lasova, near Kharkiv city.
Less than 20 minutes later, the site was hit again when police and medical workers were already on the scene to assist the victims.
Our monitors visited the location and documented the deaths of at least 6 civilians, with dozens of people injured.
Many of those who've been evacuated from Forfchansk and other areas have arrived in Kharkiv city, which, as Alexandra just read out, also remains under attack.
In Kharkiv, there were multiple missile strikes on Thursday, reportedly killing seven civilians and injuring 21 others.
And having spoken to colleagues this morning, they indicate that Kharkiv has again come under attack.
This morning.
We call again on the Russian Federation to strictly respect all the rules of international law relating to the conduct of hostilities and to cease its attacks on Ukraine immediately.
In the third year of the Russian Federation's full scale armed attack on Ukraine with no end, insight, lives, homes and futures continue to be destroyed.
The long term impact of this war in Ukraine will be felt for generations, with the task of rebuilding shattered communities already a massive undertaking, growing larger with every further day of violence and destruction.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Let me see if there's any question in Ukraine.
I don't see any.
I don't see any on the on the line too.
So if you're OK, I'll give the floor to Musa for his question.
I suspect it's not on Ukraine either, Musa.
Well, we see the past election.
[Other language spoken]
Please, I ask if you have a comment on the decision of the International Criminal Court regarding the request to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Mr Obviously we're aware of of of what the ICC did this week.
The **** Commissioner has called for respect for the legal process.
As we know the matter is now before the pre Trial Chamber and this must be allowed to undertake its work free from external pressure or interference.
Laws, norms and the institutions so painstakingly built to advance them must be fully respected and defended.
[Other language spoken]
So on, on Gaza, I was wondering if you had any, any indication of the situation in Rafa now the numbers of people displaced, if you, if you have any thoughts on on the the rights implications for for people who are now fleeing again from Rafa?
[Other language spoken]
Yes, Nina, I do have have some information on that.
Obviously, as you highlight, there's been a lot of focus on Rafa.
Understandably, we know that while the Israeli Defence Force military operations have been intensifying in Rafa, it's it's also important to_that attacks by the IDF in North Gaza have increased, resulting in further displacement, killing and maiming of Palestinian civilians who were already extremely vulnerable.
So we're very concerned about the situation in in North Gaza as well with regard to to the numbers displaced from Rafa.
I mean, this has been ongoing and, and I think that's partly that there are sort of has been a lot of people sort of moving out, trying to to get away.
Going back to the, the situation in North Gaza, They've also been evacuation orders sort of earlier this this month on the 11th of May, according to information, our colleagues have the IDF issued an evacuation order to residency in areas in Jabalia and Beit Lahia to move to locations at West of Gaza City.
And this, this was followed by intense air strikes shelling in ground operations, especially in and around Jabaliya camp.
There have been other evacuation orders issued as well.
So, so, so obviously we're concerned about Rafa, but but we're also stressing it's important to, to keep sort of sight of what is happening in, in North Gaza as well.
Do you have, do you have any idea of specific numbers of, of people who've, who've fled and also sort of of of the rights implications for, for the people on the?
Yeah, I, I think the, the, the numbers that we have about 800,000 people have, have, have gone from Rafa and about 100,000 from the north.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Liz, I don't have a question for you now.
I just would like to ask you to stay around please, because WHO is going to be talking about Chad and I would like to ask you a question about that and Sudan.
So if perhaps you could stay around and I'll hold my question for now.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
And this is a good transition actually to WHO?
But before doing that, I see John has his end up and then we will actually go to Christian and his invitee John.
[Other language spoken]
Liz, I was wondering if you had from your monitoring office in the OPT any up to date information since we don't have anyone briefing from World Food Programme on the number of trucks with food that have been allowed into the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours.
I've seen some disturbing reports by some humanitarian NGOs that the situation is really dire.
So I've got something.
[Other language spoken]
No, I mean, thank you for the for the question, John.
But, but I think precisely because it is related to sort of humanitarian aid, I think it's, it's better coming from humanitarian colleagues.
It's something that that our colleagues obviously do do follow cooperating with colleagues.
But I, I don't have specific information, John.
The only thing I have is is a line from the World Food Programme that says there are no food distributions taking place in the South.
Except for some limited stocks that are being provided to community, community kitchens for hot meals.
And that's about and then of course, they say.
[Other language spoken]
Archer warned that if a doesn't begin to enter gas in massive quantities, desperation and hunger was spread even further.
The closure of the Rafa crossing, a limited functionality of KREM Shalom in the South, have choked off the flow of life saving supplies.
But I'm pretty sure we can, we can get something more during the day from Ocha.
So yeah, Liz, if you want to stick around, yes, we, we, we will definitely go now to Christian.
[Other language spoken]
You indeed has have a a point on this bank crisis and its impact on the health situation in Chad.
And there is Doctor Blanche Anya who is The Who representative in Chad who's talking to us from Jamina who is also briefing on this subject.
I don't know if you want to start Doctor Anya or maybe let me say a word before.
[Other language spoken]
We just, we just shared the briefing notes on what Doctor Anya will talk about.
I'm very glad to have her here with us.
As we all know and we talked about many times, the spillover effects are massive.
And over to you, Doctor Anya.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
If you if you won't go to go ahead, you will hear me.
I don't think she hears me.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
So the conflict devastating the neighbouring Sudan is putting Chad in at the centre of the resulting refugees crisis with a profound impact on health.
And since the start of the violence in 19 in 2023, about 43% of Sudanese refugees, that is around 600,000 people are being hosted in Chad and about 170,000 Chad nationales have also returned from Sudan.
Every week an estimated 5000 new arrivals continue to enter chart converging at 32 the anti points in the east and this number may further rise as important attacks are anticipated in their full.
The majority are women and children, representing about 88% of refugees and 93% of returnees.
Many of the women and young girls have been erect.
Malnutrition among children is widespread combined with measles and other outbreak facilitated by overcrowding in under resourced camp and creating serious ongoing health emergency.
Charles already fragile healthcare system is under immense pressure.
With this situation and with limited resources and stretch infrastructure, the health system is facing a dual challenge supporting these refugees while not neglecting its own citizen health needs at the rainy season.
