MONDAY BRIEFINGS
On Monday there will be a briefing here by Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen, whom as you know is the Permanent Representative of Denmark, but she will be here in her capacity as President of the Security Council for the month of March. She will of course brief on the Council’s programme for the month. The briefing will be in person only, so if you want to ask questions you will need to have your backside in the seats. You can obviously follow it on the webcast.
Then, at 2:15 p.m., there will be a briefing here on the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Speakers will include Akan Rakhmetullin, the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan and President of the Meeting, and he will be joined by Melissa Parke, the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
SECRETARY-GENERAL
You will have seen that early this morning, the Secretary-General in his remarks expressed his deep concern about information received in the last 48 hours by UN agencies — as well as many humanitarian and development NGOs — regarding severe cuts in funding by the United States. The consequences, he said, will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world.
The Secretary-General expressed his hope that these decisions can be reversed based on more careful reviews, adding that in the meantime, every United Nations agency stands ready to provide the necessary information and justification for its projects.
The Secretary-General also announced that next Tuesday, he will be in Cairo to join the Extraordinary Summit of the League of Arab States to discuss the issue of the reconstruction of Gaza.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
And turning to Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that since last month, our humanitarian partners have screened more than 100,000 children under the age of five for malnutrition, enrolling those who need it for treatment. They also continue to distribute nutrient supplements to infants and young children.
For its part, UNRWA [the Relief and Works Agency] tells us that more than half a million people across the five governorates of the Gaza Strip have received blankets, mattresses, floor mats, clothes, and other items including tarpaulins for rain protection.
Turning to the West Bank, our colleagues at OCHA remind us that the ongoing Israeli forces’ operation has entered its sixth week. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced in Jenin and Tulkarm.
On 25 and 26 of this month, OCHA and its partners led a mission to assess the needs of people displaced in Jenin and Tulkarm. Many of these families have been displaced multiple times. They lost their livelihoods and are no longer able to cover the basic needs of their families. Access to food is limited, with some displaced people reporting a reduction in meals consumed each day.
Children in schools have lost more than one month of learning and have been subjected to high levels of anxiety and distress.
In a report published yesterday, partners called for the protection of children and their right to live and access education, healthcare and other basic services.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers continue to attack Palestinian communities across the West Bank. Since 2020, settler-related incidents targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities have increased almost sevenfold.
Documented incidents rose to 330 in 2024 - compared to just 50 in 2020.
SYRIA
A quick note on our humanitarian operations in Syria. Today, 31 trucks carrying more than 200 metric tonnes of food supplies from the World Food Programme, along with hygiene and health supplies from UNICEF, crossed into Syria through the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing, bringing the total number of trucks brought in since the start of the year to 506.
In the meantime, we and our humanitarian partners continue to aid people in need, scaling up support, including early recovery efforts, as logistical, security and funding conditions permit. Over the past two weeks, our partners have removed more than 8,000 cubic meters of debris in the city of Idlib and generated over 570 income opportunities, including cash-for-work programmes.
And to better inform the response, our humanitarian colleagues continue to conduct their weekly assessment missions in order to have more information.
Yesterday, OCHA completed the first UN cross-border mission to Ma'arrat Al-Noman in Idlib. Our colleagues and their partners visited a bread distribution site and a hospital that had been damaged.
And earlier this week, OCHA led two missions to visit schools, damaged homes and medical facilities in Latakia and Tartous areas. They were accompanied by our humanitarian partners. Since the start the year, we completed 78 cross-border missions to Syria – bringing the total number of cross-border missions to 781 since the earthquakes in 2023.
These missions mostly monitor projects, conduct assessments, and engage with recipients.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO/PEACEKEEPING
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who as you know is the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, arrived this afternoon in Beni, in North Kivu territory in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During his visit, he met with provincial authorities, the newly appointed Force Commander for the UN peacekeeping force as well as blue helmets deployed in the region – all this to assess the latest developments in the area.
Mr. Lacroix was briefed about the security situation in areas where the peacekeeping mission’s Force Intervention Brigade has established bases, including Kanyabayonga, Eringeti, Oicha, and Mayimoya.
He reiterated the urgency of swiftly implementing Resolution 2773, which underscores the need to respect the territorial integrity of the DRC and calls for an end to the M23 offensive in both North and South Kivu.
