UN Geneva Press Briefing: ODA, WHO, OCHA, WFP, FAO, IOM

So good morning. Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service at the United Nations here in Geneva. Today is Friday, 13 of November. First of all, I'd like to apologize for those who have been calling this morning trying to get the link to the briefing. And as you know, it's a worldwide problem, but I think, i hope we have been able to solve it through WhatsApp. We have also put the agenda on the chat of the Zoom link so that you have it there for those who have not received it. And I would like to start immediately by welcoming our colleagues who have come to tell us about the situation of Ebola six months after the beginning of the latest outbreak. So I have the pleasure to welcome Dr. Chikwe Iheokwusu, the Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, and to my right, don't need to introduce you, Julien Arnaix, the special Ebola coordinator, but I welcome him very much to the podium, both of you. So we start with the doctor, and then we will go to Julien, and then we will take questions. Thank you very much. Dr.

Thank you very much. So six months ago, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola. caused by the Bundibugyo virus. Today, six months later, the disease continues to take a devastating toll on communities. More than 11,000 people have fallen ill, and more than 5,400 have died. Children account for more than one-third of these deaths. Transmission continues, with up to 500 cases reported every week. But we do see encouraging signs. Most of the early epicenters of this outbreak have been successfully brought under control, including Mongwalo, Nyakunde, Nizi, Rampara, and Butembo. Even Bunia, though it's still seeing significant transmission, there are fewer new cases, and treatment centers that were bursting at their seams a few months ago now have much lower bed occupancy. From the beginning, WHO and our partners have stood alongside the government of the DRC to make this happen. Together, we've expanded treatment centers and laboratory capacity, trained health workers, strengthened patient care, worked with communities and local leaders to build trust, accelerated research into treatments and vaccines. That progress is real, but it is fragile, and it is not enough. We must do even more. The biggest challenge the response faces right now is the rising insecurity. In six months, WHO has verified more than 80 attacks on health care. Violence restricts our access to people in need of help. It disrupts surveillance, it disrupts treatment, and forces people to move, disrupting their access to care. Despite these challenges, our message to all our partners is clear: we must hold the line. Now is not the time to seek excuses and withdraw support. We must stay and use every tool we have, everywhere it is needed. early detection and care, contact tracing, infection prevention, safe and dignified burials, and trusted engagement with communities. At the same time, we have an important opportunity with advancing science. Research into new treatment options and vaccines could give us better tools to save lives and stop transmission. We're pushing that work forward while providing the best possible care that we can today. The next phase of the response must also be about execution and quality, not simply scale. We need to identify and remove operational barriers, ensure frontline workers are paid, bring the private sector fully into the response, and put communities at the center of all decisions. So we call on all our partners to stand with us, and all those that have influence to bring peace to these communities to do so. Finally, Ebola is only one of the threats these communities face. Essential health and humanitarian services must continue alongside the response. We want to leave behind a stronger health system to prevent these outbreaks in the first place. These six months have been a long and hard journey, especially for the people of the DRC, but we will need to persevere, and together, we will bring this outbreak to an end. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and the floor goes to Julian.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning. Okay. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm the Senior Ebola Coordinator. I'm based in Bunia. I was in Bunia up until Tuesday before arriving to meet with you and exchange with you, and then later do the member state briefing. As my friend, Dr. Chukwe, the Executive Director, described, there's been significant progress in the last six months. I've been extraordinarily impressed by the government leadership, by the minister, by Steve Ahuka, his team fanned out across all areas. The government The wisdom and skill with which that team implements and backed up by people like Professor Muyembe of INRB is just extraordinary. All organizations, UN, government, NGOs have spread out and deployed across the whole of this vast area, and the Ebola response from the Ubangui to Ituri, that's an area that's a distance of about from Geneva to Dublin. So we're talking about an extraordinary, huge physical space. The response has deployed to all of those areas, although sometimes unevenly. There's been, there are ongoing trials of post-exposure prophylaxis therapy and vaccines, all of which requires international cooperation. It goes way beyond DRC. It requires, obviously, WHO leadership. It requires work with institutes in Anvers and private sector scientists. It's an immense job of international solidarity, only possible thanks to WHO. With the OCHA, the CERF and the humanitarian funds have been used to finance integrated activities, integrated initiatives such as scaling up the bed capacity in the Ebola treatment centers, impossible without that, putting in place the measures to prevent and transmission down the Congo River, and also to protect the crews and the families of the boats and the thousands of people who travel every day down river from Kisangani to Kinshasa. Kinshasa, a city of 20, more than 20 million people. And the rapid response teams, again led by WHO, which spreads out across all areas. Africa CDC has been with us throughout this period, always at our side, providing guidance and leading in many areas, particularly on the laboratory elements. Our colleagues from UNHAS have provided planes at every possible moment. If you need to get to some remote location like Yakoma up along the border of the Central African Republic, you call your friends from UNHAS and they have you a plane tomorrow so that you can deploy a team there. Really extraordinary. And there has been all of this time one of the best feelings of solidarity between implementing colleagues that I've been fortunate enough to experience in 25 years of operational field experience, so really good cooperation on the ground. But, as Dr. Chikwe has pointed out, significant transmission continues, and we have not been able to prevent transmission into new areas, and we're going to have to be dealing with that and managing with that for several months until we have medical countermeasures in place. So we've got a real, we are in a, we're going forwards into a vulnerable period where risk, significant risk continues. Three operational priorities going forwards. The areas of violence, that needs to be dealt with. ADF violence is preventing particularly optimal contact tracing and is of significant risk. to the colleagues who are deploying into the field and the hundreds of doctors and nurses from Congo who are already there. Then, the engagement with the private sector. Most Congolese people, when they seek medical care, 80% of them, particularly in the big, massive urban cities of the east, they go first to the private sector. Now, we've done some work with them, but we need to do much more so that we bring them in fully into the response. They are the present day of the Ebola response, but even more so into the future as the private sector further develops in Democratic Republic of Congo. And then we need to improve our preparedness in those areas where transmission may occur. I'm happy to say that two days ago, Kinshasa signed their preparedness plan. Now it needs to be funded and put into place. On the subject of violence. These last days, every day, there have been more people killed by ADF violence than there have by Ebola. And one, you don't hear about it. It's as if it didn't exist. The violence in tens of villages all across the south of Ituri and the north of Kivu goes unnoticed. And people are scared, people are furious at the lack of action on this. So the issue of ADF violence, which has been going on for two decades, more than two decades, is vital to their concerns. It obviously negatively impacts Ebola, following up contact tracing in areas where ADF is operating is a very hazardous idea, but the first thing that needs to be done is political and security actors need to take the ADF threat seriously, and there needs to be far greater attention to resolving this for the people of Congo. Then, on funding, we are Relatively well funded. Solid funding on both the humanitarian response plan and the Ebola response plan. And I should note that a very significant portion of that comes to the United States. However, the funding is uneven. So you have certain parts of the response which are relatively well funded. early stage development for vaccines, for example. But there are many other parts of the response and many key partners who are extraordinarily unfunded. So operations in DRC are less funded than other parts of the overall Ebola response. And organizations like WHO, who's doing extraordinary work, UNICEF, who's out there everywhere, WFP, which is so vital to our operations. These organizations are much less funded than other organizations in the response, and that matters because the response depends upon those three organizations. So And it's not just about money, it's also about emergency medical teams. We've done an extraordinary scale up on the capacity in the Ebola treatment centers, but we don't have enough specialized emergency medical teams. We have consistently called to member states to provide this, and we are beginning to see some glimmer, but not enough, and certainly not fast enough. Finally, I think the Ebola response is a demonstration of why international solidarity is essential. The progress that has been achieved is only possible because of international solidarity and only possible because of WHO leadership bringing together all these organizations and member states in support of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. That international solidarity deserves and needs the world's support.

