The United Nations Office at Geneva
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IOM - Press Briefing: Amy Pope, IOM Director General
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30:59
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Teleprompter
very good morning.
And thank you for joining us here at this, uh, regular press briefing.
This is actually a prequel to the regular press briefing,
which will start start at 1030.
But
I'm very pleased to announce that we have Miss Amy Pope,
the IOM director General who's joining us from Port Sudan.
Ms. Pope is in Sudan for a three day visit, which commenced yesterday.
Again. We're very pleased to have you here with us, Ms Pope.
So we'll turn immediately over to you for some opening remarks,
and then we'll turn to our colleagues here in Geneva.
Uh, in the room and on the platform, Uh, for questions.
Ms. Pope, Over to you.
We don't have sound Sorry. Let's try this again.
Go ahead, please.
No, I'm afraid we don't hear you.
Can you
hear
me now? And we do. Yes, if you can start your statement now. Thank you again.
OK, I'll start
over.
Um
so good morning to all of you. I'm here live in Port Sudan.
I got here yesterday.
I'm here for a four day visit and it's a deteriorating
security situation and we're hearing alarming reports of new atrocities.
Our team is sharing distressing details
from the conditions that ordinary Sudanese people
are facing those whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by the conflict.
The situation here is simply catastrophic. There's no other way to put it.
We're seeing hunger, disease, sexual violence. They're rampant.
And for the people of Sudan they're telling us it's really just a living nightmare.
It's an under
under reported conflict and we just have to pay more attention.
Millions are suffering.
There's now this serious possibility of the conflict,
igniting regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa to the Red Sea.
Yesterday, the UN secretary general Antonio Gutierrez,
spoke about the suffering, calling it an utter humanitarian catastrophe.
18 months have passed since the fighting started between
the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces,
and outside forces are now fueling the fire, which is intensifying the conflict.
The suffering is growing
by the day.
The secretary general yesterday reported that almost
25 million people are now requiring assistance
and in recent days we have heard just absolutely shock,
shocking reports of mass killings and sexual violence,
particularly in the villages in Al Jazeera state,
which is in the east of the country.
Throughout this year, Sudan has been the world's largest displacement crisis.
Today, unfortunately,
I have news that that we're going to release new figures this
week showing that the displacement number has now hit 11 million.
That's up 200,000 just since since September,
another 3.1 million have crossed borders to flee the fighting.
About 30% of the population here has been displaced,
and more than half of those displaced are women.
More than a quarter of those displaced for Children under the age of five.
Just a huge number of extremely vulnerable people, Children who are on the move.
Unfortunately, many of them have been forced to flee repeatedly.
They have little access to shelter.
They have little access to livelihoods,
and getting their basic needs met has been very, very difficult.
The scale of the displacement, the humanitarian needs are growing every day.
Frankly, half of the population now needs help.
People don't have access to shelter.
They don't have access to clean drinking water.
They don't have access to health care, and as a result, disease is spreading fast.
One in every two Sudanese is struggling to get even the minimal amount
of food to survive and famine conditions have taken hold in North Darfur.
Frankly, millions are struggling to feed themselves every day.
Yesterday I had the chance to speak directly to some of the people who were impacted.
I went to the Arbat Dam area. It's about 40 kilometres from Port Sudan
and in August there were heavy rains, unexpected,
causing a spillway
that the flood killed at least 100 and 48 people.
It devastated homes, livestock and infrastructure.
The dam basically just fell apart
and the devastation would be bad already no matter what.
But it's coming on top of a conflict that is
continuing to rage and becoming worse by the day.
And it's impacting our ability to deliver humanitarian assistance.
We also know that the safety of aid workers, our staff,
others are is often threatened
access restrictions,
bureaucratic impediments are continuing to be imposed and people are
frankly dying because we cannot get access to them.
So the parties of the conflict have to do what
they pledged to do and what international humanitarian law requires.
They need to protect civilians.
They need to ensure safe, swift and unimpeded access to life saving assistance.
But what we also need most Des
is the help of the international community.