As the rainy season is approaching, the access to affected population will really become very difficult and more difficult.
The health challenges in the refugees camps are numerous.
Every week around 1500 to 2000 cases of severe acute malnutritions are registered and since the start of the crisis 320 have been cases.
320 deaths have been reported among the both the refugees and host population and majority of these deaths, that is 184 are among malnourished children.
Along with malnutrition, there are other diseases such as malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea diseases at worst, as well as outbreaks of dengue, measles, chicken pox and hepatitis.
The outbreak of hepatitis in refugee scan is particularly concerning and as of 15 June, around the 2400 thousand cases, around 2400 cases and seven deaths have been reported in four the health districts of we have.
We are observing now a decline of the overall trend, but the situation is still there.
So the poor living conditions, inadequate health care infrastructure, limited sanitations and clean water create ideal conditions for the viewers to spread.
Hepatitis is especially down shows for opinion women with a **** mortality rate among those in the third semester.
This is 1 turned worsened by the lack of specialised healthcare services in refugee camp.
Mental health needs are also significant.
This population, as you know, have experienced stressing things and human being can witness and an estimated 15,600 refugees requirement that has support, but resources are simply not enough.
Among these numerous challenges, WHO in collaboration with the Minister of Public Health and Health cluster partners have provided 750,000 medical consultations in refugee camps.
They are also delivered 200 tonnes of medicine for malnutrition, cholera hormone or the diseases and assisted around 13,000 women in delivering their babies safely.
WHO efforts to combat the Hepatitis E outbreak into four heart disease and the chicken pox outbreak in the Abbateur prison in Wadai province are ongoing.
There has been national vaccination campaign against Muses, yellow fever, polio coupled with vitamin A&O warming where this was also conducted in the camp.
But all these efforts cannot be sustained alone.
We urgently need increased international support.
Funding for the humanitarian appeal in charge remains critically low.
In 2023, the humanitarian appeal for child was only 30% funded, leaving a significant gap in resources needed to abate a public health catastrophe.
Sudanese refugees crisis is not just a regional issue, it is a global humanitarian emergencies that required united effort.
The health impact on child is profound and we must act swiftly and decisively to provide necessary support to not jeopardise countries effort to move towards SDGS.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much Doctor Anya.
I will open the floor to questions.
I don't see any in the room, so I'll go to Lisa, Lisa Shrine, Voice of America.
[Other language spoken]
I have several questions for several people.
First to you, Doctor Anya, are are people actually fleeing now as we speak from Al Fasher, which which seems to be the really serious crisis point right now in in in Sudan?
I don't know, perhaps I think William Spindler is there too and he could speak about the situation.
[Other language spoken]
So, so I'm wondering whether you are seeing people actually continuing to flee from Darfur into Chad, whether this is even possible and whether since you are on the spot, this may not be your issue, but whether it is possible to get any kind of humanitarian aid delivered from Chad into Darfur or whether that pipeline has essentially dried up.
And then, um, to perhaps you Christian, if you have sort of some latest information about the health situation in Sudan itself, perhaps you do as well.
Doctor Anya, I really don't know.
I don't mean to cut you short, but I'd like to know something about the health situation in Sudan.
And then, Liz, if you could give your, I mean, what does the **** Commissioner say or has he said, or has your organisation said about what is happening in in Al fascia?
And there's a lot of talk about a genocide which is occurring there.
The noises about that are very strong.
And so I'd like to have your response to that.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
I'll start with Doctor Anya.
This is one of the priorities in the county.
Now as I said earlier, the government is has a dual challenge not only to address the the needs of its population, but also to address the needs of these refugees.
And with the RC, the all the UN country team is really working together to see how we can better support the government to address this.
And what we did with the UN country team and the development partners.
For example, we had issues of human resources, which Roman resources do we send there?
Because as you know, charter the critical gap in human resources for health.
So the World Bank funded to to support for with human resources.
This is now the funding is now stopped and so we don't have any funding anymore.
But so we are constantly working together with at the UNC as a UNC country team to really see how we can mobilise additional resources under the need of the RC.
So this is one of the priority of us, but we need to make sure that we are not only supporting this refugees, but we are also continuing to address the to support the health agenda in charge.
Because at the end of the day, we have to, to, to, to, to tender towards achieving the SDGS.
So the SDGS is not only for the refugees but also for the the local population.
So this is a direction and we are really having here.
But I can assure you that this is on top of the priority of the authorities here, the UN county team and even the partners.
Now regarding the field, we have teams in the field.
From the information I have, there are still refugee comings.
There is there are still the corridors that are that for which you can provide the items to the to the Sudan.
But we are really afraid that with the rainy season coming, this corridor might not be operational.
[Other language spoken]
Maybe on the issue of refugee William, you want to add something and then I will go to the statement.
Yes, thank you, Alessandra.
Yes, the situation in Alpha Share seems to be getting more and more serious with continuous fighting going on there.
The situation The humanitarian situation is deteriorating with serious needs and for humanitarian aid, food, shelter.
The few operational hospitals in Al Fisher have been affected by the fighting.
On Sunday 19th of May, shelling damage in Saudi Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in Al Fisher, resulting in the wounding of nine civilians who were passing by the hospital at the time.
Reportedly the shelling has damaged the hospitals main water tank, part of the solar energy system and electricity generator.
So the situation in El Fascia is very serious.
As you know, there have been many calls for the fighting to cease because of the impact it's having on the civilian population.
And we continue to see people fleeing this region and crossing into Chad, particularly to the Adre region, which is about 400 kilometres from El Fasha in Adre is in Chad and about 600 people are crossing on average every day.
The numbers continue to be relatively small, but we think that or we have received reports that there might be impediments for people who would like to seek refuge in Chad and they are not able to do that because of the fighting or because they are being prevented by armed actors to to travel.
We also have received very worrying reports that some people who intended to either go to Alpha Share from the surrounding countryside or cross into Chad have been killed.
The situation inside Chad, as Doctor Anya has already described at length, is very worrying as well because particularly in ADRE, conditions are very difficult.
Chad is already hosting over 600,000 Sudanese refugees and the conditions, particularly in ADRE, are deteriorating as well.
