POINT DE PRESSE DU SERVICE DE L'INFORMATION (en anglais)

Yvette Morris, Chief of the Radio and Television Section at the UN Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the Spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Ebola – foreign medical teams

Dr. Ian Norton, for the World Health Organization (WHO), provided information regarding the functions and future goals of foreign medical teams dealing with Ebola cases. Foreign medical teams were defined as clinical providers - doctors and nurses - coming from outside of their country of origin into a country with a health emergency. They had initially been created to come to immediate aid during tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters. At this time, the teams’ normal response would be changed to an extended one, while focusing not only on tending to the current Ebola cases but also on the extermination of Ebola as a whole.

There were currently 58 medical teams and 66 Ebola treatment centers in the infected areas. They were provided by some 40 different organizations dealing with the Ebola response.

Dr. Norton discussed the previous key gap in the Ebola response - lack of bed capacity and medical capability during the early months of the outbreak. The national health care systems and Doctors Without Borders had been overwhelmed. During the initial months in which the outbreak had taken place, the majority of the foreign medical teams had been tending to the after-typhoon needs in the Philippines. With 150 foreign medical teams in the Philippines and only three teams in the Ebola-affected areas in July/August 2014, not much was being done.

In August 2014, together with the WFP and UNICEF, the WHO had constructed 1,000 beds in Monrovia, which was a unique engagement of that kind in the field. An increased number of South-South medical teams had taken part in the Ebola-response, including Cuban brigades and African Union teams.

Dr. Norton said that there would be a meeting in Geneva from 17 till 19 February to look into the Ebola-response and how foreign medical teams could help in the last phases. Around 95 percent out of the 40 involved organizations would be represented. During the meeting, options would be discussed on how foreign medical teams could get involved with other pillars of Ebola-response, including surveillance and social mobilization, with a view to bringing the number of cases down to zero. Many of the teams were ready to stay for several months in order to safely reactivate the essential healthcare services of the three affected countries. A specific section of the meeting would look at improved safety and improved patient care.

The meeting itself would be of technical nature and would not be public. A list of participants would be published soon.

Answering a question, Dr. Norton specified that the foreign medical team part of the response had been part of a “fire-fighting stage of the response”, when the lack of clinical capacity was hampering the rest of the response. The focus now was on the public health stage, with contact tracing and social mobilization.

MERS Virus

Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that we were entering the third year since the outbreak of MERS/Corona virus. There were reports of at least 975 cases, 358 of whom had died. New cases were now being reported on an almost daily basis. Since the latest large outbreak in May/June 2013, there had been a smaller surge in Saudi Arabia, which could typically be explained due to small hospital outbreaks. People were getting it through some sort of contacts with camels, or through close contact with primary cases in hospitals or households.

There were also reports, for the first time, of a case in the Philippines, of a nurse who had returned from Saudi Arabia, and had tested positive two days earlier. All of her contacts in the Philippines were now being followed, some of whom were showing signs of respiratory syndromes, but had tested negative thus far.

Dr. Ben Embarek said that there were sporadic cases in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In the previous two years, there had been a surge of cases in the spring. It was not yet established whether there was a seasonality in the disease, or if it was connected to camel husbandry practices.

A WHO mission would be going to Riyadh the following week at the request of the Saudi Government, in order to take preventive measures for a possible upsurge of cases in the spring. WHO spokesperson Fadéla Chaib would be part of the mission.

Asked what was causing the disease in camels, Dr. Ben Embarek said that it could be a mix of climatic conditions, ways of interacting with camels, or some unique factors, which made it different from other parts of the world. The symptoms were not very specific initially and could easily be mistaken for something else. Mild symptoms in camels would sometimes not be picked up. There was a need to increase surveillance in other parts of the world with large camel populations. Camels were not showing severe symptoms, perhaps some mild respiratory syndromes, which would not normally attract attention.

When it came to human cases, Dr. Ben Embarek said that those with weak immune systems were at most risk, while healthy young adults would normally not show serious symptoms. The fatality rate was 35 per cent, and it was not easily transmissible among humans.

On why the virus was centred in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ben Embarek said that it was present in the whole region, with Saudi Arabia being the largest, central country there. Patients in Saudi Arabia also seemed to be more likely to seek medical treatment.

Asked about travel recommendations, Dr. Ben Embarek responded that the vast majority of the cases had had exposure to one of the countries in the region. If one was suffering from one of the underlying conditions, one should try to avoid contact with camels, be careful when visiting markets, apply good hygiene practices, avoid unnecessary visits to health centres, given that the virus was suspected to be circulating there as well. Little was known on the exact risk factors and the way the diseases was transmitted, but close contact with camels and consuming raw camel milk ought to be definitely avoided.

