CYPRUS
This morning, the Secretary-General hosted a plenary session of the informal 5+1 talks on the Cyprus issue. 
He’s currently holding bilateral meetings with the various delegations as the talks continue. 
As we mentioned, he will host a dinner for the delegations this evening. 
We expect discussions to continue on Thursday. 
 
COVID-19/MEDIA
The Secretary-General had a video message for an event this morning entitled “COVID-19: How do we prevent the pandemic from becoming a media extinction event?”
He said that the events of the past year have reminded us that access to reliable information is more than just a basic human right – it can also be a matter of life and death.
The Secretary-General said the pandemic has been accompanied by an enormous concurrent “infodemic” which has jeopardized the health of millions of people worldwide, undermining confidence in vaccines and science, and dividing communities and countries.
He also noted that the pandemic has had another very dangerous side-effect: it has accelerated the financial decline of many public interest media organizations. Newspapers alone lost an estimated $30 billion last year.
The Secretary-General stressed that maintaining independent, fact-based reporting is an essential global public good, critical to building a safer, healthier and greener future.

INDIA/COVID-19
I know you’ve been asking about our support to India during the current surge in COVID-19 cases. Our team there, led by Resident Coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien, is supporting the authorities’ response to the pandemic by providing equipment and supplies, including to local governments.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF are procuring equipment and supplies, including 7,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 nasal devices for oxygen supply, as well as oxygen generating plants, COVID-19 testing machines, and personal protective kits.
WHO is also helping to set up mobile hospital units and is providing for laboratories. Some 2,600 WHO field officers have been immediately deployed to support health authorities to curb the spread of the pandemic.
In the western state of Maharashtra, the second most populous in India, UNICEF has engaged experts to work on risk governance.
The UN team is also continuing its campaign highlighting the three Ws: Wear a mask, Wash your Hands, Watch your distance and stay six feet apart.

MONGOLIA/COVID-19
The UN team, led by the Resident Coordinator Tapan Mishra, continues to support the country’s vaccination campaign.
Since March, Mongolia has received more than 90,000 doses from COVAX to reach up to 20 per cent of the country’s 3.2 million people.
More than 740,000 people have received their first dose and more than 200,000 have received their second dose.
UNICEF and WHO have provided technical, financial and logistical support to the Government for its campaign. UNICEF and the World Bank helped build a new central facility to store vaccines.
WHO has trained health care workers on administrating vaccines, among other support to authorities.

BURKINA FASO
On Burkina Faso, I can say that the Secretary-General strongly condemns the killing, on 26 April, of two Spanish journalists and an Irish [national], following an attack by unidentified gunmen on their convoy at the Pama Reserve in eastern Burkina Faso. 
The Secretary-General expresses his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Governments and peoples of Burkina Faso, Ireland and Spain. He calls on the authorities to swiftly identify and bring the perpetrators to justice.

SYRIA
Today the Security Council held a meeting to discuss Syria. Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, briefed the Security Council this morning and warned that, despite more than a year of relative calm by Syrian standards, this month reminded us of the potential for the situation to further disintegrate or rapidly deteriorate.
He said that there has been a significant escalation in north-west Syria. This included strikes on a UN supported and notified hospital in western Aleppo close to densely-populated camps for displaced people, and on the Syrian-Turkish border where UN cross-border humanitarian deliveries take place.
Mark Lowcock, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, also briefed the Council and said that it is pretty clear that the COVID-19 virus spread is rapid but also accelerating. In the UN, he said, we are doing what we can to provide support, including by enhancing surveillance capacity, by providing personal protective equipment and by providing training for medical workers, as well as supporting the roll-out of vaccination campaigns.
He said that in north-west Syria, millions of people remain pressed up against the border in an active war zone, dependent on aid that is delivered across the border from Turkey. Our data show those people are worse off now than they were nine months ago, he added.
Mr. Lowcock said that every month, the cross-border operation reaches some 2.4 million people who depend on it for food, medicines, shelter and other vital supplies. A failure to extend cross-border authorization would sever this lifeline, he warned.

APPOINTMENT
The Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Alain Noudéhou of Benin as his new Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali and the Resident Coordinator in Mali. Mr. Noudéhou will also serve as Humanitarian Coordinator. 
Mr. Noudéhou succeeds Mbaranga Gasarabwe of Rwanda, who will complete her assignment at the end of May. The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Gasarabwe for her stewardship of development and humanitarian efforts in Mali since taking up this role in 2015.
Mr. Noudéhou brings to the position extensive experience in international development and humanitarian affairs. He most recently served as Deputy Special Representative in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan. 

SOMALIA
In a statement released today, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Cesar Arroyo, expressed concerns over mass displacements in Mogadishu. Mr. Arroyo noted that initial estimates indicate that between 60,000 and 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes following an outbreak of violence on 25 April.
Those displaced include vulnerable internally displaced persons who had sought refuge in the Somali capital but have again fled to find refuge at the outskirts of the city. The Humanitarian Coordinator said that apart from displacing innocent civilians, the initial violence has created uncertainty and fear of disruptions of humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people across the city.
Mr. Arroyo pointed out that the situation has flared up at a time that Somalia is experiencing a full-fledged drought, a significant rise in COVID-19 cases and a serious desert locust infestation. Despite increased needs, the humanitarian response remains grossly underfunded.
 
THE SAHEL
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the humanitarian situation in the region is worsening fast because of escalating conflict, rising food insecurity and COVID-19. In 2021, almost 29 million people in the Sahel will need assistance and protection, five million more than at the start of 2020.
According to our humanitarian colleagues, from 2015 to 2020, violent attacks increased eight-fold in the Central Sahel and tripled in the Lake Chad Basin. Insecurity is disproportionately impacting children and women. Incidents of gender-based violence are also spiking, with widespread risks of women and girls being abducted, married by force, sexually assaulted and raped.
Across the Sahel, 5.4 million people are internally displaced due to activities of armed groups, as well as intercommunal violence and military operations.
Our humanitarian colleagues warn that food insecurity is at record peaks. In the Lake Chad basin alone, 6.2 million people are projected to face hunger this year, almost two million more people than last year. In the Central Sahel regions, in the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, 3.4 million people will face a food crisis during the 2021 lean season.
In 2021, the Humanitarian Response Plan to help six countries in the Sahel will require a total of $3.7 billion.
 
ELSIE INITIATIVE
This morning, the Elsie Initiative, a UN Trust Fund that supports uniformed women’s deployment to peace operations, announced its first five recipients - Liberia, Mexico, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone - during a high-level virtual event. The Fund, which is managed by UN Women, also launched its Second Programming Round at the event.
While progress has been made towards achieving the military and police gender targets set in the UN’s Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy, UN Women warned that if progress continues at the current pace, it will take 30 years to reach gender parity for military troops, 12 years for formed police units, eight years for individual police officers, and seven years for military observers and staff officers.
Created in 2019, the Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations has so far received $27.9 million in contributions and pledges from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.  It seeks additional funding to help accelerate the pace of change towards the increased meaningful participation of uniformed women in UN peace operations.

WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK
Today is World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This year, the aim of the Day is to raise awareness and stimulating dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilient occupational safety and health systems, drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 at the workplace.
In a video message, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Guy Ryder, stressed that a strong, resilient, occupational safety and health environment is vital for crisis recovery and prevention.