Very good morning and thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing.
Today, Friday, the 4th of April.
We have a very, very packed agenda, very important agenda for you today.
We have the situation in Sudan, in Myanmar, and also we have updates on the US tariffs.
We have a situation in the global cholera situation.
We also have an announcement from our colleagues from the UN Mine Action Service.
So indeed a very important in packed agenda.
We'll start off right away with our colleague from the International Organisation for Migration, Mohammed Rafat, who is IOM Sudan, IOM Sudan Chief of Mission, who's joining us from Khartoum.
Good morning and I'm glad to be with you and apologise for the dark room.
This is basically what we have now in Khartoum with electricity cut, so bear with me.
Today I'm concluding 4 days visit to Sudan, to Khartoum state where the first time I was able.
This is not my first visit to Khartoum, I have been here before but this time I was able to visit Bahrain and Khartoum and see for the first hand areas that were not accessible before.
This is exactly why I was asking for this briefing.
The last two years we have heard the humanitarian communities calling for more access and more funding.
But what I have seen here in Khartoum over the last two days is exactly what 2 years was limited to no access.
Looks like I saw what lack of funding has meant to the people on the ground.
A great tragedy has happened here.
The level of destruction, the level of suffering that the Sudanese people, particularly Sudanese women have faced have been immeasurable.
The people who were in this areas have been trapped in siege like conditions with no escape, no hope and often forced to face unspeakable *****.
Let me start with the story of a woman that I promised to share her story, Sara.
She has been elderly maths teacher.
She has been trapped in this war, in this area, with no means to escape.
As a woman alone, her days had been filled with horror, witnessing the loss of loved ones, surrounded by constant ****** of violence and sexual *****, and hoping that she can make it through the day.
Buildings and homes around her were being destroyed every day, and she could do, and she could do.
All what she could do was to take cover when police and shelling began to fly.
Sara's decision to stay was driven by necessity.
As an elderly woman, it would be dangerous and challenging to go on food and she has no transportation.
She could receive no support from anyone.
She was little to suffer with no assistant except for what her and other elderly woman can cook every day in the takea or the community kitchens with a very little that they can receive from the diaspora who would send sporadically some cash for them.
The last few months has were the worst as the as the fighting intensified to change areas of control, mortars become more frequent and that uses search only.
Faith in the religion and there in each other prevented many women from taking their lives away.
When asked Sarah what she wants, she didn't ask for any help but she asked for the schools to open so she so she can teach for free.
She teaching me what resilience are.
While talking to Sarah, another girl called 1316 years old interrupted me and she said I need like social help, I need support.
I want to become a UN spokesperson but all what I have is a little bit of bit of education and I cannot continue my education and I need counselling.
I need someone to help me.
I saw many of these girls like Sara and Tertil skipping the out, skipping or reducing meals.
I met NGOs who had stopped work or reduced presence.
Funding has dried but not only from member states but also from diaspora and charity organisation as resources became thin.
There are countless Sara's and Tertil in this war which is the largest displacement we are counting.
Over 11 million people have been displaced within Sudan, but there's a little bit glimpse of hope.
For the first time since the war started, we are counting reduction in the number of ID PS in Sudan.
Over the last months we have reported that more than 400,000 have returned to their original areas of location margin.
A little bit of the reduction in the percentage of the total ID PS population by 2.4%.
It is clear some returns are under way.
Initial project projection is that there will be millions opting to return to Khartoum, Sinar and by the with Madani and other areas depending on how the dynamics will unfold.
Sadly, however, many of those Sudanese who do return home will be coming back to destroyed houses, looted items and no basic services.
The conditions for safe, dignified return and sustainable reintegration are not yet in place.
Basic services including healthcare protection, education and food are lacking and the absence of unfeasible infrastructure and financial capacities will make it difficult for families to return.
We know that returns will come and it is at this moment that we must take action to ensure that the conditions are in place for people to return in a safe, orderly way back to their homes.
We have better access now to some areas.
It is important to utilise this.
The IOM Sudan response which is asking for 250 million to serve more than 1.7 million people in Sudan is only 9% funded.
With the current funding situation, IOM Sudan current capacity cannot be maintained at even our current level of response, much less scale up to meet the needs of returns.
So now the responded Khartoum.
So now to respond in Khartoum, we need more funding and we appeal for the international community to not forget Sudan.
Last but not least, peace need to be maintained.
We are looking forward for the London conference and for all initiatives to bring back peace to Sudan.
Thank you very much, Mohammed.
It's a heartbreaking story, but very, very important messages in appeal.
So thank you for sharing that with us.
Do we have questions for Mohammed?
Are there in the room or online?
I'm sorry, right in front of me.
Olivia Reuters, thank you very much for this, this briefing.
Mohammed, you were saying that the, the funding I am funding for this is only 9% fund funded and you were saying that you're concerned that you may not have enough.
Am I right to continue operations now or do you mean in terms of future funding for for facilitating the return of of people when they get back to Khartoum?
In order for people to return back to Khartoum, they need personal information around what's the situation in Khartoum.
And this information is still lacking.
So what we want is basically to have an information system that can allow all Idps to understand the situation on the ground and be able to make an informed decision.
What we have in terms of funding is not even enough to start an information or data gathering process around the return areas, let alone helping the infrastructure in those areas.
Some of the areas that I have visited, I can tell you the electricity stations has been looted, the water pipes have been destroyed.
And I'm not talking about some areas, I'm talking about everywhere I went.
I have been in wars in Libya, Yemen, many other conflict areas and the level of destruction I have seen in Baharian Khartoum is unimaginable.
There has been targeting of not only people house but administrative areas, not military areas but all the basic infrastructure that can maintain lives for people.
So there would be huge investment needed in the basic services for Primary Health care centres, for food stations, for fuel stations, for water pipes, and all of this is not at any scale funded by IOM or for IOM or any other agencies as far as we know.
So while we were focusing on the ITP gathering sites, I think there would should be now more investment and funding for areas where we think people will be returning back.
Do we have further questions for our colleague from IOM?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So once again, Mohammed, thank you so very much for joining us.
Indeed, we will do what we can to meet those lofty goals, indeed, very important for the people in Sudan.
So thank you very much for joining us and join us again if you can.
OK, colleagues, we're going to switch to Myanmar.
We have 3 briefers here with me on the podium, Ravina from the Human Rights Office.
We have Babar from Refugee Agency and Christian from the ICRC start of the Ravina.
And then also to mention that we have a colleague from The Who, Philip Barbosa, who's online who's going to be briefing you later on the global cholera situation, but he can also inject a few comments on the situation of cholera in Myanmar, should you have questions on that specific issue.
But we'll start off right away with Ravina.
We also have online the head of our Myanmar team, James Rohdehaver, who's joining us from Bangkok and who can take any questions that you have on the situation in Myanmar.
You will shortly also receive a press release in the **** Commissioner's name.
In Myanmar, the actions of the military are compounding the dire humanitarian situation in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake.
UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights Walker Turk stresses that the announcement of a pause in hostilities by both the Myanmar military and the National Unity Government must be followed by immediate and unrestricted access by rescue and humanitarian workers to all those in need.
We urge A halt to all military operations and for the focus to be on assisting those impacted by the quake.
We hope this terrible tragedy can be a turning point for the country towards an inclusive political solution.
In the days following the the deadly earthquake that tore through central Myanmar last week, the Myanmar military continued operations and attacks, including air strikes, some of which were launched shortly after the tremors subsided.
Our office has received reports that the military has carried out at least 53 attacks, including strikes by aircrafts and drones, artillery and paramotors in areas affected by the earthquake.
At least 14 attacks by the military have been reported since they announced a temporary ceasefire which was due to take effect on the 2nd of April.
Our office has also received reports that the military has continued its conscription Dr forcibly recruiting able bodied young people assisting the rescue efforts.
While humanitarian efforts have progressed in certain areas where access has been granted.
The long standing limitations imposed by the military on humanitarian operations and access across the country have meant that numerous badly impacted areas, including large towns in Sagang region and in areas of Fargo and Shan State have remained inaccessible to humanitarian emergency assistance except what can be organised locally by residents.
Despite certain capacities of the military, expert personnel, equipment and services needed to save lives in urgent peril have been lacking.
Sources from the ground describe a catastrophic humanitarian situation in earthquake hit areas, especially those outside the military's control, an absence of relief efforts and a lack of clean water, food and medicine.