The camps there are severely congested and that's why UNACR has identified a new site in Dugui where we would like to evacuate or to transfer these refugees who are in Andre, very close also to the border, to this new site where conditions are better and where it will be easier for us to provide assistance to them.
It's a race against time because the rainy season has already started in in eastern Chad.
We had on Tuesday the 1st rains in Adre.
This rains are going to make conditions that are already dire even more miserable for the thousands of refugees who are in Adre, and they will also make it more difficult the delivery of aid because roads will become impassable during the rainy season.
That's why we need to move people as soon as we can to this new site where they will be safer and where it will be easier to provide assistance to them.
But in order to do that, we need funding.
As Doctor Anya said, the humanitarian appeal for Chad is very badly underfunded.
So we make an appeal also to donors to continue supporting Chad and the other countries that have been affected by the crisis in Sudan.
Thank you very much, William.
And yes, indeed, Lisa, you also asked about the statements.
And I just would like to remind you that the Secretary General, through a statement attributable to his spokesperson, said on the 13th of May that he was gravely concerned by the outbreak of fighting in Al Fisher, which puts over 800,000 civilians at risk.
As we've heard, he was alarmed by reports of the use of happy weaponry in densely populated areas.
He recalled that civilians in the area are already facing a looming famine.
That's something we've heard and the consequences over a hero of war and urged all the parties to immediately stop the fighting and resume ceasefire negotiations without further delay.
I think **** Commission Turk also expressed himself on this, and I'll give the floor to miss Yes, absolutely.
I mean, the **** Commissioner has repeatedly sort of stressed his, his, his, his deep concern, his, his horror at the situation in Sudan.
You may recall that last week he, he sort of spoke of, of, of his, you know, the fact that he was horrified by the escalating violence.
And he did in fact speak to Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the president of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces.
And he also in a separate phone call spoke to to General Muhammad Hamdan Dhagalo, commander of the Rapid Support Forces.
And in those calls, I think as a ravine highlighted last week, he he basically called on them to put aside entrance positions and take specific concrete steps to seize hostilities.
So you know, you've heard from a very powerful information from from colleagues in WHO and, and, and from UNHER, the UN refugee agency on, on the real impact it's having on civilians this fighting.
So it's of course that underscores the, the deep, deep concern that we do have at what is unfolding.
So just to reiterate, the **** Commissioner has called and and continues to call for an immediate de escalation of tensions in and around Alfascia.
And and as of other, as I've said, we are concerned because it does appear that the the fighting is intensifying in Al Fasha.
He's also, of course, calling for for for an end to the wider conflict that has has ravaged Sudan for more than a year now.
The important thing from the human rights point of view, of course, is that the **** Commissioner, our office has called for investigations into all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law.
And that, of course, is with a view to ensuring accountability and victims rights to truth, justice and reparation.
Now, given the situation, Lisa, you did make a, a reference as to, to, to what, what real concerns we have from the point of view.
What we would say is that the, the conflict, it clearly has exacerbated pre-existing ethnic and tribal divisions and increased polarisation and ethnically motivated violence, particularly in the Darfur region.
So that is incredibly concerning.
So, so I think yes, it, it absolutely the **** Commissioner is concerned, he and, and his, his staff are continuing to monitor and, and to, to, to, to make calls with regard to what is happening in Sudan and to, to the, the, the appalling, horrendous impact it is having on civilians.
As I said, as, as WHO and UNHR have clearly outlined.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much Liz.
Liz, I see your hand is still up.
If it's for the notes from William, I think William just spoke out of his heart and knowledge, but he will send out something.
Is there anything else you wanted to ask?
[Other language spoken]
That first.
[Other language spoken]
That was great what you said.
And if you do have your notes, send them.
But I also have just a couple of quick clean up questions.
One first for you, Liz, I asked about whether you think what's happening and.
[Other language spoken]
People are talking about it.
I know that you're probably you don't have the expertise to say what it is, but you know, just your reflections on that.
And if Christian is still there, I did ask whether he could perhaps give a, a kind of quick overview of the health situation as it exists right now in, in, in Sudan and the the ability for WHO to get medical care to people or whether, you know, too many places are out of reach.
[Other language spoken]
Let's start with Lise.
[Other language spoken]
Well, as I said, the **** Commissioner in, in his phone calls with the, the, the two commanders, basically we reminded them of, of their obligations and to international humanitarian law to ensure strict compliance with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution and to put an end to any ongoing violations, as well as to ensure accountability for violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by their respective forces and allies.
So I mean, it's clear that the **** Commissioner is, is really concerned about what is unfolding in Sudan with regard to, to, to making a determination on, on, on the question of genocide, as we say that is for court.
[Other language spoken]
So I don't know if Doctor Anya or maybe Christian want to answer the other question from Lisa on the situation it has situation in Sudan itself.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I can repeat the few messages that were shared earlier, but just to flag the situation there too as it's of course not shut, but in Sudan.
So the health system in Sudan is collapsing, especially in the hard to reach areas with health facilities destroyed, looted or struggling with acute shortages of staff, medicines, vaccines, equipment and supplies.
Only 30 to 20% of the health facilities remain functional and Even so, at very minimal levels the medical supplies in country are meeting only 25% of the needs.
W Joel's Warehouses or Warehouse Singular in Al Jazeera state has been inaccessible already since December 2023.
Some states such as Darfur have not received medical supplies for the past year.
People suffering from diabetes, hypertension, cancer or kidney failure may experience complications or die from the lack of treatment.
Disease outbreaks are increasing, with over 1.3 million cases of malaria, 11,000 cases of cholera, over 4600 cases of measles and some 8500 cases of dengue.
Outbreaks of malaria, measles, dengue and hepatitis E are also spreading over to neighbouring Chad.
As Doctor Anya just referred to.
WTO has reached close to 2.5 million people through direct support to services and delivery of emergency supplies.
[Other language spoken]
Around 50,000 people received care in mobile clinics.
433,000 Sudanese refugees were treated in mobile clinics in the eastern CHUD.
WTO has delivered vital medical supplies through cross-border operations as outlined in the past few months WHO and partners efforts have led to a decline in the number of cases of cholera, dengue, malaria.
4.5 million people over one year of age received oral correlate vaccine in six **** risk States and we have delivered supplies for the treatment of 115.
So one one 515,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications.
