Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoPress Conferences
Briefing by Spokesperson for Secretary-General
The Secretary-General is leaving New York tonight for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he will attend the African Union summit.
On Saturday, he will meet with Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and hold a number of other bilateral meetings with Heads of State and Government. He will also participate in a high-level event entitled “Renewed Partnership to end hunger in Africa by 2025 – Five years later”, and he will deliver remarks at the meeting of the Peace and Security Council.
On Sunday morning, he will hold more bilateral meetings before attending the Opening Ceremony of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, where he will deliver a statement. He is also scheduled to hold a press conference in the afternoon at the African Union Headquarters.
He will leave Addis Ababa on Sunday night.
Prior to joining the Secretary-General in Addis Ababa, Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and the UN Development Programme Administrator, Achim Steiner, will travel to Ethiopia from 27 to 29 January to highlight the immense challenge of persistent food insecurity and the new approach to addressing it.
While Ethiopia has made remarkable strides in development and addressing food insecurity over the past three decades, its susceptibility to drought has resulted in recurring food insecurity.
Mr. Lowcock and Mr. Steiner will meet with senior Government officials, humanitarian and development partners, travel to field locations to meet with people who have been affected by drought and assess programmes that link the humanitarian response with resilience and recovery.
The two-day Special Meeting on Syria began at the UN headquarters in Vienna earlier today. Staffan de Mistura, the Special Envoy for Syria, met separately with each delegation today.
When he invited the Syrian Government and Syrian Negotiation Commission last week, Mr. de Mistura said that he expected that delegations would come to Vienna prepared for substantive engagement with him and his team, with a specific focus on the constitutional basket of the agenda towards the full implementation of Security Council resolution 2254.
Yesterday, Mr. de Mistura met Austria's Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, and Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl and afterwards he told reporters that the Special Meeting in Vienna was taking place at a very critical moment.
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council in an open meeting today that this year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords. He said that, while its daring vision for peace remains to be fulfilled, now is not the time to give up on Oslo. He warned that the alternative is not a better deal, but a worsening reality of occupation and humiliation.
Mr. Mladenov said that, while the current negative environment and dynamics may have been exacerbated by rhetoric and recent events, they are not new. The lack of political will to take meaningful action to restore confidence and resume negotiations, and the propensity to take unilateral decisions have been there for years. Our choice is clear, he said: We either take urgent concrete steps to reverse this perilous course or risk another conflict and humanitarian disaster.
The Special Coordinator expressed his deep concern over funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, this year, saying that the US pledge of $60 million represents a significant reduction of its traditional contribution. That, he said, will increase the anxieties for the community of 5.3 million Palestine refugees who have already suffered the longest protracted refugee crisis in the world.
Yesterday, the Security Council met on South Sudan.
The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, and the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, briefed Council members on the situation in the country.
Today, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Maria Ribeiro, launched the 2018 Libya Humanitarian Response Plan to support the humanitarian needs of 940,000 people living in the country. The Plan seeks US$313 million in donor funding to implement 71 projects by 21 humanitarian organizations, including national and international NGOs, and UN agencies.
These projects aim to extend protection to civilians, to ensure access to basic services for internally displaced people, returnees, and the most vulnerable Libyans, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The funds will also help to strengthen families’ capacity to cope with the continued pressures of a life of instability, fragmentation and economic decline.
Also on Libya, in a statement yesterday the Secretary-General condemned the double bombing in the Al-Salmani district of Benghazi and deplored the loss of civilian life, including children. The Secretary-General expressed his deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured swift recovery. He was also alarmed by reports of summary executions being carried out in Benghazi in retaliation for the attack.
At the invitation of the Governments of the Hellenic Republic and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Matthew Nimetz, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, will travel to Athens and Skopje from 29 January to 1 February 2018.
The visit is part of United Nations efforts to assist the sides in finding a mutually acceptable solution to the “name” issue.
After checking with the Global Compact on the status of the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC), the Spokesman confirmed that the Global Compact has decided to suspend CEFC’s participation in the initiative, with immediate effect.
Iceland and Kyrgyzstan have paid their regular budget dues in full, bringing the total number of Member States that have done so to 16.