Fear and shock have augmented the suffering of a civilian population that has already been subjected to four years of military violence since the coup.
The scale of the disaster has been exacerbated by an information blackout due to Internet and telecommunications shutdowns imposed by the military, which has made it extremely difficult to contact affected communities and to assess the situation.
The humanitarian and protection needs of the civilian population must be addressed without delay and without restriction.
Thousands of political prisoners also still remain arbitrarily detained in horrendous conditions.
It is unclear what impact the earthquake had on their places of detention.
They should be released immediately.
It's critical that international assistance reach the people of Myanmar through international coordination mechanisms and support the civil society and community based networks that are playing the front line role to provide relief on the ground.
The people of Myanmar have suffered enough.
The response to this horrendous disaster must open pathways towards a comprehensive solution that upholds human rights.
And then of course, it was remiss of you not to introduce and James a friend and who's joining us from Bangkok as well.
We have Arnaud Debeck of the head of the ICR delegation who's joining us from Yangon.
But before we go to them, just to throw it now to Babar from UNHCR.
As Ravina was mentioning, the full extent of the devastations following up the Myanmar earthquake is unclear.
But our teams from Unisia, the UN Refugee agency, are on on the ground.
Unisia, the UN Refugee agency, is appealing for 16,000,000 U.S.
dollars to assist some 1.2 million people who survived last week's devastating earthquake in Myanmar.
Unishar will use the funds to expand its emergency relief efforts, manage displacement sites and support vulnerable people in six affected regions until the end of the year.
In the week since the earthquake struck central Myanmar, Unit CR has deployed existing in country stocks including plastic sheets and kitchen sets for some 25,000 survivors in Mandalay, Sagang and Bago regions as well as the capital Nepitao and parts of the Shan State in the South.
As part of an all UN and other humanitarian partners Interagency response, Unit CR is leading on planning for shelter, emergency relief items, camp coordination, protection among others.
Unit CR is mobilising supplies from its Myanmar warehouses for an additional 25,000 people.
But we will need to replenish stocks urgently to meet the massive needs in the areas that are suffering from the impact of the earthquake.
And as also mentioned on the top of four years of conflict, displacement also.
And that numbers as we keep repeating, before the earthquake was 3.5 million people that were internally displaced inside Myanmar by by the ongoing conflict.
The relief items for the earthquake survivors are critical for people who have lost everything, including the means to buy supplies as some local markets are not functioning.
This additional funding that we are asking will allow Unit CR to procure and distribute emergency shelter kits and relief items and provide assistance to survivors during the initial weeks and months of the the recovery.
What our colleagues from the ground are telling us, and we'll hear more for our colleague in in Bangkok is that the situation is dire and terrible.
There's heat above 40° and also monsoon is expected to hit soon.
Many people are outside their homes, being left shelter less and either they have lost their homes or they're afraid because of the aftershocks.
The death toll and the number of injuries is rising fastly.
And as mentioned, you know, the full extent is yet to be known.
Back to thank you very much.
Babar Christian, over to you.
In few minutes, you should have a news release from the ICRC among different messages, but also calling for clearly for an extension of the cessation of hostilities in order to make sure that the humanitarian response can meet the huge needs that the population in Myanmar is currently facing.
I know the back or head of delegation from Yangon will be will be briefing on on the latest, obviously with a very clear focus on how much communities that were affected by decades of conflict are today even more fragile with the earthquake that happened like exactly one week ago.
For your information, the ICRC has had a long present presence in the country.
We have around 600 staff and more to come more on their way.
We work very closely obviously with the National society's the the Myanmar Red Cross and we are just scaling up the the response.
I'll give the floor now to Arno.
Yeah, thanks a lot and yes, here I am straight from Yangon, happy to be with you and thanks for the interest on Myanmar a week after the devastating earthquake and just yet connecting to the pre-existing reality.
We, we, we have already 90 million people that were in need of some form of humanitarian assistance because of the years of active conflict and the, the, the earthquake exacerbated and already fragile situation for, for many parts of the country.
Um, as the ICSC, we, we, we, we've been able, thanks to the team, uh, uh, of 600 people experience, some of them already in Mandalay, in Shan, in Bago, in areas most affected by the conflict, we're able to deploy, we redirected our activities towards the earthquake response, including with the support of the Myanmar Red Cross volunteers.
There are 7000 in the country and all helps are needed for to face the unmanageable devastation.
The search and rescue is over, but the longer recovery phase as a as a started and our staff and the volunteers even affected themselves are doing all they can to support the most vulnerable.
In terms of water, for instance, we we we have about 30,000 people who've received a clean, clean drinking water thanks to to Philtres water treatment that can.
Multiply the benefit for all the populations and prevent, let's hope, the outbreak of water borne disease.
It has been said the temperature are up to 40°C and that really it's not good when you have to use the surface weight water for drinking and and hygiene in terms of health in order to reach beneficiaries in different parts of the the the country and across the front lines.
We have over 100 partners that we've been supporting.
We've we've handed over 300 sets of body bags, stretchers and dressing sets.
We also working with with about 30 health centre, including three hospital to help their their supply.
And we also have teams working on the assessment of damaged health structures.
Most of the buildings in in the Mandalay and the central area have been damaged and and health are 165 that we are working on the relief support is also contributing to what others are doing.
We, we already have brought to 5000 families some food and, and, and tarpaulins to just be be ready to survive during the next day before a better shelter can be provided.
Given the conflict dynamics, there is a, a major issue of weapon contamination both with the unexploded ordinances and land mines that have been used.
So we're working very heavily on this because the earthquake can make the situation even more complex with the the movement of these risks.
So we have our sessions of risk awareness and safe behaviour that are that are spread not only in the main cities, but also all the way to the to the communities with the Myanmar Red Cross when they can other partners or directly enable to reach all populations affected.
And maybe I'll close with this connecting also to the ceasefires that have been announced that the temporary secession of of hostilities is is of course welcome.
It needs to be first respected and hopefully extended so the families already affected by decades of conflict can get the need and the help they deserve in response to the earthquake.
Thank you, Arnault, and thank you all for these these important updates.
Before we take questions, let me just make sure that you did see the statement we shared with you last night from the secretary General.
He had a press take out last night specifically on the Myanmar earthquake.
He referred to the situation in Myanmar as a scene of utter devastation and desperation.
He notes that some 20 million people, that's one in every three in Myanmar, required already humanitarian aid.
And he announced that he would be sending the emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, to Myanmar, who should be, I think, on the ground today.
We can confirm that he's also announced that he's spent sending a special envoy, Julie Bishop, to visit the country in the coming days to reinforce the UNS commitment to peace and dialogue in the country and, of course, appealing for rapid, safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to reach those most in need.
So do take a look at the statement that we shared with you last night around 7:00 PM.
Over to you for questions for first row Jeremy Adefi.
Better, much better questions in both French and English to Ravina.
First, I'd like to come back to what you just said about the reports you received about the military that continues to its conscription drive.
Like to understand, is that a first?
I've never heard anything like that in a conflict related area, the military actually recruiting people who are trying to help.
And I'd like to know maybe in French, if the RCRC has verified that on the ground.
Did you see something like that in, in in Mandalay or in or in other places?
We'll take that first part.
Go ahead Rolando, and thank you for the question.
It is something I mean the, the, the recruitment and you know, forcible conscription has been going on now for over a year in the country.
But we were rather surprised to start getting reports of this from, from different villages in which people and towns in which people were trying to dig themselves out.
We are still investigating these claims, but it does appear that in some instances individuals are being are being taken away for military service and in other instances they're being used As for forced labour or what they call portering.
And so, and we have reports of this coming from 4 different areas, four different townships affected by the earthquake.
Thank you very much, James Arnold Dusiommel enforces.
Someone know I speak French and the Oquina formation specific or sex in, in the, the, the, the, the different parts of the mercy Further questions.
This is just a question for across the board, but maybe I'll start with Ravina.
How concerned are you by these limitations of emergency aid getting to those areas?
And has there been any sense of breakthrough?
Of course, there's been a lot of international pressure, but are you essentially saying that you're failing to kind of see that bear fruit?
And also just broadly in terms of the, the airstrikes that you're reporting?
So just to confirm, you said those have continued since the ceasefire on April 2nd.
And again, just your level of concern and perhaps disappointment that international pressure seems to not be bearing fruit there also.
James Rhodehaber will be able to tell you more about the reports of air strikes, which as we said, have continued even after the declaration of the ceasefire.
