HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC

SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022

SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT 
Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Daniela Kroslak of Germany as his new Deputy Special Representative for the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali, otherwise known as MINUSMA. 
Ms. Kroslak succeeds Joanne Adamson of the United Kingdom, who recently completed her assignment, and to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her important contribution to the work of the Mission. 
Since January 2020, Ms. Kroslak served as the Deputy Head of the UN Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement, in Yemen.  Prior to her deployment to Yemen, she was the Chief of Staff of the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti.  Lots more on her bio online.

HAITI 
Mourad Wahba of Egypt has been appointed by the Secretary-General as the independent expert to lead the assessment mission of the mandate of the UN Mission in Haiti, known as BINUH. This was following the request by the Security Council in resolution 2600.   
He will travel to Haiti soon to meet with interlocutors and report back as requested. 

AFGHANISTAN 
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Refugee Agency today announced that on Tuesday, January 11th , at 11.30 a.m. in Geneva, two humanitarian appeals will be launched, one for Afghanistan and the other for the wider region. According to our humanitarian colleagues and UNHCR, more than half of the Afghan population is in need of humanitarian assistance, and the crisis has also driven many people into neighbouring countries, in waves, over many years. The virtual event will be live streamed on UN Web TV. Martin Griffiths, the Head of the department of Humanitarian Affairs, and Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, will chair and speak at the event, as well as the Asia Nansen Award winner Saleema Rehman, who is a doctor from Afghanistan. 
I also want to flag that ahead of the event, there will be an embargoed hybrid press conference on Monday, January 10th, at 3.30 p.m. Geneva time, in which Mr. Griffiths and Mr. Grandi will participate.

ETHIOPIA REFUGEES 
Turning to Ethiopia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said he is deeply saddened that three Eritrean refugees, two of them children, were killed on Wednesday in an airstrike that hit the Mai Aini refugee camp in northern Ethiopia. 

PHILIPPINES 
In the Philippines, the World Food Programme is warning that nutrition and food security are at risk in communities hit by the Super Typhoon Odette three weeks ago. Odette has made landfall nine times over an area the size of Austria over two days and affected seven million people. 
WFP requires an additional $ 25.8 million to provide food to 250,000 typhoon survivors, alongside emergency logistics and telecommunications support to the broader typhoon response. So far it has received $4.7 million.