HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 2021
PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION
This morning, the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, spoke to the Peacebuilding Commission, via video link, and reminded Member States that right now, one quarter of humanity lives in conflict-affected areas. That’s two billion men, women and children.
The Secretary-General said his report to the Commission is a call to ensure that our peacebuilding architecture is fit-for-purpose in this rapidly changing environment.
Peacebuilding works, he said, but the needs far outpace the ressources and the Peacebuilding Fund remains dependent on voluntary contributions from a small number of donors.
The Secretary-General said that he presented a proposal for an annual $100 million in assessed contributions for the Peacebuilding Fund. He urged Member States to take steps to ensure adequate, predictable and sustainable
financing for peacebuilding — especially for the fragile transition stage of peacekeeping operations.
He also called on Member States, the UN system, and the International Financial Institutions and all partners to do far more to join-up our humanitarian, peace and development efforts.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
An investigation into the tragic incident that took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday is underway. Today, the Mission said they will establish and send a team that will work in cooperation with the Congolese government.
The Mission is also continuing to carry out reconnaissance in the area around Rutshuru to monitor the activities of armed groups and to do whatever it can to protect civilians.
Efforts to support the Congolese army through information sharing, logistics and first aid for soldiers injured during the fighting continues. You will have seen that in a statement we issued yesterday, the Secretary-General said he was deeply saddened to confirm the death of the eight peacekeepers who were on board a Puma helicopter, which was doing a reconnaissance flight in the area. The bodies of our colleagues were recovered yesterday during an initial search and rescue operation, that was launched by the peacekeeping operations. The helicopter was being operated by the Pakistani contingent, and also carried two military officers, one from the Russian Federation and the other from the Republic of Serbia.
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the resurgence of M23 activities in the border area between the DRC close to Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the ongoing impact of violence involving armed groups on civilians.
We, of course, send our condolences to all the families of our fallen colleagues, as well as to their friends and all our friends in the peacekeeping mission in the Congo.
The Secretary-General reiterates the UN’s commitment to support the Congolese Government and people in their efforts to bring peace and stability to the eastern part of the country.
MYANMAR
Noeleen Heyzer, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Myanmar, will be in Cambodia tomorrow to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as his Foreign Minister in their capacities as the Chair of ASEAN as well as the ASEAN Special Envoy for Myanmar to discuss their ongoing cooperation and the complementarity of the UN-ASEAN efforts on Myanmar.
The UN Migration Agency is appealing for $128 Million to support 1.4 million Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar.
Healthcare is a major area of focus. Additional funding will enable IOM to maintain its network of community health workers, along with the 49 primary and secondary healthcare centres that it runs or supports.
UKRAINE
Today, the UN Refugee Agency said that 4 million people have now fled Ukraine and 6.5 million people are displaced within the country. UNHCR also said that 13 million are estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave.
Also today, the UN Children’s Fund said two million children have now been forced to flee Ukraine. UNICEF estimates that more than 2.5 million children have been internally displaced within Ukraine.
UNICEF continues to scale up its response inside Ukraine and across the refugee-hosting communities. As of 28 March, UNICEF has dispatched 114 trucks carrying 1,275 metric tons of emergency supplies to support children and families in Ukraine and the bordering countries.
For its part, the World Food Programme said that one month into the conflict, it is providing emergency food assistance to one million people in Ukraine and has built systems to deliver food at scale to communities in need. Trucks, trains and mini-vans are today delivering food supplies to the most vulnerable people across the country and more convoys are expected in the coming days.
Following a massive scale-up of operations, WFP has provided 330,000 loaves of freshly baked bread to families in the city of Kharkiv, cash assistance to displaced people in Lviv and ready-to-eat food in various parts of the country. WFP emergency food supplies have also made it to the conflict areas of Sumy and Kharkiv through two interagency humanitarian convoys.
UKRAINE/SECURITY COUNCIL
Yesterday afternoon, Security Council members heard a humanitarian briefing on Ukraine. One from the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, and they also heard from David Beasley, WFP’s Executive Director.
