HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2025
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that the Israeli military reportedly hit more buildings in Gaza City today. Families gathered in the open after being warned that one of those buildings would be hit. While the Israeli military had instructed them to move south to Khan Younis, OCHA says many of them were unsure where to go next.
Since yesterday, the entire city has been under a blanket displacement order. Issuing displacement orders does not absolve parties to a conflict of their responsibilities to protect civilians in the conduct of their hostilities.
Today and yesterday, our colleagues tracking the movement of people in Gaza recorded more than 10,000 displacements from northern to southern areas, mostly in the direction of Khan Younis. People are using any means possible, including donkey carts.
As some families flee, many others are unable to do so because of health and safety concerns or high transportation costs.
Today, several primary healthcare centres and outpatient therapeutic feeding programs in Gaza City had to suspend services amid ongoing strikes. And the UN Population Fund warns that some 55,000 women are having to navigate pregnancy and childbirth amid perilous and traumatic conditions. Midwives continue to provide care, often under fire and with only the light of a mobile phone.
OCHA reiterates that under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be protected and should never be a target. Civilian sites must also never be used to shield military operations.
GAZA
The Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which brings together UN agencies and more than 200 NGOs, today said that we are witnessing a dangerous escalation in Gaza city, where Israeli forces have stepped up their operations and ordered everyone to move south.
The team says that nearly one million people are now left with no safe or viable options – neither the north nor the south offers safety.
Leaving northern Gaza means paying prohibitive costs for transport and safe passage, navigating roads that are barely passable, finding a place to sleep either in the open air or in overcrowded displacement sites, and continued struggles to secure food, water, medical care, and shelter.
The Humanitarian Country Team adds that amid ongoing Israeli impediments, the current levels of humanitarian support are wholly insufficient.
Humanitarian access must be expanded and sustained to include direct routes to both the north and the south.
UKRAINE
The Secretary-General is following with great concern the reports that Russian military drones entered Poland overnight, in violation of Poland’s airspace, resulting in damage to residential areas in the country.
The incident, which reportedly took place during another large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine, again underlines the regional impact and real risk of expansion of this devastating conflict. There is an urgent need for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire and for a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine - one that fully upholds Ukraine's sovereignty, its independence and its territorial integrity, in line with the Charter of the United Nations, international law and relevant UN resolutions.
HAITI
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, is wrapping up his visit to Port-au-Prince today and stressed that the country needs urgent support amid immense suffering.
Before his departure today, he visited a centre that provides support for women and girls who are survivors of gender-based violence. At the Kay Fanm (Women’s house) support centre, he met women who survived brutal sexual attacks and lost their families and homes in the violence. The organization, which is supported by the UN Population Fund, is providing essential medical services and psychosocial support.
Yesterday, he visited the Hôpital Universitaire La Paix, the only public hospital in Port-au-Prince able to handle complex cases that remains open and accessible to people in need.
The facility has been forced to reduce its services, including maternal care.
At a displacement site in the capital where many have sought safety from rising insecurity, Mr. Fletcher listened to people whose lives have been destroyed by brutal violence. Living conditions are extremely difficult, with many families displaced multiple times.
The Under-Secretary-General stressed that people there want healthcare, clean water, education for their children, and a chance to rebuild their lives. The world must do better for them, he said.
Mr. Fletcher also visited a youth centre, where he met young people once trapped by violence who are learning new skills.
During Mr. Fletcher’s meeting with Haitian officials, including Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and Laurent Saint-Cyr, the president of the Transitional Presidential Council.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator also met humanitarian partners and members of the diplomatic community.
AFGHANISTAN
Turning to Afghanistan. The World Food Programme warns that the country is facing a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis in 2025. WFP pointed out that this year has seen the highest spike in acute malnutrition ever recorded, with more than 4.7 million women and children in need of urgent treatment.
The World Food Programme notes that surging malnutrition is due to drastic cuts in food and nutrition assistance by aid agencies. WFP adds that multiple earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan have added yet another layer of hardship to families already struggling to survive.
On the ground, WFP has been reaching families in the hardest hit areas in Kunar province with fortified biscuits and other food items.
They have also set up storage tents to support the broader humanitarian response.
But the World Food Programme notes that it has been forced to reduce assistance to a fraction of those in need across Afghanistan. According to WFP, the country has more than 9 million people, or one in every four facing acute food insecurity in the country. But with current resources, the agency can only reach less than one million people per month, which does not even cover all those in emergency-level hunger.
WFP urgently requires $568 million to deliver life-saving food assistance to Afghanistan’s most vulnerable people to help them survive the harsh winter and sustain other critical support programmes over the next six months.
SUDAN
Turning to Sudan. Our humanitarian colleagues are warning that from January until this month, a whole nine months, no aid convoys have been able to reach the besieged city of El Fasher in North Darfur.
