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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 10 September 2024

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10-09-2024

Press Conferences | OCHA , WHO , UNCTAD , UNECE , ILO

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 10 September 2024

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UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING

10 September 2024

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the United Nations Trade and Development.

Floods in Chad

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), informed that the number of people affected by torrential rains and severe floods across Chad had skyrocketed to nearly 1.5 million people. At least 340 people had been killed in the floods, according to the Chadian authorities. Tens of thousands of houses had been destroyed; more than 250,000 hectares of crops were flooded; and more than 60,000 heads of livestock had perished thus far. With farmland flooded and livestock drowned, there would be a lot less food available now and in the future in a country where 3.4 million people already faced acute hunger - the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad, a country of 19 million people.

UN agencies and NGO partners were supporting the Chadian authorities’ and responding with food and nutrition supplies, vaccinating children, surveilling water-borne diseases, building shelters and delivering tents, tarpaulins, and blankets. OCHA was supporting the coordination of this response and making sure data was collected and shared with responders, so they had the facts that they need to focus the relief effort. OCHA had also immediately raised a previous allocation from the UN’s emergency fund from USD 5 million to USD 8 million to support the response. Given the scope and scale of the disaster, more financial support would be needed: the Government’s own flood response plan, asking for nearly USD 100 million, was just 10 per cent funded. The UN-coordinated annual Humanitarian Response Plan, which required USD 1.1 billion, was 35 per cent funded, concluded Mr. Laerke.

Thomas Croll-Knight, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said that the floods in Chad were yet another example of water related disasters, which, exacerbated by climate change, were becoming increasingly frequent and intense.

In shared basins, working together across borders was fundamental to addressing these risks in the long term. Reinforcing transboundary cooperation helped countries to jointly develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies, which were key to reduce risks linked to flooding, drought, and other climate related events, which cost African countries between 2 percent and 9 percent of their GDP. The United Nations Water Convention supported this cooperation between countries, and Chad had been the first African country to join the UN Water Convention in 2018, which had since then been supporting the country to strengthen its water management at national level and across borders.

Zambia joins UN Water Convention

Thomas Croll-Knight, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), informed that Zambia was the 55^th country, and 12^th from Africa, to join the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UN Water Convention). Zambia followed closely the accessions of Cote D’Ivoire and Zimbabwe in July, which further consolidated the strong momentum for water cooperation in Africa, where more than 90 percent of freshwater rivers, lakes and aquifers were shared by two or more countries. Over one third of all 153 countries that shared water with their neighbours were today parties to the UN Water Convention.

Zambia’s accession came ahead of the key global meeting on water cooperation, the 10^th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention, to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia (23-25 October), which was expected to further catalyse the momentum for accession to the Convention across the world. The Convention required Parties to prevent, control and reduce negative impacts on water quality and quantity across borders, to use shared waters in a reasonable and equitable way, and to ensure their sustainable management through cooperation. Parties bordering the same transboundary waters are obliged to cooperate by concluding specific agreements and establishing joint bodies.  The Convention had already been supporting Zambia to do just that said Mr. Croll-Knight.

UNECE’s press release is available here.

Situation in Gaza

Responding to questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that UNRWA had issued a statement related to an incident in Gaza the previous night, in which the Israeli Army had stopped a UN convoy on its way to northern Gaza for more than eight hours despite prior detailed coordination.

Also answering questions, Tarik Jašarević, for the World Health Organization (WHO), explained that the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign, in the north of Gaza, had started today. The previous day, a WHO mission carrying fuel for hospitals and vehicles for the polio campaign as well as campaign monitoring experts had been impeded. It had taken three hours for the mission to get greenlight to move followed by five hours at the holding point, after which the mission had to be aborted. WHO was trying to reach the north again today with fuel and for the medical evacuation of eight patients to the south. Over the previous week, the WHO had not been able to reach Al-Shifa in four consecutive days, with its requests being denied. There was no functioning deconfliction mechanism in place, he explained, which led to numerous missions being aborted. There was a lack of fuel in the north of Gaza; in the Indonesian hospital, for example, because of the lack of fuel, they had to stop certain services. Once again today, the WHO would try to bring fuel to Al-Shifa, said Mr. Jašarević, stressing the necessity of unrestricted, safe access. The number of denied access requests had doubled compared to previous months. WHO insisted that humanitarian pauses needed to be respected for the remainder of the polio vaccination campaign. Some 446,000 children had been vaccinated in the first two phases, which meant that some 200,000 more children, in the north of Gaza, remained to be vaccinated in the coming days. The second round of vaccination would then need to be conducted in four weeks.

Mr. Laerke, for OCHA, specified that in the month of August, there had been a total of 208 attempts to move convoys to the north of Gaza. Of those, 44 had been impeded (blocked or delayed on the ground), 72 had been flatly denied, and 18 had been withdrawn for logistical, security, or operational reasons.

