Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing today, the 1st of November.
We're going to change the order a little bit.
Yens is on his way from Yens from Ocha is on his way.
And he does have an update for you on the human humanitarian situation in Lebanon.
In fact, we're going to, we'll go to Claire afterwards.
Claire, if you can also if you could maybe hold on just a bit.
We are going to start off instead with Mr Sean Hughes of the World Food Programme who is joining us from from Juba.
Sean, you're online and and connected there.
Sean is going to speak to Deshawn.
Firstly, he's a deputy country director in South Sudan for for the World Food Programme and he's going to address the soaring hunger in in that country in South Sudan.
So we're very pleased to have you with us.
Sean, over to you for a year briefing and then we'll take questions from our journalists here.
OK, we're having a maybe a bit of technical difficulties this Friday morning.
We have Sean online colleagues.
I thought I saw him earlier.
OK, I think there could be a connection issue.
So let's reshuffle once again.
I'll throw back to Sean as soon as we connect with him.
In that case of Claire, if you are, she's actually coming in the room and she's not here yet.
So boy, we're stuck in an awkward situation here, aren't we?
Let me just maybe start off by, in that case, let me just there.
There is an important event which I was going to say for later.
But whilst we're waiting for colleagues or briefers to connect, let me just remind you, as we have been doing here from this seat, the important meeting that's taking place on the other side of this building in Room 26.
There is AUN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, which is an all day event hosted by the UN office at Geneva, which speaks to very, very important themes which of course we have addressed here at this press briefing, freedom of press and safety of journalists in a time of war in the Middle East.
And also specifically on Gaza, we have another session titled Behind the Headlines of Gaza Media Challenges and Perspectives.
We have quite a number of important statements that will be delivered shortly.
There's one from the Secretary General video message which will be screened momentarily.
And I want to take the opportunity just to mention that in his message, the Secretary General notes that journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen in conflict in modern times.
The voices of journalists must be protected and press freedom must be safeguarded.
It is **** time for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, as we have been saying here repeatedly for over a year now, with immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, the effect of delivery of humanitarian aid and irreversible progress to A2 state solution.
Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.
Now, this is a statement that is to be screened by the secretary general momentarily at this seminar.
So if you have time, the seminar again is all day.
It's starting now, in fact, and it'll last until about 4:30 this afternoon in room 26.
OK, I see that our guest is now connected.
Well, we'll, we'll, I'll throw it right to you then.
Sean again is the WFP Deputy Country Director in South Sudan who is joining us from Juba.
So we're very pleased to have you with this, Sean.
So over to you for your brief.
Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to to brief the press this morning from from Juba.
The main message that I wanted to get across is the criticality of advanced planning and funding for WFP and for the wider humanitarian response in South Sudan for 2025.
South Sudan is quite a unique context in that 60% of the country becomes inaccessible for over 60% of the year when rains make the roads impossible.
We therefore rely on a narrow dry season window from about the end of December to early April, depending on the rains, to pre position the assistance we need for the wet season, which is also the hungry season.
In some locations that window can be even shorter and when we don't manage to hit that window with food and trucks ready to move, we end up with a situation where the only way to reach people is by river and air.
Air drops are about 12 times more expensive than Rd deliveries in South Sudan and river is about two to three times the cost.
Both of them have limitations in terms of where we can reach and with how much food.
As we stand now, we have no food in country to kick start the 2025 pre positioning exercise.
Normally we would plan on having some carryover from the previous year, but due to the crisis in Sudan and the flood response this year, we will essentially use up all the stocks we have available by December.
So this call to donors is really to maximise the value of their contributions by making early donations in time for us to capitalise on the prepo window.
Maybe I can turn to what is driving the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.
You're all aware that South Sudan is facing multiple and interlocking shocks that are driving up hunger and malnutrition.
In particular, the war in Sudan is having multiple impacts.
Nearly 850,000 people have crossed the border, fleeing the conflict and in need of humanitarian assistance.
Most of these are S Sudanese returning home, but often to a home they've never been before.
A cholera outbreak has recently been confirmed in the crowded transit camps at the border.
The conflict is also decimating commercial food supplies to northern markets, which normally depend on production and imports from Sudan that have all but dried up.
And damage to the oil pipelines that run from South Sudan through Sudan has massively reduced government revenue and exacerbated the devaluation of the South Sudanese #.
This is all happening amidst some of the worst flooding in decades.
In addition to the rains that fall in country, the Nile Basin is essentially expanding due to record **** water levels in Lake Victoria.
Over 1.4 million people have been impacted and 375,000 people displaced so far.
WFP has reached about 400,000 people under our flood response operation.
Even prior to this year's floods and the full impact of the Sudan conflict, food security assessments indicated that over 7 million people or about 56% of the population were acutely food insecure and in need of assistance.
Within this, there are about 79,000 people that are facing what we call Phase 5 or catastrophic levels of hunger.
The new annual assessment is about to be released and as you can imagine, with the intervening shocks, it's likely to show that the situation has deteriorated further.
So while we are going flat out now to respond to the needs of people affected by floods and the war in Sudan, we really need to focus on how we are going to stain these operations through next year because unfortunately the confluence of factors that are driving hunger and malnutrition are not going away.
In order to pre position the required assistance, WFP requires $400 million before the end of this year.
We do have some indications of contributions that are coming, but without receiving more and early, we risk missing the pre positioning window and needing even more money later in the year.
Thank you very much, Sean.
Message very well received.
