Iran/Pakistan, Uganda, Gaza & other topics - Daily Briefing (18 January 2024) | United Nations

Highlights:
- Secretary-General/Trip Announcement
- Secretary-General/Gaza
- Gaza
- Syria
- Sudan/UN Fact-Finding Mission
- Red Sea
- Republic of the Congo
- Children
- Afghanistan
- Ecuador
- Department of Global Communications

The Secretary-General left Davos early this morning and he is now in Thun, which is also in Switzerland, where he is spending the day with his Special Representatives and Special Envoys, who gathered for their annual retreat with him.
Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will leave Switzerland and will travel to Kampala, in Uganda, where two very important summits will be held over the weekend - the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and the Third South Summit of Heads of States and Governments of the Group of 77 plus China. The Secretary-General is expected to address the NAM summit on Saturday and the G77 plus China Summit on Sunday.
The Secretary-General is expected to emphasize the critical role that both the NAM and the G77 plus China play in fostering international cooperation, at a moment of deep division and the rising of geopolitical tensions.
His messages will focus on support to multilateralism and the renewed efforts for peace, financing for sustainable development and climate action, and the need for reforms of our global institutions.  He will also urge governments to consider his proposal of a New Agenda for Peace. 
While in Kampala, the Secretary-General is expected to have bilateral meetings with a number of attendees of the Summit, and he will also meet with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni.

The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement of an operation to deliver additional and much-needed medicines and medical supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and to deliver vital medicines to hostages currently held in Gaza.
The entry of these critical supplies and humanitarian aid to Gaza is encouraging, however much more aid needs to come into the Gaza Strip. He commends the State of Qatar and France for all their efforts.
The Secretary-General also reiterates his appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and he also reiterates his call for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and for their humane treatment.
The Secretary-General urges all relevant actors to ensure that sufficient humanitarian aid gets into and where it is needed in the Gaza Strip and calls for the reactivation of the private sector to bring basic commodities into the Gaza Strip.
The Secretary-General expresses his continued concern about heightened tensions in the region and calls for an urgent de-escalation.

Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), issued a statement after he ended his latest visit to Gaza.
He said that in southern Gaza, around Rafah, makeshift structures of plastic sheeting have mushroomed everywhere, including on the streets, with people trying to protect themselves from the cold and rain. Each one of these flimsy shelters can be home to over 20 people.
He said that the population of Rafah has almost quadrupled, to more than 1.2 million people. He added that everyone he met had a personal story of fear, death, loss, and trauma to share. Over the 100 days, the people of Gaza have moved from the sheer shock of losing everything, in some cases every member of their family, to a debilitating struggle to stay alive and protect their loved ones.
Mr. Lazzarini noted that UNRWA staff are equally impacted. Despite this, they work tirelessly to support the people around them. He said he was not able to reassure them that they, let alone their families or UN facilities, would be safe.
Initial reports yesterday indicated that a missile reportedly struck the UNRWA health clinic in Ad Daraj, in Gaza City. Further details on the impact of the projectile are yet to be established.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that telecommunications services in Gaza remain disrupted for a seventh day. As we have said repeatedly, these outages significantly hinder our efforts to adequately respond to the humanitarian crisis and to assess the full extent of needs in Gaza Strip.
The capacity of humanitarian agencies to operate safely and effectively anywhere in Gaza Strip also remains heavily compromised by Israeli restrictions on the import of critical equipment, including appropriate communication devices.
Meanwhile, access denials for humanitarian missions to areas north of Wadi Gaza are impeding efforts to scale up the provision of life-saving assistance there, which adds significant cost to the overall response. When planned aid convoys are denied, it is also a missed opportunity for alternative missions that could be undertaken to other areas of the Gaza Strip.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/conte....nt/noon-briefing-hig