REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Children's Fund.

Sudan

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that the WFP welcomed that South Sudan would be independent as of 9 July as peace was important to maintaining food security. The WFP was also encouraged by reports of good expectations for the coming agricultural season in the Southern States of South Sudan. Nevertheless, WFP continued its operations in South Sudan and its June food assistance had been completed, with distributions to 900,000 people. A barge had departed yesterday from a city in the central area south of Khartoum and would head down the river with new replenishments of food which would hopefully arrive in Juba by 12 July. The WFP was very hopeful that tensions would ease in the border areas because physical insecurity was a major determinant of food insecurity. While the WFP had assisted 102,000 internally displaced persons in Abyei as of 3 July, access continued to be an issue in Unity State, where WFP was trying to reach more than 24,000 displaced people. Access also remained an issue in South Kordofan. WFP had reached almost 50,000 people as of 3 July, but many remained out of reach. Meanwhile, WFP had regained access to its warehouse in Kadugli and was currently assessing the stocks there.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that many of the 1.4 million residents of the affected areas in South Kordofan were in need of humanitarian aid, and at least 75,000 people had been displaced. The situation remained tense in Upper Nile, southern Sudan. The Humanitarian Coordinator made a USD 9.8 million CERF Rapid Response grant request – notably for IOM, UNHCR and UNICEF – and a CERF Rapid Response grant proposal to address the life-saving needs of returnees requiring transportation from Khartoum to Southern Sudan was currently being prepared. A third CERF Rapid Response proposal for the humanitarian response to people displaced by conflict in Abyei was being finalised. The appeal for Sudan was 52 per cent funded, with USD 606 million received out of the USD 1.1 billion requested.

Dominik Bartsch of the UN Refugee Agency said that between 1.5 and up to 2 million Southerners had been residing in the North. Of these, some 300,000 returned to the South since late October and some 30,000 returned to the protocol areas. Unfortunately, significant numbers of Southerners remained stranded en route, notably in Kosti, a way station on the Nile River where 16,000 people were residing in a transit centre originally built for 2,000 people, making conditions at the site were very difficult. Similarly, a group of some 17,000 Southerners was still in Khartoum. Many of these people were waiting in the city for the transport to the South they have been promised, but which has not been provided due to capacity reasons. As a result, many people were now sitting on street corners with their belongings after selling their belongings, waiting for transport to arrive. Many of these people who were born in Khartoum now found themselves in a situation where they had no assurance about their future status in Sudan. While statelessness was often treated as an issue of legal finesse, this was of direct concern for hundreds of thousands of Southerners in the North who must decide whether or not they would travel to the South.

Turning to the displacement in the protocol areas Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, Mr. Bartsch said that UNHCR had been following the developments in Abyei, where fighting had forced more than 113,000 persons to move. While there were sporadic return movements, the situation in Abyei was not stable yet and the political agreement was yet to be translated into a ceasefire. In Southern Kordofan, fighting was still ongoing in the Nuba Mountains, and UNHCR was aware of some 75,000 internally displaced persons. UNHCR and other agencies were still present in Kadugli, but their freedom of movement was limited to the town itself, and the fate of the 7,000 internally displaced persons who had been camping out in front of the UNMIS remained unknown as of today. The situation in Blue Nile, the third protocol area, was very tense, and UNHCR was working with partners to complete contingency plans for possible movements there.

Mr. Bartsch said that UNHCR welcomed the independence of South Sudan on 9 July. At the same time, it wished to underscore that the South had a number of hotspots, areas where inter-communal violence, ethnic clashes and active military insurgencies were taking place. There were concerns that these hotspots could generate internal displacement and, in the worst case, prompt refugees to cross the border.

Libya

Ms. Casella said that the WFP had distributed more than 6,000 metric tons of food assistance to more than 500,000 people across Libya since the start of the emergency operation four months ago. The first UN Joint Mission to assess the Western Mountain region in Libya found that food security was a major concern for the people there. The mission had visited the towns of Wazin, Nalut and Zintan, finding that people were depending entirely on food assistance for their survival. While shops were closed and civil servants have gone unpaid since February, only 3 out of the 12 bakeries in Nalut were operational and WFP staff saw neither goats nor sheep as people have sold or consumed their livestock to survive. The WFP had launched the first regular vessel from Benghazi to Misrata on 1 July. The vessel would make two trips each week between the two cities during July to transport humanitarian cargo and humanitarian workers. An operational update was available at the back of the room.

