Eihab Omaish, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), said, “The unimaginable horror of that day terrorized the whole human family. In minutes, it drastically changed the course of history, making the world less safe for all people. Today, we honour the memory of those who lost their lives, and we stand with the survivors.”
“As we mark this solemn anniversary, we remember all victims of terrorism around the world. Their experiences remind us of the profound human cost of terrorism and our collective responsibility to prevent such suffering,” Omaish said.
According to the UNOCT official, “The attacks of September 11th exposed the profound danger posed by a single terrorist organization operating across borders. Today, the threat is more diffuse, more decentralized and increasingly enabled by new technologies.”
Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Terrorist Attacks of 9/11
– Yemen
– Lebanon
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Syria
– Ukraine
– Sierra Leone/ Peacebuilding Fund
– UN Day for South-South Cooperations
YEMEN
Turning to Yemen, we are gravely concerned by the seizure of a key humanitarian common premises and its assets in Mokha, by the Houthi de facto authorities. The compound houses staff of UN agencies working to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in the area. All UN personnel working at the common premises had left the compound before the seizure and are safe and accounted for.
The UN reiterates that humanitarian personnel, premises and assets must be respected and protected at all times. Safe and unimpeded humanitarian access must also be ensured so that life-saving assistance can continue to reach people in need, particularly at this critical time. The UN remains committed to supporting Yemeni vulnerable communities.
The personnel of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the ground informs that civilians continue to flee the fighting. 18,000 households have been displaced since the start of the month. People are reportedly moving towards the governorates of Ta’iz, Aden, Lahj and Abyan.
The UN and its humanitarian partners are working to respond, but access and funding constraints continue to pose severe challenges. UN partners are working to mobilize rapid response efforts have 15,000 emergency kits ready to go, but cuts to roads mean the majority are stuck in Aden. The Mokha seaport sustained significant damage during the recent fighting, and operations there are suspended.
The UN calls on all parties to protect civilians, respect international humanitarian law and facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access so that urgently needed assistance can reach communities in need.
Yesterday afternoon, Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, briefed the Security Council on the situation in Yemen and the developments in Mokha. He called on Ansar Allah to cease its attacks inside Yemen and across the border into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to cease attacks and threats against commercial vessels.
He added that he will continue to engage with the Government of Yemen and the Houthis to identify feasible ways forward, adding that he will work in close partnership with regional actors, whose engagement is indispensable to help contain the situation.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) informs that yesterday, the UN and its partners brought into Gaza more than 350,000 litres of fuel and collected hundreds of pallets of supplies from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing. This assistance included antibiotics and other medical supplies, breast pumps, medical equipment, winter clothes and school bags.
The teams also supported the medical evacuation of dozens of patients and their companions. In addition, humanitarian partners offered psychological first aid, emergency assistance and referral services to Palestinians who had previously been unable to return to Gaza.
Meanwhile, UN partners leading on displacement site management have been preparing for the coming winter. Last week, they reinforced shelters, improved drainage, maintained pathways and carried out other small-scale preparations at displacement sites, despite limited capacity and lack of machinery. Partners are also collecting and distributing wooden pallets and empty flour sacks that can be filled with sand to reduce the potential impact of heavy rainfall, flooding and strong winds.
However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned that shortages of some 8.6 million items required for the winter, including tarpaulins, mattresses, sandbags, plywood and repair tool kits, mean that more than 1.5 million people could go without winter assistance at current funding levels.
Across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, humanitarian efforts this year are less than 40 per cent funded.
Turning to the West Bank, more than 830,000 boys and girls returned to school this week. Among them are more than 4,000 students who have been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank and not allowed to return. Schooling is also affected by the closure of six UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools in East Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-09-11
The UN Development Programme helped open a new solar power plant at Chornobyl – providing the electricity needed to cool reactor four, destroyed in the 1986 disaster.
But during his visit, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo saw the same site being flown over by Russian drones on a daily basis, and one of its protective structures already hit in a strike. "A nuclear installation can never be a target," he said. "Anyone attacking those protective structures is gambling with the safety of millions of people."
De Croo also condemned the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure across Ukraine — buses, petrol stations, energy systems — as the country heads into its fifth winter of war. "Even in war, there are rules to be followed."
“Being here, you also see that the nature of war has changed,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo said from Kyiv, Ukraine. “You see that civilian infrastructure is in a deliberate way being attacked.”
Briefing reporters in New York by video link from Kyiv with Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) behind him, De Croo continued, “You see today that a bus stop is being attacked. You see today that infrastructure such as a petrol station is being attacked,” De Croo told journalists on the second day of his visit to Ukraine.
Minutes before the briefing, a drone struck a business centre on the other side of his hotel, the UNDP chief said. “It is clear that this is a deliberate attempt to make life in Ukraine and life in Kyiv completely impossible. This is not in line with international humanitarian law. Even in war there are rules to be followed.”
Energy is UNDP’s largest area of work in Ukraine, where the agency is helping 6.6 million people keep access to electricity.
“Unfortunately, we are heading into the fifth winter of this, of this conflict, and we see that the energy infrastructure is relentlessly being targeted by attacks, and going into the winter makes it even more dramatic, because we know that the winters here in Ukraine can be incredibly harsh on the population,” De Croo said.
In his words, “Having access to electricity keeps the school open. Having access to electricity keeps the hospitals open.”
Asked whether others were stepping in, he described the scale of the damage. “Today approximately half of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine is being impacted by attacks. And these are attacks, with absolutely no doubt, that these attacks are being conducted by Russia.”