I should mention just from the from the political point of view, just to remind you or maybe point you to a statement that was delivered yesterday by the Secretary General's Special Representative and head of the peacekeeping mission on Miss in South Sudan, Nick Nicholas Haysom, who urged political leaders to produce a clear and realistic work plan for implementing outstanding provisions of the peace agreement.
He notes, quote, unquote, the clock is ticking, he warned at a meeting of the reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, adding that the limited progress has been made since the government announced an extension of the transitional period and delayed elections back in September.
But let's now take questions for Sean on the situation in South Sudan.
We have a question for you from Jamie Keaton of The Associated Press.
Thank you, Rolando, and thank you, Sean.
I just wanted to know if you could tell us riffing off what Rolando just said about the political process, what impact has the delay in yet yet again another delay in in new elections in South Sudan having on the provision of humanitarian aid and really on international faith and hope that that the situation in South Sudan not not only internationally can be rectified, but even locally it can be rectified.
Yes, thanks very much, Jamie.
I mean since the since the the, the decision by the the various parties in the government of national unity to extend the peace agreement again and and therefore the elections for for a further 2 year.
I think in terms of the context on the ground, it may have in the short term alleviated the uncertainty of, of, of a prospect of, of further conflict and violence that may have come with, with elections that would not have been fully prepared.
But at the same time, it's prolonged that uncertainty on a political level for for the people of South Sudan.
And as you rightly note, there are, there is frustration from many international partners that the people of South Sudan have not been able to, to, to exercise their, their right to choose their leaders within the time frame or the already extended time frame that was there.
One of the points of of advocacy that is obviously very prominent here and I think this is brought to the forefront with declining levels of humanitarian funding is obviously the responsibilities of of the government to meet the needs of of the people and not to rely entirely on external humanitarian assistance.
That becomes obviously increasingly a challenge for the government when the oil revenue is decreased due to the conflict in in in Sudan.
No, I don't see that's the case, Sean.
So on that note, I'd like to thank you very, very much for joining us.
Stay well in Juba and good and good luck.
Of course, we'll we'll convey your messages very loudly from here.
And please do join us anytime.
OK, Jens is in the front row.
I'm going to ask him to come up and and join us.
Join me here on the podium.
Jens has an update on situation in Lebanon.
I wanted to say happy Friday, but it's not that happy, at least not in Lebanon.
We are today seeing another wave of displacement in the Lebanese capital Beirut, after the Israeli army in the early hours of this morning issued displacement orders for several areas in the southern suburbs, which was followed by heavy air strikes.
Shortly after the issuance of these orders.
The displacement may be in the 10s of thousands, according to local officials.
We hope to have more details on this later in the day.
The displacement orders and strikes this morning comes on top of other displacement orders yesterday for several villages and a Palestinian refugee camp in Tyre in the South of the country, and displacement orders for residents in Baalbek in the country's east.
And that was, for the second time in two days, the displacement order in Baalbek.
In recent days, an estimated 50,000 people have left Baalbek, heading mostly to areas in the north of the Bekaa Valley, with many people spending the night in their vehicles.
These relentless displacement orders and subsequent air strikes have dramatically increased displacement to a total of more than 842,000, over half of them women and girls.
And that's according to our colleagues in IOM tracking this.
In terms of casualties, since the start of the war a year ago, more than 2800 people have been killed and more than 13,000 have been wounded wounded, with most of the casualties occurring since September.
We are particularly troubled by reports of entire families being killed in attacks on their homes.
The UN and our NGO partners are on the ground and responding to the needs and we are rushing hot meals, clean water, medical supplies, mattresses, health kits and other items to people who have been uprooted and we are working to access civilians who remain in hard to reach areas.
To date, 15 convoys have success successfully been organised to reach areas in Tyre, Haas, Baya, Marja Yun and Baalbek.
But the insecurity has an impact on what we can do 2 humanitarian convoys to Baalbek were cancelled due to the recently deteriorating security there.
I want to add a note on the funding, which is an issue and I was asked about it earlier.
As you know, we have a a flash appeal out there for $426,000,000, but it is today just 16% funded with $73 million.
We, of course, thank the French government for hosting the important donor conference last month.
In October, the as you know, the French government has reported that some $800 million were pledged by donor countries for humanitarian aid in Lebanon.
But we are facing a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.
The needs are rising by the minute, and a pledge does not buy food, medicine or shelter.
So we're hoping for a rapid disbursement to UN agencies and our partners so that we can do what the donors clearly wants us to do.
And mind you, lack of funding.
It is not just a question of a spreadsheet that doesn't add up.
It really is a question of deeply vulnerable people in in Lebanon who don't get the aid that they need.
Thank you so much, Jansen.
Maybe I just should add that according to our colleagues at UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, some 60% of these 842,000 are living in the areas in which are UNIFL operates in, in the South of Lebanon.
And of course our peacekeepers are remain working hard.
They're in position, they're working hard behind the scenes to help coordinate the safe passage of of these essential humanitarian goods is aid by the US agencies and local international NGOs.
The contingents have continued to support local communities through projects and donations to help those who have continued to stay in their homes.
And so this is a really one of the primary tasks of UNIFIL which remains in position and working under these very tense situation.
This is a statement that I'm that I'm subtracting a few lines from that we shared with you a couple of days ago.
I think you are very comprehensive and I don't see any hands going up.
OK, Well, I think you were abundantly clear, Yens.
And of course, you know, please.
Sorry I didn't see you there.
About Gaza, well, I think maybe we can shift to Gaza if you're prepared.
And of course, there are colleagues online as well who could also chime in.