Announcements

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that on 12 September at 2:30 pm, UNCTAD would launch of its "Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory" report. Speakers would be Pedro Manuel Moreno, UN Trade and Development Deputy Secretary-General, Mutasim Elagraa, UNCTAD Coordinator for Assistance to the Palestinian People, and Rami Alazzeh, Economist at UNCTAD. Data used in the report were from up to the end of June 2024.

Zeina Awad, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed that on 12 September at 10:30 am, the ILO would present its World Social Protection Report 2024-26: Universal social protection for climate action and a just transition. The report would include fresh data and analysis, including from the most vulnerable countries in the world. Speakers would be Mia Seppo, ILO Assistant Director-General, and Shahra Razavi, Director of the ILO’s Universal Social Protection Department. The executive summary of the report in several languages, link to the full report in English, and the press release would be shared today, all under embargo until 12 September at 11:30 am.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that, ahead of the Summit of the Future, on 11 September, at 4:30 pm. Geneva time, there would be a hybrid press briefing with Guy Ryder, UN Under Secretary-General for Policy and lead for the Summit of the Future. Connection details had been shared with the journalists.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would conclude on 13 September at 5 pm its 97^th session and issue its concluding observations on the six countries reviewed during this session: Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, and Armenia.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was concluding this morning its review of the report of Iceland. This afternoon, it would begin consideration of the report of Poland.

The Conference on Disarmament was holding this morning a plenary public meeting. The Conference would officially close its annual session on 13 September and adopt its annual report.

Teleprompter

Good morning.

Sorry for the delay. Welcome to the press briefing in Geneva.

Here at the UN. Today is

Tuesday, September.

We have a short for one briefing

and I'll start immediately by giving the floor to

Jens

lke

for

Jan.

I think you have an update on

Chad.

Yep. Thank you, Alessandra. Good morning, everyone

from Chad

in West Africa.

We reported late last month that more than 964,000 people had

been impacted by torrential rains and severe floods across the country.

Today, as the floods continue,

that number has skyrocketed to nearly 1.5 million people affected.

So half a million more

and at least 340 people have been killed in the floods.

According to the Chadian authorities,

tens of thousands of houses have been destroyed,

more than 250,000 hectares of crops are flooded.

That's a vast area equivalent to 190,000 football fields.

And more than 60,000 heads of livestock have perished so far,

with farmland flooded and livestock drowned.

There will be a lot less food available now and in the future. In a country

where 3.4 million people already face acute hunger,

the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in Chad.

UN. Agencies and our

partners are supporting the Chadian authorities and

responding with food and nutrition supplies,

vaccinating Children, surveying waterborne diseases,

building shelters and delivering tents, tarpaulins and blankets.

The UN humanitarian office

is supporting the co ordination of this response

and making sure data is collected and shared

with responders so that they have the facts

that they need to focus the relief efforts.

We have also immediately raised a previous

allocation from the UN's emergency fund,

the serf, from $5 million to $8 million to support the response.

But given the scope and the scale of this disaster,

more financial support will be needed.

The government's own flood response plan,

asking for nearly $100 million is just 10 per cent funded.

The UN co ordinated annual humanitarian response plan,

which requires 1.1 billion, is 35% funded

in the wider western central Africa region.

These past weeks, rains and floods have impacted 12 countries,

Chad most severely followed by Nigeria

and ***.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Jens are questions to Jens in the room.

Yes. Emma,

I'm sorry. It is free,

but it's on Gaza.

Let me see if there is anything on Chad

in the platform.

Anybody on the online would like to ask a question on the

on the flooding.

Don't see any hand up. So I guess you can go ahead with your question.

Thanks very much.

I wanted some clarification, if possible,

on the incident last night with UN workers going into northern Gaza.

were all of these UN workers who were

temporarily detained involved in the polio campaign,

Um, and were they all released that that was the kind of clarification And then, um,

more broadly on this phase of the campaign, Um,

can you confirm if it's going ahead and

what concerns you might have, um,

given that it's a bit of a no man's land for aid workers in in north Gaza.

Thank you.

Yes, thanks, Emma,

I believe

has issued a statement about the incident that took place last night.

I'll refer to that

and we have

on the line.

Yes, I guess tarik

is here. He said he was

able to answer questions on the vaccination. So, Tarik, I'll give you the floor.

I see you're connecting.

We don't see you yet, but we hear you. Oh, here you are. Go ahead.

Hi. Hi. Thank you. Can you can you hear me

As we can,

OK.

Uh, yeah. Thanks for the question. So I've been in contact with our colleagues,

uh, on the ground.

So the the campaign this third phase of campaign in the north of Gaza

after finishing the central Gaza and south Gaza indeed is starting today,

and it will be held for the next three days.

