**Deputy Secretary-General 
The Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed is in Hanoi, Viet Nam today, to participate in the Partnership for Growth Summit and to chair the annual retreat of UN Resident Coordinators from Asia and the Pacific.
In her remarks at the opening session of the Summit, Ms. Mohammed underlined the need to strengthen partnerships and to scale up investments in climate solutions as a key entry point to advance countries’ Sustainable Development Goals transitions. 
Ms. Mohammed also met with the Minister of Agriculture and Environment Mr. Đỗ Đức Duy. They discussed Viet Nam’s transition to a low-carbon energy system and progress on its food system pathways.  
On the margins of the Summit, she also met with Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia. 
And at the Green One UN House in Hanoi, Ms. Mohammed met the UN Country Team to discuss how to further strengthen the UN’s impact in Viet Nam and to sustain momentum on the SDGs. She also met with youth.

** Security Council  
This morning, the Security Council members met for a briefing on South Sudan. The Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Nicholas Haysom, told the Council members that the Revitalized Peace Agreement remains the only viable framework to break the cycle of violence in South Sudan.
He added that UNMISS is engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to broker a peaceful solution to the current crisis alongside many stakeholders, including the African Union and the Security Council itself.
For her part, the Director of Operations and Advocacy at OCHA, Edem Wosornu, focused on the rapidly escalating violence and its impact on men, women and children. She added that this year, 9.3 million South Sudanese – that’s three-quarters of the population – require some form of humanitarian assistance, adding that children make up half of this total.
For South Sudan, this year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requires $1.7 billion to support close to 5.4 million people. Their full remarks were shared with you.
The Security Council will reconvene at 3:00 pm this afternoon for a session on the Great Lakes region. The Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, as well as UNICEF's Executive Director, Catherine Russell, are scheduled to brief. We will share their remarks as soon as we get them. 

**Pandemic Agreement  
And we wanted to welcome the consensus on a draft pandemic agreement reached in Geneva after more than three years of intensive negotiations. Member States of the World Health Organization took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics, by forging the draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May. The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats.
 
**Sudan  
And now turning to Sudan, we remain gravely concerned by the escalating violence and deteriorating humanitarian situation in and around El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.  
Our partners on the ground have provided deeply disturbing reports of atrocities following the reported takeover of Zamzam displacement camp by armed groups. Civilians, including humanitarian workers, are reportedly being prevented from leaving, and survivors have spoken of killings, sexual violence and also of the burning of homes.  
Access constraints, a critical fuel shortage and a volatile security environment are severely disrupting humanitarian operations in El Fasher. Health services and water treatment have been particularly impacted.
Meanwhile, in Khartoum State, drone attacks on 14 April on power infrastructure have left large parts of the districts of Um Badda, Karrari and Omdurman without electricity or clean water.
Once again, we call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and to facilitate humanitarian access. We also urge increased international support to ensure that the delivery of essential aid to the most vulnerable people in Sudan continues.
And we were asked yesterday, I believe by Edie, about the London Conference on Sudan. I can tell you that we welcome the convening of the Conference and all efforts to mobilize international engagement in support of peace, protection of civilians and humanitarian access in the country. We also welcome the significant amounts of funding announced during the Conference.
And as the Secretary-General has said many times, we must keep our focus on finding an end to this brutal conflict.

** Occupied Palestinian Territory  
Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that hostilities across the Gaza Strip continue to take a devastating toll on civilians, causing further death, displacement and destruction of critical infrastructure. 
Our humanitarian partners estimate that since 18 March, about half a million people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of people repeatedly displaced prior to the ceasefire. Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that tents are no longer available for distribution across Gaza. In the town of Bani Suhaila in Khan Younis Governorate, for example, families who had recently been displaced received only modest quantities of blankets and tarpaulins. Last week, OCHA visited displacement sites in Khan Younis. Most of the people there are living in overcrowded shelters and spoke about the lack of shelter, food, water and medicine.
Meanwhile, our humanitarian partners report a rise in acute malnutrition in the Strip. In March, the number of children who received supplementary feeding decreased by more than two thirds, according to our partners. Additionally, access constraints hinder the ability to resupply the hospitals with medical stocks, putting more patients at risk.  
Humanitarians are finding it increasingly difficult to operate as no aid has entered Gaza for now. We are now in the seventh week of this and as military operations expand.
Meanwhile, OCHA tells us that Israeli authorities continue to deny planned coordinated missions. Today, only two out of six planned humanitarian movements that were coordinated with the Israeli authorities, were facilitated. The remaining four were denied, including one mission to retrieve fuel from Rafah, which as you can imagine is urgently needed.  
Despite access restrictions and insecurity, aid organizations continue to try to assist the most vulnerable. Every day, community kitchens prepare more than one million meals for vulnerable people across Gaza. But these quantities are hardly sufficient, as most of the 2.1 million people there rely on humanitarian aid to access food.  
And just a reminder that under international humanitarian law, civilians, including aid workers and medical staff as well as their facilities, must be respected and protected, and the essential needs of civilians must be met.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo 
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our humanitarian colleagues report that violence in the country’s east continues to harm civilians. 
In North Kivu province, civil society sources report that armed groups killed at least nine civilians in attacks on a number of villages in Beni territory, and that took place between 10-14 April.
Despite the insecurity, relief efforts continue. On Monday, local health authorities provided medical supplies to the Kibua General Hospital, and that is in Walikale territory. The hospital had been looted in early April by armed groups, disrupting access to health care for nearly 130,000 people.
And in the province of Ituri, our partners report that 6,000 people fled their homes in Mahagi territory following attacks by armed groups 12 April. These people urgently need food, shelter and medical care.
Now, in Tanganyika province, health officials have warned of a surge in measles cases and deaths among children. So far this year, health authorities have reported 900 cases and 21 deaths, and officials believe the true toll could be higher. We and our partners have helped local authorities to deploy a rapid response team to affected areas, as well as supported outreach and awareness-raising efforts. 
 
** Iraq  
And in Iraq we have some positive news. Yazidi landownership has been officially recognized. In a ceremony that took place in Sinjar this week, title deeds were distributed to Yazidi residents. 
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Mohamed Al Hassan, said that by officially recognizing their land rights and waiving all associated burden costs, we are reaffirming the joint commitment of the UN and Iraq to the Yazidi people and their rightful place in Iraq's future.    
Just to flag that our colleagues at UN-Habitat have been working in advancing housing, land, and property rights for vulnerable communities there.
 
**Global Economy 
I want to flag a report by our colleagues at UN Trade and Development in Geneva. The report says that global growth is projected to slow to 2.3 per cent this year, placing the world economy on a recessionary path. The report cites mounting threats including trade policy shocks, financial volatility and a surge in uncertainty that risk derailing the global outlook. 
The slowdown will affect all nations, but UNCTAD remains concerned about developing countries and especially the most vulnerable economies. Many low-income countries face a "perfect storm" of worsening external financial conditions, unsustainable debt and weakening domestic growth, the report says.  
UNCTAD is urging dialogue and negotiation, alongside stronger regional and global policy coordination, building on existing trade and economic ties. 
 
**Briefings tomorrow 
Tomorrow, at 12:30 p.m., Ambassador Tareq Albanai, the Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the UN and Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council, will be here to speak to you about the status of the negotiations taking place in the UN General Assembly.
Then, immediately after this briefing, there will be a briefing by Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, Director of UNESCO’s Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation. He will brief you virtually on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. 
 
**Financial Contribution 
Sri Lanka paid their full dues to the Regular Budget. This payment brings the number of fully paid-up Member States to 93.