Absolutely. Thank you very much, Julian. Thank you very much, doctor. I'll open the floor to questions. First in the room, Maeva, Kyodo News.

Thank you very much for taking my question. Good morning. I just need maybe you to be a bit more specified on the on the funding. So you mentioned that WHO, UNICEF, WFP are much less funded than other organizations on this matter. So who is well-funded? You also mentioned the push from the U.S., so could you be more specific about the funding? How much money are you requesting? How much money did you get? And what support of the U.S.? Thank you very much.

Sorry, I'm not good on the buttons. The So the continental IMST, which is the overall funding state, so, yeah, I'll take that back. For the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government issued a new plan for the Ebola response, which was in the order of $1.3 billion. That was about two, three weeks ago. But that's only one part of the response. Obviously, it's a part there's an overall bigger number, and that's currently being updated, and that should come out in the next 10 days. And that's work done between WHO and Africa CDC. So that will give us the baseline of what's needed in what areas. The WHO and Africa CDC have got an extraordinary site called Financial Tracking Mechanisms, FTM, and we can provide that with you afterwards, which gives you lots of data on who's being funded and where. But I'm not going to say who's been well-funded, but I really want to stress that the lion's work in the field is is in support of the government, is WHO. The big supply chain pipelines using their unique ability in Copenhagen is UNICEF and WFP, keeps us moving, keeps us getting there. And all three of them, as well as providing significant food support. So those three organizations are less funded than others, and we'll provide that link afterwards so that you can get into more details.

Thank you, Julien. And just to mention, I know that not everybody has seen the agenda, but just immediately after we finish with our two speakers, we will hear from WFP and FAO, especially on the fact of funding for hunger, for the acute hunger projected. So and they will be connected by online. So Christian Urich, the German news agency.

Yes, thank you. My question is to WHO. Do you have projections what to expect in the next six months? Do you have figures that you are working with that you might be able to share with us? Thank you. Figures of cases. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Eva, right?

Christiana.

Christiana, sorry. No, thanks a lot. Like, we've shared a lot of the data publicly, but I'll update a bit. At the moment, we see about between 400 and 500 cases a week across the outbreak, and that's the status over the last plus minus two months. But below those averages are areas where cases are coming down fairly significantly and areas where cases are going up. So in the epicenters at the beginning of the outbreak, in Bunia, in Mongwala, Rambara, Nizi, we see a significant reduction in cases thanks to the efforts being made in those areas. Like I said earlier, hospital Ebola treatment centers are running at about 50% capacity. But what we have seen now is the emergence of cases in more rural and more difficult-to-reach areas. And the challenge we have is, like Julian said, this is a vast area. You set up a big treatment center in a city or in one part of the country and you have new transmission somewhere else. It's not very easy to relocate the treatment facilities from one to the other because all of them are fixed construction. So we then have to be are developing models to be much more agile in being able to move those, move treatment closer to the communities, closer to these hard-to-reach areas. The hardest and most difficult challenge we're facing is two. One is just physical access, a very difficult part of the world in terms of just navigating access. But the most difficult is the security. There are many places at the moment that even when we get there, we can't really set up, the teams can't sleep there, so they have to come in the morning and leave in the evening, and it's very difficult to provide long-term care for patients under those circumstances. So altogether, in summary, we are seeing a plateau of cases. We can't say we've seen a real reduction in the last two months, but within that plateau are divergent trends, and the most difficult operational challenge in the new areas of high incidence We've seen so many attacks on health care, attacks on communities as well, attacks on people providing care, and people losing their lives, nurses in burials. So we need to keep working with the community, and this is very important, and working with the specific groups instigating these attacks. So it's a complex set of circumstances. The hardest thing with this response is not knowing what we need to do from a medical, public health perspective. The biggest challenge we're having is the context, the context in which we have to work.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, can I just follow up? So do you have a working figure of how many cases you might be expecting in the next six months? And could you also give us one or two sentences? How do you interpret that? Why is there attack on healthcare? Whose interest is it to chase away the people who are trying to help save lives?

