World Humanitarian Day, International Criminal Court, West Bank/Settlements & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

And there's Mr. Fletcher. Excellent, Tom. We will be with you in just about a nanosecond, but we'll get underway here. First, as you know, today is August 19th, 23 years ago to the day we lost 22 of our UN colleagues murdered by the terrorists who attacked the UN headquarters in Baghdad at the Canal Hotel. Today, our thoughts are with the families of the victims and with the survivors, many of whom returned to work at the UN and are still working here today, some of them in many dangerous places. And as you know, since 2009, every August 19th is observed as World Humanitarian Day. This morning, the Secretary General marked the bombing in Baghdad with a moment of silence at a remembrance ceremony here at UN headquarters in front of the flag that flew atop of the Canal Hotel and was rescued and brought back here. The Secretary General noted in his remarks that last year he had the honor of visiting the memorial in Baghdad dedicated to our fallen colleagues. He underscored that their legacy lives on in every humanitarian worker delivering assistance amid conflict, amid disaster, and amid despair. He pointed out that around the world, humanitarians face escalating dangers, attacked, detained, injured, and killed. Meanwhile, he added, the rules designed to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel, are being violated with alarming frequency and impunity. Yet despite these challenges, humanitarian workers continue to show up every day. OCHA noted today that last year set another grim record for violence against aid workers, 350 killed, 322 injured, 235 kidnapped. That's according to the Humanitarian Outcomes Aid Workers Security Database. For the third straight year, Gaza remained the deadliest context for humanitarians, with 186 humanitarians killed last year, followed by Sudan, with 71 killed. So far, 82 aid workers have been killed, 97 injured, and 39 kidnapped across the world this year alone. Humanitarians are also increasingly in the crosshairs of armed drones, which is putting the lethal power into ever more hands, sending more explosive weapons into towns and cities. And now it's my pleasure to turn to Tom Fletcher, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, who's briefing us from Kyiv on this World Humanitarian Day. So, Tom, thank you, and you have the floor.

Well, thank you very much, Steph, and thank you for those words and for the Secretary-General's statement of solidarity. with humanitarians globally. It's a tough day for us. It's a sombre day for us. And I join you in paying tribute to humanitarians who run these extraordinary risks, risks that they shouldn't have to run because behind those grim numbers that Steph read out are names, they are colleagues, they are our friends, they are families, and they are the best of us. And This is not a temporary spike that we're seeing. This is a stain. It is the normalization of violence against our community and we will not accept it. We do not accept it. We will not allow this violence, this killing of humanitarians to be normalized. And so we do grieve today and we honor the memory of our friends and colleagues And we recommit to this mission, the mission that they loved and ultimately died for. We recommit to that mission in their memory. As Steph said, nearly 1,000 aid workers killed, injured or kidnapped, and states dominating that violence against humanitarians. And behind it all, this sense we feel of impunity, of a lack of accountability. for those who pulled the trigger, those who gave the order, those who supplied the weapon, those who created the environment in which it could be used in that way. I've been in the job now for almost two years and I struggle to think of meaningful investigations into this litany of killing that we've seen. So this is why I'm in Ukraine at the moment for World Humanitarian Day. I've been in Kherson for the last two days, which is a real epicenter at the moment. It's saturated by use of drones against civilian areas. It's become one of the places, I'm afraid, where you get to really understand this dystopian reality that lies ahead potentially for many of us, but is an existence day-to-day for people here. and in so many of the crisis areas in which we work from Somalia to Sudan to Gaza to Lebanon. As Steph says, this day was born from tragedy, the Canal Hotel bombing 23 years ago. But those tragedies are now continuing day-to-day and we're seeing them increasingly powered by a chilling alliance between technological ingenuity and modern warfare. And the victims are civilians and they are humanitarians. I was really struck. I drove the road four times actually that Ukrainians call the road of death between the and her son. And until you see it and experience it, it's hard to describe driving for miles and miles, kilometers, kilometers along these roads covered in and getting to try and keep out as many of the drones as possible. That sense when you're walking around of the constant threat, the alarms going on everyone's phone incessantly, and the sense of collective anxiety that these drones create. I've not been anywhere, and I spend my time in pretty tough neighborhoods, I've not been anywhere where drones are so much part of the conversation. Everyone from the kids I met in safe shelters, civilians, humanitarians, my colleagues can tell the difference between the sound of a first person view drone and a fiber optic drone and the medium range drones or the loitering munitions which are such a threat to our work. And so these weapons have become part of life and part of the language of people here. And that's pretty chilling. I met, of course, civilians who've lost limbs to these first-person view drones that are everywhere. And of course, the terrifying thing here is that the operator of that drone knows exactly what they're doing. If they fly around the person selling fruit and vegetables in the market or the humanitarian delivering food, they have a good look at them before they take the shot that will kill or maim them for life. I visited a hospital where doctors told me around 70% of their wounded patients have blast injuries from drones. 70, seven zero percent. And where they're moving the wards and the theaters underground to try and escape those drones. We had to run to avoid one example of that. You know, I mean, the drone that had caused such damage to Kherson hospital, And I handled that drone. It was a $300 drone. So increasingly cheap and available munitions. And of course, I met the families who are trying to continue their lives in the face of these challenges, sleeping underground, learning online, desperately surviving day-to-day, and who keep going. They keep going despite those challenges. I met Surhi, who this morning he delivers extraordinary humanitarian delivers hot meals for his local humanitarian organization and a drone attack cost him his leg. He turned up at the hospital and asked them to stick it back on, went back to work within weeks coordinating the teams delivering food to people who need it. I met the doctors working around the clock in conditions of extreme danger, the volunteers evacuating people from the communities on the front lines. We were just a kilometer away yesterday from those front lines. And as always, it's the civilians who are doing most to help their fellow civilians and local organizations on whom we depend. And I again pay tribute to their courage globally in the face of these challenges. So you see this dystopian reality of these kill zones and kamikaze drones increasingly putting lethal power into the hands of more people and all of that without the accountability that.

