Noon briefing of 28 October 2025

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC​,

SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2025

SECRETARY-GENERAL/CAMEROON

The Secretary-General has taken note of the announcement of results of the presidential election held in Cameroon on 12 October. He is deeply concerned by post-electoral violence and by reports of excessive use of force that we have seen. He deplores the loss of life and injuries among both protesters and security forces and extends his condolences to the families of the victims. He calls for a thorough and impartial investigation into these incidents. 

The Secretary-General urges all political stakeholders and their supporters to exercise restraint, reject violence and refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric and hate speech. He stresses the critical importance of safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms, and calls on the authorities to ensure a safe and secure environment where the rights of all citizens are protected, and to ensure due process for anyone who may be arrested. 

The Secretary-General encourages inclusive dialogue to address grievances and preserve national unity and stability and resolve any disputes through legal and peaceful means. He reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations to supporting sustainable peace and development in Cameroon.  

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that the UN and its partners continue to scale up the humanitarian response, in line with our 60-day plan.   

UN partners providing water and sanitation report that water distribution is expanding in northern Gaza, where they are now able to deliver 4,600 cubic metres daily in 585 different locations across the governorates of Gaza and North Gaza.  

Additionally, UN partners have launched a comprehensive assessment of critical public water and sanitation facilities across the Gaza Strip in order to identify the major repair needs of that infrastructure, and support planning for longer-term rehabilitation of the water and sanitation infrastructure. 

In parallel, UN partners also report that efforts to help people prepare for the rainy season are underway across areas so they can access in the governorates of Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Gaza, including cleaning stormwater drainage systems.  

On nutrition, between 1 and 25 October, our partners provided treatment for more than 4,300 acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women. During the same period, malnutrition prevention support was provided to more than 134,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under the age of five.   

Yesterday, our friends at the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), provided more than 300,000 litres of fuel to our partners operating across Gaza to keep critical generator-powered operations going.  

Meanwhile, UN partners monitoring population movements said that families continue to move across the Strip. More than 480,000 movements from southern to northern Gaza have been observed since the onset of the ceasefire, while nearly 100,500 movements from western to eastern Khan Younis have also been observed.   

UN partners report that many people continue to shelter in makeshift displacement sites, often in open areas and in damaged buildings.  

To mitigate exposure to the elements, our partners are helping displaced communities repurpose flour and rice bags – originally distributed as food aid, obviously – into repurpose those into sandbags to reinforce shelters and provide protection against rain and wind.  

Efforts to collect humanitarian cargo from Gaza’s crossings are ongoing. However, starting yesterday, Israeli authorities are rerouting humanitarian and commercial truck movements to and from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing through the Philadelphi Corridor and the Coastal Road. That’s instead of the Morag Corridor and Salah Ad Deen Road.  

In response to the rerouting, several agencies have temporarily reduced the number of trucks in their convoys pending an initial assessment of the road conditions.       

Teams have also already reported congestion and heavy traffic along the new route, leading to delays in aid cargo movements.  The UN continues to engage with Israeli authorities and others to address the impact of this new development on aid collection and delivery. 

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Office, citing data from the Israeli NGO Peace Now, said that over the past year, there have been 84 new settler outposts compared to 49 the year before. This marks a rapid escalation compared to the yearly average of eight outposts in the past decade. The UN Human Rights Office added that settler violence is also surging, with 757 attacks recorded in the first half of this year alone. 

SUDAN 

In a statement issued last evening, the Secretary-General expressed his grave concern over the recent military escalation in El Fasher. He strongly condemns reports of violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights in El Fasher, including indiscriminate attacks, targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, gender-based violence and ethnically motivated attacks and ill-treatment.  

For over eighteen months, El Fasher and the surrounding areas in North Darfur have endured immense suffering, with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped under a tightening siege by the Rapid Support Forces, with malnutrition, disease and violence continue to claim lives daily.  

The Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate end to the siege, and safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian aid delivery and access to all civilians in need. 

He is also deeply alarmed by the continued influx of weapons and fighters into Sudan, further contributing to the already desperate situation in the country. He demands that this end immediately. 

The Secretary-General once again calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urges both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to engage fully with his Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, and to take swift, tangible steps toward a negotiated settlement. 

SUDAN/HUMANITARIAN 

In answer to questions about the number of civilians killed in El Fasher, the Spokesperson said the UN Human Rights Office said that they have documented some 1,850 civilian deaths in North Darfur, of these, an estimated 1,350 were in El Fasher.  

This is considered, however, an under-representation of the real number of conflict-related deaths in El Fasher, and North Darfur, given the challenges related to telecommunications and just access issues on the ground. 

Although access to El Fasher remains blocked and humanitarian capacity continues to shrink as needs soar, we and our humanitarian partners remain committed to scaling up the much-needed support across Darfur and reestablishing a presence on the ground and soon as it is practicable.  

Many civilians flee toward Tawila seeking relative safety or whatever humanitarian assistance they may receive. Humanitarian workers continue to operate under extraordinary danger to assist them. In Tawila, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its partners report that families, and especially children, are arriving malnourished, they are arriving sick and they are arriving traumatized after a dangerous journey to safety. UNHCR is providing essential assistance and vital services to displaced families, and that includes shelter. 

In a statement issued today, the UN and its humanitarian partners urged the international community for urgent action to protect civilians and for humanitarian workers in Sudan, and to guarantee safe passage and humanitarian access to people trapped in El Fasher as well as scaling up funding to support humanitarian operations in El Fasher and elsewhere in Sudan. 

Fighting has also intensified in North Kordofan State. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 2,500 people fled Bara town over the weekend, and up to 1,000 others were newly displaced from Zuraiba village yesterday due to heightened insecurity. 

