Nelson Mandela Day & other topics -Daily Briefing (18 July 2019)

Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Daily Noon Briefing:
-Mandela Day
-Yemen
-Jerusalem
-Central African Republic
-Ebola
-DPRK
-MH17
-UNHCR
-FAO
Highlights:
MANDELA DAY
Today is Nelson Mandela Day, and the Secretary-General has paid tribute to the lifetime of service he gave to South Africa and the world.
The Secretary-General said that Nelson Mandela exemplified courage, compassion, and commitment to freedom, peace and social justice.
He added that Mr. Mandela’s calls for social cohesion and a culture of peace are particularly relevant today, with hate speech casting a growing shadow around the world.
The Secretary-General said that, with the multilateral system under strain and human rights under siege from many quarters, we should be guided by Nelson Mandela’s courage and wisdom to stand up for the values and principles of the UN Charter.
As happens every year, the UN calls on people and organizations around the world to mark Nelson Mandela Day by making a difference in their communities.
Here in New York, staff members and diplomats are volunteering to support social justice by cooking for and serving disadvantaged people in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a neighbourhood that Mr. Mandela visited when he came to New York for the first time in 1990.

YEMEN
Martin Griffiths, the Special Envoy for Yemen, briefed the Security Council by videoconference from Amman and said that the way forward there is clear and supported by international consensus: to implement the Hudaydah agreement and with that experience engage swiftly the parties on a settlement. He congratulated both parties on their meeting this week under the leadership of General Michael Lollesgaard, which he said was a notable success.
The Special Envoy said in recent days, he met with President Hadi and visited Sana’a and met Ansar Allah leaders, and said he was able to discuss ways to advance the implementation of Stockholm agreement, as well as the political process.
Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said that, as he has previously reported, conditions for most people in Yemen are getting worse, not better; and if the current trajectory continues, we should all expect they will continue to get worse.
He said that the fighting rages on. Since June, Mr. Lowcock noted, 120,000 more people have fled their homes, bringing total displacement this year to more than 300,000 people – on top of the millions forced to flee in previous years.
David Beasley, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP), discussed the suspension of food aid to Sana’a and said that he was assured early this morning that an agreement is within reach, and he is hopeful that we can use this positive momentum to resolve these outstanding issues in the coming days, if not hours.