And this is, of course, alarming, shocking.
And then it needs to stop right away.
The focus, as the **** Commissioner said, needs to be on humanitarian delivery and recovery.
So I'll just pass the floor to James actually, who can give more details on on all these issues.
So just firstly on limitations of aid, I mean, this is something that we've been extremely concerned about for a very long time because this is part of a strategy that is used by the military to prevent aid getting to populations that it views as not supporting its seizure of power back in 2021.
And so there there has been a very active effort not just to restrict where humanitarians can go, but particularly to prevent them from delivering aid in conflict affected areas.
There are also, of course, rather heavy administrative restrictions placed on, you know, how goods can be brought into the country, how humanitarian items can be transported across country to locations even whenever the distribution of that aid has already been approved.
So that there are all kinds of limitations that humanitarians deal with.
And then trying to make sure that it gets to those impacted areas, particularly in Saguine Township, but also in parts of Shine and Bago, which are outside of military control now, is something that is intensely urgent because, you know, time is working against, I think all of us.
In terms of the airstrikes, yes, I mean, at this point, I think at the time of the writing of the statement that there had been 16 reports, credible reports of, of airstrikes ongoing in different parts of the country, including areas impacted by the earthquakes.
Since the ceasefire went into effect on the 2nd of April, there, there have been over 60 such airstrikes or attacks that have occurred since the earthquake last week.
So, you know, it's one of the reasons why the **** commissioner's appeal is so urgent because it does appear that at least with the military, there is not the, the sort of the, the imperative being placed on stopping the violence and instead, you know, focusing on relieving the people that need the assistance most.
I'm sure if Christian or Babar have anything to add, please feel free to chime in.
I'll take further questions in the back.
Is that John back there with all my glasses?
I can't see that Is John.
It's a general question, but also very relevant to Myanmar.
Some signatories to the landmine ban convention are withdrawing, that's Finland and Latvia.
What is the message from the **** Commissioner for Human Rights and also the ICRC, given also that there's a massive cutback in mine clearance?
And how is that affecting the situation on the ground, especially in Myanmar where you've had hundreds of victims maimed or killed last year alone due to the landmines?
Maybe James, you want to start off?
I'm sorry, but are you talking specifically about the question regarding land mines or?
OK, so let's Arno maybe let's sorry, let's go with to Arno on this one and then we'll come back to James.
Yes, no, landmine are a major issue in Myanmar and yeah, the country is not signatory to the to the treaty on the ban.
So we work on the consequences, but before that on the prevention and urging the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and the principles of proportionality precaution when using any type of weapons.
And in terms of landmine, it requires the marking of the areas where mines are planted and also the recording in view of the further clearance that would need to happen a moment, another together with that or, or in complement.
We work with the communities, as I just explained after the earthquake, but it's an ongoing work to for risk awareness and safe behaviour and also to develop livelihood alternatives for people who cannot go to their field safely or cannot do their fishing activities.
And finally, there is a work we we, we try and do with the authority is to establish or help them establish national standards for mine action that doesn't exist, that don't exist in in Myanmar.
And that's what whatever situation is can be a consensual point to protect the population for effects of them.
Or maybe just to compliment On the last side, we also have a long lasting programme of physical rehabilitation for the the people hit by by mines and that is ongoing with the key challenges of the whole health system in Myanmar in terms of supplies and competent staff to deliver medical services.
I know I think Ravine is going to add some lines.
I'll I'll respond John to your your question generally about the impact of anti personnel mines.
Now, as you're aware, these mines are inherently indiscriminate.
These weapons **** and maim civilians and combatants indiscriminately, and their impact outlasts any conflict.
We have children and others being maimed and killed far beyond the the end of a conflict and we would deplore any efforts to undermine the protections that were put in place against the use of such weapons.
I understand that the Human Rights Council has actually just passed a resolution this morning on this issue mandating our office to to compile a report on it as well.
And it is encouraging to see that many states still continue to back the the ban on the use of anti personnel land mines.
Indeed, we can confirm that this resolution was just passed unanimously, which is the first the Council has addressed this important issue, which is also a addressing psychological impacts, urging international cooperation and political will to address this issue.
So significant development at the Human Rights Council, John.
I was wondering if Christian had a comment, especially given that the there's been a freeze on the mine clearance.
The United States used to account for 40% of the mine clearance budget and that's been frozen.
Other countries stepping in to help.
Yeah, I was going to throw it to the Christian next to address it.
Thank you, John, for the question.
And, and I'm happy indeed to to give a bit more information knowing that today it's the International Day of Mine Awareness.
You mentioned before in your first question the fact that indeed some states, and now we're talking about 5 states considering withdrawing from the, the Ottawa Convention.
That's obviously extremely concerning knowing that if we look back at history and not that far away by the way, 99 when the the Ottawa Convention was actually adopted.
Since then 165 states joined that treaty.
That was seen as a as a great success for for many reasons.
You need to also know that 50 non state 5050 non state armed groups also committed to a total bind, a total ban of anti personnel minds.
If we look at the figures and the statistics of 2024 again last year, 80% of people affected by anti personal minds are civilians.
So people that are not participating to the hostilities and among the eighty person, half of them are children.
So it's it's absolutely clear that the impact on civilians is extremely has been proved over the years.
It's also very clear that long after the conflicts are ending, you have an impact of this anti personnel minds on civilians, but also on economic activities.
You need to know that huge lands can be contaminated for years and that obviously prevents any agriculture activities and the economic activities.
So ICRC in particular, having been very much involved also in the creation of this treaty and other treaties, by the way, is extremely concerned.
So, yeah, there's a clear call for states that are still party and there are still many states party to this convention, fortunately to to reaffirm their engagement and making sure that these weapons can can still be stigmatised.
And I think that's what I wanted to share with you.
Thanks very much, Christian.
And of course, I recognise Christelle for Luffoy of the mine action services in the room and she's going to address this issue globally.
Also upcoming event next week concerning the issue of landmines.
Before we go there, let's take the further questions.
Coming back to to Myanmar, Ravina and maybe James, if you could clarify the figures, it seems you have given different figures on the number of attacks either since the earthquake and then you say 53 and you say 60 attacks since the the ceasefire.
So if you could clarify which are the the right figures?
Yes, I think James can clarify.
Yes, I it's over 60 attacks because I was including attacks that have been confirmed since the press release was written.
So it is, it is over 60 attacks since the earthquake and with, you know, then in the press release, I believe it says 14 attacks since the ceasefire went into effect.
And actually just since we were sitting here, we have gotten reports of two more such attacks.
So that's why I I used the number 16.
So my apologies for not clarifying that before.
We understand the situation is very fluid.
Thank you for that clarification, James.
Further questions somebody in the front row.
We'll get back to you, John.
I thought I saw a hand over here.
We do have a few questions online as well.
Yeah, actually it's a question to James if he has an update on the number of attacks on medical facilities in Myanmar by drone strikes.
I don't, I don't have that number disaggregated, so my apologies for that.
So I, I, I can't help you on that particular figure at the at this moment.
Margaret, I don't know if you have any updates from WHO on on that specific angle, but if so, feel free on attacks, on medical facilities during attacks.
I think specifically if I understood that question.
But let's let's turn to the questions online now.
Laurent Sierra of Swiss News Agency.
First for James, I don't know whether you have any rough ID of the number of casualties that might have been provoked by these recent attacks, the 260 that you mentioned since the earthquake?
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I do not have a verified figure yet on the number of casualties.
The last time I saw a report of the number of civilians killed as a result of attacks since the earthquake, I've seen a figure of of 11 death, civilian deaths.
That does not mean that is all that occurred.
It just means there's the only ones that we've had reports and some degree of verification on.
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Mercio for the questions we have.
Laurent, is that a follow up?
I see your hand is still up.
OK, we'll turn to Nick and New York Times.
Thank you to everyone for the briefing.
I wonder if anybody could give a ballpark estimate of the number of people living in the areas that are considered inaccessible.
How many are being stranded and therefore have no access to the system.
Secondly, I appreciate that there's a well established pattern of by the juncture of obstructing deliveries of humanitarian aid.
But I wonder if specifically in reference to this crisis, are there specific examples of aid that is being blocked, delivery of aid not reaching particular areas, Is it being turned back by roadblocks or is it just aid agencies running into the thicket of administrative barriers that James alluded to earlier?
