REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Refugee Agency, World Food Programme, World Health Organisation and the International Organization for Migration.

Geneva Activities

In Geneva, the Committee on the Rights of the Child opened its seventy-first session on Monday, 11 January, during which it would review reports from 14 countries. The Committee was this week reviewing the reports of Senegal, Iran, Latvia, Oman, France, Ireland, Peru and Haiti. The reports of Zimbabwe, Maldives, Zambia, Benin, Brunei and Kenya would be reviewed in the week of 18 January. A background release contained the programme of work and links to the country reports and live webcast.

The Conference on Disarmament would begin its 2016 session on Monday 25 January, with the first public meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday 26 January in the Council Chamber at the Palais des Nations.

The Human Rights Council would hold an organisational meeting today, Tuesday 12 January at 3 p.m. to adopt its programme of work for the calendar year and to select the troikas - country rapporteurs - for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session which would start on Monday 18 January. A background press release would be issued later this week.

Hans von Rohland, for the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced the launch of the flagship World Employment and Social Outlook report on Tuesday 19 January, at 9.30 am in Room III.

The Director-General of the International Organization for Migration would give a press conference at 2 p.m. on Thursday 14 January at the Palais des Nations. The room would be confirmed with the press after the briefing.

Intra-Syrian Talks in Geneva

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy on Syria, returned to Geneva last night and was now holding intensive internal consultations with his team and consultants from across the UN Secretariat in preparation for intra-Syrian talks which were scheduled to start on 25 January 2016 in Geneva. More information would be made available in the week of 18 January, said Mr. Fawzi.

The Special Envoy had instructions from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a mandate from the Security Council to go ahead with the planning for this meeting and was working very hard to bring the intra-Syrian parties around the table. It was a top priority for the United Nations Secretary-General to re-start the political process in 2016, based on the Geneva Communiqué and Security Council resolutions. The Special Envoy was working flat-out to bring the parties together on 25 January and in the weeks thereafter.

Responding to questions, Mr. Fawzi said the International Syria Support Group was expected to have representatives in Geneva for the opening of the talks, although at what level remained to be seen. In answer to a question about a tripartite meeting in Geneva between Russia, United States and the United Nations, Mr. Fawzi said a meeting was planned for Wednesday, 13 January, but had no further details at this stage.

Yemen Peace Talks

Regarding talks on the situation in Yemen, Mr. Fawzi said the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was still in the region. Following intensive talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Envoy was expected to visit Sana’a in Yemen.

Responding to a question about the resumption of talks, Mr. Fawzi said 14 January had been mentioned as a preliminary date, but he thought that the Special Envoy’s preference was to hold the next round of talks in the region, and therefore he was working with the parties to agree a location that was acceptable to all, possibly with a start date after 20 January.

Switzerland remained an option for the Special Envoy, and the Swiss authorities were supportive in every way and prepared to host such a meeting. The host Government continued to offer to facilitate such political processes in an efficient and generous manner. If the media had any further questions they could contact the spokesperson for the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Yemen, Mr. Charbel Ragy, added Mr. Fawzi.

Humanitarian aid delivery to Madaya, Syria

Jens Laerke, for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said forty-seven aid trucks departing from Damascus entered Madaya yesterday and off-loaded humanitarian supplies aimed at some 40,000 people. Given the extremely dire situation people were found in, aid distribution began immediately. The trucks had returned empty to Damascus this morning.

In a parallel convoy, 21 trucks departing from Homs entered Foah and Kefraya in Idlib province and offloaded supplies for some 20,000 people. Those trucks were returning to Homs today after having spent the night in Idlib.

The aid delivered by the trucks included food, nutrition, non-food items (winterization material including shelter material) and health supplies. It was the first aid to reach people in these locations since October last year, said Mr. Laerke. Aid workers on the convoy to Madaya described people’s situation as “miserable” and confirmed that they saw severely malnourished children.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien briefed the Security Council last night on the operation which was a joint undertaking by Syrian Arab Red Crescent, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UN agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Emergency Relief Coordinator stressed that the situation in Madaya was far from unique; almost 400,000 people in Syria were trapped in areas besieged by the various parties to the conflict. The use of siege and starvation as a method of war had become routine and systematic, with complete disregard for civilian life.

