MEMORIAL SERVICE 
The Secretary-General this morning spoke at the annual memorial service in honour of UN personnel who have fallen in the line of duty. 
He said that the 77 women and men who lost their lives last year were our colleagues and our friends.   
He said their service embodied the principle and the promise of the United Nations:  The principle of our common humanity and the promise to act on it – to work together to solve shared challenges, and build a world of peace, prosperity and human rights for all.  
In a divided and dangerous world, the Secretary-General said, the vision and values that our blue flag represents are more important now than ever.  He added that we resolve to continue our essential mission.   
 
SYRIA 
Earlier today, the UN led two monitoring and assessment missions from Türkiye into north-west Syria. Staff from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs arrived on a monitoring mission via the al-Ra’ee crossing. The World Health Organization, for its part, entered via Bab al-Salam to conduct a routine assessment. 
Additional staff missions and truck movements are planned through Bab al-Salam and al-Ra'ee crossings in the coming days and we’ll keep you updated.
 
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 
We have an update from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the head of our peacekeeping mission there, Bintou Keita, is visiting the country’s east for consultations about the transition process.  
The visit comes as options are being prepared for the reconfiguration of the peacekeeping mission presence in the country, as requested by the Security Council.  
Ms. Keita held discussions with provincial authorities, civil society, the UN Country Team and other partners.  
In her discussions, she highlighted the importance of balancing the need to accelerate the Mission’s transition process, as requested by the host country, while ensuring that minimum conditions for security and protection of civilians are met before the peacekeepers’ withdrawal.  
She underlined the need to strengthen cooperation to ensure a common understanding of the realities faced by all partners and the collective work we need, especially at the provincial level, to overcome those challenges and ensure a gradual and responsible exit and transfer of tasks to national authorities.  
 
ROHINGYA REFUGEES 
Our colleagues at the UN Refugee agency today said that Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar are facing hunger after the latest ration cuts. This is the second cut to their food rations in three months. 
Faced with funding shortfalls that we talk about almost every day here. the World Food Programme has had to make difficult choices to sustain food assistance until the end of the year.  In March, the value of the food vouchers for camp residents was reduced from $12 per person per month to $10, and in June, to just $8 – that’s 27 cents per day.  
The cuts came just weeks after thousands of refugees lost their temporary homes to Cyclone Mocha and a major fire at Cox’s Bazar as you may recall earlier this year. 
UNHCR said that more and more humanitarian agencies are being forced to continue only with the most critical interventions, and that means basic needs are going unmet. That’s it.