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UN / SUDAN PERTHES PRESSER
STORY: UN / SUDAN PERTHES PRESSER
TRT: 03:39
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 APRIL 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
17 APRIL 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS):
“More than 180 killed, fatalities, more than 1800 injured. Including three colleagues from World Food Programme, who have been killed while trying to serve the Sudanese people in North Darfur.”
4. Wide shot, briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS):
“Fighting has been going on almost interruptedly. It's a very fluid situation. So it's very difficult to say where the balance is shifting to. As the representative of the United Nations with the support of the regional and international partners, I have made efforts to convince the leaders of both sides to at least holds a fire in real humanitarian paths for a few hours in order to make it possible for the Sudanese men and women and children to go to safer places or get supplies for the Ramadan iftar, they want to eat and drink during the day, to go to the hospital. I'm in constant contact with leaders of both sides.”
6. Wide shot, meeting room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS):
“I cannot give you any concrete figures about what's a value is of properties stolen or supplies looted or destroyed through the fighting or the looting. Nor can I tell you how many operations or projects have been stopped. But as I said earlier, all intents and purposes in these current circumstances, in the current conditions – basically no aid delivery can happen. That doesn't mean that projects are suspended or stopped. If people cannot move, if our staff WFP, UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and other staff cannot move, they hide down in their residences or in shelters, if their vehicles have been looted, if their offices have been destroyed or if their offices and their guesthouses are in the crossfire between the firing lines and they are simply not able to deliver. That's not a suspension. It means that we will stay and deliver to the extent we can. We will have to evacuate certainly some of our staff, non-essential staff, relatives but we will do our utmost to serve the Sudanese people again once we are able to do so.”
8. Med shot, briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS):
“The United Nations is going to investigate the deaths of our colleagues. There's very little opportunity to do that right now. At the same time, we are calling upon the authorities in this country to investigate and to bring those to accountability who are responsible of this crime of killing three aid workers.”
10. Wide shot, briefing room
The head of the UN Mission in Sudan said there have been over 180 fatalities and more than 1800 injured in Sudan, “Including three colleagues from World Food Programme, who have been killed while trying to serve the Sudanese people in North Darfur."
Briefing reporters virtually on the situation on the ground in Sudan, Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), said, “Fighting has been going on almost interruptedly. It's a very fluid situation. So it's very difficult to say where the balance is shifting to.”
He also said, “As the representative of the United Nations with the support of the regional and international partners, I have made efforts to convince the leaders of both sides to at least holds a fire in real humanitarian paths for a few hours in order to make it possible for the Sudanese men and women and children to go to safer places or get supplies for the Ramadan iftar.”
Answering questions about the situation on the ground for the aid workers, Perthes said, “I cannot give you any concrete figures about what's a value is of properties stolen or supplies looted or destroyed through the fighting or the looting. Nor can I tell you how many operations or projects have been stopped. But as I said earlier, all intents and purposes in these current circumstances, in the current conditions – basically no aid delivery can happen.”
He continued, “That doesn't mean that projects are suspended or stopped. If people cannot move, if our staff WFP, UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and other staff cannot move, they hide down in their residences or in shelters, if their vehicles have been looted, if their offices have been destroyed or if their offices and their guesthouses are in the crossfire between the firing lines and they are simply not able to deliver. That's not a suspension. It means that we will stay and deliver to the extent we can.”
Perthes added, “We will have to evacuate certainly some of our staff, non-essential staff, relatives but we will do our utmost to serve the Sudanese people again once we are able to do so.”
He also stressed, “The United Nations is going to investigate the deaths of our colleagues. There's very little opportunity to do that right now. At the same time, we are calling upon the authorities in this country to investigate and to bring those to accountability who are responsible of this crime of killing three aid workers.”
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