So I'll start with the second question, it's a little bit more complex, and then go to the first. I mean, the challenges in the Eastern DRC have been on for the last 20, 30 years. We have a large UN peacekeeping force there, they're there for a reason. There are many countries, neighboring countries, involved in the security situation. There are many groups historically that have different interests. Fighting over different interests, both in terms of economic interests, religious interests, whatever other interests are. So it's not my area of expertise, obviously. I'm a public health professional, but we have to work in this context, and the best we can do is negotiate wherever we can, rely on colleagues, both from the state. the UN MONUSCO forces to help us negotiate access at different times, work with the local communities as best we can, work with the regional government. The governors have been very important. Both states, provinces where we have the biggest challenge in Ituri and North Kivu both have military governors in place. And so that's the context we have to work in. And so it's a very complex set of circumstances. In the first, on your first question on the projection of the numbers, like I said, we saw a rapid increase and we peaked at about 700, 800 cases a week for a while. We managed to bring that down. Initially, the trajectory was heading downwards. We've stabilized at plus/minus 400 to 500 a week. We've been working very hard to get this below that. In some areas, I hear it's reducing. It's very hard to project. the future, we have to stay the course. The one set of hope, set of circumstance that give us a lot of positivity is the opportunity that the treatment and vaccine trials will provide. So the ongoing treatment trials for three new therapeutics, Trials for two options on post-exposure prophylaxis, and just two weeks ago we started the vaccine trials. One is already ongoing, the two new. Bundibugyo specific candidates will be introduced by next week if we are able to do this and the proof verifications that we really have a new tool that will help us control the outbreak. But until then, we have to use the tools that we have. So, yeah, how much cases will. reduce or increase, it's not impossible. It really depends on how we can affect the security context in the DRC.

That's very clear. Thank you very much. We have quite a few more questions, so I'd like everybody to be brief. I don't see other hands in the room, so I'll go to the platform. Catherine Fiancon, France 24. Catherine, and I just wanted to thank you also for the help this morning in distributing the link. Go ahead.

Thank you, Alessandra. And thank you to both Dr. Chikwe and Mr. Julien Arles for the briefing. I have several questions. The first one is to come back to one of my colleagues' question from Kyodo, who asked to have figures, if you could be more precise about funding. How much money do you have? How much money are you requesting with figures? with numbers and how much the percentage that have been already pledged or funded? My second question is regarding what Mr. Arnes said about people turning to the private sector. That means sick people turning to the private sector. Could you be more precise? in what you mean by private sector. Is it what they call the dispensaire? Or is it local medicine that people are turning to? That is something that traditional medicine. And also, You spoke about the fear and also not have been able to prevent the spreading. Are you still thinking that it is, as Dr. Shikwe said, there are so many elements coming into consideration in this context? What could help you? Do you see any solution that something that could help you? And my last question. is that among the problems that we've heard and that certain organizations like MSF are talking about, is the fact that many of the people, the healthcare people, have a lack of, are not paid, have a lack of phones. They need phones. They cannot communicate between them. Often there is fuel is missing for their motorbikes. So What kind of solution do you think would be helpful? And I still have another question, is regarding the peace talks. There are peace talks, several peace talks going on about DRC, as you know. And I would like to know if the WHO had an opportunity to address the Ebola outbreak in any way, given that the epicenters are located in territories under occupation. So thank you to both of you.

Thank you, Catherine. Just one second.

Thank you. So for the HNRP, so the Humanitarian Response Plan, and again, this information is available to you on the internet if you go to the OCHA's FTS website. The current funding is 1.14 billion. out of a requirement of 2.1 billion. And that plan was adjusted in early June of this year to take into account the negative consequences of Ebola on the general humanitarian context. That's a 54% funding rate, which, if you compare to many other crises that this room hears about, is is reasonable, right? That obviously that still means half of it's unfunded, but we're fortunate in that there is some significant funding available. So on the humanitarian side, a lot of this is about getting the implementation done. as well as bringing in more funding. On the Ebola response, as I mentioned, the baseline, which is what's the requirement for the next six months across the whole of the Ebola response, has yet to be finalized and will be done in about two weeks. And that will give you, that will give us a better idea of what the funding gap is. So I would reserve that to later in this, maybe Dr. Chikwe wishes to talk about that. We will provide the link afterwards through my colleagues here to the FTM, the Financial Tracking Mechanism, which is specific to Ebola. On the gaps that The colleagues mentioned in the press note yesterday. Well, look, I think that, as I mentioned, there's a lot positive that's happened in the last months, and the area of operation is vast. I mean, it's just unimaginably large. And we're operating places which are extraordinarily difficult. So yes, some places, some people don't have mobile phones to call into the response. 100% true. In some places, we've had difficulty. In remote locations, we've had difficulty getting through the fuel that people need to operate the ambulances. Completely correct. But 80% of the time, across this vast area, we're able to operate. And under government leadership, we're meeting every day, and we're discussing every problem to see what more can be done and how to fix it immediately. And you've got -- you have hundreds, thousands of really dedicated colleagues across the response who are all working to address every single problem as it comes up. The -- on the private sector, I'm referring to The growth in DRC of the private sector, I mean, obviously Congolese know this context much better than myself, but I've been fortunate to have worked in DRC over the last 20 years several times, and I've seen the change in the DRC. The majority of Congolese people will first go to the private sector for health seeking behavior. They will go first to a pharmacy in order to see, often people are self-medicating, not ideal, but that's what they do. And then they'll go to a private nurse or a private doctor or a private clinic or a private hospital. particularly in the upcoming urban centers of Bunia, Bitembo, Beni, and even – and Kisangani. And our – the – our challenge is to reinforce the link with those operators. And Yeah. Thank you. You wanted to add something, Doctor?

