MOLDOVA听听
The Secretary-General is in Vienna now, having wrapped up his visit to Moldova, where he met today with President Maia Sandu.听
During that meeting, he expressed appreciation for the immense generosity and solidarity shown by the Government and people of Moldova towards those fleeing the war in Ukraine. He also noted that Moldova, already a fragile country, is by far the country that has received the most Ukrainian refugees, as a proportion of its own population.听
The Secretary-General expressed the UN鈥檚 full solidarity and commitment to scale up assistance to the Moldovan authorities to address the refugee crisis and the full impact of the war in Ukraine, as well as to the strengthening of the country鈥檚 national institutions.听听
Earlier, the Secretary-General had met with the UN Country team and thanked them for their efforts at quickly adapting to the shifting priorities due to the war in Ukraine. The Secretary-General also noted the fact that many members of the UN team were themselves hosting refugees in their private homes.听听
Prior to leaving Chi艧inau, Mr. Guterres visited a Refugee Centre, run with the support of UN agencies, where refugees can find temporary places to stay, hot meals and register for cash assistance. During the visit, the Secretary-General had an opportunity to meet a number of families who are housed or just using the services provided by the centre.
The Secretary-General said to the press afterward, 鈥淚t is impossible to meet refugees and not be deeply moved by their stories.鈥 He added that this tragedy demonstrates that 鈥渨ar is a senseless thing, and that this war must stop.鈥澨
Immediately following the visit, the Secretary-General visited the home of a Moldovan family which is hosting Ukrainian refugees. The Secretary-General thanked them for the generosity they have shown by opening their homes to those fleeing violence.听
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UKRAINE听
We also have an update on Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of people continue to be uprooted by the war. The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration today said that nearly 14 million people have been forced to leave their homes over the last couple of months.听听
To give you the breakdown, more than 8 million people had been internally displaced across the country by the end of April, an increase of 322,000 people in just two weeks, according to IOM. Another 5.9 million people were forced to cross borders to seek safety in other countries, according to UNHCR.听
Our humanitarian colleagues note that some 2.7 million people who were previously internally displaced within Ukraine have returned to their places of usual residence, further highlighting the complexity of mobility within Ukraine. According to IOM, 13 per cent of the returnees鈥353,000 people鈥攊ndicated an intention to leave their homes again due to the current situation.听
The UN and our colleagues from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights continue to receive reports and allegations of grave violations of human rights in Ukraine, including credible reports of rape, threats of sexual violence against civilian women and girls, men and boys and enforced disappearance and displacement, allegedly perpetrated mainly by Russian armed forces and allies. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is documenting and investigating the cases, some of which may amount to war crimes.听
And on funding, yesterday, our humanitarian colleagues have launched an interactive Ukraine Private Sector Donations Tracker, to document this unprecedented show of generosity and improve transparency about humanitarian funding flows.
The private sector has committed more than $1 billion of cash and in-kind donations for the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. Our Member States have made $1 billion available, out of $2.25 billion requested by aid organizations in Ukraine to support people impacted by the war.听
And in response to a question from yesterday on Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths鈥 engagement in Turkey, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that he was received in Ankara yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlut Cavuso臒lu, and Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin. Their discussions focused on Turkish support to the UN鈥檚 efforts towards progress on pressing humanitarian concerns in Ukraine.听听听
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SYRIA听
In Brussels today, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, urged donors to contribute to Syria at a time when $10.5 billion are needed this year to support Syrians, host communities and countries in need.听
He noted that humanitarian needs are deepening, driven by a deepening economic crisis, ongoing displacement, and climatic shocks, as well as the impact of a decade of conflict which damaged or destroyed much of the country鈥檚 public infrastructure and services.听He reiterated the UN鈥檚 continued effort to strengthen access through all modalities.听
Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, told delegates in Brussels that we are far from a political solution in the country. He expressed his hope that ultimately the Constitutional Committee can help establish a new social contract to help heal the wounds of a devastating conflict. But even were Syrians to agree on the substance of a constitutional reform or a new constitution, he said, it could not unfold inside of Syria in a truly meaningful way, with conditions the way they are today.听听
YEMEN听
The Government of the Netherlands and the United Nations will co-host a pledging event in The Hague tomorrow to support the UN-coordinated operational plan to address the threat of an oil spill from the FSO Safer. As you know, this is an aging tanker off Yemen鈥檚 Red Sea coast holding one million barrels of oil.
