United Nations published this video item, entitled “Syria, Myanmar, Yemen & other topics – Daily Briefing (1 April 2021)” – below is their description.
Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Senior Personnel Appointment
– Syria
– Middle East
– Yemen
– Myanmar
– Niger
– Covax
– Venezuela
– World Autism Awareness Day
– Press Encounter Today
– Financial Contribution
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Joanna Wronecka of Poland as his new Special Coordinator for Lebanon.
Ms. Wronecka succeeds Ján Kubiš of the Slovak Republic to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his commitment and leadership.
Ms. Wronecka brings over 25 years of experience to diplomacy, international security and Middle East affairs. As you know, she has served since 2017 as the Permanent Representative to the UN – including during Poland’s two-year stint on the Security Council in 2018 and 2019, and before that as the Under Secretary of State for Arab and African countries, development cooperation and Polish-UN relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw.
SYRIA
I have an update for you on the cross-border operation, which the Secretary-General spoke about earlier this week and underscored the importance of.
In March, 920 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance crossed from Turkey into northwest Syria through Bab Al-Hawa. This is the only crossing open to the UN at this point. Over 1,000 trucks of UN assistance cross through Bab al-Hawa every month, as authorized by the Security Council.
We along with our humanitarian partners delivered assistance to 2.4 million people, on average, every month in 2020, including food for 1.7 million people through the cross-border operations.
We provide most of the emergency food assistance, of which 70 to 80 per cent is delivered through the World Food Programme.
Aid deliveries also complement and support programmes of international and Syrian non-governmental organizations providing indispensable assistance and services to millions of people, such as health services. There are no Government services in some of these areas.
Despite the large cross-border operation underway, needs continue to outstrip the response. We estimate that people are worse off today than they were nine months ago when the cross-border access was last reviewed.
The number of people in need has increased by over 20 per cent this year to 3.4 million people. Some 1.6 million people live in camps and informal settlements, with COVID-19 continuing to spread and the price of a basic food basket rising by 200 per cent in Idleb over the last year.
The Secretary-General has said that all channels should be made, and kept, available to deliver life-saving aid to people in need across Syria. A sustained, large-scale cross-border response remains necessary to address the enormous humanitarian needs of people in northwest Syria.
The renewal of the cross-border authorization in Security Council resolution 2533 of 2020 for an additional 12 months is essential.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=01%20April%202021
United Nations YouTube Channel
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