Tomorrow, he is heading up to Entebbe, Uganda, to meet with peacekeeping colleagues who were relocated from Goma last month.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
And staying in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our humanitarian colleagues reported a deadly escalation in attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces armed group - better known as the ADF – that has been taking place in recent days.
According to local authorities, ADF attacks killed at least 23 civilians in several villages of the Ituri Province earlier this week - on 25 and 26 February. Dozens more people were kidnapped in the raids, while other villagers fled to neighbouring areas for safety.
ADF attacks were also reported in Beni Territory of North Kivu Province on 26 February, killing 17 civilians.
Turning to South Kivu, insecurity remains a major concern, including in the provincial capital, Bukavu, where local medical sources reported that explosions yesterday at an M23 rally killed at least 11 people and injured dozens more in the centre of the city.
Humanitarian partners temporarily suspended assessments in the area following the explosions, but they have now resumed.
Local authorities in South Kivu also estimate that more than 125,000 people have been displaced since early February amid clashes in the south-east of Bukavu.
Most of these people have sought shelter in schools, churches and soccer fields, and ongoing clashes in the area are hindering humanitarian access.
Our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency tell us the number of Congolese civilians fleeing the conflict continues to rise. In just two weeks, 60,000 men, women and children have fled the DRC to Burundi – some walking hundreds of kilometers in desperate search for safety. UNHCR and partners are stepping up assistance, setting up tents, food distribution and water to new arrivals. Relief items such as sleeping materials, buckets and soap are also being distributed.
SOUTH SUDAN
Moving to South Sudan, our peacekeeping mission there - UNMISS - and its partners expressed grave concern about the increasing tensions in Upper Nile state and persistent clashes between Government forces in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr El Ghazal states.
In a joint statement, the peacekeeping mission, together with the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority for Development—better known as IGAD—and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission— which is the body tasked with overseeing peace implementation—stressed that any outbreak of violence at this critical time when the country has begun the fourth extension of its ongoing transitional period would undermine the already fragile peace gains.
BIODIVERSITY
Some positive news from Italy, from Rome, governments at the Biodiversity Conference - known as COP16 - agreed on a strategy to raise the funds needed to protect biodiversity for people and planet. As a reminder, we need to mobilize at least $200 billion dollars a year by 2030 to close the global biodiversity finance gap. We very much welcome this announcement.
Parties also hammered out agreements on biodiversity finance, planning, monitoring, reporting and review, and the full set of indicators to measure global and national progress towards implementing the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was agreed to in Montreal in 2022.
Additionally, the fund on the sharing of benefits from digital sequence information on genetic resources, known as the Cali Fund because of its creation in Colombia last year, was launched, opening a new chapter in mobilizing private finance for biodiversity.
INTERNATIONAL DAYS
A couple of international days to flag for you. Tomorrow, we mark Zero Discrimination Day.
The theme for this year is “We stand together.” On this Day, we celebrate the right of everyone to live a full and productive life—and live it with dignity. Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year, it is World Seagrass Day. Seagrass plants are critical for life underwater but also provide wide-ranging benefits to us who live on land. We salute all those who study seagrass.
JANE
We have no money but we have a quiz for you today. A very short quiz, who is the main quiz master writing all the financial contributions questions? Jane Gaffney. We say that because sadly today is her last day at the United Nations and she is retiring today.
Some of you may not know this but Jane first walked through the doors of United Nations in 1982, when Javier Perez de Cuellar sat on the 38th floor. Since then, she’s worked in the field in Namibia, Angola, she’s worked in the Peacekeeping Department, but the bulk of her time has been in the Spokesperson’s Office, where she has dedicated herself to ensuring that you – the journalists – get the information you need.
To say that Jane is the backbone of our office would be an understatement, since she has been responsible for basically everything that makes our office function – from managing the lists of emails to whom we send our many products to editing our notes, so you don’t hear the factual and grammatical mistakes we would otherwise make, to ensuring that all the Member States who pay their dues are duly honoured. She handles so many tasks that we will probably need a small army to replace her.
In her more than 30 years in this office, she worked with a series of spokespeople, all of them with very different styles of working; but through it all, Jane was a force to ensure the consistency and quality of the work of our office.
Personally, I’ve learned a lot from her – attention to detail, attention to precedent and an appreciation of the history for which we are responsible. The one thing she was not able to teach me was punctuality. But as she goes onwards and upwards in life, we want to thank Jane from for her friendship, charm and invaluable knowledge over the years. As they say in Gaelic, slán go foil! which means “See you soon.”
