Munich Security Conference, Haiti & other topics…

The Secretary-General is in Munich, Germany, to attend the annual Munich Security Conference. He opened the Conference this morning, warning about the consequences of growing geopolitical divides, including the divisions in the Security Council.

Speaking at the Security Council this morning, Helen La Lime, the head of the UN Mission in Haiti, said that, for the country to emerge from the acute political and institutional crisis in which it is plunged, it is imperative that all Haitian leaders resolve to engage constructively with one another to steer the country towards a process that will allow for elections to occur.

The Deputy Secretary-General arrived back from Haiti late last night. She concluded her two-day visit yesterday afternoon by visiting a recently reopened school, the Lycée National de la Saline, where she learned more about the problems that Haitian children and their families face as they fight for the right to education.

The Deputy Secretary-General also spoke this morning to Member States on preparations for the Transforming Education Summit. She said that the Summit, to be convened by the Secretary-General in September on the sidelines of the General Assembly, will turbo-charge the efforts to set Agenda 2030 back on track.

On Ethiopia, I have some good news to report: the last UN staff member who had been detained by the authorities in the country has been released.

Our humanitarian colleagues are telling us that the distribution of humanitarian assistance continued across Afghanistan. This week, close to 459,000 men, women and children received food and cash assistance in various provinces.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has today allocated $2.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to ramp up the humanitarian response to Tropical Cyclone Batsirai.

The UN team in Malawi is working with authorities after a polio outbreak was declared following a case detected in a young child in the capital, Lilongwe.

From Colombia, the UN Verification Mission and the Country Team issued a joint statement – together with the European Union and nearly two dozen embassies – calling on armed groups to declare ceasefires and cessation of hostilities and to respect international humanitarian law regarding the protection of civilians.

A shipment of more than 1.5 million vaccine doses has arrived in Ecuador. They were donated by Spain and we thank them.

The International Organization for Migration said today it is alarmed by mounting migrant deaths and continuous reports of pushbacks at the European Union border between Greece and Turkey.

I want to thank our friends in Apia, because that country has paid its dues in full for 2022. Apia is the capital of which country? It is Samoa!