We've lost your audio Tom you've muted yourself there we go.

Thank you Steph we have a sense that it's not just the killer who's further from the victim, but that accountability and justice are further from the victim. And that the technology is changing every week as these drones become more sophisticated. But what doesn't change or must not change each week is international humanitarian law. The law is meant to protect us, meant to protect civilians from all weapons, however sophisticated. they are. So we need those investigations, we need accountability, we need the international community to uphold the law. And of course, to close, I mean, this isn't just a Ukraine story. I've seen the way that armed drones are transforming war around the world. I was told in Somalia a few weeks ago by women that they were fleeing not famine or violence, But the drones that are following them around as people are experimenting with cheaper and cheaper and more available technology. So from Sudan to Colombia to Gaza to Lebanon, these cheap armed drones are extending the reach of war and allowing people to kill at greater distance. A thousand civilians killed in Sudan in the first five months of the year. These numbers aren't static, they are going up, including the numbers of kids killed. So we need states to uphold the law and we need the companies who are manufacturing and supplying these weapons to understand international humanitarian law, to understand how these weapons are being used and to understand their obligations and responsibilities. I fear otherwise that the death toll from these weapons will continue to rise and we'll be back again next year with another grim litany of stats to share with you. Concern from member states is not enough. We need action right now. And of course, can help us in humanitarian work. They can deliver vaccines to communities that we can't otherwise reach. I was in Venezuela a few weeks ago in the aftermath of the earthquake and saw how we're using drones to locate survivors amid the rubble. So they do have positive uses, but so much of what we're seeing is inhumane and reckless. We need to ensure that if the global economy is being put as it is, on a war footing, that we are also training these weapons in the right way, and that we're also ensuring that technology does not outpace humanity, and that technology does not outpace accountability. So I close where I started, paying tribute to our extraordinary humanitarian colleagues around the world who continue to do this work, local organizations, NGOs, UN humanitarian agencies, local partners who continue to do this work with such courage and creativity in the face of such challenge and danger. And an attack on any one of us in our humanitarian movement is an attack on all of us. Thanks, Steph. Back to you.

Thank you very much. We'll now take some questions. Edie, please.

Thank you very much, Mr. Fletcher. Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. And certainly, I think we are all moved by what you said and equally worried about your last comment about do not let technology outpace humanity and what humans can do. You also said that we need action. What specific things could actually make a difference right now in Ukraine and elsewhere?

Thank you. Go ahead, Tom.