Yeah. Very quickly, on the funding question. So initially, we had a a continental preparedness and response plan that was costed at 518 million altogether, of which WHO asked for $115 million. That plan was funded to $117 million. So we got the first part of what we asked for for the first six months of the response. Our response and our plans were fully funded, and we're very grateful to all the donors, partners that have come to the support of WHO in the work that we're doing in the DRC. Now, this was for the first six months. It ends at the end of October. We're now preparing plans for the next six months. Unfortunately, this outbreak is continuing, and we have to keep pushing. And those plans will be finalized at the end of November, made public, and then we hope that we get the same support to keep pushing hard and doing the important work. we're doing to get this outbreak under control. There was just a quick comment on the last question on peace talks and the role of WHO. Our Director-General, Dr. Tedros, has been very involved in this. You would have noticed he's done a number of visits to the areas and has been in contact touch with presidents in the region. And really, his message always is that we need peace. We need peace to do the work. that we're doing in the region. It's the biggest impediment of the response at the moment, is the very difficult security context. And he's engaging very widely with all the leaders, both at the national and sub-national level, to find opportunities for peace, even if there's not long-term peace, at least find an opportunity for intervals in the fighting, short-term peace arrangements, in order for us to get ahead of this outbreak that affects everyone, both those fighting and those living. And so it's very important to create the opportunities for peaceful coexistence, so at least we can get ahead of this outbreak.

Yeah, just sorry, just a little bit of housekeeping. Julien will have to go in 10 minutes, so I'd like to have questions for him now, and then... Pardon me? Oh, you both to go 10 minutes. Okay. So then let’s have Emma Farge from Reuters, and please afterwards stay with us because we will speak again about the situation in DRC, but on the hunger side. Emma, Emma, Reuters.

Good morning. Two quick questions, one for each, please. Julian, this vulnerable period ahead that you described before the medical countermeasures come in, how long are you planning for in kind of a best and worst case scenario? And Dr. Chikwe, I was wondering if you could give us an update on your investigations into how the Swiss woman was infected. She's now recovered, but how did she actually get it? Because that could point to some important hidden transmission, I think? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll respond to – good morning, Emma, and good to be in contact. I'll respond in part, and then I'll ask maybe Chikwe to – Dr. Chikwe to add more. So on the how long, as we go forwards, basically, we're going to likely – we are probably going to be in the situation of sustained transmission. until such time as we get medical countermeasures in place. Now, when those medical countermeasures come in place is very much a public health matter for which I'm not qualified to talk, but it's basically when the vaccines will be, if and when the vaccines become available. So we need to hold on and keep a lid on this during that period and to prevent further geographic transmission. Then, during that period, We need to improve the contact tracing, and that's why the link with the private sector is so important, because so much of the transmission is occurring in persons who are in contact with the private sector, private sector health care. And by working better with them, we could or we should be able to bring down numbers even without vaccines. I pass to the next question.

Julian, I think you've done very well with that question, so nothing to add. I think I'll quickly on the question on the Swiss case. So this was a lady that had a travel history through Uganda, arrived in Nigeria, tested positive in Nigeria. And I think the first thing to say is Thanks to the excellent preparedness work in Nigeria, there's been no transmission to any of the contacts up to now. The contacts are still being followed up. So it's a good example that where countries focus on preparedness, both to make the lab diagnosis, to manage the patient, to do their contact tracing, you can prevent further spread. So there are lots of good news stories out of the management of this case. The source of her infection is not clear yet. We're still working with Swiss authorities where she is at the moment to get a bit more information. The priority in the short term has been, of course, managing her health. So far, she's stable, getting her back into better health. We're working with both the Swiss authorities and, of course, the Ugandan authorities where she passed through. We did extensive work with the authorities in Uganda around the airport where she was. So far, no evidence of transmission in the airport has been found. We continue to work with them, and once we know anything new, we will share. But this is not unique. For many of the cases in the current outbreak, the exact transmission source of infection is not clear. So we will do our very best to find that out where it is possible, but our priority always is to stop further transmission. So if you weigh where we put most of our efforts, we put most of our efforts into, firstly, of course, managing the individual patients, but secondly, preventing further transmission, and we have seen that both in Kenya and Nigeria. relative success from mitigating the impacts of these exported cases and limiting further cases happening in both countries.

Thank you very much. Thanks to both. Alex Grobois, AFP, and then I'll let you go. Alex? Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, can you hear me? Is that better? Yeah, sorry. My question is for WHO, but not on Ebola. It's on another topic.

I don't know if maybe Christian is around. Exactly. So again, I know that not everybody could see the agenda, but afterwards we will continue talking about the Democratic Republic of the Congo with our two colleagues from FAO and World Food Program. Then we will still have WHO. Christian has brought us his colleague from Jerusalem, then we will have OHCHR and UNHCR. So I’d like to ask you to wait with your question. Christian will be on the podium in a moment. Antonio, is that for our colleagues before we let them go? Antonio is Spanish News Agency.

Yes.

Go ahead, and then you will be the last one to ask. Go ahead.

OK, thank you. Well, I imagine you have seen the criticism from Médecins Sans Frontières this week.

Regarding the management of the Ebola crisis. They say that the millions of dollars donated by the international community are not translating into.

Tangible results on the ground, and that many affected areas are being neglected. So how do you respond to these criticisms?

Thank you. Antonio, I think Julien has already addressed that, but maybe, yeah, go ahead.

