UN Geneva Press Briefing: OCHA, UNICEF, WMO, WHO

So thank you very much. Sorry for this technical itches. Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva today. It's Friday, 21st of August, although it doesn't look like it's summer outside, but we are grateful for the rain after so much heat. And I'd like to start this briefing immediately with our colleagues from OCHA. Jens, you have brought us Julien Arne, who is the senior Ebola coordinator and who's calling in from Bunia. I don't know if you want to start or we go directly to Julien. Let's go directly. Yeah. So Julien, thank you very much for being with us today. I give you the floor for your introductory remarks. Thank you.

Thank you very much and good morning. The Ebola outbreak is growing exponentially. In the last three months, 2,500 people have died, and half of those in the last 20 days. And the epidemic is spreading widely. It's now covering an area that is bigger than France. And the outbreak is faster than our response. It is growing faster and wider than across the whole of the area. And this is an area that has been affected by three decades of conflict with huge humanitarian needs.

Julian, we've lost the sound.

Yeah, no, no, we're just fixing a small technical thing.

This morning, technology is not with us. Maybe... Now we can hear you.

Thank you.

Maybe you want to start from the beginning so we have the continuity of your remarks. We've lost you again.

It is unmuting me. It's muting me when I do it. Great. Sorry. Let's see if we get it right this time. Okay. No.

You, if you, maybe you can speak first about Colombia. Back to him.

No, he's getting impatient.

Okay. Okay.

I'm sorry about that. It's just, yeah. If it was possible so that I don't see myself, I see, if I could see the palette, please. Now, should have done it well. Okay, let's try then. So, good morning. The Ebola outbreak is growing exponentially. In the last three months, 3,500 people have died, and half of those in the last 20 days. The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France, and the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response. And all of this is happening in an area which has had three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian needs. So why has this happened? Well, the conflict which has been going on in various forms since 1999 has displaced a million people in Ituri alone. The law and order is undermined and the basic social services, particularly health, have been fragmented. Why is it so difficult to respond? Well, the operating conditions are brutal. 160 healthcare workers have fallen ill with Ebola and 43 of them have died. And then when we do respond, apart from the threat from the virus, healthcare workers and frontline workers have been attacked by youths, ambulances have been burnt and stoned. and the healthcare facilities have been attacked. Just getting around is difficult. Last week, I was trying to get to an Ebola hotspot and it took three hours to drive 60 kilometers. And the health system, there's no one health system, but there's a multitude of overlapping health systems, government ones, faith-based, non-governmental organizations. And in this area, the banking system barely functions. the, we're unable to bring in the amount of money that is required to pay the workers, which has led to great unhappiness amongst frontline workers. And then aid cuts over the years, particularly the last two years, have reduced the capacity of humanitarian organizations by more than 30%. However, we know what must be done to scale up, and we have already started that. The, we've got five government led integrated operational packages, which are deepening community engagements, strengthening surveillance, particularly along the, along the river, doubling safe and dignified burial teams to over 130 teams, tripling safe care capacity to 3,000 beds. And we need also to fund and implement the humanitarian needs and response program. The government leaders highly skilled and are committed, and we see this from the minister himself, the incident manager, doctors, nurses across all parts of the response. And each of these integrated packages brings together the unique set of comparative advantage of different UN organizations and non-governmental organizations. We bring in together the deep technical knowledge of the World Health Organization, WFP's logistics ability, UNICEF's world leading supply chain and MSF's unparalleled skill in clinical management. And these are just some of the examples of the skills that have been brought together in these integrated packages. And we're using the OCHA pool funds to stick these organizations together. Already $80 million have been invested to kickstart these packages. However, we're only covered for the next weeks. And very soon funding will run out. So we need to get to scale up, we need to have far greater investment, far greater support from the international community. And every delay in funding and implementation makes this epidemic more deadly, more difficult to stop, and more expensive. So we need that international support immediately. Thank you.

Sorry, this morning, this sadly. Thank you very much, Julia. And let me now open the floor to question and I seek, uh, Alexandre from AFP.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for this briefing, Alexandre, AFP. You're, you're mentioning, uh, attacks, uh, again, uh, frontline workers against ambulances, uh, against healthcare facilities. Can you elaborate a little bit on this and maybe you would have some figures about the, the, the injured people in those attacks maybe?

Uh, yes, thank you. So in the last six months, we've had more than 260 attacks against health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and eight health workers have been killed. And in the last month, half of the security incidents against humanitarians have been directed towards persons working on the Ebola response. which is obviously, which is terrifying because people are already risking their lives to deal with Ebola and then in addition you have this violence directed against them. Now that emerges particularly from a small number of motorcycle riders, taxi riders, young men and also in some of the mining communities. And whilst we can understand that, you know, such people have issues, and what, what isn't acceptable is the, the breakdown in law and order and the direction of violence against, um, health workers who are only trying to help.

