Briefing by Spokesperson for Secretary-General

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17-Dec-2019 00:16:32
Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

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The Secretary-General spoke at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva this morning and recognized the tremendous efforts made by countries and communities to welcome large numbers of refugees, adding that at this time of turbulence, the international community must do far more to shoulder this responsibility together. He said that more than 70 million people have been forced from their homes, including more than 25 million refugees, in what UNHCR calls the “highest levels of displacement in the world.”

The Security Council also held an open meeting this morning in which Permanent Members were briefed by Chairs of the Council’s subsidiary bodies.

On Afghanistan, UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, released today a report saying that, in the first nine months of 2019, an average of nine children were killed or maimed every day in Afghanistan.

On Syria, the UN remains deeply concerned for the safety and protection of over three million civilians in the Idlib area, in the north-west of the country, over half of whom are internally displaced, following ongoing reports of airstrikes in the area.
Over the weekend, in the last days, airstrikes reportedly impacted dozens of communities across Idlib, Hama, Aleppo and Lattakia governorates.

The Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, met yesterday with Abdulmalik Al Houthi and that took place in Sana’a.
Mr. Griffiths discussed with the Houthi movement next steps in the advancement of the peace process, including the implementation of the prisoners’ exchange agreement.

On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a couple of things I would like to flag. One, the UN Peacekeeping Mission with the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) launched a joint plan to improve security support to allow the full resumption of Ebola control activities in Mangina and Biakato.

Heavy rains as we’ve seen in DRC have caused major floods in 12 of the 26 provinces of the country since the end of October.
Our humanitarian colleagues estimate that at least 600,000 people is being affected country-wide. The loss of life, displacement, significant material damages to houses, infrastructures and agricultural land are being reported.

Heavy rains as we’ve seen in DRC have caused major floods in 12 of the 26 provinces of the country since the end of October.
Our humanitarian colleagues estimate that at least 600,000 people is being affected country-wide. The loss of life, displacement, significant material damages to houses, infrastructures and agricultural land are being reported.

The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) announced today the clearance of nine suspected hazardous areas each on both sides of the island, amounting to a total area of 210 square meters.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Office of the Ombudsperson to the ISIL (Da‘esh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee.

In response to questions we were getting on statements reportedly made by the Secretary-General regarding possible foreign interference in the violence in Chile, I can say that the Secretary-General has not made any statements of any kind on this issue. We promote the right to peaceful assembly and condemn all forms of violence.

We would like to say thank you very much to our friends in Uruguay for having paid their dues in full.
That brings us up to 143 Member States.

For further details please see SOURCE below.
Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General
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2515640