Thank you, Antonio. Look, I think that, as we noted earlier, there's been an extraordinary progress and a lot has been done. The very fact that so far the Ebola has been contained within – the majority has been contained within Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and when it has spread out, There has been transmission outside of Congo, it has been rapidly brought into control, and the massive deployment across the east, which I referred to earlier. So it's there, it's making progress, and the reduction in the increase of cases is marked. Could more be done? Can we further improve? Yes, 100 percent. And that's what we do every day, and that's what we will keep doing every day until we stop Ebola. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'd really like to thank you both for coming and briefing the Geneva press corps on the occasion of – you are now going to the member states, so good luck with them. And thank you very much for your incredible work on this important topic. So I'll let you go, both. Thanks. Christian, you stay with us. But I'd like now to go to the other two speakers on DRC. We have the pleasure to welcome Jean-Martin Baware, who is – well, you know Jean-Martin, but I'll introduce you to him again, the Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis of the World Food Program. Jean-Martin, you are connecting from Rome. And we also have Ibrahim Abdulnasser. Welcome, sir. You are the FAO representative in the DRC, and you're going to tell us about the hunger situation. So maybe I'll start with Jean-Martin, and then I'll go to Ibrahim, and then we will take questions. Thank you very much.

What I'd like to do is give you the key points from the IPC, which was recently released for the DRC. What the report says is that nearly 29 million people in the DRC are facing acute food insecurity. That number will rise to 30.3 million in the first half of 2027. Conflict is driving this, in addition to disease. This is a compounding factor. What we need right now is access, and we need resources to avoid the situation becoming more difficult in the DRC. The outlook is concerning. We believe that between January and June 2027, 30.3 million people will be in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse. 4.2 million of those will be in emergency levels of hunger. Conflict is at the heart of this crisis. This echoes what the other speakers have said earlier today. Families are being displaced. They're being cut off from their farms, from their livelihoods. Food prices are rising, making affording a meal quite complicated for too many households. The locus of this crisis is the east of the DRC, which is particularly concerning. North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri have the highest concentration of acute needs. This is driven by persistent conflict and large-scale displacement. Now, what we have in DRC is a crisis on top of crises. Ebola and other disease outbreaks in DRC are placing additional pressure on communities that are already struggling to eat. The IPC identifies Ebola as a factor that will further increase food security needs in the country. Ebola is compounding the hunger crisis. It's not driving it on its own. Conflict, displacement, high food prices, and declining humanitarian assistance remain key drivers of the food security that we're seeing in the country. Now, food assistance is an important part of the wider response. Families affected by Ebola need to eat. They need to meet their basic needs while health authorities and partners work to contain transmission. These things work together. Importantly, I'd like to emphasize that humanitarian assistance is simply not keeping pace with growing needs in DRC. WFP needs adequate resources and safe, sustained humanitarian access to reach vulnerable populations. Now, the needs for the World Food Program in the DRC for the next six months, overall, they stand at $214 million. For Ebola alone, and WFP plays a role in the Ebola pandemic in terms of support to our colleagues at WHO and responders on the ground, those needs for Ebola stand at $114 million. Now, the projection I've just shared, so increasing from 29 million people acutely food insecure to 30.3 million early next year, this is not inevitable. It's up to us to respond. We have an opportunity to prevent this from happening by having the sustained response deployed at scale. So, in a nutshell, we can afford – we can respond. We can prevent further degradation, but we will need the resources, the access to do this. And we will need to address this conflict, which is pushing too many households into hunger. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Jean-Martin. Ibrahim Abdoul Nasser? You need to unmute yourself, sir. No, you're on. Go ahead.

Okay, okay. It's okay. Okay, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I'm joining you from Kinshasa, DRC, where FAO works every day with family, farming families, including in the east, where the situation is very severe. The figure presented by my colleague from WFP just presented that we have an epicenter, the eastern part of the DRC. More than 80% of the people facing emergency level hunger are in these three provinces, the North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. In these provinces, this is first and foremost, I think, a livelihood crisis. Conflict is driving families off their land, their animals. For example, between early 2024 to March 2026, the share of households struggling to reach their feed rose from 3% to 17%. Livestock feed nearly has doubled. And every time a family is displaced, it loses its seasons, its seeds, and also its animal. Ebola has come on top of this conflict. Our survey showed that in areas where Ebola cases are confirmed, almost 90% of people expect smaller harvests compared to 30% in average elsewhere. The presence of cases alone is enough to cut income by half or more, and also market slow down and the palm oil workers stop moving. Pao is on the ground. We assisted over 390,000 people with seeds, tools, cash, and poultry. And also we vaccinated around 600,000 poultry. We now have a window of opportunity, the next planting season in early 2027. Families in S&DRC urgently need practical support at scale to enable them to feed themselves. If we miss this season, the crisis will drag on and a new risk is coming. With El Nino expected to bring heavy rain and flooding in the east, we need to act now before this shock. Yet, agricultural support remains the poor relation of the response. The livelihood objective has reached only 38% of its target this year. And it's this occasion for me to call our partners to invest in agriculture now before the planting season, because acting late means another missed harvest, more displacement, and hunger, and also a longer and costly emergency response. Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you very much, Ibrahim, for this update, and thanks again to Jean-Martin. I’ll open the floor to questions now on the specific part of the issue in DRC. If there is any question in the room. Maeva, you wanted to ask, but I think they’ve been very clear on the figures, right, for the – yeah, yeah. So now we have also the figures for the hunger problem. Any other question? Let me see on the platform. Asfar has put the report on the link on the chat. Thank you very much, Asfar. So I don't see hands up. So thank you very much for bringing the spotlight on this particular aspect of the crisis in DRC. Merci, Jean-Martin. Thank you very much, Ibrahim. Let me now go again to WHO with Christian. If you can come to the podium. We go to another crisis, which is Gaza, where things are in a very dire situation. We have put out yesterday a statement of Ramiz Alakbarov, who is, as you know, the special coordinator for the Middle East. peace process at interim, who said that he is very, deeply alarmed by the Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday night, which killed six people, injured 27 others, and caused extensive damage to the facilities. The Special Coordinator reiterated his call for rapid, safe, and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance, including the entry of durable shelter materials and winterization items to ease the suffering of the population as the coldest months approach. And also, we have distributed yesterday to you the readout of the meeting that the Secretary General had with Mohammed Mustafa, Prime Minister of the State of Palestine, and in which he reiterated his grave concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, and they discussed support to the Palestinian people, including the critical role played by UNRWA. Dr. Tedros also made a declaration yesterday, I think it was, yeah, it was yesterday, on the situation in Gaza, in particular the health facilities, and on this, Renee van de Vert, who's, as you know, the WHO representative. calling in from Jerusalem. You, Christian, I don’t know if you want to start or we give directly the floor to Renée.

