UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 10 November 2020

The United Nations Office at Geneva

Multimedia Newsroom

Edited News Press Conferences Statements Images B-roll Conferences Upcoming All Stories

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 10 November 2020

1:41:27

MP4

3 GB

10-11-2020

Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNHCR , WHO , UNOG , UNITED NATIONS , WFP , UNCTAD , IOM

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 10 November 2020

ENG

Geneva announcements

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council, said the Universal Periodic Review Working Group was continuing its 36th session today with the review of Croatia this morning and the adoption of its report for reviews held last week for Andorra, Honduras and Bulgaria.

On the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which started yesterday in Tunisian and will going on until 13 November, Mr. LeBlanc said the Secretary-General, in a video message, had urged participants to continue forging a new era of peace and stability for Libya. The signing of a ceasefire agreement by the Libyan parties in Geneva last month had been a fundamental step forward. Compromise was the only approach that would pave the road to national unity. The Secretary-General assured them they could count on the United Nations to support their efforts, and called on the international community to provide its strong backing as well, including by ensuring full adherence to the Security Council arms embargo.

Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Stephanie T. Williams, had said the Libyan people collectively had a vision for pulling Libya out of this crisis. This vision was the basis of a National Political Program. “It was not an agenda from a foreign party, but rather a gift that you can give to your fellow citizens,” she said.

Turning to the elections in the United States, Mr. LeBlanc said the Secretary-General had congratulated the American people for a vibrant exercise of democracy in their country’s elections last week. He had congratulated the President-elect and Vice President-elect, and reaffirmed that the partnership between the United States and the United Nations was an essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to address the dramatic challenges facing the world today.

Mr. LeBlanc added that UNCTAD would launch the Review of Maritime Transport 2020 on 12 November. A virtual press conference would take place on 11 November at 2:30 p.m., with an embargo until 12 November at 6 p.m. Speakers would be Shamika Sirimanne, Director of Division on Technology and Logistics, and Jan Hoffmann, Chief of the Trade Logistics Branch of Division on Technology and Logistics.

Philippines typhoon response

Gustavo Gonzalez, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines for the United Nations, said Goni had been the strongest typhoon of the year, and the most severe since typhoon Haiyan. It had caused severe flooding and landslides, and damaged 162,000 houses and over 226 schools. Those depending on farming and fishing, in particular, had lost their livelihoods. Local authorities were concerned this humanitarian situation was unfolding during the pandemic. It was not possible, for instance, to respect social distancing rules in emergency shelters. Funding was needed now, as it was important not to lose momentum.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said there were 845,000 people in need of assistance. The response plan was targeting some 260,000 people, and the funding request was US $45.5 million.

Responding to questions, Mr. Gonzalez said there had been 25 deaths, 329 injured and 7 people were missing. This relatively low number of casualties showed that the steps taken by the Government to mitigate the impact of the typhoon, including the preventive evacuations, had been successful. Regarding the situation of children, food assistance and nutrition was a key concern, which United Nations agencies were working to address.

Situation in Tigray

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said UNHCR was concerned by the impact of the ongoing conflict and the declaration of a six-month state of emergency on the humanitarian situation in the Tigray Region. This was adding to the already difficult situation precipitated by COVID-19, particularly on UNHCR’s protection and humanitarian response for Eritrean refugees and any potential for the heightened likelihood of internal displacement. UNHCR was aware of more than several hundred asylum seekers at two border entry points in Sudan’s Gedaref State. The arrivals were being screened by the authorities and would be relocated from the border points to the existing reception center in Shagrab camp in Kassala State. UNHCR was mobilizing resources to provide lifesaving assistance services to the new arrivals. Inter-agency contingency response planning was well underway.

Responding to questions on displacement in Mozambique, Angela Wells, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that, between 16 October and last Saturday, 13,737 internally displaced people were confirmed to have arrived by boat in Pemba by IOM. On Friday alone, 335 people arrived aboard eight vessels—86 men, 89 women and 160 children.

Implications of COVID-19 for Hunger, Migration and Displacement

Angela Wells, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the COVID-19 pandemic had driven up food insecurity and increased vulnerability among migrants, families reliant on remittances and communities forced from their homes by conflict, violence and disasters. In a report released today, IOM and the World Food Programme warned the social and economic toll of the pandemic could be devastating on millions. The impact COVID-19 had had on the ways people move was unprecedented, and issues of food insecurity had been closely interlinked. Of concern was the reality facing the more than 2.75 million migrants stranded on their journeys home around the world. Many were now unable to return to their places of work, their communities or their countries of origin.

Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said the pandemic had hit at a time when hunger had been on the rise over four consecutive years, mainly due to conflict, climate-related shocks and economic crises. The World Food Programme projected that the number of acutely food-insecure people in 79 countries where it operated could increase by 80 per cent, from 149 million pre-COVID-19, to 270 million by the end of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent actions taken to curb the spread of the disease had had extensive implications for both migration and hunger dynamics. Unprecedented restrictions on mobility, trade and economic activity were triggering a global recession, and causing hunger levels to surge. Most of the 164 million international migrant workers earned their living in the informal sector, badly hit by the pandemic. They were often the first to be laid off and are typically excluded from social welfare systems.

Responding to a question, Mr. Phiri reiterated that while there had been relative improvements in some countries of concern, gains had been lost because of the pandemic. WFP did not see a solution in sight for the most vulnerable, some of which were surviving on a dollar a day, reducing food portions, or going for days without eating.

Ivorian refugee numbers rise

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said over 8,000 Ivorian refugees had now fled into neighbouring countries amid political tensions in Côte d’Ivoire, up from 3,200 in just one week. UNHCR was ramping up its support, fearing that continuing violence would force more people out of the country. As of 9 November, more than 7,500 Ivorians had fled to Liberia. Over 60 per cent of arrivals were children, some of whom had arrived unaccompanied or separated from their parents. Older people and pregnant women had also fled, most carrying just a few belongings and almost no food or money. Some Ivorian refugees reported they were initially prevented from leaving the country and forced to find alternative routes to enter neighbouring Liberia. The majority had told UNHCR teams in Liberia that they wished to remain close to the border and return as soon as the situation stabilized.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said the Secretary-General continued to express concern over reports of tensions rising in the post-election period. He was particularly concerned by reports of arrests and restriction of movement of opposition figures. He had urged the Ivorian authorities and the opposition to take immediate steps towards de-escalation and to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve the post-electoral crisis. He reassured the parties of the United Nations’ full support in this regard. Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, had also called on all sides to refrain from incitement to violence and to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve the difficult situation following the elections.

A briefing note is available here.

Mr. Baloch said people arriving in Liberia had told UNHCR staff that the fear of violence had led them to flee.

Hurricane Eta

Matthew Cochrane, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), said IFRC feared that a major humanitarian emergency was unfolding across Central America in the wake of Hurricane Eta. An estimated 2.5 million people from Panama to Belize had been affected, although the most severe impacts were being seen in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. In Honduras, IFRC estimated that 1.7 million people—nearly 20 per cent of the entire population—had been affected. Women, children and people from indigenous communities were among the worst affected. These were also areas hit hard by COVID and its economic repercussions. They were home to pre-existing vulnerabilities, including some of the largest economic inequalities in the world, along with high crime rates and violence. The IFRC had launched a major operation in response to Eta. Yesterday, it issued an emergency appeal seeking 20 million Swiss francs, aiming to help about 75,000 people across Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, with a focus on shelter, water and sanitation, and health care.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said the Secretary-General had expressed his sadness by the loss of life and destruction of property caused by Hurricane Eta in Central America. He had commended the efforts of all those working hard to bring relief to people across the region.

Responding to a question, Mr. Cochrane said 261 people had died across Central America and Mexico. Accessing all the areas remained a challenge, but IFRC would carry out assessment visits today and tomorrow to better understand needs. Preventing the spread of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, was a priority.

UNRWA may pay partial salaries to staff in November due to lack of sufficient funds

Tamara Alrifai, for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said that, despite immense efforts to raise sufficient funds in 2020 to maintain UNRWA’s critical services and life-saving humanitarian programs for 5.7 million Palestine refugees across the Middle East, the Agency had run out of money as of 9 November. Should additional funding not be received by the end of the month, UNRWA would have to enact measures that would affect the salaries of the 28,000 UNRWA staff. In the middle of a global health emergency, UNRWA was deeply saddened to know that its fearless, resilient colleagues on the front lines and its teachers who educate over half a million children may not be able to receive their full salaries. UNRWA needed 30 million USD immediately to pay staff salaries in full in November and ensure that its staff, the vast majority of whom are refugees themselves, could continue to feed their families. Stability in this highly volatile region was partly a consequence of UNRWA’s presence, Ms. Alfirai recalled.