AFGHANISTAN
Moving onto Afghanistan. Martin Griffiths, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, is in Kabul on the third day of his mission in the country. Today, he met with the de facto Minister of the Interior to discuss humanitarian issues.
Mr. Griffiths has also visited treatment centres for acutely malnourished children at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul and at the Aga Khan Provincial Hospital in Bamiyan. He also met with women humanitarian workers and civil society representatives.
He will be leaving Kabul tomorrow for Doha, from where he will be joining the virtual high-level humanitarian pledging conferene for Afghanistan, which is taking place tomorrow.
YEMEN
Yesterday evening, we welcomed the announcements made in recent days by the Saudi-led Coalition and by the Houthis to temporarily halt military operations in Yemen, and that is in line with our continued and collective calls for such a move.
We encourage all parties to build on these positive developments, which coincide with the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. We further hope that this creates momentum to end all violence, advance Yemen’s political process and alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen, including by easing restrictions on movement of individuals and essential commodities, including fuel.
We urge the parties to use this opportunity to engage constructively and without preconditions with Special Envoy Hans Grundberg and his mediation efforts to reach a comprehensive negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen.
Mr. Grundberg spoke today at a conference sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh where he said he hopes that the discussions the conference will have will help increase momentum toward bringing the Yemeni parties back to the negotiating table under UN auspices. He also hopes that the meeting will convey a genuine sense of urgency on the need for dialogue, compromise and commitment to a peaceful solution to the conflict.
SOUTH SUDAN
In South Sudan, the UN Mission is urging all parties to respect the peace agreement, given current tensions among signatories as well as increased subnational violence. UNMISS emphasizes the need for political parties to put aside their differences in the larger interest of peace, prosperity and progress. With less than 11 months of the transitional period remaining, it is more important now than ever that stakeholders work together to implement outstanding benchmarks of the peace deal so that free and fair elections can ultimately take place.
UNMISS continues supporting ongoing political and peace processes as well as protecting civilians affected by conflict. The Mission reiterates that there is no military solution for sustainable peace to prevail. Dialogue as well as a negotiated political settlement of issues is the only way forward to ensure a peaceful future for all people of South Sudan.
ISRAEL
The Secretary-General condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Israel, which claimed the lives of at least 11 Israeli citizens. Such acts of violence can never be justified and must be condemned by all, he said.
The Secretary-General extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wished a prompt recovery to those injured.
In the spirit of the upcoming religious holy days, the Secretary-General calls for an immediate end to violence, which only serves to undermine the prospects for peace.
EL SALVADOR
The Secretary-General learned with concern about the spike in violence in El Salvador over the weekend. He expresses his solidarity with the Salvadorians at this difficult juncture and trusts that the measures that will be adopted in response will be in line with international human rights standards and law.
COVID-19/SCHOOLS
UNICEF today released a report showing that as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, 23 countries – home to about 405 million schoolchildren – are yet to fully reopen their schools, with many schoolchildren at risk of dropping out. According to the agency, 147 million children missed more than half of their in-person schooling over the past two years. This amounts to 2 trillion hours of lost in-person learning globally.
Data from Liberia, for example, shows that 43 per cent of students in public schools did not return when schools reopened in 2020. And there are other such dramatic examples in the report.
POPULATION
The UN Population Fund – which looks at sexual and reproductive health - found that nearly half of all pregnancies around the world – that’s 121 million each year – are unintended. According to the report, an estimated 257 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe, modern methods of contraception, and where data is available, nearly a quarter of all women are not able to say no to sex.
UNFPA called the report “a wakeup call” with the staggering number of unintended pregnancies representing a global failure to uphold women and girls’ basic human rights. The report also warns that the war in Ukraine and other conflicts and crises around the world are expected to drive an increase in unintended pregnancies, as access to contraception is disrupted and sexual violence increases. That report is online.