The planned operation has the necessary support of the parties to the conflict and key stakeholders and involves the installation of a replacement vessel or equivalent capacity and a four-month emergency operation to transfer the oil to a safe temporary vessel before it is too late.听听
The budget for the two-track plan is $144 million, including $80 million urgently required for the four-month emergency operation. We need donors to urgently commit the funds before the window to transfer the oil closes. The world needs to act now, or the time bomb will continue ticking.听
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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO听听
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO, reports that yesterday, there was a new attack by alleged CODECO combatants against a displaced site in the province of Ituri.听听
The attack took place in Lodha yesterday evening and the Mission says that at least 14 people were killed.听听
The peacekeepers based in Fataki immediately redirected a night patrol towards the site and exchanged fire with the assailants, forcing them to withdraw. They later evacuated four injured people to a health centre and spent the entire night protecting the IDP site.听
And, you will also have seen that in a statement we issued yesterday, the Secretary-General strongly condemned Sunday鈥檚 attacks, also in Ituri, and by the CODECO armed group.听听
At least 38 civilians, including women and children, were killed at the Blakete-Plitu mining site. More civilians were displaced and reported missing when the attackers set fire to the nearby Malika village, where they also reportedly raped six women.听听听听听
The Secretary-General calls on the Congolese authorities to investigate these incidents and bring those responsible to justice. He also urges the authorities to ensure MONUSCO鈥檚 immediate, free and unimpeded access to the areas of the attacks to facilitate efforts to protect civilians.听
SOUTH SUDAN听听
From South Sudan, the UN Mission has issued a new report which found that, despite an overall decrease in violence against civilians, cases of conflict-related sexual violence have more than doubled.听
Between January and March of this year, the Mission documented 63 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, up from 28 in the same time period last year.听
The report found that civil defense groups and militias accounted for the majority of violence against civilians, followed by conventional parties to the conflict, who are responsible for 34 per cent.听
It said that intercommunal violence, particularly conflict over cattle, was concentrated in areas where communities compete for scarce resources, made worse by climate change. The 2021 floods, the worst in decades, have further contributed to food insecurity and disruption of livelihoods.听听
The Secretary-General鈥檚 Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom, said that the UN Mission will step up its efforts to tackle conflict-related sexual violence, which he said continues to be one of the most traumatic features of the conflict in South Sudan.听
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MOZAMBIQUE听
The UN Refugee Agency today said that it is gravely concerned about the ongoing violence and insecurity in northern Mozambique. UNHCR warned that conflict and displacement, compounded by extreme weather events, has led to surging protection needs 鈥 physical, material, and legal 鈥 for hundreds of thousands of affected refugees, internally displaced people, and people from host communities.听
The UN Refugee Agency noted that since the start of this year, Mozambique has been battered by five tropical storms and cyclones along its northern coastal areas. These have impacted thousands of families, including refugees and people internally displaced by ongoing violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. UNHCR said that this illustrates once again how the effects of climate change interact with many of the root causes of displacement.听
UNHCR said that violence continues to blight the lives of around 783,000 people in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. In 2022 alone, an estimated 6,000 people have been recorded as newly displaced following a resurgence of conflict in Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces.听听
This violence has prevented UN agencies and other humanitarian partners from accessing people in need. In areas that can be reached, UNHCR, other UN agencies and humanitarian partners continue to scale up protection and assistance activity and to emphasize how vital it is that we can continue to do so.听
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ESWATINI听
I have an update for you on how our teams around the world are supporting countries responding to COVID-19.听
In Eswatini, the UN team, led by Resident Coordinator George Wachira, has supported the national vaccine campaign.听听
More than 540,000 vaccine doses have arrived through COVAX, most of which have been administered. Nearly 340,000 people 鈥 or 20 per cent of the population 鈥 have been fully vaccinated so far.听
The UN has trained more than 500 healthcare workers on managing COVID-19 during pregnancy.听听
To tackle the socioeconomic effects, more than 190,000 vulnerable people have received cash and food assistance worth more than $3.4 million. Our team on the ground also distributed supplies to farmers ahead of the winter season, which starts next month in the Southern hemisphere.听听
Our team has also supplied water to more than 77,000 vulnerable people in the drought-stricken regions of Lubombo and Shiselweni.听
COUNTER-TERRORISM CONFERENCE听
The Secretary-General spoke by video message to a conference on human rights, civil society and counter-terrorism in Spain.
He thanked Spain and our Office of Counter-Terrorism for organizing this conference, before reiterating that terrorism is not only an attack on innocent people, but also an all-out assault on human rights.听
He said that we need to put human rights where they belong: front and centre in the fight against terror.听
To do this, the Secretary-General added, we need to address the conditions that can give rise to terrorism, including by investing in health, education, protection, gender equality and justice systems accessible to all.听
We also need to safeguard principled humanitarian action to open the door to civil society 鈥揺specially women 鈥 to meaningfully engage with counter-terrorism efforts.听
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INFLATION听
The International Labour Organization today said that the annual rate of inflation worldwide, as measured by the consumer price index, accelerated to 9.2 per cent in March 2022, up from 7.5 per cent in February 2022. ILO also noted that the inflation rate in March 2022 was more than twice the rate of 3.7 per cent recorded in March 2021.听听
ILO said that the overall rise in inflation reflects the effects of the COVID-19-related lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. More recently, though, it has been driven by a surge in energy and food prices, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February.听
ILO warned that this conflict has inflicted a major shock on commodity markets, disrupting global patterns of trade, production and consumption in ways that are likely to keep prices at high levels in the coming years.听
