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 World Health Organization, the UN Environment Programme, the World Trade Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the UN Children's Fund and the International Organization for Migration.

Horn of Africa

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said that UNHCR was warning today that humanitarian efforts to help newly arriving Somali refugees in south-east Ethiopia were at risk of being overwhelmed without a more rapid and robust international response to the drought and displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa.

The High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, visited the Ethiopia-Somalia border on Thursday. He heard from mothers who had lost children during the journey and witnessed the anguish of people who had been forced to leave sick people behind. Mr. Guterres also spoke to humanitarian workers who dealt with the new arrivals, and urged them to speed up help to the most needy.

Rates of arrivals have accelerated to around 1,700 people per day and malnutrition rates were alarmingly high among the most recent arrivals. At least 50 per cent of children were either
moderately or severely malnourished, Ms. Fleming underscored.

Currently, the number of arrivals in the Dollo Ado area was outpacing registration capacity. Systems for meeting the food and health needs were close to buckling. Electricity for pumping water to camps was in short supply because overcast skies meant solar panels could not produce enough energy. A new camp in the area was opened several weeks ago but was already nearing its full capacity.

Meanwhile the pace of arrivals has continued unabated in neighbouring Kenya, with some 1,400 new Somali refugees continuing to arrive in Dadaab refugee complex every day. Eighty per cent
of these were women and children.

UNHCR’s top priorities were to address the malnutrition and overcrowding in the camps. The agency estimated that 65,000 refugees were living in makeshift sites and pitching tents at the outskirts because the camps allocated to UNHCR were fully occupied. UNHCR had been seeking authorization to open another camp since 2008 and, if it were to be able to open that additional camp, could provide a decent structure for another 20,000 persons. However, that would fill up almost immediately too. UNHCR was in desperate need of authorization to assist the people in need more systematically. UNHCR would soon be appealing to the international community for more help.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that she had spoken about 6 million people in need of food assistance on Tuesday, but WFP now expected that number to rise to 10 million. This covered the entire Horn of Africa and affected Kenyans, Ethiopians and Somalis, as well as people from Djibouti and Uganda. This development was extremely worrying, Ms. Casella underlined. Malnutrition rates were particularly high among refugees from Somalia, especially among children who crossed the border. As the number rose, WFP was procuring and providing more kinds of highly fortified food products, especially for young children.

WFP’s current budget for the Horn of Africa was USD 477 million. But that budget – based on a scenario of 6 million people in need of help – would rise as it was now expected that that number would rise to 10 million. This being said, WFP was already short of about USD 190 million for its current programme which was feeding 6 million people.


More than a third of Somalia’s population was in need of humanitarian assistance, Ms. Casella went on to say. The number of people in crisis had increased by 450,000 people since January, bringing those recorded by WFP as being in need of humanitarian assistance to about 2.85 million.

In Ethiopia, a multi-agency seasonal assessment to determine the emergency requirements for the second half of 2011 has just been finalized, and the results would be available soon. The assessment had been conducted earlier than normal because of the drought, and WFP anticipated providing emergency food assistance to up to 3.5 million people in Ethiopia. Food prices in Ethiopia had increased by more than 32 per cent compared to last year while prices in some local markets in eastern Ethiopia have doubled since February.

In Kenya, the April-June rains had failed in many parts of the North and the number of people affected by the drought there was expected to rise to 3.5 million by August. This situation was compounded by high food and fuel prices. A note was available at the back of the room and a video news release would become available later today, said Ms. Casella.

Marixie Mercado of the UN Children's Fund said that UNICEF was appealing for USD 31.9 million to meet the urgent needs of over two million children in drought-affected countries in the Horn of Africa over the next three months. Around half a million children were already in life-threatening condition – an increase of 50 per cent over 2009.

Severe malnutrition rates were extremely high, Ms. Mercado went on to say. In the Turkana district of Kenya, a record of over 37 per cent of children were severely malnourished. In an Ethiopian camp and in Kenya’s Turkana district mortality rates were above the emergency threshold of 4 deaths per 10,000 children per day.

UNICEF's emergency response would massively scale up treatment of malnourished children. It would also work to ward off sickness and death through immunisation campaigns and by providing safe water and sanitation to drought affected communities, said Ms. Mercado.

Joining by telephone, Bob McCarthy, Regional Emergency Advisor, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Office, Nairobi, said that UNICEF’s approach was to work with Governments and NGOs to try to accelerate the services in the affected areas. The primary focus of UNICEF regarding the nutritional crisis was to make sure that food got into the programme areas, that the supply chain was not broken and that monitoring was conducted. UNICEF was also supporting blended supplementary food distributions in Southern Somalia.

Another major focus was on immunization. There were concerns around the possibility of a measles outbreak, as measles cases have been seen in Kenya over the last 18 months. UNICEF was working on immunizations, both with UNHCR for the refugee population, but also in the corridors where refugees were passing. The people in some areas of Southern Somalia have not received any vaccination, largely due to the inaccessibility of these locations. But UNICEF was hopeful that it would be able to access and keep those children from protracting measles by working together with WHO and other partners.

UNICEF was supporting the rehabilitation of water facilities, with a strong focus on schools. In Turkana, UNICEF was trying to support the continuity of learning by ensuring that schools had access to water supply, said Mr. McCarthy.

