OK, let's start this briefing.
Welcome to this press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.
Today is Friday, 31st of May and we have with us, we have the pleasure to have with us a few colleagues coming in from Papa New Guinea.
I would like to start with the this topic, the briefing of today.
So I have the pleasure to introduce to you Mr Richard Howard, who is the UN Resident Coordinator in Papua New Guinea.
He is accompanied by Serhon Akhtopra, who is the IOM Chief of Mission for PNG, and Matthew Begosi, humanitarian coordinator, advisor to the resident coordinator and the UN country team in Papua New Guinea.
So I give them the floor and then we'll we'll open the floor to questions.
So I guess, Mr Howard, you would like to start.
Good morning, colleagues.
I'll start briefly and then allow my colleagues to speak as well.
But the situation we have now is that still, at this point, only 7 bodies have been recovered from the land site's light site, and there still remains uncertainty over the total number of victims.
But we have a solid estimate of the total number of people affected by the landslide, which we put at 7849.
And it is these individuals in the two wards in the area of the site, which will receive our support, humanitarian support to cover immediate needs.
We know that 150 structures, not households, but structures were in the area of the landslide site.
Today, a geotechnical team arrived from New Zealand to survey the terrain and determine factors of safety for the local community and also the implications for using heavier equipment to dig in the bodies in the search for remains.
The security situation in the province is still affected by tribal tribal fighting, but it is not yet impacting a delivery.
An aid delivery is using military escorts.
A bridge collapsed on May 28th has been repaired leading to the site area, but it remains unstable.
Immediate needs in the area include support for removal of bodies and we have a tight time frame of only one week to remove bodies before it's declared a health risk for further removables.
The geotechnical analysis is needed in an urgent manner to determine the trends and the movements of the soil of the land affected by the landslide, which we understand is moving at a rate of 1 metre a day, moving down the slope towards a village that is located below.
Other immediate needs include food supplies and clothing, emergency shelter, wash support, water purification, medical supplies, relocation support, logistical support and information management to support the government.
2 main challenges are are most critical at this stage.
1 is the safety of the landslide area.
The situation remains dynamic.
It is feared that water might be accumulating under the rubble and these factors represent a danger and significant challenge for search operations and heavy machinery from and and and could prevent heavy machinery from being brought in to assist with the recoveries.
A second challenge links to security in the area.
While access to, as I mentioned to the site remains open as of today, conflict dynamics are unpredictable.
The distribution of relief supplies could possibly trigger additional unrest or conflict, as well as the way that relocation of displaced populations is managed.
These are two critical challenges that we face at this point.
So the priority now is twofold, safe search operations to be carried out as soon as possible while addressing the immediate needs of the affected and displaced population.
We have had an unprecedented number of partners mobilising support for their response.
And the challenge now is for the UN, as we are doing now to support effective coordination for relief supplies that are coming into the country as well as the distribution and the and the location.
And this is really requiring us to step up and make sure that the right kind of materials are coming in.
And they were addressing gaps that are needed to be addressed and avoiding overlaps.
But overall, the international response has been very positive, overwhelmingly positive.
And there's much appreciated appreciation for the local communities and the government as we move forward with addressing immediate needs.
We must also keep in mind that there is a need to move towards early recovery and to to help communities and local government develop approaches for long term solutions to not only address immediate future, future disasters of this nature, but also to help the communities rebuild in a sustainable and effective way.
But with that, I turn over to Sarahan for further commentary.
Thank you Richard, thank you very much.
Well, definitely, I want to take from where our resident coordinator has explained shelter NFI and a lot of support is pouring in and we are really grateful for this.
But operational challenges remain and as well there are few shortages and security issues.
Organisational capacity need to be established and maintained throughout in order to ensure efficient and effective and timely responses provided throughout.
And this is particularly where we believe as the UN and our partners can make a greater contribution to the collective efforts.
On that note, we heard the very good news today.
National Disaster Centre informed that the provincial Disaster Coordinator of the Western Highlands Province, Mr Robin Yakum, has been appointed to oversee the operations in Wabek.
We have worked very closely with Mr Yakum last year as we responded to the Mount Bargana volcanic eruption response.
He has been well capacitated as he worked side by side with the UN team and he has our full support.
The second is the Displacement Tracking Matrix team.
They have managed to prepare a detailed map of the area showing the disaster side evacuation centres to the scale, which we understand is going to be very helpful in facilitating your understanding of the situation and this is going to be disseminated widely after this press conference.
And last but not least, I have a very good news.
IOM is currently mobilising its technical capabilities to establish a communication support hub.
At times this could be a massive problem in Papua New Guinea, as we see, especially on this occasion, there are many, many, many times in a single day alone on ours at end.
There is no communication possible between the humanitarian teams and between and among them operating on the ground.
For that reason, we have been informed that our teams are dispatching certain satellite and other communications equipment from overseas.
We hope to receive them by next week and we will put these in use to help the collective efforts to move smoothly from now on and in a secure way.
