BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION
The Secretary-General delivered remarks by video message to the 9th Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference, which is taking place in Geneva in Switzerland.
He reminded participants that 50 years ago, the global community stood as one and declared that the deliberate use of disease as a weapon was an affront to humanity.
Biological weapons are a clear and present danger, he said, adding that strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention is more important than ever.
The Secretary-General called for action in three specific areas: First — give teeth to the Convention’s accountability provisions to ensure that scientific advances are not exploited for hostile purposes.
Second — update our thinking on verification and compliance to fit today’s threats.
And finally — give the Convention the increased financial and human resources it needs to carry out its important work.
The review conference continues until the middle of next month.

ETHIOPIA
Turning to Ethiopia, our humanitarian colleagues tell us they have seen some gradual but tangible improvements in access into the Tigray region following the recent Cessation of Hostilities agreements. Since mid-November, aid deliveries have been begun moving into Tigray, including to Mekelle along the Semera and Kombolcha corridors, and to other parts of Tigray along the Gondar corridor in Amhara. Humanitarian flights for staff have also resumed for Mekelle and have started for Shire as well.
From the 15th to the 24th of November, more than 450 trucks carrying aid, by the Government and by the UN and NGOs, arrived in Tigray. The majority of this is food aid - as well as medical supplies and agricultural supplies. Some fuel and cash have also been brought in.
However, our humanitarian colleagues stress that what has arrived in Tigray remains far from what is actually needed to meet the huge needs in the area. More than 5 million people are in need of food assistance and an estimated 30 per cent of children are facing acute malnutrition. Sustaining and building on these movements to ensure that the required food and other items can reach all those in need is critical.
Access to most parts of neighbouring areas of Amhara and Afar has also improved in recent weeks. We, along with our partners, are providing food and other assistance, including to displaced people and those who have returned. However, we need to be able to scale up our work to help all those in need.
In addition, Ethiopia is experiencing an historic drought and, in the Bale zone of Oromia and the Liban zone of the Somali region, there is an ongoing cholera outbreak. 
Nearly 500 people have been impacted, including 20 deaths, and hundreds of thousands more remain at risk. We, along with our partners, are providing health and water and sanitation assistance.
Humanitarian colleagues note that conflict in western Oromia also continues to drive people from their homes and has hampered our ability to provide aid.

