Secretary-General, Ukraine, Financing for Development Forum other topics - Daily Press Briefing

The Secretary-General is travelling to Moscow today, after having met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara just now. Tomorrow in Moscow, the Secretary-General will have a working meeting and lunch with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and will be received by President Vladimir Putin.nbsp;nbsp;Turning to Ukraine, the UN Crisis Coordinator, Amin Awad, yesterday called for an immediate stop in fighting in Mariupol to allow civilians trapped in the besieged city to safely evacuate.nbsp;
This morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, spoke on behalf of the Secretary-General at the opening of the Financing for Development Forum. She said that the global economy is under severe stress and that the Sustainable Development Goals are in need of urgent rescue.nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;We issued a statement this morning on Sudan, in which the Secretary-General deplored the killings of civilians in Kreinik locality, West Darfur, as well as the attacks on health facilities on 24 April. Our humanitarian colleagues stress that the recent flare-up of clashes worsens the dire humanitarian situation in Kreinik, where more than half of the population – which is some 265,700 people – were already believed to be in need of humanitarian aid at the beginning of this year.nbsp;nbsp;
The UN Mission in South Sudan today strongly condemned the widespread sexual violence, as well as killings, including beheadings, the burning alive of civilians, and attacks on aid workers in Leer County.nbsp;nbsp;
Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed the Security Council this morning.nbsp; He said that in Jerusalem, the situation remains relatively calm despite inflammatory rhetoric and violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli Security Forces (ISF) that have taken place at the Holy Sites.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Last night, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, detected a rocket being launched from south Lebanon toward Israel. The Israel Defense Forces fired back several dozen shells into Lebanon.
The UN Mission in Mali strongly condemned yesterday's attacks on the Malian Armed Forces in Sévaré, Niono and Bapho. Several soldiers were killed during these attacks. At the request of the Malian armed forces, the UN Mission immediately deployed a rapid reaction force in Sévaré.nbsp;
In a statement issued over the weekend, the Secretary-General welcomed the efforts of Kenya's President, Uhuru Kenyatta, and other Eastern African leaders to promote peace, stability and development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the greater East African region.nbsp;
Also, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization says the country has declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case was confirmed in Mbandaka, a city in the north-western Equateur Province. This is the third outbreak in the province since 2018.nbsp;
We issued a statement over the weekend to express the Secretary-General's sadness following the death of Mwai Kibaki, former President of the Republic of Kenya.nbsp;
Our UN team in Brazil, led by Resident Coordinator Silvia Rucks, continues supporting authorities to respond to the multiple impacts of the pandemic, focusing on promoting sustainable development.nbsp;
The guest today will be the President of the Economic and Social Council, Collen Vixen Kelapile. He will join us in this room to brief on the Financing for Development Forum and the high-level political Forum on Sustainable Development. At 1.15 p.m., there will be a hybrid briefing here on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples. The speakers will be Dario José Mejia Montalvo, Chair-elect of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Leader of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia; and Rose Anne Archibald, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Tomorrow, my guest will be Mami Mizutori, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. She will brief on the UN Disaster Risk Reduction's Global Assessment on Risk 2022.nbsp; At 1:30 p.m. there will be a hybrid press briefing on the forthcoming 55th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development. Speakers will include Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations and Chair of the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on Population and Development.nbsp;nbsp;