That's what I can offer.
Thank you very much.
I'm just concerned about the time because he's at almost 1140.
[Other language spoken]
So I'll give the floor to Robin and then maybe we'll move to Brazil.
Robin, thank you.
I have a couple of questions for Christian on other topics.
Can you tell me which topic is that on the World Health Assembly and on the.
Yeah, because, yeah, that's, that's why I was asking, because Christian is going to have some announcement at the end of the briefing on that.
And I also have a, a, a breaking news announcement from Waipo.
So we'll give this to you in a moment.
But let me stay on the line, Robin.
I'll write to thank very much, Liz for this morning's briefing and also for bringing us James.
And thank you very, very much, Doctor Blanche Anya calling in from Gemina for updating us on the situation in Chad.
I'll turn to William now for an update on the floods in Brazil and maybe ask Claire also to come to the podium to also tell us about that.
[Other language spoken]
I'll start with William, please.
[Other language spoken]
So I have an update on the situation of various regions that have been experienced floods in recent weeks.
They have all been covered already in this briefing and elsewhere.
So this is just an update on on what is happening in all this various places, starting with Brazil.
Almost one month after the start of heavy rains in the southern state of Rio Grande Tussu, UNACR is expanding its response with national authorities to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including 43,000 refugees and other people in need of international protection, mainly Venezuelans, Haitians and Cubans, as well as the communities that host them.
The floods are the biggest climate related disaster in southern Brazil and have caused 163 deaths and displaced some 580,000 people.
More than 65,000 are still sheltering in improvised collective centres.
93% of the cities and towns in Rio Grande Dousseau have been affected.
An estimated 3.21 million U.S.
dollars is needed to support UNAC Rs response, including financial assistance to affected individuals and essential relief items.
A-Team specialised in shelter management, documentation and the prevention of gender based violence has been mobilised to the disaster areas and is coordinating the reception of relief items dispatched by UNACR.
The team is also providing technical assistance to improve the running of shelters, especially in Porto Alegre, the state capital.
The first refugee housing units and sleeping mats arrived in the affected area last Monday, coming from UNACRS warehouse in Bua Vista.
Other items like Jerry cans, backpacks, adult diapers, tarpaulins, solar lamps, mosquito Nets, sanitary and hygiene kits are on the way to Rio Grande to sue.
More items are being dispatched from UNACR stocks in Colombia and Panama.
UNACR and IOM are visiting shelters to survey refugees, other people in need of international protection, and migrants to assess their needs and support the most urgent cases.
Those interviewed have expressed concern about the future, especially where they will return to and when.
UNACR and its partners are also prioritising the re issuance of lost documentation which is needed by people in order to have access to services.
Even reduced rainfall and the drop in the in river levels.
The situation in Rio Grande to Dusul is very worrying.
The weather forecast for the next days indicates rain and strong winds, electrical storms and possible hail in several parts of the territory.
Today, a cyclone is expected to bring more rains with constant winds to the coast of Rio Grande.
To sue, I think clear.
We'll have something to add to that as well.
According to government data, the state hosts more than 21,000 Venezuelans who have been relocated from Hoheima state on the border with Venezuela since April 2018.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, flash floods and heavy rains which began on the 10th of May have caused extensive damage and loss of life in the north, north, east and West of the country.
Thousands of homes and hectares of farmland have been damaged or destroyed and more than 300 people killed.
UNACR has been responding with other agencies, assessing needs and distributing emergency tents, non food items and clothing kits with partners.
UNACR is also monitoring protection concerns, including reported cases of family separation and is delivering psychological support.
UNACR trained community outreach volunteers have disseminated information about available services.
Fresh flooding is still being reported and large areas remain cut off due to damaged roads, bridges and culverts.
The situation across East Africa also remains of great concern.
In Kenya, more heavy rains this week have flooded parts of the Kakuma refugee camp, affecting shelters and public facilities, including health clinics and schools.
UNACR and partners are distributing relief items as well as helping to evacuate the most affected to safe areas and rehabilitating damaged shelters in Burundi.
UNACR continues to work together with the government and partners to assist the most affected through relocations to temporary sites, providing clean water, cash assistance for urgent needs, and distributing school learning materials for children in South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia.
More rains are expected and rivers will continue to overflow in the coming weeks.
Large numbers of refugees and displaced people are hosted in sites that could be severely impacted.
Our teams are working with partners on preparedness.
However, the funding shortfall is hindering significant investment in mitigation measures.
Climate change disproportionately effects refugees and other people in need of international protection who are already living in vulnerable areas prone to the effects of extreme and recurrent climate events.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
And indeed, Claire, you want to tell us more on the weather situation?
Yes, I can indeed.
So, morning, everybody.
Literally in Brazil, it doesn't rain.
[Other language spoken]
The Brazilian National Meteorological Service on its website is posting constant updates.
The most recent update warned of a new instability event which started this week, and it is strengthening sort of yesterday and especially today.
[Other language spoken]
So you've got a cold front passing with a, you know, strong mass of cold air of polar origin.
This is slamming into a, you know, warm and humid mass of air from from the north and this will intensify the the, the rainfall.
Added to that, you've got an extra tropical cyclone which is developing in the ocean at the height of the coast of Rio Grande.
Do so and this will, you know, obviously make the situation even even worse.
We're talking about huge amounts of rainfall on what has always already been very, very, very heavy rainfall.
So in Rio Grande, Doshal and Santa Catarina today, rain totals of up to 100 millimetres per day even and very, very **** totals per per hour.
So that will exacerbate the, you know, the, the already terrible, terrible situation.
And to add insult to injury, we'll get the cold front moving in today and that is going to lead to a pretty rapid temperature drop.
So that, you know, is will will worsen the hardship and the misery that all these displaced people are, are suffering.
If I could just go on to East Africa, the there's a new study out released this morning from the World Weather Attribution Group.
It's not, it's not WMO, but it does bring together many scientists who are affiliate affiliated with the WMO community and that looked at the role of climate change and rapid urbanisation in the destructive floods.
And just to, I won't read out the full press release, but just to give you a couple of headline takeaways.
The extreme rainfall that led to destructive floods in Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of East Africa is becoming more intense with climate change as one of the drivers.
