UN Geneva Press Briefing: WHO, UNHCR, IOM, WMO

Very good morning. Thank you for joining us here at the UN Office at Geneva today, Friday, the 3rd of July. As always, we have an important agenda for you, lots of issues to discuss here. We have colleagues from the Refugee Agency to speak to the situation in the Lake Chad Basin. We have the situation in Kordofan in Sudan, which will be addressed, as well as the earthquakes in Venezuela and the response, as well as updates from the World Meteorological Organization on El Niño.. But before we get into that, I would like to introduce to you our new colleague— well, not new to WHO, but the new Director of Communications at the World Health Organization, Soren Brostrøm, excuse me, who is here in person to introduce himself to you. Of course, Christian is here as well, but Mr. Brostrøm, over to you.

Thank you very much and good morning, everybody. So my name is Soren Brostrøm. I'm, as of this week, the Acting Director of Communications at WHO. I stepped into this role by the request of our Director-General. I have served for 3 years now here in WHO headquarters in Geneva as a senior advisor to the Director-General in his office, so it was natural for me to shift into this role because a replacement was needed. I have a background in public health and global health, a medical doctor by training. I've done lots of communication work in previous roles. I'm not a communicator, of course, but I do know about communication. I'm looking forward to working with all of you. You are, of course, in safe hands with Kristian and Tarik and Amna, but I'm just here to kind of get to know how this works.

Thank you very much.

Thanks to you, Dr. Brustrom. It's very nice to work with you, and of course your team is magnificent, so we'll continue a good relationship with you. Thanks very much. Okay, colleagues, we're going to move to, as mentioned, we have an update from our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency. On line is Andrew Wiley, who is UNHCR's Deputy Director for the West and Central African Bureau. Sorry, Eugene is joining me. I don't know, Eugene, did you want to start off, or— Okay, sorry, but so Eugene is here with me, but we're happy to have Andy with us. I'll turn it over to you first, Eugene.

Thank you, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning. Today, we're joined by, as Rolando just mentioned, our UNHCR's— UN Refugee Agency's Deputy Director for the West and Central Africa Bureau, Andrew Wille, who will brief on the escalating situation in the Lake Chad Basin region. Andrew recently visited northern Benin, where he met people affected by the spillover of insecurity and displacement linked to the worsening situation in northeast and northwest Nigeria. So over to you, Andy.

Okay, thanks very much and good morning to everyone. It's good to join you here this morning. So yes, UNHCR, we're quite concerned about the deterioration of the situation across the Lake Chad Basin. While that may have been a more stable environment a few years ago, since about 2024, the situation has been deteriorating from a security perspective in particular, and we've seen an acceleration of that deterioration since January of this year. What we're witnessing are an increase in violence and attacks by armed groups. On civilians, on military, criminality, also climate shocks that are contributing to deterioration in the environment. And that is causing people to move, to have to move across borders or internally, and sometimes multiple times. So there are lots of cyclical displacements that are happening. Just to give you a few statistics, there are today about 3.5 million forcibly displaced people across the broader Lake Chad Basin region. Of that number, about 332,000 are refugees. And we estimate that since the beginning of the year, there have been about 77,000 new refugees. Now, the overall in the region, we estimate that about 8.2 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Our main focus continues to be on making sure people are protected, so making sure that people have— continue to have access to asylum documentation that they can get away from these places where the threats of violence are very real. The violence is obviously disproportionately affecting women, girls, and children. We've seen that 1 out of 5 households in the region say they don't feel safe. We've seen an increase in violence against women. Across the region, about 50% of children are out of school, unable to go to schools. When they're unable to go to schools, that exposes them to all kinds of different protection risks. Those figures actually go quite higher when you move into the Lac region of Chad, where almost 75% of children are out of schools. Communities across the region and governments, uh, refugees to, uh, to cross borders to flee the violence. But the crisis itself is expanding beyond its typical epicenter. So as Eugene said, I was in Benin last week where we're seeing Nigerians arriving in northwestern Benin fleeing the violence caused by armed groups, and that has been increasing since the beginning of the year. There have also been significant movements into Niger from northern Nigeria. People are being received in communities, and that's, you know, where there are some positives in that communities are stepping up. Governments are stepping up to make sure that people can have access to basic services when they have had to displace. But we have to acknowledge that those services are strained under the weight of these new arrivals. So there's a need for community-based support to allow this inclusion in existing communities to work effectively. We've come out just recently with, with an advocacy document on the region where we've identified about $29 million worth of needs between now and the end of the year to respond to the most urgent protection and, and life-saving needs that are out there. So that document describes a bit in a bit more detail the needs we are seeing, what kinds of activities are necessary to address them. So I'll stop there and hand back to you, Roland.

Thank you so much, Andy, and thanks for joining us. Let's take questions. We have a question for you from Kyodo News.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. With this $29 million, if I heard well, how many people are you willing to reach? And have you already, like, seen or been able to see, like, different vulnerable groups among these refugees? And what What could you do to, to help them better? Thank you.

Thanks very much for the question. So the, the targeted figures vary from one country to another. The document itself looks at northern Cameroon, at western Chad, Niger, northern Nigeria, and Benin. So the numbers vary from one country to another. But the, the document itself provides more details on the total. Who is most vulnerable? It's— I don't think it's going to come as a surprise because it's very similar in, in, in most crises in the region. It is women, it is girls, and especially children who, who are most, who are most at risk. In many cases, we are seeing single head or female-headed households that are fleeing with their children. In, in northwestern Benin, I heard some horrible stories about women, wives, having to witness their husbands being murdered in front of them, and we're told that there are hundreds of, of cases like that. Coming into, coming into Benin at the moment. So those are the kinds of typical incidents that we're seeing across, across the region, which is why those protection activities need to focus to the extent possible on these especially vulnerable groups.

