MYANMAR
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the increasing violence across Myanmar and strongly condemns the recent attacks by the Myanmar military that have reportedly killed scores of civilians, including in Rakhine State and Sagaing Region. The latest incident targeting ethnic Rakhine in Western Myanmar, and the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya, underlines the need for protection of all communities. Indiscriminate aerial bombings and human rights violations continue to be reported in many parts of Myanmar. Those responsible must be held to account.
The Secretary-General calls on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, prioritize protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law and prevent further incitement of communal tensions and violence.
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the widening regional ramifications of the deteriorating situation in Myanmar and reiterates his appeal for a unified approach.
The Secretary-General urges Member States and all stakeholders to engage and support his newly appointed Special Envoy, Julie Bishop, in her efforts to alleviate the suffering and help build an inclusive Myanmar-led process towards sustainable peace, including through close cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and neighbouring countries.
SECRETARY-GENERAL
This morning, the Secretary-General laid a wreath in remembrance of the 188 United Nations personnel who lost their lives in 2023, in the line of duty.
He said that among those personnel are 135 women and men who worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA, in Gaza.
That, Mr. Guterres said, is by far the highest number of our personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations – a reality we can never accept. He repeated his call for a full accounting for each of these deaths.
The Secretary-General noted that, when seeking consent of family members for the inclusion of their loved ones’ names in today’s service, we were unable to contact many of the family members of the UNRWA staff because they have either been killed or forced from their homes by Israeli military operations.
He said that he is personally devastated that despite our best efforts, we could not protect our staff in Gaza.
And he added that, for all our fallen colleagues – in Gaza or elsewhere in the world - we recommit to continuing their essential work to build lives of dignity and hope for all.
UNRWA
Staying on the situation in Gaza you will have seen that Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the UNRWA said that an UNRWA shelter was attacked today in Nuseirat, in the Middle Area of Gaza. It was hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced people or to the UNRWA staff in the building.
At least 35 people were killed and many more injured, he said. The school was sheltering 6,000 men, woman and children who were displaced.
The Commissioner General added that attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of international humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Further on Gaza and the deepening situation there, our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say that fewer than 100,000 people remain in Rafah governorate following the flight of about a million people, who were again on the run, moving toward Khan Younis and Deir al Balah.
The military operations have significantly destabilized humanitarian aid flows forcing ourselves and partners to reorganize their entire operations. As things stand, aid convoys still need to navigate active hostilities, barely passable roads, unexploded ordnances and recurrent delays. Our humanitarian community is engaging with the Israeli authorities to ensure sustained, secure and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into and within the Strip. It has also engaged with local communities to tackle the issue of law and order by protecting convoys from takeover.
The closure of Rafah has also reduced fuel supplies, affecting trucks, hospitals, sewage systems, and desalination operations as well as bakeries.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros, warns that insecurity and the ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing continue to compromise efforts to get supplies and staff in and around Gaza. He says intense hostilities have severely crippled health care in Rafah.
The head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell also warned that yesterday that with the summer heat and lack of water, food and health care in Gaza, deadly diseases could soon run rampant. She said the children of Gaza are living alongside mountains of trash and raw sewage as basic services reach a breaking point, amid ongoing fighting and displacement.
Also in Gaza yesterday morning, a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al Balah sustained damage after an Israeli projectile missile hit the adjoining Palestinian Flour mill building - one of only two flour mills in Deir El Balah, where the warehouse is used as a main storage and transit hub for commodities in the Gaza Strip.
While all WFP and partner staff working in the warehouse at the time are accounted for, WFP was forced to suspend its operations at the warehouse and the missions to it yesterday, but it has now been able to resume its activities today. The World Food Programme plans to conduct an assessment on the extent of the damage. The food agency urges all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligation to respect the integrity of humanitarian premises and assets, as well as aid workers serving people in desperate need of help.
And just moving on to the West Bank, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, said yesterday that although all eyes are on Gaza, the situation in the West Bank remains volatile – with houses demolished, infrastructure destroyed and health facilities attacked. Mr. Hadi was speaking during a visit to the central West Bank, where he and Member States representatives heard from Palestinian herding and Bedouin communities, as well as the organizations supporting them. They spoke of their concerns over the humanitarian impact of heightened violence, settler activities, access restrictions, demolitions and other coercive practices.