Your entrance was perfect.

Thank you. Renée, so I give you the floor. I come to you because of this declaration of Dr. Tedros, but also to tell us a little bit about the situation as you see it from there. Thank you very much. I give you the floor.

Thank you very much, Alessandro. I trust you can hear me okay.

We can.

Perfect, thanks. Yes, so I think you've all seen the images from the attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. As you mentioned, six people died, at least 27 others were injured, and our teams on the ground are further assessing the full impact of this attack. I'm sure that you've seen through our social media a video that the team on the ground has made that you can see what actually happened. And perhaps to put this particular attack in perspective, just as a reminder, since October 23, we have documented more than 1,000 attacks on health here in Gaza, and they've resulted in more than 1,000 people dying and more than 1,700 injuries. And it's shocking to see that more than three years into the conflict, one year after a ceasefire, that healthcare is still under attack. And that should be more than alarming for all of us. Gaza's health system is extremely overstretched. We, together with our partners, are doing everything we can to keep it running, despite the severe shortages of fuel and supplies. So every attack on health care undoes some of that amazing work that we have done and sets us back, whilst at the same time, health needs continue to grow. Every health facility that is damaged, from a big hospital like Nasser Hospital or from a small clinic, is care lost for patients who have nowhere else to go. We say it again, healthcare must be protected, it must never be militarized, and it must never be attacked. I'll just now perhaps take a few minutes of your time to turn to another pressing issue in Gaza, winter, rain, and floods. I'm sure again that you've seen the images. And again, it is shocking that just a few days of rain really showed us what the coming months will bring. And winter has not even fully set in. The worst really is yet to come. Nearly a million displaced people in Gaza live in flood-exposed areas, and 400,000 of them are in locations that are considered at extremely high risk. Our teams met families whose tents were destroyed by these floods. For many, that tent was the only protection they had and the only space on their own. And tent is not just shelter. In winter, it is also the first line of defense for health. Losing a tent means losing more than a roof. It takes a family away of the sense of safety and control and adds stress for people who have already lost and seen so much. And the cold and the damp will bring illness, which will further deepen that strain. The flooded sites make sewage, waste, and contaminated water with places where people sleep, cook, and care for each other. Standing water gives mosquitoes and pests more places to breed, and damp tents encourage mold and bacteria that are a major driver for respiratory infections, especially in young children. And the numbers already show the pressure. Acute respiratory infections are 33,000 cases higher than at the same time last year. Respiratory infections today make up for more than 10% of all consultations, and again, this winter has only just begun. Cold weather, flooding, overcrowded shelters, and poor ventilation will push these numbers higher, again, especially for children, but also for older people and those living with chronic health conditions. The risk of waterborne diseases also remains high, especially with the onset of rains. And as you heard from our colleagues from UNICEF earlier this week, wastewater management in Gaza remains hugely insufficient. But health facilities also feel the strain. Our health partners in Gaza report damages to at least nine health facilities. And these heavy rains further disrupt transport, making it both challenging for healthcare workers to come to work, and of course, for patients who now face an additional hurdle in accessing healthcare. But what is needed now is practical and achievable. As Chammes called out, health and humanitarian supplies need to be allowed in at scale. We, together with the amazing healthcare workers in Gaza, are ready. We just need to be enabled to do our job. The people in Gaza urgently need shelter, supplies such as tents and heavy-duty plastic sheeting. supplies to ensure the provision of clean water and waste management, medicines, vaccines, medical supplies, and supplies to prevent hypothermia, which will be an issue this year, as it was last year, especially for babies. And once again, laboratory supplies need to be allowed to enter so that we can rapidly detect disease outbreaks. This will be the fourth winter in Gaza, and it will be a test to a health system that has already been stretched to its utmost limits. Urgent action was actually needed months ago, when we foretold what winter and floods would do to the people in Gaza. But it's never too late, so let's act today. And thank you for giving me the floor.

Thank you very much. Thanks a lot, really, René, for this. I'll open the floor to questions now. Yeah, Mohamed. Mohamed Arslan is Anadolu Agency, Turkish news agency.

Okay. Thank you so much for this briefing, madam. I have two short questions about the Gaza. Yesterday, we have seen from the reports one baby who is nine months old died because of the cold weather. Do you confirm this as WHO? Or how many people How many baby died because of the cold weather? And despite the severe winter conditions that you mentioned, Israel still doesn’t allow to bring necessary humanitarian aid to Gaza. How does this situation affect the risk of diseases outbreaks in Gaza? Thank you. Ms.

Yes, thank you. So we do confirm that the baby died, but we're not 200% sure with the diagnosis. So before we confirm it was hypothermia, this baby had other underlying conditions, but we will get back to you. But the sad truth is that the baby unfortunately died. Um, thanks for the question on, on the supplies. Um, I've spoken to you often that there is such a restriction and a constraint on the ability for us to bring in the medical supplies that are needed at skin. And that means, in particular, for us to be able to early detect outbreaks, we need the laboratory equipment. It's very important when you prevent outbreaks that you can very quickly confirm which virus, which bug is causing that outbreak so that we can rapidly respond. But there are other constraints on medical equipment, spare parts, oil for engines, fuel. We can share you the detailed list. But specifically to prevent outbreaks, we really call to let laboratory equipment enter Gaza today so that we can avoid a public health disaster on top of a disaster.