Thank you very much. Are there questions in the room?

Yes, thank you, Frederic for the newspaper here in Geneva. Two questions. First, I didn't understand where Mr. Harnes is based, where is he speaking from, in which country? And secondly, he was talking about five governments where mostly involved in the aid. Who are these five countries or five governments? I'm not very clear.

Right, thank you. So I'm speaking to you from Bunya, which is the capital of the Ituri province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was referring to five operational packages, and all of those operational packages are led by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and specifically the incident manager, Professor Steve Ahuka. And then under government leadership, we bring together UN agencies, NGOs, in order to deliver an integrated package of response. And that's the response in DRC. At the same time, we're doing preparedness activities in the neighboring countries, particularly in South Sudan, which has a very porous border, in the Central African Republic, in Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, which has already successfully dealt with the imported cases some months ago.

Yeah, Alex, you have a follow up from AFP.

Yeah, uh, you're saying that the, the epidemics is, uh, exponentially growing. Um, can we, uh, can you, uh, can you say, have you, have you tried to figure out how big, uh, the outbreak could become? Because it's already, we know already it's the biggest in the DRC, so do you have projection on this please?

Well, the, the, the growth of the epidemic depends upon our actions, and if we invest now, if we provide more staffing, if we get more resources into remote areas across the Democratic Republic, the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, within months we can slow the transmission and move to stopping it. If we do not, then this epidemic will become more deadly, it will spread wider, and it risks to spread into neighboring countries. So we can't model the future. Right, but what we can say is we need international support, we need governments to get behind this response, get behind the government of Democratic Republic of Congo, get behind the UN agencies, get behind the NGOs. If we do that, we will control this epidemic, but it has to be done quickly.

Absolutely, let's go to the platform. I have Christian Ehrlich from the German News Agency.

Morning. My question is on the banking that you mentioned. Banking is difficult or almost non-existent. What's the problem with the cash distribution? We have so many international staff going in and out. Wouldn't that be easier and also better for the health workers to get their salary paid in cash? Thank you.

Thank you for the question. So early on in the outbreak, there was a decision by the government to stop all commercial flights into Bunya. And just some of you may know Congo already very well, but Bunya is a long way from the capital. It's just a flight, it's a three hour flight. We're in a different time zone from the capital. And so when the commercial flights were stopped into Bunya, that was also the means by which money is delivered to the banks. So there is a liquidity problem in Bunya. And Ituri is an area, this part of the country is an area where things like mobile phone banking is not an option because large parts of the area, there are no mobile phone connectivity. Can we get people to move the cash themselves? Well, that's very dangerous. As I noted earlier, this is an area where there is a, the law and order is weak. We've seen the issues of violence. So if you were to have humanitarians known to be carrying large amounts of money, then they become.

Julian, sorry, we have lost you. I don't know if you can hear me, but we have lost the sound. He can't hear me, I think. We have lost the sound completely. So we could see you talking, but we didn't hear your answer, half of your answer. Can we try again? Maybe your technical colleagues can help because we have got still quite a few questions. Now you're muted.

It's not Friday the 13th, is it?

No, it could be. And now we have lost him completely. Colleagues, what I'm going to do, I'm going to ask you for one moment of patience if we manage to recuperate Julien. Otherwise, maybe we can go to you, Jens, and then go back to Julien as soon as we catch him again. Let's give him a little bit of time, just in case. I'm just trying to see if they are reconnecting. No, I can't see his name on the... Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is the problem, you know, now with this beautiful press room, we can connect with every place in the world, but sometimes the other side needs some kind of support. Oh, I can see him again. gone again. But he's connected again. So let's wait one more minute to see if we can get the audio because I can see the connection has been severed.

You are in the meeting now. Recording in progress.

Julia, Julia, can you hear me?

Ebola is very easy to control if you have a good health system. And we've never had an Ebola outbreak which has spread in a country with a functioning robust health system. And when it spread into Uganda in the last months, it was quickly, quickly brought under control. So what needs to happen? Two time frames, short term time frame, we need to get behind these integrated packages, bring in more money, bring in more staff and stop the epidemic. Medium to long term, we need to look at how can the Democratic Republic of Congo have a solid system, healthcare system, which is not fragmented, which is not a patchwork. of NGOs and faith-based organizations and bits of government, but a really solid, robust health system. If we have that, we will stop Ebola.