It was critical that more deliveries could be made both to the locations reached yesterday and to reach all the 4.5 million people in besieged and hard-to reach areas in Syria, said Mr. Laerke. It was expected that additional deliveries would be made to Madaya, Foah and Kefraya in the course of the week, and to Zabadani which was close to Madaya.

Asked who was in control of the towns and allowed the passage of the convoy, Mr. Laerke said there were local negotiations, for instance on local ceasefires and local safe passage, which may have been agreed in advance but had to be re-confirmed as convoys went along, as happened yesterday.

In response to questions about localities under siege in Syria, Mr. Laerke said those besieged by Government and/or pro-government forces were Zabadani and Madaya, Darraya (western Ghouta in Rural Damascus), and eastern Ghouta (Rural Damascus) including Douma, Arbin, Harasta and other localities. Areas besieged by non-government groups were Foah and Kefraya. The area besieged by ISIL was Deir-ez-Zor.

Mr. Laerke clarified that the agreement reached to allow the passage of two convoys yesterday was part of the ‘Four Town Agreement’ which included the towns of Madaya, Foah and Kefraya, and also the town of Zabadani, which was located close to Madaya and had not yet been reached by aid workers.

In response to an additional question, Mr. Laerke said OCHA’s role in the aid delivery was the planning and coordination of all the convoys.

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), introduced Mr. Sajjad Malik, UNHCR Representative in Syria, who briefed journalists over the phone from Damascus about his visit to Madaya with the convoy.

Regarding the logistics, Mr. Malik said it took a long time before the large convoy, which started out from Damascus in the morning, was allowed to pass the check points, and it was 5 p.m. when four trucks, two loaded with food, two with blankets, and two United Nations vehicles carrying a team made up of United Nations agency, ICRC and SARC staff, were allowed to enter the town. It was only at 4 a.m. on Tuesday that all the trucks were allowed to enter Madaya and unload. They returned to Damascus at 5 a.m.

The situation in Madaya was horrifying, said Mr. Malik. There was no light. It was very, very cold. People who gathered around the trucks as they unloaded were very frail, very weak, malnourished and shivering. There was nothing to eat in the town. People had had no bread, rice, vegetables or fruit for months. While the trucks were being unloaded they were desperately looking for food in the cars, asking the drivers for anything they had, which was given to them. The humanitarian staff could see how desperate they were.

Children were going out collecting grass to turn into soup and eat, but landmines laid around Madaya were a serious concern as in the last few months there had been several incidents of children being hurt by mine explosions, so now even that was a problem. People were selling their belongings to buy food, and staff were told repeatedly that a kilo of rice cost US$300, and of someone who had sold a motorbike to buy five kilos of rice. There was no heating and people were burning their belongings to keep warm.

Mr. Malik described his visit to the makeshift medical clinic in Madaya. It had horrible conditions, with people on the floor, not enough medicine and not enough staff. The doctor estimated there were 300 to 400 people there who were severely malnourished. The doctor himself had been injured with shrapnel. There was a need for trained medical personnel who could treat malnutrition.
As well as Madaya UNHCR was also seriously concerned about other hard-to-reach areas in Syria where there was no humanitarian access. There were 40,000 people in Madaya, but there were 6.5 million internally displaced persons in Syria and many more were in need of assistance, said Mr. Malik. UNHCR and the humanitarian community wanted to see the sieges lifted and make sure this delivery was not just one-time support that would only be a ‘band aid’ and would soon run out. The last aid delivery to Madaya was in October 2015 and lasted only 20 days. All agencies were pooling their resources, staff and energies and more resources was due to go in over the next few days but consistent humanitarian support in terms of food and medical assistance had to be permitted, not only in Madaya but elsewhere.

Responding to questions about planned aid deliveries, Mr. Malik said there was permission for two more convoys this week, but cooperation between the local authorities, who wanted to check every truck, was also necessary. UNHCR planned to provide blankets, winter clothes, diapers, plastic sheeting, jerry cans in the next deliveries – commodities which were essential to keep people warm and allow them to cook and bring water to their homes.

