West Africa, Palestine, Sudan & other topics | Daily Press Briefing | United Nations

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

- Deputy Secretary-General
- Occupied Palestinian Territory
- Sudan
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Guests
- Briefing Tomorrow

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General has just arrived in West Africa. During this trip, she will take stock of the challenges in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and will work with stakeholders to find acceleration pathways.
Upon her arrival in Dakar, in Senegal, the first stop, she already has held meetings with senior government officials, including the President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye; the Finance Minister; the Minister of Economy, and the Foreign Affairs Minister. During those meetings, the Deputy Secretary-General reaffirmed our support to the government toward key transitions to achieve the SDGs, including food systems transition, renewable energy, and the digital economy. Tomorrow, the Deputy Secretary-General will be meeting with Ousmane Sonko, the Prime Minister of Senegal, as well as with the UN country team, and also civil society representatives, including women and youth groups. She will then depart for Conakry, in Guinea, to continue her West Africa tour.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
From Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) tell us that multiple strikes across Gaza have reportedly killed and injured dozens of people. One of these attacks occurred just a few hundred meters away from the UN’s Joint Humanitarian Operations Centre, which is located in Deir al Balah, and is used by UN agencies and NGOs to coordinate work throughout the Gaza strip.
On the displacement side, our humanitarian colleagues report that families continue to move from Gaza city to Deir al Balah, with more than 1,000 people observed crossing in just the past week. They travel mainly on donkey carts, but also by cars, motorcycles, or on foot, carrying only a few belongings. Many of these people told us that they have been displaced multiple times and cannot afford another displacement financially.
These people are among the most vulnerable, and our teams have been deployed daily along their routes to provide basic assistance, which includes water, hot meals, any sort of food, and health services.
The lack of electricity and fuel continues to hinder the work of basic service providers, including hospitals, ambulances, bakeries, and aid trucks. Over the past two weeks, we have been able to collect about 80,000 liters of fuel per day, on average, up from 45,000 liters per day over the last two weeks of June. While this represents indeed an improvement, the requirement for the most basic humanitarian operations stands at 400,000 liters per day, and the Israeli authorities are still not allowing the allocation of fuel to key local humanitarian responders, preventing them from transferring supplies within Gaza.

SUDAN
In Sudan, we have reached another grim milestone. Our colleagues at the International Organization for Migration now say more than 10 million men, women and children have been displaced since the fighting broke out in April of last year. This means that 20 per cent of Sudan’s population – that is 1 in 5 people living in the country – have been forced to flee in the span of just 15 months.
The majority of those displaced are inside the country – that is almost 8 million human beings – and over half of those are children. Meanwhile, more than two million people have crossed into neighbouring countries, countries that often are facing their own humanitarian challenges.
The humanitarian community in Sudan is doing everything possible to scale up assistance for people in need – including those who have fled the fighting.
Today, our colleagues at UNHCR announced the delivery of relief items for 2,000 displaced and vulnerable families in East Darfur. And over the weekend, the World Food Programme announced the delivery of food assistance for more than 120,000 internally displaced people in South Kordofan.
However, aid organizations in Sudan continue to face major challenges, including the ongoing insecurity, access constraints, and funding shortfalls.
Although the funding for this year’s Humanitarian Response Plan has increased over the past week, we are still at just 30 per cent of funding more than halfway through the year, with $820 million so far received in cash of the $2.7 billion that are needed. We urgently appeal to those who have pledged to turn those pledges into cash, and those who have not pledged to turn in pledges and cash.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...