Tarek Jasarevic of the World Health Organization said that WHO was extremely concerned about the continuing shortages of medicine, consumables and medical supplies in Libya. These shortages were due to increasing procurement and supply chain problems faced by medical authorities. Despite donations, these shortages and irregular supplies of vaccines and medication remained a major problem. WHO was working with Libyan medical authorities to establish all the requirements and costs for the quarterly procurement of the necessary medical supplies for the country. WHO was also beginning, as a matter of urgency, a discussion with partner agencies to establish the logistics for such a large-scale procurement operation. In addition, WHO was liaising with the humanitarian community and donor countries regarding the financing of this procurement of medicines and vaccines. The goal was to use funds from the Libyan Government and complement these with donor support as needed. WHO was also working to strengthen the disease surveillance system in Eastern Libya.

WHO’s health partner International Medical Corps had visited the towns of Qalaa and Yefren. In Qalaa, the team visited a field hospital operating out of a local school. According to doctors at the hospital, the majority of patients were war-wounded persons from the nearby frontline. The field hospital was also receiving civilian patients, although only few residents remained in the town. The field hospital was staffed by two doctors and a medical student and for the time being was well supplied with basic medicines. In Yefren, water and electricity were currently unavailable, and most residents had left the town. The hospital had been powered by a generator and more staff was needed.

Horn of Africa

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said that the massive influx of Somali refugees into neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia continued unabated. Relentless violence compounded by devastating drought had forced more than 135,000 Somalis to flee so far this year. In June alone, 54,000 people fled across the two borders, three times the number of people who fled in May. UNHCR estimated a quarter of Somalia’s 7.5 million population was now either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees. The drought, compounded by prevailing violence in southern and central parts of the country, was turning one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises into a human tragedy of unimaginable proportions. UNHCR was particularly disturbed by unprecedented levels of malnutrition among the new arrivals - especially among refugee children. More than 50 per cent of Somali children arriving in Ethiopia were seriously malnourished, while among those arriving to Kenya that rate is somewhat lower, but equally worrying - between 30 to 40 per cent.


Prevailing violent conflict inside Somalia made it difficult if not impossible for aid agencies in some areas to reach the people with assistance. Many families told UNHCR they had exhausted virtually all of their resources. Facing starvation, they had walked for days, several weeks at times, through the desert, arriving in an appalling state of health. Increasingly, UNHCR was hearing reports of children below the age of five dying of hunger and exhaustion during the journey. Tragically, many children are in such weak conditions when they finally arrived that they died within 24 hours despite the emergency care and therapeutic feeding they immediately receive. In the Dadaab refugee camp complex in Kenya, where refugees arrived at a rate of 1,400 per day, UNHCR and its partners were distributing high energy biscuits for instant calories and micronutrients. These were life-saving interventions. In addition to malnutrition, overcrowding of the camps, which already hosted more than 382,000 people, is a major concern. In Ethiopia, UNHCR and the Ethiopian authorities had identified a fourth site and discussions were underway about the location of the fifth camp in anticipation of a continued influx.

Ms. Casella said that more than 6 million people in the Horn of Africa required food assistance from the WFP, out of a total of about 9 million people who required humanitarian assistance. However, as WFP was currently conducting assessments in all countries of the Horn of Africa, there was a strong expectation that these numbers would rise. Refugees were streaming across the boarder, and about 1,300 people arrived at the camps in the Daabab area on a daily basis, a good 60 per cent or more being women and children. Families often arrived after having walked for three weeks, reporting that they had lost all cattle due to the drought. The global acute malnutrition rates were alarmingly high, at about 30 per cent in the Kenyan camps according to WFP’s partners. Available information suggested that that figure was even higher in Ethiopia, where the global acute malnutrition rates reportedly stood at about 45 to 50 per cent while the emergency threshold was at 15 per cent. WFP was currently providing a 15-day ration to new arrivals, many of whom were camping out on the ground. The current shortfall for WFP’s operations in the Horn of Africa region -- comprising Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda -- amounted to USD 203 million, Ms. Casella underscored.

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said that the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum, which was supported by the World Meteorological Organization, had indicated a likelihood of above to near normal rainfall in northern and western equatorial areas of the Greater Horn of Africa during the July-September rainy season. The rest of the Greater Horn of Africa, including drought-hit parts of the eastern sector, was likely to remain seasonally dry during that period. July-September constituted a major rainfall season over much of the Greater Horn of Africa’s northern sector (Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and northern Somalia) and of the western equatorial parts. The Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum, which issued a consensus statement following a 17 June meeting, said there was an “increased likelihood” of above normal rainfall over Central Sudan and western Ethiopia in July-September. Above-normal rainfall was defined as within the wettest third of long term recorded rainfall amounts. It said there was an increased likelihood of above to near normal rainfall over Eritrea, Djibouti, Uganda, Rwanda, northern Burundi, north-western Tanzania, Western Kenya, extreme north-western Somalia, south-western, central and north-eastern Ethiopia, as well as southern and parts of north-eastern Sudan.

