Venezuela, Colombia, Sudan & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

The International Maritime Organization.
Unfortunately, they had to cancel at the last minute, but we're trying to get him reprogrammed very soon.
We will have Pea Haveso, the Secretary-General personal envoy for Sudan.
He should be here in about half an hour or so.
Let me start off first with a statement on hold on a second.
Let's see, Ephraim made me laugh and now I'm all confused.
Let me start off with Venezuela.
Thank you.
As you can imagine, the Secretary-General is deeply saddened by the loss of life and widespread destruction caused by the devastating earthquakes that hit Venezuela.
He extends his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.
Iniial reports indicate significant destruction across several states, including the capital of Ccas.
Many people have reportedly been killed and injured while others remain trapped and are still missing.
Critical infrastructure has been damaged and basic services have been disrupted.
The United Nations and Venezuela and the UN system as a whole is mobilizing assistance and working closely with the government and our partners to support the response.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is facilitating the deployment of urban search and rescue teams.
The Secretary-General welcomes the offers of solidarity and support from member states at this critical time.
The Secretary-General expresses his solidarity with the people and government of Venezuela.
As you know, the um The government has declared a state of emergency in Venezuela, and while international support is rapidly mobilizing, including incoming urban search and rescue teams from different countries and multiple offers of assistance from across the region and beyond.
Our emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher said in a statement this morning that we and our humanitarian partners are fully mobilized to support the people of Venezuela, UN agencies are mobilizing assistance and will deliver support as quickly as possible.
Our humanitarian team in the country is in close contact with the acting president, DelC Rodriguez and all other relevant national authorities in the country.
A central coordination hub has been established in Caracas with the UN supporting efforts on the ground to ensure that assistance reaches those most in need as quickly and effectively as possible.
OSHA is also supporting the coordination of incoming international search and rescue teams, which we expect will arrive or start arriving in the coming hours.
Um, let me state in the region, and I have a statement for you on Colombia.
The Secretary-General commends the people of Colombia for the peaceful conduct of the presidential elections that resulted in the elections of Abelardo de Es Prella.
The Secretary-General welcomes the strong voter participation in the elections of 2021 June's second round, reaffirming the strength of Colombian democracy.
He acknowledges the determined and coordinated efforts by the authorities that enabled a secure and orderly process.
The Secretary-General hopes that all political actors will work together to further build trust across the country.
The Secretary-General reaffirms that the UN's long standing partnership with Colombia, grounded in full respect for its sovereignty.
He underscores the UN's readiness to work with the incoming administration and all partners and to continue supporting nationally led efforts to advance peace and security, to advance sustainable development and prosperity for all Colombians.
In a short while, you will hear a bit more from Peka Haveso on the ongoing discussions around Sudan.
But I just want to give you a quick update on the humanitarian front.
Our colleagues on the ground tell us that in North Darfur State, our humanitarian partners have increased the number of people they have reached with food assistance this year by almost 650,000 people with projections indicating that more than 900,000 people could be reached by next month into August.
Meanwhile, the situation in El Obeid remains concerning.
The ongoing violence continues to endanger civilians lives.
Our partners reported that since June 9th, more than 30 drones have been launched against the capital Ebayid and surrounding areas with daily strikes continuing.
This compounds the challenge faced by civilians already struggling to access basic services and assistance.
We once again call on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
We urgently appeal for increased donor funding to scale up crucial aid for all those who need it.
Turning to Lebanon and South Lebanon in particular, our colleagues at the UN Peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon UNIFIL tell us that the 19th June cease fire in Lebanon has continued to largely hold, as far as they can tell, UNIFIL peacekeepers have not detected any trajectories or airstrikes since the two trajectories that were observed on Tuesday.
UNIFIL, however, has continued to observe Israeli defense forces airspace violations, mostly by drones alongside IDF ground activities across the mission's area of operations.
This has been characterized by armored movements, engineering works, and logistical movements.
Yesterday, UNIFIL observed three IDF tanks in the vicinity of the coastal road at El Bada in sector West, firing several heavy machine gun bursts and launching 640 millimeter grenades in the northeast direction.
UNIFIL also observed two IDF patrol boats in Lebanese territorial waters near Nekora which is the headquarters of UNIFIL.