Bearing in mind, security is always a question which we have to ensure for the sake of the people and also the humanitarian response teams.
I don't know if Meta begos, he would like to say also something or we go to the questions.
We can go straight to questions.
Just for our journalist just to to inform that our colleagues are calling in from, as I said, from Papua New Guinea, from Port Morrisby, from the UN office there.
So let's now go to the first question, Benjamin Louise, who's the correspondent of the Swiss television and radio.
Good morning or good, good, whatever it is where you are.
First of all, could you please mention the numbers again?
I wrote 7886, I don't remember, is it affected people, disappeared, people dead And other question.
Could you please provide us a little summary of the tribal question?
Just a quick understanding of the situation, Who is fighting against who?
Did it start with the incident or was it a previous condition?
Thank you very much, Mr Howard.
I'll give you the floor and then you decide who would like to answer that please on the tribal I can talk OK tribal first with Sarahan and then the second question on numbers we'll go to Monday pretty good.
Well, unfortunately, anger is known for its notorious tribal conflicts and these can flare up at it any at any time.
And they can actually hit any location at any moment.
Since the morning of 25 May 2024, Saturday to neighbouring tribes at a location called Tambiniska.
If I'm not mistaken, somewhere between halfway between the capital of the province, Wabek and the disaster side had started fighting over a dispute that goes back several years which originally erupted from two families belonging to two separate but neighbouring tribes and eventually this evolved into such a scale that both tribes started fighting each other.
As of the date as of 29th of May, we know that a total of 12 people have been killed and many homes have been burnt down, as well as business stalls and shops and a lot of women and children.
They had become displaced.
The family members, especially those men, household heads, they had sent those vulnerable members of their families to stay away from the warring zone, and they are just on alert, the remaining men, and they continue their fight.
Now, it is important to note that the tribes when they are fighting, they do not immediately pose a ****** to passersby, because they are too focused on their rivalry and their cause, and they do not necessarily wish to further extend the fight to others.
However, the danger arises from the fact that some criminal groups will wish to capitalise on this chaos for the purposes of gaining some wealth through robberies, carjacking, looting and so on and so forth.
For that reason, the convoys, humanitarian convoys are provided with security escort by the Ministry of Defence, by the military force.
Now this leads to a little bit of a time loss, but overall, once the situation is contained and it's secured and ensured that the passes why the convoy will not be affected, they very quickly leave this sector of the road behind.
As of yet no attacks had been recorded on the UN and the humanitarian convoy.
But of course it is always a risk.
We have to be very cautious.
It's also important to reiterate once again that that issue is completely irrelevant.
It's not related to the landslide over and maybe Mr Magosi on the on the number, I understand.
So I will repeat the numbers.
The total affected population which includes those in need of possible evacuation, those in need possible evacuation 100 location is estimated at 7849 individuals which is 1427 households as per IO, Ms first displaced and tracking matrix.
Among those that is 1650 individuals or 315 households that are displaced.
The rest have remained in their in their houses, but would be subject to relocation or evacuation at later stages.
So any other question in the room to our colleagues in Port Morrisby?
I don't see other hands up on the platform.
I think it's pretty clear I don't see hands up.
So I would really like to thank our colleagues from the UN offices, UN offices in Port Moresby and please keep us informed because I this is not going away and and we would be happy to hear more in the next few days on the UN response to this crisis situation.
So let's now go to another crisis area and this time we move to Afghanistan.
We have the pleasure to welcome Richard Trenchard with the representative of the FAO in Afghan team in Afghanistan.
Mr Trenchard, you have an update on the food security situation in Afghanistan and also related to the severe floods that impacted the North and North eastern region of the country.
Please, you have the floor.
Hello everybody and greetings from Kabul.
As, as it's just been said, I'll speak briefly on two issues.
The 1st is the newly released IPC report and an update on the recent devastating floods that have affected some 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, particularly in the north and northeast of the country.
But not only so, the latest integrated phase classification IPC assessment.
This week FAO and WFP released the new report and as always it provides 2 estimates.
1 is at the current levels of food insecurity in the country, that's covering March and April 2024.
And the second is a projection covering the period from now until the post harvest season, so that's May until October 2024.
The figures indicate A continuing positive trend with 14.2 million people estimated to be currently facing cute food insecurity.
That's IPC 3 plus and that's equivalent to 37% of Afghanistan's total population.
And the projection is for a further fall to 12.4 million people in the post harvest.
That's equivalent to about 28% of the total population.
Importantly, these latest numbers represent they reveal A dramatic fall from early 2022 when nearly 23 million people were facing acute food insecurity.
That was 55% of the population.
So 2022 early 202222.8 million, 23 million people, now 14.2 and reducing falling to 12.4 million people later in the year.
So firstly and most importantly, this dramatic fall is testament to the almost depthless resilience of Afghanistan's male and female farmers and its people in general.
Secondly, it's driven by the relative improvements in the climatic conditions following four years of drought and this is leading to improved harvest outlook.
Thirdly, it also reflects growing stabilisation in the Afghan economy.