Responding to questions, Ms. Alrifai said there had been a significant increase in COVID-19 infections in the region. The total number of COVID-19 cases amongst the refugee community stood at 17,000 whereas there were fewer than 200 such cases in July.

World Health Assembly and other issues

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization, said the resumed 73rd World Health Assembly would focus on global health and management priorities that had not been discussed during the shorter May session. There would be two committees meeting concurrently during the Assembly. Committee A would discuss global health issues, such as meningitis. Committee B would focus on management issues, such as human resources and the budget. Journal number 2 was available online in six languages and could serve as a guide on the Assembly for journalists. This morning, the Assembly had discussed the progress report of the Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness & Response, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Helen Clarke. Today, the Assembly would take up several issues such as influenza and polio. Later this week, it would discuss meningitis, epilepsy and neglected tropical disease, amongst other issues.

Responding to questions, Ms. Chaib said when an adverse event occurred in a trial participant, which may or may not be related to the vaccine being evaluated, it was rigorous, routine practice to investigate. Temporary suspensions of vaccine clinical trials are not unusual while an evaluation takes place. On Taiwan, the Assembly had considered a proposal for a supplementary agenda item entitled “Inviting Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer”. The proposal had been considered in accordance with an agreed process for a structured debate, known as a “two plus two” arrangement. Following this process, the Assembly decided not to include this item on its agenda.

Teleprompter

All right.

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to this press briefing of Tuesday, the 10th of November.

Just a couple of announcements before we move right into our our, our heavy agenda for today.

Rolando Gomez from the Human Rights Council was unable to be here this morning, but just to share with you that the Universal Periodic Review Working Group continues it's 36th session tomorrow, today rather sorry, with the review of Croatia this morning and the adoption this afternoon of the reports for reviews held last week for Andorra, Honduras and Bulgaria.

So that's what's happening with the Universal Periodic Review today.

Just from our side, you will have seen a few notes to correspondence that we've issued yesterday, First of all, on the launch of the Libya Political Dialogue Forum, which is taking place in Tunisia over the next few days, and I'm sure you're all following very closely.

The Secretary General did deliver a message telling delegates that he urged the delegates to continue forging a new era of peace and stability in Libya.

Delegates have an opportunity to end a tragic conflict and create a future of dignity and hope, he said.

He called the signing of a ceasefire agreement by the Libyan parties in Geneva last month a fundamental step forward.

He said that he told delegates that compromise is the only approach that will pave the road to national unity and that they can count on the UN to support those efforts.

He also called on the international community to provide a strong backing as well, including for by ensuring full adherence to the Security Council arms embargo.

We have issued his statement to you yesterday and for her part, the Acting Special Representative Stephanie Williams also told delegates that the Libyan people collectively have a vision for pulling Libya out of this crisis.

This vision which we will present to you today, that was yesterday, she said, is the basis of a national political programme.

It's not an agenda from a foreign party, but rather a gift that you today can give to your fellow citizens, she said.

So we will be watching those very closely that's going on the political forum until the 13th of November.

Then you will also have seen the note to correspondence that we sent to you late yesterday evening, the Secretary General congratulating the President-elect and Vice President-elect of the United States and reaffirming that the partnership between the United States and the United Nations is an essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to address the dramatic challenges facing the world today.

So you will have received those yesterday.

[Other language spoken]

Ken might have a question.

[Other language spoken]

And Peter, thanks Rial.

I'm just wondering, I haven't seen anything on any UN notices.

So last week we we got something from IOM concerning the drowning of 40 people in Cabo de Delgado province of Mozambique fleeing from ISIS inspired violence.

And today we have a numerous reports of 50 people being beheaded in that region of northern Mozambique.

And it seems that there's a pretty serious conflict going on there.

And I was wondering if there's anybody from Human Rights or OTJA or any UN agency who has any information on this, because it's a pretty serious problem.

And perhaps if they haven't got enough, they could prepare something.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Peter, for this.

I don't have any information on this particular situation.

We have several spokespeople from different agencies who will be coming up.

If they have anything, I will.

They will surely share something with you.

Otherwise, I take note of your your question and we'll look into this matter and get back to you if we can, if we have more information to share on that.

[Other language spoken]

Real.

A question on the on the Secretary general message on the victory of Biden and Harris.

If he congratulated them for their victory, it means that he has a position on the fact that Donald Trump is refusing to recognise the result of the election, right?

So what is the position of the UN on Donald Trump's behaviour during the last few days?

Well, I think, I think the secretary general's message issued yesterday is, is, is very clear.

He is congratulating the American people on a, on a very vibrant exercise of democracy in their country's elections and congratulating the the president, president-elect and vice president-elect.

As for the remainder of what's happening, I mean, he's not going to comment on that.

[Other language spoken]

But I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry, I have to follow up because it doesn't match.

I mean, some countries will, will wait for the official results to come out because so far we are basically basing our position on on media ports.

So some countries are reasonable and basically they wait until the final results are out to congratulate the UN secretary General does not do so.

OK, So basically it takes a risk.

Then he has also to explain or you have as a spokesperson of Yunis, representative of Yunis, you have to to take position on the fact that the the candidate that cluster according to your position refused to admit it.

I mean, it's extremely important for you to be consistent on in your position honestly.

Yeah, I don't think we're being at all inconsistent.

I mean from, I mean the, the, the results are generally accepted for what they are.

And the secretary general feels that he is in a position to, to offer his congratulations at this time.

What other leaders or other countries do is, is up to them.

But sorry.

OK, we will continue with the agenda.

I'm going to invite Jens Lark from OCHA, who is here with a guest, Mr Gonzalo Gonzalez.

Gustavo Gonzalez Rather, a Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines, who will give you a briefing on the Philippines typhoon response.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Rhiannon.

Good morning everyone.

Indeed, Typhoon Goni, which is also called Raleigh, hit the Philippines some 10 days ago and caused tremendous devastation, loss of life and displacement.

The the Contra team in in the Philippines yesterday issued launch this response plan.

It's an interagency response plan which will support the the government and local authorities efforts in the aftermath of this horrible typhoon.

And leaving that response from the ground is the resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator, Gustavo Gonzalez, who joins us now from Manila, will also show some of the images from the affected area.

And he has just actually returned from visiting those affected areas.

So, Gustavo, very happy to have you with us this morning.

And the floor is yours.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much Jens and and colleagues in in Geneva.

Yeah definitely super typhoon Ghoni and it's snowing in Philippines as rolling has been the strongest tropical cyclone of this year and even the strongest in terms of wind speeds since Haiyan you remain Haiyan 2013 and it made it first landfall in the east of of Philippines.

The the area is Battle Catanduanes on the 1st of November around 5:00 AM and as it was mentioned by by my colleagues, it has been extremely destructive in Biko region region #5 particularly provinces of Catanduanes and Albay which have been the the the the most affected areas that we see from the pictures when he brought violent winds, torrential rains blowing away roofs, topping structures and causing severe flooding and land size in the in the area.

There are an estimated 24 million people living in the most affected areas.

When we consider the the path of the of the typhoon and we estimate that 845,000 the numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance.

According to the government, more than 162,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, with more than 64% of the distraction recorded in Albay and Catan Duales is this region of of Bikal.

The typhoon had an important impact on health facilities, schools and essential services.

According to the government, 67 health facilities have been damaged, including what is the the only COVID-19 lab in in in Decor based in this region and of course, testing on COVID-19 have been suspended.

Over 22126 schools were partially or totally damaged by the typhoon, while around 900 of the school are being used as evacuation centres.

Livelihood had been lost, particularly of those who depend on on farming or fishing in Catanwane, Sanibai where the the harvest heat accounting for more than half of the overall damage on agriculture.

I had the opportunity of organising an assessment mission in in this area.

I I was the last Sunday in Legaspi.

Legaspi is in the the province of Albay.

We were in ground 0 assessing the impact and it's quite easy to appreciate the the intensity of this typhoon and and the magnitude the magnitude the impact on on infrastructure houses in the coast had been literally pulled out by the typhoon.