This is easily the most neglected crisis in
the world today and the failure to act across
the board means that the devastation is spilling over
into neighbouring countries and it risks getting worse.
At a conference in Paris this last April, the international community made very,
very generous pledges but that appeals only funded 52%.
And though we've been help able to help about 3 million people since the war started,
our part of the response plan is only 20% funded
with the proper funding.
There's so much more we can do to alleviate
the suffering to help people get shelter and sanitation
to help feed and protect them.
But our progress is going to be limited as long as this war continues.
All wars are brutal,
but the toll of this one is particularly horrifying.
The recent killings, the appalling human rights violations in Al Jazeera state
were just one more example.
Just last year since this last year,
reports of rape of torture of ethnically motivated violence are far too common
and indiscriminate attacks are killing civilians
including young Children.
Some of the areas of most of your need are cut off entirely,
with no access to humanitarian aid.
The potential long term impact of this catastrophic crisis is just staggering.
Education is going to be set back decades.
The health and well being of Children will be stunted, livelihoods will be ruined.
A generation is going to live in the shadow of trauma.
And the immense tragedy about all of it is that
a peaceful Sudan has the capacity to care for itself.
Its people are resilient and their natural resources are immense.
So I'm here today to raise awareness of the
needs to highlight the cost of the displacement crisis.
But what we really want,
what every person in the world should want is for the guns in Sudan to fall silent.
Humanitarian response has to be scaled up,
and we're calling on the donor community to support this effort.
I also just want to echo what the Secretary general called for yesterday,
an end to hostilities,
protection for civilians and access for humanitarian
agencies so that aid can flow.
We can't allow Sudan to be forgotten, but its people really need peace,
and they need it now.
So thank you very much for offering me this opportunity.
And I'm happy to take any questions you might have.
Thanks to you, Ms Pope. We're very grateful for, uh, your intervention.
It's a very dire situation indeed. And
shocking statistics.
And And thank you also for echoing the
comments of the secretary general and colleagues.
As you know, we shared the statement of the Secretary General
that he made to the Security Council yesterday. Indeed,
cessation of hostilities civilians must be protected and
priority for the flow of humanitarian aids.
Of the three
main points that he made in that statement,
which you have and we will hear from colleagues from the human rights office later
on to speak to some of the human rights violations which we alluded to.
But we'll now take questions, uh,
starting with Christian from the German news Agency.
Hello, Ms Pope. Thank you for being here with us.
Could you just spell out what exactly?
The IOM mandate is in Sudan or was before the crisis? And is now what exactly?
Because all the things you mentioned are UN, HCRWHO,
UNICEF
and all the other agencies.
I was wondering what the specific IOM mandate is in Sudan. Thank you.
So thank you so much.
I mean, actually,
the role of IOM in providing support to displaced
people is one of our most important missions.
Uh,
most of our work around the world is supporting people
who've been displaced by a whole host of issues.
Um, whether it's in Sudan, whether it's in Ukraine,
whether it's anywhere around the world.
And so that is what we're continuing to do.
Before the conflict,
much of our work was supporting communities who are vulnerable, um,
who are at risk helping them to have access to livelihoods.
Quite simply, since the conflict began,
we have been providing support to the millions of
people who are displaced internally within the country.
We're also providing support to those third country nationals
who have left the country to go back home.
Now, of course, we were closely with UN, HCR and UN.
HCR is the refugee agency is primarily responsible
for providing support for those who cross borders.
But as I said, we have 11 million people who've been displaced in the country.
The needs are enormous.
So we work very closely with our UN partners to provide that
life saving support and ultimately help people to find a way forward,
even in the most dire of circumstances.
Thank you, Miss Pope. Um,
yes. And yes from, uh,
France Press.
Yes. Thank you,
Mrs
Pope.
Question.
I would like to ask you if you could be more specified of what kind of access exactly
has to displacement camps inside Sudan.
If you could tell us more about that.
And
what can you tell us about the level of famine that you have
been able to see in those displacement camps and how it's evolving?