Thanks, Zidi. And this is something, it's a great question, and something that I've been worrying about and talking about with colleagues here and indeed across the global humanitarian effort. I think several things. Firstly, we've gotta have a big, a serious reflection about how we protect humanitarians in the face of these new weapons. You know, we look to provide protective clothing where necessary. We look to use protected vehicles, armored vehicles, where we can, but we don't have the resources to provide those to all of our partners in the field. And so I really worry about the risks that we're asking people to run. And so that presents us challenges about how we protect ourselves, particularly from drones in the future and how we adapt protection of our colleagues. Then I think there is the action that we need from the international community. We need member states to investigate these attacks against us and against civilians. you will in this room many times have become frustrated, I'm sure, with Q&As I've done and maybe even the staff has done where you're asking us to hold people to account, you're asking us for attribution the whole time. But as humanitarians, we're here to help the survivors. We're not here then to do the investigations into who carried out these attacks. But we need someone to, we can tell you what we're seeing, we can tell you what the people we serve are experiencing, but we need the international community, the member states to hold those carrying out the attacks to account. As I've said, I think we need a dialogue with the companies involved in supply and distribution of this new deadly technology to make sure they really understand the risks that they are creating and their obligations under international law as well. And then we need to have a strong, robust conversation about international humanitarian law in the 21st century and try to make sure that our enforcement of the rules keeps up with the innovation, deadly innovation in this case that we're seeing. This shouldn't be beyond us. You know, the world has had to adapt to modernization of warfare again and again. You know, my family name is Fletcher. We were arrow makers. The world adjusted to a world of arrow makers. It adjusted to a world of gunpowder. It created rules to protect people from nuclear weapons, ballistic weapons, chemical weapons. Those rules apply to these drones, but they're not being applied in the way that they should. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Fletcher. It's Ephraim Koseifi with Arab News Daily. A question on Gaza in the past three, four years and Lebanon. Many international lawyers or observers say that what happened in Gaza is no less than the dismantlement of the UN humanitarian system, the way we saw it unfold in the past three years. Do you agree with that assessment? And how much damage do you think what happened in Gaza has inflicted on your work and your coworkers work everywhere elsewhere in the world? Thank you.

Well, thanks, Ephraim. And You know, it's been a very, very rough few years for our work, of course, in Gaza, Lebanon, elsewhere, but it's been much rougher for the civilians that we serve. And, you know, as Steph describes daily to you and Farhan and colleagues, you know, that grim reality continues. But I wouldn't characterize it as the dismantlement of the UN humanitarian system. We're still here. And we're still doing our work in Gaza and elsewhere. We've made real inroads, as Steph often describes, in handling the hunger levels in Gaza, for example, with over a million hot meals a day. You know, over that last year, since the 20-point plan, since the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting, we've got a lot more food in, and we are turning the corner on the hunger situation. course, we've got much, much further to go. We've got to get shelter materials in for the winter. We've got to get all the crossings open. We've got to get the full range of our NGO partners operating in the way that we need them to operate. We've got to get the protections for civilians in place from airstrikes. So it has been bruising, but we are there in Gaza, across the West Bank, in Lebanon, but globally, the UN humanitarian system has taken the shocks to it and continues to operate. And we're out there right now looking to reach 87 million people this year with lifesaving support, as you've heard me describe. And we're not retreating from that challenge either because of these weapons being used against us or because of the scale of the challenges in places like Gaza, Sudan, Yemen and beyond where our work is under such threat.

Evelyn, then Alex.

Mr. Fletcher, thank you very much for the Evelyn Leopold. Where are you calling from? Are you in Kiev or elsewhere in Ukraine? And secondly, there was firing while you were there. Did you know if this was a Russian attack or the Ukrainians answering Russia? Or do you have any clue what was happening while you were there? And thank you very much for that, putting your life at risk.

Thank you, Evelyn. And I can assure you that the risks I take are nothing compared to the risks that my colleagues are running every day, including the colleagues here in Ukraine and in so many other places where we work. So, I mean, actually, there was a lot of firing I have to share in the two days I was in Kherson. And I saw a lot of drones. We ran at least twice for cover because of drones in the vicinity. And of course, we were in places that have been attacked by drones in recent days. So it was a reminder for me of what civilians and humanitarians are facing all the time. As I said earlier, I'm not the person to help you with the attribution. I can't get into a kind of game of who fired what and who fired back. I'm pretty certain that we were experiencing both drones coming across the fighting lines from the Russian side and the Ukrainian forces shooting back at them. I mean, that was certainly what people were telling me. That's for others to to clarify, confirm. Of course, you know, we had a hit from one drone against a building that we were meeting in while we were meeting. And of course, as I say, I saw many of the particularly the fiber optic drones, the the first person view drones that have been really surging into that region in recent weeks and months. We saw many of those operating above us. So, you know, as humanitarians, we work in some pretty tough neighborhoods. But it's clear to me that the Kherson region is very much one of those.

