Noon Briefing Guest, Senior Personnel Appointment, Ethiopia other topics - Daily Press Briefing

Good afternoon. I see our friend Ramiz is already on the line. Ramiz Alakbarov is - as you know - is the Deputy Special Representative in the UN’s Mission in Afghanistan and he’ll be here to brief you about the humanitarian situation in Aghhanistan and he’s live from Kabul.

A senior appointment. Today, the Secretary-General is announcing that Oscar Fernandez-Taranco of Argentina will take over the job as Assistant Secretary-General for Development Coordination. nbsp;

The Secretary-General is on his way to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where he will arrive in the coming hours.nbsp;

In a statement we issued a few hours ago, the Secretary-General said he was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the former President of the People’s Republic of China, Jiang Zemin.

Quick note from Mali where the UN peacekeeping mission in the country reports that a Malian individual contractor was killed earlier today by an Improvised Explosive Device in the town of Kidal.nbsp;

Turning to the Central African Republic, the peacekeeping mission there expressed its availability to support the Government’s investigation into the explosions heard near a military camp in Bossangoa, in the Ouham prefecture, that took place in the early morning of 28 November.nbsp;

In Nigeria, our humanitarian colleagues are calling on the Government and the donor community to urgently unlock resources to support children amid a deteriorating nutrition crisis.

Quick note that the International Labour Organization today released a report showing that the severe inflationary crisis combined with a global slowdown in economic growth – driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the global energy crisis – are causing a striking fall in real monthly wages in many countries.nbsp;

Also out of Geneva, the International Telecommunication Union today released its Facts and Figures, the annual worldwide overview on the state of digital connectivity.nbsp;

Today is the Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare.nbsp;

Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., there will be a hybrid briefing by the Permanent Representative of India Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, who as you know is the President of the Security Council for the month of December.

And despite the loss today by France it’s not a complete loss for France because our colleagues at UNESCO have had the wisdom to recognize that the venerable Baguette belongs on the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.