The power system was entirely damaged.

I I saw that the practically all, all towers, power towers from from Legaspi to Tiwi fell down, no access to drinking water in the area.

I met the the governor of of Albay, local authorities and and people and you see in their faces the the sentiment of, of having lost everything.

This is an area that is always exposed to these type of shocks and we are entering into the season of the of the typhoon.

Local authorities are particularly concerned by the fact that this disaster is taking place at the same time that the the COVID-19 people in evacuation centres of course cannot follow social distancing measures.

The lack of appropriate water access and and sanitation represent also a health risk for an area that is also well known by by previous cholera outbreak.

So the situation of children is particularly concerning in terms of nutrition and and schooling.

I had to to highlight that the the the government of the Philippines has made significant efforts and and they deserve a recognition by the huge pre emptive evacuation of people.

We are talking about 480,000 people that were evacuated before the arrival of typhoon.

They were moved to some evacuation centres, as I mentioned, schools and others, permanent evacuation centres.

And this is one of the reasons of the the Please could you go back to the slide?

Yeah, this is one of the reasons of the, the low numbers of, of casualties.

So as a result of this visit that I had with some representative of the international community and we concluded the the assessment yesterday, I conveyed A donors meeting and we presented the humanitarian response plan and we are please next slide is the humanitarian country team in the Philippines.

We launched yesterday this humanitarian needs and priorities plan.

The response to the need of the our caseload is the the most affected, the most vulnerable people in this provinces is 260,000.

As you see in the in the in the slide, the plan calls for $45.5 million to deliver humanitarian activities to typhoon affected people requiring urgent humanitarian assistance in 16 key municipalities of Catanbuanes and Alvai.

Assistant will be delivered in a manner that of course minimises the risk of COVID-19 for disaster affected people.

Humanitarian country team and cluster had been preparing over the summer for exactly these type of events.

So we are now in a position and and I think that this is the important side of this process.

In just one week, we, we conducted the, the assessment and we prepared the, the humanitarian response plan.

We called the international community.

And yesterday we submitted this, this, this plan in numbers of messages that I would like to share with you.

The first one definitely we want our assistant to be truly life saving for Filipino people.

The the funding is needed now.

The most important now is to not to lose the momentum humanitarian partners, they are in the ground.

We have a humanitarian response plan that is now in, in, in the hands of the resource partners and we have to act rapidly as we enter into the typhoon season.

And, and if we consider also that we are expecting the impact of La Nina and further storms.

We're talking about the the arrival of tropical Cyclone Ulysses is likely that that, that it will hit the same area.

So definitely we need to act very, very rapidly.

The idea is to reinforce evacuation centres, reserve critical livelihoods and to ensure that the COVID-19 remains, We can say it in those terms remains under control in this area.

Cash seems the most appropriate modality and we are working in close collaboration with the with the government.

The government has made some important announcement in terms of the allocation of resources, particularly from livelihood and there is a, a joint operation that we are conducting with WFP with support from from the US for the transportation of the first family package for food assistance.

[Other language spoken]

The yes and of course, I'm available for your question.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr Gonzalez for this briefing, very detailed.

Are there any questions?

Yes, we have Isabel Sacco from the FA Spanish News Agency with a question right here in the room.

[Other language spoken]

Mr Gonzalez, could you please share with us your presentation to to be able to use all the details that you you mentioned during your presentation?

Oh, definitely, definitely.

There is even a package and my colleague Jens will be ready to share with you.

We have a number of additional infographics, of course, will be a pleasure.

All right.

So I think Yens will take care of distributing that to all correspondence.

We have Lisa Schlein from Voice of America Online.

[Other language spoken]

I think I've been muted, unmuted.

Yeah, sorry.

[Other language spoken]

I don't think I got the number of people who actually have been killed.

You said it was relatively low.

How many have been killed and injured?

How many people will this response plan aid?

And if you could speak a little bit more specifically about the condition of some of the people, in particular children, how they are faring and what your priority needs are.

I mean, I know food and so and so forth, but if you could be a little bit more specific and descriptive in terms of what the most, the greatest emergency needs are.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

If we take into account the the latest from the the government in terms of impact on on people, the numbers is 2525 deaths, 399 injured, 7 missing.

And the this relatively small death toll shows that again early actions taken by the government to mitigate the the the impact were were very successful.

We have noticed this pre emptive evacuation days before the arrival and this was the very much supported of course by the front liners, you know the the local authorities and and civil society organisation.

At the ground, I think that we are learning from from Haiyan and this is an example of of resilience building the importance of this early warning and this massive, huge pre emptive evacuation.

And this is one of the reason of the the low numbers of casualties in terms of of the the situation and the priorities.

Well, we we have two scenarios.

1 is the the realities of the evacuation centres.

In these evacuation centres in the context of the COVID-19, definitely very difficult to follow social distancing measures.

This is a concern of the government, a concern of humanitarian partners and we are taking into account what is happening at the level of of the evacuation centres.

Some of the evacuation centres, they are still waiting for the immediate support, particularly in terms of let's say hygienic heat, access to to water, food assistance.

And the secondary scenario is the, the areas affected by the, by the typhoon.

We, we noticed returning to, to the hostel communities and, and there I think that the priority is, is emergency, emergency shelter, emergency shelter, water, sanitation and food assistance and of course, livelihood.

The the Filipino people in this area, they are demonstrating the **** doses of, of resilience.

No, when I was on, on Sunday there of course there is a, a sentiment of, of, of suffering and deprivation, but at the same time people start rebuilding their houses, particularly in the coast that was the most affected by the, by the typhoon.

So this is perhaps the, the, the positive side of the resilience building.

But again, we entered into the, the season of, of typhoons.

We have La Nina also as a as a fed and we are trying to find a way that rebuilding a livelihoods is in some way the manner that we can make this investment more sustainable.

[Other language spoken]

Very quickly.

First of all, a question I asked previously, if you could elaborate a bit upon the situation of children, how many maybe may be affected and what you were doing for them?

And then how many cases of COVID infections and deaths are there?

And are you afraid that they will this will increase because of the overcrowded conditions in the evacuation centres?

[Other language spoken]

And I'm sorry.

Exactly the the, the situation of, of children.

This humanitarian response plan has a stronger focus on protection and particularly on on women and and children.

We consider it's the best way of addressing first of all, the, the, the problem related to, to education problems related to nutrition.

This is an, an, an area that for example, UNICEF has started the the distribution of some of the, the learning kits.

But but this needs to be reinforced.

Our concern is in terms of food assistance and nutrition.

Definitely the government already started the this process.

There is a quite robust programme that is the implemented by the Department of Social Welfare is taking some time and This is why with support from from WFP, we are accelerating that no.

And we started this process of transportation 35 tracks that will bring food assistance in this in this area.

The the situation of the of the COVID-19 is the Philippines is reaching at the national level.

The 400, 1000 cases so far in term of death is 7661.

Interestingly, the most affected groups at the national level is those between 20 and 29 years.

They represent 26.5% of the cases followed by by the the the group of between the 30 and 39 years old that represent 25%.

48% of the cases are in the the National Capital Region.

We can say that at this stage there is a sort of a plateau, but we are very much concerned by the fact that we are keeping the 2000 cases per per day.

If you put the Philippines into the context after Indonesia, we, we have the highest cases of, of COVID-19 and even in terms of, of, of death.

But if you compare the population between the Philippines and, and Indonesia, so it's, it's still a worrying situation.

Our concern now is why, why we have this plateau at the level of the Manila, the South of of the Philippines, Mindanao.

We have an increase in the transmission rate and of course an increase in the, the, the rate of the bed occupancy.

So it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's one of our, our concerns.

And then in this area that was affected by the typhoon, we're still have people in the inside the, the evacuation centres.

So far it's, we started with us as we have in this life.

We started with 85,000.

The total people displaced in evacuation centre, half of them they are returning to their, to their homes.

We can call their homes no, those that are in the coastal area.

But we still have 4040 thousand people inside evacuation centres.

And as I mentioned, we are trying to to see how we improve the the conditions.

And 1 is in terms of health.

The second one is access to to water and and sanitation.

I also mentioned at the very beginning that this is an area where we already experienced A cholera outbreak.

So once again, if we would like to be effective in this life saving intervention, we need to intervene as soon as possible.

