Category: United Nations

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Venezuela on the attacks on vessels in the Caribbean – Media Stakeout | United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada today (16 Oct) described the contents of a letter sent by Venezuela to the Security Council and said, “there is a killer roaming around the Caribbean.”
Moncada said the letter to the Council raised three points; “first, investigate the series of assassinations that the government of the United States of America has been perpetrated in our region and determine their illegal nature. Second, confirm the threat that these illegal actions pose to the preservation of the zone of peace character of the Latin American and Caribbean region.”

These actions, he said, included, “extrajudicial executions; the concentration of the US military forces near the Venezuelan coast; the bellicose rhetoric of the government of the United States against Venezuela; and the clandestine operations of the CIA, with a license to commit political assassinations in Venezuela and the region as a whole.”

Third, the Ambassador continued, Venezuela requested that the Council “issue a statement reaffirming the principle of unrestricted respect for the sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of states, including Venezuela, as an indispensable basis for maintaining international peace and security.”

Showing the cover of a newspaper from Trinidad and Tobago, he described an article “denouncing the killings of two humble fishermen yesterday or the day before, in Trinidad.”

Moncada said the United States “is killing everyone who is in the sea working. And people from different countries Colombia, Trinidad, etc. are suffering the effects of these massacres.”

Responding to questions, he said, “There is no escalation on our part. We are living in peacefully and unity in our territory. We are not messing with anyone, but there are forces trying to attack – as they just announced – Venezuelan territory. Not just international waters, but also Venezuelan territory, which should be a new scale, totally different in gravity and seriousness.”

The Venezuelan Ambassador said, “our message is, there is time to stop this madness. We want to work with everyone. We don’t want war. And we know that the American people don’t want war. Even less against Venezuela, with all the history among our countries.”

He said, “there is no justification at all. They are fabricating a war. And everybody should stop pretending that this is a complicated matter and face the truth. The emperor is naked. Nobody dares to say it, but the emperor is naked. They are going for war for no reason.”

According to news reports, the United states has approved covert operations in Venezuela, and President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of an attack on land. Venezuela yesterday sent a letter to the Secretary-General and the Presidency of the Security Council bringing this issue to their attention.

For the full ES/EN version visit: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hpaaqsjm

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

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World Bank/IMF, Occupied Palestinian Territory & other topics – Daily Press Briefing (16 Oct) | UN

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:

– Deputy Secretary-General
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Afghanistan and Pakistan
– Cameroon
– Madagascar
– Madagascar/Humanitarian
– World Food Day
– Follow-up to Question
– Financial Contribution

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL

The Deputy Secretary-General is in Washington DC today where she is attending the Fall Meetings of the World Bank/IMF. She is doing that on behalf of the Secretary-General. While there, she will engage in discussions with Finance Ministers, leaders of International Financial Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks to advance the commitments from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.

Earlier this morning, she spoke at the Fourth G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting where she welcomed the G20 Africa Engagement Framework proposed by South Africa’s Presidency. She also spoke alongside Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados at an event on international cooperation to deliver on reform of the international financial architecture.

This afternoon, we expect Ms. Mohammed to speak at the 112th meeting of the World Bank/IMF Development Committee Ministerial Meeting where she will highlight the United Nations’ strong partnership with the Bank and the International Monetary Fund. She will also reiterate our call on accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals over the remaining five years.

She will be back in New York tomorrow morning.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY

Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, while traveling from Cairo to Rafah, spoke of how vital that route is as a lifeline for life-saving aid going into Gaza.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes that supplies from Egypt still need to take a long detour and be inspected on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, pending the opening of the Rafah crossing for more direct access. Mr. Fletcher stressed the need for all the crossings to open to allow for a massive scale-up and start turning the situation on the ground around.

Speaking from Cairo yesterday, he underscored that humanitarian teams have been preparing for this moment and now need sufficient access to deliver the large amounts of assistance that are needed.

The humanitarian community cannot deliver at the scale necessary without international NGO presence and engagement. Currently, the Israeli authorities do not issue visas for a number of international NGOs and do not authorize many of them to send supplies into Gaza.

That being said, humanitarian teams inside Gaza continue to make the most out of the opportunities afforded to them by the ceasefire. 

