GUESTS TOMORROW
Tomorrow, I will be joined by Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD, which as you all know is the International Fund for Agricultural Development and he’s also the Chair of UN-Water, and he will also be joined by Federico Properzi, the Chief and Technical Lead of UN Water. They will be here to launch the first-ever United Nations system-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation and unveil the latest figures from the upcoming State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 report.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
Our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, will travel to West Africa, as part of a wider effort to engage at country level to support the acceleration and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. This follows the SDG Summit that took place in September. She leaves tonight. Her first stop will be in Dakar, Senegal. From there, she will travel to Guinea and Mali. From Mali, the Deputy Secretary-General will then head to Ethiopia to preside over the opening of the First session of the Preparatory Committee for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.
From Ethiopia, the Deputy Secretary-General will return to West Africa to continue the second leg of her mission. She will start with Burkina Faso and continue on to Niger before concluding her mission in Nigeria.
During the visit, the Deputy Secretary-General, will hold meetings with senior government officials, UN entities on the ground and other stakeholders, to take stock of the challenges affecting the realization of the SDGs, review the UN’s presence and support to the SDGs in these varied environments and identify ways to strengthen the impact for people on the ground.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the situation in Gaza, I think you all heard a rather extensive briefing from our friend Scott Anderson, the head of UNRWA in Gaza.
I can further tell you that we and our humanitarian partners continue to assist families who are being displaced from northern Gaza to areas in the south. A team from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs carried out a mission today aimed at supporting the scaling up of services at points where families fleeing northern Gaza are arriving in the south.
Furthermore, our humanitarian partners are registering displaced people so that support can be provided to them wherever they seek shelter south of Wadi Gaza. We are also planning missions to areas [east] of Salahal-deen road to assess people’s needs in that area.
OCHA says that with each new evacuation directive, families in Gaza are forced to make impossible choices: stay, amid active hostilities, or flee to areas with little space and services – and of course, no guarantee of safety as we saw this weekend. OCHA also says the horrors witnessed in recent days only underscore what we have said repeatedly over the past nine months: There is no safe place in Gaza. Not shelters, not hospitals – and not the so-called humanitarian zones.
We call yet again for all parties to this conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law. They must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects. This includes ensuring safe passage for those who flee. And wherever they are in Gaza, civilians must receive the essentials they need to survive: food, shelter and health care.
Making sure civilians in Gaza get the lifesaving support they need means ensuring safe and unimpeded humanitarian operations.
HURRICANE BERYL
Turning to Hurricane Beryl, we have an update from our colleagues in Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamaica. Two weeks since the hurricane’s first impact, our teams in the three islands continue to work with authorities to complete needs assessments. In Jamaica, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme and the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination arm are assessing the damage to homes, which is expected to wrap up shortly.
In Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, humanitarian teams have identified restoring water supply and the provision of sanitation services as the top priorities.
We and our partners will continue to support these countries through the recently launched response plan which seeks $9 million in funding and aims to help 43,000 out of the 82,000 people potentially impacted by this storm.
UKRAINE
Turning to Ukraine, our humanitarian colleagues on the ground are telling that attacks today and over the weekend continue to impact civilians in front-line areas.
Authorities said that on Saturday, an attack on a railway in the Kharkhiv region of eastern Ukraine caused nearly 30 civilian casualties, including children. A second attack reportedly killed two first responders who had rushed to help. Local authorities and humanitarian partners on the ground said the strikes also damaged scores of civilian buildings, as well as railway infrastructure.
Heavy fighting also continued in the Donetsk region. In the town of Myrnohrad, multiple strikes killed and injured civilians, including a child, and caused damage to civilian infrastructure.
Aid workers mobilized emergency assistance for people impacted by these attacks.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Turning to the Central African Republic, our peacekeeping colleagues there report that a joint delegation of UN and government officials, that includes our representative on the ground Valentine Rugwabiza, visited Obo and Bambouti on Saturday. They were there to assess the efforts undertaken to help restore normal life in the Haut-Mbomou prefecture, following an escalation of violence between armed groups in the area since February.
The visit came two months after the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Bambouti, a town in the far east of the Central African Republic on the border with South Sudan, an isolated area where national defense and security forces are absent.
The deployment of the UN Force, carried out in parallel with the ongoing rehabilitation of the Bambouti-Obo-Bangassou road – done by peacekeepers, is progressively opening up the area.
The majority of localities in the Haut-Mbomou are now accessible, allowing for the free movement of goods and people.
During the visit, a road was inaugurated, work was launched to drill boreholes to help supply Bambouti with drinking water, and the foundation stone for the town hall was laid to enable the mayor to resume her activities in the area after a two-year absence, marking the return of state authority.
In total, the UN mission, with the participation of our country team, has launched 13 projects which have been identified to rapidly address the basic humanitarian needs of local families, to re-establish State authority, and to reconnect to the rest of the country.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
A couple of personnel announcements. I just want to read into the record what we announced earlier today, which that we have a new Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq.
Mohamed Al Hassan of the Sultanate of Oman was appointed as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission there. He succeeds Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her services. As you know, she is now Special Coordinator in Lebanon.
Mr. Al Hassan brings to the position a broad range of diplomatic experience with a career spanning over thirty years working on preventive diplomacy, peacebuilding and development.
And you all know him from his most recent post as the Permanent Representative of Oman to the United Nations.
RESIDENT COORDINATOR GUINEA-BISSAU
We also have a new Resident Coordinator in Guinea-Bissau. The Secretary-General has appointed Geneviève Boutin of Canada as the RC in Guinea-Bissau. She starts work today, following the approval from the Government.
Ms. Boutin brings more than 20 years of experience in development and humanitarian work, peacebuilding and child rights work. She previously as Deputy Director in UNICEF’s Programme Group and in other senior leadership positions with UNICEF. She has worked in OCHA and other places and we congratulate her.
YOUTH SKILLS DAY
Today is World Youth Skills Day. In a message, the Secretary-General said this Day shines a spotlight on skills for peace and sustainable development, adding that young people around the world can make a bigger difference for our shared future, such as green and digital economies, education and so much more.
