REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by spokespersons for and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Statements

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had yesterday condemned in the strongest possible terms a suicide car bomb attack in a central area of Kabul, in which seven people had reportedly been killed and a large number of civilians had been injured, including one United Nations staff member. The Secretary-General had expressed his deep concerned at this indiscriminate violence days before the Presidential and Provincial Elections scheduled for 20 August. Mr. Ban had extended his condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims.

The latest report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) had been made public yesterday. In it, the Secretary-General underscored that, despite significant progress in consolidating peace and stability, the situation in Liberia remained fragile. In particular, building institutions of security and rule of law and creating employment opportunities remained key challenges. The Secretary-General recommended a one-year extension of the mandate of UNMIL till September 2010, especially in view of elections scheduled for the year 2011, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Geneva Activities

In Geneva, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was continuing the work of its seventy-fifth session. This afternoon, the Committee would begin its examination of the report of the Philippines, which it would conclude tomorrow morning. On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning the Committee would consider the report of Ethiopia. The report of Chad had been scheduled for review yesterday afternoon and this morning, but that had been pushed back to Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Turning to disarmament, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the President of the Conference on Disarmament had informed delegations at a short meeting Monday morning that it had not been possible to achieve consensus as yet on the modalities for implementation of their programme of work. The next public meeting of the Conference, and the last under the Australian Presidency, would be held on Thursday, 20 August at 10 a.m.

Finally, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier once again invited everyone to celebrate the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, tomorrow at 5 p.m., at the Parc des Bastions in Geneva.

Health situation in Yemen

In an update on the health situation in Yemen in the light of the current conflict in the north, Paul Garwood of WHO said that following a request from its country office in Yemen, WHO had sent medical supplies that could provide 200 surgical interventions for persons with trauma injuries. Those supplies had arrived in Yemen on Monday. WHO was also expected to send a large consignment of medical supplies next week, and had sent additional medical staff from its regional office in Cairo to support the emergency health operations. There were reports of casualties in the conflict, and WHO was waiting for confirmed figures from authorities there. WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund were jointly coordinating a combined health and nutrition cluster response to the emergency as well.

H1N1 Flu Pandemic

Responding to a query on current flu vaccine production capacity, Gregg Hartl of WHO confirmed that there would be no good indication of when they would have a flu vaccine until September. In April, they had estimated a best-case scenario as approximately 94 million doses per week. But clinical trials were still under way and they still did not know things such as whether or not one or two doses of vaccine would be needed. They also did not know how much of the active agent would be needed in each dose. Until those questions were resolved an estimate was not possible. They needed the results of the trials. Figures on the epidemic would be updated on the website towards the end of the day.

Asked whether WHO endorsed the position of Swiss medics, approving an extension of the shelf life of current Swiss Tamiflu stocks by two years, Mr. Hartl and Ms. Chaib said they would have to come back on that point.

UNRWA Gaza Ramadan Appeal

Elena Mancusi Materi of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said yesterday UNRWA had launched a Ramadan appeal for Gaza, which at this particular time of the year was mainly aimed to call the attention of Arab donors to the continuing needs and very bad conditions of Gaza refugees still, seven months after the war. Soon after the conflict, UNRWA had called for $345 million to implement a quick response plan to cater for the urgent needs of the population over a period of nine months. To date, only 50 per cent of those needs had been met. On the eve of Ramadan, UNRWA was slightly revising requirements, asking for $181 million, both to cover the shortfall and to ensure implementation of its urgent relief programmes up to the end of the year.

Reconstruction so far had remained a “mirage”, because of the total embargo on the entry of construction materials into Gaza, Mr. Mancusi Materi underscored. For that reason, the appeal was also focused on other sectors that were also essential to eliminate the humanitarian suffering of refugees in Gaza, including education, food, mental health services, unemployment and rental subsidies for refugees whose homes had been destroyed, as well as rehabilitation of UNRWA installations, including the more than 30 schools and warehouses damaged during the conflict. A press release was available.

Flooding in Pakistan

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that heavy rainfall on 16 August had lead to flash floods in the Swabi and Mardan Districts in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The total number of those affected remained to be determined, but in Swabi District some 70,000 to 80,000 people had reportedly suffered losses. According to initial reports, which were expected to increase, there were 27 dead, 9 missing, and 400 to 450 houses destroyed along with massive loss of crops, livestock. The United Nations had sent a preliminary assessment team. Emergency needs included medicines, tents, drinking water and water purification tablets. The Government had sent Army boats and trucks with tents to the area. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had already sent non-food assistance and 5,000 tents.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) highlighted that the floods were affecting the populations returning home in the North West, seriously complicating the return process. For its part, IOM had launched today a programme to provide basic toolkits for some 50,000 displaced families who had returned to the Buner district in the North West Frontier province.

Situation of Displaced Persons in Sudan

Mr. Chauzy said that, according to an IOM report published today, an overwhelming majority of the 1.9 million internally displaced persons and refugees who had returned to Southern Kardofan and to Southern Sudan continued to face enormous challenges in accessing basic services and facilities. A survey of four villages showed that 90 per cent did not have medical infrastructure, and that existing services were extremely basic. Similarly, 80 per cent of the villages did not have primary education facilities. Other problems included a lack of water supply. The report showed that some 200,000 returnees underwent secondary displacement because they could not access these basic services.

Refugees in Kenya

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR had started the relocation of some 12,900 Somali refugees from the overcrowded Dadaab camp complex to the Kakuma camp in the northwest. In addition, in order to improve the conditions of refugees in Dadaab, UNHCR was working on upgrading the 18-year old water and sanitation systems in the three-camp complex – which were currently hosting more than three times the population they were initially designed to accommodate. The escalating violence and humanitarian crisis in Somalia had drive thousands from their homes: since January, over 43,000 Somalis had sought refuge in the Dadaab camps, bringing the total number of refugees in the three camps to a record 289,500.

The security situation was deteriorating in Somalia, and the continued abductions, killing and intimidation of aid workers and the pillaging of humanitarian facilities and supplies was making it increasingly difficult to reach needy populations in Somalia, Mr. Mahecic underscored. At the moment, there were some 1.3 million internally displaced persons in Somalia and an estimated 3.2 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. In response to a question, Mr. Mahecic noted that this plan to relocate refugees and renovate facilities in Dadaab was not a permanent solution, but a first step in improving the situation.

Other

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO Executive Director Margaret Chan, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Malaria Ray Chambers and Dr. Tachi Yamaga of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had yesterday begun a visit to Tanzania and Uganda, where they would spend a week to study progress made, as well as obstacles those countries faced in combating malaria. A press release would be issued at the conclusion of the visit, the Friday after next.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that the press conference by the World Meteorological Organization on its El Niño/La Niña update, which was to be held today at 11:30 a.m., had been pushed back to tomorrow, Wednesday, 19 August, at 11 a.m. The embargo had also been pushed back, and was now valid until 5 p.m. GMT on 19 August.