And fourthly, it is the result of enormous levels of humanitarian and non humanitarian food Security Assistance in 22 and 2023, including both WFP LED humanitarian food assistance and foul LED emergency agricultural assistance.
I would, however, highlight the really **** levels of support agriculture in the very start of the crisis, which has played a decisive role in bringing down the headline levels of food insecurity.
So let's be clear, 14 million people mean that Afghanistan remains amongst the world's largest human security crisis.
In absolute terms, it was the worst.
It's not the worst now, but it's still one of the worst.
And more than 2 million people still face emergency levels of human security.
So Afghanistan, of course and its people must not be forgotten in a world of spiralling crises.
But worryingly, the food security situation, despite the positive trend, it remains extremely fragile, particularly due to the likelihood of climate induced but also other shocks, but also due to the fragility of the economic context.
And it remains critically important to continue investing in both humanitarian food assistance and emergency agricultural assistance to sustain the downward trend.
But as we know the current funding situation, the WFP profile and all the other humanitarian actors in the country, it remains bleak.
And this risks jeopardising the gains that have been made in the last two plus years and also actually risks reversing positive trends.
And as you I'm sure know, the HNRP for this year remains funded today at just 17%, far lower equivalent levels at this time of year in 22 and 23.
And the consequences of inaction or delayed action are really ****.
Firstly, increased levels of malnutrition and food security.
Secondly, rural livelihoods remain incredibly vulnerable at the moment.
3 increased to displacement risks both within Afghanistan but also beyond Afghanistan.
And I recently travelling in the far West of the country, I saw newly abandoned villages.
Particularly in the South.
And fourthly, we must, we must always remember that women and children will bear the brunt of the consequences of inaction.
Now moving on to the second point, the update on the severe flash floods that have affected particularly the north and northeastern regions of Afghanistan.
Spring flash floods are common across Afghanistan every year they have.
They happen typically in in April.
However, in May this year, particularly the second week, the people of Afghanistan suffered unprecedentedly strong and destructive flash floods across 10 or so provinces, north, northeast, but also down on the South, also in the West.
And these floods have caused absolute devastation across the country's communities and its vital agricultural landscapes.
Of course, as always, it's leading to coordination of the response and many UN agencies, international and national NGOs, but also the local authorities are involved in the response.
I'd like to share quickly some brief reflections and updates based on a mission.
When I came back just yesterday to Baklan in the northeast, it's one of the worst affected provinces.
What I saw quite simply, was numbing communities, simply erased by devastating plus flood surges.
But before you had houses and compounds, now you have nothing.
You can't tell it there were houses there, there were orchards there, but there were fields there.
We just got a 70 or so centimetre layer of flood sediment.
Nothing but that remains plus bold as some as large as cars.
One community I was in, they had a day of rain, not particularly dramatic, but then they had an 8 hour flood search that just devastated the whole whole community.
Flash floods, as always, they're indiscriminate and they're brutally arbitrary.
Some people lost almost nothing, other families lost everything, houses, vital livestock, agricultural crops, particularly wheat.
And this was only a few days away from the first good harvest after after four years of drought, wheat that has now been harvested and it's the foundation of food security in this country and across the province.
It's roads, schools, health posts have been damaged and really importantly, vital irrigation systems have been either destroyed or rendered unusable.
Assessment and data collection is a challenge given the geographical spread of the clash floods, but also the remoteness of many of the worst affected communities.
But let me share with you some of the latest numbers that we humanitarian community have assembled more than 600 fatalities, particularly children.
This the main floods hit in the afternoons when children were out.
Almost 150,000 people directly affected.
Some 50,000 hectares of agricultural land simply destroyed and now covered in deep inorganic flood sediment.
More than 20,000 livestock killed.
Those estimates may be conservative.
More than 100,000 orchard treats vital again for both food security, but also for livelihoods just destroyed.
As I said across the provinces vital irrigation systems either destroyed, blocked, damaged and say other provinces outside the north and northeast have been affected border scam, you know Bhagdis Fadiab etcetera.
Yes, humanitarian agencies are responding, reprogramming already tight resources, but additional funding is required both for immediate life saving assistance to those worst affected, particularly for water or food or shelter for health, but also to replace lost livestock to repair vital irrigation systems.
The summer crop planting season is is now and it's importantly to enable farmers to plant by tall summer crops, something that remains currently impossible for hundreds of thousands of people.
We've unblocked more than 60 kilometres of canal just with diggers etcetera and we've also helped communities dispose of dead livestock.
There's still dead livestock.
I saw them in trees and across the landscape and also working to keep sick animals alive.
So we need to do far more.
We found that also every other humanitarian agency that's working there.
But it's a race against time.
And as I said, the scale and destructiveness of these floods.
And I've worked for many years in in some onset crisis situations.
But the scale is just, it's nothing.
The human impact is enormous.
So once again, the people of Afghanistan must not be forgotten.
Thank you very much, Sir.
Let me see if there are questions in the room.
I don't see any, so I go to the platform.
Lisa Shrine, Voice of America.