But if there are no questions on Lebanon, yes, please feel free to pose your question on on Gaza.
My question will be about UNRWA.
As you know yesterday after the Israeli army attack unravels building in West Bank a completely demolished yesterday, as you remember last week Israeli parliament voted for to ban unravel activities.
I have two short question about on that will unravel be be able to continue its work on this this systematic Israeli pressure and attack And secondly, as a senior UN diplomat, do you remember any UN mission that faced such pressure before?
Thank you, Mohammed, I think your first question is probably best address to UNWA themselves what they what they you know the status of the operation.
I, I think we were earlier in the week abundantly clear about the fact that it is the backbone of the operation, it's indispensable and so on and so forth.
And it is, you know, outrageous that they are being, you know, attacked in this way.
And we want very clearly that without own wire, it would be, you know, putting the humanitarian operation halfway in its grave.
So it cannot happen whether we have seen similar.
Instances anywhere around the world, not to my knowledge, not to my knowledge and not to anyone's knowledge that I have been in contact with.
Yeah, I mean, maybe I just to pick up of course, as as Jens rightly says, we've been very vocal from this from this podium here and, and colleagues around the globe have been been sharing their their very strong comments about this decision of course.
And, and I should mention one development since we last met here was the Security Council's press statement, which is a very, very important message from the international community, the Security Council, this unanimous statement from the 15 members of Security Council, they emphasise the vital role of UNRWA, of the UN Relief and Works Agency, that which we have been echoing here.
So indeed there is no, no replacement for it.
Nick of the New York Times.
And sorry, I I was kind of distracted on other things.
So I have a question back on Lebanon for for Yens.
I wonder if you could just say a word about what is the population that's left in the South, I mean in in places like TA and to what extent is there a functioning system, a deconfliction system in relation to this particular conflict?
We've heard a lot about it in relation to Gaza.
I'm not clear how it's working in relation to the delivery assistance in in Lebanon to communities that are being affected by air strikes.
I wondered, I know it's not particularly your brief, but I also wondered if you had any lines on the flow of people from Lebanon into Syria?
As I mentioned, in recent days, an estimated 50,000 people have left Balbeck mostly headed to areas in the north of the Picca Valley.
So that that is the latest that statistic, sorry, statistic I, I have on that particular displacement for the humanitarian notification system, it existed.
It covers the the entire country.
That is what is being used.
I mentioned 15 convoys who have went to how to reach areas.
That's exactly why the humanitarian notification system and the subsequent deconfliction is happening so that these things can, can, can be carried out.
So that is working and very much particularly in the South with great help and support from Unifil.
The third question was to Syria.
But no, Nick, you want to repeat your third question?
Well, I'll, I'll also repeat the first one because you gave me against a figure for people who'd left Baalbek.
My question was what's, what's your understanding of the extent of the population that's left now in southern Lebanon?
Are we, you know, is there any kind of overall estimate of the percentage of the population that remains?
But my third question was also a question about the outflow of people from Lebanon into Syria.
And we had last week talk about the air strikes on crossing points.
And so I'm, I'm just kind of wondering how that situation is unfolding that Thank you.
What I have on the displacement to other countries that these are numbers from UNHCR and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is that over 460,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria, 460,000 while 25,000 have fled to Iraq.
In terms of displacement from Southern Lebanon to elsewhere, we can look into it with with IOM.
What's what we can say about the tracking exactly of of the movement?
The overall number I have is as I mentioned, 842,000 in total displaced, many of whom as we know, at the very start of the of the escalation came from the South and rushed towards the north.
Thank you, Jensen, I am is not online, but I Bob, our unit share is online.
If you want to add anything at any point, please, please do raise your hand right.
We have a question from Anya.
So the AFP in the hi, thank you.
In fact, a question on only, but on, on the, the fact that you you mentioned the 800 millions which were pledged in in in France during the this international conference Since then, how many forms have you received from from that part specifically?
Well, the the appeal remains really underfunded at at 17%.
We have received a total to that 73,000,000.
How much if any of that is directly from the 800 million, I don't know, but it cannot be a large amount.
So, so that's why we say we fully and totally and gratefully recognise that that conference and that was that it was a, it was a moment, right of outpour of humanitarian solidarity with the people in in Lebanon.
But we also, you know, please remind the donors of the urgency of this and turning these pledges into money that can work on the front line, as I mentioned, because that is what the donors want us to do.
But we can't do it unless the money flows fast.
Jens Catherine Franz Foncat.
Maybe speak up a little bit.
It's a bit faint, but go ahead.
Thank you so much to both of you.
In fact, it's a follow up to Anya's question regarding the funding.
Yes, you just mentioned that it has been funded 17%.
Could you please tell us which countries did transform their pledges into money, which countries are part of the 17% that you've received?
And also on the very practical way, how are the people of Lebanon that fled the South of the country, how are they helped in Beirut or in the northern part?
Because apparently they are unable to leave the country, particularly when they are Palestinians that we're living in the South of Lebanon OR in the country.
They have no access to other countries.
They don't get, of course, visas and things like that.
And so who are helping there and where can they find some support?
I'm I'm just looking up who who the donors are on the 73, but I, I just want want to make make clear the the countries and I'll find the donors does not that doesn't necessarily mean that those were countries that pledged in Paris.
These these are separate.
These are separate thing.
We track what is actually paid in whether the pledge is made in Paris or wherever.
You know, we we track it once the money is in the bank.
We were not tracking the the French conference in Paris.
The French were tracking that.
