Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a defining driver of economic growth, innovation, and social development. Yet access to AI capabilities remains deeply uneven across countries and populations, creating a growing AI divide.
AI offers unprecedented opportunities to accelerate progress, but, without urgent action, disparities in connectivity, compute infrastructure, digital skills, and local innovation ecosystems could leave too many behind.
This Goals Lounge discussion explores how governments, international organizations, and the private sector can work together to ensure AI becomes a force for inclusive and sustainable development. Our intention is to move beyond warning and into action, exploring concrete steps to bridge the rapidly growing divide.
“The conflict is expanding beyond North and South Kivu into Tshopo Province, which lies far from the epicentre of the conflict,” said Vivian van de Perre, interim head of MONUSCO briefing on the situation in the DRC.
Van de Perre, the UN stabilization mission’s deputy special representative, told the Council the security situation in South Kivu remained tense despite an AFC/M23 withdrawal from Uvira in January. “The renewed hostilities have expanded and shifted the frontlines, including toward Burundi’s border, increasing the risk of a regional conflagration,” she said.
She said recent fighting had been marked by growing use of offensive drones and jamming of GPS signals in urban areas, including incidents affecting Bangoka Airport in Kisangani and Goma. “The use of such capabilities in urban settings raises serious concerns about the risks posed to civilians and civilian infrastructure,” she added.
Van de Perre said 173 cases of conflict-related sexual violence had been confirmed since December 2025, affecting 111 victims, mostly women and girls, adding that figure was “only the tip of the iceberg.” She said access restrictions continued to hamper MONUSCO’s ability to monitor and report on violations, while human rights defenders and journalists in AFC/M23-controlled areas faced intimidation and arbitrary detention.
On the humanitarian front, van de Perre said food insecurity in 2026 was expected to affect 26.6 million people, “representing approximately a quarter of the population of the Congo.”
DRC Ambassador Zénon Ngay Mukongo told the Council that M23 offensives were continuing with support from Rwanda’s Defense Forces, calling it “a grave violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of his country. “Hundreds of civilians have been killed, including women and children,” he said. “Millions of peoples have been displaced and serious violations of human rights have been documented.”
Rwanda’s Ambassador Martin Ngoga said the conflict was “not of Rwanda’s making.” He said Rwanda’s core concern remained the FDLR, which he described as “a genocidal force” whose ideology was spreading in public discourse. “After 31 years of discussion in this chamber on the origins and intentions of FDLR, there should be no ambiguity,” Ngoga said. “This is a group whose intent is to exterminate a people.”
U.S. Senior Advisor Massad Boulos said Washington would remain engaged in the region. “The United States will remain a committed partner in advancing peace, security and prosperity for the DRC, Rwanda and the entire Great Lakes region,” he said.
In Somalia, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warns that children there at risk of acute malnutrition. With the situation deteriorating as multiple crises converge, she calls on the world to help alleviate the plight of Somali children.
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Security Council
– Sudan
– Sudan/Humanitarian
– Nicholas (Fink) Haysom
– UN Interim Force in Lebanon
– Iran
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Yemen
– Cuba
– Financial Contribution
SECURITY COUNCIL
This morning, Vivian van de Perre, the chief ad interim of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), briefed council members saying that the security and political situation in the eastern part of the country remains extremely tense, marked by the persistence of hostilities and armed group activities amidst a constrained operational environment.
In this challenging context, she said peacekeepers remain committed to delivering on their mandate. While the Mission continues to implement the full spectrum of its activities in Ituri, in North Kivu it will also support the implementation of the ceasefire alongside the protection of civilianand other mandated priority tasks.
In South Kivu, in accordance with the Secretary-General’s letter transmitted to the Council last month, the mission’s activities will focus exclusively on ceasefire-related issues. We shared her full remarks with you.
SUDAN
Pekka Haavisto, the newly minted Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan, is continuing his visit to Sudan and is presently in Khartoum. He has met with a range of Sudanese stakeholders, including the Chair of the Sovereign Council and Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, as well as civilian and political actors. He will be heading to Port Sudan in the coming days to continue those discussions, including with civil society representatives and members of the diplomatic corps.