And a question for the ICRC, there was a report I think back in 2023 of the junta using cluster munitions in air strikes.
I wonder if there has been any subsequent account or evidence that cluster munitions are being used?
We'll start off with Babar on the issue of access.
Thank you very much, Nick.
I think the first part was on overall estimate of affected, Nick, if I'm right here.
So as we have been saying, the full extent of devastation remains unclear.
I mean, even in, in this city of Mandalay, which was close to the epicentre, it's estimated that up to 80% of structures in, in the town have collapsed.
The the estimated number we are using and you you may have been hearing it in, in many updates for now is 19 million people that have been affected by this terrible tragedy across in Myanmar.
We would need to see in the coming days as joint needs assessment with partners on the ground are going on in, in many areas to identify individuals who have been affected.
But also you have many who would now have been displaced again who were probably not displaced earlier.
They were not part of the 3.5 million people that were affected or uprooted by the conflict.
And this has been ongoing.
I mean, the people may have now been displaced many or multiple times and this is just another tragedy on top of an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Thank you very much, Babar.
And I think maybe Yens would be able to provide more later on.
As I mentioned, Mr Fletcher is on the ground and and I suppose we'll have an update on his activities there.
But just to echo what I said on behalf of the SG is that the SG is appealing strongly for unimputed humanitarian acts to reach those most in need.
I think we'll turn to ICRC on the issue of cluster munitions, if I understood that correctly, I'll know.
Yes, on this specific question, we don't have any information on the access and the impact of the earthquake on the current conflict map.
We, we, we have about 136 townships that have been affected by the earthquake and about 25% are in areas not controlled by the government.
So, so that's complicating the, the, the, the access, but doesn't make it it impossible.
It's just different ways and, and not all players can reach those in need in, in these areas.
We have another question.
Jamie AP Hi, Rolando, Thank you very much for the for for taking my question.
My question really is for Mr Rohdehaver.
I wanted to make sure this number because obviously the press release also mentioned 14 attacks since the supposed pause and ceasefire.
So if I do the math correctly, we're looking at well, well like over 20 now since the since the could you, could you give us a specific number on that?
And could you just tell us two other quick little things about the sourcing of this information?
Do you believe that this is the an exhaustive and complete comprehensive account count of the number of attacks this plus more than 60 or are there some that you maybe haven't noticed or 'cause I know that the human rights office often is very cautious about in its counts.
And finally, if you could just mention Ravina mentioned this Para motors, use of Para motors.
I, I, I do understand that's a new phenomenon, relatively new phenomenon.
Could you just describe a little bit about that and exactly how that's done and, and, and what that entails and, and how concerning is for you?
Thank you, Jamie James, over to you.
I, I, I'm sorry, I apparently I've made a mess of things by using to date figures.
So I, my, my sincere apologies for that.
They, there were, since the time of the writing of this press release, there were eight additional new attacks that we have become aware of.
So as I say, it's over 60, so 60 or 61 attacks that we are aware of that have occurred since the earthquake occurred.
And we have 16 attacks of those attacks took place after the ceasefire was signed or not signed.
What am I saying announced.
So, so those are, are the figures of, of the of the information that we have that have seemed credible at this point.
Again, these are are incidents that still need to be followed up.
Some of them we have already begun, you know, detailed investigations on, we are looking for corroborating data on them, but they come from reliable sources and the, the, the information and detail we've gotten thus far matches, you know, past patterns of attacks that we have been able to verify.
It is not exhaustive or comprehensive.
I think that's the the one of the reasons why figures are very tricky at times to utilise with me and Mark.
There are many reasons for that.
A big one of them is one of the things that was already noted by by several people today and that is the the cuts in communication lines, both because of the earthquake and because of the tactics of the military to turn off Internet and mobile data services in in many areas that are being contested.
So it's very difficult at times to get information that is up to date and reliable and there are different ways to do that.
And where possible we have done so In terms of paramotors, that is a phenomenon that has really grown since late last year.
Essentially what those are is, is a, an individual, you know, military operative who uses a **** glider with a, a pack, a backpack attached to his, to his, to his back or to his torso with a large fan on it.
And he uses that to essentially paraglide using the fan as a motor over areas and drop handheld bombs or munitions onto targets below.
And we have been collecting information and verifying attacks of this nature for several months now.
And in many cases these attacks are conducted against civilian inhabited areas, seemingly with the specific design to cause fear, terror or, or displacement.
It's, it's, it's a real problematic.
It's really problematic in part also because they're, they're very quiet, very silent manoeuvre manoeuvring devices.
So there is no warning whenever they do attack.
And it's and, and that means of course there is no effort to protect civilians before attacks are launched.
So that's, you know, there have been, we have had reports that just since the earthquake, there have been at least four of those attacks that have been reported in in different parts of the country, including in Saguine in areas impacted by the earthquake.
Thanks very much for that depiction.
So we still have a couple of actually two more questions from Nick and then Jamie, we'll start with Nick.
Yeah, sorry, I just, I didn't hear an answer to my question about the use of custom initiatives.
I, I thought Arno did address that, but maybe Arno, would you mind?
I did with no, Yes, I did, but with no specific information to share actually, yes, thanks.
Of course, should we have information for you, Nick, we will gladly share that.
I see that Jamie, you put your hand back down.
So I think with that, no further questions in the room that exhausts the situation.
So, Jamie, over to you again.
Mr Roderhamer, thank you very much for your updated numbers.
I just wanted to make sure we, we, we even though the press release maybe went out not too long ago, we do always want the most updated figures.
I think I can speak for me and my colleagues the, the, the, the, the question that I really wanted to ask you is that, however, now there's another discrepancy, which is you said that there are 16 attacks since the, the, the ceasefire.
So supposed ceasefire and there were fourteen in the previous press release.
I mean, in other words, they're more attacks that came to light.
They were prior to the ceasefire and that's why the number is higher.
So could you just walk me through that?
The the first thing is I've, I've written myself a note, never go against the figures in a press release ever again.
And I promise you, I make a solemn promise I never will again.
Now essentially what what is this is that you know, yesterday, as of yesterday afternoon, whenever this these first figures were being compiled, there were there had been 53 attacks that had occurred that were reported that we had reports of.
And we're actively investigating since the time of the earthquake on the 28th of March up until, you know, mid afternoon yesterday.
Now since you know, yesterday the 3rd of April to the time of this press briefing, there were eight further attacks that we became aware of, you know, just over the last 24 hours or so that have that we have, you know, assessed, done an initial assessment of credibility on.
So now out of those 61 or so that that I, I've just mentioned, there are sixteen of those attacks that have happened since the ceasefire that was announced by the military took effect, which I believe was midnight on the 2nd of April.
So out of those, you know, so out of those numbers, you know 16 of them have occurred since the announcement of the ceasefire.
Going once, going twice, Is it clear?
What I can do to clarify is just send a written note at the end of this briefing.
It's, I understand it is confusing, but I'll send a written note in consultation with James, of course.
Thanks very much, Ravina.
And of course, that testifies how complicated and fluid the situation is.
And if it makes you feel any better, James, I have a desk full of posted notes, notes to self on lots of these instances.
So thank you very, very much for joining us, as always, into Babar, Christian, Arno and Ravina.
I think that's it for Myanmar.
Sorry, I was just about to excuse you, but Gabby Proceso, is this on Myanmar?
But I had a question for Ravina on what subject, may I ask?
Because we have a lot of other issues that we need to address.
But then was this better?
In fact, if you could reach out to Ravina bilaterally, if you don't mind.
Gabby, I'm sorry, because we have to really move on.
Thank you again, colleagues, for joining me here and for joining online.
Now I'll ask my colleague Margaret to join me on the podium here.
We're going to shift to the situation of cholera and she'll introduce our guest.
And we do still have Susanna who's in the room.
And Christelle, as I mentioned, will also join us before we conclude this briefing today.
You asked about the attacks on health in Myanmar.
We've got some numbers, but I haven't got disaggregated numbers for the last week.
So I'll, I'll try and get hold of those for you.
We've got some very interesting numbers in a public health situation analysis that has just gone out and it I've just been reading through it.
It's really rich, not with just about details about attacks on health, but absolutely everything going on.
And it's, it's really worth having a look at.
But meanwhile, I've got Doctor Philip Barbosa, our global lead on cholera, who's just back from a really bad cholera outbreak in Angola, but he'll also talk to you about the Myanmar cholera issues as well.