The UN stresses once again that civilians must be protected wherever they are, whether they decide to seek safety or whether they have to stay.

HURRICANE MELISSA  

Thanks to the pre-positioning of relief supplies ahead of the hurricane season, the World Food Programme (WFP) is coordinating a sea-lift operation from Barbados carrying supplies from WFP, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). An airlift of some 2,000 relief kits is also planned for deployment once airports reopen and the weather conditions permit flights. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that a joint warehouse established earlier this year in Barbados by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the WFP, with support from the European Union and Canada, is already proving to be instrumental in this unfolding disaster. 

Additional relief stocks are available at the UN Humanitarian Depot in Panama from UN agencies, NGOs and international cooperation partners.  

In Cuba, where the hurricane is expected to make landfall overnight in the eastern part of the island, preparations and prepositioning of supplies and assets are still underway, and authorities plan to evacuate about half a million people to safer ground. OCHA also said that two staff members have arrived in Cuba today to support UN agencies that are already there. and national authorities ahead of the impact.  

And in Haiti, authorities have placed the departments of South and Grand’Anse on red alert, while other areas remain on orange alert.     

More than 3,600 people are sheltering in emergency sites in the Grand Sud département, with IOM supporting sheltering of 3,000 people preventively and the setting up of 100 shelters.  

Our humanitarian colleagues are coordinating with Haitian authorities, UN agencies and humanitarian partners to support preparedness and early action. WFP has pre-positioned more than 800 metric tons of food to assist 86,000 people in Haiti for two weeks. UNICEF has pre-positioned water, sanitation and hygiene kits for about 14,500 people and nutritional supplies for more than 4,000 children. For its part, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has stocked reproductive health kits for 5,000 people and dignity kits for 4,000 people, while the Pan American Health Organization provided medical kits for about 11,000 people. 

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 

Valentine Rugwabiza, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Central African Republic, told Security Council members that the peace process in that country has regained momentum and witnessed significant progress since the 19 April ceasefire agreement signed between the Government of CAR and the two most active armed groups.

She said that the implementation of the 19 April agreement and subsequent disarmament and demobilization operations have translated into tangible security gains in several areas in the northwest and centre of the country. 

She also said that the presidential, legislative, regional and municipal elections scheduled for 28 December are expected to be a turning point to extend and consolidate State authority as well as anchor institutional stability. The peacekeeping mission has continue to provided multifaceted electoral assistance as mandated, as the electoral cycle has entered an active and decisive phase. 

She said that the peacekeeping mission continues with its full authorized strength, and remains essential to support the Central Africans in their quest to lasting peace, and also serves as a critical buffer against the broad regional instability that continues to impact the subregion. 

AFGHANISTAN 

The UN Human Rights Office and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a report on the serious and far-reaching human rights impacts of last month’s telecommunications shutdowns in the country. Among the documented impacts are delayed or no access to healthcare and emergency services and disruption to humanitarian operations.  

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan also released today an update on the human rights situation in the country, covering the period from July to September of this year. The update pointed out that the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice continues to enforce, often arbitrarily, a range of decrees and edicts that hinder the lives of women and girls. 

NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS SYNTHESIS REPORT  

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) today released its 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions Synthesis Report, which covers national climate plans formally submitted up until the end of September. The report said that the new NDCs, as they are called, have shown improved quality, credibility and economic coverage. They show that countries are setting national climate targets, and plans to achieve them, that differ in pace and scale to any that have come before.  

In order to provide a wider picture of global progress ahead of COP30, which will take place in Brazil next month, UNFCCC has done some additional calculations which also capture new NDCs or targets submitted or announced up to publication of the report, including at the Secretary-General's Climate Summit. They say that this wider picture, shows global emissions clearly falling for the first time, by around 10 per cent by 2035. The report underscores that while clear progress is evident, major acceleration is needed to deliver faster and deeper emission cuts, to keep the 1.5 limit within reach. 

Both the Secretary-General and the UNFCCC have noted that the science is very clear: it is entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5 degrees, after temporary overshoot of that limit. 

WOMEN PEACEKEEPERS 

The Department of Peace Operations (DPO) released a new report today highlighting progress in advancing women’s participation in peace and political processes.  

Titled “Women at the Frontlines of Peace: 25 Years of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in UN Peacekeeping,” the report notes an increase in the number of women serving among uniformed peacekeepers since 2018.  

To mark the launch of the report and the 25th anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325, there will be High-Level event tomorrow hosted by the Department of Peace Operations at 10:00 a.m. in Conference Room 6.   

PEACE CIRCLE 

Later today, UN Women and the Departments of Peace Operations and UN Global Communications at 6:00 p.m. will hold in the public lobby a special intergenerational Peace Circle marking the anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The discussion will bring together young women leaders as well as UN experts. 

Peace Circles are part of our communication colleagues “Hear Us. Act Now for a Peaceful World” campaign, which aims to inspire and empower young people to take action for peace. 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

In answer to questions, the Spokesperson said that there will be a Great Lakes Conference organized by France and Togo in Paris this week, and from the UN side we will have Huang Xia, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, Bintou Keita, the Head of the Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC, and Bruno Lemarquis, the Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, and he will be here, virtually, tomorrow, to brief you on the conference. There will be a video message from the Secretary-General.

BRIEFINGS TOMORROW 

Tomorrow, at 1:30 p.m. there will be a briefing by Annalena Baerbock, the President of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly and Ambassador Sheikha Alya bin Saif Al Thani, Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations on the Second World Summit for Social Development. 

At 2:15 p.m., also tomorrow, there will be a briefing by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi.

Lastly, at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, there will be a briefing by Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation ofhuman rights in Myanmar, following the presentation of his report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee.