HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Thursday, December 6, 2007

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO LEAD U.N. DELEGATION
 TO AFRICAN UNION/EUROPEAN UNION SUMMIT

• Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will be leading the UN delegation to the African Union-European Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
   
  
• As part of her delegation, she will have the High-Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked and Small Island Developing States, Cheick Sidi Diarra, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet and the Deputy Chef de Cabinet, Kim Won-Soo.
   
  
• Mulet and Kim are scheduled to meet with the Sudanese delegation at the summit on issues related to the deployment of the AU-UN hybrid force (UNAMID). The purpose of those meetings, which will take place tomorrow and Saturday, will be to address and resolve the issue of force composition as well as all other obstacles impeding the deployment of UNAMID.
   
  
• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire, Choi Young-Jin, is expected to participate in a mini-summit on Côte d’Ivoire.
  

 U.N. HUMANITARIAN CHIEF WARNS SECURITY COUNCIL
 OF DIRE SITUATION IN SUDAN, ETHIOPIA AND SOMALIA

• The Security Council began its work today with a briefing on the work of the Council’s mission to Timor-Leste by the head of that mission, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.
   
  
• After that, the Council held another formal meeting to hear from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes about his recent visit to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. He told the Council that he is extremely concerned by the humanitarian situation in all three areas.
   
  
• He said that there are strong reasons to believe that a catastrophe could occur in the next few months in Ethiopia if all the necessary action to avert it is not taken.
   
  
• He added that, despite its scale and relative success in sustaining millions and saving hundreds of thousands of lives, the humanitarian operation in Darfur is increasingly fragile.
   
  
• He is particularly concerned about the seriousness of the situation of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced from Mogadishu, scattered over inaccessible areas in South and Central Somalia.
   
  
• This afternoon, the Security Council is scheduled to take up Burundi, first in a formal meeting, and then in closed consultations.
  

 UNICEF LAUNCHES IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN IN SOMALIA

• UNICEF is launching a large-scale immunization campaign for some 47,000 children under five and 56,000 women who live in camps for the internally displaced. The campaign is starting this week in IDP camps along the Mogadishu-Afgooye road.
   
  
• With 95 percent of children under 5 having never been immunized, Somalia has some of the worst health and social indicators for children in the world. The UNICEF effort will complement ongoing campaigns to deliver clean water and sanitation, build schools and improve health services.
   
  
• The approach is cost effective. UNICEF and WHO believe that they can reach 3.5 million children and women in the next two years for as little as US$ 15 per person per year.
   
  
• Asked about reports that the Transitional Federal Government had been blocking food deliveries, the Spokeswoman said that World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Lower Shabelle resumed yesterday after restrictions imposed by the Transitional Federal Government one day earlier were lifted. [WFP began unloading two of its ships in the port of Merka, and also resumed food distributions for 40,000 people in that city.]
  

 U.N. ENVOY MEETS WITH IVORIAN PRESIDENT

• The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cote d’Ivoire, Y. J. Choi, today met with President Laurent Gbagbo to discuss the implementation of the Ouagdougou Peace Agreement. Also present at the meeting was Boureima Badini, the Representative of the Facilitator of the Ivorian dialogue.
   
  
• Choi said at the end of the meeting that the discussion placed particular emphasis on preparations for general elections expected to take place in 2008. He said he left encouraged by the President’s plans to realize various programmes provided for in the additional protocols to the Ougadougou Agreement which were signed on Novermber 28th between the President and former rebel leader and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.
   
  
• Choi reaffirmed the UN’s support to the peace process.