Thank you very much, Margaret, and good morning, everyone.
So since this year on nearly 100,000 cholera cases and 100 and 1300 sorry deaths have been reported from 25 country.
The search in Choleras began in 2021 continues driven by country climate and persistent gap in access to clean water and sanitation.
While we will publish more complete statistic later this year, preliminary data show that almost 800 and 10,000 cases and 5900 deaths were reported to WHO in 2024, most about 50% higher than the figure in 23.
We know this number are underestimates, official reporting remain complete but even this number are too **** for:.
A disease that is spreads water or food contaminated by bacteria from faeces.
This disease should not exist in the 21st century.
New country continue being affected by the disease.
Namibia has just reported choleras this year after tenure without cases.
Countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe which had previously declared the outbreak over are experiencing resurgence of cases.
In 2024, at least 14 country reported cholera acute watery diarrhoea outbreak with case fatality ratio exceeding the one person threshold.
She's used as an indicator for early and adequate treatment of cholera.
Already in 202512 country are reporting CFL above 1% with Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan facing acute crisis and I death rates.
I just returned from Angola this week along with the regional Emergency director of Afro.
I went there to reinforce WHO support to the country in fighting the large and widespread outbreak out.
Angola has reported nearly 10,000 cases and about 3380 K deaths.
With a very ICFF of almost 4% between the 31st December 24 and the 24th of March 25, the capital city has been badly hit by by the outbreak.
Although progress in controlling the outbreak there is encouraging, the rapid spread to other parts of the country and the potential spread to neighbouring country remain very concerned.
In the past 28 days, almost 3500 cases were reported in Angola, representing 56% of all the cases in the African region and 36% of the global cases reported in the last month.
Angola accounted for 45% of the global Coloradoes and 49% of all the deaths in the African region.
To The Who one partner of dispatch working response team help with case detection, community engagement and vaccination campaign to speed up the treatment and prevent death.
WHOIZ to set up more redirection point Cholera treatment centre and trained staff in working in this facility.
As you have very clearly heard, a country of concern is mine, Myanmar, where the recent earthquakes pose a risk to further fueling the outbreak of cholera and also diarrhoea disease as home and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed since July 20, 2412.
Thousand acute watery diarrhoea cases were reported from the country including in the Mandalay region which has been very severely affected by the earthquake.
Globally, conflict, mass displacement, disaster and natural hazard climate change have intensified the outbreak particularly in rural and flood affected area where post infrastructure and limited healthcare access delayed treatment.
The recent cuts in foreign AIDS are also hindering to respond to cholera.
For instance, IT which is experienced A countrywide outbreak has no front left for cholera response.
While changes continue, there are some positive developments as well.
In September, a record production of all cholera vaccine or CV was achieved average of 6,000,000 doses, the highest since the the the creation of the stockpile in 2013.
This was driven by a new formulation and production method introduced and pre qualified earlier this year.
At the end of March, the stockpile of OCV reach 5.6 million doses, which is surpassing the targeted 5 million doses required for emergency outbreak response.
While the first quarter of any calendar year is a period of lower transmission, primarily affecting the Southern Hemisphere, we have observed a record-breaking surge in OCD requests this year.
This domain is expecting to escalate to other regions that will enter in their peak transmission season.
So despite increases in vaccine production later later this year, the domain remained very **** in the ring the resumptions of the preventive vaccination campaign.
So further expansion of the vaccine production remain necessary.
We also need to increase funding to support the response effort.
We must continue to fight for improve access to clean water and sanitation.
Together we can prevent further suffering and content this outbreak.
But Iraq should not be killing anyone as we possess all the tool and knowledge necessary to prevent an anti disease.
Thanks to you Mr Barbosa very much.
And yes, from AFP has a question for you.
I have a question on the on the number of of deaths that you mentioned since the start of the year.
You mentioned nearly 100,000 cases and 1300 deaths reported in 26 countries.
Could you let us know first if those 26 countries represent the vast majority of the cases and this in the world?
And then do you have a comparison to to last year at the same.
If you could let us know if what was the figure last year of the same.
So we we have an idea of the of the increase if there is any increase on that.
No, the, the, the things to bear in mind is the there is an idea under reporting of deaths compared to the under reporting of cases.
There are some countries that are reporting the cases but not the deaths sometime because they are not collected.
And also something which is important to bear in mind is most of the country, not all of them, but most of the country are only reporting the deaths that are occurring in healthcare facilities.
Meaning that all the deaths that are occurring in the community among people that did not have the possibility to access access to health care are usually not accounted for.
This is why the, the, the, the, the number of deaths is grossly underestimated.
So the the now exactly I mean we can share the the comparison for the same.
They don't have exactly the statistics and bear in mind that the 2024 data are still preliminary as some of the country have not yet reported the outbreak that that occurred in their country last year.
So this number of over 100,000 cases and almost 6000 deaths will continue to increase as usually much more country will report cholera cases, especially the one that did not have very large outbreak.
Whether this represent the majority of the cases, the answer I would say is not in the in the way that very large country like India or Bangladesh.
I'm not in the position of reporting exactly the case for Bangladesh because the surveying system is is kind of different and it's something else surveying system.
So they do not have the exact number of cases and country like India usually also under report cases that they are all only reporting the number of cases that were detected at the beginning of of an outbreak and not at the end.
So, So clearly to answer your question, no, that does not represent all the cases, including some of the most affected countries.
Mr Barbosa, we still have a few questions for you.
We had did we have a hand in the room?
OK, first Olivia, you had your hand up first Olivia Reuters and then John Zaracostas.
You mentioned that Haiti has no funds left for 1/4 response.
Are there any other countries who are in a similar situation or close to being in that kind of situation and maybe you can just kind of anecdotally say what that what that means and your concern And I think I actually don't think that's enough for me.
So I would say most of the countries that are affected by cholera are facing major challenge financing challenges.
South Sudan is another very good example as well where they are to to a number of cholera treatment centre has to be closed and just because there was no fun to run this cholera treatment centre.
So so these are the two most acute.
But Angola is a good example also of the challenging of leveraging the, the, the, the, the amount of fund that are necessary to respond to the outbreak.
You know, we estimate that, you know, based on the example, for example, in Malawi or in Zambia last year or the year before that, you know, the, the, the having $6 million, you know, immediately would allow to, to, to implement full control of the outbreak.
But this, this amount of money is not available.
So, so this is a very major concern in the way that not only the outbreak are getting worse and worse, deadlier and deadlier, but the front are getting smaller and smaller to control this outbreak.
We have further in the room.
John Zaracos, I was wondering, Sir, can you give us the list of countries that have yet to report the outbreaks from last year?
Aren't they obliged under the International Health Regulations to report the outbreaks?
Yes, they are not all of the country are are doing it.
So not country are doing it unfortunately.
So The thing is there are number of country and this is difficult to estimate that real report and this data collection is ongoing.
This is where the data are preliminary data usually published in September or the the consolidated data from all the country.
So usually there is around 10 country additional to the one that had reported cases that report cases including and this number is usually much higher the country that have reported imported cases only.
So, so, so we can expect to have at least let's say 10 country, around 10 countries that could report a smaller scale outbreak in the in the year.
I'm sorry, which are these countries?
The thing is, you know, I mean the the usually of Honda will only report once a year, but for the other one that really depends where the outbreak is straight as as as refute.
So I mean, I don't know at this point of time.
Another question from Gabby Gabriella Sotomayor Proceso.
Thank you for the briefing.
You mentioned Haiti, but another countries that are your for concern or that you can say something or yeah, that's it.
So, so far in the Americas only only I TS reporting cases.
Dominican Republic is has has not reported cases for a while and and because they have controlled the outbreak there.
But you know, with the climate change, the cyclone season is going to start.
Therefore the, the there is a big risk also to refuelling the outbreak.
So as long as an outbreak is is active, the risk for all the other country remain very ****.
So and it's not just necessarily to have exportation of cases from Haiti to to Latin America, but of course the job the the globe, you know, we had had the direct importation of cases, for example, from from Ethiopia to to several European country in the past, in the past weeks.
So the American country and especially in the area where the wash the water and sanitation is not up, up to, to the standard continue being at risk of having cases imported from the affected area, including Africa or the the, the the Middle East or Indian subcontinent and therefore remain very much at risk of cholera outbreak.
This is something which is important to keep in mind.
I mean, you know, we have seen a major geographical spread across the globe and we are very far from being sure that this will not continue further.