Uh, that's because vaccines, cold chain equipment and, uh,

finger markers have been delivered.

Uh uh, yesterday to to north of Gaza. However, uh,

there was a convoy that, uh, was was composed of two missions.

Uh, one mission was to bring fuel, uh, and vehicles for polio campaign.

But there was also at

the same place at the same moment.

There was another team WHOWHO team that was trying to get to Al

Shiva

Hospital and to bring a few, uh, to them

while this mission, after waiting for eight hours, had to be aborted.

Unfortunately, this is not isolated. Uh, this has been happening in the past.

So just in the past week, Uh, we were not able to reach Shifa

on a four consecutive basis. A number of access requests,

uh, in in August have doubled.

Uh,

the the requests that have been denied in August the

number have been double than what has been previously.

So it just just shows really how difficult it is for our teams to get.

We try on a daily basis to get to reach hospitals,

to reach, uh, field hospitals, to bring fuel, to bring water,

to bring medical supplies to to to transfer patients from point A to point B.

And in many of these instances, there are delays, and we are unable,

and we have to go back.

And that's because there is no really,

uh uh uh A functioning deconfliction mechanism.

And yes, can talk more about it.

Uh, basically, all this is always being agreed in advance.

But then, uh uh, there are There are delays. And sometimes because of the long delay,

long delay. Sorry. We have to We have to go back.

So, uh, there is a problem of, of of, uh, of fuel, uh, in the north of Gaza.

So we heard, for example, from Indonesian hospital Because of the lack of fuel,

they had to,

uh stop. Uh uh, some of the services. Uh, and and, uh, Palestinian director

was also saying that they are running, Uh uh really,

on the minimum activities in their health centre.

So we need access.

We need to be able to to get to these places. Polio is just 11 operation.

The health needs in Gaza are immense and going well beyond polio.

Uh, we need to bring, uh, uh, uh uh supplies. We heard from health centres in Gaza that

that many essential medicines are lacking in health centres. Uh, such as insulin.

Uh, that, uh,

that, uh, some some routine immunisation, uh,

vaccines are are are are running low in supplies.

So we need to be able to get things in and to move

to health centres and to hospitals.

And for this, we need all parties, uh, to let us do this.

Uh, and and again, I'm just trying to imagine how it is for, uh,

our staff for Palestinian health workers for other UN colleagues

waiting for hours at the at the at the at the

holding point or at the checkpoint in an active war zone.

Uh, so So really, uh, we have to recognise the efforts that are being done.

Thank you very much. Emma, I saw your hand. No, it wasn't a follow up.

OK, then, Chris.

Hello,

T. Um,

Chris,

I just had, uh,

could you clarify because you were saying that we asked both parties to, you know,

to facilitate, uh, the the the fact that you can go to the hospitals.

Uh, are there any checkpoints?

Is it only Israeli checkpoints that stop you,

or are there checkpoints by Hamas or any other Islamic group that is active in Gaza?

And the other question is,

are you only hampered moving when you try to go to hospitals or

how much is the polio campaign affected by that in the north or not at all?

Can they just go through? Thank you.

Well, again.

As you will recall,

there was agreement to have a humanitarian pose for the for the polio.

Some of the areas in the northern part of Gaza that

fall under evacuation orders should be part of this humanitarian pose.

So So we really again, uh uh, uh, appeal to all parties to continue

ensure that that humanitarian

causes are respected during this campaign. But again, it's the issue.

Is is much, uh uh why the checkpoints are made by by Israeli army.

We are in touch with them. We are trying

to always say this is the confliction mechanism. It is basically saying

to everyone we go from point A to point B, Uh, at that time on that day, uh,

can we make sure that we that we get there in time?

Uh, but, uh, we have seen in

past 11 months that, uh, that this is not functioning as we would like to, uh,

and therefore, we get these delays, we get aborted missions and and finally,

that results in a,

uh in a in A in A.

Hospitals being unable to function properly,

not being supplied with everything they need.

And ultimately, uh, civilians that are that are paying price.

Thank you very much. Uh, let's go to the platform that on the other hands here.

So, uh, Jeremy?

Yes, Uh, thank you, Alexandra. Hi.

Um, Jeremy, for the French public radio. Uh

uh,

Tariq, a quick question.

Uh, I want to elaborate a bit more on the vaccination campaign.

Can you just give us AAA couple of,

uh, updated figures and and to,

um, band wagon And what, Chris have just said,

does it mean that the lack of fuel, uh,

mean that at some point you will have to choose between,

um, getting the fuel to, uh, the the vehicles that are

helping the the vaccination campaign or getting the

fuel to the hospitals to get the generators,

uh, functioning and the

routine immunisation keep going up. So

so do you have

are are you asking you yourself this question right now?

Where does the fuel need to go? Is it the polio campaign or generators in hospital?

