Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Climate
Good afternoon, it is happy Friday indeed. Let me start off with climate. As you all know, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) today confirmed that the year that just passed -2024- was the warmest year on record, and that it is at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. This is based on six various international datasets. It also said that the past 10 years, from 2015 to 2024, were the ten warmest years on record.
The Secretary-General said that today’s assessment makes it clear that global heating is a cold, hard fact, adding that governments must deliver new national climate action plans this year to limit long-term global temperature rise to 1.5°C and support the most vulnerable, as well as deal with the devastating climate impacts. That statement was shared with you earlier today.
**Deputy Secretary-General
Our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is in Nigeria, in Abuja, in fact, the capital city of that country. She met today with the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as well as with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development [Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda]. They discussed Nigeria’s role in regional cooperation, peacebuilding and advancing inclusive development. She also met with Omar Touray, the President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss recent developments, regional peace and security dynamics, as well as sustainable development in the Sahel.
Yesterday, she also met with the UN country team and discussed how to strengthen the United Nations’ work in Nigeria for greater impact and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ms. Mohammed also had discussions with the Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, [Wale Edun]. They discussed the country’s ongoing economic reforms. Leonardo Santos Simão, the Head of our Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), is also in Nigeria and accompanied Ms. Mohammed for parts of her programme. She will return to New York on Sunday.
**Sudan
Turning to a devastating humanitarian crisis that we are desperate to keep in the headlines, and that is Sudan. Today, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is sounding the alarm, saying that an estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year. Of these children, over 700,000 will likely suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Sudan, as you know, has the world’s largest child displacement crisis, with 5 million children displaced because of the hostilities. Most of these children leave with their families with only the clothes on their bodies. Mothers often walk for days, sometimes up to 20 days, to reach a camp, looking for safety, looking for food and just looking for basic shelter.
And as the conflict rages on, families and communities trapped in the middle of it and in hard-to-reach areas are continuing to bear the brunt of the violence and the suffering. The lack of access to sufficient food and basic services in these hard-to-reach areas inside Sudan is likely to swell and the risk of destitution and death increases. UNICEF, in collaboration with humanitarian partners, will continue to do its utmost to deliver safe and clean water and integrated health and nutrition services, including immunization, treatment of childhood illnesses, as well as do whatever they can management of acute malnutrition in children.
And as you know, famine conditions are currently present in Zamzam, Al Salam, and Abu Shouk camps for internally displaced people, as well as the western Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) committee has projected that famine could spread to five additional regions of Sudan, including El Fasher, by the middle of this year, with 17 other areas at risk unless urgent intervention is managed. Immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access is essential in order for us and our partners to deliver humanitarian assistance. And we continue to urge Governments to prioritise funding, ensure safe relief routes, and press all parties involved to just stop fighting.
**Syria
Moving to Syria: Our Special Envoy, Geir Pedersen, will travel to Riyadh in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia this weekend to engage with senior officials there. He continues to emphasize the importance of an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned process, supported by the international community. Meanwhile, his Deputy, Najat Rochdi, remains in Damascus, where she is actively engaging with a broad range of interlocutors as part of our ongoing outreach efforts.
On the humanitarian front, our humanitarian coordination colleagues tell us that a convoy of 23 trucks carrying about 200 metric tons of medical, health, hygiene and education supplies, provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, crossed from Türkiye through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing into Idlib. This is the first UN cross-border aid delivery of the year crossing from Türkiye. The supplies will support at least half a million human beings, enable 8,000 emergency surgical procedures, and provide enough medication to treat infections and support mental health for about 10,000 people for the next three months.
We also continue to conduct regular cross-border missions from Türkiye to Syria, through other points, with 13 missions having taken place over the past five days, including roads and civilian infrastructure assessments. Our staff has also met with people to assess humanitarian efforts and needs in different locations in the country. We and our partners continue to support the response across the country as security and logistical conditions permit. However, the needs are massive and now, as the winter season is upon us, the humanitarian situation is even more dire especially for the millions of people who remain displaced in the country.
More than 620,000 people were forced to flee their homes in November and December 2024, on top of the over 7 million people who had previously been displaced. We call on donors to support the humanitarian response, especially during this transition period.
**Lebanon
Turning to Lebanon, the Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, today announced a $30 million allocation from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund to support the response in the country. The funds will enable our partners, including local NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and community-based organizations, to deliver assistance in the areas of food security, shelter, nutrition, protection, healthcare, water and sanitation, as well as education. Mr. Riza said that the new allocation will provide a vital lifeline, enabling support to both those returning to damaged infrastructure and those who remain displaced.
**Occupied Palestinian Territory
Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) tells us that Israeli authorities continue to deny UN-led efforts to reach [North] Gaza governorate with vital aid. This includes our most recent attempt today. Across the Gaza Strip yesterday, only 10 out of the 21 UN planned humanitarian movements were facilitated by the Israeli authorities. Seven were denied outright, three were impeded, and one was cancelled due to security and logistical challenges. Meanwhile, OCHA is deeply concerned about the impact that dwindling fuel supplies are having on essential services in Gaza. Palestinian telecommunication providers are now warning that their services may start to shut down tomorrow due to fuel shortages, which they need to run the generators for their equipment.
The World Health Organization said today that Al Awda Hospital — which is, as you know, the last partially functioning hospital in North Gaza Governorate — is critically low on fuel and essential medical supplies. WHO has been working to access Al Awda to resupply it and to assess the situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is completely out of service. However, damaged roads — as well as insufficient facilitation of access by the Israeli authorities — has made it impossible to safely reach those facilities. Our WHO colleagues urgently call for immediate action to make roads passable and to facilitate access to Al Awda [Hospital] to keep it up and running.
And turning to the West Bank, new reporting from OCHA indicates a pretty violent picture. In the first week of this year, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a child, and injured 38 others across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, armed Palestinians shot and killed three Israeli settlers and injured eight others near Qalqiliya. OCHA also tells us that during the first week of the year, Israeli settlers injured 18 Palestinians across the West Bank, including nine in Silwad village in Ramallah Governorate. Meanwhile, more than 50 Palestinians in the West Bank were displaced by home demolitions, the majority in Silwan in East Jerusalem.
We also have an update on the impact of the operation by Palestinian security forces in the Jenin refugee camp, where those forces have clashed with armed Palestinians for more than a month. OCHA says that since the operation began, access to the camp has been heavily restricted. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates that some 3,400 people remain in the Jenin camp, in dire conditions — and more than 2,000 families have been forced to relocate to Jenin city. OCHA mobilized partners to respond to the needs of the affected families both inside and outside the camp.
**Myanmar
Turning to Myanmar, the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim, Marcoluigi Corsi, said today that the humanitarian community is deeply alarmed by recent reports of civilian casualties in Rakhine State. On Wednesday, an aerial attack in Kyauk Nima village reportedly killed over 40 civilians, including children and women, and injured more than 20 people. Five hundred homes were allegedly destroyed. We reiterate our call on all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, including humanitarian workers, as well as hospitals, schools and humanitarian assets. We also stress the need to facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access to the most vulnerable people.
**Venezuela
An update for you on Venezuela. I can tell you that the Secretary-General continues to follow the situation in Venezuela with great concern. A peaceful way out of the political crisis requires full respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and to hold opinions without any interference, and to peaceful assembly. The Secretary-General strongly condemns the detention of a large number of persons, including opposition figures, journalists and human rights defenders, since the 28 July presidential election. He urges the authorities to guarantee and respect their human rights and to release all the people who have been arbitrarily detained.
**Honour Roll
We have another welcome member of the Honour Roll. I just want to make sure you have been listening to the quiz last year. This European country is small in geographical size but, of course, big in every other way. It is one of only two double landlocked nations in the world. Yes. Liechtenstein. Very good, Amélie. We thank very much our friends in Vaduz for taking Liechtenstein to become the sixth Member State to pay its dues for 2025. There is still time for others to pay and to make it for the Honour Roll.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Yeah. About, Secretary-General's visit to DC, has the Secretary-General yesterday talked or met with the president-elect, [Donald J.] Trump?