Absolutely. Thanks, Andy. Yeah, we have a question now from AFP.

Yeah.

Hello.

Thank you for this briefing. You mentioned Nigerians arriving in Benin and Niger, but Can you tell us exactly who are these, those 3.5 million forcibly displaced people in the region, and where do they come from also? And secondly, could you tell us who is responsible for the violence you mentioned?

Okay, thanks for those questions. So the 3.5 million forcibly displaced across the region It's a combination of refugees, as I said, about 332,000 refugees, and then the remainder internally displaced people. To be honest, we have people going in all directions. So because the violence itself is not limited alone to Northern Nigeria, there have actually been attacks and kidnappings in the neighboring countries as well. That's something we also heard of in Benin. So, you know, we have Nigerians moving, Nigerians who are moving as well, Cameroonians, and as I said, there are movements in many different directions. So an IDP today may become a refugee tomorrow, or refugees, Nigerian refugees returning to the north from Niger end up being internally displaced after they return. So it's a very fluid situation that is very much driven by the, the unpredictability of the, the violence that's occurring. When it comes to who is perpetrating these, these acts, it's very difficult to, to put a finger on. There are many different armed groups in the, in the region. Some of the behaviours look to us like the ones that we see in the Central Sahel, so aligned with some of the extremist groups there, but there's also a criminality factor. Some of the kidnappings that are taking place, there doesn't seem to be any ideological motivation behind those. It's more about money and trying to obtain resources. Now, what's happening with those funds, still not clear. It is such a, as I said, a very fluid and changing environment that it's quite difficult to put a finger on exactly who is committing the acts. We did pose that specific question to the Nigerian refugees that we met in northwestern Benin, and the one thing they could tell us was that they were not from the area, so they were from somewhere else. Thanks.

Thank you. Do you want to add something?

Yes, to just to add that you will soon receive the briefing note which will have a document attached, and then it has a map to break down that the regional dynamic of internally displaced population and refugees.

That's a good thoughtful guide. Thank you so much, Eugene. I'm not sure if there are further questions for you, Andy. Let me double-check here in the room.

Online?

No, that's not the case. So once again, Andy, thank you so very much for shedding light on this important story, and, uh, we'll certainly do what we can to spread the word. Thank you so much.

My pleasure. Thanks.

Okay, uh, Zoe, if I can ask you to come on up, and Eugene, you'll stay here because we have, uh, we're shifting to— well, we're staying in the continent. We're going to move to the situation in Sudan, particularly the Kordofan region and situation around El Ubaid, which is, as you know, subject of an urgent debate ongoing now at the Human Rights Council. It started around 10 o'clock, and that's ongoing now. But without further ado, I'll turn now to Zoe to introduce her guest, and then to you, Eugene. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Orlando, and thank you, everybody, for joining today. So I'm going to brief from the International Organization for Migration on the deteriorating situation in Sudan. I will be joined online by my colleague Dr. Mohamed Refat from Port Sudan, who is our Chief of Mission in Sudan, and he will speak to what we are seeing. In just 3 months, the number of newly displaced people across Kordofan has risen by nearly two-thirds. More than 100 displacement-triggering incidents have been recorded in less than 9 months, averaging 1 major incident every 2 to 3 days. Families are being uprooted faster than humanitarian assistance can reach them. The pace at which this crisis is unfolding should concern us all. So if we could go over to Dr. Mohammed Refaat, who will speak more directly from the ground.

Thank you.

Dr. Rafat, go ahead, please.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, great. No, thanks, Zoya, and it's a pleasure to be with you. I know that there will be other colleagues talking about Sudan from other agencies. We will be talking about the women situation, the children, the food. And the health. But let me speak as this is my third year in Sudan and in this 4-year almost conflict, what I have seen is that civilians have been regular and continue to be the main targets in this conflict. And targeting civilians is mainly to displace them, to uproot them from where they belong to and to start taking cities, empty cities. What we have seen in al-Fasher, Unfortunately, it was not a one-time incident. It was a higher scale of a trend that we have been seeing for quite long in Sudan, and the humanitarian and the whole system has failed to stop it. I'm here also because I'm concerned, and we are all concerned, about al-Obaid being the next al-Fasher. In al-Fasher, we have almost estimated as IOM, as agencies, as counting displacement and the needs on the ground in through the multiple sectors that we have counted in Al-Nilfashur at the time before it fell was more than 200,000. In Al-Ubayyid, our estimate now is that we have more than 500,000 stranded in this city. We cannot access them. We hear the story from our enumerators on the ground who are assessing the needs on the ground that they have no access to water. Electricity, and they want a way out, but they cannot. They have been stranded for a couple of months now, and the attacks is mainly targeting civilian, not only civilian population, but civilian infrastructure. It's very common now every day to wake up on the one attack on a fuel station or one attack on a hospital or on a convoy that was carrying humanitarian aid. As you know, Sudan is almost the second most deadly environment for humanitarian workers on the ground, and most of them are Sudanese nationals. If we don't act now to stop what's happening in Al-Fasher, sorry, in Al-Bubayyid, we would see another Al-Fasher. We'll see another displacement of maybe 500,000 or more. Can we accommodate this? Do we have the resources for this? Absolutely not. Our system has been depleted from every resource that we have to be able to attend to the needs of the current displacement, let alone new tragic displacement that we don't know the scale or the mass. You have seen the reports of the human rights violations from al-Fasher, the gender-based violence violation. And until now, justice has not come. And we all know that justice takes time to come. I want to leave you with a very clear message that really concerns me as a humanitarian, as a father, as a human being, that what we are seeing as a systematic strategic reduction in humanitarian aid while increasing funding in other sectors, including defense, is not going to help us. It's not going to help us having a better future for ourselves, for our kids. If this doesn't come with a clear investment in peace. Over the last 2 years, we have not seen much of peace coming to Sudan or to many other conflicts. And we stay here in Sudan trying to provide what we can through an environment that's very much challenged when it comes to access. And I would just, would like to flag finally that when a population gets displaced, their first request is always shelter, and non-food items in order to survive. The shelter cluster in Sudan is one of the most depleted from resources, underfunded clusters in Sudan. I hope this message can reach all member states, all actors to stop the siege on Al-Ubayyid and to allow us to access, to allow civilians to leave and to allow us through funding to be able to provide much-needed life-saving support. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mohamed. I'll turn now to Eugene.

