HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 4 JUNE 2025
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
The Secretary-General is appointing Major General Diodato Abagnara of Italy as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. We expect him to take up his position on the 24th of June.
Major General Abagnara succeeds Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz of Spain. The Secretary-General extends his sincere gratitude to Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz for his dedication, for his leadership of UNIFIL during one of the mission’s most challenging periods.
Major General Abagnara brings to the position over 36 years of military service, including extensive leadership roles within the Italian Armed Forces.
Most recently, he served as Commander and Chair of the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon, where he oversaw multinational coordination efforts in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, today urged Israel to open all of the crossings into Gaza, let in lifesaving aid at scale from all directions, and lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in.
He noted that dozens of Gazans were declared dead at hospitals yesterday after Israeli forces said they had opened fire. Mr. Fletcher said this is the outcome of a series of deliberate choices that have systematically deprived two million people of the essentials they need to survive.
Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us the latest figures indicate that in the past three weeks, more than 100,000 people were forced to flee in the governorates of North Gaza and Gaza.
UN partners working in health say that more medical facilities are suspending their operations.
On Monday, the remaining staff and patients at the Indonesian Hospital, in North Gaza, were evacuated.
As a result, not a single hospital remains functional in North Gaza.
Today in Gaza City, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Suzanna Tkalec visited Al Ahli hospital, which has sustained multiple attacks since the beginning of the war. Ms. Tkalec heard from staff about the challenges they are facing every day. They stressed that preventable deaths are occurring due to shortages of critical supplies, including antibiotics. The Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator called for the protection of health facilities, the unrestricted flow of assistance into Gaza, and support for our work and our partners’ work to deliver at scale to alleviate the suffering of people.
Meanwhile, we and our partners continue to send supplies to Kerem Shalom crossing, where the Israeli authorities scan them before they can enter Gaza.
For today, we submitted over 130 pre-cleared truckloads for a second and final Israeli clearance, but only 50 of them – which were carrying flour – were approved to enter the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
UN teams on the ground are also working hard to collect supplies from Kerem Shalom and bring them closer to the people who need them inside Gaza. But these attempts are facing major hurdles. Just yesterday, one attempt was denied access altogether and another one did manage to retrieve just over a dozen truckloads carrying flour. Overall, since the crossing reopened, we’ve been able to collect fewer than 400 truckloads, even though every day we have tried to coordinate access and secure safe routes through the Israeli-militarized zone in the south.
And that denied attempt to access Kerem Shalom was one of the six access denials our teams faced just yesterday across the Gaza Strip, out of a total of 13 attempts. These denials prevented our teams from carrying out interventions as critical as trucking water to those who need it.
Another of yesterday’s six denied access attempts was to retrieve fuel, which is so urgently needed. OCHA warns that without immediate access to fuel that is already inside Gaza but located in hard-to-reach areas that are either militarized or subject to displacement orders, more critical services will have to suspend operations soon.
And as you know, this afternoon at 4 p.m., the members of the Security Council of the United Nations will meet not far from here to discuss the situation in Gaza.
SUDAN
Turning to Sudan, the conflict-related displacement of people and the spread of cholera continue to increase humanitarian needs across that country. The International Organization for Migration reports that nearly 9,700 people in Khartoum State alone were recently displaced from Al Salha in Um Durman locality due to conflict.
Many of them remained within Um Durman, while others moved north to Karrari district which is still in Khartoum State but the security situation there is fluid, we are told. In South Kordofan, IOM tells us that more than 9,000 people fled Dibebat town in Al Quoz locality last week due to intense clashes. The situation remains very volatile.
At the same time, our IOM colleagues say that about 600 people were displaced from Abu Shouk camp and El Fasher town in North Darfur state just last week.
Most of them sought refuge within El Fasher, while others moved to other localities in North Darfur, including,Tawila where, as we’ve mentioned in recent weeks, we and our partners have been scaling up assistance for new arrivals, despite significant gaps due to shortfalls in resources and challenges in getting partners on the ground in sufficient numbers.
On the cholera outbreak, daily cases are falling in Khartoum state, but they are steadily increasing in the north, in River Nile state. In the past two weeks alone, health authorities there have reported more than 180 cumulative cases and four deaths. Most of the cases were concentrated in the localities of Atbara, Barbar and Damar. And of the total cases, 55 were reported to have arrived from other states – including 45 from Khartoum and Um Durman – underscoring the cross-regional spread of the disease.
Partners warn that continued displacement, damaged infrastructure, and limited access to safe water are accelerating transmission.