So I'll I'll have to ask you to, to ask them for what they can say about the pledges that that were that were made there in terms of people in need inside Lebanon.
Of course, it is a, it's a foundational humanitarian principle that we support any and all civilians regardless of their nationality, status, religion, colour of skin, whatever.
If they are civilians and they're in need, they're eligible for support.
If, if you like that, that is the basic principle.
If your question is about why some people who may want to leave are unable to leave, that goes a bit beyond what I can speak about.
And I would perhaps ask you on HCR if if they have any information on that because that would be people crossing an international border.
Maybe I should mention that Kennedy of IOM is happy to to follow up with you, Nick and other colleagues should you have questions about people on the move as well as HCR.
My question is also for Jens about Lebanon.
There are a lot of publications in the media saying that secret talks are have begun between Hezbollah and Israel.
Do you see underground in a humanitarian point of view any signs of, I don't know, more kind of situations that we can see before negotiations?
The short answer is no, but that's not necessarily because there aren't any signs.
It's because it's not something we can systematically track and see.
OK, now they are meeting what happens on the ground.
We we can't make that direct link when we know that there are kind of parallel simultaneous political processes going on.
Of course, we want that to see happen because at the end of the day, we want the conflict to stop so that we avoid creating further needs and that we can actually respond to the need that are actually there.
The proof for us is always in the pudding, right?
We're here and we've just seen it over the past year in Gaza.
There's on and off and back and forth and start and stop and the situation on the ground doesn't really change as a function of that.
Just to add that of as as you well know, our colleagues on the ground, Ed Unifil, remain in contact with with the Lebanese and Israeli authorities and are urging de escalation.
This is going without pause despite this very, very tense situation.
And the message, our UN message is very clear.
Recommit to Security Council Resolution 1701 in actions and not just words as as Yen's very eloquently mentioned.
So indeed that dialogue is is supremely important.
Kat, I'm sorry I missed you.
I think you had a follow up to your previous question.
So back to you, Catherine.
Thank you so much, Rolando.
Yes, it's back to two questions, one to Yen's.
Could you please mention the countries that did donate the 73,000,000?
And my other question is maybe I don't know Rolando, or you could direct me to someone else.
Regarding the people that are working for UN feel that means the United Nation mission in Lebanon.
You have some staff that were based in tier and other places and had to flee.
So what about them, the local people, sometimes the Palestinians?
So how is UN supporting their own staff?
Yeah, no, let me and I'm happy to send it to you as well Catherine and and to everyone.
What we have on on record as committed funding to the 426,000,000 appeals is from the government of Italy, 17,000,000, the government of the United States of America, 11.7 million, the Central Emergency Response Fund, so multi donors with 10 million.
What that's been released, The government of Sweden with 9.3 million, the government of France, 7.2 million, the government of the United Kingdom 6.4 million and the government of Germany 5.5 million.
And there are a few other donors, but I will not read all of them out here, but I'm happy to send you the full list.
Catherine, I may not have all the details, but let me just be very clear that our priority is the protection of civilians, not just the locals living in South Lebanon, but also our own staff.
And there are thousands, we have dozens of countries contributing peacekeepers.
And we also have a local, local staff who have been working and bearing the brunt of of much of bearing much of the brunt of this this horrific conflict in tier.
I know many have been evacuated.
Tier, as you know, was bombed a few days ago.
I don't have all the details as to where they are.
I know that colleagues are working under, you know, in bunkers, working, doing what they can while bombing continues.
So it's really, really a precarious situation.
I know colleagues are also working in Beirut, but Beirut is also not his safe place.
So let's really just be mindful of the very, very harsh conditions they're working in.
But I think what I would like to do is defer you to our colleagues in, in Unifil.
We can certainly keep you updated.
I have this statement which we shared with you a couple of days ago, but I'll see if I can get more on the actual, the, it's such a fluid situation and it's, you know, minute by minute things are changing.
So I'll see if I can get an update for you and as to where our staff are at present.
Another follow up, Catherine, go ahead.
But yes, the 10 million and from SURF, that's the the emergency fund from OSHA.
Yes, that that's correct.
It was that was released pretty early on actually towards the flash appeal by the acting emergency relief coordinator to jump start the funding.
I've got a couple of questions.
First, if Margaret is online, Margaret Harris from WHO, if she could bring us up to speed on how many people have no access to health in Lebanon at the moment because of the attacks on health, especially the closure of local health facilities, dispensaries, etcetera.
And my second question is to James, if he's online.
James, these new estimates are sorry, just to cut you, James.
James is not online just to cut you off.
Perhaps this is also a Margaret if she has any info from the field.
The 12,000 severe acute malnutrition cases in Gaza, how many of these are in the north and are you able to reach any of the children with therapeutic feeding?
Sorry, I I didn't have the unmute button.
OK, good on the on Lebanon, I don't have a specific number, but I can tell you everybody is struggling to get that level of health care they need because of the continuing attacks on the health system and the health system was already under enormous pressure.
Also, the economic conditions that people found themselves under meant that and the hospitals themselves, that they were reliant on generators, on a fuel that's not available to keep the hospitals going.
So essentially accessing Healthcare is a real struggle for everyone in Lebanon.
But of course, it's a greater struggle in the areas where the hospitals have been attacked.
Let me get you some numbers.
It's the hospital so overwhelmed by casualties, as you know, and it's just carrying an enormous burden.
It's we've also seen a rise in infectious disease threats, including confirmed cholera case.
