REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Ebola

Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Response Programme, informed that, at the one-year mark of the Ebola response in the DRC, there was an opportunity to take stock of the situation. Dr. Ryan acknowledged the losses in communities in the DRC; each and every case was a personal tragedy for individuals and communities. Those helping on the frontlines had also sacrificed themselves, with the single objective of ending Ebola in DRC.

Dr. Ryan stressed that the WHO was proud of the collective achievement so far, with over 170,000 people vaccinated, and 1,300 treated with investigational therapies in 14 centers. Over 140,000 contacts had to be tracked and traced; each and every one of them had to be followed for 21 days, to check their health daily. Over 50,000 samples had been tested; they were working on hundreds of local community groups across the region. WHO acknowledged the work of the agencies not necessarily on the frontlines, such as MONUSCO, which was helping with security measures, and the World Food Programme, which was helping with the logistics. It had been one week since the announcement of the health emergency of international concern, which was a call to action to the world to scale up action and end the scourge of Ebola in the DRC.

There had been 242 cases in the last 21 days in 64 health areas. The epicenter of the disease was located near the city of Beni. There were very low levels of transmission in other areas. There was an opportunity to move forward with the response and to end Ebola; they counted on international support for both financial and technical aspects. Dr. Ryan thanked those donors who had stepped forward recently. The common goal was being able to report on zero Ebola cases.

Asked about the deployment of vaccines now that there was a change of oversight in the country, Dr. Ryan said that the WHO would continue to work with the national authorities to introduce a second vaccine, which would be important. There were operational challenges for introducing a second vaccine, however, but there was a commitment to bringing together an international scientific group to look into introducing one. In the end, Dr. Ryan stressed, such a decision needed to be made by the sovereign national government.

Asked about Uganda, Dr. Ryan congratulated Uganda for its excellent response; the preparedness and the investments had paid off. The 42-day mark in the case of Uganda was difficult to interpret given that there were cases just on the other side of the border in the DRC, and there was a continued threat of importation. Continued vigilance and preparedness thus needed to remain high in South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, the neighboring countries of eastern DRC. Further deployment of specialist staff in the field was needed.

On another question, Dr. Ryan said that it was hard to fight a battle without your best ally on your side. He stressed that the US Center for Disease Control had provided the best support, and high-level technical assistance to the response. Other institutions were called on to provide support. WHO currently had 600 staff in the field, spending an average of 130 days in very difficult conditions. Institutional and technical partners needed to step forward as well. The vast majority of frontline responders were brave, talented and committed staff of the Congolese Ministry of Health.

On whether the WHO had applied any pressure on the previous Health Minister who had eventually resigned, Dr. Ryan said that the WHO only ever moved to work with Member States, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to implement recommendations. The recommendation on the introduction of a second vaccine was extremely clear, while not specifying which exact vaccine that would be. There had been three potential candidate vaccines, which had been reviewed by the WHO regulatory group, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been found to be the most suitable candidate in terms of availability and capacity to work. Work continued with counterparts in China and Russia on a possible introduction of other vaccines.

The epidemic represented a major challenge and an opportunity to test new measures and protocols. A Merck vaccine and gene technology had been put in place, pushing the leading edge of science. All of that had to be done in the context of regulatory and ethical approvals, with the Member States always in mind. No pressure had ever been applied to the former Minister by the WHO. The ex-Minister’s contribution and service, and selfless leadership were acknowledged. The WHO also welcomed the appointment of the new Minister, who has great experience with Ebola. WHO believed that the DRC Ministry of Health would continue to provide top professionals in the field.

On Merck’s ability to maintain stocks, Dr. Ryan explained that based on the current epidemiology, there were sufficient stocks. They were looking into vaccine supplies now, next year and in the long term. WHO was working closely with GAVI and other partners. In the short term, they were in good shape with the vaccine supply, but there were scenarios in which the supply would be very stretched. Preparations were under way for that scenario as well. The Merck vaccine had been specifically designed for outbreak situations; it was a single dose vaccine providing protection within 10 days; the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was a two-day vaccine which took a while to develop immunity. It could be very useful for health workers and others.