Other UN entities are also working on the issue, De Croo said, but “it’s quite clear that at this moment it is never enough.”
A day earlier, De Croo visited the Chernobyl site. There, he went inside the protective structure over reactor four, which was destroyed in the 1986 disaster, and saw where the structure had been hit in a drone strike.
“Anyone who is attacking those protective structures, and those protective structures around a nuclear structure, is really gambling with the safety of millions of people. A nuclear installation can never be a target. There can absolutely be no excuse. There can absolutely be no ambiguity. This has to stop,” the UNDP Administrator said.
Asked whether attacks had increased, he replied, “Yes, quite clearly, over the past two weeks, the attacks have increased. The only moment where there were no attacks was when the American envoys were here for the talks that they have had with Ukrainian authorities.”
“But unfortunately, since then the attacks have increased again,” De Croo said.
Ukrainian authorities have chosen to keep schools open, and UNDP has joined a shelter coalition built on Ukraine’s work with Finland.
“Fortunately, there are shelters, but there are not enough shelters,” De Croo said. “Now, creating shelters is expensive and it takes time.”
Over the last four years, UNDP has raised 1.3 billion dollars for Ukraine, making it “the largest operator of the UN family” in the country. Its biggest donors are Norway, Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Denmark.
The World Bank and UN organizations put the cost of repairing war damage at more than 600 billion dollars.
“I mean, these are gigantic amounts of money,” De Croo said. Full-scale restoration, he said, can only happen “if the war would stop.”
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned the latest developments across multiple frontlines, including at the port city Mokha, risk dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions.
The Special Envoy spoke at an emergency Council meeting on Yemen via video link, following Houthi attacks in southern Saudi Arabia and the capture of Mokha.
Grundberg told the Council that over the past twenty-four hours, the fighting has intensified across multiple frontlines, especially the strategic west coast. Ansar Allah launched a major offensive, including on Mokha, the port city that lies roughly 75 kilometers from the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the chokepoint linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden through which a substantial share of global trade and energy passes.
As of right now, Grundberg said, “they have gained control of Mokha, giving them a direct presence on the approaches to one of the world’s most vital straits, although fighting is ongoing and the situation remains fluid.”
He stressed, “this development is raising serious concerns within the international community about the threat to freedom of navigation.”
The Special Envoy repeated his call on Ansar Allah to “cease its attacks inside Yemen and across the border into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to cease attacks and threats against commercial vessels.”
Grundberg reiterated, “this renewed war should alarm us all. It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.”
“It not only threatens to plunge Yemen into a prolonged and expanding war, but also risks yet again dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions,” the Special Envoy said.
He said, “the question before the international community is no longer whether Yemen’s war will resume, but how to address a new and more dangerous phase – one whose consequences, if left unchecked, will not stay within Yemen’s borders.”
“That is why the unity and sustained engagement of this Council matter now more than at any point in years,” the Special Envoy underscored, adding “Yemen cannot be allowed to slip from the Council’s attention. It needs the active investment of every member of this body to contain what could be the precipice of a far more dangerous conflict.”
On September 11, 2001, the world watched as the United States came under attack. Twenty-five years later, three UN officials reflect on their experiences of that day and the moments that have stayed with them.
Their firsthand accounts offer a personal perspective on how 9/11 was experienced at the United Nations and across New York City, and on the immediate aftermath of an event that profoundly changed the world.
Read more from UN News: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168310
Noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Terrorist Attacks of 9/11
– Yemen
– Lebanon
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Sudan
– Ebola/Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Cuba
– Students/Climate Hazards
– Financial Contribution
TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 9/11
Twenty-five years ago, the heinous terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, an assault on humanity itself, claimed thousands of lives and left an enduring mark on our world. As we mark this somber occasion on 11 September, we remember the nearly 3,000 victims – from the United States and more than 90 countries – and stand with their families and loved ones.
We pay tribute to the survivors and honour the first responders who showed extraordinary courage and humanity in the face of tragedy, many making the ultimate sacrifice.
On this solemn anniversary, we stand in solidarity with the people of New York City, the United States of America and with all those whose lives were affected by the attacks.
This year also marks twenty years since Member States adopted the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy — a reminder that the fight against terrorism is a shared, unfinished task.
As we pay tribute to the victims, let us renew our shared commitment to build a future free from terrorism.
YEMEN
The UN team confirms that eight UN vehicles were seized from the UN humanitarian hub in Mokha this morning, amid recent developments in the city in Yemen.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is deeply concerned by the situation unfolding in the country, stressing that the last thing the people of Yemen need is more fighting and more displacement. These incidents are constraining humanitarian operations and our partners’ ability to reach people in need. Communities need an end to the fighting, and humanitarian workers must be able to safely do their jobs.
Despite the challenges, rapid response partners have reached more than 2,700 households with emergency assistance. More funding and better access are critical to reach all those who need assistance.
Once again, the UN calls on all parties to respect international humanitarian law. They must protect civilians, including by allowing them to move to safer areas, and must facilitate unimpeded access for humanitarian relief to reach all those in dire need.
This afternoon, the Security Council will hold a session regarding the reported Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia earlier this week. The Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, will brief.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-09-10
On September 11, 2001, the world changed—and the shock reverberated at the United Nations. From the moment the attacks unfolded to the UN’s powerful condemnation, hear the voices of those who witnessed the day and reflect on what it meant for the principles the United Nations was founded to defend.