And at the same time, as I said, we're seeing, we're deeply concerned about the rising attacks on health workers and facilities in Lebanon, as the numbers are really quite shocking that we, the data I have are that there have been 102 deaths, 83 injured, and 28 of those attacks have impacted facilities and another 28 have impacted transport or the 2 are interchangeable.
Overall, we've had 55 attacks verified, but the Ministry of Health is reporting that there are much higher numbers as many workers have been killed or injured while off duty.
And this matters because the health systems are already overstretched.
Health workers are already overworked and displaced.
So we, we are continuing to lose health workers at the very time when they're needed most.
So I'm sorry, I don't have the specific numbers of people who are don't have access because I don't think that's a real number.
Everybody is struggling to get access to the health care they need.
Oh, now in Gaza you're asking about children with malnutrition and this is really, really important.
We had a a malnutrition stabilisation centre at Kamaladwan and that's been closed because of the attacks on Camelot 1.
So in the North there is no longer a nutrition stabilisation centre and we before that occurred we were seeing an increasing number month on month of what children were requiring severe with severe acute malnutrition were requiring treatment.
And as you know, it's not just a matter of refeeding, it's a matter of doing it with the appropriate medical replacement so that the child survives, almost survives the treatment and can return to some kind of normal physical functioning.
I'm just going to get up my numbers for you.
I have specific numbers on the children who are.
So the malnutrition situation, we've not really seen any food aid enter N gases.
People are running out of ways to cope.
The food systems have collapsed.
And as I said, the the opportunity to care for those who are at the most critical stage is not there anymore.
And I again, don't have a perfect, I don't have great numbers for you there, except that over 86% of the population across Gaza are experiencing **** levels of food insecurity.
As you know, it's always the children who suffer most.
Yeah, maybe just to paraphrase from the statement I mentioned, generally when you're Speaking of the this theatre in which our colleagues are operating, you know, these statistics really cannot fully capture the the human cost of conflict.
And we really endeavour to really try to get these numbers.
And thank you, Margaret, for trying to do so.
And of course, colleagues do bear with us.
The situation is so fluid and so desperate.
So thank you for the questions at the same time.
So Margot, I know we're going to go back to you on a different subject, but I think now if we have exhausted note we're doing with the sorry, another question, Yuri, Gaza or Lebanon on Lebanon, but linked to Gaza, it is to migrate.
Also about the attacks on healthcare, because I remember that the first months of the conflict, WHO was always stressing that Israel is clearly attacking health facilities without any precaution.
Do you see the same patterns in Lebanon?
I mean, do you see that the politics that Israel was doing in Gaza during the strikes is the same in Lebanon against the health facilities and health workers?
We are really, really concerned, deeply concerned about the rising attacks on health workers and the facilities in Lebanon.
And we are again and again and again emphasising that Healthcare is not a target, health workers are not a target.
And we are certainly concerned about seeing the same pattern.
Yes, we all are concerned.
Thank you so much, Margaret.
Any further questions on Lebanon OR Gaza?
No, I don't see as a case.
So thank you so much, Jens, as always.
Now very pleased to have here with me Claire of the World Meteorological Organisation, who's going to introduce a guest who's speaking to the Spanish floods.
Yes, good morning, everybody.
Thank you for joining us.
Just to start off this briefing, as we are seeing the, the, the tragic, horrible images, you know, on our, on our phones, on our TV screens this week, Spain has been hit by absolutely catastrophic flooding.
It's close to home to us.
You know, many of us have probably been there, but it's just one the flooding that we're seeing in Spain is just one of many, many, many extreme weather, water related disasters that have been taking place around around the world this this year, almost almost almost every week, we're seeing such shocking, shocking images.
And it once again underlines why the priority of the World Meteorological Organisation communities.
So the secretariat in Geneva, our members around the world is to save lives.
Climate change is turbocharging extreme weather.
We can expect to see more of the devastation and the despair that we have been seeing this week as a warming atmosphere, you know, brings more energy into our climate system.
Just to give you a little bit of perspective on this particular event, as we all know, the Valencia region was worst affected.
Some areas received more than the equivalent of a year's amount of rainfall in the in the space of eight hours.
So if you can, you know, imagine a watering can, you know, you turn, you turn the nozzle, you get, you get a shower, you remove the nozzle, you get a heavier downpour, you take a bucket and it comes down on you, you know, torrentially.
And this is, this is what has been happening this weekend in Spain.
We at WMO obviously join Spain in mourning the loss of life and how what's been unfolding this week is that AIMET, which is the Spanish Meteorological and Hydrological Service, the National Service, it is the authoritative source in the WMO register of alerting authorities.
AIMET has been issuing constant advisories, constant alerts throughout the week via the common alerting protocol and via national, you know, national mechanisms.
Within Spain there is a red alert which is the top level in place today in the southwest province of of whoever.
So unfortunately this episode is not finished yet and my colleague Dr Badour will will give you more details on on that.
Other parts of Europe have been badly affected this year by floods.
Not just over a month ago, mid-september, a large part of Central Europe experienced very, very heavy rainfall, loss of life, more national records.
And according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, extreme weather events causing highly impactful floods and droughts have become more likely and more severe due to anthropogenic climate change.
And we, the WMO, we released our State of Water resources report a few weeks ago.
And at that time our Secretary General Celeste Salo said as a result of rising temperatures, the hydrological cycle has accelerated.
It's also become more erratic, more unpredictable.
We're facing growing problems of either too much water or too little.
And that's what we're seeing it playing out in Spain at the moment.
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.
This is the law of physics.