So we need support some of the, the UN agencies that the International Federation of the Red Cross and NGOs, they have already prepositioned their support and humanitarian items, but we need to ensure that at least for the coming three months, we, we response to the to the to the need of the most affected group.

So this is the time we need resources and we would like to count on your support in making sure that we advocate for this contribution to the response plan in the field.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Mr Gonzalez.

I don't see any other questions.

So I think we'll close this topic here.

Do you have anything to add, Jens?

Thank you very much.

Gustavo and Rial, if you can just repeat the 24 million people in the affected area, there are there are 845,000 people in need of assistance with the response plan that has now been launched.

We are targeting some 260,000 people for help and the request for funding is $45.5 billion.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Jens.

And again, Mr Gonzalez, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Philippines.

All the best to you in your efforts.

[Other language spoken]

We'll just see if it's regarding this issue.

John, now it's on another topic.

Thanks very much for Yens.

[Other language spoken]

What is your other topic?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, if Yens has an update, it's for Yens.

Yes, that's correct.

If he has an update on the humanitarian situation on the ground in Ethiopia in the clashes between the central government in Addis and the TPLF in Tigri area in what the humanitarians are doing there.

[Other language spoken]

I, I think I sent you our, our latest situation report, which is of course focused on on what humanitarian agencies can do to support what is going on in in Ethiopia.

It's something we're looking at with with concern.

I will see if I can get you an update today and share with you later on.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Jens.

I think maybe Baba Baloch has some information to share with you, John, but you're free to go, Jens, if you Baba, you have something to add on this.

[Other language spoken]

Just thank you, John for the question.

I mean, we as humanitarians, we are concerned by the impact of the ongoing conflict and declaration of six months state of emergency on the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region.

This is adding to the already difficult situation already ongoing with COVID-19, particularly on our protection and humanitarian response for Eritrean refugees in in the region and potential for the heightened likelihood of internal displacement in the region.

There are around 100,000 refugees from Eritrea and if I can update you from the latest messages that we have got from colleagues.

UNICIAR is aware of more than several 100 asylum seekers at 2 border points entry points in Sudan's Gadarif state.

So they are arriving from from Tigre region.

The arrivals are being screened by the authorities and will be relocated from the border points to the existing reception centre in Shaghrab camp in in Kasala state.

UNICIAR is mobilising resources to provide life saving assistance and and services to the new arrivals and also interagency contingency response planning is also underway inside Sudan.

Let me add that in in those areas on the inside Ethiopia, it's very hard to get get access.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much for this, for this insight.

[Other language spoken]

I assume on this topic, which was not planned.

Can we let's let's be very quick, please.

Ahmed, Arun, please.

[Other language spoken]

Just just a very short notice.

I don't know if Babar will send us the details or no.

[Other language spoken]

I I want to know if Babar will send us this details about the Grey or not.

[Other language spoken]

We will ask him to do so.

[Other language spoken]

I just wanted to repeat one of my statements earlier or one of my questions.

Is there UNHCR got any knowledge of the movement, the mass movement of people in the northern part of Mozambique which is causing the and violence in that part?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, dear Peter.

Indeed, we are following up on, on, on, I mean on the, the horrible reports that you mentioned this morning, but also the the the drownings that happened when people were fleeing wire boats.

I mean the, the fair's colleagues have that the numbers who are fleeing in terms of reaching Pemba, which is the capital of Cabo Delgado or could be more.

But we're trying to get an update for you, hopefully to brief you on this coming Friday.

[Other language spoken]

And Angela Wells from the IOM is at the podium on another topic, but I think she has information to share on this issue.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, to confirm, we can, we can confirm that as of Saturday that since the 16th of October, our displacement tracking matrix, IO Ms displacement tracking matrix has confirmed that 13,737 internally displaced people arrived by boat to Pemba on Friday alone.

That included 335 people aboard 8 vessels, 86 men, 89 women and 160 children.

And we can, we can also try to get you updated figures as of Monday and as of today, if that has continued.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much, Angela.

Lisa, I assume this is on the same topic.

Please be brief.

Yeah, well, I would be interested in Mozambique, but I will just deal with the situation in Tigre Babar.

[Other language spoken]

And yeah, and thanks for sending the notes.

I wasn't quite clear on what you were talking about about 100,000 asylum seekers there at Sudanese border.

Are there, are there people fleeing currently from Tigray to other parts of Ethiopia or to other countries?

And are you concerned that there might be a mass exodus if this finding continues?

Thank you very much, dear Lisa.

My reference in terms of the number of refugees, these are Eritrean refugees who are in the thick Ray region inside Ethiopia.

And the exact number is 96,000.

So this was a reference to the refugees who are in the refugee camps inside Ethiopia, Eritrean refugees.

The other mention which was linked to Sudan is the initial reports of several 100 asylum seekers arriving from Ethiopia into Sudan.

So these are initial reports that we are getting.

We're working with the authorities on the Sudanese side to screen register and and move them to a safe location.

I hope this helps.

[Other language spoken]

Last question on this please and then we move on to the rest of the agenda.

[Other language spoken]

My question is to your colleague on the podium from Iomi.

Was wondering if the IOM matrix has any, any numbers on what the Barber mentioned earlier possibility of internal displacement.

What sort of numbers are you looking at?

The UN Secretary General has been very much on top of this crisis, trying to hose it down.

What sort of numbers are we looking at if this situation gets out of control and what contingency measures have you got?

So the numbers that I have in front of me are the internal displacement that happened just by boat from the 16th.

Sorry.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, from the 16th of October until Saturday and that's at 13,737.

There may be other internal displacements that's been happening which I can I can check and confirm back for you.

And in terms of of response, yeah, that's a very good question.

Right now we are we're able to provide some shelter assistance, some immediate health, health, mental health assistance as well as emergency non food items.

But we'll, we'll be hopefully scaling up and, and continuing also to track through the, through our displacement tracking matrix.

And I'll, I'll try to get you more details on the, on the overall figures by the end of the day.

[Other language spoken]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

My question was on, on Ethiopian crisis on, on the Ethiopian crisis.

What, what was your question again?

Yeah, if IRM in the tracking metrics, what sort of numbers they have on ID PS that Baba mentioned there's concern about an increase in internal displacement.

What is the IAM metrics, which is normally very good have to say on what's going on there.

I'll have to get back to you on that as well.

I'm not sure if we if we are in that area of Ethiopia, but I will, I will confirm and and get back to you on that too.

[Other language spoken]

OK, thank you very much, Angela.

Now let's go to the item that is actually on the agenda.

We have Angela Wells from the IOM and Thompson Philly from the World Food Programme here to talk to you about the implications of COVID-19 for hunger, migration and displacement.

A new report coming out this month.

Angela, I think you'll go first.

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven up food insecurity and increased vulnerability among migrants, families reliant on remittances and communities forced from their homes by conflict, violence and disasters.

In a report released today, the International Organisation for Migration and the World Food Programme warn the social and economic toll of the pandemic could be devastating on the lives of millions.

The impact COVID-19 has had on the ways people move is unprecedented and issues of food insecurity have been closely interlinked.

We are particularly we are particularly concerned about the reality facing the more than 2.75 million migrants stranded on their journeys around the world.

Many are now unable to return to their places of work, their communities or their countries of origin.

Stranded in precarious situations, many are reliant on humanitarian agencies for food support.

In the past two months, IOM and Argentina has delivered 42 tonnes of food items to community kitchens in the locality of San Martin and Buenos Aires, which daily assists 1210 people in vulnerable conditions, both migrants and Argentine nationals.

10s of thousands of food kits are being provided to migrants stranded along the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

And food support is also being provided to migrant families in Egypt, Thailand, among other numerous countries.

Hunger, especially in conflict settings, is also a critical push factor driving people to move.

9 out of 10 of the world's worst food crises are in countries with the largest number of internally displaced persons.

80% of people displaced by conflict are in countries affected by acute food insecurity and malnutrition.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, has the world's third largest internally displaced population and is experiencing the largest food crisis in the world.

COVID-19 prevention measures, including border closures and the prohibition of movement between provinces and cities, have made it more challenging to reach displaced populations in need of humanitarian aid.

In addition, the world's 164,000,000 migrant workers, especially those in the informal sector, have been some of the worst hit by the pandemic.

Migrant workers often work on a temporary or seasonal basis for low wages without access to social protection.