Thank you, Orlando. We're here to just give you brief information. The sad, tragic incident happened on the 1st of July. A UNHCR-contracted truck carrying 50 metric tons of relief items was reportedly hit by a drone near Tendelti on the coast Tendelti Corridor. This corridor is particularly important because this is a route connecting the White Nile with the South Kordofan. The driver survived unharmed, but the entire consignment was just destroyed. The supply comprised— comprising blanket, jerrican, kitchen set, sleeping mats, plastic sheet, and solar lamp were destined to vulnerable community in Abu Jubayyah, South Kordofan. This is the second such incident this year in which a UNHCR truck containing relief supply has been hit in Sudan. It reflects a deeply worrying pattern of attacks that are increasingly affecting civilians, and also civilians including displaced families, as well as humanitarian convoys carrying life-saving lifesaving aid. Every destroyed truck means every family already uprooted by conflict are left without essential support, and aid organizations face even greater obstacles in reaching people in urgent need. UNHCR strongly condemns attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers, humanitarian assets, and relief supply and call for safe and secure humanitarian access across Sudan and respect for international humanitarian law. Thank you very much.

Thanks to you, Eugene, and again to Mohamed and Zoe. So let's see if there are questions for you, colleagues, in the room, online. No, I don't see that's the case. Again, I think you were very comprehensive, and of course this is a story that we'll continue to spotlight. Thank you so very much to you, to Mohammed, and to you, Eugene, for continuing to spotlight this story as it develops. And of course, Carla, you will have seen the various statements that we issued on behalf of the Secretary-General, which he calls on for the protection of civilians, and increased flow of humanitarian goods. So we echo these sentiments. Let's move to WHO. If I could ask you to join me again, Christian, here on the podium. And I think maybe you want to start off, or— okay. Over to you.

Thank you, Ronan Doyle and colleagues. I'm very glad to have with us again today Dr. Cyril Ogarte. He is the Regional Emergency Director in the WHO Regional Office of the Americas, PAHO, Pan American Health Organization, for the latest updates on the Venezuela earthquakes. It's early in Washington, D.C., so thank you very much for joining us. And please, let's go to Dr. Ugarte.

Thank you, Christian. It is difficult in Venezuela, as you said. Since I spoke last week, we have now a clearer picture on how the earthquakes have affected the health system and services in Venezuela, particularly because they are under severe pressure with facilities operating unfortunately beyond capacity. 8 facilities were directly assessed by PAHO/WHO and all require immediate support. 3 of them reported structural damage and 1 requires critical and immediate attention. Most of them report connectivity loss for patient referral and tracking, lack backup power supply, morgue overflow and waste accumulation, and also limited ambulances' capacities and challenges patient flow and overcrowded services with supply shortages, growing surgical wait lists, particularly for trauma, orthopedics, and neurosurgery, and high biosafety risks. Particularly the Hospital Vargas from the Social Security Institute of Venezuela, is the critical priority. Just a few examples: 96 patients are in 8-bed ward. The morgue is overwhelmed. The blood bank is critically low of supplies. Ventilators— many ventilators are not operational because of generator failure and others. Medical waste are blocking the corridors and patients are transferred to other places, including Caracas. Another hospital, the Hospital Rafael Medina Jiménez in La Guaira, for example, reduced from 108 to 35 beds. And other 11 health facilities assessed by the partners also report damage and 22 report severe shortages. PAHO WHO has coordinated the deployment of 2 emergency medical teams, one from the US-based Samaritan's Purse, which arrived in La Guaira on the 27th of June and is fully operational, and one from Lithuania, also set up in La Guaira. 37 further emergency medical teams and specialized care teams have been made available through the PAHO-coordinated network, of which 5 are, are being deployed to the country. PAHO has— PAHO and WHO have delivered 6.2 tons of medical supplies to Venezuela, including materials that were already prepositioned in the country and distributed within the 70— the first 72 hours of the emergency. On July 1st, PAHO delivered a 4-ton emergency shipment of essential supplies from the Regional Strategic Reserve in Panama, and the shipment included trauma supplies, medicines, field equipment, and personal protective equipment that is sufficient to meet all the supplies to meet up to 10,000 people, patients, for 3 months. In terms of health risks for the broader population, but mainly for the people now living in shelters, there is an increased risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and pertussis, as well as vector-borne diseases and water-borne diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, and diarrheas. These risks are exacerbated by disruptions to health services, water and sanitation systems, and the displacement of population to overcrowded shelters with inadequate sanitary and hygiene conditions. There is an urgent need for mental health and psychological support for many population, families of missing persons, and also healthcare workers and first responders. W.H.O. have launched a $24 million appeal to support the first 6 months of the health response and early recovery, helping restore essential health services, ensure access to medicines and vaccines, and strengthen disease prevention and surveillance in areas hardest hit by the earthquakes. In emergencies of this magnitude, inflows of external support can create coordination and absorptive challenges for the country. PAHO is working with the government of Venezuela and other UN agencies and partners to ensure a well-coordinated approach that strengthens the health system and its capacity to save the greatest number of lives. PAHO will continue working closely with the Ministry of Health and partners to strengthen the health response and support affected communities. Over. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Dr. Ugarte. Muchas gracias. And thank you again for joining us so early in the morning your time. So let's see if there are any questions. We do have one from Isabel of Spanish news agency EFE.