To give you some examples, on Tuesday alone, 21 of our partners distributed nearly 960,000 meals through 175 kitchens. Bakeries that we support produced over 100,000 two-kilogram bread bundles. UNICEF distributed more than one million baby diapers. And the World Health Organization delivered three truckloads of surgical and other essential medical supplies from their warehouse in Deir al Balah to the central pharmacy in Gaza City.

The WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros said those medical supplies will be transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital and will meet the needs of about 10,000 people. WHO also deployed an international emergency medical team to boost orthopedic surgery and trauma care in Gaza. And their teams set up two new operating theaters, and they are planning to add 120 more inpatient beds to Al-Shifa to expand the hospital’s capacity.

OCHA tells us that teams from across the UN system have now finished clearing the main roads leading to the Erez and Zikim crossings in the north in anticipation of their potential re-opening, which would allow, of course, aid to be brought in directly into northern Gaza where it is desperately needed. Today, we have teams checking the Salah Ad Din road, which has not been used for months.

Also on Tuesday, we had colleagues from multiple UN agencies visit the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza city – which was severely impacted by the recent military operation.

Our teams also met there with returnees and with those who have remained all along and heard from them how determined they are to rebuild their lives. Their main humanitarian priority was access to water, alongside food, shelter and the removal of debris. Those who have lost their homes were staying in tents, while those who returned to homes that were still inhabitable have begun clearing rubble and cleaning up.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-10-16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUZNSt8MQPc

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World Food Day 2025 – UN Chief Message | United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Video message by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on World Food Day (16 October 2025).

——————————–

Eighty years ago, in a world ravaged by war, countries came together to defeathunger. In the decades since, the world has made dramatic advances.

Yet recent crises demonstrate that we cannot drop our guard if we are to sustain these gains.

We have the tools, knowledge and resources to end hunger, and provide good, healthy food to all. What we need is unity.

Today, around the world, 673 million people still go to bed hungry every night.

Many more face daily uncertainty about their next meal.

Global progress is far too slow and, in some regions, reversing.

New challenges have emerged over the decades – from soaring obesity, to climate shocks threatening food security.

Shamefully, hunger is being weaponized – we face the appalling reality of people in conflict situations being starved with famine taking hold.

This year’s World Food Day theme – "Hand-in-hand for Better Foods and a BetterFuture" – is a call for solidarity across borders, sectors and communities.

This echoes the priorities voiced by countries at the Food Systems Summit Stocktake inJuly, and the United Nations Call to Action, which identifies six key areas for action.

Let us respond. Let us come together once again, to build food systems that nourish people and protect the planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3fNNnnibQ

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World Food Programme’s report: “A lifeline At Risk” – Press Conference | WFP| United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Press Conference by Jean Martin Bauer, WFP’s (World Food Programme) Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis, provides an overview of WFP’s report entitled, “A lifeline At Risk”. Ross Smith, WFP’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, focus on the six countries that are at most critical risk this year as a result of funding cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt8jPZpYZUA

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UN80, Gaza & other topics – Daily Press Briefing | United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:

UN80
Gaza
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Yemen
South Sudan
Sudan
Mozambique
Ukraine
Haiti
Carbon Dioxide Levels
International Day of Rural Women

UN80
This morning, the Secretary-General briefed the General Assembly on the progress of the three workstreams of his UN80 initiative. Taken together, he told the Member States, the measures of the three workstreams will produce a much more coherent, impactful, and cost-effective UN system as a whole.
The Secretary-General focused on the third workstream on structural changes, which was detailed in his recent report, “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver.”
He said that his vision for the United Nations system is clear: Entities that work together as one to deliver better, overcoming fragmentation, eliminating duplication, improving funding models and maximizing synergies.
Regarding peace and security work, he said he proposes to consolidate and reconfigure teams at Headquarters, as well as special political missions in Yemen, Cyprus and Central Africa, to eliminate duplication and increase coherence in our support to Member States.
He warned that humanitarian action is on the brink of collapse.
To respond to challenges, he said that we have established a New Humanitarian Compact between UN humanitarian agencies, which is a six-point blueprint to deliver better, restore trust in multilateral action and maximize the impact of every dollar that is given to the UN.
He said we will cut coordination bureaucracy, integrate the supply chains of the principal humanitarian agencies, propose to scale up the use of common services, strengthen our joint capacities to leverage data and align responsibilities to reduce programmatic overlaps in the fields of food, mobility, beneficiary data, health and nutrition.
On development work, Mr. Guterres said that we propose to conduct a thorough assessment of the potential benefits of a merger between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), to create a stronger engine for sustainable development, with greater reach and scale. Similarly, we will conduct a thorough assessment on the benefits of a merger of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women and their respective mandates and capacities.