So every degree of warming saturated air contains 7% more water vapour.
As our climate warms, as the air warms, it becomes more moist.
So every additional fraction of warming increases the atmospheric moisture content and this increases the risk of extreme precipitation flooding.
And just to wrap up before I hand you over to Doctor Badour, climate scientists at World Weather Attribution, that's that's sort of highly respected climate scientists.
They include include a number of members of national meteorological and hydrological services.
They've conducted quite a number of what we call rapid attribution surveys this this year analysing the footprint of climate change in in extreme weather events.
A long list, Sahel, West Africa, East Africa, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Southern Brazil, Central Europe, and most recently yesterday, a very, very, very rapid preliminary analysis on Spain.
And the common factor in all of in all of these is climate change.
WMO at the COP 29 negotiations in in Baku, which is starting starting shortly.
We will be publishing the state of the global Climate update, which will give more details of extreme events around the world this this year.
So stay tuned for that will be released in Baku, but we can provide briefings here in Geneva if you wish.
The coordinator of the state of the climate report is Doctor Omar Badour.
He's our head of climate monitoring at WMOI think most of you know him quite well.
And so I will hand over to him.
He's with us on Zoom to explain what this phenomenon is, which is hitting Spain.
It's the same phenomena that hit Libya, Greece last year.
And he can give you more information on that.
So, Omar, thank you for joining us.
Mediterranean basin is prone to severe storms and severe cyclones during the year, particularly during the edge of the summer like autumn or spring.
What happened this time in Spain is what we call cold air coming from the pole, which was isolated over small area over Spain, Portugal, N Morocco and France.
This is often occurs during the autumn season because of the remaining warm surface.
Heat from summer meets a southern cold invasion of love from the polar regions.
So this phenomena is usually called by the meteorologist as a cut off system.
It's called cut off because it's cut from the core mass coming from the north and also the the warm mass coming from the South.
So it constitute kind of big tribune that affects the whole region.
The phenomena could stay for a few days to week time.
The nature of being isolated makes him slowly moving to the east or to the West.
So it's very important to note that the amount of precipitation which was associated with this phenomena, as explained by my colleague Clear, is mainly caused by the fact that we are still in the warm condition of the water, sea waters, so which fuels the system with extra backward.
And also the fact that we have in the lower atmosphere still warm air and a lot we have cold air.
This makes what we call in meteorological terms like in atmospheric instability, but lead to a deep convection, large clouds and heavy downpours in very isolated locations.
So the the phenomena is very common in the Mediterranean.
We had many such severe storms in the past affecting both flanks of the basin, North and South.
If you remember, last year in almost the same period of time, in September, we had the Daniel storm, which ravaged ravaged many countries in the East Mediterranean region and affected also Libya with devastating damages due to the mass of water that caused the collapse of the dam.
So we know that this phenomena happen almost every year, but the fact that they are disastrous depends on where they hit.
If they hit a very populated area such what happened last days, then the casualties and the infrastructure damage is huge.
It's very important to note that the Med services and WMO are working together to address as much as possible early warnings.
The Spanish Med services has issued many alerts on that.
But the casualties and disasters associated with normally goes beyond the single alert system.
It's more but the severity of the storm is extremely severe.
I think Spain has not seen such a severe storm for many decades and also because of the sudden and they use most of what that felt in a very short moment.
This makes this system very severe in terms of.
So perhaps you might ask what climate change do with this?
Clare has already explained some of that.
In fact, the IPCC at the Government panel on Climate Change addressed in his report we packed on severe storms.
The general conclusion is, is that it's very likely that we have increased severity of such storms in the future and also some of the frequency of these storms in some locations.
So it's very simple to understand why, because with the warming warmer atmosphere and ocean, we have first increased evaporation from the ocean which fuels the atmosphere.
The second factor is that when the atmosphere is warmer, then it has more capacity to store the water and convert it into rain and downpours and therefore to floods and flash floods.
So we have here a system that is combined weather system but fueled with existing seasonal factors and also with the climate change effect, we can always expect that this kind of storms become more severe and more producing more rain and more Russia rains.
We do have questions indeed we have Antonio of the Spanish news agency.
Antonio, thank you very much.
So very simple question, what can be done to avoid this level of destruction and and deaths?
We are seeing these horrible images in Spain, but we saw this in Libya as well.
Looks like Mediterranean is very hit by these floods in, in, in, in these times of climate change, what what can be improved at least in the region?
I would say at global level, we could make a good start by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are the the drive, you know, the driver, the driver behind this.
This is why we always talk about climate action and early, early, early warnings.
You know, we do need to ensure that the early warnings reach those who, who need them.
But as I don't know if, if, if Omar, Doctor Bedor, if you would like to, you know, expand, expand at all, you know, we need to ensure that early warnings lead to informed early action.
Claire, I think you said the keyword early warning is very important.
We know that in Europe in general and many other regions, you have very robust early warning systems.
For example, the common alert protocol which Spain is part of, it is actually a very good and robust system that alert the public's and other decision making on the likelihood of having extreme weather and severe impacts.
So this is that, but it's not still, of course we still need improve the systems, especially when it comes to very localised type of systems like what happened in in Spain.
So this goes beyond the, the, the, the skill of the forecast, but rather to more integrated management policies of such systems from the meteorological to planning of cities and so forth.
So it's not only a meteorological factor that leads to a disaster, but many other factors committed into play like the land use and the city's management and so forth.
So there is no no doubt that the alerting system is needs a lot of improvement in the future in all the world, especially to deal with very localised and very severe storms.