This study highlights that East African cities face a double pressure from rapid urbanisation rates and changing climate risks, with climate models projecting that heavy rainfall will continue to increase in the region with further warming.
So I can, I can send you the link to that study.
I can, I can recommend it.
As you know, as, as, as reading and the conclusions of this study on rapid rainfall, you know, don't just apply to East Africa.
They do apply to other parts of the world.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much to both.
We start from the room.
Any question to any of the agencies or to questions now.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
First to William, from the 3.2 million that you have requested, how much have you gotten and from whom?
Second question also to William, how many people are being hosted in these sorry, what do you call them tents or or houses that you brought them to to Porto Alegre?
How many people are there and what is the percentage of refugees or local people?
And to clear the, the governor of Iguana de Sou said that yes, they get these alerts, but the agenda of governments are different and that's why basically nothing was done for so many years.
Is this a pattern of, of, of behaviour that you see around the world?
Because it's not a lack of information, obviously, but what would you say to governments that claim that, yes, we get this, these kinds of information, but our agenda is different.
I was turning to the left, but I turned to the right.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
That's that's a very, very, very good question.
So the World Meteorological Organisation, Celeste Salo, who took office start of this year, that is one of her main priorities is really to increase the standing of national meteorological and hydrological services within governments.
You know, we have made huge scientific advances, our sciences there.
We know what's happening with temperature increase, with climate change.
We need to be listened and taken seriously and certainly, certainly what happens within, within many countries.
And I'm not saying that Brazil is, is the case, but you know, in, in many countries, national meteorological services don't have much standing within, within the government.
They sometimes they're embedded in the transport ministry.
And so obviously, you know, the need to build roads, improve infrastructure takes priority over, over the meteorological services.
So the strong message from WMO is, you know, it really pays dividends to invest in your national meteorological hydrological services.
You know, for for every dollar of investment, you get much, much bigger returns.
And that same principle applies for early warning services.
You know, if we invest more in, in forecasts, in early warnings, the, you get disproportionate benefits in terms of, in terms of reductions, you know, in terms of saving lives, etcetera.
But it, it's only part of part of the equation.
You know, it's, and as this study in, in, in East Africa highlighted, you know, it's not just the weather, you know, it's not just climate change.
There's a whole a whole range of other issues as well, including, you know, rapid urbanisation, the loss of ecosystems, destruction of the environment, which is, you know, it's combining 2 to the perfect storm.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
That gave me a bit of time to find the information.
So Jeremy, I think your first question was about donations and, and so far we have received over 400 thousand U.S.
dollars in response to the floods in Brazil, the top countries where these are individual donations, not not state donations, but these individuals are mostly within Brazil, about 60% of them and that followed by individuals in the Netherlands and in the USA.
We have also received donations from private companies in Brazil, Sweden and the USA who have made both financial and in kind donations.
And we are also receiving support from our partner Latin Airlines to transport items from our warehouses in various countries in Latin America to to to where they are needed.
Now in terms of the refugees that have been affected, there are 43,000 refugees that have been affected.
The main nationalities, as I said, are Venezuelans, Haitians and Cubans.
They've got the actual number of people who have been of those nationalities, which are 29,000 Venezuelans, 12,000 are Haitians and around 1400 are Cubans.
These are we don't have the number of people who are in shelters of different nationalities.
These are all the kind of overall figures that have been provided by the authorities based on the number of people who have been registered and records of people by nationality and status.
But we don't know how many of them are in each individual shelter.
I think that was one of your questions.
I believe so, yeah.
Don't see other hands up on the platform.
[Other language spoken]
So thank you very much, William, for this update, Claire.
Yes, hurricanes, **** ocean heat content and the anticipated development of a La Nina event are expected to fuel a very, very, very active hurricane season this this year.
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration yesterday issued its predictions for the coming coming season.
It forecasts a range of 17 to 25 named storms, and the average is 14.
Of these, 8 to 13 are forecast to become hurricanes.
The average is 7 and this includes four to seven major hurricanes.
The average is 3.
So you can see from the statistics you know very above normal activity is expected.
They've now been 8 consecutive years of above average hurricane activity.
The last below normal season was in 2015.
It only as we know you know from from from the past it only takes 1 landfalling hurricane to set back years and years and years of socio economic development.
Just to give you an example, Hurricane Maria, which hit in 2017, which was a very active year in the in the Caribbean that cost Dominica 800% of its gross domestic product.
Early warnings have helped save lives.
They've really cut the death toll dramatically.
But Even so, the small island developing states in the Caribbean suffer disproportionately both in terms of economic losses and losses to to life in the Caribbean.
Next week, and I don't know if you're talking about that, there is the Big Small Island International Conference on Small Island developing States and there will be a WMO delegation at this conference basically pleading the need for better early warnings for more targeted investments, more coordinated action.
And you know, there's this forecast from from from Noah, you know, just bears out the need why?
You know, we really do need to be to be vigilant.
[Other language spoken]
As I said, you know, near record ocean heat, the anticipated development of La Nina and WMO will be issuing its update on La Nina hopefully next week or the following week.
So this is creating conditions for the perfect storm.
But obviously, as we've seen, you know, sea level rise worsened, worsened by storm surge increases the potential risk for coastal communities.
And in recent years, we've seen a trend towards more rapid intensification of tropical cyclones.
And this is really a major, major channel challenge when it occurs near land, as we saw last year with Hurricane Otis, which literally, you know, blew up overnight and just ******* into Acapulco and, and, and, you know, caused a huge amount of of damage.
We've posted a news item on the web.
We've sent you the, the, the, the briefing, the briefing notes.
If you've got any questions, please let me know.
[Other language spoken]
Don't see any hand up.
[Other language spoken]
So thank you very much.
That was really clear and important.
I I've lost track of all the people who wanted to ask questions.
Christian, I think we started with Robin, but there were other hands up.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Sorry, Robin, just one thing because I think there are quite a few questions.
I just wanted to tell you because it's getting late and I think you want to plan this.
It's about the new treaty on intellectual property, genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge that was adopted this last night at Waipol.
And it's a ground breaking new treaty related to this issues which is marking an historic breakdown, a couple of decades of negotiations.
And the, the news is that they are giving a press conference today at 1:15 at Waipol in person if possible.