If you have specific figures on that
and if I may, I would like to ask you a quick comment.
As several UN agencies have reacted after an Israeli ban
decision to ban UNRWA
if you think that
could step up and
help more the Palestinians in Gaza, as most of them are displaced people,
internally displaced people, which is your
role. Thank you.
Thank you very much. So on the question of access to those who are displaced
in the country and getting access to support their needs, frankly,
the the success varies in some parts of the country.
We are able to provide direct support.
I just came from a community here in Port Sudan with many,
many families who've been displaced,
many from
Khartoum,
many from other parts of the country who are now living in Port Sudan.
We're working with them to help get, uh,
access to livelihood opportunities teach many of the
women there who are leading their households,
Um, how to find ways to support their families.
Even in the context of this crisis.
We're also supporting families in many other parts of the country.
But our ability to access those communities really depends on whether,
um, we are able to cross lines.
We have set up some cross border, uh, facilities,
some cross border operations so that we're able to
bring in life saving support from surrounding countries.
and we're working very closely with the authorities here to be
able to access those communities who are most in need.
But it very much depends. Um, on those relationships
in terms of the funding needs. As I said, about 20% of IO MS,
uh, call for support has been funded, as you can imagine, um, the total call is not,
um, even sufficient really to meet the needs of everybody in the country,
but with 20% we are failing
to get the most basic access things like protection from sexual violence.
Um is very, very, very highly unmet need.
And we've had the opportunity to speak to to
many people who are suffering as a result,
things like access to, uh, shelter.
Um, it still remains very unsatisfactory.
And people are living in the in the most dangerous of circumstances.
Um, in terms of the situation in Gaza,
we'd echo the comments of of others within the UN.
This this situation could not be the needs of the Palestinian
people cannot be made without met without the support of UN
R A which has been providing support to the Palestinian community for many,
many years.
Of course,
we in the international humanitarian community
with others are providing humanitarian assistance.
Do stand ready to provide more to those who are in need.
It's really a question of being able to access those who need us most.
Thank you very much, Miss Pope and colleagues, we will be addressing the situation.
Uh, the announcement, uh, on on
a, uh, later on, uh, later in this briefing,
we have a few more questions for you. Ms. Pope. We have Laurent
Cro of the Suisse News Agency online. Go and
Laurent.
Yeah, thanks. Uh, Ms Book for the briefing.
Uh, so you mentioned the 200,000 additional, uh, displaced people in September?
do you observe a change in terms of displacement
routes within the country since the beginning of,
uh, of of the war?
The displacement routes, as you can imagine,
are entirely dependent on where the fighting is happening.
So what we are seeing is that people have been displaced more than once.
Uh, people move to one community, and then there's fighting there.
They're forced to move again. People are leaving
Khartoum.
They all try to go back and find that it's unsafe. We'll have to leave again.
We're seeing increasing numbers of people
who are choosing to leave the country altogether.
So it's a very, very quickly evolving situation.
And one that as an international community, we need to be prepared to, um,
respond to quickly.
Now, within IOM, we have, um the what we call the displacement tracking matrix.
This is the way that we measure the movement of people.
Um, all over the country.
The entire humanitarian community relies on this information.
That's how we know, for example, that there are now 3 million people, uh,
11 million people total who have been displaced and
over 3 million who have left the country.
So through the use of our engagement on the ground with communities all over, um,
we're able to get a sense of what's happening here.
And I can tell you it's a very, very quickly evolving situation
indeed. Thank you for that. Um, John Zara Costas.
Franz von
Kat in The Lancet.
Yes. Uh, good. Good morning.
Uh, I was wondering if you could, uh perhaps, uh,
we have the opportunity to since we have you in the
briefing to bring us up to speed on what IOM is doing
with the countries in crisis in the Sahel, which is, uh, devastating.
And also another very neglected crisis area of the world. Thank you.
Thank you for raising the issue. Now, the situation in the Sahel is one that is,
um, compounded by a number of factors. First and foremost, there's conflict.