Thank you very much. Maeva, Channel News.

Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. Among the things that are prevented to enter Gaza, could you just confirm that the tents, what the situation about the tents and how many tents can you bring into Gaza? Do you have enough tents, enough fundings for tents, I mean, just to prepare for winter? Thank you very much.

Renée, go ahead.

Yes, thanks. Indeed, shelter supplies, and our shelter colleagues can talk about that more, shelter has been very difficult to come in. It's not OK that entering in the 4th window that we're still talking about tents. Colleagues have confirmed from different partners that at least 150,000 tents are ready to enter Gaza. Colleagues from UNICEF have also confirmed earlier this week that the urgently needed supplies they need to do water and water management are also not being able to come in. So, and again, it's sad that we are still talking about tents. More permanent, dignified housing solutions need to be able to enter Gaza.

Absolutely. Olivia Le Poidevin, Reuters.

Thanks very much for the briefing. I just had a question on a figure you gave. I was quite struck by what you said that acute respiratory infections are 30,000 cases higher than at the same time last year. Particularly interested, given that we are in a so-called ceasefire, and you're saying that actually that's a substantial increase on last year when the ceasefire was only just beginning to come into place. I was wondering if you can explain why that is, and is Is that directly linked to poor living conditions, or is that also due to kind of healthcare pressures? And just to the point, if I may, second question on supplies. Are you also lacking supplies to specifically treat people with those acute respiratory infections? Thank you. And what were those beats? Sorry. Thank you.

Great. So first, the reasons why we see more infections, respiratory infections, one clear reason is just the living conditions. When people live in makeshift shelters, because tents for many parts of Gaza is actually an overstatement. Of course, when the weather gets colder, people also live increasingly more on top of each other. Whenever I go to Gaza, you literally feel people moving closer to the Mediterranean because the IDF occupies more and more of the territory. So that means people are living in more crowded conditions, where, of course, the spread between humans of a virus is much more prone to spread. On the supplies, what we see, and we've done a good analysis on what enters easier. In general, the medicines, they enter. 88% of the medicines that we try to bring in, they enter. What is very difficult is laboratory. But of course, you need laboratory. If a patient is suffering from what you think diabetes, you need a quick lab test to make sure that you have the right diagnosis because you might have the medicine, but if you don't have the right diagnostic tool, those two need to match up.

Absolutely. Thank you very much. Alexandre, Est-ce que c'était sur Gaza, avant que je laisse les collègues de WHO partir? Est-ce que tu veux poser la question?

It wasn’t on Gaza, but it was just a quick one about the Intergovernmental Working Group meeting and the pandemic agreement, which ends today. I wanted to ask Christian, can we expect some kind of communication this afternoon or evening? And if so, in what form?

Go ahead.

Thank you very much. On what topic, sorry, again.

Intergovernmental panel – the intergovernmental panel.

Yes, there’s typically some sort of communication. We would expect a note, a statement, anything coming out from it.

But it could also go into Saturday, so don’t hold your breath this afternoon.

Thank you. John Zaroukostas, France 24 and The Lancet.

Yes, good morning. I just got a follow-up question to some of my colleagues. I was wondering if you can bring us up to date on the medical evacuations and if all the crossing points are functioning, especially the Gaza-Rafah crossing for urgent cases to be taken to hospitals elsewhere. Thank you.

Rini.

Yes, thanks. Merci beaucoup. So indeed, medical evacuations continue, both from Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, but also from Gaza through the Kerem. Shalom crossing, going then to Jordan. There have been issues on Rafah in particular. I'm sure you are familiar that there is a one-on-one quota. So often it's very difficult when there is a change in the numbers of people coming back, where teams that have already left with patients are faced with challenges to be able to meet that number exactly. And just to remind you all, it is a very dangerous path to go with patients in buses. and cars that are not armed, because we really crossed what we call the red zone, the IDF control part. But I'll make sure that you get our latest updates in case you don't get that on the numbers of medical evacuations.

René, thank you very much. That was, as I can see, the last question. for you and for WHO, but before letting our colleague of WHO leave, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Tamara Arifai. You may remember Tamara, who has spoken to you under her previous functions as Director of Communication of UNRWA, and she has now become, recently, a few weeks ago, the Director of Communication of WHO. So I'd like to introduce her to you and to welcome her to the Geneva communication I'm sure we will hear more from her, and you know that you have a precious ally and a very qualified person as director of communication of WHO. I don't know if you want to say a word, Tamara. Ms.

Thank you, Alessandra. Lovely to be back here in a new capacity, and destiny has it that in this new capacity, it's still a lot of Gaza. So I think this story will continue to haunt us. As humanitarians, as journalists, as people who are documenting the human cost of the conflict that continues, we still speak of tens, as Renée said, on the fourth winter. This is really sad. But together, we will continue to tell the story of Gaza, of the DRC, like we did today, and of many other crises that deserve the world to be mobilized to help resolve. So thank you, Alessandra, for the warm welcome.

Thank you very much. Thanks for being with us. And as I said, I think one of the last briefings, we have prepared a new list of communication people in Geneva. Tamara is there, so you will have her contact details. It will be distributed, if it's not today, it's going to be early next week, so you will have all the contacts, all the contact details. And thank you very much again for coming. Thanks, Christian, for this extensive briefing on the two subjects. And let's go now to something which is really a little bit different but as important, which is if I may say in brackets, killer robots. And I’d like to ask Shabi Yamanout and Michael Spees to come to the podium. I don’t know, Juliana, if you also want to come with Michael. And the reason for which I’d like to have Shadia and Michael on the podium, Michael is accompanied – sorry – by Juliana. They are our colleagues from the Office of Disarmament Affairs. Michael is the Senior Political Affairs Officer and Deputy Chief of the Geneva branch of ODA. I don't need to introduce you to Shabia. And the reason for having these colleagues here on the podium is that we want to speak about killer robots, and we want to speak about a upcoming conference that might give us a mandate to discuss that. But I'd like to start with Shabia because yesterday High Commissioner Turk put out a statement. This morning it was okay. This morning it was this statement of High Commissioner Turk calling on states to agree to this binding, to these negotiations. Please go ahead, and then we will hear where and how these negotiations will happen.

