HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 10 AUGUST 2023

NIGER 
Following reports that President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger and his family are living without electricity, water, food or medicine, the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General said that the Secretary-General is very concerned over the deplorable living conditions that President Bazoum and his family are reported to be living under as they continue to be arbitrarily detained by members of the Presidential Guard in Niger.  The Secretary-General reiterates his concern over the health and safety of the President and his family and once again calls for his immediate, unconditional release and his reinstatement as Head of State.
The Secretary-General is also alarmed over continuing reports about the arrest of several members of the Government.  He urgently calls for their unconditional release and for the strict adherence to Niger’s international human rights obligations.

NIGER/HUMANITARIAN
Also in Niger, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that aid operations continue. This week, the World Food Programme (WFP) assisted more than 12,000 people with food in the Maradi region. 
Heavy rains and floods continue across the country. Some 38,000 people were reportedly affected since the beginning of the rainy season that started in June. The Government and humanitarian organizations are ramping up efforts to support affected people.
Humanitarian partners are struggling with low stocks of supplies, due to the impact of closures of the border and the air space. This situation may affect food assistance for 2.8 million people in the coming months.
The UN team in Niger and Burkina Faso also said that the UN has obtained authorizations from the Niger de facto authorities to carry out four flights from Niamey to Ouagadougou using UN Humanitarian Air Services aircrafts based in Niger to relocate family dependents.

ECUADOR 
The UN system in Ecuador, led by Resident Coordinator Lena Savelli, has strongly condemned the attack against presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.  The country team has called for an investigation of this crime, so that there is no sense of impunity, and to redouble efforts to stop this wave of violence that is sadly affecting all the country’s population.  
The country team added that these events are an aggression against the democratic system in Ecuador and they sent their sincere condolences to the friends and family of Fernando Villavicencio.  
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also condemned the killing. He urged the authorities to increase their efforts to strengthen protection measures for political candidates, public officers and journalists, and to protect people’s lives and personal integrity in line with international human rights standards to avoid the repetition of such a tragic crime.

SOUTH SUDAN 
Today, in South Sudan, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Guang Cong, spoke on behalf of our peacekeeping mission at a meeting of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission. 
In his remarks, he welcomed President Salva Kiir’s recent directive for the immediate deployment of the graduated Necessary Unified Forces and for the next phase of training for new soldiers to take place. This is a key step towards the full implementation of the peace agreement.  
However, Mr. Cong raised concerns over the lack of progress in achieving key electoral and constitutional benchmarks and warned that the conditions for South Sudan to hold elections are currently not in place. He added that political will, pragmatism, and leadership are more important than ever.

TRADITIONAL MEDICINES 
This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene its first-ever global summit to explore ways to scale up scientific advances and realize the potential of evidence-based knowledge in the use of traditional medicine for people’s health and well-being around the world. 
WHO emphasizes that traditional medicine can play an important and catalytic role in achieving the goal of universal health coverage and meeting global health-related targets that were off-track even before the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

NOON BRIEFING GUEST TODAY 
Today, we shall be joined by our guest, Dorothee Klaus, Director in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for Lebanon, and she will speak about the situation in the Ein El-Hilweh camp in Lebanon. 

***The guest at the Noon Briefing was Dorothee Klaus, Director in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), who spoke about the situation in the Ein El-Hilweh camp in Lebanon.