I mean, there will be also a possibility to follow from a distance.
But you're really encouraged to go there because you will have the Director General, Waipo Tang, but also ambassador, Patriot of Brazil, Patriot of Brazil, who has been the president of the diplomatic conference.
They will be there to answer your questions.
And you can also have interview opportunities.
I think Ed has just sent you the information, but I just wanted to stress it at the briefing so that you can do your planning.
[Other language spoken]
And I, I'm sorry for that, Christian.
I catch you and Robin.
I'll give the floor to Robin now for questions.
So I think Bobby had a question too.
[Other language spoken]
Let's start with Robin.
[Other language spoken]
So, Christian, firstly, if you can give us an update on the state of the pandemic agreement talks, where they've got to and are they expected to reach a successful conclusion today?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, Yeah, you're asking me the crystal ball again.
[Other language spoken]
And then let me just run through a few updates because I assume many questions now are on several topics here, and I'll try to cover a few and then we'll see what's remaining.
So I and B discussions are ongoing.
That's important.
The schedule for today is until I think 9:00 in the evening.
But as you know from previous experiences that's not written in stone, but that's the deadline which they had for themselves for today.
Again, any the member states are are running this, hence they can change as they see fit and as they need important.
The mandate of the IMB is to present the outcome or an outcome for consideration at the World Health Assembly.
And any consideration at the World Health Assembly would then result in advice or action for next steps.
And at this point, it's impossible to prejudge what a either the outcome of the IMB will be or what then, of course, in a, in a follow up, the WJ will decide that's that's what's what's going on for today.
[Other language spoken]
And then we'll see for further questions because I have further updates.
And also on, on the Sunday events and the opening of the assembly on walk to talk events on the investment grounds on on Sunday.
But let's first see if there's anything on Ind.
[Other language spoken]
Sorry, I was going to ask on the on the World Health Assembly actually, if you could, if you could just sort of walk us through the overall schedule and perhaps give us some some pointers on the key things to watch for.
[Other language spoken]
Maybe then in this case, let me ask John if this is a question the treaty discussion negotiations.
[Other language spoken]
Yes, that is on the treaty negotiations.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Yes, Christian, I was wondering if WHO are going to update on their website the current draught text of the agreement because what you have on your website is a few months old to what's being circulated and shared publicly with stakeholders.
It's very confusing when stakeholders are posting stuff that's not shared with the press corps here.
All right, so, so let me take you one by one on the last one.
I mean, as this is the document under review and under works right now.
So I don't think they will update every day.
It's not good of course, if the the last one is still up there, which is so old.
But I mean, we should expect whenever these negotiations are over, to have a bit more final version of it.
But thanks for flagging it.
We'll see with the colleagues if there's anything we can do to at least note that and make clear that it's an old version before you go into the assembly.
I think Maya has raised her hand.
Maya, is that on the treaty?
Yes, actually.
And also if Christian could tell me if there will be any special event related to the traditional knowledge medicine that they had the summit last year.
Will be there a special event or something you'd like to highlight?
And if you could send us in written Oh, and then related to nutrition too, because I know your head of the division is leaving.
So if someone has been appointed and if there is someone I could interview, if you can send me that via e-mail.
Thank you very much.
OK, so any question not on that treaty as well, of course.
[Other language spoken]
OK, so on the sorry, go ahead Christian, go ahead.
Yeah, on the 1st 2 questions you had my I'll ask you to please write to, to media enquiries because that's very specialised, which I don't have any answers for you right now on the IMB.
Whatever there is happening tonight or whatever the outcome, we will definitely send out a press communique in some shape or form.
If there is still time at the end of the day and it ended the way that we that it merits, then we would do more but look out for a press release.
That's I think as much as we can do today.
If you look at the previous experiences, you saw that this goes way into the nights and would be difficult to organise anything else without any any warning beforehand.
And then I'm sorry, just wanted to add that the good thing is following the request of some of the journalists, we have asked security at the palay to authorise the journalists to stay as long as needed at the palay for the end of the negotiations.
So you will have access, of course, you will have access to your offices during the day, but you will be able to stay.
The palace security is informed as long as needed to cover the conclusion of the, of the treaty, which I understand, yes, could go quite late into the night.
And so, you know, we, we normally close at 7:30 with an exit for the journalists.
So at 8:45 tonight you can stay Christian.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
That's that's important, of course.
So yeah, then we go into World Health Assembly.
Now, first of all, let's let's start with Sunday.
On Sunday, as you know, we start the day with the big Walk the Talk event.
And it's really a big event which starts even before 8:00 at the plus Blastinacion with the main event kicking off at at 9:00.
But all the pre events, they're already and it's really for those of you who have ever attended, it's a really bring your family and friends event with many, many celebrities and important groups being there from a global scrub choir, which is really interesting to some quite some sports celebrities.
The Kenyan running legend Paul Taggart, the dual Olympic champion they had to Tulu, the a dance and development advocate Sherry Silva will will lead the crowd.
Then there's another dance sensation.
We'll have participants from Geneva.
Savet will have basketball stars, football legends and and other people joining us here on on the floor at the DD drop bar, for example, and others joining for the for the walk to talk.
So really important.
That's in the morning.
Then they have a bit of a break.
And then the afternoon at from 5:00 on starts the launch of WHL's investment round at the announcement of the winners of the fifth Film Festival.
And that's, that's an important event.
The event will be opened by WHO Director General, of course, but of the Tedros.
And it's a, it's an informal celebratory event prior to the formal opening of the World Health Assembly.
So that's important.
The formal opening of the World Health Assembly is on Monday morning at the Palais.
Nothing changed that.
But that Saturday, Sunday is a really a big event.
It will be opened again, as I said and attended by **** level representatives, some member states with heads of states.
We have ministers live performances from the Egyptian Opera, Singapario di Bani and other statements.
It's important this this investment round is a is a new approach to mobilising resources for who's core work for the next 4 years.
So it's a four week year plan from 2025 to 2028.
Working with existing donors and other partners, this investment round aims to attract new donors.
Hence, this is a very important event from 5:00 to 6:30 and then inside that same event during that time there will be the announcement of the winners of the Health All Film Festival.