Mr. Malik, responding to another question, said people were dying from starvation in Madaya. WHO would confirm the figures in due course.

Asked whether the scenes in Madaya amounted to a crime against humanity, Mr. Edwards said it was very clear that the targeting of civilians with starvation as a tactic of war clearly was completely against international humanitarian law.

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), briefed on the WFP food aid carried to Madaya in the convoys. The people in Madaya received 250 tonnes of food including rice, wheat flour, vegetable oil, salt, sugar, canned foods, beans and lentils from WFP. Canned food was given in particular because people could start eating it immediately if they had no cooking supplies.

As seen in some of the photos and videos that had been published overnight, the people in Madaya were malnourished, said Ms. Luescher. The WFP representative who accompanied the convoy heard from people in the town that they were selling their belongings for food. One family had sold their car for three kilos of rice. There was not a single piece of fruit or vegetable in the town.

Two more convoys were planned to take place on Thursday and Sunday, which would bring more wheat flour and other commodities to the people. Ms. Luescher emphasized that while the focus on Madaya was important, there were people in many other locations who also needed assistance. For example, just yesterday, WFP brought food to 30,000 Syrians in other places.

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Elizabeth Hoff, WHO Representative in Syria, said WHO aid in the convoy consisted of 7.8 tonnes of medical supplies for Madaya and 3.9 tonnes for Kefraya and Foah. The supplies included life-saving and life-sustaining medicines, analgesics, antibiotics, medicines for non-communicable diseases, intra-venous fluids, anti-lice medicines, consumables, mental health medicines, and emergency trauma and burn kits.

There were only three doctors in the city, Ms. Hoff had reported. There was one health clinic which was almost non-functional and one ‘field hospital or emergency medical unit’. All three doctors confirmed that there was severe malnutrition. There was one female gynaecologist who was in her first year of practice in her private home-based clinic. There was also one paediatrician operating from a one-room make-shift facility.

The third doctor was injured himself, and running this emergency unit where there were no beds, people had to sit or stand, and in some cases be given IV fluids outside. There was a huge shortage of medicines as the last aid convoy was in October 2015. In addition to malnutrition the doctors were also reporting cases of acute respiratory infections, urinary tract infections and menstrual disturbances.

The gynaecologist confirmed that pre-term labour and home deliveries were regular occurrences. She had carried out 30 caesarean sections in the last seven months, despite not having received any training on doing so, said Mr. Jasarevic.

Exclusive breastfeeding could not be practiced as lactating mothers were too malnourished and dehydrated to produce breast milk for their babies. Consequently new-born babies were being fed with water, herbs and tomato puree. The doctors in Madaya asked for infant formula to be provided urgently, said Mr. Jasarevic. Responding to a question about the provision of infant formula, Mr. Jasarevic said WHO recommended therapeutic feeding and not infant formula.

WHO wanted to bring mobile health clinics into Madaya. It was trying to identify Syrian Arab Red Cross (SARC) physicians who could be trained to in turn go to these places and train people on the treatment and management protocol of people suffering from severe malnourishment, as some of the food aid sent had to be taken according to certain protocols. WHO also recommended that SARC be permitted to conduct house-to-house searches for malnourished people in the community as it was estimated a further 300 to 400 people in Madaya needed specialist health care.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said UNICEF also had a team in the convoy and had sent to Madaya therapeutic and other nutrition supplies for children, which included micronutrients, high energy biscuits and therapeutic food and medication for severe and medication for the treatment of severe and acute malnutrition. The supplies would meet the needs of 10,000 children.

The UNICEF Representative in Syria, Hanaa Singer, who accompanied the convoy to Madaya said she heard very disturbing stories from the children and mothers they met. All the children she spoke to said they were surviving on leaf soup. A mother told her that her son recently died because he didn’t have enough to eat. Most of the children in Madaya looked emaciated and were suffering from lack of food. She met one man who had lost a leg from a landmine explosion.