There's insecurity.
There is, um, questions about governance In some parts of the country,
there is the impact of climate change on communities,
and we've seen some really interesting, um,
where we're we're seeing communities who are being
displaced as a result of climate pastoral communities who
then move into communities that are agricultural, that fuels conflict.
Um, it's the kind of, uh, situation where we're seeing, uh, a range of factors, um,
fragility that is compounded by a whole whole host of
different factors that could go that need to be addressed.
So we at IOM are working very closely with communities in the Sahel.
Um, we have, uh, a range of actions, but frankly, it is
very, very underfunded. There's very little attention that's being paid to it.
It's a place where,
um without more engagement,
without more funding will only continue to deteriorate, particularly as
communities are facing the impacts of climate.
It's one of the issues that we will be highlighting when I go to cop 29
and where we very much hope that governments will start to support engagement that
is much more proactive and strategic rather than just reacting till people move.
And until conflict begins.
Thank you very much. Uh, Jamie Keaton, Associated Press.
Hello, uh, director General. Nice to see you again. Thank you for coming to see us.
Um, I have two, strains of questions.
The first, um, is about, um, the sedan you you mentioned, uh, 11 million, uh,
displaced plus three,
outside of the country. Uh, are those cumulative numbers?
In other words, is it 14 million total? Just if we could get some clarity on that.
And then you also mentioned that, uh,
your sliver of the appeal funding is only at 20%.
but OCHA tells us that, uh, 56% of its appeal has been funded.
So how do you explain why you're getting such a small
percentage of that? And and should more of that, uh, money be given to to Iowa
and then on on another issue? Um, I'd I'd like you to address, um,
the fact that as as you're a former adviser to President Biden,
how concerned are you that a return of President Trump
could dismantle accomplishments
by the current administration over the last four years
and even impact your own work at IOM?
Um, how much responsibility do you take for the flood of migrants?
Um, across the Mexico border, border until earlier this year,
which became a political liability for President Biden
and gave Trump, um, an
AC Trump's, uh, team
a, uh, an issue to campaign on. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Jamie. It's great to see you even if it's virtual so in terms of the numbers.
What I can tell you is that the
11 million is internally displaced within the country.
The 3.1 million are those who have cross borders.
So that's actually, uh,
about 14 million over 14 million people who are on the move right now.
Um, and that's, um, quite significant because, as I said, just as since September,
those numbers have grown by 200,000.
So to give you a sense of the fact that people are moving are moving consistently
as they respond to the the conflict here
in terms of the situation in the United States, I mean,
this organisation has worked with administrations whether they're Republican,
whether they're Democrats,
Um, and our view is that it is, uh,
the United States is an important member state of the IOM.
We hope to continue working with them.
As you know, we work across the range of solutions for people on the move.
Whether it is providing humanitarian support, as we are doing here in Sudan,
whether it's driving
solutions to displacement.
So building out ways so that people can stay or they can move
with dignity
and ultimately,
what we are hope what we most hope to do is enable people to move through safe,
regular legal channels.
Um, that work is important to all administrations.
That work is important consistently, we hear from governments around the world.
So we do hope that no matter who is sitting in the White House, the relationship,
um and the support from the United States government will continue.
Thank you very much, Miss Pope. We're gonna follow up.
OK, Uh, we have a follow up from Jamie. Go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you for that. I just wanted to make, uh, a as you recognise.
Um, some of the decisions by the Biden administration. Um
to basically have us what some might say a more lax approach to to migrations across
across the Mexico border have become a political liability for him.
So I just wanna make sure,
um how much How concerned are you that some
of those decisions that you were taking part in,
um may have become, uh, an issue that,
uh, could put, uh, uh, help to put, uh, President Trump back in the White House.
So, Jamie, what I can tell you is that when it comes to migration,
the problem is often that governments too often just focus at the border.
But when we look at the evidence around why
people leave in the first place the funding,
the support for people to stay home, the the support for people to find options
to move safely to move legally is just not there.