This Film Festival now goes into it's it's a fifth round already and the grand prize winners, the ground key winners will be announced by various actors and and distinguished members.
The winners of the four special film prizes on the themes of universal health coverage, emergencies, refugees and migrant health, better health and physical activity and short films will be announced and interesting to note, more than 900 film makers from over hundreds and over 110 countries have submitted short films.
So this has really developed into quite a quite an event and quite an interesting thing.
Now important for you for those who want to come, all those who have access badges, the the accredited Uno accredited badges do not need an extra badge.
But because of limited space at the event, because that will be held at WHO, we would require you any way to register at Indigo.
And I think FIDELA is about to send out the advisory for exactly that with the link for the Indigo.
I know it's an extra pain and normally you have your ID pass should be enough, but it's a space question.
Hence, please register so that we get an overview.
Then let me go into Monday's openings.
So that was Sunday at WHO, Monday at the Palais and will start at 9:00 in the morning with the official opening of the 77 World Health Assembly at 9:40.
The **** level welcome with welcoming remarks as usual, of course by by the Swiss Confederation.
Then we have a round of special guests of honour and **** level guests, including SG Antonio Guterres, not in person as I know, but still other members of this **** level guests and the, the, the, the VIPs, I cannot tell you yet.
As you may know the it's been finalised last moment and member states will get the list first.
So I cannot tell you these now there will be health leaders awards, Doctor Tedros will present honorary lifetime achievement awards and, and, and the official director general main address that many of you are waiting for always is only in the afternoon after lunch at 2:30.
So I think that's enough for a rundown for now.
Otherwise I'm I'm doing my own press conference here only on World Health Assembly rundown important 9:00 on Monday morning with the **** level welcome official DG address by 2:30 14-30 after lunch and of course join us Sunday morning for walk the talk and then later in the day for the investment round.
Thank you very much Christian and there are questions so stay with us.
I just wanted to add for also on the logistics for next week at the PAL.
So we've already sent you a note correspondent informing you that during the World Assembly but also during the International Labour Conference, there will be the cost saving measures that reduce the operational hours that the pilot will be lifted.
So there won't be the limitations that we have known until now.
We have sent you a detailed list of timing at the different gates, but there is no the the the the limitations are are are partially lifted.
I also wanted to tell you that Monday, as Christian said, it's going to be a very busy day at the palace.
So we are expecting a **** number of people getting through the paladin assume through through the paladin.
So through the plain gate, the peace gate, and therefore, whether this it's it's a pedestrian or with your vehicle, we are recommending to use and the fair that's not for bicycles.
For those of you who bike, bike still have to go up to the peace gate.
And also please let me remind you that because we're expecting a higher number of vehicles getting into the Palais, there will be a number.
I mean, we, we really ask people to use all the parking areas, those who are also a little bit farther away from the Palais, but security reserves the right to stop the **** courts from getting in if all the parking areas are full.
So don't get in at the last minute if you want.
If that's, that's the two thing I wanted to say.
So now questions to Christian on this.
I'll start with Nina.
[Other language spoken]
Hi, Christian, Thanks.
I, I had a few questions for you.
So first I was wondering obviously for the **** level participants when we can expect to get that list, if we can get an overview like a full programme that would be helpful.
I'm wondering on the on the pandemic treaty on Sunday, Monday, I mean are are there presentations expected anything around that expected those days?
And also on the Taiwan issue, if there's anything on that expected on Monday, I think generally if you could tell us what's coming there.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
We should have done our own press briefing on this one.
We had this plan for Tuesday with the DG anyway.
So the the list of **** level speakers I hope as soon as possible tonight ideally or then tomorrow with the names on it.
The schedule I think will be shared a bit earlier already when we can with with an announcement.
So that's for the opening segment.
There was a middle question I missed from you.
But on Taiwan, maybe you remember it's always the same discussion every year.
The Taiwan observership at the World Health Assembly is a question for the 194 member states of WHO to consider and to decide upon.
Very important.
It's not a Secretariat question, it's a member state question, 194 members to deliberate and it may just well be, and they're discussing this as we speak that they do the same 2 + 2 structured debate again that that we're used to over the last and recent years.
That means two countries speak in favour of the request of observatives, two countries speak against.
And that normally closes the item that is, that is normally how it goes.
And I personally do not expect anything else.
But again, this is on the debate right now.
Stand by for anything else there.
And yeah, I think Nina, Nina wants to remind you the other question.
[Other language spoken]
I was also, I was just wondering when that 2 + 2 debate might happen.
I know it's generally on Monday, but if you have any timings, timings are obviously helpful.
And the other question was just if there's anything official expected around the, the, the pandemic accord, like presentation of the text or anything during at the opening of the WHA.
I don't believe that would be at the opening.
First of all, it depends on the outcome, what what is there to present what what the full thing is in a in a sense, in case there would must be a full text to consider.
I think the schedule for this item is is not on Monday that I think on Tuesday, But again, I would be I'm as you know, you have to be always a bit weary of the schedule because when I one item moves longer than items get pushed back.
But to my knowledge, the the presentation of the ICOM outcome of this working group of this panel is scheduled for Tuesday.
Whatever there will be presented, it would reflect whatever the outcome was.
So I can't predict that on Taiwan.
I don't have the timing now with me when that might be or is, but a look at the at the journal should help with that.
Sorry, don't have it with me.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Question I questioned for you, we've to accept the Indigo extra accreditation, but what kind of access we have?
Do we have to waiting out of the conference room or we can we have access or shall we share the lunch in your headquarter?
[Other language spoken]
We're talking about Sunday or Monday or Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
[Other language spoken]
No, thank you very much.
This is important and I actually should have mentioned it immediately and I had it actually on my notes here.
So point being journalists, yes, there should be entry.
There is.
We have seats planned for you to attend.
Point being, because of space, we may not have options for setting up additional cameras.
We are planning for a photo opportunity in the beginning when this when before it starts with the typical go up, going up to the front to have pictures from the front rows.
But there is not space for extra camera set up because again with all the dignitaries and all the delegations coming, we have very limited space there.
We have video footage from at least 4 angles, which we then of course our video team and Chris and everybody will be happy to share or even live streaming.
But again, and that's good to ask you as an individual journalist access yes, for the investment round and the opening festival of the Film Festival cameras most likely not photos for an opening shot and not more of this helps.
