HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL 2024
OPT
Staying in the region, our humanitarian colleagues today launched an appeal for more than $2.8 billion to allow United Nations agencies and our partners to address the most urgent needs of 3.1 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and that is through the rest of 2024.
For this response, we need to see major changes to operating conditions on the ground. Humanitarian organizations must have safe and sustained access to all people in need across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We need more entry and supply routes by land into Gaza, including to the north, as well as the greater use of Ashdod port. We need fewer constraints on our movements inside Gaza. We need to be able to bring in critical humanitarian items, including communications equipment and protective gear for UN staff.
We need visas and permits for aid workers. And we need timely and flexible funding.
Despite the ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that we along with our partners continue our efforts to reach people in need across Gaza, wherever they may be.
On Monday, the World Health Organization and its partners reached two hospitals and a medical facility in northern Gaza. In a social media post, the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus] said the mission was severely delayed, leaving less time for assessment of the facilities.
He said the removal of dead bodies from Al Shifa Hospital, in Gaza city, is ongoing. At the Indonesian Hospital, reconstruction efforts are underway, as the facility currently stands empty.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society facility continues to receive trauma patients and provide basic health services.
Dr. Tedros said that WHO will provide fuel and medical supplies, which are urgently needed.
In southern Gaza, an engineering team from UNRWA is assessing the agency’s facilities in Khan Younis for the possible return of displaced people who need shelter, following the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from that area.
SECURITY COUNCIL
This morning, the Security Council held a meeting on “the role of young persons in addressing security challenges in the Mediterranean.”
Briefing Council members was Rosemary DiCarlo, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. She told Council members that it is estimated that one out of four young people around the world is affected by violence or armed conflict. The young, especially women, she added, are more vulnerable to neglect, abuse, and exploitation, and young people are more likely to be recruited by armed groups when they have no other livelihood opportunities.
Ms. DiCarlo pointed out that these grim facts and figures are borne out in the unfolding calamity in one part of the Mediterranean - the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and the war in Gaza has destroyed the lives of many young people.
She noted that seventy per cent of the population in Gaza is under the age of 30 and almost all have been exposed to unprecedented levels of trauma, violence, disease, and food insecurity.
UKRAINE
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, today condemned the latest wave of deadly strikes across the country, including in the northern city of Chernihiv.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the attacks killed and injured civilians, including children, and damaged homes and a hospital.
Ms. Brown underscored that under international humanitarian law, civilians and hospitals must be protected at all times.
Aid workers in Chernihiv are on the ground supporting people impacted by the strikes – including with psychosocial and legal assistance – complementing the work of first responders and rescue services.
Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration and non-governmental organization partners are mobilizing emergency repair materials and other supplies, as well as cash assistance.
In southern Ukraine today, an inter-agency humanitarian convoy delivered aid to Prymorske Town in the Zaporizhzhia Region. This support is from UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and other humanitarian partners and included drinking water, medical supplies, and hygiene items for people impacted by shelling, which often disrupts electricity and water supplies.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our peacekeeping colleagues there report that with logistical support from the UN Mine Action Service - UNMAS - a weapons’ marking and registration operation is currently taking place in Goma and Beni in North Kivu.
The initiative was launched by national authorities to enhance the monitoring and tracing of weapons possessed by the Congolese army and police, while also addressing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons among civilians and armed groups in conflict-impacted areas.
With an estimated 300,000 weapons in civilian hands, this operation will help to combat the illicit circulation of these weapons and to strengthen control.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Our Peacekeeping Mission in nearby Central African Republic strongly condemned today the attacks against civilians by armed groups in the southeast and in the west of the country. These attacks, which have taken place since the beginning of the month of April, have claimed many lives, including those of women and children.
In Zemio, in Haut-Mbomou prefecture, peacekeepers are continuing to conduct daily patrols to restore calm and secure the area, which is a priority for them. The Mission has also established a temporary operating base in the Ouham-Pendé prefecture, also to protect civilians.
The Mission again urged armed groups and self-defense groups active in the country to immediately end the violence and highlighted the urgent need for accountability.
LIBYA
And just to stay on the African continent. You noted that yesterday, we confirmed that the Secretary-General has indeed received the resignation letter of Abdoulaye Bathily, his Special Representative in Libya [and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, UNSMIL]. The Secretary-General accepted the resignation.
The Secretary-General is of course, very grateful for the work that Mr. Bathily has done, for his leadership of UNSMIL and for his tireless efforts to restore peace and stability to Libya.
The Secretary-General reiterates that we are committed to continuing to support the Libyan-led and owned political process.
And of course, you also heard from Mr. Bathily quite clearly yesterday afternoon.
HAITI
On Haiti, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is telling us that, as violence continues to drive humanitarian needs, supply constraints and transport costs remain major challenges to assist close to 90,000 people displaced across 87 sites in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
As a reminder, more than half of those displaced are women; and a third of them are children.
Meanwhile, with the rainy season underway in Haiti, the risk of flooding is another threat to displaced people and those in the most disadvantaged areas.
Despite the challenges, the humanitarian response continues.
Yesterday, the World Food Programme delivered more than 14,000 hot meals to displaced people in the capital area, as well as 226,000 school lunches across the country.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme – through logistics partners and the UN Humanitarian Response Depot – has facilitated air transport of humanitarian supplies into the country, through Cap-Haïtien, in northern Haiti.
The operation began last Friday, with supplies from the Pan American Health Organization / WHO in Panama, as well as the International Organization for Migration.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS/AFGHANISTAN
The UN Development Programme today released a report showing that Afghanistan's women entrepreneurs face a range of hurdles and high costs of doing business. Deepened discrimination, operational constraints, coupled with a severely weakened financial system, has forced 41 per cent of the over 3,000 women surveyed are in debt, of whom only 5 per cent had received loans from banks or microfinance institutions.
UNDP notes that movement restrictions - with 73 per cent reporting being unable to travel even to local markets without a male escorting family member - further heightens the challenges. However, the report notes that women are finding ways to tackle the challenges and 80 per cent of women-led enterprises rely on their business revenues as their primary source of income.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Antigua and Barbuda has paid its dues in full, bringing us up to 101 Member States who have paid their dues this year.
GUESTS TODAY
Leyla Sherafi, the Chief of the Gender and Human Rights Branch at UNFPA, and Emilie Filmer-Wilson, the Human Rights Adviser at UNFPA, briefed reporters on UNFPA’s latest State of the World Population report.
Also at about 5:30 pm this afternoon, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, will be at the Security Council stakeout, along with the Foreign Minister of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, following the Security Council open meeting on UNRWA.
BRIEFING TOMORROW
Tomorrow, at 11:30 a.m., there will be a briefing sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations - on indigenous land rights.
The briefing is entitled “Tŝilhqot’ (Chilcotin) Nation Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of Historic Indigenous Land Rights Case”.
