Daily Press Briefing by Spokesperson for Secretary-General

Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

• Categories: Media / Press Conferences
• Video Length: 00:18:32
• Production Date: 17 November 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
• Corporate Name: SECURITY COUNCIL
• Subject Topical: CANCER; CORONAVIRUS DISEASE - COVID 19; DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE; INTERNET; PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS; REFUGEES
• Geographic Subject: ETHIOPIA; LIBYA; SRI LANKA
• MAMS Id: 2583379
• Parent Id: 2583379

Description

In Ethiopia’s Tigray region, our humanitarian colleagues and our partners continue to call for the protection of civilians, respect for International Humanitarian Law, and ways to assess needs and ensure that aid continues to reach areas affected by the conflict.

Also, in Ethiopia, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned today that a full-scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding as thousands of refugees flee ongoing fighting in Tigray every day to seek safety in eastern Sudan.

Ahead of this weekend virtual G20’s summit later this week, the Secretary-General has written a letter to all of its members.
In this letter, he says that the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare systemic fragilities in our societies, our global economic system and the frameworks that govern the international system.

The Deputy Secretary-General is back in Nigeria today. This morning she met with the Minister of Women’s Affairs and participated in an event to launch the National Situation Room and Data Dashboard for ending violence against women and girls in Nigeria.

The UN humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, today allocated $100 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to help people feed themselves in countries most at risk from growing hunger due to conflict, economic decline, climate change and COVID-19. Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen will each receive a share of $80 million.

This morning, members of the Security Council met in person. They held a short open meeting on the situation in Mali.

The United Nations African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) said today that it conducted two dialogue forums in Khartoum Jadid and Korgul villages in North Darfur. The aim was to help prevent tension between farmers and herders during the current harvest season.

The Acting Special Representative for Libya, Stephanie Williams, attended a meeting yesterday hosted by Sirte Oil Company in Marsa Brega.

A new UN report is providing provides suggestions on how to immediately address the complex health, humanitarian and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic while boosting speedy recovery efforts.

In Sri Lanka, the UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Hanaa Singer, and partners are helping to respond to the crisis on the health, socio-economic and risk communications fronts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today launched a Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer. The initiative outlines three key steps, which are vaccination, screening and treatment.

For further details please see SOURCE below.
Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General