A UNICEF health and nutrition officer who accompanied the convoy described “a terrible scene” the like of which he had never seen in his career. In the town, he saw hundreds of people that were showing clear signs of malnutrition and other medical conditions, such as diarrhea and skin diseases. In parallel to the operation in Madaya, Mr Boulierac said, a relief convoy reached the besieged northern towns of Foua and Kafraya in Idlib. UNICEF supplies delivered a similar range of supplementary and therapeutic commodities which covered the needs of 5000 children.

Threat to children in Yemen

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the war in Yemen was posing an ever-growing threat to children. Julien Harneis, UNICEF Representative in Yemen, had issued a statement in which he said with no end in sight to the deadly conflict in Yemen, nearly 10 million children inside the country we are now facing a new year of pain and suffering. Continuous bombardment and street fighting were exposing children and their families to a deadly combination of violence, disease and deprivation.

The direct impact of the conflict on children was hard to measure. The statistics confirmed by the United Nations, of 747 children killed and another 1,108 injured since March last year, and 724 children pressed into some form of military activity, were shocking in themselves, but told only part of the story. What was really needed -- above all else – was an end to the conflict. Only in that way could the children of Yemen look forward to 2016 with hope rather than despair, said Mr. Boulierac. More information could be found in the press release.

CERF funding for Lake Chad basin

Jens Laerke, for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien had allocated US$31 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support humanitarian partners in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin region, where the humanitarian situation is worsening due to violence perpetrated by Boko Haram.

An estimated 2.7 million people, of whom 1.5 million were children, had been displaced in the region, making it the fastest growing displacement crisis in Africa. People affected by the ongoing crisis are in urgent need of food, drinking water, shelter, health care, protection and education.

The CERF funding would provide life-saving assistance to almost 1.7 million affected people in the four countries. Some $10 million would bolster relief efforts in Nigeria, while humanitarian partners in Cameroon, Chad and Niger would receive $7 million each, briefed Mr. Laerke.

Child education in conflict zones

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), briefed on a new UNICEF analysis that found one in four children in conflict zones were out of school. The analysis highlighted that nearly one in four of the 109.2 million children of primary and lower secondary school age - typically between six and 15 years – living in conflict areas were missing out on their education. More information could be found in the press release.

Sexual Assault Allegations in Central African Republic

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), responded to a question about new reports of cases of sexual assault and abuse against girls in the Mpoko IDP camp in the Central African Republic. He said UNICEF staff from its office in Bangui had met on several occasions with four girls and were trying to arrange a meeting with a fifth child. With support from UNICEF and a local partner, four of the girls have received medical care. Counselling sessions were under way with the children to assess their psychosocial needs. The girls had also been provided with clothes, shoes and hygiene kits. Similar assistance would be provided to the fifth child as soon as staff were able to meet with her.

UN Special Envoy for Road Safety to meet the Pope

Jean Rodriguez, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said Pope Francis would receive in private audience the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Road Safety, Jean Todt, accompanied by Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, on Thursday 14 January. They would discuss the need to increase road safety globally in order to save millions of lives, in line with the objective to halve road traffic fatalities by 2020 included in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mediterranean Migrants

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), reported that during the first 11 days of 2016 over 1,700 migrants had arrived in Europe every day. More info can be found in the IOM press briefing note.

Cuban migrants

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), spoke about the situation in Central America and Cuban migration. He said the unprecedented and rapid increase of stranded Cuban economic migrants had prompted the Government of Costa Rica to declare a migration crisis demanding an urgent need for humanitarian assistance.

IOM had been requested to provide expert advice on ways for the Cubans to be able to depart Costa Rica safely and voluntarily as regular migrants. IOM sought a solution that would protect migrants’ rights, and identified commercial transportation possibilities that would allow the Cuban migrants to pay for their own travel.
More info could be found in the IOM press briefing note.

Somalia shipwreck kills 36 migrants

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said IOM had responded to a fatal Somalian shipwreck, which killed 36 migrants, and supported local authorities in providing food, water, and medicine for the survivors. The full story could be found in the IOM briefing note.

The webcast for this briefing is available here:
http://bit.ly/unog120116

The podcast for this briefing is available here:
ftp://MWE-BPAG:Vq26parG@unis-ftp.unog.ch/BRIEFINGGVA20160112.mp3