Mr. Jasarevic said that the WHO office in Somalia and the health cluster partners in the country were requesting USD 2.2 million to carry out several activities in the drought-hit regions. This included the establishment of a temporary health post at the Somalia-Kenya border to provide primary health care services, drawing up a scheme of maternal health care vouchers, supporting mobile clinics and health facilities in the areas hardest hit by the drought, and procuring and distributing inter-agency health kits and diarrheal disease kits.

Malaysia

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that OHCHR had recently been receiving reports of a crackdown by the Malaysian authorities, including harassment, intimidation, arrests and threats, targeting members of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) in the lead-up to a peaceful demonstration scheduled for this coming Saturday, 9 July.

According to reliable sources, at least 150 people had been summoned, arrested or charged, including a number of opposition Members of Parliament. The authorities had also reportedly arrested activists simply for possessing Bersih’s distinctive yellow T-shirts and campaign pamphlets.

OHCHR was very concerned about the various measures that were being taken by the authorities to restrict freedom of expression in Malaysia, including preventive detention, and the Government's decision to reportedly declare Bersih an unlawful organization.

OHCHR called on the authorities to release all those being detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression. It also urged the Government to take steps to repeal preventive laws, including the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance of 1969, as already called for by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Responding to a question, Ms. Casella said that the WFP had participated in a new assessment of food needs in the DPRK in March, concluding that a bitter winter, crop loss and a lack of financial resources had meant that the country was unable to secure serial supplies from abroad although it needed them to supplement the local production.

This left the DPRK highly vulnerable to food shortages. The WFP had therefore launched an emergency food operation valued at just over USD 200 million to reach 3.5 million of the most vulnerable children, mothers and elderly in the country’s most food insecure areas.

Acute malnutrition had not reached crisis levels yet, but chronic malnutrition and poor diet was widespread in the DPRK, meaning that the situation could deteriorate with any significant reduction in food intake. About a third of the children in the country were stunted, Ms. Casella underscored, adding that about a quarter of all pregnant women and nursing mothers were malnourished.

Marixie Mercado of the UN Children's Fund added that the March assessment underlined a context of chronic malnutrition. The emergency efforts were being undertaken in order to stop that situation from becoming a context of acute malnutrition.

Gaza-bound flotilla

In response to a question from a journalist regarding the Secretary-General's statement in response to Greek decisions on the Gaza-bound flotilla, Ms. Momal-Vanian referred to the statements made by the Secretary-General's Spokesperson about the need to avoid raising tensions in the area and the importance of using the established aid routes.

Agenda of the Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Thursday before participating in the ECOSOC meeting in the afternoon, which would probably be followed by a press stakeout by Mr. Ban. The detailed programme would be sent to journalists tomorrow.

2011 ECOSOC substantive session 2011

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Economic and Social Council had opened its substantive session yesterday, starting its High-level Segment which would continue until the end of this week.

This morning the Council was holding a political consultation on the current developments in the world economy, notably with the participation of the heads of the World Trade Organization and the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The World Economic and Social Survey 2011 would be presented later today.

Over the course of the week there would be meetings in the context of the Annual Ministerial Review and the General Debate as well as thematic roundtables and national voluntary presentations.

Press Conferences

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that today’s WHO press conference has been cancelled but that UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova would give a press conference at 11.30 a.m. today in Room III. This would be followed by a press conference on the launch of the World Economic and Social Survey 2011 with Sha Zukang, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, at 12.30 p.m. in Room III.

Tomorrow, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, UNESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer and Frances Stewart, Director, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, University of Oxford would give a press conference on accelerating poverty eradication for the achievement of the MDGs. That meeting would take place at 9.45 a.m. in Room III, to be followed by a UNIDIR press conference on the launch of the Small Arms Survey 2011 at 10.30 a.m. in Press Room 1.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the UN Conference on Trade and Development said that UNCTAD would give a press conference on the Economic Development in Africa Report 2011 tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Room III, under embargo until Monday 11 July at 5 p.m. GMT. Participating at the press conference would be UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi and Kandeh K. Yumkella, the Director-General of UNIDO. English and French press kits were available from Press Room I and the press release would be available in the six official languages by Monday.

Tomorrow at 3.30 p.m. in Room III there would be a video conference with Francesca Perucci, Chief, Statistical Planning and Development Section, Statistics Division, DESA, who would give a background briefing on the Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 which would be launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday, 7 July. The background briefing was embargoed until 7 July 2011, 3 p.m. Geneva time.