Good morning. Thank you, Dr. Ugarte. I would like to know something more about the risk of outbreaks that you mentioned. We are talking about this since a few days. And I would like to know if you have seen any concrete indication that this could happen. How serious is this risk? And if in this context, do you consider it's important to have a vaccination campaign? Of any of these diseases, infectious diseases, or waterborne diseases, or insect vector diseases also that you have mentioned. Thank you.

Back to you, Dr.

Thank you. My microphone was muted. Those are very, very good questions because the assessment of the risk are ongoing. But I would like to highlight that the vaccination coverage in Venezuela, particularly for measles and others, were already low. So the risk of having all those cases of measles and pertussis are are at this moment high, particularly in the shelters where the transmission of these diseases can be very high. The other concern that we have, currently have, is the water quality. The water quality is essential, and unfortunately the water, the supply is low, and it is very difficult to assess the situation in all the shelters. And that's why the priority is to ensure that the quality of the water that is provided to the people, particularly in big shelters, is assessed, but also ensure that it is in good condition. The other aspect that you mentioned, we consider that the campaign, vaccination campaign, is not the way to proceed, but to specifically prioritize the areas where we do have those shelters, overcrowded shelters, but also in the areas where the people are staying, but unfortunately the coverage has been very low. So targeted vaccination is the approach that we see. Regarding vector-borne diseases, This is something at this moment is just strengthening the surveillance and early detection and control once we see those cases. There are several other priorities that we see, but we are also working on reducing the risk for the population.

Over.

Thank you very much. Well noted. Do we have further questions for Dr. Ugarte? I think, Isabel, is that a new hand? A follow-up, perhaps? Yes, go ahead.

Yes, this is a follow-up. Thank you. Um, could you be precise on what is the current coverage of vaccination in— for this kind of diseases in Venezuela? And in also on, on the side of wounded people, are you able to say how How many people or what is the proportion of people that cannot access medical services because the capacity, as you said, is the hospitals are overwhelmed? Thank you.

Yes, I cannot tell you the exact figures of the vaccination coverage. This information will be assessed as we speak, particularly for in the areas where the earthquake hit the most. Regarding the lack of beds, we saw that at least 1,500 beds in the areas are not— have been lost because of the damage of the health facilities or the damage also of the equipment and several others. So in that regard, that's why the assessment of the health facilities, but also on the other risk in the shelters and other places, are ongoing. It is the teams that have arrived in the country are doing that together with the Ministry of Health and other partners. So the risk assessment and the response in those regards are ongoing.

Well noted. Thank you very much, Doctor. Yes, go ahead, Meva of Kyodo News, Japan.

Thank you very much. Good morning. Just a question, because, you know, it's not an apparent conflict zone. It's like a catastrophe happened there. But could you describe what are your main challenges? Is it just related to the lack of funds? Is it a lack of access? Is it a lack of people? Could you be more precise about what is missing and the challenges you're facing? Thank you.

Yes, it is, is the lack of healthcare workers and staff on the ground. And for example, we have been informed by the Ministry of Health and other partners that the significant number of healthcare workers are not available to provide the healthcare in the hospitals. And the increased demand is putting all the teams under huge pressure. So because of that, there is a specific lack of personnel to do the proper assessment. For example, engineers, architects, medical experts in terms of assessment of health facilities are looking at those facilities, but the access to those places, but also the proper assessment of the health facilities are being finalized. We expect that in the next few days we will have a bigger picture, but from what we assessed, as I mentioned, most of the health facilities lost connectivity, patient referral and tracking, and all the other specific things that I mentioned before.

Okay, thank you very much. Yes, go ahead, Meva, follow-up.

Sorry, just as a follow-up, and you mentioned that 2 medical teams arrived on the ground from the US and Lithuania, if I'm not wrong. So could you describe how many people are now on the ground? And I also heard in a previous briefing that we had many rescue teams. Could you give us more details on that? Thank you.

Yes, two field hospitals that we call it the emergency medical teams, one of them is Samaritan's Purse with surgical capacity and 49-bed capacity and personnel is being fully operational in La Guaira. And also the emergency medical team of Lithuania has been deployed there. There are other emergency medical teams or health teams that were deployed, not necessarily through the channels of the cell of information and coordination of the medical access in Venezuela, but they are also performing their duties. We don't have full information of those, but in this case, the support to the healthcare in those areas are still very low in comparison with the demands.