Christiane, since there was this technical in the answer, do you want to make a follow-up or is it okay what you heard? Christiane Erich. Well, she's not raising her hand, so I guess that she could hear the answer. Julian, I hope you hear me. I'll go to the next question. Isabel Sacco, Spanish news agency.

Good morning. Thank you very much, Alexandra. I would like to make a follow up on Christiana's question on the situation of the banking system. What is the solution that you are foreseeing for this problem? This is the first one. And I would like to know who is assuming the payroll of the workers that are in the front line of the fight against this Ebola outbreak. Is the international system, the WHO, or is the government of DRC? And I would like to have a follow up after that. Thank you.

Thank you, Isabel. So the functioning of the banking system is obviously not a humanitarian NGO or UN agency. area of competence, right? This is only, this can only be done by the government working with private sector and the banking companies out here in the East. So, yeah, we're encouraging the government to resolve that and to resolve it quickly. Who's paying? One of the big differences in this response compared to and a source of hope, is that increasingly it is the government that is paying healthcare workers. So the government is going to be paying all of the healthcare workers in hospitals and treatment centers and primary healthcare locations. In addition to that, UN agencies, NGOs are paying for community workers. And for the ancillary staff that are absolutely essential to, to run these, run these facilities. So we're seeing a greater role, uh, of the government in this and which is, which is the direction for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Isabelle, you had a follow up.

Yes, do you hear me?

Yes, yes, go ahead.

Yes, thank you. So in that sense, is this the reason because we hear all these problems of thousands of health workers not being paid for the last months? And how many are affected more or less? What is estimation? This is, and I would take the opportunity also to ask you about the attacks against health workers, facilities and vehicles. What is the reason because they are so targeted by violent actions.

Thank you. It's difficult to give a number to your question, and then it goes back to the fact that we don't have one health system in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We have multiple overlapping systems. And this is something which dates back to the 1980s and the deconstruction of the state that was the result of the civil wars of Congo in which In this part of the country, we've never been able to truly get over in terms of basic social services. So what that means is that there is no one organization that knows who all the healthcare workers are. And so when the government comes in to start paying healthcare workers, one of the big difficulties is being who should be paid. And one of the big delays was for the government to go through these lists and to make sure that any ghost workers, any fictitious names were removed. And that was a process that took some weeks because it's, you know, it's minute, minute work. It's, you know, going through. thousands and thousands of names, checking it across a massive area. So the cleaning of the lists took a lot of time and that was important work. And then there's the issues on the banking sector, which have further slowed things down. And then there's a final element, which is that in some areas, particularly on community health workers, And different organizations were paying different sums, which creates a lot of unhappiness amongst community health care workers and, and to some stoppages in work. Now, the government yesterday made a decision on what should be paid for immunity workers by all organizations. And that brings clarity and will help reduce the issue. And now in terms of gay of the of the attacks, Ebola is a scary thing. It's a disease, it's an invisible threat which comes into your community and suddenly people start falling sick around you and your loved ones die. And that generates a lot of fear in any community. And if we just have to think back to our own experiences, the beginning of COVID, the great fear that that washed around the planet, now that's a very normal, natural human reaction. Now, how does that fear translate into violence is that in Ituri and in the east of the country, the law and order does not function effectively in all parts of the country. So the fear translates into angry young men we start throwing stones at their object of fear, the ambulance. And without a police system, an effective police system that will come in and deal with it. Now the governor, Kieran Ituri, has made it very clear that persons involved in crimes, fractions of the law, will be identified and prosecuted. But in There is a challenge around impunity in these for many years, which makes that difficult. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Julien.

I'll go to Gorki Ndoie, the continuing premier.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank in fact, in a situation where this epidemic is becoming more and more uncontrollable. The question that will interest perhaps Europeans is when will Ebola arrive again in Europe? Second question, at the level of humanitarian work, we have seen for years that

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm going to pass the floor to Julien to respond.

But there is also Christian from the OMS in line if he ever wants to add something. Julien, thank you.