Ms. Momal-Vanian, in response to a question, said that the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia had yesterday welcomed an announcement by the Al-Shabaab insurgents that they would lift their ban on international aid, but asked for guarantees against workers being targeted or taxed. “We stand ready to scale up assistance in southern Somalia but need guarantees that humanitarian workers can operate safely in the area and will not be targeted or agencies taxed,” he said.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, responding to another question, said that both the appeal for Kenya (USD 604 million) and the appeal for Somalia were 47 per cent funded. The Djibouti Drought Appeal was among the top 5 underfunded appeals in 2011 and only 30 per cent funded.

Libya

Ms. Mercado said that the UN and NGOs, working through the Joint Mine Action Coordination Team, have confirmed the presence of explosive remnants of war and large caches of small arms in several heavily populated areas in Libya, including Ajdabiya, Misrata and parts of the Nafusa Mountains. Some areas still under active conflict or Government control have not yet been assessed for contamination, but attempts to do so were being made. Children were particularly at risk, as they were prone to picking them up to play with them.

UNICEF was working with Handicap International to protect children by raising awareness of the dangers posed by these weapons. Trained volunteers were teaching children in IDP camps about these risks through games; over 30,000 leaflets have been distributed to IDP communities; and mosques, radio stations, and other civil society groups were also spreading the messages. The programme would run through November, with the goal of reaching half a million people.

There were no solid numbers on children who have been injured or killed. While the International Committee of the Red Cross was collecting this data, for the moment there was no reliable tracking system. That said, UNICEF had met children injured by unexploded ordnance in Libya, and considered their presence to be a significant risk for children.

Jumbe Omari Jumbe of the International Organization for Migration said that he was pleased to announce the beginning of IOM’s first ever airlift evacuation in Libya, in the Government-controlled area. A particularly vulnerable group of hundreds of people were stuck in Sebha, including women, children and the elderly and the sick. IOM had evacuated people from Misrata already previously, but not with IOM-chartered flights.

IOM had managed to operate three airlifts from Sebha since Wednesday, transporting 370 vulnerable migrants to N’Djamena, Chad, many of whom were ill and weak. IOM planned to evacuate the 1,000 migrants who were stranded in Sebha and then assist those in Gatroun, a town further to the south, by transporting them to Sebha by bus and then bring them abroad from there.

The airlift operations were very difficult because Sebha airport was severely damaged, Mr. Omari Jumbe said, adding that no flights would be carried out today, but hopefully on Saturday or Sunday.

Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development

Christy Feig of the World Health Organization said that the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development was continuing its meeting today. The Group was tasked to provide ideas for increasing and financially sustaining research and development for medicines and other health technologies.

The Group was seeking ways to create incentives so that developing countries, not only the industrialized world, could benefit from advances. One of the issues which the Group was discussing today was whether to consider launching negotiations for a global, legally binding instrument such as a treaty where Governments contribute to create a global mechanism to support and encourage research and development.

Today’s event was closed to the media, but the Chair would brief journalists and the general public after the meeting, at 6 p.m. today in Salle B of the Varembé Conference Center. The Group’s next meeting would take place on 17-18 November, before the experts would report to the World Health Assembly.

Second WHO Consultation on the Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines

The Second WHO Consultation on the Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines would be held from Tuesday 12 through Thursday 14 July. The action plan had been developed in 2006 and was to be reviewed in 2011.


The main focus of the consultation would be to discuss the experience of countries regarding pandemic preparedness and vaccine production. Participants would also discuss practical ways to sustain and strengthen vaccine availability for pandemic preparedness.

The plenary sessions of the consultation, on Tuesday and Thursday, were open to the media. There would also be a press conference on Thursday, 14 July at 1.10 p.m. in Room III, Palais des Nations.

Environment and Security Assessment, Amu Darya River Basin

Isabelle Valentiny of the UN Environment Programme said that UNEP would on Monday publish an Environment and Security Assessment of the Amu Darya River Basin which was prepared, for the first time, in a successful environmental diplomacy effort involving the riparian Governments.

The diversion of the Amu Darya, an important river in Central Asia, by the Soviet leadership for the purpose of cotton production, has contributed to environmental degradation. Since the fall of the Soviet Union the riparian Governments have maintained the water quotas used in the past. But there was now a real need to review these quotas and the common management of the river, which had led to the current assessment of the environmental stress points.

The Environment and Security Assessment would be presented by Christophe Bouvier, UNEP Director, Regional Representative for Europe, and Laura Rio, Senior Programme Manager, Environment and Security Initiative, on Monday, 11 July at 10.30 a.m. in Press Room I.

WTO Agenda

Ankai Xu of the World Trade Organization said that the Trade Facilitation Group would meet on Monday, 11 July and on Friday, 15 July. On Thursday WTO’s Deputy Director-General would give a background briefing on the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade at 10 a.m., and on Friday there would be a Dispute Settlement Body meeting, to be followed by a briefing in the afternoon.

The Third Global Review of Aid for Trade would take place the week after, on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 July. Twenty-five seats in the balcony of the Council Room would be reserved and offered on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy would meet with the Tunisian Minister of Trade and Tourism on Friday, 15 July in Geneva.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the ECOSOC would conclude its High-level Segment this morning, adopting a Ministerial Declaration which would be sent to journalists as it became available. This afternoon the Council was scheduled to hold a discussion with the Executive Secretaries of the UN’s five Regional Commissions before beginning its coordination segment on Monday.

The Human Rights Committee would start a three-week session on Monday during which it would examine the reports of Ethiopia, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan, and review Dominica’s delayed initial report in private meetings.