UN INFORMATION SERVICE GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Six months of the Ebola outbreak in the DRC
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, said that the Democratic Republic of the Congo had declared an outbreak of Ebola six months earlier. The disease continued to take a devastating toll, with over 11,000 registered infections and 5,400 recorded deaths so far. There were encouraging signs: early epicenters had been brought under control. Even in Bunia, there were fewer new infections, and the bed occupancy was lower. From the beginning, WHO had stood by its DRC partners and the progress they made was real, but it was fragile and more needed to be done.
The rising insecurity was also a growing challenge, with numerous attacks on health care, which disrupted surveillance, treatment, and forced people to move. Despite these challenges, WHO’s message was that the line had to be held. All tools available needed to be used, stressed Dr. Ihekweazu. Research into new treatment options and vaccines could increase the ability to save lives. The next phase of the response needed to be about execution and quality, he explained. Ebola was only one of the threats these communities faced, and the overall health system needed to be strengthened to prevent such outbreaks in the future.
Julien Harneis, Senior Ebola Coordinator, stated that significant progress had been made in the past six months. Mr. Harneis said he was impressed by the government leadership, their wisdom and skill. The Ebola response area covered massive territory, comparable to the distance from Geneva to Dublin, he explained, which carried inherent challenges. Further international cooperation was needed on both vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis. Activities included scaling up bed capacity in Ebola treatment centres and protecting families moving down the river to Kinshasa. Africa’s Center for Disease Control was part of the response, while UN Humanitarian Air Service was providing air support. Mr. Harneis emphasized excellent operational cooperation on the ground.
Nonetheless, significant transmissions continued, and serious risks continued. Three operational priorities included safe contact tracing and response in areas of violence; engagement with the private sector; and improving preparedness in the areas where transmissions might be occurring. Speaking about violence, Mr. Harneis said that these days more people were being killed in Ituri and Kiwu by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) violence than by Ebola, a challenge that needed to be resolved. While the Ebola response was relatively well funded – with a significant portion of funds coming from the United States - the funding was uneven and some organizations, including WHO, WFP and UNICEF, were less funded than others. More emergency response teams were needed, and continued international solidarity was of paramount importance.
Answering questions from the media, Mr. Harneis explained that some three weeks earlier the government of the DRC had issued a new response plan of USD 1.3 billion. WHO and Africa’s CDC used financial tracking mechanisms which provided an updated overview of how the funding was being provided and spent. On another question, Dr. Ihekweazu said that at the moment there were between 400 and 500 new cases per week. In the initial epicentres, there were now significant reductions thanks to the effective response, but cases were erupting in other, mostly rural areas. WHO was working on moving treatments closer to those affected, hard-to-reach areas. Security and access were the biggest challenges. Security challenges were nothing new in the DRC, explained the speaker, and there existed multiple groups and militias fighting over various interests for decades. Further response’s effectiveness would depend on the evolving security situation and access.
Responding to more questions, Mr. Harneis explained that out of USD 2.2 billion required in the appeal issued in June 2026, over USD 1.1 billion had been funded, a 54 percent funding rate. He underlined that the area of operations was of immense size, but hundreds of thousands of people, local and international alike, were working on the response. He further explained that the majority of Congolese people would usually go to the private sector (pharmacies, nurses, doctors or clinics) when they had a health issue, which was why cooperation with those actors was indispensable. On the funding question, Dr. Ihekweazu added that the first six-month part of WHO’s own response had been fully funded. WHO’s Director-General’s message was that the absence of peace was the biggest impediment to the successful Ebola response. Mr. Harneis said that the situation of sustained transmission would likely continue until vaccines became available. During that period, contact tracing ought to be improved, he stressed. While there had been extraordinary progress in Ebola response so far, reiterated Mr. Harneis, much more remained to be done until the outbreak was stopped.
Jean-Martin Bauer, World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis, speaking from Rome, said that nearly 29 million people were facing acute food insecurity, and the number was projected to rise to 30.3 million in early 2027. Conflict and disease were two main compounding factors. Between January and June 2027, 4.2 million people were expected to be in the emergency phase of hunger. The eastern part of the DRC had the highest concentration of acute needs. Ebola and other disease outbreaks were putting additional pressure on communities who were already struggling to eat. Food assistance was an important part of a wider response, stressed Mr. Bauer. Adequate, sustained funding and safe access were both needed in order to make a difference, and the long-lasting conflict had to be addressed.
Ibrahim Abdoul Nasser, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative in the DRC, connecting from Kinshasa, said than more than 80 percent of people facing food insecurity were in three provinces: North Kiwu, South Kiwu, and Ituri. Every time a family was displaced, they lost their animals, seeds and access to their farming land. The presence of Ebola cases was enough to cut income by half, he said. FAO was on the ground, having assisted some 330,000 people with seeds, food and cash, and having vaccinated poultry. Families in eastern DRC needed practical support this season, as El Niño was expected to bring flooding. Mr. Nasser called for additional investment now, ahead of the planting seasons.