Yemen

Julien Harneis, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking on the phone from Yemen, said that the security situation was very difficult, but from the humanitarian perspective it was still possible to conduct field trips on a regular basis. The economic crisis looming over the country was particularly tough, with an already high percentage of the population living in poverty. The country was dependent on foreign assistance. Reduction in government services had been observed; health and education services were also likely to be reduced.

It was particularly worrying to see increasing numbers of malnourished children and fewer children going to school. In previous years, education rates for girls and boys had reached 70 per cent, but those gains were now likely be lost. It was unclear whether the Government would manage to continue vaccinations. Yemen was already in a difficult period, and it was absolutely critical that UNICEF and other organizations remain and continue to deliver their aid.

Asked for more details on children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, Mr. Harneis specified that around 900,000 Yemeni children were malnourished at the moment, out of whom some 210,000 were suffering from severe acute malnutrition. In the past, UNICEF had managed to help cure many children who had become malnourished. That could become more challenging now, since there was an economic element in it. There was a USD 60 million funding gap for 2015, while the overall plan for this year stood at USD 140 million. Mr. Harneis said that in Yemen, not much difference was being made between humanitarian and development aspects of UNICEF’s work.

On the situation of girls’ education, Mr. Harneis said that the 70 per cent figure was both boys and girls, with numbers being slightly higher for boys, but the difference was not that extreme. Yemeni parents wanted to see their children go to school. Often times, however, situations were found when girls could not attend school due to sanitation problems.

On the impact of foreign embassies withdrawing from Yemen, Mr. Harneis said that reducing support from Western States was a matter of concern for UNICEF. Yemen was also receiving assistance from Gulf States, but the political crisis might endanger that as well. There was a fear that progress that had been made, such as on nutrition and education, would be lost.

Answering a question on vaccinations, Mr. Harneis stated that the biggest worry was on BCG vaccine against tuberculosis, whose chain of supply could be interrupted. UNICEF was working with the WHO and other partners to try to resolve that. Given that Yemen was a transit country for those coming from Africa, a breakdown in the supply of polio vaccine, for example, could have serious consequences for the return of polio to the country.

Mr. Harneis specified that there were 150 UNICEF staff in the country, 30 of whom were international, spread across Yemen. UNICEF was working with Government paediatricians and a number of local partners, and did not have doctors of their own.

On how the country had reached to the current calamitous situation, Mr. Harneis responded that it was a question related to political decisions outside of UNICEF’s remit. The only things that UNICEF could see on the ground were the different groups occupying the North and the South of the country, bringing into question the control of the Government. Mr. Harneis stressed that if the economic situation, which was already serious, were to become worse, the children of Yemen would seriously suffer from it.

Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), added that, despite the challenging operational context, WFP’s activities had not been significantly affected and the WFP was delivering critical assistance as planned. In February, the WFP was aiming to reach one million people, including displaced people, malnourished children and pregnant and nursing mothers.

Ms. Byrs stated that Yemen was the poorest country in the Arab region and the eighth most food-insecure country in the world. According to the 2015 Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview, 15.9 million people, more than half the population, required humanitarian assistance in 2015. WFP’s 2014 Comprehensive Food Security Survey had found that 10.6 million people, or 41 percent of the population, were food insecure, including 5 million people who were severely food insecure.

Ms. Byrs said that the WFP was continously working to mobilise an additional USD 146 million by December 2015.

No immediate information on calorie intake per person was available.

Nigeria

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that as violence was spilling over to countries neighbouring Nigeria, UNHCR called for urgent humanitarian access to the displaced. The situation was becoming increasingly terrifying for refugees, locals and aid workers. UNHCR was calling for urgent humanitarian access to refugees and internally displaced people in Niger, Cameroon and Chad in order to provide much-needed emergency assistance.

In Niger, fighting had broken out the previous week in the town of Bosso near Lake Chad in the southern region of Diffa, between the Niger national armed forces and insurgents from Nigeria. That had been followed by a series of attacks in Diffa town against civilians, including by suicide bombers. Large parts of the population of Diffa were moving farther west; prior to the attacks Diffa had had a population of 50,000, while today the town was virtually empty.

In all, more than 100,000 people had fled north-eastern Nigeria into Niger, both Nigeria refugees and Niger returnees, since the state of emergency had been declared in three States in May 2013. Initially, the refugees and returnees had lived among the host population, but their growing numbers required establishing two camps, located in safer areas away from the border with Nigeria.

