HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 25 APRIL 2025
Secretary-General travel
The Secretary-General arrived today in Rome, where tomorrow, he will attend the funeral of Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square. He will be back in the office on Monday.
There will be a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly to pay tribute to the memory of Pope Francis on Tuesday, in the General Assembly Hall at 3 pm. The Secretary-General will speak at that meeting.
And the UN flag will be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, as well.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay, later today to chair the annual regional retreat with UN Resident Coordinators from across the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Ms. Mohammed will also meet with senior government officials to strengthen the UN-Uruguay partnership and discuss priority actions to support the Sustainable Development Goals. She will return to New York on April 29.
SYRIA
This morning, the Security Council held an open briefing on Syria. Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told Council members that the political transition in Syria is now at a truly critical juncture. He added that in his recent discussions with the interim authorities, including Mr. Ahmad Al-Sharaa, he stressed the need for future constitutional process that involves all of Syria’s societal and political components.
For her part, Ms. Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that nearly three quarters of the population in Syria are in need and 7 million are displaced.
Since the start of the year, 960 trucks have delivered aid through the cross-border operation from Türkiye – more trucks than during the whole of 2024. However, we need more funding to sustain this work, let alone scale it further, she said.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The World Food Programme announced today that they have run out of food stocks in Gaza. That is due to the Israeli ban on the entry of supplies of any kind, regardless of how critical they are. And this ban is now nearing two months.
Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to kitchens serving hot meals, so these are now expected to fully run out of food very soon. For weeks, these kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza. Despite reaching just half the population with only 25 per cent of daily food needs, they have so far provided a critical lifeline.
As a reminder, all 25 bakeries supported by WFP already had to close last month when wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out.
WFP says more than 116,000 metric tonnes of food assistance – enough to feed one million people for up to four months – is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be brought into Gaza by WFP and food security partners as soon as borders reopen.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reminds us that the rapid depletion of essentials is also affecting other parts of the humanitarian response, including health, shelter, water and sanitation. As a result, hunger is spreading, malnutrition is deepening, injured people and other patients remain untreated, and people are dying.
OCHA reiterates that Israel, as the occupying power, has clear obligations under international law, which include ensuring food, medical supplies and public health services are available, and facilitating humanitarian relief when these are not otherwise supplied.
Meanwhile, looting of remaining supplies continues, with the partners on the ground reporting that this practice is now less organized and more opportunistic than prior to the ceasefire – seemingly driven by desperation.
The UN’s health colleagues tell us that medical facilities continue to come under attack, including the Al Durrah hospital for children, near Gaza City, which was hit on Tuesday. No one was injured, but the intensive care unit, solar panel, and water tanks on the rooftop were all damaged.
Displacement remains a major concern. OCHA has completed an initial analysis of the displacement order issued yesterday by Israeli forces for areas of North Gaza. The order covers 7.5 square kilometres, which is roughly 2 per cent of the Gaza Strip. And overall, about 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip is now under displacement orders or in “no-go” zones, where Israeli authorities require aid personnel to coordinate their movements.
Moving on to the West Bank, OCHA warns that the already unprecedented levels of displacement – with tens of thousands of people displaced this year already – continue to rise.
In an update released yesterday, OCHA notes that in just one week – that’s between 15 and 21 April – Israeli forces ordered 14 families to leave their homes in Tulkarm city. Seven additional families were displaced in Ramallah governorate due to settler violence or home demolitions for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.
At the same time, Israeli forces continued preventing about 40,000 previously displaced people from returning to their homes in refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm. Aid groups also lack access to camps, preventing them from properly assessing the damage or the needs of those who remain.
SUDAN
Moving to Sudan, the World Food Programme’s Country Office Emergency Coordinator for Sudan, Ms. Samantha Chattaraj, has just returned to Port Sudan from a mission to Khartoum, where she met with local authorities to scale up emergency food and nutrition assistance to one million people across greater Khartoum in the coming month.
Meanwhile, aid deliveries are on their way to greater Khartoum over the coming weeks, as WFP has pushed to establish a stronger operational footprint that would allow regular deliveries to the capital.
WFP says that additional trucks carrying 1,600 metric tonnes of food and nutrition supplies for 220,000 people have started to arrive in Tawila, in North Darfur. Another WFP convoy from Port Sudan is currently on its way to El Fasher, carrying 1,000 metric tonnes of assistance for about 100,000 people who remained in the besieged city.
And just to note that all this still represented just a fraction of the needs. Across the country, nearly 25 million men, women and children, that’s half the population, face acute hunger. Nearly five million children and breastfeeding mothers are acutely malnourished. Sudan is the only place in the world where famine is currently confirmed.
Reports from the ground remain shocking. Around 450,000 people who were already facing famine and enduring horrific levels of violence have been forced to flee from El Fasher and Zamzam camp in just a matter of weeks.
WFP says that the Agency was mobilising assistance to reach people wherever they have fled to – across different parts of Darfur and Northern State.