Turning to the occupied Palestinian territory, our OCHA colleagues tell us that we and our humanitarian partners are continuing daily collections of humanitarian cargo from Krim Shalom Karim Abu Salam, which remains the only operational crossing for us for our supplies into the Gaza strip.
Just yesterday, our teams brought in food, hygiene kits, and various parts for latrines.
Last week, our health partners provided nearly 240,000 medical consultations across 194 service points in Gaza.
Acute respiratory illness and skin disease remains the most frequent reported conditions, followed by acute watery diarrhea.
Our partners warned that health service delivery continues to be constrained by shortages of high cost of fuel generator, oil spare parts, and medical supplies.
The emergency shelters continues where feasible.
Last week, our partners supported over 4,000 households with shelter items through in kind and cash aid.
This includes tarpaulins, beddings, and tents.
Partners also upgraded over 400 makeshift shelters and repaired more than 300 damaged homes.
But our shelter partners warned that fewer families are now receiving their support compared with the previous months.
That's due to severe shortages in shelter material linked to import restrictions, limited access to some areas in Gaza, funding gaps, and a host of other challenges.
Just a number of updates for you around Ebola and this one particular in Burundi and South Sudan.
Tom Fletcher allocated $8 million from the UN central emergency fund to strengthen both countries capacity to respond if Ebola cases are confirmed.
Although no Ebola cases have been confirmed in either country, the risk remains high due to frequent crossings of their borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Burundi and South Sudan have activated national preparedness and response plans for the disease.
Our colleagues at OCHA tell us that the $8 million in SRF funding will be used to bolster surveillance, lab capacity, case management, infection prevention and control.
It will strengthen readiness to detect, investigate, and contain Ebola disease while protecting health workers, maintaining essential health services, and preventing community transmissions.
Since the Ebola outbreak was declared in DRC mid May, thousand 51,000 people have received food assistance, but we and our partners have not yet received the necessary humanitarian response funding in 2026 in both DRC and South Sudan.
As South Sudan continues to grapple with major humanitarian emergency, OHA reiterates its call for donors to increase in increased support for lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
And in Uganda, our UN system, led by the resident coordinator, Leonard Zulu continues to build on the $3.5 million that was repurposed in May, and the SRF allocation allocated $4 million to support to support the government's work on Ebola, notably surveillance, lab capacity, case management, infection prevention and control logistics, emergency protection, and risk communications and community management.
Turning to Ukraine, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that yesterday, humanitarians working for the NGO Norwegians People Aid were killed and four others injured in an attack in the region of Kerson.
We condemn this attack on humanitarian workers.
In a social media post, our colleague Tom Fletcher, emergency relief coordinator said that humanitarians know the risks, but accepting the risks is not accepting being attacked.
He stressed that civilians, including eight workers, must be protected and international humanitarian law must be respected.
The humanitarian coordinator and resident coordinator for Ukraine, Matia Smile also expressed his deep condolences to the families of those killed and stressed also that humanitarian personnel must never be harmed while carrying out their lifesaving work.
So far this year, at least six humanitarian workers have been killed in Ukraine, including five while on duty, 36 others were injured.
The Kerson region has recorded the highest number of incidents affecting aid workers.
Meanwhile, according to local authorities, attacks across Ukraine between yesterday and the early hours of today killed at least 12 civilians, injured 90 others, including health workers and children.
In Khursn, authorities reported several civilians killed and more than 20 injured, including five hospital workers wounded in a strike on a hospital.
In riza, glide bombs and drone attacks killed two people and 27 others, including three children.
As of today, part of the five frontline regions, Sumi, Dots, Kharkiv, Kerson and Jaartza remain without electricity.
That's what Ukraine's energy ministry is telling us.
Despite these challenges, humanitarian organizations continue to respond.
In the first quarter of this year, we and our partners reached more than 980,000 people impacted by attacks with emergency shelter and other lifesaving support while also helping restore essential services and to those who need it.
Tomorrow is, besides being Friday.
It is Charter Day.
And the Secretary-General will address the informal meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the UN Charter Day.
At 9:45, the Secretary-General and the president of the General Assembly, Analia Burbach, will sign a poster with the charters preamble inside the GA Hall, which has also been signed by member states, symbolizing the collective resolve of the membership to uphold and advance the charter's vision.
The event is not simply a moment of reflection, but also a call to action for states to uphold and defend the principles and purposes of the UN and the UN Charter.
There will also be a reading of the charter preamble in all official UN languages by New York City schoolchildren, followed by statements by member states.