In Cameroon, the situation was as worrying, with reports of killings, abductions and brutal violence in the country’s Far North region near the border with Nigeria. Since the beginning of the year, over 9,000 Nigerian refugees had fled into Cameroon and been moved to the camp where they were receiving emergency assistance. UNHCR had registered over 40, 000 Nigerian refugees in the Far North to date, and 32,000 of them had moved to Minawao. Tens of thousands of local residents were also in the same situation. The humanitarian groups were working with the authorities to try to help them.

In Chad, some 3,000 Nigerian refugees had been registered as of the end of 2014. A further 15,000 had fled into Chad since then and the attacks on military installations and civilian populations in and around the north-east Nigerian town of Bagakawa. Just over the night, the UNHCR had received a report concerning the attack on the village in Chad called Ngoboua. The village was located on the shore of Lake Chad. UNHCR was still getting information about how many people had been affected. The militants seemed to have attacked part of the village and the chief himself was killed. UNHCR had been in contact with the refugees during the attack but the phone line eventually went dead. UNHCR was still trying to find out more information about the situation over there and the effective effects on the Humanitarian work in the area.

In total, the violence in north-eastern Nigeria had caused more than 157,000 people to flee into Niger (100,000), Cameroon (40,000) and Chad (17,000). A further nearly one million people were estimated to be internally displaced inside Nigeria.

Asked about the security situation for aid workers, Mr. Edwards said that the foremost concern was the security of refugees and the internally displaced persons. Safety of humanitarian workers mattered a lot as well. The precarious situation had clear repercussions on the conditions of work of aid and humanitarian workers. Basic safety for staff was necessary if they were to do their work.

UNHCR did not have information on the financial resources of Boko Haram, and what UN plans were to stop the group.

Afghan migrants

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the IOM was continuing to respond to the increase in undocumented Afghans returning from Pakistan. In 2015, nearly 32,000 Afghans had spontaneously returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham border with Pakistan. Additionally, over 2,000 Afghans had been deported through Torkham border. Funding for assistance to vulnerable returnees and deportees would be exhausted at the end of February, which was why the IOM was urgently seeking an additional USD 1.6 million to ensure that there would be no gap in assistance.

Kosovo migrants

Mr. Millman noted that there had been a sharp rise in irregular migration of Kosovo citizens towards the European Union. It had broad repercussions for refugee and asylum practices across the EU. IOM was available for further information.

IPCC Plenary in Nairobi

Jonathan Lynn, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that the closing press conference of the 41^st session of the IPCC (24-27 February) which would take place in Nairobi on 27 February, would be webcast. The conference would be of interest given that there would not be an IPCC report as such. He said that the meeting would be looking at the future work of the IPCC, but also provide an opportunity to talk about the election of the new chair and new bureau, which would take place at the end of October.

Mr. Lynn added that it was looking at the IPCC’s future work, including how often they should be issuing reports and the role of developing countries in the work of the IPCC.

Geneva activities

Ms. Morris said that today was World Radio Day, which would be marked by celebrations at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), from 5 p.m. this afternoon. The activity would be broadcast live and relayed by a number of radio stations.

Two press conferences on climate change talks would take place today: first by the European Union, in Room III at 11.30 a.m; and then by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Room III at 1.15 p.m.

Ms. Morris stated that the Conference on Disarmament was meeting in public this morning to continue examining the questions of the participation of civil society and the enlargement of the membership of the Conference.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances was closing its session this afternoon. At 1.45 p.m., in Press Room 1, it would present its concluding observations on three States considered the previous week – Mexico, Armenia and Serbia.

The Committee for the Elimination of Discimination against Women would open its three-week long session on 16 February. During the session, it would consider reports of the following States: Gabon, Azerbaijan, Equateur, Tuvalu, Denmark, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea and the Maldives. A background release had been distributed the previous day.

Mr. Edwards mentioned the appointments of George Okoth-Obbo of Uganda as Assistant High Commissioner for Operations and Volker Türk of Austria as Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at UNHCR. Mr. Okoth-Obbo would succeed Janet Lim of Singapore and Mr. Türk would succeed Erika Feller of Australia.

The new Africa Bureau Director would be Valentin Tapsoba, currently UNHCR’s Regional Representative in Addis Ababa, and Carol Batchelor, currently UNHCR’s Representative in Turkey.

Melissa Begag, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that the Director-General Azevêdo would speak at the Parliamentary Conference on WTO in Geneva on 17 February, and would address the WTO Least-Developed Countries Group Ambassadors and Experts Retreat in Montreux on 18 February.

On 16 February, a Workshop on Aid and Trade would take place at 10 a.m, and a Dedicated Discussion on Electronic Commerce at 3 p.m. On 17 February, the Committee on Trade and Development would hold a session on aid for trade at 10 a.m, while the General Council would meet at 10 a.m. on 20 February.