You have to unmute yourself.
And to you, Mr Trenchard.
I'm very curious, are women allowed to farm equally as men and or are they delegated to their homes to other kinds of work?
And if they are allowed to farm, then would you say that they are in a better position than the women who live in urban areas who are essentially consigned to their homes?
And then you talk about the funding situation being bleak.
Is this a, A cause of other crises or a combination of other crises And the situation of the Taliban, ad hoc rulers in the country who are not very kind, shall we say, to women, children, education, very discriminatory.
One, on women's role in agriculture and secondly on the funding situation in Afghanistan, as in every country in the world, women pay an absolutely vital role in agriculture.
Of course, there are variations across the country.
Some areas you'll see women very much active in the fields, working morning, afternoon and evening.
Other areas less so that's not because of any restrictions.
That's because of culture, tradition and custom.
So in the South you tend to see less women in the fields, but you go to the north, you go to the east, you'll see women in the fields involved in crop agriculture.
However, where women all women across the country involves livestock, it's the biggest single economic sector for employment sector for women and also in backyard vegetable production that's vegetables typically for the family, but also for local markets produced inside the compound or just near the houses.
So there'll be no restrictions on Afghan women working in agriculture.
And in fact, the authorities have encouraged us to increase our investment the last two years in programmes that directly target women, particularly in livestock, particularly in their vegetable production.
So as the restrictions prefer to largely do affect women in in urban areas, not in in rural areas.
Now as regards funding, I mean, there's I think there's two big drivers.
One, of course, it's just the number of spiralling crises across the world, whether we're talking about Gaza, Sudan, but also made Korean, but also the other large crisis, Somalia, DRC, to name a few.
In the case of Afghanistan, as well as the enormous overall humanitarian need reflected in the inner reduced but still very large $3 billion plus HNRP.
We've also had a series of unforeseen shocks, earthquakes in Iraq, give you one example, late last year.
Also the large unexpected returns from Pakistan in late court late today.
Last year the obviously the international donor community was deeply concerned by some of the restrictions that were announced firstly December 22, which banned our government from working from NGOs and then the extension all these these restrictions to in April last year.
There was obviously a lot of discussion around that, a lot of scrutiny.
But the humanitarian community has shown that it can continue to, to reach women with women and also to operate in principled ways in line with the court humanitarian principles, but also reflecting other rights based issues.
So I think the challenge for Afghanistan is less to do with the situation here.
I think the Dominic community has continued and it is continued to support Afghanistan.
I think it's just personally, I believe it's just the pull of other crises around the world.
Any other question in the room or on the platform?
So I would like to thank very, very much Mr Trenchard for this update.
Good luck with your important work on the security and come back soon to brief us.
I move now to the third of our topics today, another crisis situation.
We've got the ends with us to tell us about the situation, humanitarian situation in Sudan.
19 global humanitarian organisations, including twelve UN agencies, today warned that if they continue to be prevented from providing aid in Sudan rapidly and at scale, a famine will likely take hold in large parts of the country.
More people will flee to neighbouring countries, children will succumb to disease and malnutrition, and women and girls will face even greater suffering and dangers.
The principles of the interagency Standing Committee, which is chaired by emergency relief Coordinator Martin Griffith, said in a statement that time is running out for millions of people, including 3.6 million acutely malnourished children who are at risk of famine and they're displaced from their lands, living on the bombardments and cut off from humanitarian aid.
As you know, Sudan is ravaged by war, of course, and it's also home to the largest number of internally displaced people in the world, at nearly 10 million.
A further 2 million people have fled to neighbouring countries.
Already, attacks against civilians, including sexual violence, are multiplying, and hospitals and schools are also coming under attack.
At the same time, aid workers face systematic obstructions and deliberate denials of access by parties to the conflict.
Movements across concrete lines to parts of Khartoum, Darfur, Al Jazeera and Kodofan have been cut off since mid-december.
In March and April of this year, nearly 860,000 people were denied humanitarian aid in these areas.
The closure in February of the Adra border crossing from Chad to western Darfur has reduced aid delivery in Darfur to a trickle.
Aid workers are also being killed, most recently on the 25th of May when an MSF staff member was killed when shelling hit his house in Al Fascia in Darfur.
Other aid workers have been injured and harassed and humanitarian supplies are being looted.
The Interagency Standing Committee Principles urgently request the parties to the conflict to do the following.
Take immediate measures to protect civilians and end sexual and gender based violence.
Facilitate humanitarian access through all possible cross line and cross-border routes.
Immediately cease denying, obstructing, interfering with or politicising humanitarian action.
Simplify and expedite administrative and bureaucratic procedures.
De escalate the situation in Alfascia and adopt A nationwide ceasefire.
And finally, stop human rights violations and hold perpetrators to account.
The full statement is online and I sent it to you a little while ago.
And maybe just to remind that the journalist that yesterday the resident in Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Queta Salami, reminded all parties of their obligations to avoid using explosive weapons in populated areas and to take all physical precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
So let me open the floor to questions in the room.