Uh, thanks. Uh, thanks, Ro, Uh,

regarding the the numbers, Uh,

you have seen, uh, doctor

taters, uh, talked about numbers. So,

uh, we managed to vaccinate, uh,

over 446,000 Children in the first two phases in central Gaza and in south Gaza.

We estimate that the number overall number of

Children to be vaccinated is around 640,000.

So this remaining,

uh uh uh, 200,000 or so, uh, in in north of Gaza and again This is the first,

uh, do

in four weeks, we would need to repeat all of that,

uh, to to to all of these Children to get a second dose. Now, when it comes to fuel,

this is this has been issued from from the very beginning, and it's not really

just do

show. It's basically Palestinian.

Uh uh, uh, authorities who have to see how to use the little bit of a of a fuel they have.

And I'm sure yans can speak more about that.

Uh uh, whether you use your fuel to to make bakeries functioning

to use for desalination plants.

So you you get a a clean water or you use in hospitals and then, you know, hospitals.

Uh uh, quite often, health workers have been faced with this

challenge on how best to use the little fuel they have.

And I just, uh, was mentioning that, uh, the case of the Indonesian Hospital who in

AUS

uh, the past few days had to, uh, stock some services, uh,

so they could prolong working hours for other services.

And these are difficult choices.

And these are These are choices that health workers should never be making

health workers should have all, uh, necessary, uh, uh, conditions

to perform, uh, life saving activities. They do.

Uh, so again, it's it's really the The issue of fuel

is much broader than just this.

We do our best, and we will try again today to bring fuel, uh, bolt for Al

Shea

Hospital that you will remember

somehow resumed its activities. Uh uh uh uh uh from from late July,

Uh, And for the, uh, for the polio, uh, for the polio vaccination campaign.

But for that again, we need we need the access. And, uh,

and again, it's, uh uh, The polio campaign is important,

but there are so many other health issues Uh uh,

that people of Gaza are facing and and hospitals

need to provide all this range of health services,

we try to do

the best we can.

Uh, but again, if we if we can't, if we have to stop for hours at,

uh at checkpoints at holding points,

uh, and and lose the day Well, that's that's That's not helpful,

Mick.

Go ahead. Nick, You're unmuted.

Ah, yeah, yeah. If you are muted, then we cannot hear you. It means we have a problem?

Uh, no, we can't hear him.

No,

uh, making me sign that, uh, there must be something wrong.

Try again. Maybe now you are muted again. Try.

No,

I'm sorry, Nick. I

don't know if you want to disconnect and reconnect or just

ask your questions in the note in the chat I.

I can read it to Tariq for you.

Uh, maybe while we're doing this, let me ask if anyone else has questions,

whether it's for Jens or for Tariq.

I don't see Hands up. OK, so,

oh, Gorky gorgi

Bonsu.

Go ahead.

Oh, hi. Hi. Yeah, In fact, this is Nick using

gorges

Machine. Oh, OK. OK, that's fine.

Just clarify for me the details of the convoys that,

uh,

didn't get in in August. I didn't kind of catch

how many had been refused.

And the convoy that was denied yesterday that waited eight hours. Was that carry?

What was that carrying?

Uh,

it was it carrying medicine and fuel or or

could you just clarify those details for me?

Thanks.

Uh,

maybe Tariq, I don't know if you want to see something. Otherwise,

maybe jans can compliment.

Go ahead,

Tariq, start Yeah, from WHO side. So we had basically two teams. There was a,

uh uh uh. There was a,

uh,

mission carrying fuel for hospitals and vehicles for the polio campaign as well as,

uh, what we call campaign monitoring experts.

that was the one part, And the other part was, was our mission to to Shifa

Hospital, uh, where we were trying, Really? Uh uh, to to get, uh, everything that Al

Shifa

Hospital is needing. And again, this is not isolated.

It's like we As I said, we have been trying

to get to Al Shea

Hospital between 7th and

7th and 10th September for four times.

And and And we were we were unable, and we will try again today.

So we do really our best. But this is a pattern. And as I said

in August,

the number of denied, uh,

requests for access doubled, uh, comparing to previous months, So So, uh uh uh,

again we will.

We will do our best.

But from the, uh,

what I hear from the from our colleagues is that the campaign in northern Gaza has,

uh, has started today and will go on for three days. Yes,

Yeah. Thanks, Nick. If I understood your question correctly, it is about

convoy movements to the north during the month of August.

Um, there were a total of 208 attempts.

74 of them were facilitated means that they went to

the north and delivered what they had to deliver.

44 were

impeded,

which means they were

blocked or delayed on the ground, resulting in some of them

being aborted.

72 out of them were flatly denied,

and 18

of them were withdrawn

by our side

due to logistical, operational or security reasons.

Thanks for these details.

IANS,