TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT
The Secretary-General is traveling to Bali, in Indonesia, to attend the Leaders’ Gathering of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.
While in Bali, he will meet with the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, as well as other high-level officials attending the gatherings.
The Secretary-General will participate in the IMF and World Bank sessions on topics including sustainable development, climate change and famine.
On Friday, 12 October, together with the Vice President of Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla, the Secretary-General will visit Palu on Sulawesi Island, which as you know, was struck by an earthquake and a tsunami at the end of last month.
The Secretary-General, who is leaving this evening, will be back in New York on Sunday.
INDONESIA
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that, according to the Indonesian Government, more than 1,900 people have been killed, more than 10,000 injured and more than 800 are still missing following the earthquake and tsunami.
More than 62,000 people have been displaced, with many people having lost absolutely everything.
Aid is being delivered by air through the airport at Palu, and many roads in the area are now functional with improved access to outlying areas.
The Government is leading the humanitarian response with support from national NGOs. As requested by the Government, international aid workers are providing technical support and relief items.
The United Nations, NGOs and the Red Cross are on the ground and are distributing newborn baby kits, maternity kits, educational supplies and other items. They are also helping children who have been separated from their families.
CLIMATE
Earlier today in Incheon, in the Republic of South Korea, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its new report which confirms the need to limit global warming to well below 2ºC and pursuing efforts towards limiting it below 1.5ºC.
The report clearly states that the world has already warmed by 1ºC due to human activity and as a result, climate change is already affecting people, ecosystems and livelihoods around the world.
The Secretary-General welcomed the report, and in a tweet said that it is not impossible to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, but it will require urgent, unprecedented & collective climate action in all areas. There is no time to waste, he added.
HAITI
On Sunday, the Secretary-General extended his condolences to the Government of Haiti and the families of the victims of the earthquake that struck north of Port-de-Paix.
The UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme are supporting national, regional and local authorities in distributing aid that had been pre-positioned including shelter, water and sanitation stocks.
The UN and its partners are also supporting the government in assessing the needs of the population impacted by the quake.
GREAT LAKES
Today, the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region held its 9th high-level meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Speaking on behalf of the Secretary-General, Said Djinnit, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, said the historic Agreement signed by the Presidents of the region in Addis Ababa in 2013 remains central to peace and stability.
Mr. Djinnit said the Summit presented an opportunity for a frank exchange on neutralizing remaining negative forces and advancing the AU’s objective of ‘silencing the guns by 2020’. He encouraged the leaders to recommit to political inclusion and participation, to work together for urgent and durable solutions to address the suffering of those forcibly displaced from their homes, and to intensify the support and to end impunity and human rights violations.
NIGERIA/CHAD
And, wrapping up a joint three-day mission to Nigeria and Chad, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, and the UN Development Programme Administrator, Achim Steiner, made a strong call for support to consolidate humanitarian and development action.
In Nigeria, they visited projects in Borno State, where 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
In Chad, they visited a nutrition centre in N'Djamena, where more than 16,000 malnourished children are admitted each year.
The visit follows an international donor conference in Berlin earlier in September where donors pledged US $2.5 billion for humanitarian, stabilization and recovery projects in the Lake Chad region, which as you know comprises parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. More than 10 million people across the region require humanitarian assistance.