Okay, understood. Thank you so much, Dr. Ugarte. I don't see further questions for you, so thank you very much, particularly for joining so early in the morning your time. In Washington and will continue to highlight the situation as the recovery efforts in Venezuela. Before we go to WMO, we have, I think, Kristian, you had an extra announcement from WHO. Go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Dr. Ogata. And just on that topic, just to mention for those interested, PAHO, WHO is also bringing out a situation report, a sitrep, regularly on the situation of the earthquakes in Venezuela. It's a very detailed one, so please look that up for more data. Another announcement on Monday, and you should have received the invite already, on Monday, 6 July at 3:30 Geneva time, 15:30 CEST, there's an embargoed WHO press conference on the launch of the Global Status Report Cancer for 2026. It's a really detailed and important one. WHO and together with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, will present key findings from the upcoming status reports. This report will provide first comprehensive analysis of global progress in cancer prevention and control while identifying critical gaps that remain. The embargoed material is available already. Please write to media@who.int or follow what you saw in the announcement. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Christian. Before we release Christian, any questions for WHO further? No, I don't see that's the case, so thank you very much, Christian, and for highlighting that important report. Claire is with us with a guest, so over to you. From WMO. Thanks.

Thank you very much. And first of all, I'll start also with a quick announcement. On Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization will be releasing the State of the Climate in the Southwest Pacific Report for 2025. This is the final one in a series of regional reports. We'll send the information to you under embargo on this weekend or early Monday morning. So moving on to the topic, heat and El Niño. El Niño is a term you're going to be hearing quite a lot about in the coming weeks and months. So just by means of introduction, it's the first week of July. It's the start of what is traditionally the hottest month of the year. And yet already in June we've seen record-breaking temperatures in many parts of Europe. Just as an example, Germany last weekend saw a new national temperature record of 41.7 degrees, and on the 27th of June— and this is June and it's Germany— 46 observing stations saw temperatures of above 40 degrees Celsius. That just gives you an indication. And now, as we enter July, we're seeing— and I quote the US National Weather Service on this— a prolonged and dangerous heat wave in the central and the eastern United States of the America through the end of this week and into the Independence Day weekend. The US National Weather Service is saying— is warning of an extended period of widespread major to extreme heat risk. Moving on, global sea surface temperatures on the 21st of June were the highest on record for the month of June. This is according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service, and this beats the daily record set in June 2023 and June 2024. So all of this sets the scene for a— what we are seeing is a rapidly developing El Niño event. So today, at the start of June, the World Meteorological Organization Organization warned of the likelihood of an El Niño, and today we are releasing a new global seasonal climate update, um, which confirms El Niño is rapidly developing. We anticipate it will develop into a strong El Niño event during July to September 2026 and is expected expected to continue strengthening during the Northern Hemisphere autumn. The World Meteorological Organization community— we've really launched an unprecedented mobilization to coordinate activities with our members within WMO and at regional level with regional climate centers and with the United system to, you know, to support governments and provide information which we hope will save many lives and protect livelihoods. So that's quite a long introduction, but I will hand over to Álvaro Silva, who is a climate scientist. Álvaro works with the World Meteorological Organization coordination mechanism This is a support mechanism which has been doing really fabulous work over the past couple of years to provide information to humanitarian agencies, including the UN refugee agencies, to other agencies, and is stepping up its work at the moment. So Álvaro can tell you a little bit more about the developing El Niño climate impacts and also, you know, the work that we're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Clare. El Niño conditions have emerged in the Equatorial Pacific, and there is a remarkable agreement between forecast models that this will be a strong El Niño. More, this strong El Niño will develop rapidly over the coming months. And having a strong El Niño is not irrelevant. So the intensity of El Niño is important because it increases the likelihood of extreme weather and climate events in different parts of the world. Even if this phenomenon is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it now develops on top of long-term climate change due to human activity. The forecasts released today are important to guide the preparedness and early action by different sectors, including by the humanitarian sector. But El Niño will not act alone. El Niño is one of the most important climate drivers globally, but there are additional factors that are also playing an important role in the different regions in different periods of the year. This combination of different effects is available now in the seasonal forecasts that are released today in the Global Seasonal Climate Update and indicate already a strong and robust typical pattern of the El Niño in, in the different regions, including drier than normal conditions in parts of the world such as Central America and Caribbean, North and South America, enhanced conditions also for drier patterns in South Asia during the monsoon season, in the parts of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and weather conditions in other parts of the world coming for example, in East Africa during the rainy season that normally starts around September and goes until December. So the impacts of El Niño will be felt in different regions until end of the year and beyond, also during 2027. And this is an important thing to have in mind. This impact in terms of the shifting rainfall patterns. But El Niño will also give an extra boost to global temperatures. We know that during El Niño years, the global temperatures normally reach record levels. Another important thing to refer is that we have a window for— to act for preparedness. For early action. And this window is narrowing in some regions as the El Niño will lead to impacts already in some of these regions during the rainy season that is important then in terms of ensuring that there is enough rainfall to developing— the development of different sectoral activities, agriculture, energy, and other relevant activities in many regions. So in other regions, the El Niño influence will become later in the year or even in, in 2027, as, as I mentioned. For instance, typically El Niño leads to drier conditions in, in Southern Africa, and this window of preparedness is relevant for many sectors. But let me specifically talk about the humanitarian sector. And WMO, through the WMO Coordination Mechanism, is actively supporting UN and humanitarian agencies. Since 2022, we delivered more than 700 tailored products to the UN and humanitarian community. And this is thanks to the efforts of WMO community, its centers, the National Meteorological Hydrological Services, and many experts around the world. This effort is even more demanding during El Niño because, as I mentioned, we will see enhanced conditions, increased likelihood for many weather and extreme events. So we are supporting all these efforts with weekly, monthly scans and briefings that we think that are good in terms of supporting these activities of the UN humanitarian system and also raising awareness of many reasons for concern in the 3 to 6 months ahead, as we can see today with the seasonal forecast that is available from the GSU. Just to give you an idea that this service delivery is is now sent to more than 400 registered users across more than 40 UN and humanitarian agencies. This is just a reference number, so to give you this idea of how far are we reaching in terms of supporting humanitarian early action. Thank you.

