HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
[Please note: There will be no noon briefings
this week. News developments within the UN system will be posted on this website
throughout this time period, and the noon briefings will resume on Tuesday,
January 2, 2007.]
SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS SUDAN,
SOMALIA; ANNAN TO ATTEND
The Security
Council has scheduled consultations, starting at 3:30 p.m. today, to discuss
recent developments in
Sudan, in a meeting that will be attended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Afterward, the Council will continue consultations on
Somalia, which it had discussed on
Tuesday.
The
consultations on Sudan will include briefings by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the
Secretary-General’s senior adviser who traveled as an envoy to Khartoum last
week and delivered a message on the Secretary-General’s behalf, and by
Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi.
On Tuesday,
the Secretary-General shared with Council members a letter he had received
from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, which responded to his message.
SECURITY COUNCIL TOLD OF DANGEROUS
ESCALATION IN SOMALIA
In an open
meeting on
Tuesday afternoon, the Security Council was told by the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, that the crisis in
Somalia has escalated dangerously. He said that attacks between the
Transitional Federal Government and the Union of Islamic Courts had expanded,
and he also noted reports of military support by foreign forces, including
from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Fall told the
Council that the Secretary-General on Tuesday had called the Prime Minister of
Ethiopia and the President of Kenya to urge a cessation of hostilities in
Somalia and to reaffirm that there is no military solution to the conflict.
The Secretary-General reiterated to the two leaders the need to encourage the
Somali parties to resume peace talks without preconditions.
Fall urged
Security Council members to call on the two sides to halt the fighting
immediately and not to take any further provocative actions.
Council
members also discussed on Tuesday the text of a draft Presidential Statement
on Somalia that was submitted by Qatar. The discussions on that draft text
will resume this afternoon.
FOOD AGENCY SUSPENDS AIRDROPS, HELICOPTER OPERATIONS IN
SOMALIA
The World Food Programme
(WFP) has suspended its helicopter operation delivering humanitarian aid from
the Somali port of Kismayo, as well as its air drop operation and passenger
flights from Kenya into Somalia, because of conflict and instability.
The air operation to
assist up to half a million flood survivors in south and central Somalia had
also become difficult because of a ban on using Somali airspace declared by
the Transitional Federal Government on Monday.
WFP hopes to resume all
its air operations using airdrops and helicopters and its humanitarian
passenger and cargo service in Somalia as soon as possible and is in contact
with authorities on the ground in an attempt to achieve this.
WFP still has more than
100 national staff in Somalia operating from 15 offices across the country,
and they are continuing their food distribution work.
Meanwhile, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today
expressed deep concern for civilian victims of the hostilities between
forces of the Transitional Federal Government and militia of the Union of
Islamic Courts in Somalia.
SUDAN: DEPLOYMENT OF U.N. PERSONNEL
IN DARFUR RESOLVED
The UN
Mission in Sudan said that the third meeting of the tripartite mechanism took
place yesterday in Khartoum. The mechanism, which consists of representatives
of the UN, the African Union (AU) and the Government of Sudan, resolved the
one outstanding issue of the deployment of UN personnel in support of AU
forces in Darfur.
It was agreed
that UN military and police officers will wear their national uniforms with a
blue UN beret. In addition, they will wear an AU armband.
The UN and AU
team also provided the Government of Sudan representatives with a list of the
names of the UN military staff officers and police advisers who will form the
first UN group to be deployed to Darfur. Under the light support package,
twenty four police advisers and forty-three staff officers will start to be
deployed in the next few days. The balance of military and police officers
will be deployed in the coming weeks.
ANNAN PRESENTS OPTIONS FOR U.N.
MISSION IN ETHIOPIA & ERITREA
Available today is a special
report of
the Secretary-General which outlines possible changes to the mandate of the UN
Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
In the report, the Secretary-General states that the prevailing
unstable, tense and volatile situation in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) is
due to an accumulation of unresolved issues, in particular the stalemated
process of demarcating the border between the two countries.
The security situation in and around the TSZ has further deteriorated
since his last report in September. This deterioration is primarily due to
the incursion of armed Eritrean personnel into the TSZ in October. The
situation is compounded by the long list of restrictions by Eritrea on the
operations of the Mission.
The Secretary-General presents four options in the report regarding
UNMEE’s mandate, including a reduction in the Mission’s military strength and
the transformation of the Mission’s status with a new observer mandate.
UNICEF
SENDS RELIEF AID TO INDONESIAN FLOOD SURVIVORS
Emergency UNICEF
supplies are on their way to help tens of thousands of flood survivors in
Aceh, Indonesia. Six trucks are currently travelling on roads, opened today
after days of closure, from the North Sumatran city of Medan, to one of the
worst-hit districts.
The UNICEF supplies
include: 19,303 hygiene kits; 5,000 oral rehydration sachets; 2,500 water
purification bottles; 2,500 tarpaulin sheets; 1,218 sets of cooking utensils;
and 1300 jerry cans. More supplies will be dispatched from Medan tomorrow.
In addition, a UNICEF child
protection team arrived today in the hardest-hit area, to assess the condition
and needs of children and women.
U.N. HELPS KYRGYZSTAN COPE WITH
EARTHQUAKE
The Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
has
allocated a cash grant of $10,000 to cover immediate needs, following an
earthquake that hit Kyrgyzstan yesterday.
Kyrgyzstan’s
Ministry of Emergency Situations mobilized its resources, and appealed for
international assistance in order to provide food, heating equipment, clothing, medicaments
and construction materials to quake survivors.
Preliminary information received by the Government indicates damage mainly to
housing, electric lines and communications and the need to provide heating for
both the homeless and local medical aid centres.
ANNAN SADDENED BY
PIPELINE EXPLOSION DEATHS IN NIGERIA
The following
statement
was issued yesterday: The Secretary-General is deeply saddened at the deaths
of hundreds of people as a result of the explosion of a fuel pipeline in the
Abule Egba district of Lagos, Nigeria. He extends
his deepest condolences to the Government, the bereaved families and to all
others affected by this disaster.
The theft of
fuel from Nigerian pipelines has become a frequent occurrence, often with
tragic consequences. The Secretary-General calls for a review of the
country’s fuel supply management, as well as a thorough regional review of
risks that could lead to other environmental or technological disasters in
West Africa. The United Nations stands ready to assist in this endeavour, and
to help in assessing current gaps in risk mapping and disaster response in the
region.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