Spokesman: No. There was no opportunity to…
Question: Even no small talk?
Spokesman: Yeah, let me just finish my sentence. There was no opportunity to do it, given the geography of where everybody was sitting. He did shake hands and greet President [Joseph R.] Biden, who walked past where the foreign dignitaries were sitting.
Question: On 30 November 2020, Secretary-General had a phone call with then President-elect Biden. Yesterday, you said that your team had actually contact with the president-elect’s team. Why this kind of phone call conversation did not happen yet?
Spokesman: No doubt it will happen. As I said, we have been in contact with the incoming team.
Question: Okay. Last Trump question. Does the Secretary-General have any opinion that the soon to be US president now is a convicted felon?
Spokesman: We have no comment. Okay, señor.
Question: Hi. Thank you, Steph, I have a follow-up on the situation in Venezuela, but this is not primarily on the humanitarian issues, but the political side of this situation. So, the SG on different occasions called for the Venezuelan people to commit to a political process that would lead to elections and to try to solve all of their issues through this kind of political process. They did. And then that takes us to the present, where there is a side that is sustaining power. There's another side that is being recognized by the international community as legitimately elected. So, I wonder if there is any message to the Venezuelan people on a day like today, especially when there's, like, a new government or a new face of government in the country, since there is such an erosion in the trust of the political process and what is the road ahead for them.
Spokesman: No. I mean, I think, as I said, the Secretary-General is following the situation closely. I think he understands the frustration of a large part of the Venezuelan public. As he said, the way forward for a peaceful Venezuela requires full respect for human rights, for human dignity. And I think that's why he's so concerned about the arrests that we have seen since July, but also especially in the last few days.
Question: Just an additional quick one. Has any of the sides reached out to the SG at any level? Have you received any letters?
Spokesman: I'm not aware. I'll double check, but I'm not aware of any recent communication in the last few days. Okay. Sir?
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. President-elect Donald Trump has stated that a meeting is being set up with the Russian [Federation] President, Vladimir Putin. So, is the UN aware of any details on this meeting?
Spokesman: No. I mean, we've seen the press reports, both, I think, coming from the US and from the Russian [Federation] side. Obviously, once in office, any dialogue between the United States and Russia is to be welcomed.
Question: Is the UN ready to be a part of the negotiation process?
Spokesman: Well, I mean, negotiations on what?
Correspondent: Yeah. Because, they are expected to have negotiations on Ukraine and, in the past UN was a part of that.
Spokesman: I mean, on Ukraine, let's be clear. First of all, in terms of the UN's role, Secretary-General's good offices have been available since the beginning, should both parties, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, ask for it. Our view on the conflict in Ukraine remains the same — that we want to see an end to this conflict in line with General Assembly resolutions, international law, and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. I'm going to go online. Michelle?
Question: Hey, Steph. Thank you. A couple of questions, if you don't mind. First of all, just a quick follow-up, when you were talking again about the contacts with the Trump transition team. What have they been in contact about or what have you been in contact with them about?
Spokesman: I've not nothing else to share with you than what I've just said.
Question: Okay. And then the US House of Representatives passed some legislation that is making its way through the US system on sanctioning the ICC [International Criminal Court]. If you got any response to that?
Spokesman: Well, first of all, as you know, we don't like to comment on potential laws or on bills that are making their way through a legislative process. That being said, we do have a principled position on the International Criminal Court. And that is, while it is independent from the Secretariat, the Secretary-General has great respect for the Court and for the work of the International Criminal Court, which is in itself a very important pillar of international justice.
Question: And would the UN expect the US to abide by the Headquarters Agreement, should any sanctions be…?
Spokesman: You know, we expect every Member State to abide by treaties and agreements they have signed.
Question: And then one last quick one. BlackRock left the… sorry. What's it called again? The Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative yesterday or announced that they're leaving it. Would the SG like to comment on that?