Thank you. Alex?

Thanks so much, Steph. Hello, Mr. Fletcher. This is Alex with Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. Thank you so much for this briefing and for all the job that you're doing. I have a follow-up on Ukraine as well. You've mentioned that you're not the person to help us with the attribution of drone attacks and other attacks, but at the same time, like, for instance, your humanitarian coordinator, Medhat Shmali, has repeatedly accused Russia of carrying out attacks against humanitarian infrastructure like he did in last year, October, I guess, UN humanitarian convoy in Kherson region without any investigation. Do you believe such accusation violate the UN charter, especially Article 100? Thank you so much, sir.

I start by paying tribute to Mateusz, who is an absolutely outstanding resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator. I've seen that again the last few days and we'll be spending time together tomorrow seeing President Zelensky and the Prime Minister and other colleagues. I've been to Lokichiz here in Kyiv, he's a great leader of the humanitarian effort here. you know, he has documented and has spoken about attacks on civilian infrastructure. I saw a lot of destroyed fuel stations on the road, for example. I know Steph has also spoken about those attacks on infrastructure and civilian targets here in Ukraine as we speak about those attacks elsewhere in the world. So I'm not going to get into any suggestion that that my colleagues are in breach of the UN charter. I'm a huge fan of our humanitarians on the front line. And Matias is one of the best of us.

We'll go to Murad and then Iftikhar and then back to Jasmin and then we'll take questions. We'll end it up. Go ahead, Murad.

Thank you. Murad from Al Jazeera Arabic. What are the concrete measures needed for independent investigations and accountability, either in Gaza or Ukraine or Sudan or elsewhere.

That's a great question, Marwan. And I think it's, in a way, that's the gap that we're seeing at the moment. What you hope is that you have a strong, and you're all examples of this, feisty, independent media, that draws attention to what's happening. You hope that you will have organizations documenting, sharing that information publicly, sharing it with investigators. You hope that you will have member states, the international community making a point of following up on these incidents and directly challenging the countries that can be assumed to be involved. And then you hope also, and maybe I'm too naive and idealistic about this, you also hope that those member states themselves who are being asked to hold themselves to account will also do that. And you hope that the public in those countries will demand answers and will demand higher standards, will demand respect for international humanitarian law and demand that people act in a in a better way. But we're not seeing much of that, as I've described. And one of the toughest things I do is to call the families of my friends and colleagues who've died in the line of this work. And they always ask me, they don't necessarily use words like accountability, but they always ask me, will there be justice? Did my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, I was with, relatives this morning of a colleague who died, did they die in vain? And will the person who did this to them be brought to justice? And I can tell them, of course, that their loved one did not die in vain. The work is so important and the work goes on. But I'm afraid I cannot tell them that the people who did it to them will be brought to justice. And that breaks my heart, actually.

Thank you. We'll go to Iftikhar Ali online and then Noreen, and then we'll release you, Tom. Thank you.

Thank you, Steph. Thank you, Mr. Fletcher, for this briefing. Iftikhar Ali from Associated Press of Pakistan. Sir, you said in your opening remarks that you have taken up, you are having conversations with the manufacturers of drones to draw their attention to their obligation under the international humanitarian law. What has been their reaction? Will they take any steps to prevent misuse of drones?

Well, thank you, Htikeha, and I greatly enjoyed my visit to Pakistan just a few weeks ago and up into the high places of Gilgit Baltistan. So just to clarify in that Iftikhar, what I was calling for was a dialogue with those who are designing and supplying the weapons. So I wasn't suggesting that we've had that level of detail in that dialogue, but it's clearly essential. In another life, actually, 10 years ago, I was part of a group of people interested in technology, including people experimenting in this space actually, and working on artificial intelligence, who wrote a collective letter saying that we were worried that we were creating risks faster than they could be managed. And really seeking this dialogue with international lawyers, with the UN system, with member states, the international community, about how to manage these risks while we still can. while there is still a human in the process that can manage those risks. You know, one thing that worried me on this visit, people briefed me on these AI controlled, they call them loitering munitions, which are effectively waiting in a conflict area for the moment at which a target emerges. And as they get closer to the end of their battery life, the dangers of them selecting a civilian target, convoy of humanitarian vehicles, convoy of UN vehicles increases. And it seems to me that each time we remove, further remove humans from this process, the dangers increase. The risk is that the algorithm that powers these weapons may turn out to be even less humanitarian than we humans are, and that is chilling.

