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 UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund.

Horn of Africa

Adrian Edwards of the UN Refugee Agency said that with the increasing gravity of the situation in Somalia UNHCR was stepping up assistance inside the country with a series of aid distributions across central and southern parts of the country. Although access remained a serious impediment to UNHCR, working with partners on the ground in Somalia UNHCR had so far distributed assistance packages to some 90,000 people in Mogadishu and Belet Hawa and Dobley in south-west Somalia. Further non-food aid for an estimated 126,000 people was being handed out from today in other parts of the Gedo and Lower Juba regions, with assistance also on its way to Mogadishu and the Afgooye corridor, as well as further south west in Lower Shabelle.

UNHCR was additionally strengthening its mechanisms for tracking population movement and protection monitoring in the corridors leading to the Dolo Ado and Dadaab refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively. UNHCR’s aim is that through shorter interval reporting it would be better able to inform emergency interventions. UNHCR was the primary provider of this information to UN agencies and NGOs operating in Somalia, said Mr. Edwards.

Given the very serious health state of many refugees arriving at camps in neighbouring countries, UNHCR believed it was of life-saving importance that people in Somalia were able to get help where they needed it. This may, in certain circumstances, mitigate the necessity to cross borders into neighbouring countries, where refugee camps were already bursting at the seams. UNHCR continued to look at all means to step up its efforts inside the country.

Paul Spiegel, Chief of Section, Public Health, UNHCR, said that the situation in Dolo Ado was very dire, and he had been taken aback by what he had seen there. There had been two longer-term camps and a third camp, Kobe, had been opened, but was already full. That camp, where the new arrivals have been placed, had seen an extremely high mortality rate of 7.4 deaths per 10,000 people/day in June. The baseline for Sub-Saharan Africa was 0.5 and an emergency was generally declared at greater than or equal to 1 death. The preponderance of the deaths were among under-five children. The malnutrition rates, one of the major causes of death, were extremely high. The severe malnutrition rate had been 26.8 per cent in June, an extremely rare and very high finding. In July, severe malnutrition seemed to have been decreasing, possibly because Somalis heard about the aid in the camps and thus left earlier.

A camp for another 60,000 people would be opened in the next two or three days, Mr. Spiegel went on to say, adding that the Ethiopian Government had already found another site for when that camp would be full. Key challenges included water and sanitation, which was very complicated given the environment, and the amount of water per person/day varied between 3.5 and 15.4 liters. It was also quite difficult to build latrines given the soil, which caused major sanitation problems.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that the WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran was leaving for the region today, first visiting Ethiopia before proceeding to Kenya and Somalia. On another note, WFP’s Deputy Executive Director for Operations would participate in tomorrow’s press conference with Valerie Amos.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that multi-directional migration flows have intensified in the region. This included internal migration flows from rural to urban zones such as Mogadishu and the more significant migration flows departing South and Central Somalia towards Somaliland and Puntland. Population movements also continued in the direction of Yemen, and there were indications that Djibouti, which was also affected by the drought, was a destination and transit zone for Somali people. Others headed towards Sudan, mostly the Port Sudan region, while others still were moving towards Kenya and notably the Dadaab region. These population movements must be taken into account in order to provide an appropriate response. This response should include considerations of how to achieve a regional consensus so that nomad populations could use mobility as a form of adapting to stress situations created by the drought.

Raouf Mazou, Deputy Director, East Africa and the Horn of Africa Region, UNHCR, responding to a question, said that this was an extremely difficult situation with unprecedented population movements going into Kenya and Ethiopia. At some point, there had probably been up to 4,000 people crossing every day between the two countries, but this number has somewhat decreased. The situation in Somalia continued to be extremely difficult -- it was the terrible mix of ongoing drought and violence the country that resulted in this type of movements.

There were definitely not enough resources to respond to the needs, Mr. Mazou went on to say. An appeal for about 136 million had been issued last week, but so far only about 17 per cent of what was required was available. The first thing which was needed was asylum, making sure that people who crossed the border were received and allowed to stay by countries and populations. Access to Ethiopia, had been particularly easy and access to Kenya, which has received the largest number of Somali refugees in the region, continued.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Geneva since yesterday evening. Mr. Ban had addressed the third Global Review of Aid for Trade at the World Trade Organization this morning. The text of his remarks had been sent to journalists.

The Secretary-General was currently meeting with Micheline Calmy-Rey, the President of the Swiss Federation, and a readout of that meeting would be sent to journalists shortly.

UNCTAD Agenda

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the UN Conference on Trade and Development said that Guillermo Valles would head UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities as of tomorrow. Mr. Valles has served as Uruguay’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization since 2004 and had been a diplomat for his country for more than 35 years, notably participating in the negotiations for the establishment of MERCOSUR. A note on this subject would be sent to journalists later on.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said that an Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy would meet from 19–21 July in Geneva. Meeting participant Abdelali Benamor, the President of the Competition Council of Morocco, was available to meet journalists to discuss subjects such as the economic and political situation of Morocco, the referendum and the country’s new constitution.

UNCTAD would launch the World Investment Report 2011 at a press conference on Thursday, 21 July at 11 a.m. in Room III. The report, embargoed until 26 July, would be made available in Press Room I later today.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the ECOSOC was this morning discussing the role of the UN and the international community in supporting the capacity of the Government of South Sudan to manage the transition. The list of speakers had been sent circulated to journalists yesterday. This afternoon the Council would open its humanitarian affairs segment.

The Human Rights Committee had concluded its examination of the reports of Ethiopia, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan last week and was this morning examining a draft general comment on article 19 of the Covenant, relating to the freedom of opinion and speech.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the US Mission would give a press conference on the third Global Review of Aid for Trade today at 1 p.m. in Press Room I.

WIPO's press conference on the High-Level Copyright Dialogue on the Film Industry would be held today at 3.30 p.m. with Spanish actor Javier Bardem, British film producer Iain Smith and Indian producer and director Bobby Beddi, as well as Esaad Younis, Egyptian actress and Chief Executive Officer of Al Arabia Cinema.

The WHO press conference on the landmark “negative” policy on widely used tuberculosis serodiagnostics had been postponed and would now be held on Wednesday, 20 July at 10 a.m. in Press Room I.

Later on Wednesday, Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, would give a press conference on the mid-year review of the Humanitarian Appeal 2011 at 2.30 p.m. in Room III.

On Thursday, 21 July there would be a flag-raising ceremony marking the admission of South Sudan as a new UN member, taking place at 9.45 a.m. in the Allée des Drapeaux.

This would be followed by a press conference on a WHO Patient Safety announcement at 10 a.m. in Press Room I.