HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
TUESDAY, 30 JANUARY 2018

U.N. FORUM SPOTLIGHTS ROLE OF YOUTH IN BUILDING SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

• The Economic and Social Council Youth Forum opened this morning in New York under the theme “The role of youth in building sustainable and resilient rural and urban communities.”
• During the opening, the Deputy Secretary-General and the UN Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake, praised the level of engagement that youth today are having with the Sustainable Development Goals and encouraged them to take ownership of the Agenda 2030 in their own countries to ensure its success. They also discussed ways to bring young people closer to the UN as well as the UN closer to where young people are.
• The SDG Media Zone for the Forum is also taking place today and tomorrow at the UNCA Club. Many youth advocates and activists are participating there and it will be available on UN Web TV. 
• Also, the Youth Envoy will travel to Senegal, The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, later this week, where she will meet with young people and learn about the opportunities and challenges they are facing in their countries.

• Ursula Mueller, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Security Council today on Syria, where, she said, the United Nations estimates that 13.1 million people are in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, including 6.1 million people who are displaced within the country. Another 5.5 million people have fled the conflict across borders into neighbouring countries, she added.
• Ms. Mueller expressed particular concern for the safety and protection of civilians caught up in the violence in north-west Syria, where hostilities have reportedly caused numerous deaths and injuries. Airstrikes and fighting in southern Idleb and northern Hama have resulted in over 270,000 displacements since 15 December, driving people from their homes to other areas of Idleb.
• Further north, she said, in Afrin, the United Nations is carefully monitoring the situation of over 300,000 people living in the district that is witnessing fighting. We have reports of civilian casualties and that some 15,000 people have been displaced within the district, and another 1,000 have been displaced to Aleppo governorate. We have also received reports that local authorities inside Afrin are restricting civilian movement, particularly for those who want to leave the district. She also warned about reports of possible attacks on hospitals and health facilities.

• In Yemen, six vessels are currently offloading at Hodeidah, three carrying a combined 61,700 metric tons of food and three carrying a combined 33,265 metric tons of fuel.
• There are seven other vessels at the anchorage area, carrying a combined 53,000 metric tons of fuel, awaiting to dock.
• In January, over 290,000 metric tons of food and over 165,000 of fuel were imported via Hodeidah and Saleef ports, representing 82 and 30 per cent of the respective national imports requirements.
• As a result of the crisis, food prices are 30 per cent higher than pre-crisis. The price of food increased between 26 and 85 per cent after the start of the blockade in November and December. Inflation has weakened the Yemeni rial by 50 per cent.

• UNICEF said today that the humanitarian situation in Libya continues to deteriorate, with 378,000 children in need of lifesaving assistance and protection in 2018. UNICEF is therefore appealing for $US 20 million to scale up its response to provide immediate assistance as well as long term support to children throughout the country.
• Among the 170,000 people displaced, an estimated 54 per cent are children. Libya is also home to hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, a significant proportion of whom are children. At risk of abuse, violence, human rights violations, vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups and lacking the most basic services, children in Libya are in urgent need of protection and care.

• In South Sudan, the UN Migration Agency is appealing for US$ 103.7 million in 2018 to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance, as well as to support transition, recovery and migration management initiatives.
• Around 7 million people in South Sudan need relief aid. IOM said that as conditions worsen each day that the crisis persists, sustained levels of lifesaving assistance are crucial. The appeal seeks to support approximately 1 million displaced people, their host communities, as well as communities of potential returnees and migrants in South Sudan.

• The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has launched an appeal for its emergency programmes of over $800 million.  Of that amount, approximately $400 million each is intended for Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory. The appeal also covers some 50,000 Palestine refugees from Syria who have fled to Lebanon and Jordan.
• At a launch event in Geneva, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Pierre Krähenbühl, explained that the majority of Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory and from Syria rely on the Agency to provide aid which is literally life-saving, including food, water, shelter and medical assistance.
• He said the appeal enables UNRWA to continue delivering desperately needed relief to those affected by deepening emergency situations. However, he added, the Agency’s critical financial crisis following the reduction in US funds threatens its ability to deliver these vital services.

• In Somalia, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, and UN Development Programme Administrator, Achim Steiner, today brought attention to the recently launched Humanitarian Response Plan and the Resilience and Recovery Framework which seek $1.5 billion dollars to keep up last year’s efforts to avert famine and build resilience in the country.
• Mr. Lowcock praised the collaborative efforts by the Government, civil society organizations, local people and the international community that helped avert catastrophe in 2017, but he stressed that some 5.4 million people are still in need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

• UNICEF appealed today for $3.6 billion to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance in 2018 to 48 million children living through conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies in 51 countries.
• Conflicts that have endured for years – such as those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, among other countries –  continue to deepen in complexity, bringing new waves of violence, displacement and disruption to children’s lives.
• UNICEF says parties to conflicts are showing a blatant disregard for the lives of children. Children are not only coming under direct attack, but are also being denied basic services as schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure are damaged or destroyed.
• More than $3 billion of the 2018 funding appeal is for work in countries affected by humanitarian crises borne of violence and conflict.
• Its largest component this year is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its eighth year. UNICEF is seeking almost $1.3 billion to support 6.9 million Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

• The UN Refugee Agency said today it is alarmed by a recent surge in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is driving large numbers of Congolese to flee eastwards to neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.
• Thousands of children, women and men have abandoned their homes, in the midst of intensified military operations against Mai Mai armed groups in South Kivu province.
• Refugees explained they fled forced recruitment, direct violence and other abuses by armed groups. Others say they fled in anticipation of military operations and out of fear.
• The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the world’s most complex crises, and it is deteriorating as local conflicts escalate.
• As 2018 began, some 5 million Congolese were displaced, about 675,000 of them in other African countries, and 4.35 million internally.

• Next month, the Secretary-General plans to travel to Geneva to attend the opening of the 37th session of the Human Rights Council. That will be on 26 February.
• As the Secretary-General announced earlier this month, he will be travelling to the Republic of Korea for an official visit from 7 to 10 February. As part of this visit he will meet with President Moon Jae-in as well as Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. He will also attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, and in Seoul he will speak at the Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development.

• Bahrain, India, Rwanda and Samoa have paid their regular budget dues in full, bringing the number of Member States that have done so to 29.