Speaking by telephone, the Secretary-General offered the Foreign Minister of the Philippines condolences for those impacted by Typhoon Haiyan, reaffirming the United Nations support and solidarity. Valeria Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator, who is being dispatched to the Philippines, will join the Foreign Minister and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator to launch the Typhoon Haiyan Action Plan tomorrow.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The UN refugee agency says it has recorded more than 62,000 arrivals by sea this year in Yemen, from 1 January until 31 October. The agency remains concerned about the very high numbers of people risking their lives by making this perilous journey from the Horn of Africa.
The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed that the Congolese army now has complete control over all areas previously controlled by the M23 rebel movement. It is now of utmost importance for the Government to establish its authority over the whole region and start its development.
The Secretary-General left Bamako for Niamey, Niger, today, along with the heads of the African Union Commission, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Union Commissioner for Development. He told lawmakers the United Nations was there to help Niger achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The Secretary-General was in Timbuktu, Mali, today, where he made a call for peace and reconciliation. Addressing a Ministerial Meeting on the Sahel, he underlined the leadership of the Governments there in solving the region's problems. He said the Sahel could and would go forward, but only if it was united.
Jamal Benomar, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Yemen, has helped broker an agreement to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to Dammaj — a town in the northern governorate of Sa’ada — in order to bring in medical and other supplies and evacuate the wounded.
The UN refugee agency said today that the Bay of Bengal’s annual sailing season — when thousands of desperate people flee Myanmar’s Rakhine State on rickety boats — may have begun. The agency said it has received reports that more than 1,500 people boarded boats last week and that people have drowned off the coast of Rakhine.
After inspecting 21 of the 23 chemical-weapon sites declared by Syria, the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations confirmed today that the Syrian Government has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment.
Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi met with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus today and with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem yesterday. He will be continuing his meetings in Syria with representatives from different opposition groups, women’s groups and civil society.
Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, ending a two-day visit to Damascus, said the Syrian Government and UNICEF agreed on the need to reach hundreds of thousands of children with lifesaving vaccines, including those against polio. The World Health Organization said Wild Polio Virus I has been isolated in 10 cases in Syria.