And, when is the good, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, And the ambulances have been damaged, but we continue our work. And it's true that the conditions of the road, the conditions on the ground are extremely difficult, but we continue to deploy all the humanitarian and medical assistance that is necessary, and we continue until it's over in terms of when Ebola will reach Western countries. or other countries. The Committee of Urgency of the Regulations of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee has made an evaluation a few days ago on the risk for the other countries. In brief, the risk is the highest here where we are in Bougna, it is higher towards the And then the pay limit, but for the pay, the risk is, is actually limited. Why? Because when you have a pay, the system of health is effective and functional, and the transmission is something that is quite easy and the treatment, the treatment, the treatment, the patient. Peut aussi être très efficace, donc il y a vraiment faible risque pour ces pays-là, mais je nous passerons la parole après ceci aux collègues de l'O. Ms. pour expliquer en termes du vaccin ce qui est important, c'est ce n'est pas le vaccin, c'est la évasion de la communauté. Si la communauté met en place les gestes barrières, si la communauté adhère à la riposte, nous pouvons maîtriser, nous pouvons totalement maîtriser l'épidémie, on peut l'arrêter la transmission et on peut réduire la mortalité à aux alentours de 20%, sans sans vaccin et sans thérapie. Maintenant, il y a des vaccins. And the therapy, um, and the, um, and the prophylaxis post-exposition, which are in the process of being developed. And on this, I'm going to pass the floor to my colleague, Christian. Thank you, and thank you for the question.

Thank you, Julian Christian.

Yeah, thank you very much, Julian. Good to see you. And Goki, I will do this in English to be a bit more clear here on my side. So the strategic advisory group of experts has met this week and we're waiting recommendations early next week, including doses of the RBV vaccine for the vaccine trials, which are going into the phase three now. for those for the Ebola health for the healthcare workers in the frontline. But one important thing here, while the vaccine is a great tool, it's not the golden tool to it all. As Julian one way explained very well, is how the community outreach is so important. Dealing with the communities, making sure that every case is being brought to a healthcare center. We still have way too many deaths in the community. That is our main tool right now. the vaccine will be a fantastic addition to help us fight this. But again, the work is way more difficult than that. We cannot just wait for the golden vaccine, so to say. We need to deal with what we have and the community outreach is of essence and more workers out there, more staff out there, more material out there and therefore more funding is of essence.

Thank you to both. Paula Dupraz, Geneva Solutions.

Good morning. Thank you very much for this briefing. I had a question about the, well, the US had announced funding through OCHA's pooled funds that would include response assistance in the DRC. But I'm just wondering if now that the outbreak has been spreading so quickly, whether you have been in touch with any U.S. authorities locally that's regarding any additional contributions towards the Ebola response and then Simply, is there a role for the US to play given the interest that the US has in this particular part of the world, given the mining of critical minerals? And is there, I mean, do you see any increased, also, do you see any increased funding in this region going to local communities through these, uh, investment deals or as a result of these investment deals.

Thank you, Paula. Julien.

Uh, thank you, Paula.

We can hear you.

One moment. Yeah, thank you. Uh, thank you, Paula. So the, um, the US is, um, a great supporter. Um, more than 50% of the funding for the response and also for the humanitarian response is, is coming from the US. And it's not just the amount of money they're bringing, it's the way that they're bringing is super useful. So the fact that that money, a lot of that money is deployed through the UN CERF, the Central Emergency Response Fund, and through the pool fund means that us on the coordination side, we're able to bring together and finance packages of response from multiple agencies. which wouldn't be possible when funding is bilateral from donor to agency, donor to agency, donor to agency. So the support from the US has been excellent, both in the amount and in the method. I talked to people from the American government, both here, State Department persons, CDC persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo. and persons at state in Washington, including late last night. So we're constantly in touch with them as are my colleagues at all sorts of levels. The way we need to take this further forwards is to bring together all the donors to say, right, we've done this much, how much more money needs to be put in? And I think I believe that when you see other member states come in with the same level of generosity as the US government, if we're to finance the response appropriately and to finance the humanitarian needs and response program. And one vital tool from that is the updated response plan. Um, every response plan which the government is just finalizing now with the cooperation of partners, which should come out in the next days, and that will give us a clear situation of what the, what the ask is, but we already know that we need money now, thank you.

Thank you, Jimmy Kitchen, Associated Press.

Thank you, Mr. Han, nice again, uh, for, for coming to see us. I just wanted to follow up on my question earlier about what can be done. You mentioned the integrated packages that they need to be sort of focused upon. That sounds like a long-term sort of scenario. I mean, how quickly can this actually be reined in? That seems like a number of things that need to be lined up. So in terms of immediacy, you mentioned the funding needs, but I'm just wondering what can be done in an immediate phase? And then Secondly, yesterday there was an announcement about the Ervebo vaccines, thousands of Ervebo vaccines going to be deployed. Can you tell us how soon you expect that rollout? And given that this is not necessarily directed against Bundibugyo, but just Ebola more broadly, how effective is it really going to be?

