HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2025
LAMPEDUSA
Twelve years ago today off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, 368 human beings lost their lives at sea while searching for of a better life.
At the time, UN Agencies said that there was a widespread call for change and a commitment to ensure that such a tragedy would never happen again. Yet today we continue to mourn lives lost at sea. Since that day, our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF tell us that an average of 42 people have lost their lives every week along the central Mediterranean route, and we estimated that one in five of them are children.
With over 32,700 deaths since 2014, the Mediterranean has become a death trap for those seeking safety, a dramatic reminder of the risks faced by migrants and refugees.
The UN Agencies stressed that it is important that international cooperation remains strong, that conflicts are addressed, and that safe and regular migration channels are strengthened to reduce dependence on dangerous sea journeys organised by traffickers.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT – CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT
Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Vanessa Frazier of Malta as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. She succeeds Virginia Gamba of Argentina, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and commitment to the United Nations.
The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to Najat Maalla M’jid, his Special Representative on Violence against Children, who is serving as his Acting Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict until Ms. Frazier assumes her post.
You, of course, all know Ms. Frazier, who recently served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Malta to the UN from 2020 to 2025. She brings multilateral diplomatic expertise, crisis management skills, consensus building and dedication to child protection, with the ability to navigate complex global negotiations and broker agreements among diverse stakeholders, having played a pivotal role as Chair of the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.
And I believe she is the first UN senior official ever to have been on an Olympic team.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT - BINUH
Also today, the Secretary-General is appointing Nicole Flora Boni Kouassi of Côte d'Ivoire as his new Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, which you all know as BINUH. She will also be the Resident Coordinator in Haiti. Ms. Boni Kouassi will also serve as the Humanitarian Coordinator.
She succeeds Ulrika Richardson of Sweden, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and steadfast commitment to the UN.
Ms. Boni Kouassi brings over 22 years of UN experience to this position, with extensive experience in development, peace and security, and humanitarian work.
She has been most recently the UNDP Resident Representative in Niger since 2022. We welcome her and congratulate her on this appointment.
GAZA
Turning to Gaza, you will have seen that Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today that we are ready and eager to act on the window of opportunity provided by the US initiative on Gaza.
He said that we have some 170,000 metric tonnes of food, medicine, shelter and other desperately needed supplies poised to enter Gaza from across the region.
For the humanitarian plan to succeed, Mr. Fletcher said that we need open crossings; we need safe movement for civilians and aid workers; unrestricted entry of goods; visas for staff; the space for humanitarians to operate; and the private sector to be revived. He called on the parties to agree to a ceasefire, to give us access, and just let us work.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Meanwhile on the ground, our humanitarian colleagues warn that the situation in northern Gaza continues to rapidly deteriorate. Military operations and heavy strikes, hitting residential areas and buildings, are driving up the death toll and continue to wreak havoc on the area.
Aid workers continue to be among the civilians being killed. You may have seen that yesterday, one of our colleagues from Médecins Sans Frontières was reportedly killed in a strike in Deir al Balah. The strike also seriously injured four others while the team was waiting for a bus to go to a MSF hospital. This was the 14th staff from Médecins Sans Frontières to have been killed in Gaza since the start of this conflict on October 7th [2023]. OCHA warns that since that date, at least 562 aid workers were killed, including some in the line of duty. That includes 376 UN staff members.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Civil Defense reported that an Israeli strike injured seven of its rescue and firefighting officers and killed one while they were evacuating casualties at a school sheltering displaced families in Az Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza city.
Our partners report that hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians remain trapped in the north, as many have no means to relocate and are exhausted by continued displacement. Colleagues who visited Gaza City yesterday reported that many displaced families are now living in the parking lot of Al Shifa hospital, some for more than two weeks, without any means of support. Pregnant women and children are among the displaced sheltering in Al Shifa.
Hospital medics reported that most of their staff have either left for the South or are too terrified to keep coming to work amid the ongoing military activities.
We continue to call for civilians, including aid and emergency responders, to always be protected and we recall that Israel as the occupying power has the obligation to ensure civilians’ needs are met.