A question was asked about contributions received since the declaration of the emergency. Dr. Ryan said that the United Kingdom had pledged 63 million USD for the response as a whole; the United States had promised 38 million USD; in addition, the World Bank had announced a financing facility of 300 million USD, which would go through the Government, involving a tripartite agreement of the WHO, the WFP and the Government. WHO itself had an initial contribution of 8 million USD from the UK, 5 million USD from the Buffet Foundation, 4 million USD from China, and 15 million USD from the US. The new strategic response plan included five pillars, one of which was public health operations, which required a major cost of 287 million USD. A very large sum of money was needed, not only for the DRC, but to fund preparedness in the surrounding countries.

Regarding the resignation of the Health Minister of the DRC, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, a journalist asked how that would impact the operation. Dr. Ryan said that changing ministers was a normal thing around the world, but the issue now was how the challenges would be handled. The inter-ministerial commission under the chairmanship of the President was in charge; the Government was not running away from the problem, but rather towards the problem, Dr. Ryan emphasized. The authorities were increasingly involved in the response, and the WHO was working with the Government to minimize the challenges of the ongoing transition.

Answering a question on the impact of a new vaccine in stopping the spread of the virus, Dr. Ryan said that Ebola could be controlled without a vaccine, but in the current case the vaccine was vital in breaking the chain of transmission. It was not a choice between ring and mass vaccination; the former was used as a targeted strategy because Ebola moved through social connections within society. If those connections could be detected, those most at risk could be targeted to achieve the highest value intervention possible.

Dr. Ryan said the WHO was very pleased with the performance of the rVSV vaccine; a second vaccine would contribute to the epidemics control. An Ebola outbreak presented an opportunity to test the impact of those vaccines. Finding cases and treating them in humane environments was still a core activity of the joint Ebola response. The communities would need to be deeply penetrated, which was a challenge in the context of conflict, multiple armed groups and mistrust. The security risks had not gone away, but the political dialogue at all levels had been promoted and encouraged, which had resulted in the relative period of calm. Dr. Ryan warned that a large-scale escalation would set the work back, which would be particularly unfortunate at the time when a headway in the fight against Ebola was being made.

The major epicenter of the epidemics now was Beni and the surrounding areas; any gains made had been hard won. It took weeks, if not months, to build trust with the communities, and just minutes to lose it. There had been a huge push towards increasing community acceptance and building trust in the populations of North Kivu and Ituri, which had been traumatized and underserved for years. It was difficult, quiet and relentless work, constantly surrounded by criticism. Over 95 percent of people nowadays were accepting vaccinations. It had to be understood that those were deeply traumatic times for the families, so acceptance of burials with body bags by such high percentages was really encouraging. WHO was learning from its previous mistakes and accordingly adjusting its response.

Another question was asked about reaching out to other producers of vaccines if needed. Dr. Ryan said the current scenario showed that supplies were sufficient. Merck had agreed to double their production for next year. If the epidemiology were to move significantly against the current situation, decisions would need to be made. WHO was working very hard with other suppliers to see exactly what other products could be available, but none of them could be provided before the end of the current year. WHO believed that all the companies were interested in moving forward towards licensing; a meeting would take place in Kigali on 31 July between African, European, US regulators, vaccine producers and the WHO to look into reviewing licensing products under the existing rules. It needed to be stressed that the current vaccine was an investigational use vaccine which had efficacy data; no other vaccines had such clinical efficacy data at the moment, which was why extreme care was needed with planning to introduce any such products.

On the potential production capacity, Dr. Ryan responded that those were complex vaccines associated with major cost and manufacturing issues. Another question raised was what the world was ready to pay for those vaccines. WHO had to use a defined pot of global resources; investment in Ebola vaccines needed to be balanced off with other health priorities. More people had died of measles in the DRC than of Ebola, but nobody was asking about measles vaccines, which were affordable. Lack of primary health care, no universal health coverage, and a broken healthcare system all needed to be addressed. People of the DRC faced multiple health crises, and a balanced response was needed to a series of issues. Work was being done with various partners to scale up vaccine production.

Herve Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), read the following statement:

“In the next six months WFP plans to scale up and nearly double its food assistance and nutritional support, to 440,000 Ebola-affected people in the DRC. Those were not only people with Ebola, but also primarily ‘contacts’ of victims and their families, as well as confirmed and suspected cases.

Food was being given to those people for 28 days, i.e. a week longer than the 21-day incubation period. They were coming to the WFP centres every week to receive the food and were then checked by medical teams. The fond of 40,000 people to be fed like that in the coming 5 to 6 months would mean the doubling of the WFP capacity in the coming period.

While tracing ‘contacts’ is particularly challenging in the conflict zone that is eastern DRC, food distributions are key to the containment effort, helping as they do to limit the movement of people who could spread the disease, and to the vital vaccination drive.

WFP distributions are done in agreed sites for ‘contacts’ of Ebola-affected people. Expected new contacts are estimated at roughly 50 per case, which equals a total of 75,000 contacts in the next five months. Food rations are given for households of 5 people.

They receive one-week rations on four occasions and then do medical check-ups.

People who have been infected by the Ebola virus and who have recovered, receive food rations for one year. WFP has had some issues of acceptance, because people who have received food from the WFP meant to their neighbours that they were potentially at risk, so food distributions would need to be done as discretely as possible.

WFP is looking to expand the fleet of aircraft – presently two transport helicopters and two passenger planes – the WFP-run United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has dedicated to the Ebola campaign in support of frontline responders, including UN agency and NGO personnel, based on the needs.

In DRC, the WFP has built, and runs, three accommodation camps for Ebola responders, and operates warehouses for the World Health Organisation and others.

In our scaleup WFP is prepared to open, when needed, two new logistics bases and accommodations in two new places where there is no WFP or any UN presence. Logistics and aviation have already assessed potential new locations, so we can move right away if and when needed.

With popular mistrust of responders still, WFP needs to intensify efforts to encourage community cooperation. In some cases, beneficiaries are afraid to even be seen with WFP food because many have been threatened.

To that end, we are planning to quadruple – from 50 to 200– the number of primary schools in Ebola-affected areas of DRC we provide with nutritious hot lunches, which typically consists of rice, beans, fortified vegetable oil and salt. Provision of school meals encourages communities to cooperate with responders. For many pupils, this is the main – if not the only – meal of the day in a region of pronounced chronic malnutrition. The number of children slated to receive school meals to rise from 17,000 to 70,000. That should improve the relations of the UN and the local communities.

There has been a lack of access to some key areas because of a presence of several armed groups.

We urgently need USD 50 million for planned response and preparedness actions in DRC and neighbouring countries – Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan – over the next six months. It was hoped that a pledge for that amount would come soon. Given lengthy logistical lead times, the food we are to distribute in December must be bought now. Financing was very important.

Regional response:

· In the four priority 1 countries bordering DR Congo (Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi), WFP is supporting the scale up of preparedness measures. Providing technical supply chain expertise, including but not limited to access to common logistics services, warehousing and transport and light engineering support.

· WFP has set up 69 screening and isolation units at the major border crossings between DRC and the priority one countries – Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi, and in hospitals. WFP has also procured 13 ambulances, supported the construction of Ebola treatment units and provided free logistics support.”

