Secretary-General at Web Summit & other topics - Daily Briefing (6 November 2018)

Daily Press Briefing: Cameroon, Secretary-General at Web Summit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Security Council, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mediterranean Migrant, Migrant Disappearance, Food and Agriculture Organization, Pakistan, Environment and Conflict
Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
CAMEROON
The Secretary-General condemns the reported kidnapping on 5 November of students and staff from a secondary school in Bamenda, in the North-West region of the country. He calls for their immediate release and return to their homes and families. There can be no justifications for these crimes against civilians, particularly minors.
The Secretary-General reiterates the need for a peaceful solution to the crisis in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon through an inclusive dialogue process, which the United Nations stands ready to assist.

SECRETARY-GENERAL AT WEB SUMMIT
The Secretary-General is on his way back from Lisbon where yesterday he attended and spoke at the 2018 Web Summit during which he saluted the scientific progress that is helping cure diseases, conquer hunger and drive economic growth. He also highlighted how the UN is already profiting from new technologies across the agenda. The Secretary-General talked about the many challenges and perils associated with frontier technologies. He said that the existence and use of autonomous weapons with the discretion and capacity to take human lives is politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be banned by international law.
He also emphasized that with the weaponization of artificial intelligence, the prospect of autonomous weapons that can select and destroy targets will make it very difficult to avoid escalation of conflicts and to guarantee the respect of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The Secretary-General should be back in New York a little later this afternoon and he will go straight to a meeting of the Chief Executives Board (CEB), which brings together the heads of the UN system, and he starts off with a dinner this evening and they will continue their meetings in Greentree tomorrow and Thursday.

DR CONGO
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros, and the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix arrived yesterday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to take stock of joint efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu.
Dr. Tedros and Mr. Lacroix met in Kinshasa on Monday with the Prime Minister of the DRC and discussed the security situation in North Kivu and ways to improve engagement with communities to help the Ebola response. They also met with the UN’s humanitarian team.
The delegation is currently in Goma and will arrive in Beni, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak tomorrow, where they will meet with local authorities, first responders and communities. They will also be briefing the members of the Chief Executive Board over the next two days via videoconference from the Congo.
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