Thanks. So I'll pass I'll answer your first question and the second question I think Christian is best placed to respond to the trials that are being found right now. So in terms of immediacy, we've already started on these integrated packages. So this is not something that may happen, this is not something that will happen in the coming months, this is something that's been implemented in the last weeks, in the last days. Two examples. The way that we're changing the increase in safe and scalable care, we're getting the original number of beds we had was 900 and the plan is to get to 3,000 in three months. Since we came up with that package, in the last two weeks, we put into place 253. extra beds. So we're powering ahead on this because there's lots of organizations who want to work together. And when you have a pooled fund, it allows you to kickstart that, to seed it. So we're starting. What we need the money for is to keep us going after the seed funding has been used out. Another example is the Congo River. So we have a package which consists of IOM working on the boats, WHO doing surveillance, UNICEF working along the river banks, the communities all the way along the river banks from Kisangani down to Kinshasa, and WFP providing food for any boats that might need to be stopped as a result of them having been identified with having Ebola cases on board. on a boat. The boats take three weeks to reach from Kisenkani to Kinshasa. So we've got an integrated package. It's funded. It started yesterday. And in fact, actually, that was the launch yesterday. The work has already been started two, three weeks ago. So these integrated packages are the way to go, and that's what will stop the response and is already contributing significantly. I'll pass across to Christian at the back seat.

Yeah, thanks Jamie. As you have read in that release that you mentioned, the allocation includes 20,000 doses of Ebola for a phase three clinical trial designed to generate critical evidence on whether the vaccine can protect against Ebola disease caused by the Bunyabugdo virus. So it also includes 50,000 doses for frontline and health workers. in line with the current recommendations of the, of the sage, the WHO strategic advisory group of experts on immunization, which just met, and the full recommendations are expected in the coming days, um, following the meeting, which happened on 19 August, um, as requested by the ICG, the international coordination group for vaccine provisions. Important, and that's really key here, is that it's not yet known whether EverBo is protective against the Bundibugyo virus in humans. However, recent laboratory and animal data suggests it may provide some protection and the clinical trial is expected to provide important evidence to inform exactly that and the future policy decisions here. So WHO's technical advisory groups reviewed new preliminary animal data showing some degree of cross protection, particularly against death from disease, and concluded that there were no safety concerns about using Ebola in the context of a Bunyabugyi outbreak. At the same time, WHO stresses that the vaccine's efficacy against Bunyabunji virus disease and transmission remains unproven. Just to hammer that message all the time, it is not yet our golden tool here, which is why informed consent, clear communication of potential benefits, risks and limitations, and rigorous scientific evaluation are essential. And then regarding the next steps, WHO and partners are working to deploy the vaccines as soon as possible together with the government.

Thank you to both. And the last word comes to Alex from AFP again.

Yes, thanks again. A question regarding the death toll. If I'm not mistaken, you're announcing 2,500 dead people toll. which is lower than the WHO official estimation, which dates from three days ago, I think the 18th. Would it be possible for you to give us the exact figure you have in hand, please?

Thank you for the question. What I said was more than 2,500. So obviously the death toll increases every day. I was in a briefing this morning, the government's briefing. just two hours ago and we were getting more cases and more deaths. Hence the lack of precision. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thanks to Julien Arneil, our senior Ebola coordinator calling in from Bunya. Thanks Julien. Really, this was an important update and I would like to join Gorki's expression of gratefulness for all the work that you're doing there in the aftermath of the World Humanitarian Day. And also thanks to Christian, who I hope will remain with us in case there are more questions. But thanks again, and good luck with your important work. And we stay with OCHA because Jens has another point of briefing. This time we change continents and we're going to Colombia.

Indeed. Thank you very much, Alessandra. And good morning, everyone. Today we are officially launching the United Nations response plan after the earthquake in Colombia. 319 people have died, according to the government's official figures. And the earthquake affected some 280,000 people in total. It destroyed more than 31,000 homes and damaged thousands of educational facilities, community centers, and health centers. The humanitarian country team in Colombia is asking for $148 million in emergency funding right now. And as in other appeals that we have, there is a hyper prioritized subset of needs that require 82 million. So 82 million out of the total ask of 148 million for the earthquake response. Now, the hyper prioritized part of it is to support 127,000 people who are considered in very high vulnerability. The most urgent needs, offer health support in particular, but also food and nutrition, shelter, water sanitation and hygiene, emergency education and protection. The earthquake, and that was 11 days ago, has made a complex humanitarian situation in Colombia worse. Hundreds of thousands of families already faced needs due to the armed conflict and limited access to basic services, livelihoods and infrastructure, especially in rural areas and on the Pacific coast, exactly where the earthquake had its epicenter. Today's launch complements the efforts of the national and local authorities, and it is technically made as an addendum to the country's existing humanitarian needs response plan. That is an annual plan that asked for some $472 million, and that plan is 62% funded. But this one is in addition to that. We have already received for the earthquake response $35 million. from the donors, and thank you very much for that. The Central Emergency Response Fund has also allocated 5 million for lifesaving interventions right now. And as you know, the CERF, as we call it, is managed by my office, OCHA. I will send you a note because there are a lot of numbers here and a couple of links with additional information, including to the addendum that we are launching today. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jens. Thanks for this announcement. Let me see if there's any question in the room. No, so Paula.