Thank you both very much. Okay, we do have a question online for you from Jeremy Vardy, France International LFI. Jeremy.

Yes, thank you.

Can you hear me? Yep, we can hear you.

All right, thank you.

Um, a couple of questions on, on the, on the phenomenon.

Uh, you mentioned that we are heading towards a strong El Niño this year.

I was wondering, is there any chance that, uh, um, it could actually turn out to be a, a very strong El Niño? I think you have a 4 levels on your— on the scale.

So could it still turn to be a very strong El Niño this year?

And I'd like to understand what could be the effect on the hurricane season in the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. Thank you.

Thank you for your question. It's, in fact, a strong El Niño that is coming in the coming months, as we could see from the forecasts that are released today, and with further strengthening towards end of the year. So in WMO, we have these 3 categories. That goes until strong El Niño. Some climate centers use also the very strong El Niño. And this is mainly related with the sea surface temperature anomalies in the equatorial Pacific, the— how far we could go in terms of this anomaly. One important thing is that we should especially focus our attention in terms of the expected weather and climate patterns during the next 3 to 6 months and even in 2027. That reflects not only this influence but also the influence of other climate drivers. For example, in East Africa and with the possible development of a positive Indian Ocean dipole, that is another important driver in this region of the Indian Ocean Basin, we will have enhanced conditions, another contributing factor to increasing the likelihood of wetter than normal conditions and leading to flooding. So what we can say in terms of the intensity of El Niño, as I mentioned, it's not irrelevant and it increased the likelihood of the extreme weather climate events, and this means that this likelihood will continue to, to be at high level towards end of the year and early 2027. In terms of the hurricane or the tropical cyclone activity, normally with El Niño, we tend to see a decrease in hurricane activity in the Atlantic and an increase in the Eastern and Central Pacific. I want to just to refer that it only takes one hurricane impacting a vulnerable community, a vulnerable country, to lead to significant damages. So even if in the outlook, for example, for the Atlantic, we see that the most likely is to be above— sorry, below average activity. This does not mean that we should put the level of efforts and the monitoring below what should be. This means that we need to always monitor the information available from WMO centers because Yeah, this type of extremes can lead to significant damages even if we have below average activity in these basins.

Thank you. Just to complement, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their Atlantic hurricane forecast, which was issued a few weeks ago, they did forecast a below average season in terms of numbers. There's lots of discussion ever since then on, you know, the relationship with El Niño, but as my colleague said, it just takes one landfalling hurricane to, you know, to turn back years of development. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Okay, we do have a question now from Olivia of Reuters. Hi there, thank you very much.

And forgive me, I actually— Claire, I missed your opening comments, but I just wanted to check, is this a change in the WMO's forecast about El Niño? Because I know earlier in June, I think the forecast from the WMO was for a moderate to strong to a possibly strong El Niño. But is that now— are you now saying today that has shifted to just too strong, um, or is this only based on a kind of these national forecasts that you are, are taking a look at, or is this the WMO's actual position today that this is going to be a strong El Niño event?

Um, Alvaro, my colleague, can elaborate more than me. From my recollection, when we issued the El Niño update at the start of June, we were talking about potentially strong. Obviously, the start of June, it's still, you know, quite early. It's just after what we call the, you know, the spring window where forecasts are a little bit more difficult. But I think then we were talking about potentially strong, but Álvaro will know more than me.

Yes, Clare. The forecasts during spring typically have low skill. We flagged that the possibility of a strong El Niño, and now that El Niño conditions have developed, we have coupled— a couple El Niño. This means that the atmosphere already is coupled with the ocean El Niño conditions, and the forecast that we have now that have been generated since the update in early June, we have much more confidence that strong El Niño conditions are developing in the equatorial Pacific. This is an evolving analysis based on not only on the forecast but also on the observations that we have from that area of the world. And this means that we may update even then later this summer with more information. For example, if we have forecasts suggesting this will be a really strong El Niño. So it's step-by-step approach in terms of the information that is available from observations and in terms of the confidence and the information we get from forecast models.