Today, the World Health Organization led a mission to evacuate three critically ill newborn babies from Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, so they could receive lifesaving care that could no longer be provided at Al-Helou. This includes for one infant who is on critical oxygen therapy. A fourth baby, who had been scheduled for transfer, died this morning before the mission’s arrival. Al-Aqsa itself is overwhelmed and facing severe shortages of medical supplies, as more people flee south from the north.
WHO recalls its call for the protection of health care and for unhindered access to aid across Gaza.
Our partners have reported that after more than nine months, the water from the Israeli Mekorot line is flowing again to Deir al Balah, following successful repairs. The operation of this line marks a significant improvement for the communities in that area.
UNIFIL
UNIFIL tells us that yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped grenades near peacekeepers who were working alongside Lebanese soldiers in an operation to provide security for civilian workers in Maroun ar-Ras. The workers were trying to clear the ruins of homes destroyed during the conflict.
In the morning peacekeepers at two different sites heard a grenade explode about 500 metres away from them. Moments later, one group saw a drone fly overhead and witnessed an explosion about 30-40 metres away. About 20 minutes after that, the second group saw another drone drop a grenade that exploded just 20 metres over their heads.
It goes without saying but the IDF had been informed about our activities in advance. Our peacekeeping colleagues, obviously, immediately contacted the IDF and demanded that the firing stop. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the work was able, eventually, to continue.
Attacks on peacekeepers, as we have always said, or interference with their mandated tasks shows disregard for the safety and security of UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army and the stability they are trying to restore in south Lebanon. Such actions also constitute a serious violation of Security Council resolution 1701.
COLOMBIA
This morning, the Security Council heard a briefing from Miroslav Jenča, the Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas and also serving as Special Representative-Designate for Colombia. He noted that consolidating peace in Colombia after decades of conflict is a complex work-in-progress.
Mr. Jenča pointed out that the coming national elections are increasing political tensions and polarization and current fiscal constraints impinge upon financing for peace, adding that recent tragic acts of violence and patterns of insecurity in certain regions are prompting urgent calls to enhance security.
He stressed that every effort must be made to ensure that the country does not slip backward, but rather continues to move forward along a trajectory of expanding peace and security, and the Peace Agreement is central to the solution.
SOMALIA
The World Food Programme warned today that millions in Somalia are at risk of worsening hunger and malnutrition as critical funding shortfalls have forced the agency to reduce the number of people it supports by over two-thirds. In November, the World Food Programme will have to reduce the number of people who receive emergency food assistance to just 350,000, down from 1.1 million in August. This means that WFP will be supporting less than 1 in every 10 people who are in need of food assistance for survival.
The latest IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] report shows that 4.4 million people in Somalia are facing crisis level of food insecurity or worse. That includes nearly 1 million in emergency levels of hunger, a number that has increased by 50 per cent in just six months.
WFP urgently requires $98 million to sustain a minimum of life-saving operations for 800,000 people through the lean season until March 2026. Without urgent additional funding, these reductions could deepen, just as humanitarian needs are actually growing.
FOOD PRICE INDEX
FAO today said the benchmark of world food commodity prices declined slightly in September. This was led by drops in the sugar and dairy price indices.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 128.8 points in September, versus a revised August level of 129.7 points. The September reading represents a 3.4 percent increase from a year ago, however.
INTERNATIONAL DAY AND WEEK
World Space Week begins tomorrow. This year’s theme is Living in Space, and it explores humanity’s journey toward making space a habitat, emphasizing the innovative technologies, challenges, and collaborative efforts that make this vision a reality.
Sunday is World Teachers Day, and the theme this year is recasting teaching as a collaborative profession. It highlights the transformative potential of collaboration for teachers, schools and education systems.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Central African Republic have made full payments of their regular budget dues, taking us up to 138 fully paid up Member States.
**Guest
Denise Brown, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan was the guest at today’s Noon briefing. She briefed from Tawila in North Darfur on the situation in the country.