We can forecast the the the storm and its magnitude, but sometimes the the fact that is isolated and very small part and affect very small part with all the surrounding landscape that brings a lot of water into the area needs some attention in the future.
I think there are a lot of recommendations from different groups working on on alerting systems and the spare is one of the advanced entries actually in, in that aspect, including a very good radar network and satellite imagery in addition to numerical weather forecasting systems.
Thank you very much, Omar.
Catherine, if you don't mind, I'm just going to skip back over to Antonio.
I think you have a follow up.
And then back to you, Catherine.
Yes, because both of you mentioned early wiring systems.
Do you think the system worked this time?
Because as Claire said, the the I met sent sent red alerts way of time, way way way before time even days before this happened.
But the authorities didn't send messages to the people saying stay at home until some villages were already flooded.
So do you think this should should be improved?
I think that's something which Spain Spanish authorities need to need need to examine.
I was you know I was looking this morning and a week ago last Saturday, Iomet, you know, issued a special advisory warning of this in Spanish Dana system.
So the information was was there and they've been, you know, numerous alerts made through throughout the week.
But I think it's not helpful for at this stage for WMO to, you know, to to, to get involved in, in the debate.
I think that's something which, you know, Spanish authorities will will have to take, will have to take a look at.
Thank you, Catherine, back to you.
Thank you, Orlando Bourgeois, Monsieur Badour and hello, Claire.
My my question is related about the the warning.
And also telecommunication, if I recall well about 10 years ago, if if not more, there was an agreement signed between several UN agencies and ITU to to facilitate the connections, the connectivity when there's a disaster.
And apparently what I've seen on TV is that the warnings have been sent.
OK, a bit late, but some of of companies, I mean the phone companies did not work properly.
So some people did get the warnings even today.
So what is the collaboration that you have with ITU and don't you think that in the early warning they should be also maybe a kind of emergency line for these warnings because the the the mobile lines don't work properly all the time?
What what you're referring to is the common alerting protocol.
It actually is marking it's 20th anniversary this this year.
And yes, it does bring together a lot of different agencies.
It's, it's a standard, it's a standardised message format designed for all media, all hazards and all communication channels.
The aim is to ensure that critical information reaches everybody.
So under this procedure, we have what we call authoritative sources in the WMO Register of Authority authorities I met is the authoritative source in, in Spain.
The other links of this, of, of this chain, including, including ITU, it should work.
You know, there are many, many success stories.
But as I said earlier, I don't think it's helpful at this stage to, you know, to to fit us as WMO to, you know, to get too involved into, you know, where the links are might have broken, broken down.
The system, the left protocol, my colleague Claire.
The system concerns on the system erratic by example down the system the provision the the the situation the more extreme so see that the programme the programme special effective.
The more although we are not compare OC number the system that acted the previous of Peugeot perfected women the prosecutor women the system mercy mercy of Monsieur.
We have another question from Antonio from FA.
Just to understand a little more about the role of WMO, I would like to know if there was cooperation between between you and I met for the issuing of red alerts before the disaster happened and if there is some cooperation now.
What I think it's best for me to do is given that briefing is dragging on is I'll connect you offline with with one of our experts.
But in a nutshell, the, the red alerts are issued, as you know, in accordance with the common alerting protocol, in accordance with the national obligations of our MET.
We at WMO do not physically get, get involved in, in, in this.
It's the the national authority is responsible for issuing those warnings.
But we obviously, you know, provide a, we help provide a platform to, to to support this.
But I'll, I'll set you up with some somebody else at WMO would be most helpful.
Thank you very much, Claire, I don't see further questions.
Maybe I just, I would like to just express on behalf of the United Nations our sincere condolences to the the more than 150 people who have lost their lives and of course, condolences to the government of Spain.
And of course, we'll be looking at what happens in Baku at the week after next.
And I'm sure early warning will be among the various subjects that it will be among the various issues that vital issues, I should say, that will be issued rather addressed at this important gathering from 11 to 22 November from if I'm not mistaken.
So thank you once again Claire and Omar.
And now I throwback to Margaret who has a guest to introduced introduce on another very important issue Mpox in the DRC and neighbouring countries.
So back to you, Margaret.
Hi, and thank you very much, Rolando.
Yes, I've got the great pleasure to bring Doctor Michelle yo, who you mostly should know because he's led many, many of our really difficult responses in emergencies, particularly Ebola and others in Africa.
And he's now our Incident Manager for the mpox response and has just been to DRC.
So he's coming to give you an update on what the situation is, but also what the response is, what's really happening.
So over you to you, Michelle, thank you very much.
Can you hear me very well?
So thank you for the opportunity.
I'll be speaking about the impulse outbreak in Africa, especially in DRC where I've just been.
So I will start by saying that the impulse is a viral disease, spreads mostly through close contacts.
It is painful and sometimes disfigurating and debilitating disease.
Impulse patient can face also stigma and discrimination.
This make it quite difficult in terms of comprehensive reporting and others.
So on the 14th of August this year, W2 declared the impulse outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern and this is due to the spread of a new strain in East and Central Africa to mainly related to one of the strains that is played.
Since then we have been seen a scale up response to imports at the international, regional but also national and sub national level.
In September 2024, the last month for which we have globally data, 47 countries reported confirmed cases of imports.
In addition, countries have been on **** alert for Clade 1B, the new strain and together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 countries have so far reported outbreak of and including imported case of outbreak linked to clade 1B.
In Africa, some targeted vaccination began in affected countries to protect health workers and other people at risk.