More than 94,000 travel restrictions in over 220 countries, territories or areas put in place to contain the spread of the disease have limited opportunities for people to move, work and afford food and other basic needs.

Without sustained income.

The report warns that many will be pushed to return home, which will cause a significant drop in remittances that we estimate provide an essential lifeline for around 800 million or one in nine people in the world.

The two agencies today offer eight concrete recommendations and call on the world to step up and support to respond to immediate and rising humanitarian needs to address the socio economic impacts of the crisis and to ensure the most vulnerable are not forgotten.

[Other language spoken]

Let's turn to Thompson Ferry from WFP for a statement as well.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Ria.

Good morning, everybody, colleagues in the room and those who are joining us online now.

The pandemic has hit at a time when hunger was already on the rise over the last four consecutive years.

This was mainly due to conflict.

This was also because of climate related shocks as well as economic crisis across the globe.

Now the World Food Programme projects that the number of acutely food insecure people in 79 countries where we operate and where this analysis was done could increase by 80% from 149 million before COVID-19 hit to about 270 million by the end of this year 2020.

Now I'm going to talk to you about the findings of the report and what we are hearing from the countries of concern.

Now, the COVID pandemic and the subsequent actions that were taken to stop the spread of the virus has had extensive implications for both migration and hunger.

Unprecedented restrictions on mobility, on trade, on economic activity in general have triggered a global recession and this is causing hunger levels to surge.

Now, for example, in Bangladesh, lockdowns and restrictions have disrupted the trade of various goods, including food.

This has resulted in temporary and localised supply side shocks resulting in increases in food prices in South Sudan.

Following the border closure with Uganda, the South Sudanese proud depreciated and there was a reduction in traded volumes.

Food prices skyrocketed to above 5 year average and above all East African countries commodity prices in Southern Africa.

The lockdown in South Africa in response to COVID-19 has caused major job and income losses.

We are told about 3 million S Africans have lost their jobs and livelihoods.

South Africa is a magnet for migrant workers in static region, so job losses in that country by extension, affect the entire static region.

Remittances, on the other hand, are expected to fall by 8.8% in 2020, followed by a further reduction of about 5.8% in 2021.

Now, most of these migrant workers are from countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and others are from as far afield as DRC.

[Other language spoken]

A few have started to trickle back southwards as borders are being opened.

But that's not all.

They do not expect those jobs to bounce back in the short and medium term.

That means hunger is on the rise among migrant workers themselves.

Now most of the 164,000,000 international migrant workers.

And they are living in the informal sector that has been badly hit by the pandemic.

They are often the first to be laid off and they are typically excluded from social welfare systems and they typically often live in precarious and overcrowded conditions, depending on a daily labour, on a daily wage for their labour.

This is now a new group that is imaging that is at risk of increased food insecurity levels.

We are having to to come up with smart responses to meet that growing need.

Now they're going back also when they go home, they're going back to, to host communities that are already reeling under a lot of pressure.

Nearly 3,000,000 migrants have been stranded by coronavirus travel restrictions, unable to travel back either to communities, unable to travel back to their places of work.

For example, in Lebanon, the, the migrant workers there told us in April, in May that these are these are migrants.

Let me just highlight these are migrants from Syria.

And they, they say that they've lost their jobs and they have no hopes of, of getting, of getting the jobs back in the, in the, in the, in the short and medium term.

And all this has a knock on effect on the remittances which, which are a lifeline for around 800 million people.

About one in nine people depend on remittances to diversify their income sources to help them meet their immediate food needs, whilst also constituting an important insurance against shocks.

Now, based on the on the on the on our analysis, WFP has projected that the remittance losses alone could leave an additional 33 million people at risk of hunger across the 79 countries covered by this analysis.

In a country like Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan that is a huge diaspora community, migrants remittances play a crucial role in supporting families back home and our offices are reporting that one in five households said that they used remittances entirely to buy food.

With these remittances drying up, we can already see the trends that we are going to be facing, even increased levels of hunger as we go forward.

Now we reiterate our call on the international community to ensure that every effort is made to limit the immediate impact on the most vulnerable while ensuring longer term investments that ensure A pathway to recovery.

We circulated earlier today a news release and a copy of this report, an invite and I'll stop here and invite colleagues if they have any questions between myself and Angela.

Thank you very much both Thompson and Angela for this briefing.

You can see the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has incredible ramifications on many, many aspects of life.

We I see that Lisa Lisa Schlein from Voice of America would like to ask some questions.

[Other language spoken]

Hi, Actually not.

[Other language spoken]

Your your reports were very rich.

Would you please send us your notes?

It would be most helpful because there are numbers and there's so much information contained in them which is not contained in the press release that you have sent us.

So please send us your notes.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, well noted, Lisa.

Both are taking note and they will send this along as soon as they can.

Catherine Fionn Combo Congo.

[Other language spoken]

It's also a request when please, when journalists are asking question like John did on Ethiopia, Would it be possible to send the notes to all the journalists, not only to the person that asked the question?

That would be very helpful.

[Other language spoken]

And I have a question about the situation on Nagorno Karabakh.

So would it be possible for the people that are on the podium to give us a little bit more information about what's happening there, the displaced people and also the hunger problem?

[Other language spoken]

OK, well, I'll let Thompson say what he can on this issue if he has any information to share.

Thanks Kat for the for the question.

I do not have much to share on Nagorno Karabakh, but I can check and quickly send something around.

But we are extremely concerned with the with the escalation of violence in that part of the in that part of the country.

I will quickly check and send something your way as well as to other colleagues about this.

[Other language spoken]

Catherine, I see your back.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, thank you so much.

Thompson, if you could also look into the hunger problems in, in Armenia, because if I'm not wrong, Armenia had a lot of, of problems about food in the past and they tried to, to solve that problem of hunger.

So could you also give us some figures on it?

[Other language spoken]

And, and, and maybe also, yes, I will give you figures.

We have activities running in Armenia.

And I will, I will, I will pull the information together and say and make sure that you receive it by lunchtime today.

[Other language spoken]

You wanted to add something, Catherine?

No, I think we've lost her already.

Gabriela Sotomayor, hi.

Hello, thank you for taking my question.

Hi, Thompson, I have some questions.

If you can elaborate on Central America and I see in the report that you touched on the situation in the countries in Central America, but how is the situation of these migrants in Mexico?

Because as as you said in the report, 9 out of 10 Guatemalans, for example, a reporter heading to Mexico.

So why the report isn't talking about this their situation inside Mexico?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks so much for that question.

I will have to, to look closely in into Mexico as a country, but some of the countries that that, that feature prominently are the countries that I foregrounded for you.

I we can quickly dust up Mexico and get you up to date and specific details on the issues of migrants in, in in Mexico, not only from WFP side, but I believe also from other colleagues who are working on migrants in that part of the in in in that region.

[Other language spoken]

So both spokespersons will look into finding answers to your questions and sending their notes.

I Isabel Sacco from FAA question in from the room.

[Other language spoken]

I would like Thompson to to know the, the time frame of when you realise your survey among how many people in these 79 countries.

I understood where you are present.

And if you can maybe remark, recall that some, any country that where the situation of food insecurity had improved in the in the last years and now have again worsened because of the COVID pandemic.

Yes, the survey was conducted over 79 countries of concern, countries where we have operations.

And it is true.

But like I said, hunger has been on the rise for over the past four years.

We had seen relative improvements, improvements in in a few of those countries, but all that has been lost.

All the gains that we made have been lost because of COVID-19.

We actually estimate that the the longer term effects and the economic fallout of COVID-19 might even be worse than the disease itself.

We do not see solutions insight in the short and medium term.

I'm talking about the most vulnerable when you have food price increases for you and I, we, we, we probably can, can, can cushion.

But for the most vulnerable, even a marginal increase in food prices is devastating.

I'm talking about people who are going for days without food.

I'm talking about people who reduce meal portions each time there's a shock.

I'm talking about people who have lost jobs.

People were surviving on a dollar a day who who, who were locked down, who were restricted, who could not access markets.

I'm talking about people who have to work and then bring food on their way back.

So the situation is gloomy.

Things will probably get worse before they get better.

Big economies are struggling and they're telling us that even the jobs that they've lost, it will take them time before they can, they can, they can, they can bounce back.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much, both Thompson and Angela for being with us this morning.