Meanwhile, our humanitarian colleagues are warning that thousands of displaced people are now returning to Blue Nile state and need urgent assistance. They lack food, they lack clean water, health care, shelter and education. Needless to say that humanitarian organizations are working hard to meet the growing needs of people in Sudan, but insecurity, - as we saw with the attack on WFP - access constraints and critical funding shortfalls continue to undermine the response.
Once again, we call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, unimpeded humanitarian access across borders and conflict lines, the protection of civilians, as well as increased funding so we can scale up.
SOUTH SUDAN
In South Sudan, humanitarians underscore their concerns about the impact of funding cuts on the plight of refugees and returnees to that country.
According to our own monitoring as well as data from the Government of South Sudan, over a million human beings, returnees and refugees have fled Sudan into South Sudan since the war started in Sudan in 2023. On arrival, many were helped by IOM to get back to their home areas or to refugee camps, as appropriate.
However, due to funding shortages, these services had to stop on June 1st, raising concerns about people being stranded and overcrowding in transit shelter as people continue to flee the fighting in Sudan. Our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency said that four million people have now fled Sudan into neighbouring countries since the start of the war, which is by itself a devastating milestone, given the third year of conflict.
In May alone, 15,000 people arrived in the border town of Renk in South Sudan.
Yesterday, several hundred refugees and returnees in Renk protested against the stoppage of transportation services.
LIBYA
Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights today called for the sealing of detention facilities in Libya where human rights violations were found, and for prompt, independent, impartial and transparent investigations by the Libyan authorities. Dozens of bodies have been found at both official and unofficial detention centers.
Mr. Türk said the discoveries confirm the longstanding findings by our UN political Mission in Libya as well as UN Fact-Finding Mission in Libya, and from various witness accounts, regarding the existence of such sites and the extent of the horrific violations committed in connection with them, including torture and enforced disappearances.
Mr. Türk said he was troubled by reports that Libya’s forensic authorities mandated to exhume and identify human remains have yet to be granted access to these sites.
He urged the authorities to grant full and unimpeded access to all sites. Mr. Türk also called on the authorities to grant the United Nations access to the sites as part of our mandate to document human rights violations.
BANGLADESH
Turning to Bangladesh to give you a grim update from Cox’s Bazar, where days of intense monsoon rains and high winds have triggered landslides, floods, and widespread damage across the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. This has impacted nearly 16,000 people across 17 camps managed by the International Organization for Migration.
Our IOM colleagues, in coordination with Bangladeshi authorities and partners, have launched an emergency response to support emergency relocations, rescue, and initial damage assessments.
Nearly 5,000 Rohingya refugees have been mobilized through cash-for-work activities to help clear fallen trees, unblock drainage channels, and restore access to essential facilities. Teams are also working to prevent further landslides by covering vulnerable slopes with tarpaulin.
Emergency shelter distribution is underway.
Shelter, water and sanitation facilities are also being assessed and repaired, while hot meals are being provided to displaced families who are sheltering in communal spaces.
YEMEN
Today the Heads of UN Agencies and International NGOs in Yemen echoed the Secretary-General’s calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the personnel from the UN and other organizations and diplomatic missions who are currently being detained by the Houthis.
HUMAN RIGHTS/CLIMATE
Today, in Oxford, ahead of World Environment Day, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk will open a global, livestreamed summit on climate change and human rights with a call for new policies to deliver climate action, justice and human rights. They include phasing out fossil fuels – and subsidies to the fossil fuel industry; universal social protection systems that can keep people's heads above water as the harm done by climate change intensifies; and a wide-ranging effort of reinvention to reimagine our economies, politics and governance.
The Right Here Right Now Global Summit is co-hosted by the UN Human Rights Office, the University of Oxford, the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the International Universities Climate Alliance, and universities across the world. The Summit will be held until 7 June.
INTERNATIONAL DAY
Today is the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Every day, children living in wars across the globe are facing unspeakable horrors. Ending and preventing these grave violations is central to the mandate on children and armed conflict.
PROGRAMMING NOTE
The Secretary-General will be at the Security Council Stakeout tomorrow, at 9:30 a.m. He will make remarks relating to fallen UN Staff. At 9:45 a.m. he will go to the Trusteeship Council for the Annual Memorial Service to honour United Nations Personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2024.
And then, at noon, I will be joined by Paul Heslop, the senior UN Mine Action Adviser to the Resident Coordinator and United Nations Country Team in Ukraine. He will speak about the issue of mines in Ukraine.
