REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the Radio and Television Section of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Health Organization.

Yemen

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, read out a statement delivered on Thursday 9 August by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General condemns the air strike today by the Coalition forces in Sa’ada, which hit a busy market area in Majz District and impacted a bus carrying children from a summer camp. Local health authorities have confirmed that scores of people were killed and injured, the majority of them children between 10 and 13 years old. He expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims.

The Secretary-General calls on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack. The Secretary-General emphasizes that all parties must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations. He calls for an independent and prompt investigation into this incident.

The Secretary-General urgently renews his call for a negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue as the only way to end the conflict. He urges all parties to de-escalate and to engage constructively in the political process, including consultations scheduled in Geneva in September.”

Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), made the following statement on behalf of the High Commissioner:

“We deplore Thursday’s attack in Yemen, when a coalition air strike hit a bus carrying children in Dahyan market in Saada, reportedly killing 40 people and injuring another 60.

According to initial information our Office has gathered, at least 21 boys, most of them aged under 15, were among those killed and 35 others were injured.

These latest deaths come amid a recent spike in civilian casualties over the last week that tragically demonstrates how the conflict continues to blight the lives of Yemenis.

Concerning last week’s attacks in the port city of Hudaydah, our Office in Yemen has documented that at least 41 civilians, including six children and four women, were killed and 111 others injured, among them 19 children and three women.

At least three attacks hit the city on 2 August, which is controlled by the Houthis, with mortars landing in different locations in Al Hawak district. These include Hudaydah fishing port where mortars stuck the dock and hangar, at the time full of fishermen and street vendors.

Shortly afterwards, three mortars fired in quick succession hit Al-Thawra Hospital and its surroundings, also causing many civilian casualties. The first landed in the street in front of the hospital, which was full of traffic, street vendors and pedestrians. The second landed on a nearby road and the third hit and destroyed the hospital archive.

We once again call on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including their obligation to respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. They should take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, the impact of violence on civilians. We would also recall that any attack which directly targets civilians not directly taking part in hostilities or civilian objects amounts to a war crime.

We also remind the parties to the conflict that hospitals must be respected and protected in all circumstances. In addition to their immediate impact, attacks affecting hospitals and other medical facilities have a long-term impact on availability and accessibility of health services.

The ongoing conflict and loss of life in Yemen underscores the importance of the work of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen and the need for a continued international investigation into all allegations of violations of international humanitarian law. We urge the parties to the conflict to provide full cooperation with any such investigation to ensure perpetrators are identified, brought to justice and held accountable no matter where, when, or by whom such violations or abuses were committed. Those found to be responsible must also uphold the right of victims to remedy and reparations.

Between 26 March 2015 and 9 August 2018, our office has documented a total of 17,062 civilian casualties – 6,592 dead and 10,470 injured. The majority of these casualties - 10,471 - were as a result of airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led Coalition.

In another development, the de-facto authorities in Sana’a in June refused to renew the visa of the head of the UN Human Rights Office, and since then he has been unable to re-enter the country. They provided no reason for their decision and our requests for them to reconsider have, to date, gone unanswered. This has heightened our concerns for the safety of our staff and field monitors in Sana’a and other governorates across Yemen. We urge the authorities to reverse their decision.”

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), made the following statement:

“Teams on the ground in Majz and Sa’ada city trying to verify child casualties report of chaotic scenes at the hospitals and have therefore only managed to confirm 21 children killed and 35 injured. Other figures are circulating. Verification is still on going and the figures could be higher.

In this statement, our Executive Director reminds us that since 2015, nearly 2400 children have been killed, more than 3600 injured and thousands of innocent lives have been damaged. She is asking if yesterday’s horrific event will be a turning point – the moment that must finally push the warring parties, UN Security Council and international community to do what’s right for children and bring an end to this conflict.

I would like to add that Yemen is the country in the world that has the highest number of children in need – more than 11 million – nearly every single Yemeni child.

Every day in Yemen, children are starving, children are dying because of the level of violence and its consequences.

It is a country where the basic social services are collapsing. Health workers haven’t been paid for nearly 2 yrs, water and sanitation staff not paid as well and the same for teachers

Attacks against hospitals, schools and essential infrastructure are commonplace. In just the past few weeks, a UNICEF-supported water station and sanitation centre in Hodeida were attacked and seriously damaged. These facilities are essential in providing families with access to clean water.

