HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,

SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

WEDNESDAY, 14 OCTOBER 2015

SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS MANDATE OF U.N. HAITI MISSION

• This morning, the Security Council decided unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN Stabilization Force in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for another year until 15 October 2016.
• The overall force levels follow the Secretary-General’s recommendation.
• The Council also strongly urged Haiti's political actors to work cooperatively and without further delays to ensure the holding of free, fair, inclusive, and transparent legislative, partial senatorial, municipal, and local elections, in accordance with the Constitution of Haiti in order to restore the functioning of the National Assembly and other elected bodies.
• The resolution adopted today by the Security Council also requested the Secretary-General to conduct a Strategic Assessment on the future presence and role of the UN in Haiti, preferably by 90 days after the inauguration of the new President, and ideally after the formation of a new government.

WITH U.N. ATTACKED FREQUENTLY, OFFICIAL URGES SUPPORT FOR SOMALIA OFFICE

• The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Atul Khare, briefed the Security Council on Somalia.
• Speaking about the strategic review of the UN Support Office for the African Union Mission to Somalia (UNSOA), Mr. Khare said that the office continues to work in a significantly non-permissive environment affected by insecurity and a humanitarian crisis. 
• He added that in the last 18 months alone, the UN has suffered attacks on its personnel or facilities about once every 10 weeks. Moving forward, he urged Member States to significantly strengthen the capacity of UNSOA so that it can continue supporting high intensity military operations as well as political engagement in Somalia and beyond.

U.N. YEMEN ENVOY HOLDS TALKS WITH RUSSIAN OFFICIALS

• The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, held consultations in Moscow yesterday with senior Russian officials. He received assurances from those officials of Russia’s support for his work.
• The Special Envoy is traveling to Saudi Arabia and will be in New York next week to brief the Security Council.

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME RESUMES AID DELIVERY IN WAR-TORN YEMEN

• The World Food Programme (WFP) says that, after being forced to briefly suspend its operation during the recent violence, it has now reached more than 30,000 newly displaced people the capital with food in the past week in Yemen.
• WFP says that people in need had been cut off from any assistance for days, living in difficult circumstances in over 20 displacement site.
• It adds that even before this latest escalation in violence, about one in four people were in need of urgent food assistance.
• And also on the Central African Republic, the UN peacekeeping mission in that country reports that efforts continue to register voters for the upcoming elections.
• As of Tuesday, 87 per cent of the population had been registered – eligible voters, I guess, had been registered.
• Efforts are ongoing with regard to the registration of refugees in neighbouring countries, to ensure a fully inclusive and credible process. Registration is currently underway in Cameroon, Chad and the Republic of the Congo. At the moment, just 10% of eligible voters who are refugees have been registered – that is about 20,000 people - due in part to the recent security situation that prevented the deployment of registration materials to some out-of-country locations.

IN TURKEY, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL SPOTLIGHTS NEED TO ADDRESS MIGRATION, REFUGEES

• The Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson spoke at the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Istanbul, Turkey, today.
• He said that our ability to respond to migration and refugee movements is being tested as never before.
• The Deputy Secretary-General noted that Turkey has been at the heart of the refugee crisis in the region, paying a high price for the horrific war in Syria.
• He said that for many years, governments have worked to establish clear rules for cross-border trade, finance and services.  Yet, he said, the cross-border movement of human beings remains insufficiently regulated and managed.

SECRETARY-GENERAL DEEMS CLIMATE CHANGE A ‘THREAT MULTIPLIER’

• In a message to the International Conference on the Implications of Climate Change for Defense, the Secretary-General said that the impacts of climate change continue to grow at a dangerous pace.
• He told the event, which took place in Paris, that extreme weather events threaten to provoke widespread food insecurity and humanitarian crises.
• The Secretary-General said it is clear that climate change is a threat multiplier – it not only threatens to exacerbate conflicts within and between States, but that it is itself a threat to international peace and security.

OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION DROPS NEARLY 20 PER CENT IN AFGHANISTAN – U.N.-BACKED FIGURES

• Latest figures released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics show that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has decreased by 19 per cent in 2015, compared to the previous year.
• The Afghanistan Opium Survey, which was released today, notes that the cultivation area has decreased for the first time since 2009. Eradication efforts across the country, led by various provincial governments, have increased by 40 per cent, compared to last year.

NEW SENIOR U.N. POPULATION FUND OFFICIAL APPOINTED

• The Secretary-General is announcing today the appointment of Laura Londén of Finland as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director (Management) of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). She succeeds Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and commitment to the Organization.
• Ms. Londén brings to the position over 25 years of progressive inter-agency experience at both headquarters and field duty stations.

JORDAN BECOMES 130^TH MEMBER STATE TO PAY U.N. DUES IN FULL

• Jordan has become the 130^th Member State to pay its dues in full to the UN regular budget.