So we encourage all governments to invest in addressing, uh,
what's known as the root causes of migration and then
to work with communities where where migrants are coming from,
where migrants are first going to in the first instance,
to provide support to help integrate those migrants as they're coming in.
So this is a very, very complex issue. It requires interventions across the board,
um, and to narrow it down to just what's happening on the border,
it frankly is a mistake.
And it's one that is expensive. Um, and then one that is not actually as effective,
Um, as we know that governments want to see happen.
Thank you very much. Can we keep you just for a few more minutes?
We have a couple more questions, if that's OK.
Uh, we're gonna go to the platform and then back to you on.
Yes, but, uh, Lisa Schlein, Voice of America. She's been waiting. Lisa?
Yes. Good morning. Uh, Rolando and good morning, Ms Pope.
I would like to ask you a couple of questions,
and that is how many of the 11 million people, uh, that are displaced.
Is IOM actually able to access
and are Do do you have to
do you have to negotiate with the local warlords
in order to gain access? How successful are you?
And, of course, Darfur
is a particularly difficult area.
Whether you're able to even, uh, get in there or not. I don't know.
And, uh, that leads to the next question is, do you see a full blown famine
actually occurring, or are we almost there?
And lastly, you started out by
expressing your fear about regional instability.
How close are we?
Uh uh uh
uh.
Is Sudan sitting on a powder keg? Essentially. Is it gonna blow
and please send us your notes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
So of the, uh,
11 million people who have been displaced of the
25 million people who have needs within the country,
the numbers of people we've been able to reach as a result of
the funding as a result of the access had been woefully inadequate.
I think our numbers are about 3 million people who
we have been able to support since the conflict began.
And that is that is,
um, support in some cases at very, very basic level,
providing just the most basic support for their needs.
And, uh, you can imagine that those who are in places like D
Darfur
are often the most difficult for us to reach Now it
does mean that we have to work with local communities.
We need to work with the government to make sure that we can get that access.
We were very,
very pleased to be able to get cross border access into some of the most difficult,
um, regions to reach within Darfur.
Recently,
we were one of the first organisations to be able to provide that support and that
was very much thanks to the government who
agreed to create humanitarian corridors for aid.
So we urge the government to continue to provide that kind
of humanitarian access to people because we know without it,
um, the frankly, people are dying and people are dying of starvation.
They're dying of lack of shelter. Um, they're dying of lack of options.
Now, in terms of famine, I can tell you that the, um, needs of those who, uh,
the needs for people to have access to food are overwhelming.
Um, just earlier this week, the head of the World Food Programme, Sidney McCain,
was in town to draw awareness to the lack of access to food.
We know that many, many people are on the very edge of famine,
and they do not have access.
Um, in a way that is quite quite dangerous.
Um, in terms of the regional issues that we're seeing,
what we're concerned about is, um, the fact that the fighting is accelerating.
We're concerned about the fighting that's continuing.
We're concerned about the lack of attention that
being paid by the international community,
and we need the international, the international community,
to stay on as focused on this as they are on any other conflict.
Uh, without their engagement without the negotiation for peace,
without the end to, um, arms to, uh, various factions here in the country,
we will not see a change to the situation on the ground.
We'll continue to see people who are losing
their lives and facing really extremely dire circumstances.
Thank you again, Miss Pope.
We colleagues, we have to end this briefing in a few minutes.
We do have two more hands up, but, uh,
if I could ask you to pose your questions quickly,
uh, we have, uh, and yes, from a FP. Another question.
And then we have Emma Farge from Reuters, who also has a question.
And yes,
yes, very quick ones on figures. Uh, you say that, um, your appeal is only 20% funded.
Uh, what is the The amount, uh, requested
and clarification on figures as well on the displaced and refugees.
It's unclear to us if it's 11
million displaced
plus 3.1 million refugees, or if the refugees are
included in the displaced people.
Because the refugee portal is not clear about that,
and what you say seems to be two separate figures.
Thank you.
So I can confirm that the amount is 11 million displaced in the country,
3.1 who have who are moving across
borders
in terms of the total amount requested.