Thank you very much. Let's see if there are further questions for you. Don't see that's the case, so thank you very much, Álvaro and Claire, as always, for joining us here. And I'm sure we'll be seeing you soon, as it's still hot and lots of focus on the state of the climate climate on the globe. So thank you so very much. Okay, maybe Eugene, if I can ask you to join me here, I just have a few announcements before we wrap up and end up with one announcement, a big announcement next week, and Eugene also wants to add in on that point. And maybe David, I don't know if you wanted to join me as well, just in case. But let's— before we go to the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence and the digital week coming up next week, let me just focus on the meetings today. As you well know, as I mentioned, the Human Rights Council is currently engaged in urgent debate on the situation in Sudan, particularly in El-Obeid, which we focused on at this briefing. As you just heard from our colleagues, that meeting is underway and should last another hour or so. The Council will then move on to a dialogue on the situation in Ukraine. You will have heard what Secretary-General said yesterday he strongly condemned the attacks the night before last, drone attacks in the capital city of Kyiv, and armed forces of the Russian Federation attacks on the capital city of Kyiv, so that was a statement that we issued yesterday. So that's dealings with the Human Rights Council. Just a short announcement, Secretary-General appointment. Mr. Guterres appointed Mr. Edward Chaban of Lebanon as his Deputy Executive Director. At UNICEF, we issued a statement last night to that effect, so do take a look at that. It gives you some information about Mr. Chaban, who has been in the system for some time. Press conference programming note: on— what is it— Tuesday, the 7th of July, 9:30, just ahead of this regular briefing, we have the UN Trade and Trade and Development, the Acting Secretary-General Pedro Manuel Moreno, will be briefing you on the occasion of the World Investment Report launch for 2026. He'll be joined by a colleague, Nan Li Collins, who's UNCTAD's Director for Investment and Enterprise. So 9:30 AM here, Tuesday the 7th, press conference with UN Trade and Development. And now, again, you've You heard us speaking about the meetings taking place next week at PALEXPO, and also there's one taking place here in ITU, but the Secretary-General, as we have announced, will be taking part in this inaugural session of the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance. This is taking place Monday, Tuesday, 6th and 7th July, this coming Monday, Tuesday. There are lots of things going on. We've announced several several of the events, but in, in a nutshell, the, the 3 events in 1 week, right? So we have the AI Dialogue, which is, will address 4 broad priorities: AI opportunities and impacts, capacity building and AI divides, safe and trustworthy AI, and human rights and artificial and human oversight. Society in the context of artificial intelligence. Then we move to the World Summit on Information Society and the AI for Good. Maybe David can talk a little bit more about that. I know that many of you have registered. You do need a badge, as I mentioned, to attend these events at PALEXPO. We can fast-track that for you. But there are lots of interesting speakers. I think we have some 4,000, if I'm not mistaken, 4,000 participants registered to attend. So they're oversold, if I may say that. Lots of interest, lots of media interest as well, lots of interesting actors to speak to, so the details are in the various media summaries, or media advisories rather, that we shared with you. The President of the General Assembly will also be attending, in addition to Mr. Guterres, Annalena Baerbock, and she issued a statement yesterday which we did share with you in terms of announcing her visit, where she will be present. They will— we'll have some media stakeouts, but we can't announce those just yet. And an important note is the scientific panel on artificial intelligence, which launched their report this past Wednesday. They will be presenting this report formally to this dialogue, and it's an important opportunity with two co-chairs of this distinguished panel of 40 experts in total, but the two co-chairs, Joshua Bengio of Canada and Maria Ressa, a colleague of yours, a journalist from the Philippines, are the co-chairs and they will be presenting this report. So maybe I'll turn maybe firstly to Eugene, because I think you wanted to add something in the context of this meeting, and then over to you, David.

Thanks.

Thank you very much. Just a short heads up that you will soon receive our press release ahead of next week's AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. The release highlights how UNHCR is using responsible AI and advanced analytics to support humanitarian work, from anticipating displacement and mapping damage after crisis to improving supply chains, analyzing refugee flows, and supporting asylum systems under pressure. It also underlined that AI must be used cautiously, ethically, and with human oversight, so the technology supports humanitarian judgment rather than replacing it. It also highlights how UNHCR bring refugee voices when the use of AI and then their expertise on the table. So please, we're going to release it within an hour, so you will soon receive it. And then also UNHCR experts, including Our head of innovation will attend the summit, so— and then will be available for any interview. To request one, please contact one of us. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. And maybe just a mix in what I present to you in both logistics, which I know are important, and you are now up against it officially because Monday is coming quickly. So I'm happy to take any questions related to that, particularly for access to these activities. But as Rolando was suggesting, it is a special week in Geneva next week. It is Geneva Digital Week, and it is, you know, many terms, if you want to put it in sports terms, it is a digital full press as far as the UN systems addressing digital technology and specifically AI in many of the events. Rolando talked about the— the dialogue and what that represents as far as the inaugural UNGA-mandated dialogue, which is really going to focus on international cooperation. From there, it kicks off— it will hand over to the AI for Good Global Summit, which really presents the state of the art in solutions and knowledge and skills and capacity building and in standards. All the things that allow us to take these technologies with the international cooperation that's being forged and to provide practical impact, to allow it to do good for humanity. And then the wider event, the full-week event, is WSIS, the World Summit on Information Society Forum, which extends from Monday through Friday. And this is the longest running of all of them from since 2003 and the— and the WSIS activities then. This is really pulling AI and all digital technologies together to ensuring that they can work for the greater good. So that, I think, provides a little bit of context. One thing I, I say to note is that if you've covered previous activities, previous events, this technology is not standing still. This technology is moving. So each year is different in that sense. We'll be talking about technology potentially this year that perhaps wasn't even known or talked about last year. And the same could be said for forthcoming sessions. So if you think you've been there, if you think you've seen it, I think you really need to come and take part of all of these activities to see how they all fit in, to see what the UN system is doing to, again, to ensure that technologies are working for humanity. Great.