And the journalist will wait for the additional information that you've promise to send.

OK, We are going to continue with our agenda and try to be as expeditious as possible.

It's already 1125.

And as you know, we're going to have a briefing by Doctor O'Brien from The Who on measles after the briefing because it's under embargo.

So we invite you to stay on the line as soon as we finish the formal, the regular briefing.

So let's go now to Baba Baloch again from UNHCR, who has information on expanding aid as Ivorian refugee numbers are rising.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, we hear you perfectly.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Updating the latest refugee arrivals from Ivory Coast now more than 8, 1000 Ivorian refugees have now fled into neighbouring countries amid political tensions in Ivory Coast, and this is up from 3200 in just one week.

Units here.

The UN refugee agency is ramping up its support, fearing that continuing wallets will force more people out of the country.

As of 9th November, more than 7500 Ivorian had fled to Liberia.

Over 60% of arrivals are children, some of whom arrived unaccompanied or separated from their parents.

Older people and pregnant women have also fled, most carrying just few belongings and little or to no food or money at all.

Some other refugees report they were initially prevented from leaving the country and were forced to find alternative routes to enter neighbouring neighbouring Liberia.

The majority have told our teams in Liberia that they wish to remain close to the border and return as soon as the situation stabilises for them.

We are planning to airlift essential for relief items for up to 10,000 refugees in Liberia from our stockpiles in Dubai IN.

In support of the response by Liberian authorities, UNICR teams on the ground are racing to distribute humanitarian aid, food and cash assistance.

We have deployed technical teams to address water, sanitation and shelter needs.

Meanwhile, more than 500 Ivorians have also arrived in Ghana, Guinea and Togo where they are receiving immediate assistance.

Unit CR has increased border monitoring to ensure that the new arrivals are quickly identified and received received the assistance they need.

We are grateful to the governments of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Togo for granting Ivorian refugees access to asylum on their territory despite the border restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Babar.

And of course, the Secretary General is also watching closely what's happening in Cote d'Ivoire and very concerned about the reports of rising tension after this during this post election period.

Of course, he is urging the Ivorian authorities and the opposition to to take immediate steps to de escalate and to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve this crisis.

He's offered also the full support of the UN should the parties require it.

And I think Michelle Bachelet, the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, also issued a similar call just yesterday on all sides to refrain from incitement to violence and to engage in meaningful dialogue.

And her statement and our secretary general's words are also available online.

I see we have a question from Robin, Robin Millard from AFP.

[Other language spoken]

Actually, the the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan said in a joint statement that UNHCR was.

Overseeing the return of internally displaced people and refugees to Nagano, Karabakh.

I was just wondering if you could tell us anything about that in terms of numbers or practicalities, details, etcetera.

[Other language spoken]

Baba, do you have information for Robin?

Sorry, I was muted, so unmuted now.

[Other language spoken]

I don't have any details on that right now, but I can check with colleagues and try to get back to you.

[Other language spoken]

Lisa Shine, Voice of America.

[Other language spoken]

Nice to see you now.

Why are people fleeing?

I mean, that may sound like an elementary question, but is it general instability in the country?

Are are people actually being brutalised in some ways many times?

There are lots of human rights violations which prompt people to leave.

Is any of that occurring or is there fear of that occurring?

And why are people being prevented from?

[Other language spoken]

People who have arrived, the 8000 refugees and majority of them to Liberia are telling us that it's the fear of violence which is driving them.

And this brings back bad memories from 2011, the president-elect, the presidential election then, which claimed the lives of 3000 people and forced over 300,000 to flee.

So these people who are coming, they're not mentioning currently being targeted or or they're not bringing back anything they have seen in terms of violence or them being attacked.

But it is the fear of of violence.

What was the second part of your question, Liz?

I'm sorry.

[Other language spoken]

Why they are being prevented?

Yeah, right.

Why they're being prevented.

[Other language spoken]

So some of those who arrived, they say initially they were being prevented to cross the border.

I don't have any details in terms of who was doing that.

But eventually they made it through other routes, alternative routes into Liberia of this is where the majority of of these refugees are arriving.

And as we expect the number to go up, we hope to have more details as we are able to talk to them.

Let's not forget this is just within a one the 11 past week that we have seen more than 8000 Ivorian refugees arriving in the neighbouring countries mostly to Liberia.

Thank you Baba and I think we have a question from Isabel Stanco from FA here in the room.

Yes, I it's a question on something is not on Cadiloire if I may, it's on I asked yesterday on reports about the that Iraqi authorities are closing down displacement campus in across all the country and that the 100,000 people are affected by this decision.

That this is this is something that is happening in an expeditious way and that these people don't have any any place to go.

And I would like to to know if you can confirm this measure disclosings, if you are aware of the reasons and if you plan to do to to give some help to these people or to establish new IDP camps.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, you have details or Ryan's wants to wants to take this one or I'm sorry, what?

[Other language spoken]

Do you have any details on this or or Yens wants to take this or?

[Other language spoken]

Well, Isabel, all I can say, the question was asked yesterday at the noon briefing in New York and the spokesman had this to say.

And of course, the UN has been in touch with the Iraqi authorities, have expressed their concern to ensure that whatever is done is done within the context of established norms and that civilians are protected and that everything is being done so that that the men, the women and children who are internally displaced continue to have access to the services they need wherever, wherever they may be.

That's that's as much as I have at the moment.

But we can look into the situation in more detail.

I don't know whether Yens, do you have anything on this issue?

OK, not for the moment.

You want to ask a follow up.

Baba he he he doesn't have any, any any information on this?

Babao, do you have anything to add?

[Other language spoken]

Just as far as as we understand as the humanitarians on the ground, this is an initiative which has been taken up by the by the national government without the involvement of of of the of the humanitarian.

So as real was mentioning in terms of the principles how they should go about it.

But but that's that's what what I have in in terms of the information coming from from the from the ground.

[Other language spoken]

All right, thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any other questions on the Orient situation?

I don't see any.

[Other language spoken]

We are now going to move to Matthew Cochrane from the IFRC who would like to share some information on Hurricane ETA.

Thanks very much for Look, I realise there's a lot going on at the moment in the world and and it's difficult to find space for everything, but I really wanted to flag to you how concerned we are about the situation in Central America.

It's how understanding that there's a major humanitarian crisis now emerging across the region.

2.5 million people from Panama to Belize were affected in some way by Hurricane ETA.

Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala are the worst affected.

In Honduras, we estimate that about 1.7 million people, that's nearly 20% of the country's entire population, have been affected.

For Honduras, this is the worst disaster since Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

There's, there's, there's no, there's no question about that.

Among the worst affected include women, children, and Indigenous and Afro communities.

This is these are areas that were already hit very hard by COVID and its economic repercussions.

And obviously these are areas that were home to pre-existing vulnerabilities.

Some of the countries affected are are are home to some of the the largest economic inequalities in the world as well as as as **** rates of crime and violence.

In response, the IFRC has launched a a major operation.

We're now appealing for 20 million Swiss francs.

I've, we've just put out a press release gives details on that.

I won't waste your time by going through the details unless you're really interested.

We've also released to get the ball rolling about 1,000,000 Swiss francs from our disaster relief emergency fund.

[Other language spoken]

We've got a plane and two trucks laden with about 98 tonnes of aid that will set off imminently from our humanitarian base in Panama.

And we're also looking to deploy emergency response units from around the world, Visa units that come with trained personnel and, and equipment to be able to quickly provide clean water and basic sanitation.

These are some of the major priority priorities in parts of Honduras.

People are still being forced to drink brackish or contaminated water.

There's just simply no access to clean water.

And obviously we know the health consequences that come when, when the situation like that is allowed to go on for, for very long.

And, and, and one other word of, of, of alarm is that there's currently another storm system developing in the Atlantic that if it does develop into a tropical storm or even a hurricane could affect many of these areas and communities that are still reeling from ETA.

So again, I understand there's a huge amount of, of, of other news to cover, but the situation in Central America, particularly in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala is, is incredibly severe.

And, and, and we will need all the support we can to, to, to help people who, who've been affected by this disaster.

Thanks, Ray.

Thank you very much, Matthew.

And of course, it is an issue that deserves attention.

I mean, all these typhoons, hurricanes are happening at a time when the, the entire, you know, world, all these regions are also dealing with the, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our our Secretary General, of course did put out a statement on the devastation of Hurricane ET on Saturday where he expressed of course his sadness and concern for the loss of life and destruction to property, but also commended the efforts of everybody trying to help out the people in that region.