UKRAINE
Turning to Ukraine. The Humanitarian Coordinator, Denise Brown, travelled over the weekend to Kherson and Mykolaiv, in the south of the country, to see the humanitarian situation in these two cities, meet authorities and monitor the response provided by aid organizations.  
Since the start of the war and until recently, Mykolaiv had been shelled almost daily, leaving some 250,000 people who remained in the city completely cut off from water supply and other essential services. Local authorities tell us that now, with the front lines moving further from the city, they are finally able to start to repair the water system.  
The situation, however, is still critical and the city continues to receive people fleeing Kherson in recent days, which has been a trend since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ms. Brown says that, to help the people of Mykolaiv and those arriving from other places, humanitarian organizations, with the support of our donors, are coming together and making every effort to support the authorities to prepare the city for the winter. Some heating points have already been established in Mykolaiv to help people who cannot heat their homes. Aid workers are providing supplies and generators to make these places functional. 
In Kherson, Denise Brown saw how the supplies provided by the UN and our partners since the Government retook control of the city have made a difference in the lives of people. We expect that, with support of the authorities, we will be able to cover the basic needs of people who have stayed in the city, if we are able to sustain the same level of aid sent over the past two weeks.
The situation with water, heating and electricity, however, remains dire, although the electricity supply is gradually being restored.  
We continue to be concerned about the plight of civilians in Ukraine especially as winter sets in. We are working to support people with services and supplies to make sure they can be protected and keep warm during these harsh months.
Donors’ financial support to the Ukraine humanitarian response has been extraordinary – we thank them for that – with $3.1 billion received of the $4.3 billion Flash Appeal in 2022.  In order to maintain the momentum of the response and continuity of operations to support people across Ukraine over these cold winter months, continued funding is obviously critical.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL/ NIGERIA
In continuation of her engagement with critical stakeholders in Nigeria, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, today visited the Martin Luther Agwai Leadership and Peacekeeping Centre at Jaji, Kaduna State, North-West Nigeria, and the Ministry of the Environment, in Abuja. At the Peacekeeping Centre, she was received by the Commandant of the Centre, Major General Auwal Jibril Fagge, after which she inspected a guard of honour mounted by a detachment of UN Blue helmets.
The Commandant, leading other Principal Officers, engaged with the Deputy Secretary-General accompanied by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale. They discussed issues pertaining to UN Peacekeeping by the Nigerian military, and emphasized the peace and development transitions needed to lead to a peaceful and prosperous nation. They also discussed the importance of leadership in peacekeeping and the inclusion of more women in peacekeeping operations. The Deputy Secretary-General stressed the need to include the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security into the training module of the Centre. The Deputy Secretary-General also urged the Centre to emphasise Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) during training of peacekeepers. 
At the Federal Ministry of Environment, Abuja, the Deputy Secretary-General met with Nigeria’s Minister of the Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi. They discussed the issues of Loss and Damage and the newly created fund agreed at COP 27, as well as the UN Convention on Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and restoration of degraded land through the Great Green Wall initiative.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Turning to the Central African Republic, you saw over the weekend that the Secretary-General strongly condemned the attack that took place on Thursday in the Obo airfield in the country’s south-east and resulted in the death of one peacekeeper from Morocco. 
The Mission has opened an investigation to establish the facts surrounding the death of the peacekeeper. 
The Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to the family of the fallen peacekeeper and to the Kingdom and people of Morocco. 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as you may be aware, the third round of consultations of the Nairobi peace process started today in Kenya. Today, our peacekeeping colleagues from MONUSCO provided operational support to the consultations by transporting armed group representatives and local leaders from Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu to Goma to facilitate their participation. 
The Mission and the Office of the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes expressed their support for the process and will continue to work with all relevant stakeholders to identify political solutions to restore peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our colleagues say that these consultations can pave the way for Congolese armed groups to engage in the national Demobilization, Disarmament, Community Recovery and Stabilization Programme.  
And over the weekend, the Secretary-General welcomed the “Mini-Summit on Peace and Security in the Eastern Region of the DRC”, which took place in Luanda last week (23 November) at the invitation of President Lourenço, and the decisions taken by regional leaders to establish a ceasefire and effect the withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas.
The Secretary-General joins his voice to the signatories of the final communiqué to call on all Congolese and foreign armed groups to immediately lay down weapons and enter the respective demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration/repatriation processes, as applicable. 
As requested by the signatories of the communiqué, the Secretary-General reiterated the availability of our MONUSCO - to fully support the implementation of all provisions falling under its mandate, as well as the readiness to co-ordinate with the East African Community Regional Force to provide support to the swift operationalization of the ad hoc verification mechanism established under the Luanda roadmap and to continue to assist the Nairobi process. 

MIDDLE EAST
You just heard from Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, who briefed the Security Council this morning. He said after decades of persistent violence, illegal settlement expansion, dormant negotiations and deepening occupation, the conflict is again reaching a boiling point.
He said that high levels of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel in recent months, including attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians, increased use of arms, and settler-related violence, have caused grave human suffering.
The full text was shared with you.

VENEZUELA
You will have seen that over the weekend on Venezuela.  The Secretary-General welcomed the agreement announced by the Government and the Unitary Platform of Venezuela in Mexico City to allocate state resources to health, food, education and electricity initiatives that provide social protection and humanitarian assistance to the population. 
He also took note of the parties’ request for UN assistance and expressed our commitment to support them in implementing the agreement, in accordance with relevant United Nations mandates and authorities. 

MALAWI
A couple of things I want to flag for you. In Malawi our team, led by acting Resident Coordinator Maria Do Valle Ribeiro, today kicked off a campaign to support authorities in their cholera outbreak response. Nearly 10,000 cholera cases have been confirmed so far, claiming nearly 300 lives. Through the UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization, we have secured approval for 2.9 million oral cholera vaccine doses to protect the most at-risk. WHO is also helping authorities train healthcare workers by targeting the 14 most affected districts. We expect to reach 400 trainers, 2,500 vaccinators and more than 5,000 volunteers. For its part, UNICEF is disseminating messages on prevention, treatment and care to 2.5 million people across the country through local media.

HIV/CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
The UN Children’s Fund today released its latest global snapshot on children and HIV and AIDS, showing that around 110,000 children and adolescents died from AIDs-related causes during 2021. UNICEF noted that another 310,000 were newly infected, bringing the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.7 million.
Ahead of World AIDS Day, UNICEF warns that progress on HIV prevention and treatment for children, adolescents, and pregnant women has nearly flatlined over the past three years, with many regions still not at pre-COVID-19 coverage. This comes on top of an existing and growing gap in treatment between children and adults.
UNICEF warns that unless the drivers of inequities are addressed, ending AIDS in children and adolescents will continue to be a distant dream. 

NOON GUEST ON TUESDAY       
And speaking of HIV/AIDS, tomorrow, we will have Dr. César Núñez, Director of the UNAIDS New York Office here to brief you ahead of World AIDS Day.