Noon briefing of 22 September 2023

At 2:00 p.m., there will be a press briefing also in this very room by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Jalil Abbas Jilani.
And just to flag, we will do a briefing on Monday, though it’s a floating holiday, and on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., there will be a press briefing of the Alliance of Sahel States. The speakers will be Abdoulaye Diop, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali and Olivia Rouamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso.
And at 1:30 p.m., we will have our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, to give you a kind of a wrap-up press conference.

SYRIA
Turning to Syria, we have an update for you on cross-border aid deliveries to north-west Syria. Earlier today, five trucks carrying humanitarian aid provided by the International Organization for Migration passed through Bab Al-Hawa border crossing from southern Türkiye. Another six trucks used the Bab Al-Salam border crossing also with IOM supplies.
Since the resumption of operations through Bab al-Hawa that took place on Tuesday as you’ll recall, 49 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance provided by UN agencies arrived in Idlib through this crossing.
Additional truck movements and missions by UN personnel are planned in the coming days.
The UN cross-border operation remains a lifeline to people in north-west Syria. Each month, we and our partners reach an average of 2.6 million people with critical assistance and protection services.
So far this year, more than 4,000 trucks with aid from the United Nations have crossed from Türkiye into north-west Syria using the Bab Al-Hawa, Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ae border crossings.

LIBYA
Turning to Libya, Georgette Gagnon, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, said that providing psychosocial support for the thousands of people impacted by Storm Daniel in eastern Libya is a priority.
On a two-day visit to Benghazi, Ms. Gagnon met with families who fled their flood-ravaged homes and sought safety in Benghazi, which is about 250 kilometers away from Derna. They spoke of their loss, and of their concern both for their children’s education and of the unknown.  She said that support is urgently needed to help people heal.
The World Health Organization says that more than 4,000 fatalities have been confirmed, and more than 8,000 people are still missing. Sadly, these figures are expected to rise.
More than 43,000 people have been impacted by the rain and the dam break, that’s according to the International Organization for Migration.
To give you a bit of context of the aid that’s coming in, UNICEF has shipped 65 tonnes of medical and child protection supplies as well as water, sanitation and hygiene items. The agency has provided emergency medical kits to support 15,000 people for three months, hygiene kits for almost 1,000 people, and 500 clothing kits. Mobile psychosocial support teams are being set up with social welfare authorities and two NGO partners on the ground in Derna.
Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency is distributing blankets, plastic tarpaulins and kitchen equipment to about 6,200 displaced families in Derna and in Benghazi. And the World Food Programme has provided food rations for more than 9,000 people.
WHO, the World Health Organization, has shipped 28 tonnes of medical supplies and donated ambulances and medical kits. A WHO team met with the health authorities in Derna yesterday and agreed to prioritize mental health support for survivors.

NIGER
From Niger, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us, or they’re warning us rather, are warning all of us, about access constraints in the Tillabéri region of Niger, that’s in the western part of the country, where thousands of displaced people need humanitarian assistance.
The area hosts over 150,000 displaced men, women and children who have fled violence.
Some progress has been made after discussions with de facto authorities, but our humanitarian colleagues say they are still experiencing delays and difficulties as they are concerned this could further aggravate the situation of many, many vulnerable households.

CLIMATE
And also this year, you will have seen deadly floods all over the world, proving that while water is the key to life, it can also kill. For this reason, the World Meteorological Organization, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and their partners today announced a new collaboration to help communities understand and act on water-related risks before they become disasters.
The programme is focused on supporting the countries of Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda, which all are linked by which river? The Nile. All linked by the Nile River Basin and this is a direct contribution to the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Early Warnings for All’ initiative. The programme is being generously financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

SECURITY COUNCIL
Just to note, you will have seen that yesterday the Security Council held a meeting on Armenia and Azerbaijan. Miroslav Jenča, our Assistant Secretary-General in the office of Political Affairs briefed the Council and recalled to Council members the Secretary-General’s extreme concern over the recent resumption of hostilities that resulted in the tragic loss of civilian lives, including children.
He said developments of the past few days should be seen in the context of the broader pattern of regular ceasefire violations, which have continued to persist. He called for a credible and durable cessation of all hostilities, pointing out that any renewed escalation would lead to further loss of life and human suffering and further set back internationally supported peace efforts.
Mr. Jenča stressed the protection and essential needs of the civilian population, including their human rights, must be respected.

PALESTINE REFUGEES
And also in a High-Level meeting, yesterday afternoon co-hosted by Jordan and Sweden yesterday in support of Palestine Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, as well as Member States, reaffirmed their strong political support for UNRWA.
UNRWA said that the generous pledges made yesterday contribute to the core budget - used for critical services, including education and health care - and to its emergency responses to the multiple crises in the region for the months of September and October.
UNRWA appealed to its partners to urgently make sufficient funds available as soon as possible.

DAY OF SIGN LANGUAGES
Tomorrow is the International Day of Sign Languages. This Day is a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.

SECRETARY-GENERAL BILATERAL MEETINGS
And just to give you a numerical update during this General Assembly with a lot of events and bilaterals as you may have seen. The Secretary-General has had about 96 bilaterals to date and more tomorrow. And in terms of the numbers of participants, the last numbers we had were 88 Heads of State, six vice presidents, 43 heads of government, four deputy prime ministers, 41 ministers, seven chiefs of delegations, plus three high-level speakers from observers which is about 192.

FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Lastly, but by no means least, we did get money, very welcome, from a country which has a green way of thinking.
In 2008, it banned plastic bags and packaging material, and asked citizens take part in a monthly community clean-up called Umuganda. Translating to “coming together in common purpose,”
The nation also hosts Car Free Days in its green capital city. On the first and third Sunday of every month, which country are we talking about?
Rwanda. We thank our friends in Kigali for their contributions. We’re up to 135 fully paid-up Member States.