[Other language spoken]

Let's go to Lisa, Lisa Schlein from Voice of America and then Paola Dupaz.

[Other language spoken]

OK, there we go.

There we go now.

[Other language spoken]

Could you give some figures on casualties, deaths missing also on the extent of the devastation in terms of the homes and so forth which have been destroyed and you on on your appeal, if you would elaborate a bit more on the priorities that you have.

What I mean, are people unable to get food right now?

Have diseases actually broken out?

You're afraid that they will?

What are your main concerns in that regard?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much, Lisa.

So in terms of casualties, authorities are reporting that 261 people have died across Central America and Mexico in terms of missing.

I don't have those figures.

I think one of the big issues is, as is often the case after disasters of, of this nature where there's extensive flooding and landslides, is there a, a real challenges accessing all the areas that, that need to be accessed.

We actually have a couple of assessment visits planned, one in Nicaragua today, local time and and one in Honduras tomorrow.

And hopefully after that, we'll have more of an indication of, of the more precise nature of needs.

We know that that roads and infrastructure has been damaged and destroyed.

We know that, that, that water systems have been, have been washed away or completely inundated.

[Other language spoken]

That's one of the, the major priorities of, of, of, of governments in Honduras and Nicaragua, I understand.

And also the Red Cross is to, is to try and bolster and support healthcare that was already, as rail said, already buckling under the weight of, of, of COVID.

In terms of our operation, our major areas of focus are shelter, helping people rebuild and, and, and recover their, their homes, either in the short term or in the slightly longer term.

Water and sanitation.

Again, I've touched on this a few times.

We're hearing awful stories of, of, of people who just don't have access to clean water and, and healthcare as well.

So in the form of pre hospital care or to bolster the, the, the healthcare system of, of, of local authorities, we haven't yet had reports of, of disease outbreaks.

That's not to say that there haven't been localised disease outbreaks there.

There may be areas that we haven't reached yet that that those there has been outbreaks, but we don't know for sure.

But that's also part of the reason why we need to quickly.

It's part of the reason why we're calling on our donors to really come forward with funding as quickly as possible so that we can get the resources out and the people out to the areas where they're needed to pre empt any any secondary disasters.

[Other language spoken]

I actually was regarding probably the last point that you mentioned there, but you know there I just wanted to know about your concerns about veteran borne diseases.

That was mentioned actually in the OCHA report that was published just last night, I think.

So what you know, where, where is it that you're most concerned?

I mean there, there have been dengue outbreaks in the region or you know where, where are you concerned about the those issues malaria and so forth?

Yeah, Paul, I without, without being able to give you specific areas, it is a concern across the entire theatre.

Our operation is focused on, on as I said on, on Honduras, Nicaragua and and and and Guatemala.

I mentioned that we've got some relief consignments being deployed imminently I think today and tomorrow from, from our, our logistics hub in, in, in Panama.

Those are carrying with the mosquito Nets as one of the major items.

Obviously this is these areas where, where, where dengue and, and even malaria is endemic.

And, and we know from from painful experience that when people are left to survive alongside stagnating water, then we'll see real uptake upticks in, in, in, in vector borne diseases like this.

So this is absolutely a priority.

If you want more specifics about the areas of of of real concern, I can come back to you on that in the next few hours.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much Matthew and also for your patience.

All the best to you and your efforts to to help the people who really need help at this time.

We are going to now continue with Tamara Al Rifai from the UN Relief Works Agency, who would like to brief you on the the press release that they issued yesterday regarding their decision to pay partial salaries to 28,000 staff for the month of November due to a lack of sufficient funds.

[Other language spoken]

And because this meeting has not brought enough news already and enough emergency level, they could add a dose from Onera and from Palestine refugees, because for a few days we haven't provoked anything from the Middle East.

So I wanted to brief everyone that despite the immense efforts to raise sufficient funds in 2020 to maintain Unrwa's critical services to 5.7 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, as of yesterday, the 9th of November, UNRWA has run out of money.

And if we do not have additional funding by the end of this month of November, then we will have to enact really disheartening measures that will affect the salaries of our frontline 28,000 on our staff in the middle of the global health emergency, which is something that makes us extremely sad, especially vis A vis or fearless and resilient colleagues on the front line in our health, in our our health centres and mostly in our onerous schools.

These are schools where over half a million girls and boys in the region attend quality education.

And we would be extremely, yeah, devastated if, if we couldn't continue all our services in the region.

Now, the Onura programme budget relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions from UN Member States and other partners.

And the lack of available available funds is due to us at Onura receiving insufficient contributions from donors this year, despite receiving overwhelming political support at the UN General Assembly.

So at the centre of our crisis is a mismatch between the political support we get from UN member States and the financial contributions.

Now as a quick reminder before I close down, our staff, they, almost everyone from the 28,000 are Palestine refugees themselves.

So they're part of the community.

Through their salaries, they contribute to stabilising their families, but also the larger community.

And what we need right now, immediately, in the coming two weeks is 30 million U.S.

dollars to ensure that all salaries are paid.

Failure to receive $30 million means that we're going to have to pay partial salaries and defer the other parts to maybe next month or the month after when we do receive the full amount.

We usually cost $50 million per month for salaries to 28,000 people who deliver services to 5.7 million Palestine refugees in the region.

I don't have to remind this crowd that is highly volatile and to which UNIRA contributes instability if only by running the basic services of health education to have a million, half a million kids and social services those.

So this is an urgent plea from UNIRA to donors to help us overcome our financial challenges soonest and a reminder that stability in this region is partly a consequence of onerous presence.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that update.

I was wondering if you have some details on the number of Palestinian refugees heavily affected by the COVID-19.

Just earlier today, I think the veteran Palestinian negotiator, Mr Elektad passed away from COVID-19.

What's the situation with the health assistance for people suffering from COVID-19?

If you can give us an update on that, that would be grateful as of the suite.

Nearly 17,000 Palestine refugees who have contracted COVID-19.

This is a huge jump from July when we only had around 200 cases amongst the Palestine refugees community across the Middle East.

Of course, the situation mirrors the situation in the countries that they're in, so the West Bank, including E Jerusalem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where the numbers have jumped as well.

But the but but the the acute jump is also due to the fact that despite having been able to respect lockdown and restrictions at the beginning and partly thanks to onerous ability to provide services to refugees homes and also to provide a small amount of cash assistance to most of them.

The longer term social economic impact of the lockdown and closures on very vulnerable people, who for most are daily paid workers, have pushed them to go out to to to fend for their for their daily for their daily lives and survival.

And this in turn has of course invited the virus into the refugee communities.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, if you could kindly repeat these numbers.

In the beginning, I I missed them out.

And secondly, if you have any update, what is the UN's regional office, MRO doing to help with the COVID situation with regards to the refugees in the region?

Yes, the number as of this week is close to 17,000 cases amongst the refugee community.

The number in July was 200, even less than 200 as regards to Amro.

I think I have colleagues from WHO on the panel who can reply, but for, for, for me just to say that for UNRWA, we follow the national policies in all the countries we work in, work closely with the ministries of health in the different countries.

So the policies might differ from from one place to the other.

And we continue ensuring that the measures we put in place at the very beginning.

So telemedicine, So giving medical consultations by phone rather than at the health centres when, when possible, delivering medicine to people's homes, delivering humanitarian assistance to their homes to avoid overcrowding at our distribution centres.

Continuing with a distance educate, distance education or at least a blended approach to education.

So partly in school, partly, partly remotely.

All of these policies are mitigating, however, again, in view of the huge jump in numbers, we are extremely worried about about that that development and about the fact that in less than 5 months we went from 200 to 17,000 including amongst UNRWA staff and that has sadly led to the tragic death of some of our staff.

Thank you very much Tamara.

I don't see any other questions, but we wish you all the best and I hope that Member States do answer your call for more funding to continue the important work that your agency does day in day out.

Thank you very much Tamara for being with us.

OK, last item on the agenda before we can go to the embargoed press briefing with WTO, Fadela Shahib will give you a little bit of information about the World Health Assembly that's going on this week.

And as she's getting ready, let me just take this opportunity to remind you on behalf of the of UNKTAD about the press conference that will take place tomorrow, the 11th of November at 2:30 PM.