Thank you, uh, Noreen, and then we have to go, sorry.

Thank you very much, Mr. Under Secretary General, my name is Noreen Hossein with IPS News. You've spoken a lot about seeking accountability, about pursuing dialogues around international humanitarian law. I want to ask, well, who are the forces in place that actually have any leverage still to hold these parties accountable? Is it even member states, especially when you have several key member states who are engaged in conflict and who are, of course, host the companies that manufacture the weapons that are used in warfare at this time? Thank you.

That's a great question. And I have to believe, I think all of us who believe in the international system and the United Nations and in global cooperation, ultimately in global solidarity, have to hope that member states can do this. If the world has become so transactional and selfish and inward looking that member states are no longer able or prepared to do this work, then we really are in a grim dystopian reality. And these weapons that I've described seeing in Ukraine the last few days or in Somalia or Sudan or in Gaza or in Lebanon will become a reality for all of us. So we do need member states to step up and uphold their responsibilities. And I know that colleagues across the UN who work in these areas will be at their side supporting that process. And the Secretary-General, of course, has been very clear and outspoken on these issues. Ultimately, if member states are not doing that, we need the public to hold them to account. We need a public demand of their leaders that we manage these risks before it's too late. And for so many of the people that work with, my fallen colleagues, for so many of the people who we're here to serve, it is already too late, I'm afraid. So thank you to you all again for shining a light on these issues. And thank you to all of you for your support for humanitarians through the year. And I have to say also to Steph as well, thank you for being such a consistent champion of our work as humanitarians from your podium there. We see it and And we appreciate it. Thank you. And back to you.