GAZA
In a statement issued today, Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that earlier this week, the UN was able to kick off our humanitarian scale-up after months of frustration and blockages, but yesterday, the UN has faced further setbacks to that implementation, adding that the UN is now tested to see whether it can ensure that these do not prevent the progress on which President Trump, the UN Secretary-General and so many leaders have insisted.
As Hamas have agreed, they must make strenuous efforts to return the bodies of all deceased hostages. The UN is gravely concerned by the evidence of violence against civilians in Gaza that we are witnessing since the ceasefire took effect.
As Israel has agreed, Mr. Fletcher added, they must allow the massive surge of humanitarian aid, thousands of trucks a week, on which so many lives depend, and on which the world has insisted. We need more crossings to be open and a genuine, practical, problem-solving approach to removing the remaining roadblocks, being physical or bureaucratic. Throughout this crisis, he said, the UN has insisted that withholding aid from civilians can never be a bargaining chip.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that they are trucking water and supporting wells and desalination to reach 1.5 million people in Gaza, noting that the needs remain immense. UN partners are also supporting the production or delivery of hundreds of thousands of meals and bread bundles every day.

Full Highlights
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=15%20October%202025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05t09ZkndXg

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Gaza: Ceasefire ended the fighting but not the crisis – OCHA Presser | United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

OCHA Spokesperson in Gaza Olga Cherevko said that since the ceasefire took effect, the United Nations and partners have moved swiftly to scale up the delivery of humanitarian assistance across Gaza. “It’s all hands on deck,” she said.

Olga Cherevko, OCHA Spokesperson in Gaza spoke to reporters via video link.

She said, “after months of devastation and suffering, the bombs have stopped falling. And with that silence came an opportunity and a responsibility to act.”

“We have wasted no time,” the OCHA Spokesperson said, highlighting that the UN’s scale up plan for the first 60 days tested and proven to work, “is in full motion.”

Cherevko said, “In the past three days, thousands of tons of humanitarian aid and other supplies have entered Gaza, including cooking gas, which entered on Sunday for the first time in over seven months.”

“We’re offloading and collecting critical supplies and accessing areas which we weren’t able to reach for months. With 190,000 metric tons of assistance in our cleared pipeline,” she added.

The OCHA Spokesperson also said, “Our medical teams are resupplying hospitals and field clinics that have been running on empty. We’re delivering fuel to power by bakeries, desalination plants and hospitals again. We’re repairing roads and checking them for explosive risks and helping displaced families prepare for the winter months.”

“Every truck, every piece of bread, every box of medicine that crosses into Gaza carries with it a message of hope for a better tomorrow,” Olga stressed.

She reiterated that the humanitarian needs “remain immense.”

“The ceasefire has ended the fighting, but it hasn’t ended the crisis,” the OCHA Spokesperson said, explaining, “displacement, destroyed infrastructure, lawlessness, damaged roads, unexploded ordnance and the collapse of basic services are just some of the challenges.”

She said, “Scaling up response is not just about logistics and more trucks. It’s about restoring humanity and dignity to a shattered population.”

Olga also said that the UN is working around the clock with all parties to ensure predictable, safe and sustained access.

“But let me be clear,” she said, “Humanitarian aid alone will not be a substitute for peace. The ceasefire must hold. It must become the basis for a broader political effort that brings the end of cycles of violence and despair.”

Asked about the danger of unexploded ordnance, the OCHA Spokesperson said, “We have, of course, our teams on the ground who do assessments, and they assess the various roads, the locations, and they go to make sure that the ordnance is clearly marked and that they’re also awareness for the communities to make sure that they know not to touch them and not to be around them and so forth.”

Asked reports of delaying the scaling up of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, Olga said, “We have received this is communication from the Israeli authorities. And of course, we continue to encourage the parties to adhere to the agreements that have been set out in the ceasefire parameters. And we certainly very much hope that, the bodies of the hostages are handed over and that the ceasefire continues to, to be implemented.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8n8m0gs8U