Not many questions this morning.
I would like to ask on Gaza to is it, is it on?
Let me let me see Isabel, if there is any question particularly on Sudan.
I see a couple of hands on the platform.
Beza, is that on on Sudan?
Mine is not on Sudan as well.
Lisa, do you have a question on Sudan?
Sorry, this is what I'm asking for My, my, my, my pet crisis, right.
Ian, what is the what do you have to say about the situation in famine?
I mean, there, there have been all kinds of awful projections that it is here or it is coming and it is soon.
And then I, I had read that the general of the Sudanese Armed Forces had refused to go into negotiations with the RSF.
And if so, and what are the prospects of having any kind of the negotiation in the near future about, I don't know, a ceasefire ending this horrible war?
To take the last one first.
It is true to the extent that I have also seen that reported.
But as far as as I can go, they, they, they of course maintain their own communications.
If, if that is indeed a, a position, that's certainly not a position that we would like them to to adopt.
We of course want these generals to find a way to solve their but differences not by violence that kills, maims, rapes, what not hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan, but do it in another way.
I think Mr Griffith at one point said that they'll have to fight it out among themselves in terms of famine.
It is something that is certainly on the horizon in terms of of numbers with the, the, the conflict which is now in it's second year as from from April, right.
We're in the second year, we have 18 million people who are acutely hungry and as I mentioned 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished.
And acute malnourishment is really dangerous in the sense that I think the number is that they are 10:50 times more likely to die than children who are not accurately malnourished.
But UNICEF is normally the agency who has these these numbers.
But I believe that is that, that is it.
We still don't have, we are waiting for an update on that, which I have been told is coming soon.
But we also know that these food security experts need their their time to do the analysis of the data that they have available.
Let me see if there are more questions.
Lisa, you have a follow up.
What is the current situation in Alfash areas?
Are the Rapid Support forces making inroads in terms of actually seizing the city?
And what about the general access to for humanitarian agencies to the people in the really hostile areas?
Is, is, has it become almost impossible because of the security situation?
And sorry, just one last thing, whether it's possible to bring any kind of humanitarian aid from Chad into Sudan or has that essentially been put out of line?
Fascia and and and Darfur as as a whole is really a flashpoint.
There's extremely little access as I mentioned since mid February, the, the, the cross-border movement from chat has a has, has has come to a halt.
So that pipeline is not is not open and that's exactly why the principles are calling for all modalities cross-border, cross line from wherever from space to get food and other aid into the four and other hotspots in in Sudan in fashion.
We estimate that about 800,000 civilians are bracing for an imminent large scale attack.
That has been kind of the analysis that we have that we have seen.
It hasn't happened full scale yet, but that does not mean that fighting is not is not going on.
I believe even today there are reports of renewed fighting in and around fascia.
In terms of conditions for aid delivery, well, it's very, very poor and it's very, very dangerous.
As I just mentioned a few days ago, a staff member of Mitzen Sans Frontier was killed in his home.
Other aid workers have been harassed, injured and so on.
So this of course needs to needs to stop.
It needs to be safe and secure for aid workers to to operate and it needs to be safe and secure for, for people to, to receive the aid.
Any other question to end on this subject Otherwise we'll go together.
I don't see any hands up.
I would like to ask on the humanitarian access to Gaza, because now we we know that the these floating dog or whatever is built by the Americans doesn't operate anymore and.
I, I, I saw that some help is coming through the crossing point, but few, few supplies and so is this are these supplies getting to the people who has moved now from Rafa to towards the northern parts of Gaza?
You can explain generally what is it now the, the humanitarian situation.
Yes, thank you very much.
On, on, on the floating Dock Pier.
I, I won't say much because as, as you know, it's not a AUN operation per SE, but but of course we have also said that any and all ways of getting aid in is welcome.
So when that, that modality is currently not working, that's of course bad news that, that, that goes with without saying.
But it, it, it was never, I think intended and it was never realistic to be a, a, a major or the major pipeline of aid in it would have been an addition.
And we keep emphasising that the only way to get aid in at scale and at speed is through land crossings.
And that's where we, we, we have these problems and we need more of these land crossing and we need them open and we need them safe for us to pick up the aid when it's dropped off.
And that leads me to your second question about Karam Shalom.
We continue to insist that Israeli authorities obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border.
It does not stop when you drop off just a few metres across the border and then drive away and then leave it to humanitarian to drive through active combat zones, which they cannot do to pick it up.
So to answer your question, no, the aid that is getting in is not getting to the people and that's a major problem.
We need that additional help if you like.
And we of course we want all parties to live up to their obligations under the law.
That is why we have notification and de conflicting measures and all that it is for them to live up to their obligations.
So I think that is about what what, what I can say, you know, we need that safe and unimpeded access to get to to the drop off point so we can pick it up and get it to people.
And so we can understand that people in Gaza, civilians are not getting any food, any water, anything that the essential supplies that they need to leave these days.
I mean, I would say they are certainly not getting the amount that they desperately need to prevent the famine, to prevent all kind of horrors that that we see.