This is just one more reminder that this brutal war is taking place in a country where 1.8 million children are acutely malnourished, nearly 400,000 are severe acutely malnourished.

Parties to the conflict and those who have influence over them, including Security Council members, can and should choose to end this catastrophe for the sake of Yemen’s children.”

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, read out a statement delivered on Thursday 9 August by the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen:

“I am deeply shocked by the appalling tragedy that claimed so many innocent lives today in Saada including children under the age of 15.

My heart goes out to the parents of those who were killed.

This should urge us all to exert more efforts to end the conflict through an inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue.

I so hope that all parties will engage constructively in the political process, including consultations scheduled in Geneva in September.”

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Bouleriac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that the previous day had seen the single worst attack since 2015 in terms of child casualties. However, he also noted that many more children were affected by the indirect consequences of the war, for instance, 1.8 million children had been treated for diarrhoeal diseases, 1.3 million had been treated for pneumonia and more than 4 million were in acute need of educational assistance; furthermore, any attack that affected a water facility indirectly threatened the lives of children.

Ms. Throssell, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that, while the previous day’s horrific attack had led to a very large number of child casualties, there was also a pattern of many smaller attacks that killed children, such as the four killed on 19 July when a farm was hit during a coalition air strike, two who had died on 30 July when an air strike hit a motorcycle and two who had been killed while tending their sheep on 31 July. Monitors for OHCHR had been able to investigate the 2 August attack on the town of Hudaydah and had ascertained the number of victims by speaking with relatives. They had found that the attack had been caused by mortars, but had not been able to identify who had fired them. She repeated that hospitals must be respected and protected in all circumstances. She also noted that the OHCHR office in Yemen produced the figures on a weekly basis and those that had appeared the previous day did not therefore include the casualties of the previous day’s attack in Saada.

She added that the OHCHR office in Yemen had been operational since 10 December 2012. Mr. Elobaid Elobaid, the head of office whose visa had been refused, had held that position since 9 October 2016 and no reason had been given for his visa not being renewed. OHCHR staff in Yemen, including field monitors in 11 governorates in the country, worked in very difficult conditions and needed the presence of an internationally appointed head of office to support them.

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the cholera vaccination campaign had been continued for an extra two days, achieving 71 per cent coverage of the target population in three districts. Thus far, in five days of the campaign, 381,948 persons had been vaccinated.

Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), made the following statement:

“Following the launch of the vaccination campaign against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on August 8th, UNICEF has mobilized communication specialists to inform and engage communities affected by the disease as the vaccination campaign is being rolled-out.

“Our communication specialists are on the ground and are informing the affected communities about the vaccination campaign,” said Dr. Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF Representative in the DRC. “The previous Ebola outbreak demonstrated that community sensitization is instrumental in preventing the spread of the disease and ensuring participation in the vaccination efforts.”

As part of the Joint Response Plan of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in coordination with WHO and UNICEF, the vaccine is given for free and on a voluntary basis to anyone who has been in contact with an infected person.

UNICEF has deployed twelve communication specialists to affected areas in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces to work with community workers. They are providing pre-counselling for people eligible to receive the vaccination and offering basic information about the vaccine to the affected communities.

These efforts are part of the overall social mobilization and community communication that UNICEF is running with its partners to sensitize the population about Ebola and the way to protect oneself against the disease and to avoid the spread of it.

Together with its partners UNICEF has so far:

• briefed 60 community leaders on preventive messages in the affected Magina health area in the health zone of Mabalako;

• trained of 100 local community workers in the heath zone of Beni for them to organise outreach activities in the local communities;

• worked with 79 local journalists and nine radio stations in Beni and Goma to engage in communication activities;

• distributed Ebola prevention messages in 241 churches in the Beni health zone.

Furthermore, UNICEF is supporting the deployment of additional community workers to the affected region to increase the information-sharing efforts to promote safe hygiene and sanitation practices and to support the vaccination campaign.”

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“The ongoing conflict in the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) affected areas in North Kivu and Ituri continues to cause suffering among civilians who are often forced to flee their homes, many into neighbouring countries.

UNHCR recognises the potential risk of population movements in areas of ongoing transmission of EVD. We are therefore working closely with national authorities, international organisations and our partners to implement preparedness and response actions in a protection-sensitive manner at national and regional level.

As a UN agency we follow closely the expertise and recommendations of WHO within the UN system regarding Ebola Virus Disease management including with regards to the International Health Regulations (IHR).