So is that means journalist selected by WHO?
No, we, we seem that we want to have well, I mean we're not expecting hundreds.
I mean if there were hundreds then we would have to go to overflow.
If we have 20s or 30, we have space considered inside again, no cameras, no photos after which which will already limit numbers for the question.
And in case and in case you ask if multiple people come from one agency, then we may have to limit that too because of obviously we need to distribute this the space as good as we can.
Buddy for last follow up, yeah, quite last follow up for Sunday.
Is that possible to access in Paladinacion by car?
No, if if you if you need to come into the pallet to leave your car and then go to the place, then assume the answer is no.
We have the possibility.
I mean if you have to come inside and work inside because you have an office, then we will have to make a special request.
The limitation for the entry are waived starting Monday, not not the weekend, not the the preceding weekend.
So if you really need to come to the Palais because you want to work from the Palais, let me know and then I will have to inform security.
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Not for Christian, but probable for you.
These are more people who want to ask things, so go ahead.
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Will the entry accreditation to the WHA be issued to journalists and medias are recognised by by countries officially recognised by United Nations?
Well, Alexandra, I guess that's the question for you.
I'm not sure I understood completely, but the rule, the rule is very simple.
It's very straightforward.
We can accredit journalists and media to come to the Palais and the two I mean there there are a series of criterias, but for what concerns the countries the journalists have has to have an ID of a country recognised by the General Assembly and also and or because sometimes people are you know, from a country recognised by a General Assembly.
But the media that is asking for accreditation has to be registered in the country which is recognised by the the UN General Assembly.
But and there are other criterias, of course, but that's not not the only one, but for the country as you are.
I understand you're asking is, is this, let me go to, so to be clear, yeah, our colleague from the region of Taiwan with the ID of there cannot be accredited.
Is that buddy I, I'm not going to characterise 1 country or another.
It's if you are in the list of the countries that are recognised by the General Assembly, you can have access and accreditation to the palate.
So as I said, you as a person, I mean the person needs an ID from a country that is accredited, recognised by the General Assembly and or the media has to be registered in a country that is recognised by General Assembly.
And I'm pretty sure you've already seen it, but there is a list on the on the on the website of the United Nations of the country recognised by the GA.
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I understood that there will be also Heads of Government expected to speak on Sunday at the beginning of that investment round.
If you could provide maybe the the list of them at the same time you're going to provide the list of the speeches for Monday morning, that would be great.
And then just to understand what's the purpose, the concrete purpose of that meeting on Sunday?
Will there be formal pledges by some governments to to contribute to that, to that round?
And will there be any release at the end to, to give us a consolidated amount of contribution that would have been made?
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So step by step first on your on your question of of names, same problem names still being finalised and we're not able to share yet.
We will share as soon as we can.
Exactly.
There will be quite a number of of **** level of **** level speakers that is really, really important.
One note on which I got an update now on it was I think who was it before who asked about when Taiwan will be on.
Anyway, it concerns everybody.
So it should be, it was Nina, I think exactly.
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So Nina or anybody else decision on on Taiwan should be on Monday between 11/11/30 approximately.
So I think that's that.
And then I'll one second let me go to the investment round part.
**** on for a moment.
Yeah, important to note and I think I stated it roughly before, it is not a pledging exercise that's really important.
Thanks for asking that for the clarification.
It's rather a forum for Member States and other participants to express their support.
So it's an in that sense it's an informal event and that's that's why it's on this Sunday afternoon.
It's, it's, as I said, it's a new approach and trying to, to, to trying to aim to attract new donors through an inclusive engagement process that will then culminate in a **** level financing event in the fourth quarter of 2024.
So these are basically a couple of awareness raising appetisers on the way to a **** level financing event at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 as yeah, yes, let's leave it at that.
In case you have more John, it's Christian.
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There are a lot of side events to the World Health Assembly, but many are not taking place in the Palais, they're taking place all over Geneva.
Will the WHA as in the past provide in the daily bulletin where each side event is taking place or will you also list them or not?
To my knowledge, John, some are hosted by UN agencies as well and they haven't reached out to us.
So that's a confusing.
There are many NGOs about other groups missions who have a whole side events who are basing on the sidelines of the WHA and we we I don't think we list them or provide any further information about the days.
I've seen a document somewhere which holds list of quite quite an amount of these of these side events.
All the official side events will be normally listed in the journal and to my knowledge also with a little summary the next day in, in the the, the journal looking at the day before.
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I think that was the last question if yeah.
And so as I know, you're all concentrating on WHA, but just is more announcement about the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is concluding today, the 96th session.
And they will conclude at 5:00.
And we will issue the concluding observation on the 9 country that they have reviewed, which I remind you were Namibia, Guatemala, George, Mali, Panama, on the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, Egypt, Bhutan, Estonia and Paraguay.
The next meeting of the Conference of Disarmament has not been announced yet, but it will be held under the next presidency, which is the presidency of Iraq.
And again, let me remind you at 1:15, which is less than in one hour time, the press conference at Waipu, if possible in person on the treaty that was adopted last night.
With that, I think, sorry, there is one more question from John.
I think it's for you, Christian.
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Christian, following up on Laurent's question concerning the investment round, you mentioned it's informal, but my understanding is the Executive Board already approved this investment round process.
So it has a formal mechanism in WHO and are you targeting 2 billion for 2024 by the end of the year to attract voluntarily up to $2 billion?
[Other language spoken]
So let me see if I can find the figure.
The investment round is trying to secure funding for WTO strategy and the for the 14th Global General Programme of work, which is the cheap BW14 that covers the 2025 to 2028.
I'm trying to find a figure for you, but I can't find it immediately.
[Other language spoken]
The, the, the gap from the base budget to the the remaining gap is currently estimated at 7.1 billion.
And this this investment round will seek to encourage voluntary contributions from member States and other donors to fill that gap for a fully funded base budget for GPW 14.
This, I think was really the last question.
So thank you very much to you all for following this very long, very interesting briefing.
I wish you all a good press conference.
Now a very good event on Sunday.
Christian, a great walk of the talk.
Let's hope this the the the sky assist us and then a very good press, a very good conference next week.
Thank you very much and thanks to everyone.
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