Yes, I wanted to know why it took 11 days for you to launch this effort. I think there was some initially the incoming governments had not expressed an interest to receive international assistance. There seemed to be a few bilateral agreements for assistance to come from I guess politically friendly countries. And so has it been a complicated process to negotiate that the UN be involved in the response? And also, I mean, how, what sort of response, I mean, what is the area that this response will involve? Because that whole sort of Western region has been historically neglected for many years. So yeah, and then I wanted to ask you also about any efforts by OCHA or other organizations in Peru because the El Nino has hit the country very hard. And then on top of that, yesterday there was a second earthquake that hit the country in the last couple of weeks. Has there been any communication from the government, the also incoming governments there as far as international assistance that is needed?

Thank you, Paola. I was noting down to the best of my abilities the many questions. First on Colombia, there's been some perhaps misunderstanding or misperception that there was reluctance from the government side. That's not the case. We had relatively shortly after the actual earthquake happened, a request from the government to the humanitarian country team in Bogota to help and to mobilize and to step up and to coordinate and collaborate on this. So there was no reluctance at all. Now, first, before we can issue an appeal like this, we need a lot of assessments, damage assessments, and particular what are specifically the humanitarian needs for whom, where, what, approximately for how long, and so on and so forth. So we do understand that there is an immediate need, and we don't wait for a response plan to be finalized before we start responding. The humanitarian country team responded immediately. Additional international support was also So the response started at the same time as we were getting the various assessments in-house, getting it all together, making it into a plan, discussing it with the government, getting everybody on board, and today we are launching it. As I said, there's already 35 million which has flowed into the earthquake response, but more is needed, as I mentioned, 148 million going. forward. In terms of geography of this, it is primarily the western part of the country. We know that that is an area that was already dealing with humanitarian issues related to the conflict and as I also mentioned, limited access to basic services. You will see much more detail and I will not go into because I can't pronounce the various localities, but you can see them in the links that I will share with you immediately after this briefing. On Peru, we have seen the reports of the earthquake there, and we are of course monitoring it. I do not have any further information on that at this point, but I think this is certainly something we will expect in the course of the day. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jens. If there are no other questions for OCHA, don't see other hands up. So thank you very, very much for all these updates. Keep us informed on Peru. And let me go back to Africa, where in Nairobi, we have the pleasure to see James connected, James Alder for UNICEF. Good morning, James. Thank you very much for being the briefing. You wanted to tell us about your visit to Somalia, if I'm not wrong, and the impact of the conflict on children.