At this point, there has not been any recommendation on restriction of movements. UNHCR therefore advocates with authorities in neighbouring countries to a) allow refugees into their territory as a protection imperative, and b) ensure the inclusion of refugees into preparedness and response plans and activities. This applies to refugees fleeing from conflict as well as those wishing to repatriate, as is the case of Rwandese in eastern DRC.

UNHCR is already working with the authorities and partners in those countries to mitigate the risks in relation to population movements. Specific measures that are being instituted include:

• Screening at reception and transit points and specific measures based on symptoms or if coming from an area from where Ebola cases have been reported.

• Specific infection control measures during transport and temporary settlements

• Disease surveillance and early warning systems are in place for refugee and host communities

• Risk communication and social mobilization through refugee community leaders, community health workers and social media

Refugees are vulnerable because of conflict. They require protection from persecution and dignified access to safety and assistance. Refugees are at the same risk of contracting and transmitting EVD as local farmers, merchants, business people or any other person moving within EVD affected areas. Therefore UNHCR cautions against measures specifically directed at refugees or other mobile populations which are not scientifically sound or do not conform to recommended public health practice.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, UNHCR is working closely with MoH and WHO and is taking part in Ebola Response Coordination forums at national and field levels. UNHCR is supporting the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri for the development of their EVD preparedness and response plans.

In Uganda, DRC refugees continue to flee to Uganda crossing at four points – Kisoro, Matanda, Ntoroko and Ssebogoro. The number of new arrival refugees from DRC Ebola affected areas, Ituri and North Kivu provinces has increased during July 2018 from 170/day, up to 250/day with peaks of 300/day. The majority are currently crossing at Kisoro.

The MoH along with partners including UNHCR, WHO and UNICEF is coordinating preparedness activities and have intensified screening for Ebola at all border entry points. Additional health workers have been deployed to border districts to improve response capacity for additional screening.”

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), made the following statement:

“New cases of Ebola were reported in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on July 31, just days after the country’s ninth epidemic was declared over in the Equateur Province. IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is carrying out mobility mapping of the affected area, while beginning measures to help contain and end the new Ebola epidemic.

North Kivu is also affected by insecurity and decades of conflict, hosting approximately one million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Although there are no displacement camps in Beni Territory, more than 12,000 IDPs are living with host communities in Kasindi town in Beni Territory near the Ugandan border. In June and July of 2018, nearly 2,400 IDPs returned to Kokala, a health area north of Beni town. The majority of the over 270,000 DR Congolese refugees living in Uganda are from North Kivu. The influx of Congolese refugees into Uganda has been continuous since 2012.

IOM has started a mobility mapping exercise to track population movements in the area, which borders with Uganda. It also intends to carry out health screening and promote hygiene at key points of entry. IOM has identified 28 points of entry to the affected area that need immediate implementation of prevention, surveillance and communication activities.

The outbreak in North Kivu is currently centred in the Mangani health area of the Mabalako health zone, which is situated in the Beni territory, adjacent to the Ituri Province in the north and Uganda in the east. The affected area is linked to the surrounding localities by road, an airstrip and a lake port. Through its airstrip, Beni territory is directly connected to two international airports, Goma and Kisangani, which also connects the territory to the rest of the DRC, including the country’s capital, Kinshasa. There are numerous communities living along the border with Uganda, which suggests strong cross-border ties and movement. All these factors indicate a potential risk for spread of the outbreak.

Between 11 May until 07 August, 36 deaths were recorded out of a total of 43 cases. Out of the 36 deaths, nine are confirmed as Ebola and 27 are labelled “probable” as these happened before a possible outbreak was raised and need further investigation.”

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), responding to questions from journalists, said that the Director General of the World Health Organization and Dr. Peter Salama had arrived in the town of Beni, where they were meeting with the national health authorities and partners to discuss the support that was needed. Around 40 health workers had been vaccinated on Wednesday 8 August and more would be vaccinated. Planes had been chartered to bring the material required to the affected region; three had arrived from Mbandaka on 4 August with 23 tonnes of supplies.

Libya

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), made the following statement:

“Between January and July 2018, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, safely returned 10,950 stranded migrants from Libya through its Voluntary Humanitarian Return (VHR) Programme as the number of detainees in the country rose alarmingly. The majority of the migrants, 9,636, returned home to countries in Central and West Africa on IOM charter flights. A group of 325 people returned to East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and the remainder to North Africa and Asia.

