Gaborone — Botswana fully supports the United Nations for focused response to the genocidal assault on the people of Gaza, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.
Speaking during a courtesy call on him by United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ms Joyce Msuya, he applauded UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a sterling job of responding to the needs of member states."That's what he's there for, that's what you're there for, and we also applaud him for his stern and focused response," he said.
The President expressed deepest condolences to the families of international staff members brutally killed in their line of duty to humanity.
"I never imagined in my life that I would see a member state carrying out an assault against international civil servants. It really pains us. I'm geographically moved, but emotionally very attached to what's going on in the Middle East. It is a very sad occurrence, regrettable and totally unnecessary," he said.
He said Botswana called for cessation of hostilities and a negotiation of settlement by warring parties and held the view that a two-state solution was the answer to the problems to do with the Palestinians and the Israelites.
"We don't think this military assault is a solution. It is going to entrench the hardened and the radicalised all over the world," he said.
On other issues, he stated that as the global Champion of Africa Climate Mobility, his role was to respond to matters to do with climate change and mobility in the response to and perception and views about climate change and mobility."This role of being the champion resonates very well with our own drive of a knowledge-based economy. And so, we offer ourselves to be used to enhance the identification of the issues and the pressing of solutions to those problems that we identify," he said.
He said Botswana would avail the resources necessary to contribute to the programmes that would be of significance to what was done in response to the challenges of climate change.
While he noted, Botswana has not been contributing as much to the Central Emergency Response Fund, he said the country was actively considering increasing its contribution, given the severity of the challenges faced.
He further said Botswana was also committed to the challenges of climate change, as was exemplified by integrated resource plan, which was an evolving document.
"We want to grow to clean our energy production and green our ecosystem to the extent that we can. We do get criticised, I think fairly, for the use of our coal. But we have a vast resource of coal and we will look for technology to help with the mitigation of that, because we need base load production and assurance," he said.
For her part, Ms Msuya commended President Masisi for sterling job he was doing in the region to provide corridors for humanitarians to go in to serve humanity.
"I've spent three weeks in the region. I was in Mozambique for one week and I went to Cabo Delgado, where I saw with my own eyes what your forces are doing," she said.
She said the UN was going through the worst of global humanity times, and member states had been supportive to the UN leadership.
She said President Masisi's leadership on climate mobility was sterling.
"The reason why we had to do this mission now is to take and amplify the voices from Africa ahead of COP28. So whether it's community resilience, or early warning initiatives, contingency plans, the excellent work that African governments are doing, to take them to COP28, but also to shine light on the impact of drought now that we lost the renewables," she said.
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She said the intention was to see what the UN could do to work with governments and partners.
Ms Msuya said she had held meetings with Minister of Environment and Tourism and agreed on specific actions that the regional office in Nairobi would follow up on, such as usage of drones, capacity building and sharing of technological advancements.
" We are working very hard to mobilise additional flexible funding for climate finance for the use of drones in early warnings for drought to help farmers, to help communities including middle income countries," she said.
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