We will take the last question from Peter Kenny of All Africa Media.
Peter, if you can try to unmute yourself.
If not, maybe you can connect bilaterally with with Margaret and then and then and then she can pass it on to Mr Barbosa.
I think, yeah, we'll have to move on.
Apologies for the technical glitch there.
So thank you very much again, Mr Barbosa, for joining us on this very important subject.
And thanks, colleagues, for your interest.
And thanks to you, Susanna.
And apologies, Crystal, this is a very long briefing.
We still have two more items, firstly with Susanna Pack of ITC, and she's going to introduce a guest.
She's going to address the US tariff.
Yes, thank you so much for Rolando.
And it's really great to be here and we hope to be here a little bit more often.
That's kind of a, a light promise on our end.
So I'm here with my colleague who is joining online, Julia Espies, who is our Chief of Trade and Market Intelligence.
And we're here in light of the latest round of US tariffs that were announced on 2nd of April.
And we wanted to share with you some of the tools and data we have at the International Trade Centre that may help you in your reporting on the implications of the tariffs for global trade and in particular, because of our development focus, the implications for developing countries.
So the briefing will cover 3 areas, and I'll pass it over to Julia for that part.
First, an overview of the tariffs cited by the US as being applied on US products by other countries and the tariffs those countries currently apply.
2nd is alternative markets for countries facing some of the highest tariffs.
And as you mentioned, they do involve developing countries.
And the Third Point is the potential impact of the 25% tariff on automotives, which went into effect yesterday, 3rd of April.
And that will also be followed by tariffs on automobile parts in May on May 3rd.
So for the details, I'll now hand over to my colleague, Julia, who's joining us on Zoom.
Let me start with a quick overview of the estimated protection levels that were used as the baseline in the reciprocal tariff calculations that the Office of the US Trade Representative showed 2 days ago.
Compared to the tariffs, countries effectively apply on imports from the US.
So the estimated protection levels the Office of the US Trade Representative had on their dashboard are up to 95 percentage points above the country's effectively applied tariffs to imports from the US.
An approximate 50% cut to these estimated protection levels was announced as the new reciprocal tariffs.
However, for many countries, this means that future US tariffs on imports from them are far above the average rates that these countries charge on imports from the US.
Other trade pair barriers left side Some of the countries that will face the highest reciprocal tariffs when exporting their goods to the US markets are least developed countries, including Lesotho, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Madagascar and Myanmar all facing confronted with a tariff rate of 45% or above.
And Myanmar, as we've just heard, still very much shaken up by the the massive earthquake.
Some of these countries heavily rely on the US for their exports.
For example, 35% of Cambogia's exports are this time to the US.
For the Soto and Madagascar, the US market accounts for 27 and 18% of their exports, respectively.
While overall World Trade may see a dip, certain countries and sectors that are competitive at global scale can look at new markets to become more resilient to trade policy changes and other supply chain risks.
Using our export potential map, we see that, for instance, Madagascar, famous for its vanilla, can grow exports to smaller markets such as Canada, or diversify into new ones, including Indonesia.
While this may not compensate the anticipated anticipated losses in the US market, having a more diversified base of markets to sell to can help countries reduce the risk of trade disruptions.
Now looking at our host country, Switzerland is going to face a 32% tariff and while that excludes pharmaceuticals, which is the country's top sector, its export of watches will be affected as the US is Switzerland's top market for watches.
Swiss much watchmakers can further leverage the free trade agreement they have with China and cater the growing Chinese demand for watches, our own data shows.
Moving now to our data analysis on automotives covering vehicles and parts, Slovakia, Japan and Honduras are some of the countries potentially highly exposed to the US tariffs.
And by highly exposed, they mean that the that the US market represents a large share of these countries automotive sector exports and that the automotive sector sector itself makes up a significant portion of that these countries total exports.
For Japan, just to give an example, the automotive sector comprises 20% of the country's total exports and the majority of exports are headed to the US market.
Now, the flat 25% tariff on the sector that came into force yesterday means that Japan could lose 17 billion export potential to the US, according to our calculations.
Developing countries including Thailand, India, Brazil and Vietnam are set to face reductions in US export potential too.
And note that this is the effect for the automotive tariffs.
Only tariffs on steel and aluminium that came into force last month and the reciprocal tariffs announced 2 days ago will hit some developing countries even further.
In light of these new tariffs, countries like Japan can try to diversify the export destinations for vehicles.
Markets such as China, Germany, the Philippines and Thailand together hold an unrealised export potential for Japanese vehicles that matches the estimated loss in the in the US market.
To get the data and analysis that we have shared today, we used our online tools, Trade Map, Export Potential Map, Market Access Map, as well as the Trade Briefs, which are also freely, freely available for your use.
And we'll be hosting them in webinars on how to use these tools more effectively early next week.
I hand over to you, Susanna.
Yes, thank you very much, Julia.
And as Julia just mentioned, we'll be sharing the links to the webinars on how to use the tools to get these kinds of data in the briefing notes we shared with Melodyne.
So please register for the webinars on Monday and Tuesday.
And one final announcement before we had two questions.
We would also like to share that we at the International Trade Centre will partner with the South African government to host the first ever global Small Business Ministerial meeting in July on the road to the G20 in November, also in South Africa.
So here, ministers and business leaders will gather to develop solutions to strengthen small businesses, which make up 90% of all companies worldwide.
To create a more resilient global trading system.
And we'll share more information with you in due course.
Thank you very much, Susanna.
And of course to you, Julia.
Do we have questions for our colleagues from ITC, John Zaracostas, The Lancet and Franz Fonchat?
I was wondering if you could walk us a little bit.
The tariff formula used by the White House is that standard, the way trade economists use it to calculate tariffs or tariff equivalents based on the Gatt 94 agreements and in particular, Article 1 and 2.
Julia, no, it's not a standard way that economists usually calculate epilarmic equivalents.
And we've done the assessment also in the ITC where we see that these baseline protection levels that USTR had on their cardboard roughly match indeed the trade balance divided by imports from a given country.
And that divided by two then gives us the reciprocal tariff that has been applied.
Yeah, just to say, no, this is not standard economics.
Thank you for that clarification, Julia.
Yes, Olivia Reuters, thank you.
3 questions for me, if I may.
And thank you so much for this.
Julia, are you able just to give your kind of general reaction to the tariffs major shift in terms of how the world has been doing trade up until now?
But also if you're able to speak just kind of to the broader trends that you're expecting, you're speaking particularly about a number of developing countries bit of being particularly badly affected, Perhaps you can speak to that.
And if you could just sorry, you were saying at the start, and I think John just alluded to that about baseline protection levels.
Could you just explain to me one more time the, the, the how you've calculated that and what you've noted in terms of the the, the difference?
In terms of developing countries being potentially affected by these tariffs?
So if we look at those tariffs that are now confronted with reciprocal tariffs that is higher than 10%, which is the lowest, which is the baseline 4 LDCs are on top of the list.
So on top of the countries that will face the highest reciprocal tariffs and this is I had them, this is let me quickly check again, this is the Soto, Cambodia, Lao and Madagascar.
And then there is 1/5 LDC Myanmar that is also on top of the list with the 45% reciprocal tariff upcoming.
So how much they are then in fact, it obviously depends on how much their exports are dependent on the US market.
For Cambodia, it's rather **** with 30% of their exports going to the US market.
Same for Lesotho with 27% and Madagascar with 18%.
Other LVC depend less on the US market also depending on where they are located, if they are maybe closer to big trading partners in Asia or or other other countries.
So the the eventual effect that will depend on on exposure, but the tariff changes are very **** for many developing countries, including LDCs.
So this is not, I mean we didn't calculate this baseline protection level.
This is what the USTR had on the cardboard that they showed 2 days ago and it seems I cannot fully confirm that.
I, I'm not in the USTR team, so I don't know which exact calculations they have done, but it seems that the, the protection levels they had on the cardboard matches match roughly a formula of trade deficit divided by imports from a given country and that divided by two then gives the reciprocal tariff rates.
Thank you very helpful colleagues.
I just should mention that I received a, a note just now that UN Trade and Development or UNKTAD will be issuing its analysis on the tariffs announced and their impact on developing countries and, and colleagues at UNKTAD are available to you should you want to reach out to them as well.
Now we'll turn to Antonio of FA Spanish news agency.