In his meetings, Mr. Haavisto emphasized the need to safeguard the unity and territorial integrity of Sudan and underscored our commitment to engaging with all relevant stakeholders to advance peace in the country.
He urged dialogue and urgent de-escalation steps towards a comprehensive ceasefire and has stressed the need to explore confidence-building measures to create an environment for meaningful progress.
SUDAN/HUMANITARIAN
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that the UN has ramped up health services in El Daein, the capital of east Darfur, following the deadly drone attack on the Teaching Hospital there last Friday. The UN along with its partners, especially Sudanese health workers, have scaled up services in surrounding facilities to meet the urgent needs for primary healthcare, nutrition, pediatric and maternal health services, as well as the delivery of critical medical supplies.
Meanwhile, OCHA says that attacks affecting civilians and essential infrastructure elsewhere in the country continue to be reported. Across the Kordofan region, repeated drone and air strikes are disrupting key transport corridors, including the supply routes in El Obeid, Dilling and Kadugli, which is having immediate impact on our humanitarian activities.
In North Kordofan, reports indicate that six people were killed yesterday when a drone struck a commercial truck in El Rahad. Last week, the same town saw strikes that destroyed a health clinic, also killing civilians.
In Blue Nile State, local sources reported heavy air strikes in Kurmuk. That took please on Tuesday. Health facilities in the town have reportedly been looted and destroyed, further limiting access to health care there.
In North Darfur State, recent drone strikes around El Fasher, Saraf Omra and along key routes reportedly caused casualties and damaged property. In West Darfur State, humanitarian partners tell us that ongoing fighting and airstrikes are preventing movements between Geneina and Kulbus and Jabal Moon localities, cutting off assistance to vulnerable communities.
The UN once again reiterates that all parties must adhere to international humanitarian law and stress that civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted. Hospitals and medical personnel must receive special protection, and rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained access must be facilitated.
Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-03-26
Comments to the media by Vivian van de Perre, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Protection and Operations in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Interim Head of MONUSCO, on the situation in the Country.
Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the 75th plenary meeting of the 80th session of the General Assembly on the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade.
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Secretary-General António Guterres for his part said “today is more than a time of remembrance. It’s a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and you must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”
Guterres said, “this was not simply forced labour. It was a machinery of mass exploitation and deliberate dehumanisation of men, women and children.”
He said, “the transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families and devastated communities.”
The Secretary-General welcomed “steps some countries are taking to apologise for their role in the evil of slavery, and to join an honest dialogue about its lasting consequences, but far bolder actions and many more states are needed, and this includes commitments to respect African countries ownership of their own natural resources, and steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”
Full remarks: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statements/2026-03-25/secretary-generals-remarks-the-international-day-of-remembrance-of-the-victims-of-slavery-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade
Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the 75th plenary meeting of the 80th session of the General Assembly on the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade.
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Secretary-General António Guterres for his part said “today is more than a time of remembrance. It’s a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and you must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”
Guterres said, “this was not simply forced labour. It was a machinery of mass exploitation and deliberate dehumanisation of men, women and children.”
He said, “the transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families and devastated communities.”
The Secretary-General welcomed “steps some countries are taking to apologise for their role in the evil of slavery, and to join an honest dialogue about its lasting consequences, but far bolder actions and many more states are needed, and this includes commitments to respect African countries ownership of their own natural resources, and steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”
Full remarks: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statements/2026-03-25/secretary-generals-remarks-the-international-day-of-remembrance-of-the-victims-of-slavery-and-the-transatlantic-slave-trade
Shahaddah Jack, spoken word #artist, human rights activist, and Toronto’s first Youth Poet Laureate offers a spoken word performance in the UN General Assembly on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, March 25, 2026.
Media Stakeout by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana, following the vote in the General Assembly on the Resolution declaring the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity.
Essential medical supplies have arrived in Lebanon, where escalating violence has driven some 1.2 million people from their homes. The shipment, a collaboration between Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, will contribute to trauma care and disease management.