WFP also says they are setting up mobile warehouses in Tawila to increase storage capacity and pre-stock food ahead of the rainy season, when many roads across the Darfur region become flooded and impassable.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, OCHA reports that hostilities persist in North and South Kivu provinces.
In North Kivu, clashes erupted today along the road between Nyabiondo and Kashebere, displacing civilians. Fighting has been intermittent in the area since 13 April.
Meanwhile in South Kivu, fighting in Kalehe territory on this week wounded dozens of civilians and forced more than 15,000 people to flee, with many seeking shelter with host communities. Local health centres face severe shortages of medicines and staff to treat the injured.
Humanitarian operations also remain restricted. Yesterday, a humanitarian convoy travelling south from Bukavu to the city of Uvira was blocked by armed people, forcing the convoy to stop overnight to negotiate access.
SOUTH SUDAN
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is deeply concerned by reports of clashes between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in Opposition in Morobo and Yei counties, Central Equatoria State, which have led to civilian displacement and casualties.
The Mission calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and restoration of calm, given already fragile political and security conditions in the country.
HAITI
OCHA reports that armed violence continues to displace families and disrupt the humanitarian response across multiple departments.
According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 1,000 people had been displaced in the commune of Kenscoff – in the Ouest Department – as of Wednesday, following armed attacks there last week. Half sought shelter with family, while others settled in three displacement sites, where IOM reports that food is urgently needed. Meanwhile, two other sites in Kenscoff that had been hosting 430 displaced people have been forced to close due to ongoing violence.
In Centre Department, UNICEF and its partners have been supporting people who fled attacks by armed groups in Mirebalais and Saut-d’Eau over three weeks ago. More than 5,000 people in the town of Hinche and the commune of Boucan Carré have received critical assistance, including water and hygiene kits.
NIGERIA
In Nigeria, OCHA says that funding shortfalls are forcing aid workers to cut back on critical support, including health and nutrition services.
Some organizations had to lay off staff and scale back services – including for primary healthcare and the treatment of severe acute malnutrition. Overall, funding cuts have impacted 70 per cent of health services and 50 per cent of nutrition services in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
OCHA said that as we approach the lean season, it is critical that the international community steps up funding to address escalating food insecurity. At the start of the year, the UN and its partners appealed for $910 million to reach 3.6 million people in Nigeria with critical aid and protection. However, given the brutal funding cuts, OCHA has been forced to reprioritize its response, focusing on the most life-saving interventions for the most vulnerable people.
To do this, the UN needs $298 million. Yet to date, we’ve received just over $70 million – less than a quarter of what’s needed.
REFUGEE FUNDING CUTS
In Burundi, the UN Refugee Agency tell us that due to significant funding shortfalls, they and their partners are facing critical limitations in providing protection services. UNHCR is no longer able to distribute dignity kits, leaving nearly 11,000 women and girls without access to basic hygiene items. Support for family tracing has also been severely reduced. UNHCR said it urgently needs $76.5 million to respond to the current crisis there.
And in Colombia, refugees there are also being impacted by the cuts. As funding dries up, UNHCR is being forced to suspend essential services, threatening to undo years of progress.
In the conflict-ridden Catatumbo region along the border with Venezuela, UNHCR has had to halt the distribution of basic relief items such as mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps, and mosquito nets even though violence continues. UNHCR needs $118.3 million to continue its vital work this year.
ECOSOC
The President of the UN Economic and Social Council, Bob Rae, issued today a “Call to Action” following the Special Meeting on Forced Displacement and Refugee Protection, which took place yesterday. He called on mobilizing the international community to continue to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to people who are forcibly displaced, while addressing the root causes and advancing durable solutions.
INTERNATIONAL DAYS
Today is World Malaria Day. This disease claims one life every minute, mostly in the WHO African Region. It is time to recommit to ending malaria - we have the knowledge and the methods to do that.
Today is also International Delegate’s Day. The Day emphasizes multilateralism in our world.
Tomorrow is International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. It will be the 39th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. Since then, the UN has helped to address the needs of people in the areas surrounding Chernobyl through emergency and humanitarian aid, and by supporting recovery and social and economic development. And tomorrow is World Intellectual Property Day – that celebrates the contributions made by inventors and creators around the world.
BRIEFINGS – MONDAY
On Monday, Bob Rae, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Navid Hanif, the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). They will brief on the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (FFD), 28-29 April 2025.
This year’s FFD Forum, the 10th since their establishment to follow up on financing for development under the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, will look ahead to the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Sevilla, Spain on 30 June to 3 July.
FFD4 aims to galvanize commitments and cooperation among all countries for concrete measures and solutions to close a US$4 trillion annual funding gap and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The Forum will be a last chance for inputs from multiple stakeholders into the FFD4 draft outcome document.
It will take place in the Trusteeship Council and will be broadcast live on UN Web TV. You can contact DESA for more information.
Then at 1:45 p.m., there will be a briefing by the Chair for the upcoming third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (28 April to 9 May).
Following a Security Council meeting on Monday, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, will be at the Stakeout to speak about issues of forced displacement.