I would like to know if you have the numbers of what are the average tariffs that European Union, China and other main main partners of US, what are their average tariffs against the United States so we can compare with with the Trump table?
Yes, we do have these numbers for China.
I have it just in front of me.
That's the effectively applied tariff by China to imports from the US on average.
Let's, I'm sorry, before we go to Jamie, I think Antonio, you wanted further clarification.
Yeah, if you can give us also the number for the European Union, give me a second.
Yes, I want to clarify in the meantime, one thing I'm talking here about the tariffs effectively applied.
But USTR said when they came out with these numbers, is that these the estimated protection levels they were starting from also include other trade barriers, right?
So that could be regulatory requirements, but also policies referring, I mean, they're referred to currency manipulation and other protective policies.
And according to USTR, this was part of their calculations, but it's not what I'm currently talking about.
I'm currently about effectively applied tariffs.
So let me look for the number for the European Union one second.
European Union's average tariffs, tariffs is 3.5%.
Thank you very much, Julie.
I think that answers the question.
Now we'll take a question from Gabby Proceso and then Jamie from AP.
Thank you very much, Rolando.
Thank you for the briefing.
Julia, my question is these tariffs could affect somehow the citizens of USA?
Yes, very likely we have seen an earlier episodes of additional tariff fights in 2018-2019 that there was a pass through to US consumers.
So it's unlikely that the full extra cost of this tariff will be absorbed by the businesses that export their products to the US, but it will also reflect in U.S.
consumer prices of the the products in particular, but also more broadly on inflation in the US.
And besides that, obviously also US businesses that rely on in inputs for their production and further exports will also be affected by, by the increased tariffs and possible retreat retaliatory effects that we we still wait to be announced.
So we don't have yet all the clarity of what countries will do in terms of countermeasures, but obviously that will also then affect largely the US.
I just wanted to try to understand, you said that this is not usually the way that economists calculate tariffs, if I understood you correctly.
I mean, have you ever seen a a country tariff calculate tariffs this way?
Is this totally unprecedented?
Personally I've never seen it so often.
Tariffs are already expressed in percentage terms and then you can just take the number from the trade bulletins or wherever they are published.
Other tariffs or non tariff barriers need to be converted into ad valorem equivalents and there there are ways how economists do that.
It really depends on the measure there.
It will get a bit technical if I try to explain that, but doing it based on a formula that relies on trade looks at trade deficits or like a trade deficit ratio to imports.
Personally, I've never seen that.
I'm sorry, Antonia, this is really short because we have to move on.
Sorry, I want to add to that.
I I have no confirmation that it was done this way, right?
What we have done, we have mapped the space line tariffs with something coming out of this formula and there was a close match, but I cannot know if this was actually behind the calculations or if there was maybe something else being used and it just ends up these very similar numbers.
I think, yeah, if if you have any further need for further clarification, do reach out to Susanna as well.
Antonio, really briefly please, because we have one last brief erase, so go ahead.
Yes, well, similar question, you're saying that this formula is quite, quite new.
But what do you think about the result of this calculation is called a trade tariff.
Do you think this is logic or is is the US government lying when calling this a trade tariff, this result based on trade deficit.
So as I mentioned before, what the USTR had announced were were baseline tariffs that also included other trade barriers and things like currency manipulation.
So they were not only looking at the tariffs that are charged to a product that is coming into the US, but also or or that AUS product coming into these other countries, but also what are the regulations that these countries have including measures sanitary and fighter sanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, currency manipulation was mentioned and others.
All of that led to this what they called tariff.
But in fact, they also had on the dashboard that this would include also these other trade barriers.
Again, thank you very much, Julia.
I think that will we'll need to end our briefing with you now on this is very important issue.
Thank you again, Julia and again colleagues, just to remind you that UN trade and development will issue its analysis on on the the tariffs announced and their impact in developing countries.
So do reach out to Ankita should you have questions for them.
Thank you again and thank you very much, Christelle.
You have been very patient.
And this is Christelle Lupo, who you know is the head of the UN Mine Action Service Office here in Geneva.
A very important announcement on this very important day, International Day, from mine awareness and assistance in mine action.
So over to you, Christelle.
Thank you very much for Orlando and thank you very much for staying so long.
It was a very interesting exchange.
So yes, today's the International Day for mine awareness and assistance in mine action.
And, and coming here was thinking about the role of the made media.
And in fact, you have been playing a key role in highlighting mine action and also the mine risk as well as explosive remnants of war.
The risk, you know, each time there is an accident anywhere in the world, it's often you know, the media who are reporting it.
So thank you for your support in helping us to to bring this issue to the attention of the public.
So it's been 20 years that the General Assembly declared 4th of April of each year as the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
And the General Assembly called for efforts by States, with the assistance of the UN and relevant organisation, to foster the establishment and development of national mine action capacities in countries where mines and explosive remnants of war constitute a serious ****** to the safety, health and lives of the civilian population or an impediment to social and economic development.
We've heard some examples today from Myanmar to Sudan of countries that are affected by this risk.
And if you look at the second digital statement on the occasion of of this International Day and released yesterday, he emphasised the urgent need for mine action.
More than 100 million people are at risk from land mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices around the world.
So from Afghanistan to Myanmar, from Sudan to Ukraine, Syria, the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond, this daily device, literal and urban communities indiscriminately killing civilians and blocking vital you mentioned and development efforts.
So you can see that with 100 million people estimated at risk, the mine action sector has a lot of work ahead of itself and we are delighted to see that the Human Rights Council has realised how important this issue is and adopted today a resolution on the impact of anti personal minds on the full enjoyment of human rights.
So next week is our main annual event called the NDM UN28, and the theme for this year is Safe Future Start Here.
So we will convene national directors of mine action, UN experts, private sector organisation, NGOs, all engage in mine action programmes in over 660 countries.
You've heard today that the IOM colleagues spoke of the attack against infrastructures and homes in Sudan and people starting to return.
We have a side event, for instance, on integrating mine action into Sudan's humanitarian recovery and peace building efforts.
Our programme there reports massive contamination.
We will also have a couple of side events on Syria, which is extremely contaminated.
Today, the Mine Action Area of responsibility, which is a coordination mechanism with UN and NGO members, has issued a second situation update.
You can find it on relief web and I think that the team here will share it with you.
But just for your information, since early December 2024 until the end of March, 317 people were killed and 447 injured in 364 accidents involving explosive ordnance, mostly anti personal mines, anti tank mines and other items.
So Syria is very much at risk with the many people returning home and also, you know, fetching for livelihood, collecting truffles.
We have many, many accidents of farmers, children.
And this is a situation that we really need to address and mitigate.
So that's why this will be also on the agenda next week.
We've distributed media advisory and it provides the name of participants who are coming from all over the world and who are available for interviews.
Please feel free to reach out.
There are names for you to contact.
You know, we'll be very happy to arrange interviews for you to cover in more depth some of those crises.
And I would just conclude by saying that we invite you to a press conference with the Director of OMAS and the Director of the Geneva International Centre for Humanity Mining on Monday at 2:00 to go into further detail on on the challenges that the mine action sector face and any opportunities.
Thank you very much, Crystal.
Very comprehensive and useful update.
And I can just confirm, we just shared with you the media advisory that Crystal referred to as well as the SGS message for the day in multiple languages.
You will have received that already prior to this press briefing.
Yes, Olivia Reuters, thank you.
Crystal, I don't know if you have this to mind at all with you, this figure.
And if not, maybe we can get it from you after.
I was just wondering if you have a figure on how much US cuts have affected demining around the world so far and what portion of of total work is affected and what are the kind of worst hit spots?
Thank you very much for this question.
Indeed, the US was the main donor to the mine action sector for many years.
So the cut has affected the mine action sector, you know, very, very severely.
UNMAS had four programmes where we were getting funding for from the US, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
And we are in discussion with the US and other donors to to see if we can continue those programmes and for other organisations.
I mean, many of them will be here next week.
But yes indeed, some NGOs were extremely reliant on US funding and I had to lay off many staff, the minors, risk, education providers, victim assistance, focal points.
And this is extremely worrying because it is very hard to lose this capacity.
You know, some of the D minors, you know, it takes many years of training.
It's very, you know, dangerous profession.
So you need to really know what you're doing.
So a lot of investment in building a capacity.
And so losing this capacity is a major worry.
So we're hoping that we will be able to get funding to not lose all this this stuff.
Thanks to you Crystal and of course our colleagues at the press conference on on on Monday.