Responding to a question on food distributions, Mr. Verhoosel said the numbers provided today were exclusively for the Ebola response, and they came on the top of what the WFP was doing in the country anyway. There were also traditional distributions for those who needed food support. Insecurity was a problem and acceptance was very important: when people knew that others received food because they had had Ebola contacts, there were strange reactions sometimes as they saw it as a risk for them. Some regions had not seen a lot of international support before so there was skepticism and anxiety towards international organizations in the beginning. WFP, WHO and UNICEF were working on establishing trust between the responders and the population. Once trust was established, people were more likely to establish medical treatment or food.

Mr. Verhoosel stressed once again that the WFP did not even have the 50 million USD it needed for its immediate food provisions.

Mediterranean boat tragedy

Charlie Yaxley, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that the boat disaster off Libya from the previous day underscored the urgency of the repeated appeals by the UNHCR to European and other governments to restore sea rescue in the Mediterranean. There had been between 250 to 300 people in the boat on Thursday, many of whom had left from Eritrea and Sudan. The boat had come into trouble five miles off the coast, and some had been rescued by local fishermen and the Libyan coastguard. Some had swum back to shore. Up to 150 people had reportedly drowned at sea, including women and children, which would make it the worst shipwreck in the Mediterranean in more than two years.

The tragedy came only weeks after more than 50 detainees had been killed in the shelling of Tajoura. In addition to the shipwreck yesterday, a further 87 people had been brought back to the Libyan coast, some of them to Tajoura, where the population now numbered 300. That was totally unacceptable and required an immediate orderly release.

Those tragedies had to prompt action. UNHCR was calling for an immediate orderly release of all people inside the detention centers in Libya, through evacuation or resettlements for people who were vulnerable or at risk. No NGO boats were operating at sea the previous day; their crucial role needed to be acknowledged and their efforts should not be stigmatized or prohibited. EU state rescue vessels ought to help as well. No people rescued in the Mediterranean should be returned to Libya. UNHCR was also calling for greater efforts to hold human smugglers and traffickers to account.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stated that a wooden boat had left Khums on the night of 25 July, carrying between 250 and 300 migrants. The craft engine had failed, and the boat had capsized. About 130 people had been rescued, and nearly 150 had gone. Thirty bodies had been retrieved. Survivors were mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, with one Palestinian and one Bangladeshi. The same day, 25 July, there had been three other return operations for 428 people; 4,488 returnees in total had been brought back to Libya thus far this year.

A journalist asked what else could be done in addition to the public statements and calling on countries to act. Mr. Yaxley said that the Tajoura airstrike had resonated with audiences; the situation in Libya needed to change. More momentum needed to be found. UNHCR had put forward a detailed proposal on how the release from detention could unfold. Open centres could also be established, which would allow for more freedom of movement and an unhindered access for humanitarian agencies. UNHCR hoped to see more progress along those lines.

Responding to another question, Mr. Yaxley said that States had the right and the responsibility to be conducting search and rescue in their territorial waters. Boats were frequently stranded at sea for days on end while States were deciding what to do. Mr. Yaxley stressed that the UNHCR’s position was clear. UNHCR had repeatedly asked for the European Union to take a more active role to provide help to people in distress. Mr. Millman added that organizations like the IOM and the UNHCR did what they could with the resources they had; he reminded that 40,000 people had been brought home from Tripoli over the last several years. Serious efforts were being taken by the IOM and the UNHCR to save lives.

Questions were asked about what happened to the survivors from the latest incident. Mr. Yaxley said they remained at the disembarkation point, where UNHCR was present with its partners. There was concern that they would be taken to detention. Not much information was available about the smugglers or the captain of the sunk boat. Often time, it was refugees or migrants who were put in charge of steering the ship. More often than not, the smugglers and the traffickers were allowed to operate with impunity. There was an urgent need to get the people out of Tajoura through resettlements, evacuations or other legal pathways. Mr. Millman reiterated that thousands had been evacuated from Libya in spite of the ongoing violence.

In response to another question, Mr. Yaxley said it was difficult to have definitive figures on casualties in situations of shipwrecks. UNHCR worked with the survivors to gather the figures. Mr. Millman said that it was not unusual to have different numbers provided in tragedies like this one.

