Noon briefing of 9 January 2015

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,

DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

FRIDAY, 9 JANUARY 2015

FRANCE: SECRETARY-GENERAL SIGNS CONDOLENCES BOOK FOLLOWING ATTACKS

• The Secretary-General was at the Mission of France to the United Nations to sign a condolences book following the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
• Speaking to reporters afterward, he said that he had expressed, on behalf of the United Nations, his most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of France.
• The Secretary-General added that he had spoken by phone with President Hollande yesterday and had expressed the international community’s solidarity with France. He said that he had agreed with the French President to work closely against terrorism.

SECRETARY-GENERAL TO VISIT HONDURAS AND EL SALVADOR NEXT WEEK

• The Secretary-General will travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Wednesday, 14 January, and to San Salvador, El Salvador, the next day.
• In Honduras, the Secretary-General will hold bilateral meetings with President Juan Orlando Hernández and other senior officials and civil society representatives. He will also address the National Congress of Honduras and visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copán Ruinas.
• On Thursday, 15 January, the Secretary-General will travel to El Salvador to attend the Twenty-Third Anniversary of the signing of the Peace Agreements that put an end to 12 years of armed conflict in the country.
• The Secretary-General will meet with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén and other senior officials, and address the National Assembly of El Salvador. He will also visit a joint programme on Violence Reduction and Social Capital, as well as the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Joya de Cerén.
• The Secretary-General will return to New York in the evening of Saturday, 17 January.

W.H.O.: ACCEPTABLE SAFETY FOR 2 EBOLA VACCINES AFTER FIRST PHASE OF TESTING

• On Ebola, the World Health Organization concluded a meeting with researchers, regulators, vaccine developers and policy makers on vaccines.
• Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General of Health Systems and Innovation at the World Health Organization, said in a press conference that so far, the 2 Ebola vaccines that have already undergone the first phase of testing have an acceptable safety profile.
• The third phase of testing – which consists of giving the vaccine to healthy volunteers in affected areas - is about to begin. Research teams have been set up and preparations have been put in place, including special refrigerators for Ebola vaccine tests, in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
• Also today, the Head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and the Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, are in Sierra Leone, before heading to Guinea on Sunday.

SOUTH SUDAN: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CONFIRMS MASS CIVILIAN KILLINGS LAST APRIL

• The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has issued a detailed report compiled by its Human Rights Division on the mass killings last April in the towns of Bentiu and Bor.
• The 33-page report looks at allegations that armed opposition forces killed hundreds of civilians on 15 April 2014, after they retook control of the Unity State capital of Bentiu from government troops. The report also documents the killing of dozens of people by a mob of armed men who attacked the peacekeeping mission’s protection-of-civilians site outside the Jonglei state capital of Bor two days later.
• According to the report, at least 353 civilians were killed, and another 250 were wounded, in the two attacks. The report found that in both Bentiu and Bor, victims were deliberately targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, nationality or perceived support for one of the parties to the conflict.
• The report also says that nearly nine months after the attacks took place, no perpetrator has been held accountable by either the Government of the Republic of South Sudan or the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army In Opposition.
• The Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, Ellen Margrethe Loej, called on the parties to end the violence and undertake comprehensive and credible investigations into alleged violations in order to hold perpetrators to account.

SEVEN U.N. PEACEKEEPERS WOUNDED IN NEW ATTACK IN MALI

• The UN Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has condemned the attack on its peacekeepers near the Kidal airstrip this morning, when one of its vehicles struck an explosive device.
• Seven Senegalese peacekeepers were wounded and have been evacuated.
• The Mission adds that the area of the explosion has been secured and that a team of experts from the Mission have started an investigation.
• MINUSMA calls on all actors involved in the peace process to respect the commitment they made last September in Algiers to prevent attacks against peacekeepers. It also calls for those responsible for these acts to be brought to justice.

VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA LEADS TO NEW EXODUS TO CHAD AND NIGER

• The UN Refugee Agency said today that some 7,300 Nigerian refugees have arrived in western Chad in the past 10 days, fleeing attacks by insurgents on Baga town and surrounding villages in north-east Nigeria. UNHCR teams in Chad are at the border and seeking more information on the new arrivals and their needs.
• The attack this week on Baga left hundreds of people dead, according to media reports, and forced most of its surviving inhabitants to flee.
• The newly arrived refugees in Chad are staying with local communities in villages around 450 kilometres north-west of the capital, N9;Djamena.
• The Chadian government has requested the assistance of aid agencies to help the refugees – and distribution of relief items has started. More than 1,000 refugees are stranded on the island of Kangala on Lake Chad, bringing the number of refugees from Nigeria in the country to more than 10,000.
• In Niger too, the UN refugee agency has started to relocate refugees who fled in the past weeks following November9;s attack on the Nigerian town of Damassak.
• A second camp is scheduled to open in the next days in the Lake Chad area of Niger.
• The conflict in north-east Nigeria has led to the exodus of 135,000 people and the displacement of at least 850,000 within Nigeria.

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF APPEALS FOR MORE ATTENTION TO PLIGHT OF YEMENIS

• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein says that deepening insecurity and violence in Yemen are wreaking a terrible toll on civilians, and he appealed today for more international attention to be focused on the plight of Yemenis.
• He noted that the past few weeks have seen dozens of people killed in a succession of bomb attacks in Yemen. Such wanton acts of indiscriminate violence are utterly deplorable, yet – perhaps because of the violence engulfing so many other countries – relatively little attention is being paid to the situation in Yemen.
• He added that it is essential that Government security personnel halt the use of excessive force, resulting in civilian deaths, and that both government and armed groups cease carrying out arbitrary detention.
• Violations of international human rights law by all sides must be promptly, independently and effectively investigated to bring perpetrators to justice and ensure that victims’ right to justice and remedy is upheld.

LIBYA: HEAD OF U.N. MISSION CONTINUES DISCUSSIONS TO CONVENE POLITICAL DIALOGUE

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya, Bernardino Leon, held meetings with Libyan stakeholders yesterday to discuss ways to end the hostilities and convene the political dialogue.
• He met with representatives in both Tobruk and Tripoli, and stressed the need to convene the second round of political dialogue as soon as possible to prevent the risk of the country sliding deeper into conflict and economic collapse.
• Mr. Leon also proposed a freeze in hostilities to create a conducive environment to hold the dialogue.

U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY STILL MOBILIZED AFTER MIDDLE EAST WINTER STORM

• The staff of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has been working around the clock this week to help millions of refugees and internally displaced people endure a severe winter storm that has been sweeping across much of the Middle East.
• Forecasts say cold weather is set to continue over the next few days, with heavy snowfall at higher elevations and gale force winds.
• Despite the severity of the storm, UNHCR offices around the region have so far reported relatively little damage in most refugee communities. But flooding is already a problem in some lower-lying areas, and will become more serious once the snow begins melting at higher elevations.
• Refugee agency teams and partners have worked as fast as possible over the past few days to replace damaged tents, provide repair kits, deliver emergency supplies and offer alternative temporary shelter for those forced to abandon their homes.
• UNHCR is particularly concerned about the situation in Lebanon, where many refugees spread out over 1,700 settlements live in precarious situations. There have been reports of more than 100 shelters and tents damaged across the country.

MAJOR GENERAL UBA OF NIGERIA APPOINTED AS FORCE COMMANDER OF U.N. MISSION IN LIBERIA

• The Secretary-General has appointed Major General Salihu Zaway Uba of Nigeria as the Force Commander for the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
• Major General Uba will succeed Major General Leonard Muriuki Ngondi of Kenya, who will complete his tour of duty on 25 February 2015. The Secretary-General is grateful for Major General Ngondi’s dedicated and exemplary service during his tenure with UNMIL.
• Major General Uba brings to this position 32 years of national and international military experience. Before his appointment, he served as the Commander of Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army and the Commandant of the Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Center from 2013 to 2014.