Eileen Conn, Director of En MAS as well as Ambassador Tobias Borivital, who's Director of the GICHT will be here to speak and maybe you can address some more issues.
John is our Costas in the back?
I was wondering if you could bring us up to date on the countries that are still producing and exporting anti personnel mines, which are these countries and also your views on some of the countries thinking of abandoning the Auto Ottawa convention and returning to planting mines.
To answer the question of who produces an export, the anti anti personal minds, I will refer you to the latest version of the landmine monitor.
They have a very comprehensive analysis on this.
And secondly on on the countries you know who are considering leaving the the convention.
Yes, we've heard that Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have suggested to to leave the this convention to protect their territory.
We of course can only express deep concern at this the announcement by the defence ministers of of the those member states we are advocating for universalisation of the Convention.
So what we want is all of the member states that are not in the convention to join it because this is, you know, a terrible weapon that needs to be, you know, stigmatised.
It has been stigmatised for 30 years.
It would be going backwards to suddenly see all these countries leaving the convention and, and you know, producing it or transferring it or using it as, as my colleagues from ICRC and other organisation have said before, the ****, the very large majority of victims, direct victims and also indirect victims are always civilians and out of the civilians, you know, many, many children.
So, yeah, this is really a very sad moment and and I really hope that that we can convince them to stay in a convention.
Yeah, I was wondering if you have some data on on the mine clearance also what percentage of the funds went towards rehabilitating civilian victims of anti personnel mines?
So the landmine monitor does this analysis as well.
So you can find this information in in the in this publication.
In general, the figure is is too low.
I think it's between 5 and 7% of the mine action funding that goes to victim assistance.
So the, the, the main point here is that more assistance needs to go towards victim assistance and rehabilitation for explosive ordnance survivors.
Victim assistance is very complex.
There is of course the medical care, trauma care, ongoing care.
There is the physical rehabilitation, There's the psychosocial support that's required and then supporting access to education and employment.
Because often, you know, the once, once the, the people have been injured, perhaps they've lost, you know, one leg, two leg, one arm.
There's many people who have to be to to, to have a new job, to be retrained.
There are many, many farmers among the victims as well.
And it's just difficult for them to go back to work.
So this investment requires a lot of funding.
So national authorities in many, you know, low resource settings are struggling to to, you know, provide the funding.
And also because it's so multi sectoral, that's another challenge because it requires almost case management, a social worker who will help, you know, the child have access to all the different services that he or we or she will need after the accident.
You know, so many critical dimensions to discourage.
Final question and yes, from AFP.
Yes, thank you for taking my question.
It's just about the meeting next week.
I know there is a media advisory and a briefing on Monday, but journalists like to know things in advance.
So I, I wanted to, to ask you what will be the, the main debates next week and, and if any decisions will be considered, if you could give us more inputs of, of what will be discussed and maybe decided.
Thank, thank you very much.
So we will have 5 plenaries, one of the on the environment.
How do we mitigate, you know, the, the environmental impact of mine action and, and also adapt to climate change?
Because in many countries, of course, natural disasters and and climate change events are affecting the mines.
And in fact, one of the key concern is that the landslides may have moved where the mines where we've seen that many times.
Also in Ukraine when the dam exploded, many mines, you know, were displaced, floated and, and all around the world.
So, so yes, So adapting mine action to to this climate change evolution is, is quite important.
Then we have another plenary on, on mine action in cities realities and responses.
I mean, there's a lot of contamination right now in urban environment.
You know, in past wars most of the contamination with was in rural area.
This time over the past two years, there's been a lot of fighting in, in urban areas in Khartoum.
So a lot of contamination there and other cities.
I mean, of course Gaza is an example, Syria and so on.
So mine action in cities is, is a big challenge and we're going to discuss that.
There is also a plenary on how to localise mine action, you know, empower national authorities and communities to, you know, so they can have their own capacity.
We will have a plenary also that I think it's quite relevant for journalists.
And this one is organised by UNICEF.
It is on the Friday and it is about casualty recording.
You know, how do you get information about the accidents and the casualties?
Sometimes people don't want to report that they were a victim of an accident, maybe because maybe the community will stigmatise them afterwards and say, well, you got into an accident because it's part of this non state armed group and or sometimes it's remote areas that are inaccessible.
So, yes, so that's also a big problem, Yeah.
And then we had a record number of proposal of side events.
We had 40 proposals, so we combined some of them and so we have 30 side events.
I mean the programme is accessible if you just Google NDM UN28 or go on the on the website, you will see there's a programme for each day.
Contact us if you're interested in any of the side event or plenary, we will ask the convener to to give you access.
Thank you, That would be very useful.
And you do consult the media advisory, which you have at your disposal with the link, I think to the programme.
And and the press conference is this coming Monday, the 7th of April at 2:00 PM in this room.
Again, Eileen Kahn, Director of UNMAS and Ambassador Tobias Privatelli, a director of a GICHT on that.
Thank you very much, Crystal, and thank you for your patience and good luck next week.
Lots of important things happening next week.
So we're nearly done just really quickly colleagues just to I think well, I refer to the S cheese message on Myanmar, very important to consult that.
We shared a statement earlier in the week on behalf of Mr Peterson, Special Envoy in Syria.
That was on Wednesday concerning the intensifying military escalations by Israel in Syria.
So those are two important statements.
In terms of meetings here, it can be the unenforced disappearances will conclude his 28th session this afternoon after having reviewed the reports for Serbia, Gambia, The Gambia, Central African Republic, Peru, Belgium and Malta and two committees.
Starting next week, we have the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their family beginning Monday the 7th, lasting for two weeks, during which time they will review Mexico, Niger, Jamaica, and then they will also have a general comment on the Convention on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
And then the Committee Against Torture is also starting its session.
And next week, it's a three weeks, actually a four week session, pardon me, where they will review Monaco, Mauritius, Armenia, France, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
And as you well know, the Human Rights Council is about to conclude, well, it will soon conclude its 58th regular session.
When we started this briefing, there were about 11 resolutions remaining.
I think that's been whittled down considerably since the two hours that have since transpired.
So do consult with colleagues at the Council to see where we're standing with resolutions.
In addition to the Landmine Awareness Day today, we have another very significant observation on Monday the 7th of April.
This is the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
So we shared with you the statement of the SG through which he talks about the morning for the 1,000,000 children, women and manslaughtered in the 1994 genocide.
And he said this is not a spontaneous frenzy of horrendous violence, it was an intentional, premeditated and planned, including through hate speech that inflamed division and spread lies and dehumanisation.
He says as we recall how these crimes came about, we must also reflect on resonance with our own times.
So this is the S GS message on this very important occasion.
Last but certainly not least, and and I maybe should have renounced this earlier because in a short while you'll have a nice guest in room 17.
We had the DG or on behalf of the DG there was a statement that opened an event to mark the 5th United Nations International Day of Conscience, which is tomorrow, the 5th of April.
If you didn't know that number of speakers taking that are taking part in this day long ceremony including Dennis Mccugaway, who our friend tonight, 2018 Nobel Prize winner as you know from the Congo doing very important work.
And we will have a guest of Miss Gila, Clara Jesus, who's UNESCO is Artist for Peace in Peace Ambassador, who will be singing together with Sting.
That is the Sting message in the bottle.
Roxanne, you remember Sting the artist?
He's here in about 1520 minutes.
He'll be in room 17 if you're interested.
It is a public event, so do take a look at that if you have the time.
I've got quite a few today and this is actually just one for Ocho.
I believe Jenson has disappeared.
But if you want to pose it through me or if you want to just reach out to him directly, I'll pose it here just in case anyone can comment.
It's just the Israeli military said it was going to hold an investigation into the killing of the medics in Gaza, including Aun staff member.
Just wondering if there is any comment from the UN on that and also if you've had any response.
Yen was mentioning on Tuesday that there was an attempt to reach out to the Israeli government and hadn't had a response.
So I just wanted to get an update on that.
Of course, this is such an important issue, Olivia.
This was addressed, as you rightly said at our previous briefing.
We don't have any further updates on this other than echo what this horrific to act which 15 colleagues were lost executed.
We will we were looking into it.
We don't have access, I don't believe, but maybe Yens or colleagues from human rights might be well placed to give you an update on this.
But let's follow up with them and and we'll give you what we can.
So I'm afraid I don't have anything at the moment on this further questions.
No, on that note, I wish you a good afternoon.