On the topic of impunity for the smugglers and the traffickers, Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that impunity clearly existed in Libya on a large scale. There was a kind of environment in which smugglers and traffickers could flourish. The situation was far too chaotic to point out that problem to particular individuals.

Syria

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), read the following statement:

“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is today ringing the alarm at the apparent international indifference to the rising civilian death toll caused by a succession of airstrikes in Idlib and other parts of north-western Syria.

Despite repeated calls by the United Nations to respect the principle of precaution and distinction in their conduct of hostilities, this latest relentless campaign of airstrikes by the government and its allies has continued to hit medical facilities, schools and other civilian infrastructure such as markets and bakeries,’ Bachelet said.

‘These are civilian objects, and it seems highly unlikely, given the persistent pattern of such attacks, that they are all being hit by accident,’ she added. ‘Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes, and those who have ordered them or carried them out are criminally responsible for their actions.’

At least ten different locations (eight in Idlib and two in rural Aleppo) have experienced civilian casualties as a result of airstrikes in the past ten days alone, causing a minimum of 103 civilian deaths, including at least 26 children. Three of the attacks took place on Wednesday, 25 July.

Bachelet said she was concerned that the continued carnage in Syria ‘is no longer on the international radar.’

‘Several hundreds of thousands of children, women and men have been killed in Syria since 2011,’ the High Commissioner said. ‘So many that it is no longer even possible to give a credible estimate. During the early years of this murderous conflict, when the casualties were in the tens, then hundreds, then thousands, the world showed considerable concern about what was happening.’

‘Now, airstrikes kill and maim significant numbers of civilians several times a week, and the response seems to be a collective shrug, with the Security Council paralysed by the persistent failure of its five Permanent Members to agree to use their power and influence to stop the fighting and killing once and for all,’ Bachelet said.

‘This is a failure of leadership by the world’s most powerful nations, resulting in tragedy on such a vast scale that we no longer seem to be able to relate to it at all.’

The UN Human Rights Chief said her Office has documented the killing of at least 450 civilians, including the 103 killed by airstrikes over the past ten days, since the latest campaign by the Government and its allies in north-west Syria began more than three months ago.

She said her staff is also continuing to gather information on three recent attacks, resulting in at least 11 civilian casualties, carried out by non-state armed groups on government-controlled areas, in the town of Masyaf, in Hama (21 July), and in the al-Hamadaniya and al-Jamiliya neighbourhoods of Aleppo city (on 22 and 24 July).

‘Despite being the subject of the 2017 de-escalation agreement, and the 2018 de-militarized zone agreement, Idlib and surrounding areas are witnessing a grave military escalation with dire human rights and humanitarian consequences for the millions of civilians trying to survive there,’ Bachelet said.

‘Influential parties, including those that agreed to reduce hostilities as part of the de-escalation agreement, should urgently use their influence to halt the current military campaign and bring the warring parties back to the negotiating table,’ the High Commissioner said. ‘It is essential that there is a cessation of hostilities in order to give the on-going political negotiations room to breathe. The alternative is just more mindless death and destruction in a war without end.”

Asked who was carrying out those attacks, Mr. Colville said that the Syrian Air Forces had been heavily involved. It was difficult to attribute blame to particular airplanes in Syria, where different air forces were operating; the situation in Yemen was different, where only Saudi-led coalition combat aircraft operated. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced for the umpteenth time since the latest upsurge in hostilities, said Mr. Colville.

Mr. Colville added that more civilian casualties had been caused in Idlib and Aleppo in the most recent attacks, including in the attacks this morning.

Asked whether the High Commissioner was able to talk to anyone in the Syrian Government, Mr. Colville said there had not been much success over the years in getting cooperation from the Syrian Government. Some Security Council members had influence over the Government, which could be a way to approach the issue of a cessation of hostilities.