This is all open to you.
And today, as you know, is the International Day of the Safir This year's theme, carrying world trade, carrying the risks is especially important as seafarers face unprecedented challenges.
Constantly evolving situation in the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted the increased complexity and risks faced by seafarers stranded while working far from home, doing their work to keep us all supplied with all the basics that we need.
In his message for the day, the Secretary-General said that mariners must never be the victims or pawns of geopolitical conflict.
Governments and industry have a responsibility to support and protect seafarers by upholding labor standards, respecting international laws, and ensuring sailors everywhere remain free from harm.
Sail away ED letter.
Thank you, Staff.
The US Supreme Court this morning ended legal protections for patients and Syrians to remain in the United States.
Does the Secretary-General have any comment on that ruling and its impact? Look, I think we'll have to see what the impact is, and I'm sure our colleagues at UNHCR are following closely, but I think the Secretary-General, as you know, especially given his time as head of UNHCR, is a strong believer that all member states need to uphold their obligations under the Refugee Convention, and that even those are not refugees, migrants must all be treated with the utmost dignity and respect for their human rights.
Gabriel, Hi, Steph.
I know the situation in Venezuela is still very fluid and we haven't got a full assessment of what the damages are both to property and people.
I took note of what the UN's initial response is, but the Venezuelan government says there already are over 30,000 people missing in the early assessment.
From the UN standpoint, are you in a wait and see mode on how bad this could be, or what is the posture moving past the first 24 to 36 hours? We're definitely not in a wait and see mode.
I mean, as you say, we've already mobilized on the ground.
We will have colleagues from our coordination units travel to Venezuela as soon as possible to support with the coordination.
We have a pretty big presence on the ground.
I mean, about 800 or so staff in nationals and international, who thank God are all safe and sound, but they're working full speed ahead, as in every case, working in support of the government.
But obviously, as we will adapt our response as the impact becomes clear.
And as you know, Venezuela is already facing a pretty extensive humanitarian crisis.
Million people, according to the UN and OSHA, are in need of humanitarian aid in Venezuela, even before the dual earthquake, obviously, this is going to raise the amount of humanitarian aid that is going to be needed on various levels.
So contingency planning, I assume for that.
Yes, I mean, you know, we have humanitarian colleagues are continuously doing contingency planning for moments just like these.
But this will be a long haul.
There will be the immediate response to the devastation of the earthquake, but it will continue for months to come.
And as I mentioned, and you mentioned as well, there were already a lot of people who need of humanitarian aid.
The Venezuelan people will require the solidarity of the international community.
Senor cara, Thank you, Stephan.
This is about the presentation of the report of children conflict done by Ambassador Frize yesterday at the Security Council.
While we all know the reaction of Israel, does the Secretary-General have any reaction on the speech that the United States did yesterday about the report? The United States basically says that the report mischaracterized civilian harm under the law of war.
And then he says, also, um, this report is yet another example of the UN spending time and resources on initiatives incompatible with member states' interests.
Well, let me say a couple of things.
One, to state the obvious, the Secretary-General stands by his report and the facts and the data that are in the report.
The fact that this Secretary-General and every other Secretary-General, I think, since Kofi Ana, if I'm not mistaken, publishes a report on children's armed conflict, is because they were given a mandate by the member states to do so.
Just to confirm, because in this reply, the United States was not really defending Israel but defending itself.
In the sense the United States was saying that the report I heard what they said.
I heard what we listened to what the member states said.
This happens every time this report and other reports are presented.
The Secretary-General, the Secretariat acts on mandates given to it.
It produces reports.
We stand by those reports.
Member states react to it in different ways, but we're not going to provide color commentary on every statement make clear, the report says the United States targeted children on.
You know what the report says is in the report.
So, I mean, I'm not going to paraphrase or reote The report is in black and white, printed in six languages for everyone to read.
Okay, we will Sorry, Dawn, I think you have a question.
Yeah, thanks, Deh.
On the Secretary-General, I just wanted to follow up on a new report from the Advocacy Group one for 8 billion.
They're alleging in the report that the Secretary-General struck a special arrangement with Spain on a top policy position during his 2016 candidacy.
And I'm just wondering if you have comment.
No, we don't have any comment on these reports all tied to the incoming election, which we are not involved in.
Okay, I will get Mr.
Javiso and I shall return.