Ethiopia, Climate Change, Paris Peace Forum &…

This morning, the Secretary-General spoke at the Global Climate Action High-Level Event at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Secretary-General is also about to speak, via pre-recorded video message, to the Paris Peace Forum. On the situation in northern Ethiopia: Our humanitarian colleagues say that people in Amhara need shelter, food, and water, as well as medicines and protection, as fighting in Amhara has led to many people being newly displaced from Dessie, Kombolcha, Baati, Kamissie and other areas in Amhara. Hans Grundberg, our Special Envoy for Yemen, briefed the Security Council’s closed consultations this morning on his recent work, including his travels in Yemen. Our colleagues at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have today alerted about the risk of catastrophe if agriculture collapses in Afghanistan. FAO stressed that, without a massive uplift in humanitarian support, many farmers and herders will be forced to abandon their livelihoods and resort to rural migration. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Mahamat Annadif, and the Foreign Minister of Guinea, Morissanda Kouyaté, yesterday launched a new initiative to promote inclusiveness and social cohesion in Guinea. Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner for Refugees, said today in Belarus, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), together with the Belarus Red Cross, delivered assistance to people stranded at the Belarus-Poland border. Yesterday, Peru received 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX. This week, Nicaragua received more than 320,000 doses from COVAX which were donated by Canada. FAO, again, today released a report showing that global food trade has accelerated and is poised to hit an all-time record in both volume and value. UNHCR today released its Mid-Year Trends report showing that the rising trend in forced displacement continued into 2021. Tomorrow, we will be joined in this room by the Police Adviser and Director of the UN Police unit, our friend Luís Carrilho. He will be joined virtually by Police Commissioners from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Mody Berethe, and the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA), Violet Lusala. They will brief you on this week’s UN Police Week events. Lastly, we are thankful for this Member State which becomes the 136th Member State to pay its dues. This Member State has five UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Oman!