Larger scale vaccination will also be possible as more vaccine doses become available and and and intensive effort as under way to scale up community engagement, diagnosis, clinical care, sanitation, hygiene and others.
And I need to emphasise they need to have a comprehensive and integrated intervention for this response is not only about vaccine and in DRC so far 50,000 people have been vaccinated.
With the leadership of affecting countries, the support of donors and search support from W and partners, the level of response is greater than it has haven't been.
However, more need to be done given the challenging circumstances in most of the affected countries.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, is facing conflict, cholera, malnutrition, measles, malaria and many other crises.
The pediatrical situation is complex and continue to evolve, generating new risks.
There is a multiple outbreak in different virus strain and what we call mainly clades.
All clades of the virus are known to transmit from person to person.
However, two of them many Clade 1B and Clade 2B have been found to transmit efficiently efficiently through sexual contact.
We now have some indication that there is also sustained human to human transmission of Clade 1A in sexual network in Kinshasa following importation from endemic part of the country.
This may reflect sexual transmission in other provinces of which we saw evidence in a cluster of cases mid 2023.
And just to end emphasis is a zoonotic disease, but we've initially zoonotic disease with recurrent spillover from animals to human in DRC mainly.
So now the the issue is the repeated human to human transmission that could also trigger change within the the virus.
More impulse transmit people, Oh sorry, more the more impulse transmit between people, the more opportunities the virus have to change.
And this is our main concern.
While most of the global population does not currently have protections against these families of virus, WTO is working with the National Health authorities and partners to map hotspot where the response must be intensified.
This depend on having adequate data.
This is one of the things to highlight which was identified as a gap in my discussion with national authorities last week.
One of the many concrete way that W2 is supporting Ministry of Health is helping to improve the quality of disease surveillance and data and even under difficult circumstances that you can imagine in DRCWHO is also providing over Technical Support, expecting also including regulatory approval for all the neighbouring countries.
Looking forward, we need more data, more feed presence and more fun to stop the outbreak.
W2 to date receive a third of the 80 million we were appealing for.
So this is my preliminary reporter waiting for maybe questions.
Thank you very much, Doctor Yao.
More data, more field presence, more funds message clear.
Thank you very much for that.
We do have a question for you from Robin of Argence France Press.
Thank you very much for this briefing for you.
From what you see, does this mpox outbreak bring home the importance of finalising A pandemic agreement?
Yes, please, please do so.
And we can take just few example if we take the vaccine allocation mechanism for equitable access, WTO and partners have set up an allocation mechanism based on transparent criteria, epidemic situation as well as capacity in countries to implement.
And as I'm speaking, the vaccines made available have all been allocated.
We are now supporting countries to implement concretely.
So this is one of the example among others in terms of ensuring that when something struck, we have a mechanism that trigger equitable access to Contra measures to control them.
So of course, the the coming treaty will certainly have to reinforce these mechanisms that will help to have means available and accessible to all to deal with this kind of emergency, public health emergency.
Thank you very much, Doctor.
Do we have further questions for Doctor Yao or perhaps Margaret?
No, I do not see that's OK.
So thank you once again for this important intervention and good luck with with this lofty task.
OK, colleagues, I just have a few quick announcements before we wrap up.
As I mentioned at the onset of this briefing, we have this media seminar taking place, Media seminar on Peace in the Middle East taking place in Room 26, which is well underway.
So do try to make it over there if you can.
Lots of rich discussions to be had on freedom of the press and safety journalists in time of war and specifically on the situation the media challenges in the context of the conflict in Gaza.
On a related note, I should mention that tomorrow, the 2nd of November, is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
Now, in the Secretary General's message, he notes how worldwide there is an estimated 9 out of 10 of an estimated 9 out of 10 of journalists murdered go unpunished.
Impunity breeds for the violence.
He says calls on governments to bring these commitments to life by taking urgent steps to protect journalists, investigate crimes against them and prosecute perpetrators everywhere.
That's in the S GS message.
Just to simply highlight the message, the statement rather from the Secretary General we shared with you yesterday concerning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in which the SG strongly condemns the launch yesterday of a long range ballistic missile from the DPRK.
So that message is in your inbox.
In terms of meetings, we have a press conference taking place here.
In fact, this is at I'm sorry, it's not today.
It's it's for Friday, Monday, Monday, Monday, the 4th of November at 12 noon in this room.
Trade and Development will hold a press briefing.
The Secretary General of UNCTAD, Rebecca Greenspan, will be here to brief you.
I know she was here early this week.
She's going to be briefing you again to talk about the presentation of the least developed countries report for 2024, levering, leveraging carbon markets for development.
Very important encounter.
At 12 noon on Monday, the Human Rights Council or Human Rights, sorry, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Committee is holding its session.
As you know the 142nd session is underway and this morning it had a public meeting to discuss Optional protocol on Communications Committee against Torture, another treaty body is still that meeting is session rather is underway and they have their next meeting on Tuesday, this coming Tuesday the 5th of November to review Thailand.
And last but not least now, the Human Rights Council, Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review.
This next session, the 47th session, is taking place over the next two weeks, starting this coming Monday, the 4th at 9:00 AM in room 20.
And there are lots of states to be reviewed, 14 states to be reviewed, all contained in the media advisory we shared with you this coming Monday.
We start off with Norway review in the morning and then the afternoon Albania.
So do consult the media advisory that was shared with you from colleagues at the Human Rights Council Secretariat.
So I wish you a good afternoon and Bon weekend.