IOM charter flights are coordinated in cooperation with the Libyan authorities, embassies and consulates in countries of return along with IOM country offices and other international organizations. In addition, IOM has assisted a total of 1,314 migrants to return home from Libya on commercial flights in 2018 so far.

In October 2017, the number of migrants in official detention centres dropped five-fold largely due to IOM’s efforts to accelerate the repatriation of migrants and the closure of detention centres. However, in recent months there has been an alarming rise in the number of refugees and migrants intercepted at sea and returned to Libya, with the figure nearly doubling from 5,500 to 9,300 between 2017 and 2018. There are no figures available for the number of migrants detained in informal detention centres run by militias or smugglers.”

He said that IOM had made it clear that it was unhappy with detention centres as a general principle, and would like to see all returnees registered quickly, allowed to live outside the centres and enabled, if they so chose, to return to their home countries as soon as possible. However, that was not happening. IOM did recognize, however, that it had a greater chance of accessing migrants when they were in detention centres.

In April 2018, IOM had identified 179,400 internally displaced persons (IDPs) along with 690,351 migrants within the country. IOM reported that the total number of migrants and refugees that entered Europe by the Mediterranean Sea was 60,309 since the start of 2018 through 8 August. That figure was about half of the 117,988 arrivals in 2017 at the same time last year. The cause of the number of arrivals decreasing was largely due to a series of measures that have been adopted by EU Member States since late 2016, including the closure of the migratory route across the Mediterranean.

IOM had also returned some 2,175 third-country nationals from Niger; most of them had originally been bound for Libya, but had been persuaded to stop their journey when informed of the dangers ahead. That had contributed greatly to the sharp reduction in the numbers of migrants arriving in Italy in 2018.

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Millman said that, while the figures for migrants held in detention centres in Libya included some who had been detained within the country, the substantial increase of around 4,000 persons held was largely due to the numbers who had been rescued at sea and brought in by the Libyan coast guard. It was also likely that some of those so detained had managed to avoid being taken into the detention centres by means of bribery. It was difficult to assess whether there was any decline in the number of new migrants arriving in Libya because the country’s land borders were very remote.

As to how the migrants responded to the offer of voluntary repatriation, he did not know how many refused, but was aware of foreign nationals living in Libya who wanted, because of the security conditions there, to join the repatriation programme. Others wished to leave Libya but did not want to return to their country of origin, but IOM was not able to help them with resettlement in other countries.

Venezuelan migrants and refugees transiting Ecuador

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“On August 8th, in response to the massive influx of Venezuelans arriving to the country, the Government of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in human mobility in the provinces of Carchi, Pichincha and El Oro. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, welcomes and supports this decision, which allows Ecuador to assign additional resources and step up its response and reaffirms Ecuador’s long tradition of welcoming refugees and other persons on the move.

The exodus of Venezuelans from their country is one of Latin America’s largest mass population movements in history.

Since the beginning of the year, some 547,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador through the Colombian border at a daily average of between 2,700 and 3,000 men, women and children. However, the influx is now accelerating and, in the first week of August, some 30,000 Venezuelans entered the country (more than 4,000 per day).

Many of the Venezuelans are moving on foot in an odyssey of days and even weeks in precarious conditions. Many run out of resources to continue their journey and, left destitute, are forced to live rough in public parks and resort to begging and other negative coping mechanisms in order to meet their daily needs. Up to 20 per cent of the new arrivals are identified as showing specific protection needs and other vulnerabilities, including women and children at risk, single parents or caregivers and persons with disabilities in urgent need of assistance. Women and girls represent 40 per cent of the new arrivals and face serious risks of sexual violence, in particular survival sex and trafficking. Xenophobic reactions to the exodus have been noted in some quarters.

The majority of the Venezuelans entering Ecuador continue onwards to Peru and Chile. Up to 20 per cent, however, remain in the country, some 7,000 of whom have sought asylum since 2016. The government-run asylum system is feeling the pressure. Ecuador has also provided other forms of legal stay to tens of thousands of Venezuelans.”

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that IOM had congratulated Ecuador for its defence of migrants. It was reported that more than 5,000 Venezuelans had crossed its border each day since the beginning of August, a surge that had contributed to the total of 560,000 arriving from Venezuela in 2018.