Thank you, Alessandra, and thank you, colleagues. Actually, we sent the statement out this morning, but given that there are some issues with Outlook, you may find the statement on the front page of our website. So you can check the UN Human Rights Office webpage for that if you haven't received it. And obviously, we'd be happy to also follow up after the briefing. So we are calling for an international treaty banning killer robots. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is calling on states to urgently agree to the development of a treaty regulating autonomous weapons systems as states prepare to meet at the seventh review conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons next week. Given the rapid pace of technological development and the risk that autonomous weapon systems could become widely accessible in the near future, the window to develop a treaty to regulate these increasingly powerful systems in advance is rapidly closing. The international community has critical choices to make right now about the future of armed conflicts and the role of human beings in decisions over the use of force. A machine must never have the power to decide whether a human being survives or dies. We call on states to urgently agree on binding international rules to regulate autonomous weapons and protect human lives before it is too late. Thank you. Sorry. Autonomous weapon systems raise profound concerns for the right to life, human dignity, and accountability. The gravest concern is that they may allow force to be applied without sufficient human judgment over who is targeted and how decisions are made. The High Commissioner is calling for a prohibition on autonomous weapons that themselves target people, either by design or in practice.

Sorry, just a quick one for Shabia to say I didn't receive Volker Turk's statement, and I don't actually see it on the OHCHR website either. So if you could maybe send it out, that would be great. Thanks.

Nick, no worries. We'll ping you that statement, but it should be on the website. I'll message you.

Thank you, Shabia. Sato Kodachi, Yomiuri Shimbun.

Yes, thank you very much for doing this. I have a question on logistics.

Could you tell us where the plenary and main committee 2 will take place? Thank you.

All the meetings will take place in the Assembly Hall.

I'm sorry, I just realized that, sadly, you did not answer to my question. Mrs. Nakamitsu will take place in which committee? And she's supposed to make a speech in which committee? Thank you.

No, I had mentioned that she will not make a separate statement, but she will.

Be supporting the chairperson in carrying out consultations.

Yeah, no statement. And you will see her here at 9:00 on Wednesday. Any other question? I don't see any, or no? Also to OHCHR on other matters? No. Good. Shabia, thank you very much for coming and reading the I really hope this technicalities will be solved. Michael, Juliana, thank you so much for being here this morning. I think it was good to have all these explanations. And let me go to our last, but definitely not least, speaker, Babar. You have been very patient. Thank you very much for being there. Happy Friday. You have an announcement on your new global initiative on protection at sea. Go ahead, please.

Indeed, Alexandra. Huge thanks, chairs. Happy Friday to you all, and good afternoon. So on Tuesday, November the 17th, UNHCR will launch the Global Initiative on Protection at Sea. This will happen in Dakar, Senegal. And this initiative calls for renewed international action as deaths and disappearances along dangerous maritime routes remain alarmingly high worldwide. This comes amid concerning trends across several sea routes, including the Mediterranean, the Western African Atlantic route, in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea also. This new initiative, developed with our other humanitarian partners, including IOM, OHCHR, UNICEF, and others, focuses on saving lives at sea, ensuring safe disembarkation, strengthening access to protection, and also protection as early as possible along these routes, expanding safer alternatives to dangerous sea journeys and promoting solidarity and collective responses. A press release with further details on the initiative and with latest figures will be issued by UNHCR on November 17. Please let us know if interested to receive an advanced copy. Thank you very much. Back to you, Director Lasandra.

Thank you very much, Babar. Thanks a lot for this announcement. Is there any question to UNHCR? I don't see any, so thank you very much. Don't forget to tell Babar if you want an advance copy of this document. Let me just conclude with a couple of additional announcements. So we have spoken about the press conference of Izumi Nakamitsu, our Undersecretary General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. Therefore, let me go to the committees. Today, the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights is concluding its 80th session and will be issuing its final observation on the reports submitted by Eswatini, Pakistan, Mexico, and Austria. Next Monday, 16th November, at 10:00 AM, the Committee Against Torture will open its 85th session. The countries to review will be Angola, Belize, Norway, and Republic of Moldova, and that will be regarding the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. I also have been asked by Pascal to read you this announcement: The sixth session of the UN Forum on Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law will take place on 16 and 17th November at the Tempos building. We'll have a very busy week next week. The theme of this year's session is "Education for Civic Participation: Empowering Future Generations." fostering knowledge and critical thinking. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, Felipe Pollier, will be among the keynote speakers opening the forum on Monday morning. And next week, don't forget that we also have let me take my paper The opening, in fact, the whole week will also be dedicated to a very important subject at the CICG. Our colleagues from the UN Environment Programme are holding the first international conference of the UN Global Framework on Chemicals. You will remember that the Global Framework on Chemicals, which is a voluntary multi-stakeholder global framework adopted in Bonn in September 2023. Will look will be examined at this first international conference; the country will look at the will assess the progress in the implementation of this multi-stakeholder agreement. and help shape the next phase of global action towards achieving the five strategic objectives and 28 targets of the framework. You also have received a media advisory on this. You're also welcome to go without just with your UN badge, or for those who don't have it, please ask for media accreditation to Rolando's office. I think I've told you everything I had. Yes, all my announcements have been made. If there are no other questions to me, thank you very much. I wish you a very good weekend, and I'll see you next week. Thank you.