Noon briefing of 20 February 2024

First, I’ll start with the situation in Gaza. The World Health Organization said today that it has led two life-saving missions to transfer 32 critical patients, including two children, from Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza on 18 and 19 February – that was yesterday and the day before – this is of course, amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions. The high-risk missions were conducted in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The team also provided limited supplies of essential medicines and food for the remaining patients and staff who are otherwise being cut off from aid.
Four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances ensured the safe transportation of the patients, who underwent medical assessment and triage under the coordination of the hospital director.
Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for diseases. WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings and heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.
An estimated 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital. WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers who are remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths.
In a statement issued today, the World Food Programme said it is pausing its deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza until conditions are in place that allow for safe distributions of that aid.
The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger. The World Food Programme is deeply committed to urgently reaching desperate people across Gaza but the safety and security to deliver critical food aid - and for the people receiving it - must be ensured.
Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Coordinator, Jamie McGoldrick, has wrapped up a visit to Gaza. Today, he visited the Kerem Shalom crossing and the Rafah crossings and saw first-hand the challenges there to getting more humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip. Yesterday, the World Health Organization along with UNICEF and the World Food Programme, issued results of a new analysis that shows a steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip. The report, “Nutrition Vulnerability and Situation Analysis – in Gaza,” finds that the situation is particularly extreme in the Northern Gaza Strip, which has been almost completely cut off from aid for weeks. Nutrition screenings conducted at shelters and health centres in the north found that 15.6 per cent – or one in six children under the age of two – are acutely malnourished. Of these, almost 3 per cent suffer from severe wasting, which is the most severe form of malnutrition.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General is in Bangkok. Amina Mohammed, alongside Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, the Thai Foreign Minister as well as the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, that’s the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and that’s Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the three of them opened the Asia Pacific Regional Forum for Sustainable Development. In her remarks, the Deputy Secretary-General stressed the need to continue to strive towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and fulfilling the vision of the 2030 Agenda. She highlighted that the Asia-Pacific region has demonstrated how a long-term vision can be transformed into reality, adding that more progress is possible if we mobilize at speed and at scale, and if we work together.
The Deputy Secretary-General, then met with the Prime Minister of Thailand, Srettha Thavisin.
They discussed Thailand’s commitment to accelerating SDG implementation, including targeted action towards the triple planetary crisis. She underscored the UN’s commitment to supporting the Government in these efforts.
And on the sidelines of the event, Ms. Mohammed also met with Woochong Um, Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank to discuss actions for the delivery of the SDG Stimulus and reform of the international financial architecture.
She is now on her way to Brazil, to participate, on behalf of the Secretary-General, in the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting.

CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
The Emergency Relief Coordinator for these United Nations, Martin Griffiths, today released $100 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund - known as CERF - to support seven of the least-funded humanitarian operations in Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.
These emergencies are in Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo received $20 million each, with the remaining support going to Chad, Niger, Lebanon and Honduras.
Mr. Griffiths said the new allocation is a reminder of the crucial role the Emergency Response Fund plays at a time of immense needs and chronic underfunding of humanitarian appeals.
Last year, less than 40 per cent of the $56.7 billion needed to sustain humanitarian appeals around the globe was received. The Emergency Fund also received less funding in 2023, and it was the lowest amount in five years.
With donations at the lowest, CERF's life-saving impact is facing serious challenges. Mr. Griffiths is appealing to Member States to step up and provide full funding.

SUDAN
And just to update you on one of these crises and that’s Sudan. Our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization say that efforts to deliver life-saving health assistance to civilians across the country continue, despite the many obstacles that they face. Last month, our humanitarian partners provided medical consultations to more than 180,000 people in 12 of Sudan’s states. They also delivered medicine to some 115,000 people in eight states and supported 16 mobile clinics in Darfur and Kordofan. The Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Clementine Nkweta-Salame, stressed that the unimpeded and rapid passage of aid personnel, medicines and other supplies must be ensured to support an estimated 25 million men, women and children in need of desperate humanitarian assistance in Sudan.

THE SAHEL
Turning to the Sahel, the World Food Programme today called for urgent support to safeguard programmes that help communities impacted by various crises in the region.
Since 2018, WFP has been working with governments and partners on resilience programmes in the Sahel countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, helping communities access locally grown and nutritious food. Thanks to sustained donor funding, more than 290,000 hectares of degraded land have been restored and four million people have benefitted and that’s in over 3,200 villages across the Sahel. However, the Rome-based agency warned that the programmes are at imminent risk of being suspended due to lack of funding. From March onward, WFP will be forced to reduce or stop resilience activities across the Sahel, and particularly in Niger. To sustain its resilience-building support across the region, WFP requires US$183.1 million for the next 12 months.

UKRAINE
Moving to Ukraine, our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency today said that after two years of full-scale war in Ukraine, amidst massive destruction and ongoing shelling and missile attacks across the country, the future for millions who have been displaced remains shrouded in uncertainty. According to UNHCR, there are currently almost 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine who have sought refuge globally, while some 3.7 million people remain forcibly displaced inside their own country.
A recent UNHCR study shows that the majority of Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced people surveyed – that’s 65 and 72 per cent respectively – still expressed a desire to return home one day. However, the proportion has declined, with more expressing uncertainty due to the ongoing war.
And in that regard I just want to flag that on Friday’s Security Council meeting on Ukraine, the Secretary-General will be delivering remarks.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Moving across the globe to Papua New Guinea our team there has strongly condemned the killing of over 53 people in the highlands province of Enga, and calls for an immediate cessation of violence and warns against possible retaliation following the killings.
Richard Howard, the Resident Coordinator there, urged all parties to immediately cease all fighting and called on authorities to fully investigate the killings with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Our team on the ground stands ready to support the Government in addressing long-standing issues with an ever-increasing illicit flow of arms and remains committed to assisting the Government in eliminating tribal violence and to bring lasting peace in the Highlands.

RESIDENT COORDINATOR ANNOUNCEMENT
We have a new Resident Coordinator to announce for Nigeria. The Secretary-General has appointed Mr. Mohamed M. Malick Fall of Senegal as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, following confirmation by the host Government.
He took up his post over the weekend and will also serve as the Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria.
With more than 20 years of experience in development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding affairs, Mr. Fall will lead the work of our UN team on the ground, boosting Nigeria’s commitments to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and leave no one behind. We congratulate him on that post.

DAY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
Today is a day to mark something that we are lacking - social justice. The World Day for Social Justice. This Day reminds us of the need to build fairer and more equitable societies. The International Labour Organization will mark the occasion with a series of events to discuss how to put social justice at the centre of international, national and regional policy agendas.