Now, of course, there's the O A funding which crosses
a, um uh, various agencies, which is a comprehensive
number. There's a support that IOM is requesting.
That's particularly to support displaced communities in
the country to provide access to livelihoods.
But the total amount that has been requested from IOM is 100 and 68 million.
And of that 168 million requested, 20% has been funded.
That's very kind. Thank you very much for that clarification.
Uh, last question. Emma Farage, Reuters.
Uh, good morning, Amy. Uh, nice to see you again.
Uh, one quick clarification and then one broader question, Um,
that number is, uh, bigger than I had.
I was just wondering if it also included the displaced from prior to this conflict.
The
re were displaced. Um,
and secondly, uh,
how much of a difference is this Alps process making
in terms of access to Sudan,
Has that really moved the needle for you in terms of your operations there.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much.
The to be clear,
the total number of displaced in the country
does include people who were displaced before.
So we're looking at total.
When we talk about displacement,
we're looking at total numbers of people who are displaced across the country.
That's where the number of 11 million comes from.
So when we talk about Sudan compared to other crises, um,
Sudan by far has the highest number of people
who are internally displaced in the world more than,
for example, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
where we have about 7 million displaced,
um, and and other conflicts where you where we know that the numbers are quite high.
So it is a staggeringly high number.
But it does reflect, Um, a cumulative, uh,
number of people who have no longer have are at home, um,
and have continued to be on the move
and in terms of access, I mean, I will say that, um,
we just simply do not have access to all the communities who are in need.
We have seen some marginal improvements.
Um, but we need much,
much more in order to meet those who who really need our support
and those and the support of the rest of the international humanitarian community.
Thank you very much. A message well received, indeed.
And we do hope with your intervention that
this reporting crisis will be overturned. Uh, thank you so very much for joining us.
Ms Pope, I'm afraid we really have to cut it here. Jamie.
Maybe you can liaise with Kennedy afterwards.
Thank you
really short. Jamie. I'm sorry. I'm
I'm
sorry.
I'm sorry, but let me just really quickly because I i for any
question about UN
R?
is there more that IM can and should be doing in GZA? I mean,
the I mean,
the The question on everybody's lips right now is gonna be if UNRWA
does not exist anymore or is not able to function as previously.
What can other UN agencies do to mop up the needs? And I'm just wondering,
could you help us with that?
Is there anything what is IOM doing now and what more can be done by IOM in Gaza?
So there there are a range of different needs here,
and I think it might be helpful just to elucidate that.
So UN R now has provided basically the
backbone of infrastructure within places like Gaza.
They provide, um, education. They provide, um, uh, health care.
They provide some of the most basic needs,
uh,
for people who have been living there for
decades that that's not something that IOM does.
What IOM does well and what IOM is doing and can
do more of with the support of the various stakeholders,
is to provide humanitarian support.
So support to those who are displaced support to those who need shelters.
Support to those who need hygiene kits to support to those,
um who have who do not have sufficient access to protection.
That's where IOM can play a role.
So there's no way for IOM to step in to do what UN R a has done.
UNRWA is absolutely essential to the people of Gaza,
and I don't want to leave anyone with a misimpression
that IOM can play that role because we cannot.
But we can provide support to those people who are currently in crisis.
That is a role that we are very, very keen to play,
and one that we will be stepping up with the support of various stakeholders.
Thank you. Well said, Miss Pope, Thank you very, very much.
Once again for joining us here from Port Sudan.
Uh, we colleagues,
We will stay on the subject of Sudan when we resume our regular briefing.
We'll just take a technical break right now. Thank you again, Miss Pope.
Uh, and I know that uh,
uh, Kennedy, you're sharing the statement that was, uh,
shared or delivered rather at the beginning of the meeting.
So thank you again.
And good luck with the rest of your mission.
OK, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks to you.
Thanks to you, Miss Pope.
Ok, colleagues,
We're gonna take a short technical break and
we'll resume this regular briefing in two minutes.
Thank you.