HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
MONDAY, 8 MAY 2017
 
SPOKESMAN WELCOMES RELEASE OF CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRLS, APPEALS TO NIGERIANS TO SUPPORT THEM

• In a statement issued today, we welcomed the release of an additional 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgent group in April 2014.
• We remain deeply concerned about the safety and wellbeing of the schoolgirls and other victims still in captivity.
• We appeal to all Nigerians, including the families and local communities of the liberated girls, to fully embrace them and provide all necessary support to ensure their reintegration into society. We also urge the international community to continue supporting the Government of Nigeria in its efforts to ensure the release, rehabilitation and reintegration of all Boko Haram victims.
• We also call for the provision of urgent financial support to prevent the worsening of the food security situation in the northeast of Nigeria and other parts of the Lake Chad Basin, and reiterate the continued commitment of the United Nations in this regard.
• The Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) also welcomed the release and said that UNFPA is fully prepared to provide the released girls with emergency reproductive health care, psychosocial counselling and other critical support. UNFPA already deployed an emergency team of psychosocial counsellors and health professionals to help meet the freed girls’ critical needs. UNFPA is already providing care and rehabilitation support to the 21 girls released last October. The Fund stands ready to extend such vital support these 82 girls, as well as any others who may be released in the future.  
• The UNICEF Country Office in Nigeria also issued a statement.

• UNICEF and UNHCR said today that more than one million children have now fled South Sudan. UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Leila Pakkala, said that the horrifying fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this conflict has been for the country’s most vulnerable. “Add this to the more than one million children who are also displaced within South Sudan, and the future of a generation is truly on the brink”, she added. Children make up 62 per cent of more than 1.8 million refugees from South Sudan. Valentin Tapsoba, UNHCR’s Africa Bureau Director, calls for urgent, committed and sustainable support to be able to save their lives.
• And the UN Mission in South Sudan reported yesterday that peacekeeping troops have been urgently deployed to Aburoc in the Upper Nile region to help enable the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance. The Head of the Mission, David Shearer, said that the aim is to provide humanitarian groups with the confidence they need to resume the provision of urgent assistance to tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the ongoing violence.

• On 6 May, a UN/International Committee of the Red Cross/Syrian Arab Red Crescent inter-agency convoy delivered health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, education and other emergency items for 30,000 people in need in the Wadi Barada area in Rural Damascus.
• Surgical materials, some medicine and medical equipment were not permitted to be loaded or were reduced in quantity.
• While we welcome the convoy to Wadi Barada, there remain many other besieged and hard-to-reach areas that have not been reached over the past weeks due to insecurity and restrictions by the parties.
• The UN continues to make preparations for these convoys to deploy immediately and urges the parties to provide access.

• Almost 435,000 people have been displaced from western Mosul since the start of military operations on the western neighbourhods on 19 February. Over 403,000 are currently displaced from western Mosul city, while some 31,000 people have been able to return to retaken parts of western Mosul city.
• People who remain in Da’esh-held parts of west Mosul are facing serious shortages of almost all commodities, as commercial supplies to these areas have been cut since last November.
• Some cases of acute malnutrition are being seen in infants arriving with their families from western Mosul.
• Families who remain in the retaken parts of west Mosul, and those who have returned to these areas, also rely on humanitarian assistance, as basic public services and market activity have yet to be restored.
• Over 95,000 people have received ready-to-eat food rations in all accessible neighbourhoods of western Mosul city; over 70,000 have received 30-day dry food rations in at least 11 neighborhoods. This assistance complements assistance provided through the Iraqi Public Distribution System, which is re-establishing food distributions in the area.

• In a statement issued yesterday, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, called on Members States to urgently fund the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.
• He said all commitments made during the pledging conference in Geneva need to materialize at once, as humanitarian action is saving lives every day across the entire country.
• All ports and roads must be available to humanitarians to properly address the current threat of famine and the resurging cholera outbreak and to facilitate the timely delivery of life-saving assistance to vulnerable people throughout Yemen.
• Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Sana’a said yesterday that more than 1,680 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in 13 governorates, and it appealed for support to contain the outbreak. The Cholera National Taskforce, which includes UN partners, is strengthening surveillance and developing an integrated response plan. The World Health Organization is already procuring IV fluids, medicines and supplies.

• On 6 May, the Secretary-General was at the University of South Carolina to deliver a commencement address.
• He called for strong leadership and engagement of the United States in an effective multilateral system in order to face the many challenges the world faces today. Engagement, leadership and commitment that can help creating the conditions for the prevention of conflicts, the mediation of conflicts, for sustaining peace and for helping countries regain the capacity to develop themselves and to bring prosperity for their citizens and strength to their institutions, he added.
• The Secretary-General thanked the generosity of the United States’ commitment towards development cooperation and humanitarian action, which meant millions of lives being rescued, that meant millions of children going to school, that meant millions of jobs being created in the world.
• He told the students the he counted on them to be able to express the values that this society can always be proud of: the values related to human rights, to democracy, to freedom, but also to solidarity and generosity. 
• While in South Carolina, the Secretary-General was also hosted for lunch by Gov. McMaster of South Carolina. Senator Lindsey Graham was also present.

• Today, the Secretary-General is announcing the appointment of Yukio Takasu of Japan as Special Adviser on Human Security.
• Mr. Takasu was formerly appointed as Special Adviser on Human Security in 2010, a role which he concurrently undertook during his tenure as Under-Secretary-General for Management.
• He will lead the follow-up to the General Assembly resolution on human security. 
• He will work closely with Member States, in partnership with the UN system and other stakeholders to advance the human security approach in the Agenda 2030, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Sustaining Peace Agenda.