SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS
The Secretary-General arrived today in Algiers, where he was received at the airport by Ramtane Lamamra, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
This afternoon, he had bilateral meetings with the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and he will also meet now with the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
In about an hour from now, the Summit of the League of Arab States will commence. In his remarks, the Secretary-General is expected to emphasize that our world faces great trials and tests, geopolitical divides are growing, and inequalities are deepening, and cooperation is the only way forward. He is also expected to stress that regional organizations like the League of Arab States have a vital role to play and that we must work together to advance peace, sustainable development, and human rights.
Later today, the Secretary-General is also expected to meet the President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The Secretary-General will be back in New York tomorrow afternoon.
BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE
The UN Secretariat at the Joint Coordination Centre reports that the Ukrainian, Turkish and United Nations delegations agreed not to plan any movement of vessels in the Black Sea Grain Initiative for tomorrow 2 November.
Today, UN and Turkish inspectors concluded 36 inspections on board outbound vessels. The teams boarded another two ships, but the process was suspended due to issues related to fumigated cargo. All inspection reports will be shared with the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
The UN Secretariat reiterates that movements and inspections carried out after the Russian Federation suspended its participation in implementation activities at the Joint Coordination Centre is a temporary and extraordinary measure.
The UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Amir Abdulla, in close cooperation and consultation with the Turkish delegation at the JCC, is exerting all efforts to resume full participation at the JCC.
The UN Secretariat at the JCC reports that today, three outbound vessels are transiting the maritime humanitarian corridor. The movement of these vessels has been agreed by the Ukrainian, Turkish and UN delegations to the JCC. The Russian delegation to the JCC has been informed. Those vessels are carrying a total of 84,490 metric tonnes of grain and food products.
As of today, the total tonnage of grain and foodstuffs moved from Ukrainian ports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative is more than 9.7 million metric tonnes.
Yesterday, 46 inspections on board outbound vessels were completed by UN and Turkish inspectors.
Also yesterday, a total of 14 vessels, 12 outbound and 2 inbound, including a vessel chartered by the World Food Programme, transited the corridor safely.
UKRAINE
Our partners in Ukraine tell us they are building a new centre to house internally displaced people in western Chernivetska oblast. The oblast is home to over 100,000 people who fled from the east, many of whom live in schools, hospitals and other public buildings.
Meanwhile, in the north of the country, in Zhytomyrska oblast, which is home to more than 71,000 people uprooted by the war, UN agencies are helping rehabilitate and provide water and sanitation supplies to centres sheltering displaced people.
Altogether, our partners have reached 1.8 million people across Ukraine with shelter and essential household items as of 26 October.
Our colleagues on the ground also tell us that efforts are under way to restore power and water supply in towns and cities that were attacked yesterday.
Power supplies have been restored in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia and in some central areas in Ukraine. However, people living in at least seven of Ukraine’s 24 regions are still having to deal with power cuts.
At the same time, active fighting and further attacks yesterday and today reportedly caused more than two dozen civilian casualties, most of them in eastern Donetska and southern Mykolaivska oblasts and caused destruction in other parts of the country.
We would like to remind the parties that civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools, health facilities and power supplies are protected under international humanitarian law and the parties must make every effort to spare them.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TRAVELS
Today, in Madrid, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, visited the IE university, with which several UN agencies have signed cooperation agreements in recent years to advance sustainable development. She engaged in substantive exchanges with faculty staff and students.
She also met with Zurab Pololikashvili, the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization. She thanked him for his leadership in finding sustainable solutions for local economies that rely on tourism for decent work. She also greeted the UN Family Team in Spain; and met local youth representatives to discuss how they can advance the SDGs. She is on her way back to New York now.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
We have an update from our peacekeeping colleagues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as fighting continues between the M23 armed group and Congolese national armed forces, particularly around Rutshuru in North Kivu. The surge in violence has already cost many lives and displaced tens of thousands of families.
The top priority for our peacekeeping Mission there is to help protect civilians, support the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance, and to restore security.
Despite the deteriorating situation, the Mission is continuing to help provide a protective presence alongside the Congolese armed forces, through patrols and surveillance flights. Yesterday, UN peacekeepers evacuated 12 journalists from Kiwanga to Goma, including staff from a local radio station who walked 34 kilometres to reach the Mission’s base. More journalists are being evacuated today.
