The situation in Libya & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (5 April 2019)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Daily Press Briefing:
- Secretary-General"s Travels
- Security Council
- Syria
- Cyclone Idai
- Ebola
- Niger
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- Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
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SECRETARY-GENERAL’S TRAVELS
The Secretary-General is now on his way to Jordan. He took off from Libya about 20-25 minutes ago.
He started his day this morning in Tripoli and then went to Tobruk this morning to meet with the President of the Libyan House of Representatives, Agila Saleh, and then on to Benghazi where he met with General Khalifa Haftar.
Just before his departure, the Secretary-General said that he was leaving Libya with a deep concern and a heavy heart. “I still hope it will be possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli,” he added. And he said the UN will remain committed, as he would as Secretary-General, to supporting the Libyan people.
Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General visited a detention center in Tripoli. After meeting with families, he said he was deeply shocked and moved by the suffering and despair he saw in the center where migrants and refugees are in detention for unlimited amount time and without any hope of regaining their lives.
The Secretary-General is now on his way to Amman where he will speak at the World Economic Forum tomorrow morning and then visit a camp, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, otherwise known as UNRWA, in fact, there, he will be meeting with students and visiting a school. We will send you updates from there as we get them and we expect the Secretary-General back in New York on Sunday night.

SECURITY COUNCIL
Also on Libya, this afternoon, the Security Council will hold closed consultations on that country and will be briefed by Ghassan Salamé, who is the Secretary-General’s Special Representative there.

SYRIA
Turning to Syria, our humanitarian colleagues tell us they are alarmed by continued reports of civilian casualties due to hostilities in and around the demilitarized zone in the northwest of Syria.
At least 19 civilians have been reportedly killed, dozens injured in hostilities within the demilitarized zone in Idleb and Hama governorates in the last two days. Some 13 people were killed and 14 injured, among them women and children, in airstrikes in southern and eastern rural Idleb governorate, while six are reported to have died and at least 11 are reported to have been injured in artillery shelling in northwest Hama governorate.
The recent surge in violence in Hama, southern Idleb and western Aleppo has displaced at least 90,000 people in the past two months.
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