It's very, very little that is that is going around at the moment.
If there are no other questions in the room, let me go to the platform.
And Baeza had a question to Yemen.
Actually my question was similar.
So I would like to add on that question also, how you evaluate the seizure of the Philadelphia corridor by Israel, how would affect the humanitarian assistance there?
And as you said, even though the aid is entering in the volume that it's not efficient enough and it's not reaching the people.
Can you give us the numbers as it's leaving the Kerm Shalom, the only entry point like how many trucks entered these days and you know how many of them reach the people and how many knots?
Can you give us a certain number on that?
There's a number here in the thanks for the question, Frank.
Frankly, I'm not going to go into truck numbers right now because we have said and I've said from from this podium a long time ago, these truck numbers will never be able to make them align that the Israelis to say something, we count something else.
Trucks are being shifted from one fleet of trucks to another fleet of trucks.
Some is humanitarian, some is commercial, some are through crossing points where we have no access.
So it's it's almost a fool's game to to do this truck counting the the numbers of trucks humanitarian that we are tracking are online.
I think you all have the link where you can go in and see it's UNWA doing that.
And that is what we officially officially can can can say on that.
And I don't see any yes, Isabel on Umrah, can you, can you comment on the discussions in the Israeli Parliament on to, to level UNRWA as an terrorist organisation?
Look, yes, that is that is something that of course we have all seen in the news.
We are not going to comment on a bill which has not been yet approved.
It's it's the first reading of as we understand.
So we are not commenting specifically on that particular reading.
But I think we have been very vocal in every occasion as the Secretary General and all our senior officials.
And we have done it here from this podium so many times in the defence of UNRWA, which remains the backbone of the operations, humanitarian operations of the UN in the in this region for for the Palestinian refugees.
So that is we will see if, if this continues.
I don't see any other hand.
You want to say something about Gaza, You have an update.
Do we want to sit on that side Margaret?
Yeah, because the last the other colleague are ready to Yeah, just have A and Beza has a follow up then let me let me go to to Margaret for WHO and then I'll come.
Yes, we've just got a post monitoring survey conducted by the nutrition cluster and it shows that the dietary diversity which basically means what little kids get to eat and it should be from 8 identified food groups every day and the 95% of children aged 6 to 23 months.
So that's basically the under fives are eating 2 or less different food groups per day.
And but the, the thing that I found most shocking was 85% of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey.
So this was a snapshot survey.
They went around and asked and these are children under 5 who are not getting food all day.
And that was in the last three days before the survey.
So you ask, are the supplies getting through?
No, children are starving.
Margaret Mesa has another follow up.
Just I just wanted you to to return to the first part of the question.
Can you also say what what is the seizure of Philadelphia corridor would mean for the humanitarian assistance in general by Israel?
Sorry, nobody on this the seizure or what the control of the Philadelphia corridor taken by Israel recently.
What would it mean for the humanitarian corridor?
It's, it's, it's difficult to to predict as as, as, as you know, based as, as, as we all know, it's a very dynamic situation on the ground with, with armed forces moving around to, to different areas.
I think as, as an overall comment on that, more military action is not normally helpful for humanitarian action, is it?
So we want military action to cease all together.
We want a humanitarian pause.
And that is the only way we can, we can actually do our jobs properly.
I think that's it's, I don't see the hands up.
So thank you very much colleagues, for this updates.
And let me introduce you on my left, Miss Gabriella Ginsberg Fletcher.
Gabriella is a Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration officer with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and she has an update on an event which is going to take place in Geneva very soon.
Gabriella, thank you so much.
Yeah, no, you have to push that.
So we all know conflict and post conflict environments are volatile and that the more protracted the conflict, the more complex the long term peace prospects.
Disarming and demobilising former combatants provides immediate, immediate security to communities and reintegrating former members of armed groups, be they men and women or young boys and girls, back into civilian life provides them with pathways to a new life and supports long term stability.
So next week we have the pleasure to host.
In Geneva, the annual symposium on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration, known by its initials DDR.
This is the biggest meeting on DDR of the year, bringing together specialists from around the world, within and beyond the UN, including national and regional DDR actors.
Welcome to attend our **** Level Opening event on the morning of June 4th from 9:00 until 11:30 at the Valmbe Conference Centre.
At the event, you can get a better understanding of DDR and the important work it does to support peace.
TDR works across the entire peace continuum with UN entities, Member States, regional organisations and other partners preventing recruitment into armed groups, mitigating threats posed by armed groups and supporting those who leave armed groups to reintegrate back to families and communities, sometimes while conflict is still ongoing, working directly.
With the perpetrators of violence in armed groups is at the core of peace building and sustainable peace.
DDR is an important process comprised of increasingly diverse tools that the UN can use to support entire regions, countries and communities around the world to transition to transition to a peaceful society.
DDR directly supports UN wide agendas like the Women Peace and Security Agenda and the Youth Peace and Security Agenda.
Furthermore, the both the political and technical nature of DDR.
