Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
Secretary-General/Travel
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Gaza-Mine Action
Global Humanitarian Funding
Ukraine
UNIFIL
Deputy Secretary-General/Travels
Libya
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Guest Today and Tomorrow

SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVEL
The Secretary-General is now on his way back to New York, after he attended the Sharm El Sheikh Summit for Ending the War in Gaza. 
During the conference, the Secretary-General had conversations with a number of key interlocutors regarding the UN increasing its humanitarian efforts in Gaza. 

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that since the ceasefire plan came into effect, the UN and our humanitarian partners have been able to move more freely across parts of Gaza from which Israeli forces have withdrawn, without coordination with Israeli authorities. This improved access has allowed partners to scale up the response to the most urgent needs.
Yesterday, the World Health Organization said that within 24 hours of the ceasefire, an emergency medical team was deployed to Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza city, and eight trucks carrying medical supplies entered the Strip, including insulin, lab supplies and essential medicine.
WHO teams also reached the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis to retrieve cancer and other life-saving medications, as well as intensive care unit equipment — including incubators, ventilators and patient monitors — and transferred them to Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Younis.
The UN and our humanitarian partners have also installed a solar panel for a desalination unit in Deir al Balah, as well as new telecommunications hardware to improve connectivity for affected people and humanitarian operations. Efforts to clear debris from roads, particularly those leading to crossing points, are also underway.
Since yesterday, the Israeli authorities facilitated four UN-led missions to collect medical, health and shelter supplies from the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings.
The UN and our partners are also assessing people’s needs in areas that had previously been inaccessible so that we can adjust our response efforts.
Today, an OCHA team visited one of these areas, the Al Kateeba neighbourhood in Khan Younis. They reported extensive destruction, with large amounts of rubble visible throughout. Our partners have begun clearing main roads to facilitate movement and humanitarian access within the area.
The UN and our partners will continue scaling up operations under our 60-day response plan to reach as many people as possible with life-saving assistance.
Much more can be done, and for this to happen, as we said, we need more crossings to open, as well as the sustained entry of fuel and cooking gas; security guarantees for convoys; basic infrastructure to be restored; protection of humanitarian workers; the facilitation of NGO access, including through ensuring they are not de-registered; and the rapid injection of funding to support humanitarian operations.

GAZA-MINE ACTION
And we have an update from our colleagues at the United Nations Mine Action Service on the severe threat from unexploded ordinance in Gaza. As hundreds of thousands of displaced people and humanitarian workers move through affected areas following the ceasefire, the risk of encountering these deadly remnants of war is high.
UNMAS and its partners are working tirelessly to protect communities and stand ready to facilitate humanitarian scale-up and mitigate explosive ordnance risks.
Since October 2023, UNMAS has identified more than 550 explosive ordnance items in areas they have been able to access, though the full extent of contamination in Gaza is still unknown.
Partners are also delivering risk education for communities since 2023, especially children, and training humanitarian and construction workers to operate safely. Their work is critical to saving lives and enabling aid to reach those in need.
Additionally, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officers evaluate debris along roads and within damaged buildings to determine whether areas are safe to clear. Their guidance and technical expertise are crucial for mitigating explosive ordnance risks during these high-risk operations.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=14%20October%202025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiTlG4Ar98

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Briefing by Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, on Threats to international peace and security – Security Council, 10015th meeting.

Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča today (10 Oct) stressed “the need for all efforts to counter transnational organized crime to be conducted in accordance with international law, including the UN charter,” and called on the United States and Venezuela to de-escalate and “avoid any actions that may threaten international peace and security in the region.”

Jenča told a Security Council requested by Venezuela in respond to The US military buid-up in the Caribbean, that “the United Nations recognizes the devastating impact of violence driven by transnational organized crime, which affects production, transit, and destination countries alike, tearing at the fabric of communities and undermining development and stability across the region.”

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, who presided the meeting, said, “the American propaganda is asking us to believe in the existence of the mythical Cartel de los Soles, the Cartel of the Suns, which allegedly is moving tons of cocaine from Venezuela to the USA, and the head of which is none other than the president of the Bolivarian Republic, that the US does not like.”

Nebenzya said this was “an excellent subject for a Hollywood blockbuster, in which the Americans would once again save the world,” but added that “these assertions are not underpinned by facts at all.

US representative John Kelley said, “the United States has reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others, based on the cumulative effect of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations.”

US President Donanld Trump, Kelley said, “has determined the United States is in a non-international armed conflict and has directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them, pursuant to the law of armed conflict and consistent with article 51 of the UN charter.”

He said Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro “is a fugitive from American justice, and the head of the vicious narco-terrorist Cartel de los Soles.”

Moreover, Kelley added, “it is the action and policies of the illegitimate Maduro regime that pose an extraordinary threat to both the region and the national security of the United States.”

Venezuela’s Ambassador Samuel Reinaldo Moncada, for his part told the Council that “we are facing a situation in which it is rational to anticipate that in the very short term, an armed attack is to be perpetrated against Venezuela.”

Moncada said, “the United States government conceals its crimes under the guise of self-defense. In so doing, it murders civilians without providing information as to their identity, without, proving the nature of the cargo aboard the vessels, and without providing any evidence on the imminent nature of an armed attack against US forces. This is not self-defense. These are extrajudicial killings.”

Outside the Council, talking to reporters he said, “we still have time to tackle the situation and to bring sense into the United States government and use peaceful means; means that the UN Charter offers, in order to resolve any situation by diplomatic and political means. Otherwise, we are walking towards a catastrophe that may destroy the whole region for generations.

Asked about the Peace Nobel Prize, awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, Moncada said, “my reaction is that I was really hoping that she would win the physics Nobel, the Nobel of Physics, because she has the same kind credentials for the Nobel of Peace, the Peace Nobel. I mean, I guess that next year maybe she wins the Physics Nobel.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h33s_X7h00

Source: United Nations (video statements)

UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region Huang Xia said that the agreed ceasefire between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda “is not being respected.”

Addressing the Security Council, Huang Xia said, “Significant progress has been recorded on the diplomatic front. Thus, a real hope has arisen for the establishment of a ceasefire, which would open the way toward a lasting and definitive settlement of the conflict in the east of the DRC. First of all, American facilitation made it possible, on June 27 in Washington, to sign a Peace Agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda.”

He noted, “While all these African and international peace efforts are commendable and promising, they have, to this day, not lived up to their promises: the agreed ceasefire is not being respected. After a brief lull, the parties to the conflict have strengthened their positions and resumed military operations. The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic.”

He warned, “The alarming situation on the ground, marked by a shift of the front lines toward South Kivu, poses the risk of a regional flare-up that would annihilate all the peace efforts made.”

He then called upon “those most directly concerned — namely, the brotherly countries of the region — to resume direct and frank dialogue, and to take all necessary measures to put an end to this war once and for all.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja7s82NSri0