HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
TUESDAY, 31 MAY 2022
STOCKHOLM+50
The Secretary-General will go to Stockholm, Sweden, this afternoon, to attend the Stockholm +50 conference, which is being hosted by Sweden with support from the Government of Kenya. He will urge countries to embrace the human right to a clean, healthy environment for all people, everywhere – especially poor communities, women and girls, indigenous peoples, young people and the generations to come. On the margins of the conference, he will meet with representatives of the Stockholm+50 Youth Task Force.
Tomorrow, he will meet with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and visit Dag Hammarskjöld’s gravesite.
YEMEN
The Secretary-General had a phone call with H.E. Mr. Rashed Al-Alimi, the President of the Presidential Leadership Council of the Republic of Yemen, to discuss the implementation of the United Nations-brokered truce and political and security developments in Yemen.
The Secretary-General reaffirmed the close relationship between the United Nations and the Government of Yemen and stressed the need to extend and fully implement all elements of the renewable, two-month nationwide truce in Yemen. The Secretary-General also underscored the critical role of the truce in addressing some of the most immediate humanitarian and economic needs to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, including facilitating the freedom of movement of people and goods to, from and across Yemen.
The UN Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, met Mr. al-Alimi in Aden yesterday. He also met in Muscat today with Ansar Allah's chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam and Omani officials. Mr. Grundberg underlined the urgency of re-opening the roads in Taiz and elsewhere in Yemen, renewing the truce and taking meaningful steps to comprehensively end the conflict in Yemen.
SUDAN
The UN welcome the lifting of the state of emergency in Sudan. This is an important step to create a conducive environment for direct, intra-Sudanese talks to end the political crisis in the country.
We encourage the authorities to complete the release of political detainees.
We continue to call on them to fully respect the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.
We urge Sudanese stakeholders to engage in constructive dialogue in good faith to find a way out of this crisis.
The trilateral mechanism consisting of the UN Mission in Sudan, UNITAMS, the African Union and the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will continue to work collaboratively to help facilitate a Sudanese owned and led solution and to find a way to end the political impasse in Sudan.
SUDAN – FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization said today it is intensifying efforts to address soaring acute food insecurity in Sudan.
FAO says this is driven by the combined impacts of armed conflict, drought, COVID-19, economic turmoil, and the impact of pest infestation and diseases on crops.
The Food and Agriculture Organization says 10.9 million men, women and children – or 30 per cent of people in Sudan – will need life‑sustaining support this year. This is the highest number in the past decade.
To respond to this dire food security situation, which could be intensified due to the impact of the continuing war in Ukraine, FAO has launched a new project funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund. This project aims to provide emergency agriculture and livestock supplies to help boost the food security of nearly one million farmers and people in pastoral communities.
EAST AFRICA
Six UN agencies – including the World Meteorological Organization, UNICEF, WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization – together with eight meteorological agencies and NGO partners, today expressed concern over what they call the unprecedented drought impacting Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed, a climatic event not seen in the last 40 years. Meteorological experts and others say there is a real risk that the coming rainy season could fail, which means that the already severe humanitarian emergency in the region could worsen.
It is estimated that 16.7 million people currently face high acute food insecurity, and the number could increase to 20 million.
The UN, along with partners, stress the need to fund the current appeals to prevent the already severe food emergency, including a risk of famine in Somalia, from deteriorating.
MALI
UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths today completed a four-day visit to the country.
He met with the transitional authorities. He also went to Mopti and met with internally displaced persons who shared their difficulties and desire to return to their place of origin. He also spoke to community leaders and mediators who are playing a key role in facilitating dialogue and helping humanitarians gain access to people in need.
Mr. Griffiths said that without sufficient and timely financial resources, humanitarian assistance will be limited. He said that we and our partners need adequate resources to provide live-saving services and build communities’ resilience. Almost half way through the year, the humanitarian appeal for Mali is only 11 per cent funded.