Thanks, David. Very good points. Emerging, evolving technologies, lots of things moving there. The SG's remarks we will share with you as soon as we get those under embargo. Those are scheduled for Monday morning. What is the precise time again? I should have that. It's 8— go ahead.

For the start?

For the— yeah, the start, 8:30?

Well, the start is when you need to be in the building before things get going. So for us, that building will be open between 7:00 and 7:30. For sure, things will be up and running in full at 7:30, but I believe access as early as 7:00 will be there for you. And then the opening ceremony itself will begin at 8:30.

For the badges, I think if they can collect them now—

Yeah, great point. So badges are available now. I could attest to that, actually. This is what they'll look like when you come get when you come get yours today at ITU headquarters in the lobby. That is open to, I believe, at least 5 o'clock. It's certainly open now. Take your time and do it. It will save you a lot of time on Monday. Please do that. If not today, there's also the provision Sunday afternoon between 1 o'clock again and 5. We'll get that information to you again. I don't have it in front of me at the moment. But I believe it's 1 to 5 on Sunday afternoon where you can do that. And then again, beginning on 7 o'clock Monday. But I would strongly recommend— it's a real investment in not spending time trying to get in the building on Monday if you get your badge today. If you're not yet credentialed, please send just a photo of your UN badge to pressreg@itu.int, and just as soon as you hit submit, you might very very well get your confirmation.

Great, thank you so much. I'll be picking up my badge right after this briefing. We do have a couple of questions before you disappear. Maya, the brief. Maya, go ahead.

Okay, thank you very much for taking my question. You already answered one, uh, is the pickup of badges today. And my question is, I received the correspondence from the UN Foundation in New York saying that the UN Secretary-General will be here on Sunday. What time and where? And can we see what is he doing, something public already related to the events? And then there is also mention of a press stakeout on Monday. Is it where, in the Palais, and what time?

No, okay, so Maya, the program, he does arrive late on Sunday evening, but it's a private, I mean, he's arriving late and there's nothing official in his agenda for Sunday. He will be at Palexpo early morning on Monday, and I failed to mention there is another element to his one-day visit here. So he spends the morning of Monday the 6th at Palexpo for the dialogue. In the afternoon, he will move here to the Palais where he will have a brief encounter and deliver a statement. With the International Law Commission. We will be webcasting it, not live, but we will transmit that afterwards for your interest. So that's it, nothing more to say. In terms of the stakeouts, there will be a stakeout position there, and we will announce those speakers, the times, as soon as they are confirmed, and perhaps as early as this afternoon. John.

Good morning, David.

My question, which of the lobbies of the ITU complex, because the main lobby was damaged during the G7 demonstrations?

The Montbrillant lobby, which is directly across from the Palais. Thank you for that question, and I would say I know that they are open now and they'll be extended through the afternoon. And relative to your point from a little earlier that all of the entrances to ITU headquarters are operational, but that is the one that you can access without a badge and to go to get a badge.

Thanks for clarifying. Maya, is that okay? Oh, a couple more hands going up. Okay, Maya.

Yes, that's a follow-up question. Is where exactly will be the meeting of the International Law Commission where he's going to be delivering? Is that open to the public?

No, it's not. It's, it's not open to the media. It's a short encounter with the ILC, the International Law Commission. However, as I mentioned, it's taking place here in the Palais, and we will be transmitting afterwards his intervention. He's only there for a short period, but we will share those remarks with you afterwards. Thanks. Yes, Satoko.

Yes, thank you, Rolando.

You mentioned about the press stakeout on Monday. Is it at the Palexpo or at the—

Yes, the stakeout is at Palexpo. There is— so once you walk into Palexpo, which is as you know, is an enormous venue. The stakeout is just outside the plenary hall. So as you walk into Hall 4, you'll just descend down some steps, and that's where the plenary hall is. To the left, you'll see the press stakeout. It's clearly marked. And I failed to mention there's also a media center for you. So we are thinking about you colleagues. We're looking to make it as conducive an environment as possible for you to do your work. So there's a media center where you'll access with your badge. There's a press stakeout. Stakeouts will take place in the morning of Monday, and we will again announce those as soon as we have confirmation. Thanks. Maya, if we want, we can take this if we have another follow-up on this point, but otherwise we can discuss afterwards.

Yeah, yeah, it was just a follow-up of the stakeout. And also the young lady who's sitting next to you, I didn't catch up her name and what organization she's working for. Because she mentioned we could do interviews as well.

It's for a UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. Thanks, Maya.

Okay, thank you, because I would like to see if we can schedule interviews too. So I'll be in touch if you can give us the contact afterwards. Thank you very much.

You should have the contact, but we'll make sure you— you will make sure of that, Maya. Thank you very much, Eugene. Thank you very much, David, colleagues. I just have One announcement— well, it's not really an announcement, but I'm sorry to say it's a bit of a sad note, but I learned last night late that Ambassador Gustavo Gajón of Colombia, he passed away earlier this week, and I feel compelled to say something about this because he was a friend. He was a friend of us at UNIS. He had participated in meetings, a Cine ONU meeting. I co-moderated with him, and he was a real human rights defender, somebody we knew and we liked very much, admired. He did a lot to advance human rights in his own country, Colombia, and I just wanted to— and there was a nice tribute at the Council, which I actually learned about last night. Earlier this week, he passed away late on Tuesday, but I just wanted to pay our respects to Ambassador Gajón and to the people of Colombia for this big loss. Thank you.