Gaza, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (1 May 2024)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
-Secretary-General/Travels
-Gaza
-Kenya/Humanitarian
-Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Myanmar
-Migration Tragedy
-Briefings Today and Tomorrow

SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS
This morning, the Secretary-General arrived in Santiago, Chile, where he will chair the biannual session of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB). The CEB will start tomorrow and bring together the heads of the UN system organizations.
CEB Members will reflect on current world affairs as they affect and are related to the UN system. The agenda of the meeting also includes discussions on 'Organized Crime with a Focus on Governance and the Rule of Law' and on the 'Summit of the Future: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow'.
Also tomorrow, the Secretary-General will have a bilateral meeting with the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric.

GAZA
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that aid organizations continue to face a number of access constraints in reaching people in need of assistance across Gaza, including denials of planned missions or prolonged delays at Israeli military checkpoints on the roads between northern and southern Gaza.
OCHA says that more than a quarter of humanitarian missions to northern Gaza in April were impeded by Israeli authorities – and 10 percent were denied.
The UN and its humanitarian partners continue our efforts to scale up aid operations whenever and wherever possible.
Today, the World Food Programme said it reached Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, which had been inaccessible for months. WFP says that setting up storage space there will allow it to bring more food to Gaza city and other areas.
The agency said it is ready to scale up food assistance in northern Gaza but stressed that rolling back six months of starvation will require steady flows of food supplies.
Meanwhile, OCHA warns that the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is escalating. There have been at least 800 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians there that resulted in casualties or property damage since 7 October.
Last night, Martin Griffiths, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that for the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza’s southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death.
He said that we welcome Israel’s recent reopening of the Erez crossing in northern Gaza to move aid from Ashdod port and Jordan. We also welcome efforts to bring in aid by sea. But he added that these improvements in bringing more aid into Gaza cannot be used to prepare for or justify a full-blown military assault on Rafah.  A ground operation there, he said, will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words. 

KENYA/HUMANITARIAN
The United Nations and its partners continue to support the Government-led response to the heavy rains and flash flooding. As of 29 April, emergency assistance was provided to more than 124,000 people, including water sanitation and hygiene supplies, food, health and psychosocial support.
The UN’s partners are also supporting rescue operations and setting up camps to host men, women and children displaced by these floods.
According to national authorities, the floods have impacted more than 190,000 people and displaced over 150,000 people across the country.
The floods did not spare the agricultural sector. Over 4,800 livestock were lost and over 27,000 acres of cropland damaged.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=01%20May%202024