Thank you, Tom. And please pass on our thanks and solidarity with all our colleagues at the UN office in Ukraine. Thank you. We'll now go on with the briefing. Tomorrow, our guest will be Jean-Philippe Antolin, IOM's humanitarian response and recovery specialist. for Latin America and the Caribbean. He'll be joining us from Colombia to brief on the update on the humanitarian situation there following the earthquake. Let me start off with The issues surrounding the International Criminal Court, we've seen the announcement by the United States regarding the imposition of sanctions on the International Criminal Court President, Tomoko Akane, as well as a senior trial lawyer, Abdoulaye Sehe. I can tell you that the Secretary-General expresses serious concern about this designation, as well as the ongoing designation of other International Criminal Court employees. While the United Nations and the International Criminal Court are separate institutions with separate and distinct mandates, as we've often said, the United Nations considers the ICC a key pillar of international criminal justice, and the Secretary-General very much respects its work. Returning to the occupied West Bank, I can tell you that the Secretary-General is deeply alarmed by reports of new Israeli, new illegal Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including new tenders, including for this E1 area. He's particularly concerned about the developments related to this E1 settlement, which would effectively sever the connection between the northern and the southern West Bank. As such, it would have severe consequences for the territorial integrity of the occupied Palestinian territory and present an existential threat to the two-state solution. The Secretary-General calls on Israel to refrain from taking any further steps in this regard and to act in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions in line with the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of July 19, 2024. Meanwhile, on the ground, Israeli forces launched today an operation in Dahariya in near Hebron, imposing a curfew, deploying snipers on rooftops and blocking roads with earth mounds. Our humanitarian partners estimate that roughly 40,000 people, including children, are currently under curfew and not permitted to leave their homes. This is having an immediate humanitarian impact because people cannot replenish supplies, access essential services, or just get to their workplace. About seven Palestinian homes have also reportedly been used as interrogation centers after Israeli forces confined families to single rooms. That's what colleagues are telling us on the ground. And also, a number of arrests have been reported. Homes and families must be protected, and any security operation must be conducted in a manner that respects international law, including the protection and dignity of persons and civilians. We and our partners continue to provide support to people in the West Bank. Yesterday, our colleagues from UNRWA said that about 4,000 children joined their summer camps in 34 schools across that area. These children are taking part in sports, art, theater, and psychosocial support activities. In Gaza, our partners leading on security and safety reported Israeli military activities on areas located in west of the so-called yellow line. According to initial local reports, an Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people and injured others in Gaza in a Gaza City seaport yesterday. Such incidents obviously put civilians at risk and will restrict their ability to seek safety, medical care, and humanitarian assistance. Turning to Lebanon, To mark World Humanitarian Day, our Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, met today with partners to pay tribute to aid workers and reaffirm the need to protect them. He heard from those who have continued working throughout the escalation of hostilities while being directly affected by those hostilities themselves, highlighting the importance of mental health and the vital role of women-led organizations and our partners. Since March 2nd, 21 humanitarian workers have been killed and 25 wounded in Lebanon. That's according to our database. This follows the humanitarian coordinator's visit yesterday to the Tebmine Government Hospital in Nabatieh, where he met health workers who've continued providing care despite repeated damage to the health facilities. Since the 2nd of March, the hospital reported 14 security incidents impacting the facilities, including injuries to staff and damage to infrastructure, as well as ambulances. He also met with local authorities as well as the Lebanese Red Cross paramedics and volunteers to honor the volunteers killed and injured during the escalation of hostilities. We reiterate that civilians, including health and humanitarian workers, civilian infrastructure must be protected. Humanitarian workers must be able to carry out their work safely and without interference. The Deputy Secretary-General for -- sorry, a little update on travel of our Deputy Secretary-General. She is on her way to Xi'an in China, where in cooperation with the government of China, she will convene the third dialogue on artificial intelligence and human development that will take place tomorrow and Friday. The convening is part of a global series of high-level dialogues bringing together leading thinkers from around the country, around the region, around the world to examine how once humanity's most transformative technologies is shaping human progress. While in China, she will also be with senior government officials. On Saturday, she will be in Beijing, where she'll meet with members of the UN country team there to discuss cooperation in support of national development priorities and the implementation of the 2030 agenda. On the 23rd, she will head to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia on behalf of the Secretary-General to attend the 17th session of the Conference of Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. During the visit, she will underscore the need to accelerate land restoration, strengthen resilience, and advance sustainable development in the face of growing challenges posed by desertification, land degradation, and drought. On the margins of the conference, she will meet with those heads of delegation, senior officials, as well as UN colleagues. On her return journey, she will stop over in India. where in New Delhi, she will meet with senior government officials to discuss U.N.-India cooperation and India's engagement in advancing sustainable development. In India, she will also meet with students of the Indian Institute of Technology to exchange the opportunities and challenges to level digital innovation in support of the sustainable development goals. The Deputy Secretary-General will be back here on the 28th of this month. Moving to Sudan, our colleagues at the International Organization for Migration tell us that over the past 72 hours, they've delivered 1,700 metric tons of humanitarian supplies, including 17,700 hygiene kits and 850 tents, directly benefiting more than 110,000 people in areas where the needs are most acute. This assistance is expected to reach more than 400,000 people in the next coming days. The scale of needs remains enormous. IOM estimates that 8.6 million human beings are internally displaced across Sudan, alongside significant cross-border movement into neighboring countries. This is a man-made humanitarian crisis. It is being driven by the continued conflict and the compound compounded by displacement attacks on critical infrastructure and seasonal floods. Just to give you a sense of how dire the situation is in North Kordofan, intensified fighting and strikes in El Obeid's main electrical transformer has caused prolonged power outages, disrupting water pumping, health facilities, telecommunications, conditions that are inevitably forcing more people to flee their homes and to seek safety, often in places where there is no safety. Heavy rainfall in Tawila, North Darfur, destroyed or damaged nearly 1,300 homes last week, displacing thousands of families. IOM is calling for greater international support to ensure lifesaving assistance can continue to reach millions of people. And in Somalia, OCHA colleagues warned that severe drought and shrinking humanitarian assistance, including funding shortfalls, are taking a heavy toll on communities and their livelihoods, especially in the north and central parts of the regions of the country. The situation is particularly dire in the northern and northeastern region where up to 1.9 million people are estimated to be acute, acutely food insecure because of the drought. More than three quarters of traditional water sources in some regions have dried up. This is obviously threatening health and nutrition and agriculture at a time where 1.9 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Ten public hospitals in three of these northern districts are also struggling to remain open because of insufficient funding. Meanwhile, the ripple effect of the conflict in the Middle East are also adding further pressure in Somalia, causing higher fuel prices, disruption of maritime supply chains, which is driving up prices to some levels of up to 20%. Emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher allocated $10 million to rapid response to the drought in Somalia. But overall funding remains critically low, hampering humanitarian response. As of today, the humanitarian appeal is less than one-third funded. The situation could worsen between October and December, when El Nino is expected to increase the risk of widespread flooding. We and our partners have stepped up preparation for El Nino. urgently need more money from Venezuela our humanitarian colleagues tell us that humanitarian organizations continue to support communities impacted by the devastating earthquakes that hit the country almost two months ago now The death toll, according to local authorities, has surpassed 6,400. Our humanitarian colleagues are supporting more than 80 international and local organizations, as well as authorities, to help people recovering from the earthquakes and floods. More than 300,000 people have received food, health services, clean water, hygiene support through the earthquake response, which aims to reach 1.3 million people in the next six months. At the same time, we and our partners continue to support people in need across the country through the broader humanitarian response plan for 2026, which predated the earthquake and reached as many as 1.2 million people by the end of July. The humanitarian response plan is only 40% funded, having a funding gap of about $530 million. Speaking of money, we have a little quiz for you today. This country has -- is host to the architects Frank Gehry's only design in Latin America. And he designed a museum called the Bio Museo, which is open in 2014. What country hosts the only Frank Gehry design in Latin America? Not Mexico. We say thank you. You're looking for Chris. Sorry, he's not here, so I will answer for him. It is Panama, and we thank our friends in Panama City for their full payment to the regular budget. It brings up to 129, and Panama paid us $2,738,209, and we appreciate every single one of those pennies. We have money, and I'm ready to answer questions now that we have money. Morad then Efraim.