In another response, Mr. Colville explained that the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) in Syria was looking into criminal responsibility, and the IIIM was being fed information and reports from the OHCHR and the Commission of Inquiry into Syria. It was hard for the IIIM to comment on it as that could jeopardize their ongoing investigations.

On whether the reported attacks had been verified by the OHCHR network, Mr. Colville said that they had been partially verified using the methodology in place for the past eight years of the conflict.

Mr. Colville added that since the end of April 2019, the UN had documented at least 39 incidents involving health facilities and personnel, and at least 50 incidents involving schools.

Heatwave

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that, for a second time in less than a month, a widespread and intense heatwave affected Europe with many new maximum and minimum temperatures broken. Those high temperatures had disrupted transport and infrastructure, placing stress on people’s wellbeing.

The Benelux countries and Germany had experienced temperatures over 40 degrees, and Paris had also seen record temperatures with 42.6 degrees. The UK had seen its hottest July day on record. What was significant was that the records had been broken by two, three or four degrees, and not by a usual fraction of a degree. A lot of heat alerts had been issued by national meteorological services, with the view of protecting people’s health.

The heatwave had been caused by warm air coming from North Africa and Spain. That heat would now be transported towards Greenland, which would result in high temperatures and contribute to the melting of Greenland’s ice sheets. There had been quite rapid melting of the ice sheets in Greenland recently: in July 160 billion tons of ice in Greenland had surface-melted, which corresponded to the water of 64 million Olympic swimming pools. There were implications for the Arctic sea ice extent, which was now almost at its lowest level on record (2012 had been the lowest ever).

Intense and widespread heatwaves carry the signature of manmade climate change, in line with scientific findings. The heatwaves were more frequent, more drowned out and intense. In 2018, the UK had had its warmest summer ever; because of climate change, record breaking summers in the UK were expected to happen every other year by 2050. If the greenhouse emissions continued to increase, according to a Swiss analysis, by mid-century average summer temperatures might be 4.5 degrees higher than now.

Responding to a question, Ms. Nullis explained that Greenland’s ice sheet melted every summer, which was normal, but the melting seemed to have accelerated and the current heatwave would accentuate it further, bringing Greenland’s ice sheet close to the record low levels recorded in 2012.

Data on migration

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that today marked the 20^th anniversary of the first tragedy the IOM had reported about in Las Palmas. More than 2,000 people had died on that route over the past two decades. It had been a constant migrant route.

Mr. Millman informed that the number of arrivals to Greece was ticking up quickly and Greece was now the busiest arrival point in the Mediterranean. Over a third of arrivals were from Afghanistan; in June alone 2,000 Afghans had arrived in Greece. Other countries in the top ten included Palestine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Cameroon, and Ghana.

This year in the Americas, at least 88 Venezuelans had lost their lives while migrating; the number is already twice as large as the total number for the last year.

New report on trafficking

Mr. Millman informed about a new report out today which examined the connection between migration and modern slavery and focused on which migrants were most vulnerable to being forced into modern slavery, and under what circumstances.

Prepared by Minderoo Foundation’s Walk Free initiative and the International Organization for Migration, the report provided recommendations on key steps governments can take to address this risk.

The report confirmed that certain sub-groups of migrants were at particular risk.
Child and adolescent migrants were particularly vulnerable, creating the need for governments to offer better protections, such as family reunification schemes.

The report is available here:
https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/migrants_and_their_vulnerability.pdf.

Geneva announcements

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Human Rights Committee would close the present session during a public meeting today at around 5 p.m.

Mr. LeBlanc also said that this morning the Committee against Torture began the examination of the report of Togo. This examination would conclude next Monday, during the afternoon meeting.

Mr. LeBlanc further said that the third and last part of the 2019 session of the Conference on Disarmament would begin next Monday, 29 July. Viet Nam would hold the presidency until 18 August, to be followed by Zimbabwe (19 August-13 September). A plenary session would take place on Tuesday, 30 July at 10 a.m.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog260719