SUDAN
Turning to Sudan and the horrifying reports that we’re hearing about a high number of casualties in attacks that took place yesterday in the village of Wad Al-Noura in Al-Jazirah State.
I can tell you that in a statement issued a short while ago, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, expressed her shock at the events.
While we, as the United Nations do not have the full details surrounding yesterday’s horrific events, she said that we have received credible reports of heavy gunfire and the use of explosive weapons in populated civilian areas where the Rapid Support Forces have confirmed they have been involved in ground operations.
For her part, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, called for a thorough and impartial investigation to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
Meanwhile, our colleagues at the World Food Programme are urgently expanding emergency food and nutrition assistance in Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians continue to deteriorate.
The scale-up aims to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to an additional 5 million people by the end of this year, doubling the number of people that WFP had planned to support in its planning at the start of 2024.
WFP will provide cash assistance to 1.2 million people in 12 states of Sudan, giving a vital boost to local markets and food producers.
The International Organization for Migration for its part is warning that the number of people displaced by conflict inside Sudan could top 10 million in the coming days.
This includes 2.8 million men, women and children that were displaced prior to the start of this phase of the conflict in April 2023, and 7.1 million since that date. More than half of all internally displaced people are women and girls, and over a quarter of those displaced are children under the five years old.
This is in addition to the two million people who have fled to neighbouring countries – mainly in Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
In the Central African Republic, our peacekeeping mission there reports that a UN electoral needs assessment team has arrived in the country, at the request of the government, to determine support for forthcoming presidential, legislative and local elections expected to take place over the next two years. The team will consult widely, including with the Government, political and institutional actors, civil society, international partners and potential donors.
Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to protect civilians, the peacekeeping mission reports it has intensified patrols in the country’s east, including in the Haute-Kotto prefecture, following reports of the presence of armed groups in this area.
Peacekeepers are also continuing to work to rehabilitate roads [between] Obo and Bambouti in the Haut-Mbomou prefecture to facilitate the delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid, and that’s ahead of the rainy season when roads become very difficult to navigate.
UKRAINE
Moving to Europe and to Ukraine, today marks one year since the Kakhovka Dam destruction which unleashed massive flooding in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
The flooding displaced families, damaged homes and livelihoods and disrupted the water supply. We and our humanitarian partners were mobilized from day one to help impacted communities.
Meanwhile, yesterday and today, intensified attacks caused civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in the Dnipro and Donetsk - centre and east of the country – that’s what local authorities are telling us.
Millions of people in the Dnipro, Donetsk, Kyiv, and Odesa regions, as well as in Kyiv City, have been suffering from electricity interruptions due to damage to energy facilities, as reported by the national grid authority.
On another note, our colleagues from the UN Refugee Agency said that, yesterday, three staff members of their national partner organization, called Humanitarian Mission Proliska, came under artillery fire while delivering humanitarian aid around the Zaporizhzhia Region in the south of Ukraine. There were no casualties reported, but the car - marked as humanitarian - was damaged.
SRI LANKA
Our team in Sri Lanka, led by our Resident Coordinator Marc André-Franche, is supporting the government in assessing and meeting the immediate needs of over 250,000 people impacted by the ongoing severe floods and landslides since 2 June.
Supplies like protective gear, dignity kits and maternity kits have been dispatched and prepositioned for rapid deployment. Various UN agencies are also working on improving sanitation in healthcare facilities and purifying water wells.
Mr. Franche conveyed the UN’s sympathies to all those communities impacted and to families who lost loved ones due to the devastating floods. We stand committed to supporting national efforts to address the impacts and support livelihoods.
INTERNATIONAL DAYS
As today you know, is International Russian Language Day. Russian is one of our six official languages.
This year’s celebration coincides with the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, a giant of literature whose legacy transcends borders and languages.
There is an exhibition dedicated to the Russian fairy tales and the poet Pushkin near the Vienna café.