Thanks so much, Elsa, and nice to see you again. Yeah, I was stunned, I must say, by the scale and swift of what we're seeing and the impact, but let me get into that. In Somalia today, aid cuts are closing the doors to healthcare, they're shutting down nutrition centers, and they're pushing water protection and education further and further from those who need it. As ever, children are paying the price. So on the back of unprecedented cuts in humanitarian aid, 205 nutrition facilities have already closed. Now, the impact on that on children has been immediate. In the first six months of this year, Somalia has seen a 32% increase from the same time last year in children being admitted to stabilization centers with severe acute malnutrition and complications. Fewer facilities mean longer journeys for moms and babies. Longer journeys mean later treatment. Later treatment means more severe illness and greater risk of preventable death. This is the wrong moment to retreat. Somalia is confronting a worsening climate crisis, severe droughts in parts of the north, conflict, displacement, all on the back of a war in Iran and rising costs for fuel and fertilizer. And of course, a record strength El Nino threatens to compound Somalia's ongoing humanitarian crisis with severe flooding forecasted to come in the coming months. Now, this is a brutal contradiction. The resources to protect Somalia's vulnerable children, they're being cut at the very moment that the pressures on Somalia's girls and boys are intensifying, even as the need for generous donor support grows. This past week, I visited dozens of malnourished children in stabilization centers who'd arrived to hospital severely ill because community facilities have closed. Again, hundreds of health and nutrition centers. So families who've lost crops, who've lost cattle, cattle being their income, these are pastoralists, cattle is their bank account. They're searching for support for what are now their malnourished children. Take Hadgio, she has a home. Her children went to school. She had cattle. Drought and an ever-worsening climate crisis has started to kill those cattle. Eventually, they were all dead. So from a relatively prosperous life, Hajio has nothing. So she fled looking for shelter, for help, support. Today she's in a makeshift shelter and it is makeshift, okay? It's bits of plastic and it sticks, offers very, very little protection from scorching sun and when it comes, rain. She came to Bakaba, that's in Southwest Somalia, because she'd heard support would be available. Instead, Hajia received some clothes and some tomatoes from a nearby community, itself one of the poorest in the country. She received nothing from the international community. Now, if I just go quickly program by program, I'll share these notes, program by program for UNICEF. In health, funding cuts have contributed to a 30% reduction in health and nutrition coverage, right? And the potential scale for further disruption is enormous. Under these severe funding scenarios that we are living out, as many as 618 health facilities could close nationwide. In nutrition, nearly a million under five girls and boys, adolescent girls and women, they all risk losing services to nutrition in Somalia. That 32% increase I talked about in stabilization because more children are becoming sick. It's because prevent... centers have been cut. And so vulnerable children are less likely to be identified, less likely to be treated early. By the time they reach those specialized facilities, they're often far more seriously ill. Now, this all sits side by side a terrifying reality in Somalia. Nearly 1.2 million children are projected to suffer from malnutrition this year, including half a million. Say it slowly. 500,000 girls and boys with severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form. And getting life assistance to those children in need is becoming even harder. The budget for UNHAS in Somalia, the UN's humanitarian air service that provides critical air connectivity for UNICEF and many other UN agencies, that life-saving cargo, that operation, their operating budget's been cut by 40% last year and this year, 2026. All these cuts, health, nutrition, education, protection, they need to be seen in the context of what's been achieved and therefore what's at risk. So for UNICEF, between 2000, sorry, between 2021 and 2025, we supported 2.25 million admissions of children with severe acute malnutrition. The cure rate for that, the cure rate for those 2.25 million children, 97.6%. In 2024, there was a UNICEF supported cholera vaccination campaign that reached around 880,000 people, again way in excess to that 90% target. We have the programs, we have the partners. What is missing is the funding. If I go to exacerbating the situation with deteriorating aid. people need access to safe water, more than 800,000 hygiene supplies. Meanwhile, the price of water in rural and pastoral areas has quadrupled. 200 litre barrel that cost $2 now costs $8. Nonetheless, UNICEF has reached more than a million people through emergency and sustainable water services. But again, without new funding, these gains are at risk. Education, okay, we know education protects from exploitation, from early marriage, from child labor, whilst it gives communities and young people a pathway, a pathway out of poverty. However, years of generous donor investment in children's futures is being undone far faster than it can be built. To put a dollar to that, the education sector lost $30 million in 2025. Major donors are expected to reduce by more than a half this year. More than 78,000 students have already dropped out. More than 600,000 girls and boys are at risk. Now remembering again during the drought of 2022, UNICEF support on the back of generous donor support meant actually 130,000 girls and boys stayed in school. In protection, again, current cuts need to be seen in the context of what's been achieved and therefore what's at risk. In 2024 and 2025, thousands of children formerly associated with armed groups or at risk of recruitment received reintegration support. Somalia is a country with one of the highest rates of reported violations against children, yet funding cuts mean at least 65 child protection service points and facilities have closed. Other services, case management, psychological support, reintegration, they're all under threat. Let me just give you one anecdote, one child behind all these horrific funding cuts. Abdullah, who I met a couple of days ago, he's a teenager, right? He wanted to be a mechanic and he's always tinkering with machinery in his village. Non-state armed group noticed this, right? They offered him work as a mechanic. Now, without any opportunity where he was and desperate to support his mom, who's widowed, his father had been killed, Abdullah took it, right? He took the opportunity, training and money. It was a lie. He was thrown into the battlefield. He tried to escape. He was captured. He was eventually wounded in battle. Then Abdullah was captured by government forces. Now, if we just go back to 2024, 2025, UNICEF supported more than 160 children just like this who'd been associated with armed groups, with training centers, electrics, mechanics, cooking. They got starter kits that helped them start their business. And many of these kids, then they did that. They launched small businesses. They found jobs. But funding cuts mean there are no starter kits. There is no kickstart for Abdullah. That training, those kits, they represent a pathway for young people to a more stable future in Somalia. It helps children not be re-recruited, helps them go back to their families and contribute to their communities. Now, in an interconnected world, aid cuts threaten security and economic prosperity everywhere. This is as true in Somalia as it is anywhere in the world. So surely the question is not whether Somalia needs less aid because the world's become more difficult. The question is, can the world afford to make Somalia more fragile even when those difficulties are multiplying? Surely the answer is no. Amid these challenges, Somali people and institutions keep adapting. The government strengthens policies, regulation, and national systems, and humanitarian actors are endlessly seeking more ways to be efficient, local, and sustainable. But Somalia should not have to choose between drought response and development, between sick children and preventing malnutrition, or between emergency water and sustainable systems. The world should not behave as though crises stop at borders. A world of interconnected economies, climate shocks, child recruitment into conflicts that spread across borders and displacement cannot afford to dismantle the systems that protect the people who are most exposed to these things. Protecting children is not a discretionary expense. Preventing suffering is not an inefficiency. and dismantling effective aid at the moment of greatest need, it is not a saving. It's a decision to pay more later in money, insecurity, in lost development, and increasingly in child's lives. Thank you.

