DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Good afternoon.

**Sudan Update

Starting with Sudan, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, travelled to west Darfur today to review the status of commitments undertaken by the Government in the Darfur Plan of Action.

Mr. Pronk’s travel is part of a three-day mission to the region by the members of the Joint Implementation Mechanism, the last to be undertaken before he briefs the Security Council next week.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Erick De Mul, is in north Darfur, while Mr. Pronk’s Deputy, Manuel Aranda da Silva, is travelling to south Darfur.  And as you know, the briefing to the Council is scheduled for September 2nd, as the Council President told you two days ago.

**Côte d’Ivoire:  UN Team Reports ‘Major Gaps’ in Health, Basic Services

A UN humanitarian team that travelled to northern and western Côte d’Ivoire last week says that there are major gaps there in health, education, water and sanitation.

The mission, led by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, says that the slow redeployment of Government workers to rebel-held areas in the north and west has deprived the majority of people there of basic services.  Also, the poor maintenance of water works, including village pumps, has left many without access to clean water, increasing the chances that disease may spread.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that in the western town of Guiglo, five unofficial roadblocks have been set up, hindering access to the most vulnerable populations.

The UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has nearly completed its deployment, with more than 5,880 military personnel on the ground.

**Billions Face Risk of Disease Due to Poor Sanitation, UN Warns

More than 2.6 billion people -- over 40 per cent of the world’s population –- don’t have access to basic sanitation, and more than 1 billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water.

Those are the findings of a new report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The report is a midterm assessment of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) which deals with halving the proportion of people who don’t have access to an improved water source and to adequate sanitation facilities by 2015.

The report makes two significant predictions on reaching the Goals:  firstly, the world is on track to meet the drinking water target.  Secondly, the global sanitation target will be missed by half a billion people -– most of them in Africa and Asia -– allowing disease to spread, killing millions of children and leaving millions more on the brink of survival.

We have more on this available in a press release upstairs.

**Security Council Programme

Turning to the Security Council, Council members are holding closed consultations on Haiti today, to review developments in that county since the middle of June.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi is briefing the Council on the work of the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Council members will also receive a report from the Secretary-General on Haiti next month.

**UNRWA ‘Strongly Protests’ Use of PalestineRefugeeSchool as Detention Centre

In a press release issued today, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that, on the morning of 24 August, Israeli military forces broke into a school run by the agency in the town of Askar, in the West Bank.

Israeli soldiers proceeded to use the school as a detention and interrogation centre for hundreds of male residents of the camp between the ages of 16 and 40.

The Agency strongly protests this flagrant violation of the United Nations Privileges and Immunities.

**Secretary-General Appoints Expert Panel to Monitor Somalia Sanctions

On Somalia, the Secretary-General, in a letter to the President of the Security Council, said he has appointed four experts to do the work of the Monitoring Group for Somalia, for a six-month period.

That group monitors the implementation of Security Council sanctions on Somalia and ways that they can be improved.  That letter, along with the list of names, is available on the racks.

**UN Helps Thousands of Liberian Former Child Soldiers Return Home

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that just four months after the launch of a massive disarmament campaign, almost 85 per cent of about 5,800 demobilized Liberian children have gone home to their families.  Over 115 children were reunified with their families just last week.

Also, over the next 18 months, an accelerated learning programme that folds six years of primary school into three will be introduced into public schools -- particularly in areas seeing large numbers of returning children.

We have more in a press release from UNICEF upstairs.

**UN Praises Global Response to Locust Emergency in North-West Africa

In an update on the locust situation in North-West Africa, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the international community has responded positively to its appeal to help countries in that region fight locusts.

But the agency warns that the situation in the affected countries remains dramatic and more international support is urgently needed.

**Disarmament Conference:  Update

And lastly, we have upstairs a press release from the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.  The release specifically deals with new contributions from China and Russia on their proposal regarding a legal instrument to ban weapons in outer space.

Thank you very much.

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