Allows it to support broader peace processes.
The United Nations Department of Peace Operations and the UN Development Programme are Co organising this DDR symposium and **** level event with financial support from Switzerland.
Mr Thomas Contoniergos, Chief of the DDR Section at the UN Department of Peace Operations, and Miss Glausia Boyer, the Global Advisor.
On Reintegration and DDR at the United Nations Development Programme are both in Geneva and available next week to speak more about the symposium.
In addition, experts from from some 20 countries also will be present, including Burkina Faso, Colombia, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Libya, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, Ukraine and more.
Government authorities, UN agencies, funds and programmes and strategic partners will also be in attendance.
If you would like to interview anyone you or want to learn more, please contact Miss Sarah Bell, the Communications Advisor at UNDP or myself, Gabriella Ginsburg Fletcher, the DDR Programme Officer with DPO.
At the end of this week long exchange, the DDR community is aiming to propose ADDR Pact for the future, which will signify our commitment to the Secretary General's new Agenda for Peace.
UNDP and DPO will also be delighted to.
Connect with the broader UN community and after the event next week where we can share further insights from the week.
Gabriella, any question to our colleagues of the peacekeeping operations in the room?
Catherine Fiancombo Conga Francois.
Good morning, Alessandra and good morning, Gabriella.
Thank you for being there this morning.
Could you please first send us your notes?
Could you also please share with us the list of participants?
You spoke about a list of experts from 20 countries.
It would be interesting to get their names and to whom they affiliated.
And also you spoke about the beginning Tuesday, June 4th.
I did not catch until when that symposium is taking place.
And my last question is, do does our UN badges work in order to enter the symposium?
And would you be kind enough to put your contact details still please in the in the chat so we'll be able to contact you if needed?
Thank you so much Gabriella.
The, the, the contact details will be in the in the advisory that we will.
I think Solange is, is already distributed or is distributing.
But please Gabriella, if you can answer the other questions from Thank you so much.
So to clarify, our **** level opening event is open to everyone.
It will start 9 coffee 9:30 till 11:30 at the Varambe Conference Centre.
This is off UN premises, so you do not need a UN badge to get in.
The rest of the week long symposium is closed for our DDR practitioners to reflect together.
We can certainly share a list of participants and I can coordinate that after the brief.
So the badges, there's no need for a badge because the conference centre is off UN premises.
Bring your badge identification so we know who you are of course.
And the rest of the week, as I said, is closed just for the participants of the DDR symposium.
Katherine, you have a follow up.
Yes, Alessandra, thank you.
So I'd like to understand a bit better.
So we, the first day is open.
So if we want, for instance, to, to have interaction with the experts, we, we only have access to them the first day.
Is that is that how it would work?
You can coordinate with myself or Sarah, and we can give you access throughout the week as well, especially if you're UN.
I I see Gabriela clapping.
So John Zarcostas, The Lancet and Franz Wancet.
I would just like to get a bit of a clarification why an event on peacekeeping disarmament is closed.
We have a tradition here in the Palo of covering disarmament, many of us for many decades, where most sessions have been open.
To the press, who asked for these sessions to be closed?
The event is on disarmament, mobilisation, reintegration, which is a little bit different than DDR and it's our annual symposium that we do for our practitioners to reflect internally.
Happy to speak offline about the format itself, but the **** level opening will be open to all.
And I saw, did I see your hand, Isabel?
I would like to know if, apart from experts or people, I mean researching on the issue, you invite also a representative of armed groups that have been demobilised.
Have representatives from national DDR commissions attending.
We have other events where we include representatives or ex combatants of armed groups and we engage with them, but this event is not particularly for them.
All right, thank you very much, Gabriela for coming and and telling us about this eval Get Catherine.
Sorry, I see your hand up again.
So I'm sorry because it's the last minute Gabriella also to know about it.
So will you share with us the entire programme, even the one that we are not allowed to attend?
Because it it would be useful to, to understand a bit better what it is about and also to, to about the list that you going to share with us?
Will it be the list of not only experts, but also about the other categories of participants?
I will consult with my UNDP colleagues since this this is a joint event and we can share anything that we can indeed.
Thank you very much, Gabriela.
We'll wait for your the journalist.
We'll wait for the the information.
And Sarah can definitely, Sarah has the list of our journalists and can definitely share with all of them.
Good luck for the symposium.
So the other colleagues were also having announcements for you.
David, from ITU, you have an announcement on your ongoing events at the ITU at the moment.
Yeah, ongoing and also concluding 2 ITU events.
We'll be concluding today, Friday, the Wissys Plus 20 Forum **** level event, which is taking place at ITU headquarters and the AI for Good Global Summit, which is taking place at the Conference Centre CICG at 1:00 today.
We'll be hosting a press conference at CICG and with remote availability on brain machine interfaces that's slated to start at one and should last to about two.
We really, I really encourage reporters to come bit early to avoid what happened, somewhat long lines to get into the conference centre.
There's plenty of interesting technology and people to speak.