5.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the country. One Malian out of four, that is 4.8 million people, are currently food insecure because of insecurity and the impact of climate change. During the lean season of June to August of this year, a staggering 1.8 million men, women and children will be acutely food insecure.
MALI
Yesterday, the Peacekeeping mission in Mali published its quarterly human rights report, covering the first three months of the year.
During this period, the mission recorded 812 cases of violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law. This represents an increase of over 150 per cent compared to the previous quarter.
The Malian Armed Forces have increased military operations to combat terrorism, with occasional support from foreign military elements. Some of these operations have resulted in serious allegations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
During the period covered by the report, 320 human rights violations were attributed to the Malian defense and security forces. As a comparison, in the last quarter of 2021, there were 31 violations attributable to them.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN and its humanitarian partners have started distributing aid to thousands of people in Nyiragongo territory, including food to some 35,000 people, water, and medicine to at least 10,000 people.
This follows the clashes reported last week between the government forces and the M23 rebel group. We are also providing health care and family reunification activities.
Access remains a challenge. The reopening of the main road linking Goma to Rutshuru over the weekend, after 10 days of closure, has allowed humanitarian agencies to ramp up their activities.
And this afternoon, the Security Council is scheduled to discuss the situation in the DRC.
Huang Xia, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, and Martha Pobee, the Assistant Secretary-General for Africa are expected to brief.
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE
In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretary-General responded to the passing of President Evaristo Carvalho, the former President of São Tomé and Príncipe, by saying that President Carvalho was a respected statesman who paved the way for a new generation of leaders after having served as Head of State from 2016 to 2021.
The Secretary-General presents his deepest condolences to the family of the former president and all the people of São Tomé and Príncipe.
SYRIA
Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, is briefing the Security Council in closed consultations today.
That briefing comes as the Eighth Session of the Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated Small Body of the Constitutional Committee convened on Monday and is continuing today. The meetings were businesslike, according to our colleagues.
On Sunday, Mr. Pedersen met jointly with the Co-Chairs of the committee and also met with the Civil Society delegation. The Co-Chairs agreed to the principles that will be discussed throughout the week.
UKRAINE
In to Ukraine, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, people continue to try to evacuate from eastern Donetska and Luhanska oblasts and south-eastern Zaporizka oblast in insecure conditions. Local authorities are saying they have suspended all evacuations from Luhanska until further notice, following the reported attack on a vehicle evacuating 10 civilians, killing one person and injuring another.
In terms of response, as of 26 May, which is late last week, more than 260 humanitarian partners in Ukraine have reached 7.6 million people with assistance. Cash support also continues to increase with an additional 1.1 million people reached in May. From March to May, a total of 1.5 million people have been reached with cash assistance.
The flash appeal requesting $2.24 billion is 71 per cent funded. We thank donors for their contributions and count on the continued support for the humanitarian response.
UKRAINE/JOURNALISTS
The UN expressed its deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of French reporter Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who was killed yesterday while he was covering the evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk for the French television broadcaster BFMTV. We join the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, in condemning this killing.
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH
The Department of Global Communications is announcing today that it has renamed its annual training programme for Palestinian broadcasters and journalists to the Shireen Abu Akleh Training Programme for Palestinian Broadcasters and Journalists. That is in honour of Ms. Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American Al-Jazeera reporter who was killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 11 May of this year.
Shireen Abu Akleh had a distinguished career in journalism for a quarter of a century. She was a trailblazer for Arab women, and a role model for journalists in the Middle East and around the world. Her legacy and bravery must be cherished, said the Department of Global Communications.
WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY
Today is World No Tobacco Day, and the World Health Organization released a report showing the extent to which tobacco damages both the environment and human health.
The report highlights that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming. Products like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes also add to the build-up of plastic pollution.
WESTERN SAHARA
The Spokesman corrected an information erroneously reported by some media last week. The Special Representative of the UN Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has not bought a house in Laayoune.
BRIEFING TOMORROW
Tomorrow at 12.30 p.m., there will be a briefing by Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, the Permanent Representative of Albania who will preside over of the Security Council in the month of June.