Spokesman: Yeah, I mean, we've seen that. Obviously, the Net-Zero Alliance is an alliance, which means it is voluntary and companies are free to do and make the decisions they make. But, however, the decision taken by BlackRock to leave the alliance is disappointing, especially given the critical role that the private sector and especially asset managers have in combating climate change and mitigating the risks and the impact of climate change. You know, we encourage those companies that remain in the Net-Zero Alliance to continue with their work, or if they're in other groupings or just individually, using the assets that they manage, using their investments smartly in a way that helps with the transition, the energy transition, which helps to mitigate climate change, which helps to fight climate change. We encourage those companies to continue to do so. Climate change… we say climate change is an existential threat, and it's not just words. I mean, we're seeing the impact of it, and the devastation of it, around the world. Countries rich and poor are being impacted. No one is safe, and it is incumbent obviously on governments, as the Secretary-General said in his statements today, but also on the private sector and the money and the investments that they manage. Any other questions online? And then we'll go back to the room.
Correspondent: Yes. I put my name.
Spokesman: Okay. Go ahead, Abdelhamid.
Question: Thank you. Yeah. There was a trilateral attack on Yemen by UK, US and Israel, and they destroyed lots of infrastructure. Now Hudaydah Port is not functioning. Ras Isa Port is not functioning. Civilian infrastructure has been attacked. Do you condemn that? And why the US and UK had to join that war? It's between Yemen and Israel. Why two countries had joined the war?
Spokesman: Well, listen. You know, you have to ask those very countries. I can't speak for any country. I can barely speak for the UN. So, you'll have to ask those countries. There is in fact, as is clear for everyone to see, great tensions and violence between the exchange of fire, not so much between Yemen and Israel, but between Israel and the Houthis. And we're obviously very concerned by the renewed air strikes that we've seen in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen by those countries that you mentioned. And these air strikes were done, as we note, in response to the continued Houthi launching of indiscriminate missiles towards Israel and to attacks on the Red Sea and shipping on the Red Sea, which is critical to the global economy. We emphasize that international law, including international humanitarian law, as applicable, must be respected at all times. And we recall the Secretary-General, as he said many times, for the need to protect civilians and to protect civilian infrastructure. It is critically important for all to show utmost restraint and to cease all military activities. Further escalation could exacerbate regional tensions and pose great risk to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, which we often talk about. We're obviously very focused on the issue of Yemen. As you know, Mr. [Hans] Grundberg just left the country a few days ago. Your next question?
Question: Two civilians in South Lebanon were killed this morning by an Israeli air raid. Are you aware of that, and what do you say to that?
Spokesman: Yes. We have seen the reports of a fatal drone strike in southern Lebanon. We checked with our peacekeeping colleagues, who were not able to verify the report at this time. But obviously, we urge everyone to avoid any action that could undermine the cessation of hostilities which is in place and to use the mechanism that exists to address any concern that they have and to resolve any issues between the parties. And I think we've also seen there were statements made by Prime Minister [Najib] Mikati today about Lebanon's efforts to remove unauthorized weapons from Southern Lebanon, which is to be welcome, given that this is a centrepiece of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). And we, of course, our peacekeeping colleagues are ready to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Lebanese Security Forces to implement that resolution.
Question: My last question, if you don't mind. Do you have any comment on the US Congress imposing sanctions on ICC?
Spokesman: I just answered that question, by Michelle. She asked the same question about two seconds ago, and I answered it. Dezhi?
Correspondent: Sorry. Just two regular question. First one…
Spokesman: As opposed to?
Question: As opposed to, like, I brought these up, like, from time to time. The first one is about the ceasefire deal in Gaza. Does the UN have any update on this?
Spokesman: No. Nothing that you have not seen or read.
Question: The second regular question would be the Yemen. I mean, the oil tanker, the plan of the oil tanker?
Spokesman: Nothing new to report, but we'll see if there's anything else.
Question: So it's still… It's still there.
Spokesman: Yeah, I mean it’s still safe. Yeah. Okay. Thank you all. Have a wonderful weekend. If we speak, that is not a good sign. If we don't speak, it will be a good weekend.