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Spindler said that, because there were generally few visa and work permit restrictions on nationals between the countries of Latin America, it was difficult to know how many persons were moving between them with the intention of staying, or for how long. However, it was known that the proportion requesting asylum was relatively small. Since 2016, only 7,000 Venezuelan citizens had applied for asylum in Ecuador.

Mr. Millman added that the relative ease of movement and the linguistic homogeneity of the populations meant that there was less opportunity for criminal networks to take advantage of the migrants, in contrast to the situation in the Mediterranean countries in 2015. However there had nevertheless been some reports of trafficking and murders of prostitutes who had been identified as Venezuelan nationals.

Bangladesh

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that, in the Cox’s Bazar area, IOM continued to support 23 medical clinics, some of which operated 24 hours each day. They had so far provided more than half a million consultations to the population of around 1 million. The issues were unrelenting, particularly because of the monsoon rains.

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“Amid one of the heaviest monsoon seasons in years in Cox’s Bazar area, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, together with the Bangladeshi authorities and partners, is pressing on with the relocation of thousands of Rohingya refugee families at high risk of landslides and floods. To date, nearly 24,000 of these refugees have been moved – more than half of an estimated 41,000 deemed to be in greatest need of relocation to the safer areas.

The toughest trial of monsoon preparedness measures and emergency response came at the end of July, with the heaviest monsoon downpours thus far across Cox’s Bazar district (around 463 mm of rain fell on 25 July alone). The rainfall in both June and July was over 1,000 mm.

The refugee settlements have largely weathered the storms, proving the value of months of mitigation efforts.

These activities go hand in hand with continuing intense efforts to ensure the massive refugee settlements can cope with the adverse weather. The scale is immense as for example Kutupalong refugee settlement, shelters more than 600,000 refugees on 13 square kilometres and it is today the largest such settlement in the world. So far 32 kilometres of roads have been constructed (including brick roads, footpaths and the main logistics road through Kutupalong site built by the Bangladeshi Armed Forces); 45 kilometres of steps; 63 kilometres of retaining walls and structures; 94 kilometres of drainage completed or repaired; 2,324 meters of bridges. We have also strategically prepositioned 116 storage containers with emergency aid and upgraded 20 community buildings and facilities in the Bangladeshi host communities.”

Answering a question from a journalist, he said that there had only been one reported death in the refugee settlements due to the rains and, while it was still early to be certain, it did seem that the worst of the monsoon might be over.

El Niño and record temperatures in Finland

Sylvie Castonguay, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States of America had announced that there was a 60 per cent chance of an El Niño in the northern hemisphere in autumn 2018, and that would increase to 70 per cent in the winter of 2018-2019. While outcomes of El Niño years were always different, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record were El Niño years.

Furthermore, the Finnish Meteorological Institute had announced that July was the warmest July ever recorded. In Lapland, the average temperature was 5 degrees Celsius higher than usual and 2.5–4 degrees Celsius higher than usual in the rest of the country. The European Copernicus programme of ECMWF had announced that sea-ice coverage was below average in both polar regions. Especially low coverage in Antarctic eastern Weddell Sea area and stretching eastwards from Svalbard archipelago.

Other matters

A journalist asked whether, in the light of a recent decision by the Security Council adopting an implementation assistance notice providing additional guidance on the humanitarian exemption mechanism and the announcement by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that more staff would be sent to help tackle the consequences of the heatwave in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was intending to provide a press briefing on its activities in that country.

New York activities

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Security Council would be holding consultations beginning Friday morning on the situation in South Sudan. The General Assembly was expected to formally approve the nomination of Michelle Bachelet as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, following which the Secretary General might be present at the related press stakeout; this would be carried live on the UN Web TV site.

Press Conferences

Friday, 10 August at 12:30 p.m. in Press Room 1
OHCHR
Committee Against Torture Concluding Observations on Mauritania, Russian Federation, Seychelles and Chile
Speakers:
• Mr. Jens Modvig (Chairperson)
• Mr. Claude Heller (Vice-Chairperson)
• Mr. Abdelwahab Hani
• Mr. Sébastien Touze
• Ms. Ana Racu

Monday, 13 August at 11:00 a.m. in Room III
World Health Organization
Update on WHO Ebola operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Speaker:
· Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response


Tuesday, 14 August at 2:00 p.m. in Press Room 1
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Yemen
Latest developments in Yemen
Speaker:
• H.E. Dr. Ali Majawar, Ambassador, Permanent Representative

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The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog100818