James, thank you very much for this update. Just if you can make sure that your notes are going to the journalists very quickly because while you were speaking, there were a few cuts in your voice. It started again very quickly, but there may be one or two words that have been lost here and there. So it would be really important that you distribute them as soon as possible. Let me open the floor to questions, if any, to UNICEF. Don't see any end up. I don't see any hands up, so but thank you very much, and please, yes, distribute your note, because it's very important to underline this very dire situation due to the cuts. Thank you for joining from Nairobi. I just have a couple of announce. Yes, Alex, is for James.

No.

No.

I will have a question for WMO if Clare is online.

For? WMO.

Yeah.

I don't know. Let's see.

She was supposed to.

Yes, I have her on my list, so she should be here.

She was supposed to.

If you can open your camera, Claire. Yeah, she's here. Give her a moment. Yeah, here she is.

Okay. Yes, I'm here.

Go ahead, Alex.

Hi, Claire. Thank you very much for being available. Yeah, Britain's National Weather Agency has just predicted that this year's El Nino will be the biggest in over a century. It will warm surface temperature to an unheard of level, as I said, and they also said that it will peak at something over three degrees. Can you tell us today if WMO reaches the same conclusion that it will be the biggest over a century?

Yes, thanks for the question. I've also seen the report. The World Meteorological Organization will be issuing its next El Nino update on the 3rd of September. And there will be a press conference with our Secretary General Celeste Saulo in the press room hosted by UNTV and you are all invited to that. So at the moment we're obviously seeing a lot of different pronouncements on El Nino, on the strength of El Nino. What the WMO update does is we take a consensus of the models from the global producing centers, from our regional climate centers, and from a pretty extensive network of experts. And we, you know, we compile it all together in one consolidated update. So ahead of the 3rd of September, I don't really want to pronounce, you know, on its strength, but, you know, obviously we are of all these reports, every time I look at my phone, I see yet another article on the impact of El Nino, be it in Somalia, such as James was just saying, be it in South America, Peru, Chile. so many other countries. So we are very, very closely monitoring it. But ahead of the update on the 3rd of September, I don't really want to say anything about its strength, but we will, you know, we will be issuing quite a comprehensive media package and it will be sent to you under embargo.

It makes sense. Thank you very much. Thanks, Claire, also for this heads up.

It's okay with you, Alex?

Yeah.

Okay. So thank you very much, Claire. There are other questions for WMO? I don't see hands up. So let me conclude with a few announcements. We have two press conferences on Tuesday. At 9.30 for OHCHR, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is to announce findings on Finland, Honduras, India and Kuwait that will be with the members of the committee and main speaker will be the chairperson, Gunkut. The same day, Tuesday at 2.30pm, UNIDIR will launch the 2026 Arms Trade Treaty Monitor Report. with the project lead, Andrea Eduardo Varisco, and other speakers, including Liubov Utsul, the advocacy and communications senior officer, humanity and inclusion from KEITH. And just a small announcement on the conference on disarmament, which will end its 2026 session on 11th September. Today, the session that they're having in the morning, the president of the conference, Ambassador Andrabi of Pakistan, has presented, is presenting the draft report of the conference to the General Assembly. So if you have, is anybody has any other question? I don't see hands up. So thank you very much. We will be trying to inform you this afternoon, I'm giving you a heads up, of some other activities and media opportunities on the issue of disarmament. We'll try to send you information today, so keep an eye on your e-mail for more events on disarmament for next week. Otherwise, thank you very much. Have a nice weekend, and I'll see you on Tuesday. Thank you.