To hear about AI for good Global Summit.
If you do come in early, we would also encourage you to if you have not already to pick up your secondary badge, which is required to get in to CICG for the event.
And also coming early if possible allows any sort of last minute Russians.
Beyond that, we'd expect to have two closing releases provided to reporters today, one on on the WSS plus 24 in **** level event and one on the AI for Good Global Summit.
Thanks for all those who have been here with us showing expressing interest.
One of the things I might say listening to the briefing today and in a lot of the the work that the United Nations does is to remind reporters that the intent of the AI for Good Global Summit is to demonstrate and to show how AI technology can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
And one of the things that reporters would find if they were here are a lot of technologies that have been used.
And the types of scenarios that colleagues are briefing on here, be they humanitarian disaster relief in these types of scenarios where technology is being used to to go to places where that are quite forbidding for human beings and really allowing organisations to do their work in precarious situations.
So with that, we again invite are you all here for ventilator today and encourage you to just make sure that you have your badges and that you're in the facility a little bit before time.
And I also like to remind you that we have distributed to you the statement, the video message of the Secretary General to the EI for good.
Submit questions to David in the room or on the platform.
I don't see any good luck for the press conference.
And we have online Claire, Claire newlies for WMO.
Claire, you also have an announcement of a press conference and report.
The World Meteorological Organisation will be issuing it's next update on El Nino La Nina on Monday.
We'll send out a press release later today and I know you've put a lot on your plates.
We'll send out a press release later today on on that.
It's embargoed for Monday morning at that 10 AM Geneva time.
And then on Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organisation will be releasing a report.
It's called the annual 2 decadal Update and it's the temperature predictions for the forthcoming five years.
It's a report that we compiled together with, you know, long range forecasting centres led by the UK's Met Office.
We are releasing this report on Wednesday to coincide with a major climate policy speech by the UN Secretary General in New York.
So we will be having a press conference with WMO Deputy Secretary General Coe Barrett and with one of our experts, Wolfram Ochia, at 3:00 PM Geneva time in in the Palais.
It will be embargoed to coincide with the delivery of the UN Secretary General's remarks.
So it won't be live cast on, on on UNTV because as I said, we are coordinating with with the UN Secretary General's Office on this.
We also hope to be joined by the Director of Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, who will have their report for the temperatures over the past 12 months, which as we know have been very, very ****.
We hope to send out all the materials under embargo Monday afternoon or at the latest on Tuesday.
Yeah, thank you very much Clarence.
This gives me the opportunity to also inform you.
We will tell you more about this major speech of the Secretary General.
We are trying to see if there will be any pre briefing to that to that speech and we will keep you from on that and if possible send you the speech in advance.
So any question on this matter to Claire?
I don't see any in the room or on the platform.
So thank you very much Claire for this update.
I also have a couple of announcements for you.
First of all, let me remind you that while the International Day for Peacekeeping of Peacekeepers was on the 29th, as you know, we are celebrating here it in Geneva today.
You can see my blue, my peacekeeping blue attire and the theme for the for the day is Fit for the Future Building Better Together.
You have definitely seen what the Secretary General said yesterday about this important component of the UN operations and I hope that you will be coming today at 3 O clock at the memorial.
In fact, we are discussing whether we will hold the ceremony at the memorial in the Ariana Park or in the Library Hall because of the weather being very uncertain.
But you will come to the memorial and you will be told where to go if we decide to move it inside.
So that's going to be this afternoon at 3:00 PM.
And, and, and for this afternoon, as I said last time, not only we will have the President of the International Association of Peace Soldiers with us and the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Nepal, but for the first time we will also have the representative of Swiss into the Centre for Peace operation outside Switzerland.
That will come with a **** level representation in Major General, who will be speaking at the event.
Let me remind you also about our human rights committees, the Committee on the Discrimination against Women, which will close this afternoon at 5:00 PM.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants, Workers and Members of their Family, which will open next Monday at 10 AM.
It's 88 session countries to be reviewed with our Turkey, Senegal and Congo.
These are the three countries.
And then I have an announcement on behalf of World Trade Organisation.
On the 9th of June, the World Trade Organisation will welcome the public to its headquarters in Geneva as part of its activities to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the organisation.
The open day offers an opportunity for visitor to learn about the work of WTO, explore this historic building and take part in various activity on the lakeside terrace and inside the WTO building.
The opening ceremony will be held in the Council Room and the addresses will be delivered by the WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the General Council Chair, Ambassador Peter Oldberg of Norway and representative of Swiss authorities.
You don't need to register for this event, you just can go there and there is a nice programme online.
And this is all I had for you.
I think I haven't forgotten anything except that today is well, no Tobacco Day Margaret, but we have spent extensively spoken about that.
So I don't think there is much more to say.
And for Jamie and for myself and the other who like bicycles, the 3rd of June, the international community commemorates World Bicycle Day.
And with that, if there are no other questions and I don't see any, I thank you very much and wish you a very good weekend and hope to see you this afternoon for the Peacekeepers ceremony.