More broadly, the UN is working intensively alongside regional and international partners to help bring an end to the hostilities and to restore respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC. On the ground, our Mission is also urging all actors to refrain from spreading hate speech and disinformation which is further fuelling the violence, including towards UN personnel.
Also on the DRC, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that the situation there is deteriorating rapidly and threatening to turn into a human rights disaster.
He urged all sides to protect civilians in line with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including by allowing and facilitating unfettered humanitarian access to all in need, and safe exit for civilians out of areas affected by hostilities.
The High Commissioner also expressed concern about a resurgence in hate speech targeting people based on their ethnicity, as well as a rise in misinformation, disinformation and negative rhetoric against the UN Peacekeeping Mission.
MALI
Turning to Mali, over the past two months, our peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, undertook jointly with national authorities a series of field visits to the northern regions – from Timbuktu to Kidal, via Gao and Ménaka – to assess and raise awareness on the disarmament, demobilization and reinsertion and integration processes.
As agreed by the signatory of the peace agreement during the high-level meeting in August, a total of 26,000 former combatants will be integrated into the Malian army and civil service between 2022 and 2024.
MINUSMA will continue to work alongside national and international partners to support the integration of ex-combatants into the Malian defense and security forces to help reduce insecurity and build sustainable peace.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Our colleagues at the Peacekeeping Mission in the Central African Republic welcome the first verdict of the Special Criminal Court against three members of the armed group 3R.
With this decision, the UN mission said the Court marked a major step in addressing the need for justice of the Central African populations, in particular the victims of the attacks launched in May 2019 against the populations of Koundjili and Lemouna, in the country’s northwest.
The Head of the Mission, Valentine Rugwabiza, said that the verdict of the Special Criminal Court constitutes a remarkable step forward in the fight against impunity for serious violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
The Mission reiterated its commitment to continue supporting efforts to fight impunity in the country.
AFGHANISTAN
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime today released a survey which says that opium cultivation in Afghanistan this year increased by 32 per cent, with prices for this commodity soaring even as the country is gripped by humanitarian and economic crises
This is the first survey conducted since the Taliban assumed power in August last year and banned cultivation of opium poppy and all narcotics in April.
UNODC said that this year’s harvest was largely exempted from the decree, and farmers in Afghanistan must now decide on planting opium poppy for next year amid continued uncertainty about how the de facto authorities will enforce the ban.
UNODC added that the international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people, and to step up responses to stop the criminal groups trafficking heroin and harming people in countries around the world.
MYANMAR
In Myanmar, our team is concerned that ongoing hostilities continue to endanger the safety of civilians. More than 1.1 million people have now been newly displaced by conflict and insecurity since the military took over in February 2021, bringing the total number of internally displaced people to more than 1.4 million. In the states of Rakhine and southern Chin, indiscriminate attacks impacting civilians, the use of landmines and mortar shelling and new access restrictions since the renewed fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces and the Arakan Army are putting people’s lives in danger and preventing lifesaving assistance from reaching people in need. In addition to the conflict, the costs of basic commodities continue to compromise food security. An estimated 15.2 million people are now severely and moderately food insecure. As of last week, the Humanitarian Response Plan was only 22 per cent funded, leaving a gap of $643 million. Consequently, partners are being forced to prioritize assistance to people in most need and there are shortages of stocks in some parts of the country.
INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION
I just want to flag that today the International Maritime Organization has new regulations entering into force that will require ships to improve their energy efficiency in the short term and thereby reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
IMO said that, as a stimulus to reduce carbon intensity of all ships by 40 per cent by 2030 compared to the 2008 baseline, ships will be required to calculate two ratings: one to determine their energy efficiency, and the other to calculate their annual operational Carbon Intensity Indicator, which links greenhouse gas emissions to the amount of cargo carried over distance travelled.
PRESS ENCOUNTER TOMORROW
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, will brief the UN Security Council on global displacement, looking at refugee operations around the world, and the importance of addressing root causes of forced displacement especially through heightened international efforts to prevent and resolve conflict. He will speak to reporters following that meeting.