It's a virtual press conference which is also embargoed until the Thursday 12th of November, 6:00 PM GMT.

It'll be a press conference on the publication of the Review of Maritime Transport 2020 with Shamika Sirimana, the Ungtad Director, Division of Technology and Logistics, and Jan Hoffman, who is the Chief of Trade Logistics Branch at Ungtad as well.

[Other language spoken]

Happy to be with you today.

Just to inform you that the resume 73rd word that assembly will focus on global health and management priorities that were not discussed during the the short May session.

As you you know, we have two concurrent committee meetings.

The committee A will discuss global health issues, for example, polio, meningitis, etcetera, while the committee B will focus on management issues, human resources, budget, etcetera.

So we have the two committees, committee A&B running in parallel.

The the most important document, I think for journalists is the journal.

So the number 2, the journal #2 is online and is in six languages.

So it's a it's a good guide for you about what is happening now in the assembly this morning they discussed the progress report from the Co chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

So this is the the the panel that is chaired Co chaired by Ellen Clark and Sir Sirleaf Johnson.

So you have the document also it is on the website.

The several other important issues will be discussed today.

It's influenza, polio and I would like just to draw your attention to very important draught resolutions that will be discussed this week.

For example, meningitis, very important subject, meningitis prevention and control.

There is a draught resolution proposed by Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, France, Gabon, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South African, Togo.

There is also a draught resolution on epilepsy and other neurological disorders, another one neglected tropical disease and human resources for health.

So I will send you all these details just after this press briefing.

So, as I told you, the journal is a very important document and you have all the information you need about what is to be discussed today in Committee A&B.

And as the UNRWA colleague talked about the situation of Palestinian refugee, as you know, there is always a topic about the health condition in the occupied Palestinian territory, including E Jerusalem and in the occupied city in Golan.

I was told this issue and the report of the Director General will be discussed on Thursday in Committee B Thursday morning in Committee B Thank you.

[Other language spoken]

I guess you have received in my e-mail earlier today.

I would like to know if you have any comments about the decision of the regular regulatory agents in Brazil to suspend the trials on the Chinese vaccine Sinovac by Sinovac.

[Other language spoken]

Jamil, I received your e-mail and we are preparing you an answer.

We need to get some clarity from the technical department, but your e-mail was well received and as soon as we have an answer, we will send it to you.

[Other language spoken]

I just want to know where can we find the statements of the of because there's, you know, a lot of yes, and I don't know where to find the statements.

[Other language spoken]

Which statement are you talking about?

Well, I'm trying to find Mexico basically, but you know, Mexico already took in the in the in the committee A and there's a lot of countries that maybe I would be interested, but I don't know where to find those statements.

OK, so we you know that it's a webcast and you can listen and watch all the proceedings live, but for journalists also to know that the recording are kept for three months.

This being said, many member States and non state actors and NGOs have already sent their statements and they are posted.

Many of them are posted.

So let me send you the link where you can find the Member State statement that are posted already.

[Other language spoken]

Hi Fadela, I have a question because I was looking at the agenda and I couldn't see if there would be any discussion related with this group of independent experts that we put into place related with the searching the origin of the the COVID.

You know, they were practically sent to China and they came back and they had a meeting with the within the WSU 10 days ago.

I was wondering if that would be discussed during the afternoon or if it's not on the agenda.

The short answer is it is not on the agenda.

Yesterday afternoon, Doctor Mike Ryan made a very good presentation about the epidemiological situation of COVID and happy to provide you his presentation if this is helpful.

But there is no such agenda item on the World Debt Assembly discussion.

We have pillars, the work of WTO in emergencies.

We have documents on COVID only.

We have documents on cholera, on polio and meningitis etcetera, but there is no item on the on the origin of the of the virus.

Thank you Fidela, John, John Zaracosta yes, good morning Fidela.

I was wondering the if the topic of the opioid crisis when it will be discussed, given the controversy in quite a few countries and huge fines for ***** of marketing.

And secondly, that The Who also had to revise its guidelines.

John, you are very familiar with the issues of the World Assembly and you can see in the agenda there is no such items.

But I am happy to put you in contact with the our expert if you want to, to do something about this.

But it is not on the agenda of the World Health Assembly.

You know that the agenda of the World Health Assembly is decided by Member states.

For this current session we have more than 50 items, technical, health related management, etcetera.

But there is no such item in this current World Health Assembly.

But if you are very interested by the topic, let me know, please.

[Other language spoken]

My question is again about the Synovac vaccine that was suspended in Brazil.

I know that you are going to send the details for e-mail, but I have a general question.

This WTO have any concern that political interests and can infect influence this kind of decision to suspend a trial?

We know that the vaccine, the Corona vaccine has faced some controversy in Brazil because president both on said it lacks credibility because of its origin.

How does WTO kind of situation, can you just repeat your question?

You were talking about the the suspension of a vaccine and then about, yeah, because the vaccine that was suspended in Brazil, the trial that was suspended in Brazil is from Synovac.

And the Brazilian President, Jaibo Sonaro, has already said that it lacks credibility because of its origin, because it is made in China.

So do you think that maybe political interests can influence the decision of the, the, the health regular health regulators, the authorities, the health authorities in Brazil?

[Other language spoken]

In general, safety is the primary focus for vaccine clinical clinical trials.

When there is an adverse event that occurs in the trial participant which may or may not be related to the vaccine being evaluated, it is very routine practise to investigate.

So any temporary suspension of a vaccine clinical trial are not unusual when an evaluation is taking place.

So I don't think you need to to try to find reasons for or explanation other than the fact that people who are looking for a vaccine or are working on vaccine are very cautious when they see any adverse effect to stop or suspend the clinical trial until more information is provided.

So this is really routine practise in the medical field.

[Other language spoken]

OK, Jan Eberman and then Lisa and then we'll stop there because we really have to go to the the embargoed briefing by WHO on measles.

[Other language spoken]

The 1st is on the vaccine by Pfizer and Biontech.

I know that Doctor Tedros issued a short statement yesterday on Twitter.

But I was wondering since this vaccine might be a game changer in the pandemic, will you come up with another bigger statement or more elaborate statement?

I think one tweet is probably not really sufficient for this.

And secondly, it's about the the first progress report by the independent panel on the reaction of The Who towards the Corona pandemic.

I think it's on today's agenda, if I'm not mistaken.

Can you elaborate a little bit on this?

When will it be released and, and, and what's the format?

Will there be a debate on it or will you just put it on your on your website and will there be a press release on it?

[Other language spoken]

I think that you missed the discussion on the progress report of the Co chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and the response.

It was the first item on the agenda at 10 AM this morning.

[Other language spoken]

The report is available in six languages on The Who website.

It was followed by discussions by member state.

I'm afraid I wasn't able to attend because I I was listening to the Pali briefing.

But as I said previously, you can retrieve the presentation of Helen Clark and the discussion of Member States on The Who website.

And as I said, also the report of the IPPR is available in six languages for the Pfizer vaccine.

We have some information that I'm happy to send you by e-mail and to journalists who are interested.

I don't have them in front of me, but I can share them with you as soon as this briefing is over.

[Other language spoken]

And just to let you know that we are not planning to do a press release about the IPPR, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Dependence and response.

What we are trying to do in the Department of Communication is when the issues is important, we try to do a summary press release that we sent you.

[Other language spoken]

We send you a press release about what happened in the course of the day during the World Health Assembly.

We would try to do the same if the issues are important and newsy.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I think I've been unmuted.

[Other language spoken]

I was wondering whether the issue of Taiwan's observer status was going to be discussed at all at the at the meeting.

the US is lobbying for Taiwan's participation at WHO meetings.

China, of course, is opposed.

I think you missed then the discussion, dear Lisa, yesterday.

So the Taiwan issue was was discussed yesterday in the plenary.

And the decision was not to include a supplementary agenda entitled Inviting Taiwan to attend the World Assembly.

The Member States decided to a process to invite two countries against this decision to speak and two countries in favour of the decision to speak.

So it was decided at the end that this is the way to go.

They they two countries, China and Pakistan against the fact of adding Taiwan in the agenda and Marshall Islands and Honduras talking on favour of adding Taiwan to the agenda.

So the issue was discussed yesterday and it's over.

[Other language spoken]

That concludes our our briefing, the formal part of our briefing with this morning.