Thank you, Stephen. Israeli -- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said during a podcast interview that between 30 and 40 Palestinians should be killed every night. He added that Palestinians are not even people. Does the SCG condemn these remarks?

These remarks are appalling, they're outrageous, they're dehumanizing, and they're dangerous. And we condemn them unequivocally. Ephraim.

Thank you so much, Steph. On Al-Ubayyid, what's the situation now with the humanitarian -- U.N. humanitarian partners there? Who is there on the ground? And any update on Mr. Havisto's diplomatic efforts recently? Thank you.

I expect some news on Mr. Havisto's travel in the next coming days, which we'll share with you immediately. And I need to get a bit more of an operational update for you on Al-Ubayyid. All right. Please, you may, you may.

I want to ask about France. We are seeing how the extreme heat waves and the wildfires are affecting currently I want to ask if the UN is -- or specialized UN agencies are currently working on developing any innovative methods to help the government mitigate the impact, especially given the fact that France is one of the EU's major agricultural producer.

Let me take a step back. The fires that we're seeing not only in France, but we saw in Spain, we saw in Belgium, in Germany, in many, many places in Europe. And as you know, Europe is the region in the world that is heating up the fastest. And I think we have new data that came out today also on the heating of the oceans in Europe. It is all a sign of the adaptation that's needed for climate change. And I know many UN agencies, including FAO, the agriculture, other, IFAD and others, are working on helping the agricultural sector adapt. On the specific question, I'm not aware of any UN agencies currently working directly with the French government, which has a lot of its own resources, but I'm happy to double check.

Okay, can I, just a quick follow up on displacement, please. How concerned is the UN that if these climate shocks become more frequent, it can eventually create lasting impacts and demographic changes on the ground?

Well, Mona, it's something we've been talking about for a long time, right, and how the many reasons we're seeing people on the move. Some of it is due to conflict. Some of it is due to climate impact. We've seen, I mean, we were talking today about desertification, right? When people who lived and relied on agricultural lands who, which have now turned to desert, they're forced to move. Human beings will by nature move to seek safety, to seek food, to seek livelihoods. It is clear that climate change is having an impact and will have a growing impact on population movements throughout the world.

No, I definitely know that this is one of the most important topics you talk about regularly. But my question is, is the UN tracking how these displacements are creating long-term shifts on the ground.

I mean, these are things our population migration people are looking at all the time. Okay. Alex.

A quick one. Does the United Nations play any role in organizing Trump-Kim meeting by any chance?

I'm not aware of any role in that. Just ask him. Esteban, we go.