The fighting meanwhile is intensifying, and our concerns are increasingly over the protection of civilians in the regions of Darfur and Kordofan.
Our colleagues report that yesterday artillery fire reportedly struck multiple locations in El Fasher. A day earlier, drone and artillery strikes on the famine-stricken Abu Shouk displacement camp on the outskirts of El Fasher and surrounding neighbourhoods reportedly caused civilian casualties.
On Sunday, drone strikes in the town of Kuma, which is about 70 kilometers to the east of El Fasher, damaged civilian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the greater Khartoum area was also impacted by drone strikes which hit several key civilian sites including an electricity station, leading to a major power outage across the capital. The aerial assault shattered the relative calm that has prevailed there in recent months, demonstrating some of the risks that the civilians returning to the area in large numbers face.
These incidents also raise serious concerns about the growing use of drone warfare near populated areas.
Humanitarian access continues to be severely constrained in the country. Heavy rains have rendered key roads between South and East Darfur states impassable, further cutting off access to West Kordofan.
In Khartoum, the response to a cholera outbreak and increasing returns of displaced people remain hampered by complex approval procedures and unforeseen costs.
Volunteers with mutual aid groups are also facing increasing risks, including arbitrary arrest and abuse. Last month, incidents of violence against volunteer aid workers were reported in Khartoum, East Darfur and North Darfur states. These attacks on aid workers, as well as bureaucratic barriers, continue to pose severe obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those who badly need it.
We call, once again, for the immediate cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians, unimpeded humanitarian access and increased international funding to sustain life-saving operations across Sudan.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is sounding the alarm over a recent surge in violence impacting civilians in the east of the country.
At least 89 civilians were killed in attacks by armed groups on the evening of September 8th in the territories of Beni and Lubero territories in North Kivu province. Local authorities report that a dozen people remain missing.
According to our partners, at least 140 civilians have been killed in a series of attacks against civilians since mid-August across several villages in the Beni and Lubero territories.
These attacks indiscriminately target women, children and vulnerable communities, forcing people to flee and leaving entire villages abandoned.
Since the second half of 2024, attacks have claimed the lives of over 2,050 civilians across Beni and Lubero territories, according to our partners.
Bruno Lemarquis, the Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, is currently visiting Beni. Yesterday, he met with provincial authorities to discuss the urgent need to enhance the protection of civilians and to review the current state of the humanitarian response.
As violence continues to surge in North Kivu, Mr. Lemarquis warned that funding cuts are having a devastating impact on the humanitarian response.
The $2.5 billion Humanitarian Response Plan is currently 15 per cent funded, with $377 million received.
BURKINA FASO AND NIGERIA
Turning to Burkina Faso, following heavy rains in the country, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs have released $1 million to minimize the impact of expected floods.
The resources come from the Regional Humanitarian Fund for West and Central Africa, managed by OCHA, and will help two of our local NGO partners provide critical food, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene assistance to 35,000 people in the regions of Centre-Nord and Sahel ahead of the forecasted floods.
This marks the first time that funds have been released from one of OCHA’s regional funds as part of anticipatory action efforts – and it reflects close monitoring and cooperation between the UN, our partners and the Burkinabe authorities.
And in Nigeria, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has allocated $5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund, also to try to get ahead of severe floods forecast in the country.
The CERF funding is part of a collective initiative and complements a $2 million allocation from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund.
Partners supported by the two funds will focus on providing food, cash and shelter support for some 350,000 people in the north-eastern state of Adamawa.
NEPAL
The Secretary-General was deeply saddened by the loss of life and extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. He urges a thorough investigation into these events.
The Secretary-General urges restraint to avoid a further escalation of violence and calls on the authorities to comply with international human rights law. He underscores that protests must take place in a peaceful manner, respecting life and property. He calls for dialogue towards forging a constructive path forward.
HEALTH
A new report from UNICEF concerning shows that one in 10 children worldwide are living with obesity today.
The prevalence of underweight children aged 5-19 has declined since 2000, from nearly 13 percent to 9.2 percent, while obesity rates have increased from 3 percent to 9.4 percent.
The report blames the ultra-processed and fast foods that are shaping unhealthy food environments.
In ten years from now, the global economic impact due to interventions to tackle the obesity-related health issues is expected to surpass $4 trillion annually.
Recommendations include transforming food environments, and improving financial access to nutritious diets.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Gabon made its full payment to the Regular Budget. This brings the total number of fully paid-up Member States to 127.
** NOON BRIEFING GUESTS
Today’s noon briefing guests are Carmen Burbano, WFP’s Director of School Meals and Social Protection and Professor Donald Bundy, Co-editorial lead for the report. They will brief reporters on the launch of WFP’s fourth edition of its flagship biennial report - The State of School Feeding Worldwide.
Tomorrow the noon briefing guest is Assistant Secretary-General Sanda Ojiambo of UN Global Compact.