Winter, floods, diseases and attacks on health care in Gaza
Dr. Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, speaking from Jerusalem, spoke about the Israeli attack on the Nasser hospital, in which six people had been killed and at least 27 injured. Since October 2023, WHO had documented 1,056 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, resulting in 1,010 deaths and 1,725 injuries. Gaza’s health system was extremely overstretched, and every additional attack on healthcare undermined the important work done to rehabilitate the fragile health system. Health care had to be protected; it should never be militarized or attacked.
Speaking about winter, rain and floods, Dr. Van De Weerdt said that a few days of rain had shown what the winter ahead would bring. An estimated 950,000 displaced people lived in flood-exposed areas, of whom 400,000 were in locations at extremely high risk. Tents in which so many families lived served as a roof over people’s heads and provided some sort of safety and protection. Losing those tents would make the families even more vulnerable, amidst overflowing sewage and the spread of acute respiratory infections. Cold weather, flooding, and poor ventilation would push the already high numbers even higher. The risk of waterborne diseases also remained high, while wastewater management in Gaza continued to be insufficient. What was needed now was to allow humanitarian and health supplies at scale. Humanitarian agencies were ready, but needed unrestricted access to bring food, medicine and other necessary supplies. The fourth winter in Gaza would test a health system that had already been stretched to its utmost limit, she concluded.
Replying to questions from the media, Dr. Van de Weerdt confirmed that a nine-month-old baby had died in Gaza the previous day, but she could not confirm that the cause of the death was hypothermia as this baby had other underlying conditions. Laboratory equipment was needed in Gaza to detect outbreaks early and respond on time. Over 150,000 tents were ready to enter Gaza, but were not being allowed in, she informed. Medical evacuations continued from Gaza into Egypt and Jordan, but the Rafah crossing operated on a “one-for-one” principle which was sometimes difficult to observe.
Lethal autonomous weapons systems and 7th Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
Shabia Mantoo, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that Volker Türk was calling on States to urgently agree to the development of a treaty regulating autonomous weapon systems, as they prepare to meet at the 7th Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Geneva the following week. Given the rapid pace of technological development and the risk that autonomous weapon systems could become widely accessible in the near future, the window to develop a treaty effectively to regulate these increasingly powerful systems in advance was closing rapidly.
“A machine must never have the power to decide whether a human being survives or dies,” stressed Türk in his statement. He further called for prohibitions on autonomous weapons that themselves target people – either by design or in practice, and for a ban on weapons whose functions and effects could not be fully understood, predicted, explained and controlled by human users. Human judgement and responsibility had to remain at the centre of decisions involving the use of force. Machines could not understand the value of human life, assess context in the way humans could, or make the complex judgements required by international law.
The full statement is available here.
Michael Spiess, Senior Political Affairs Officer at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), said that the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons was one of the key pillars of the disarmament field, and it currently had 128 high contracting parties. The following week, under the presidency of Switzerland, the Seventh Review Conference would be held at the Palais des Nations next week, informed Mr. Spiess. The Conference would open on 16 November with a video message by the UN Secretary-General. The UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs would be in attendance. The main issue on the agenda was the mandate to continue discussions of lethal autonomous weapons. In September, the high contracting parties had reached a consensus on a list of elements to be considered at the Conference, which was now expected to decide on next steps. At present, there was no agreement on the nature of a possible new instrument on LAWS – legally binding or not legally binding, as well as the timeframe.
The Conference would also consider humanitarian impact of mines, emerging methods of warfare not covered by other international instruments, among others. Most sessions of the Conference would be open to the press without additional registration.
More information about the Conference is available here.
Answering questions, Mr. Spiess explained that the Conference, taking place in the Assembly Hall, would be taking decisions by consensus. The Conference would not be about the LAWS instrument itself but rather about the framework for further negotiations.
Announcements
Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that on 17 November in Dakar, Senegal, UNHCR would launch a global initiative on protection at sea, which would ask for strengthened protection amidst growing concerns on several sea routes. A press release with further details would be released on 17 November.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), introduce Tamara Alrifai as the new Director of Communications of the World Health Organization.
The sixth session of the UN Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law would take place on 16 and 17 November, under theme “Education for Civic Participation: Empowering Future Generations, Fostering Knowledge and Critical Thinking”.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would be closing its 80th session today. CESCR had review the reports of Eswatini, Pakistan, Mexico, and Austria.
The Committee against Torture would open its 85th session on 16 November, during which it would review the reports Moldova, Norway, Belize, and Angola.
Finally, Ms. Vellucci informed that the Global Framework on Chemicals - For a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste (GFC) would hold its first international conference at CICG in Geneva between 16 and 20 November.
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